I got off work early today and had a couple of free hours this afternoon.
I decided to go on a buff mission to a Rook city in an area of the map that the Bish were contesting. I took up a set of AR234's as I normally do and dropped 21% of the city in a single full speed pass which was about 5-10% less than I had hoped for.
I landed and, after an uneventful run with no enemies interested, I decided to go back and see if I could get the city under 50%. I was trying to decide between the B-26 and the Boston in keeping with wanting to get in and out quickly yet cause the damage that I needed to when I decided on a flight of Bostons.
There were now some enemies at friendly bases just off my planned flight path but I decided if I could get to alt quick enough my speed might carry me by them.
I took off from a coastal base and within a sector I was over 16K feet. Still climbing at over 1K ft/min I kept climbing until I reached 20K. I leveled off with a full load of 4x500 lb bombs, calibrated at 304 mph and dropped three on my first pass. The city was now down to 59%. I flew out a sector then turned back for the last cluster of buildings that hadn't been hit yet. I calibrated this time at 310 mph which is the speed I had verified for my current load on my way out to turn. I dropped my last bomb on the un-hit building cluster bringing the city to 50% even. Bummer... I really wanted to get it under 50%.
As I was checking the damage, closing the bay doors and lining up on my return field a fighter upped from the base who's radar I was now flying through.
Soon I was clipping along at 322 mph at 20K. I looked down at my fuel gauge then hit E6B just to confirm the fact that I was going to be 10-15 miles short on fuel. Not a pleasant feeling with a fighter flying after me but I knew speed and alt were still on my side. I cut the RPM to 2100, cut the manifold pressure to 25 and nosed down into a 1K/min dive. The next thing I knew I was hitting 347 mph.
I crossed a sector line and my opponent crossed a couple of minutes later. I crossed a friendly vb radar line and my opponent crossed less than a minute later. He was clearly closing but likely wasn't climbing to do so.
As I was planning my next move a friendly passed under me.
"Something chasing you BaldEagl?"
"I think so but he must still be a little way back. I haven't seen him yet"
"I see him. There's a Spit out here."
I looked back and saw his dot.
"Much obliged if you can hold him up."
"No problem."
He did more than hold him up. The Spit died as I landed with well over 200K new bomber points and having dropped 29% of the city with only 4x500 lb bombs. That was good enough to raise my bombing hit% by almost 100! The entire mission; just under an hour.
Oh, and did I tell you that a single Boston can actually dogfight?
What a great little overlooked plane.
