Brooke in his FW 190A-4, along with the rest of I/JG3, gets the call that an
attack is headed to Brest. As Brooke gets closer to Brest, he sees bogies to
his forward right -- probably the bomber strike and escort headed in. Brooke
heads toward the bogies.
Getting closer to the bogies, Brooke can tell from aircraft size and formation
that they are bombers with fighter escort. Brest airfield, city, and industrial
center are visible below left in the picture. Brooke is at about 35,000 ft.
altitude.
Brooke does a circuit over the action, scoping out the enemy formation. There
are quite a few enemy fighters over the enemy bombers. Brooke picks out some
B-17G Flying Fortresses.
Brooke positions his FW 190 and does a split s in to attack.
Brooke picks out a B-17 to attack (B-17 #1), but after Brooke has already committed
to the attack, it sees him and does a hard turn to the right. Brooke is doing
well over 400 knots at 25,000 ft. and can't match the B-17's turn. Brooke is
not able to get a firing solution.
After his miss, Brooke goes up and around for another pass. The B-17 from the
previous picture is the one off the tail of Brooke's FW 190 in this picture.
Brooke attacking the B-17. Another Luftwaffe pilot fired on it during Brooke's
approach and got it smoking. A Spitfire escort is in good position to attack
Brooke, but Brooke is going very fast (over 300 knots indicated at 25,000 ft)
and blows past the Spitfire. Red tracers from Brooke's guns are visible.
The B-17 banks left hard and dives.
Brooke rolls over and follows, continuing to get hits on the B-17.
Brooke, going much faster than the B-17, races past it. The B-17 is in the top
center of the picture. Many angry US and British escort fighters are now diving
after Brooke, so he disengages and runs until they break off.
After the escorts break off, Brooke climbs back to altitude and comes back to
hunt bombers. He finds another group of B-25 Mitchells and B-17 Flying Fortresses
headed in to bomb Brest and dives in for a frontal attack on the bomber formation.
Brooke picks out the B-17 (B-17 #2) in among the B-25's and misses his frontal
attack. He's going too fast to adjust his aim much, but the bomber gunners are
shooting at him, and his speed and angle of approach make him much harder to
hit. He pulls up and around for another pass.
Coming back in, Brooke spots a different B-17 (B-17 #3), one that is already
smoking, and goes after that one instead. He gets some hits on it.
Brooke does another pass on the B-17, pours in the shells, and it explodes.
There are plenty of bombers and enemy escorts still in the area. Brooke climbs
after his attack on B-17 #3 so that he can go engage the inbound enemy strike
group to his right. Zippy is doing a good job of drawing off the fighter escort.
Brooke turns right and comes back in now that he's got some altitude back. He
let's the first B-25's by to go after the B-17 to the forward right of his aircraft
in this picture.
Brooke pours the shells into B-17 #4. Coming back in to attack B-17 #4 on a
second pass, Brooke sees another Luftwaffe plane attacking it and sees a different
B-17 down low with no Luftwaffe fighter attacking it, so he goes after that
one.
Brooke attacks B-17 #5 as it lines up on the Brest industrial center. Brooke
does a long gunnery pass, firing all the way in, getting strikes all over the
B-17.
Brooke passes just under and to the right of B-17 #5 at over 400 knots. Brooke's
gunnery pass has knocked out the inside right engine, and the results of an
exploding shell are visible on the tail of the B-17.
A view as Brooke zooms under the B-17, showing debris streaming off the bomber
from Brooke's gunfire.
Another view as Brooke zooms under the B-17 at over 400 knots.
Brooke pulls up after his gunnery run. Below, it is clear that the Brest industrial
center has been pounded by US bombers, and the Brest airfield shows some damage
to a couple of buildings. A B-25 is continuing to drop bombs on the industrial
center, and an escorting Spitfire is visible, but he is too low to intercept
Brooke's speeding FW 190A-4.
Brooke attacks B-17 #5 again, pouring in the shells. The green shards are debris
from the bomber. Also, another view of the industrial center. B-17 #5 has unloaded
his bombs on it, too.
Brooke makes another gunnery pass on B-17 #5. It is a very tough plane. Brooke
has been pouring in the shells on each pass, and the FW 190 has perhaps the
most powerful armament of any WWII fighter (two 17.9 mm machine guns and four
20 mm cannon). Only now has the B-17 started to smoke. The Flying Fortress is
an extremely tough aircraft.
Brooke does another pass on B-17 #5. He is now joined by fellow I/JG3 pilot
rdnk1. More debris is streaming back from the bomber. After this pass, the B-17
was finally mortally wounded, and the pilot bailed out.
Brooke heads back toward Brest and finds a B-25 attacking the airfield down
near ground level. Brooke does a pass at it, but misses as the B-25 does a hard
break turn to the left.
Brooke has to break off attacking the B-25 as a Spitfire dives in on Brooke's
tail. Brooke tangles with the Spitfire very unaggressively. The Luftwaffe has
only a limited number of FW 190A-4's and wants them preserved for attacking
bombers. Brooke doesn't get any hits on the Spitfire and eventually disengages
rather than getting drawn into a low-speed fight. During this, the B-25 gets
away.
After the fight with the Spitfire, Brooke gets some altitude back and patrols
the area. It looks fairly clear except for a fight down near ground level among
a P-47, a Spitfire, and a few Luftwaffe fighters. Brooke dives in to help. Here,
he sets up a gunnery run on the P-47D Thunderbolt, which is already damaged
and smoking.
Brooke puts a burst of fire into the P-47, and it explodes. It is DeadDuck,
the Commanding Officer of the Allied Forces. Brooke flies through the cloud
of the explosion.
Brooke ends part 1, frame 2 with 1 kill (B-17 #5) and several assists (other
B-17's and a P-47) and returned his FW 190A-4 safely to base.
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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