It's good to be flying the S3, again. I am a little disappointed that we didn't have the full 27 pilots that had said they were going to fly with us, but I chalk that up to people not reading their e-mails regularly. I am hopeful that the numbers may increase as time goes on. We had 18 show up, last night, but due to technical issues we lost three. One showed up later and was prepared to fly the third sortie when F138 was closed trapping all of us on the ground. There were several who had other matters that prevented them from being here with us for the first frame. So, I am thinking we'll have an increase in number of pilots as we go forward.
Pilots in Attendance:Darryl (CO)
Scuba (flew fighter cover)
Lalasu (discoed)
Sweett (technical issues)
Bebopp
Khilst
-Beryl
Gawong
Sycho (communications officer)
Ciaio
Milton
Simboh
Dozrdg
Grifft
Gravey (communications officer)
Neuron
Bdbwww
Odeprea (arrived late)
Thanks to Beaver and Jabo for providing a fun night in frame one. Thanks also to the fighter squads that flew cover for our bombers. As far as I know, we didn't lose anyone to enemy fighter attack. It appears that our first casualty was from ack on ingress during our first sortie. For some reason, instead of him being sent to the one of the wingmen aircraft, he was sent back to the field. We were under the impression that if the primary plane was shot down, the pilot would automatically be transferred to the next available aircraft. So, we were a bit disappointed by what actually happened. It appears that we may have lost 1-2 to disco without damage. Another pilot seemed to have stalled the bomber while making the first drop and couldn't recover from it. Again, we thought he would have been transferred to another aircraft when his wing ripped off. If this has to be done manually, we were not aware of it.
As requested, the Doolittle's Raiders took to the air on their first sortie to strike F111-F112. I believe that we inflicted severe damage to the port and the nearby complex. We were unable to see the BDA in .cmeye mode, but we saw a lot being destroyed. We returned to base safely, but had to take the scenic route due to heavy enemy presence over F138. Once down, we prepared to return to F110, but I requested if Beaver had secondary targets, it might be best to hit them as we believed that the enemy would be expecting us back to F110. Beaver quickly offered up three new targets (F113, F114, F115). Squad command requested permission to hit F113 and F115, as F114 might have been too close to where we believed the enemy would be concentrated. The bombers were able to get up again, once the field had been cleared. We climbed above the suggested 13k to take away the boost capability of the MC200 giving a slight edge to our fighter support. Bomb drop assignments were handed out and we successfully destroyed the majority of F113. The bombers turned to F115 and did nearly the same. For some reason, we were able to get BDA recon photos on these two targets. The bombers were asked to return to field F86, but as we were heading there, we were redirected to F117, which was closer. As we headed in that direction, we requested that we be allowed to land at F138, if it was clear, so that we may consider a third sortie. We were told that enemy bandits were approaching, so we rushed everyone to the ground. However, the approaching enemy included bombers, which eventually, closed F138 effectively trapping our squad there. Overall, the squad was pleased with the results of the night.
During the night, Scuba had a kill in his fighter. A lone MC200, perhaps a scout, engaged the bombers and that he found out was a mistake. Scuba chased him away and eventually fired the fatal shots. Scuba was able to cover our tail end Charlie making sure that all of us landed safely.
I want to commend Sycho and Gravey for handling our squad communications with Beaver and the fighter squads. They consistently reported our location regularly giving Beaver the information he needed to direct us in and out of the danger zones.
We had several new squad members join us for the first time in the S3 (Beryl, Dozrdg, Gawong, and Bebopp). And Neuron, though a long time squad member, flew his first S3 missions, last night.
Thanks <S>
Darryl
CO of Doolittle's Raiders
Darryl
