Real WWII B-17 bombing mission report and a game within the game

[oboe]

<S> to your grandfather, noman.   Whatta way to start - with a first mission to Berlin!   Can only imagine what would go through your mind when the curtain is drawn back at the briefing and you find out your first mission is to the German capital.   

That's a very nice website the 385th has; thanks for sharing.   Great pics of the nose art of the aircraft. 

[oboe]

Terrible news from the front this week, guys.  I was hoping she'd beat the odds.  The Baltimore News-Post got the scoop:

Click to enlarge

[Shuffler]

Slick paper...........

[oboe]

For those still interested, my MA bombing campaign is not going well.  Only two bomb groups remain of the sixteen that have been flying combat missions over the past 2+ years, the 91st and the 306th.   The 91st has "Nine-O-Nine" and a recent addition from the repair depot, the half-and-half special "Little Miss Mischief", who just completed her first mission.  The 306th has a beat-up old Fortress named "Satan's Lady", currently the leader in mission count at 8 missions.   The odds are against any one of these planes making 25 missions, but I am still at it.   I've calculated that there is about an 11% chance that at least one of the three could complete a tour.

Here are the stats after 175 missions.  Every mission has the potential of 3 sorties; actual completed sorties are the number of planes that return and land successfully.   I've had 28 missions out of 175 where all 3 planes were shot down.



And here is the front page from Derby's "Evening Telegraph" newspaper:

Click image to read paper

[oboe]

Update edition of the Telegraph:

Click image to read paper


Next update planned at 200 missions.

[DmonSlyr]

Wow that is pretty awesome to record the sorties like this. I'll have to say, it's probably very tough in the MA given you never know whose going to show up and in what plane they are going to be in. If you aren't 25k, you are almost a sitting duck unless you can find the kind of aim that Finetime uses. Timing also matters, early in the AM you will have buff hunters who have all the time in the world to catch you, while in the evenings you may have more friendly support and also be able to sneak around easier since there is more commotion on the map. Anyway, great job and cool stuff with the News Papers.


Interesting to see Decoy back in the original post of this. I've been wondering what happened to him, or if he left the game.

[Shuffler]

Nice......

[oboe]

Wow that is pretty awesome to record the sorties like this. I'll have to say, it's probably very tough in the MA given you never know whose going to show up and in what plane they are going to be in. If you aren't 25k, you are almost a sitting duck unless you can find the kind of aim that Finetime uses. Timing also matters, early in the AM you will have buff hunters who have all the time in the world to catch you, while in the evenings you may have more friendly support and also be able to sneak around easier since there is more commotion on the map. Anyway, great job and cool stuff with the News Papers.


Interesting to see Decoy back in the original post of this. I've been wondering what happened to him, or if he left the game.

You're exactly right about that Dmon.   I've been increasing the minimum bombing altitude of my missions as a survival tactic; generally now I'm up over 20K, but the higher I go the less useful I am for base captures as the situation on the ground usually changes before I can drop on a target.  I try to do a mix of strat target bombing and aiding base captures.   I'm in this far so I intend to keep going until all my named bombers have been lost, or one of them completes a tour of 25, whichever comes first.   I have 3 bombers left out of 23 skins.   

Thank you as always, Shuffler. <S>

[oboe]

In case anyone is still following, I haven't given up my goal of getting one of my B-17G skins to complete a tour of 25-missions in the MA without being shot down.  I call this effort my MA Bombing Campaign, and I am still keeping records of each mission I fly for toward this effort.   I've been at this off-and-on since October 2021, and I have now reached the 200 mission, 600 sortie milestone. 

Local newspapers across the country have apparently picked up my story and I occasionally run across headlines and news accounts of the campaign.  Here's a recent one from the Moline Daily Dispatch, Moline, Illinois:

Click image to read front page



Here are a couple aircraft trading cards I made, showing the only two bombers (from a group of 23 skins) remaining in the race.  With a 25% overall loss rate, its likely both bombers will be shot down before completing their tours.   I did have one bomber reach 21 missions before being lost.

"Satan's Lady", 13 missions completed:                              "Little Miss Mischief", 16 missions completed:
   

 
I'm still following this procedure, however I'm down to just two cards in my bomber card deck:


 

[Shuffler]

I overheard some young boys excitedly talking about this very thing. It made me wonder, is this the Oboe that u know?

Well done.