Brooke and Jussa8 in their Bf 109E-4's take off from an airfield in France. Brooke is in I/JG26, a fighter group whose mission is to sweep ahead of I/KG2, a bomber group flying Ju 87 Stukas.
Brooke and Jussa8 in their Bf 109E-4's take off from an airfield in France.
Brooke is in I/JG26, a fighter group whose mission is to sweep ahead of I/KG2,
a bomber group flying Ju 87 Stukas.
Another view of Brooke and Jussa8 in Bf 109E-4's taking off ahead of Ju 87 Stukas
and some other Bf 109E-4's.
A lone Hurricane at 30,000 ft. altitude prowls around over I/JG26 (the fighter
group Brooke is in), which is at about 25,000 ft. I/JG26 is passing through
an area of AAA fire (the black puffs are explosions of the AAA shells). From
left to right: Dace, TBolt, the enemy Hurricane, Brooke (in the middle of the
picture), and VolsCAF. The Hurricane doesn't attack I/JG26, which continues
to sweep around over England.
I/JG26 at about 25,000 ft. comes across five Spitfires down at about 20,000
ft. I/JG26 doesn't attack as the Spitfires aren't near any bombers, but follows
them instead.
The Spitfire group, with I/JG26 following, runs across some Luftwaffe aircraft
and some other enemies in Hurricanes. The red icons indicate RAF planes, and
the green icons indicate Luftwaffe planes. The larger dots below Brooke are
Ju 88's. The faint bogies ahead of Brooke are probably also Ju 88's. It is common
for bomber escorts to get stripped away from bombers as they come under attack
and for lead elements of the bomber stream to end up defenseless. At the time,
to Brooke, it seems that there are enough fighters and bomber gunners to do
a fair job of defense, and I/JG26 pushes forward to the front of the bomber
steam in case it needs escort more urgently.
Brooke getting closer to the front of the bomber stream. This area seems even
more well in hand than the tail of the bomber stream, so Brooke continues forward.
Brooke at the front of the bomber stream. This seems not so well in hand. There
are more enemies, fewer Luftwaffe planes, and the enemy fighters have altitude
advantage over many of the Luftwaffe planes.
Brooke dives in with the intention of making slashing attacks to break enemies
off the tails of friendlies -- in this case, to help get a Spitfire off the
tail of Twang (the Bf 109E-4 right below Brooke in the picture).
During the ensuing fight, Brooke does a headon firing pass on a Hurricane, but
unfortunately misses.
Brooke and the Hurricane narrowly miss colliding on the headon pass. The fight
is occurring fairly deep in England, and I/JG26 has been flying a while. At
this point, Brooke is very low on fuel and must return to France for refueling.
Brooke joins up with Dace and heads back. Over the English Channel, with no
enemy planes in sight and no hint of mechanical trouble, Brooke's Bf 109E-4
explodes. This picture, looking forward and left out of the cockpit, captures
the instant of the explosion. The black streaks on the windscreen are engine
oil, and the red is blood. In the next fraction of a second, there is nothing
left of Brooke or his 109. It is a mystery what caused the explosion. Experts
postulate that it might have been a result of smoldering incindiary shell fragments
ingniting fuel vapor from a fuel leak.
In his second life, Brooke takes off and joins up with BigJones and Jasta, all
in Ju 87D-3's. They are given the mission to divebomb a city near the British
port Folkstone, codenamed "P105-city," with which Brooke is familiar.
Jasta's Ju 87 had a catastrophic mechanical failure on the way and crashed into
the English Channel.
Brooke going past the port Folkstone (where a fire is burning) toward the city
(which is the target). He has evaded AA fire from the port, travelled out of
the port's AA region of fire, and is in a clear region between the port and
the city. He is just about to enter the AA region of fire from the city. Brooke
is starting to maneuver a bit (not fly straight) to present a more difficult
target for AAA.
Although the odds of it are miniscule, the first salvo out of the city's AAA
batteries is a direct hit on Brooke's Ju 87. This picture (looking forward and
left out of the cockpit) captures the instant before Brooke and his aircraft
are a collection of fine debris, raining from the sky over England. The red
on the windscreen is blood.
In Brooke's third incarnation, he joins up as a gunner for Flossy who is piloting
a Ju 88A-4. This picture shows the two upper gunner positions, facing the rear
of the aircraft.
This shows the lower gunner position (at the belly of the plane, facing the
rear) and the four 500 kg bombs carried under the wings of the Ju 88A-4. There
are twenty 50 kg bombs also in the internal bomb bay.
Flossy and Brooke in their Ju 88A-4 bomber cross over English soil. Other Luftwaffe
planes are heading back. Psob3 is leading the pair of Ju 88's, one of which
is on fire and trailing smoke, trying to get back to base after a bombing run.
The other three aircraft are Bf 109E-4's also heading back and escorting Psob3
(from top to bottom: SASMOX, mofa, and Tsingis).
Flossy and Brooke's Ju 88 on the way to target. Ahead of them are some other
Ju 88's (2Slow is leading a formation in the upper left), some Bf 109E-4 escorting
fighters (from left to right Maik, Stat, Macky, Bloom, and Quiabe), and a few
RAF Hurricanes.
Closer to target, more RAF fighters dive in. Flossy and Brooke's Ju 88 is attacked
by a Hurricane, and Brooke in the gunner position puts some hits into it as
it dives in.
The Hurricane does another pass on Flossy and Brooke's Ju 88, this time from
below. Brooke puts some more hits into it. Bloom in his Bf 109E-4 has caught
up and is diving to attack the Hurricane. Some AAA (black puffs) are visible
in the upper right of the picture.
The Hurricane is firing at and hitting Flossy and Brooke's Ju 88. Brooke is
firing back, and Bloom is closing on the Hurricane's tail.
Bloom puts a burst into the Hurricane, and it explodes.
Flossy and Brooke nearing the target -- the port Southampton (codenamed "P107").
A view from the Ju 88's cockpit near the drop, looking forward and down. There
is a nice view through the glass nose, and you can see the bombardier position.
A view through Flossy's bombsight as she drops bombs on the port. Groth in a
Ju 88 is below. There are some enemy fighters below, too. They are too low to
be a threat to Flossy and Brooke, but it is not clear if Groth is safe.
Flossy has dropped bombs and is past the target. She reports hitting target
buildings. Good work, Flossy! Groth in his Ju 88 is coming under AA fire from
the port. It looks bad for Groth.
Flossy did not drop her entire load of bombs on the first pass, saving some
for a second pass. She overflew the port and port city, then turned back south.
She is now coming in for a second pass, this time targeting Southampton's port
city (codenamed "P107-city"). In the upper right of the picture, 68Daemon's
Ju 88 is hit and going down.
A closer picture of 68Daemon's mortally wounded Ju 88 over P107-city.
A picture of two (out of several) bomb explosions from Flossy's drop on P107-city.
The explosions (gray-black clouds with some orange fire in the middle) are visible
on buildings just behind the tail of the Ju 88, on the shore of the pond. The
numerous black puffs are from exploding AAA fire directed at Flossy and Brooke
from the port city's AAA batteries.
Flossy and Brooke head back to base through AAA bursts from the port and port
city. There are enemy Spitfires in the area, but they are too low to catch Flossy
and Brooke's Ju 88.
For Brooke, it was a frame of instant and mysterious deaths. Brooke ends Frame 4 with 1 kill (Hurricane) and 1 assist (Hurricane or Spitfire), both achieved as Flossy's gunner.
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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