-dazed wrote:
2) that bomb group was spread out everywhere and the escorts had to take on the role of being sheep dogs to encourage the stray bombers to get back into the flock.
Hey DAZED:
Not sure what you're talking about exactly, but I had a good conversation with OMEGA tonight about his concerns in that last frame. I explained a few things to him and I hope you will gain a little insight into what happened in the last frame of the series.
1. We notified FOOO and PAPPY that our RP would be near C28 at T+72.
2. We delayed our take-off for 10-minutes, giving us an additional 10-minutes to climb to our target altitude of 27K feet before reaching the RP.
3. As we approached WP#1 (LAF19), we gauged our time noting that we still had about 10-minutes to burn before starting our run to the RP.
4. Once we arrived at LAF19, we were informed that our fighter escorts had arrived at WP#1, instead of at the RP near C28. So, what you found was a bomber group that was organizing and preparing to make the run to RP. We were NOT totally formed up for several good reasons. We had 2 discos and one late arrival who were playing catch up.
5. I notified FOOO that, for some unknown reason, our fighter escorts were forming up on us at LAF19 instead of the RP.
6. The red flag went up in my mind wondering whether the fighter escorts would be unnecessarily burning fuel, due to the fact of the early rendezvous at LAF19. Of course, I knew that the fighter escorts know their fuel/aircraft capabilities far better than I did, so I didn't worry about it. Although the questions from the escorts about what we, the bombers were doing orbiting around LAF19 did make me feel a bit irritated seeing that it wasn't the RP and we still had another 20-minutes before we were due to arrive at the designated RP.
7. We were under the impression that FOOO was going to hold all the fighters over our ground assets as long as possible, hence the late RP time. It was a good plan because I think a large number of enemy a/c were downed before we even arrived on radar. Well-done to all of our fighters!
8. Once we started to ingress to the RP and the first target, we did have a few fellas that were wide, but we were working with them to get the bomber box tightened. We had a couple of newbies with us and it took a little time for them to get in position, but by the time we were approaching the first target everyone except one bomber was in place.
9. For the next 30-minutes, our bombers would be tasked with destroying five large airfields, all of which, were successfully wiped out.
10. What I hope our fellow Allied friends will understand is that in real life, there was a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, and six gunnery positions on the B24. There were 11 men doing different jobs on the real aircraft. There is only one person running all 11 positions, if you will, on the B24 in Warbirds. When you leave the pilot seat to jump to a gunner position or bombardier position, no one is flying the plane anymore, until you return to that seat. So, when the bombers spread out on a field to drop on their assigned targets, they will be going in several different headings until they regroup for the next target. It ain't easy to do all that and keep that bomber box as tight as we'd like it to be.
11. The bottom line: the bombers closed 5 fields on a mission that took 3 hours from start to finish.
12. The loss of Wesley was NOT due to enemy fire. He discoed after he had been shot up a little bit. Had he not discoed, he would have returned to his base without an issue. As a side note, Wesley has a problem getting his Team Speak to work, so we have to communicate with him using the buffer. Hopefully, we can find someone who can get that issue resolved.
DAZED, you weren't the ones getting the bombers formed up, the bomber group leaders were doing that. It wasn't perfect, but it looked pretty good to me, considering all the points above.
We are most appreciative of those who are assigned to protect us to and from the targets. Your job is vital to the success or failure of our jobs. We worked very well together in this last series.
Thanks <S>