by Brooke, GL, VVS10
VVS10 was assigned to Boston III's, out of A16. Our squadron consisted of me (Brooke), HB555, GypsyB, Mal, SkechCAF, Scotch, Rompa, Monday, Hawco, and OddCAF. We picked 75% fuel and 4 500 lb bombs as our standard loadout in our formations of Bostons.
Our initial set of targets were the vehicle hangars (VH's) at v38, v41, and v44. As many of us had practiced and participated in practice sessions, we were quite confident of splitting up and taking out all those VH's in our first mission. We assigned Brooke, Mal, and Rompa to V41; HB555, GypsyB, and Hawco to v44; and Skech, Scotch, Odd, and Monday to v38. The plan was for a lead two formations of Bostons to take out the VH's, with the third (or third and fourth) formations hitting any VH's left standing or being available for another target if the first two pilots took out the VH's. We felt that the first two pilots would probably take out the VH's leaving the trailing pilots able to hit more targets.
We also figured we'd be able to get to the targets unmolested and perhaps away from the targets unmolested, too.
We took off from A16 and headed to our respective targets, levelling off at 6.5k for our bombing runs. I was the trailing pilot for my group, headed to v41, the farthest target. As I flew to target, pilots started reporting in with some hits and many misses. Then it was my turn, as at least one of the VH's at v41 was also missed. I got into sight, opened bay doors, lined up carefully, went into calibration, looked at my target and saw that I was off a bit, swore, corrected a little (not much, though, as I needed time for the aircraft to settle even after a small correction in heading), waited, then dropped. I went into bomb sight and watched my bombs . . . miss. Damn it! I couldn't believe I had botched my drop after so much practice!
I checked on the radio. Each of our initial base targets had at least one VH up. My heart sank. I knew our side was counting on us to knock those bases out quickly. I asked everyone to hurry back to base and go after their same targets again until the VH's were down, maximum speed - i.e., as soon as they were down, they would reload and go back up for their targets.
Unfortunately, now some of the enemy fighters had time to get into the area. As I was racing home, two 109's chased me down. I went into evasives, but they shot me down fairly readily.
I took off and headed to v41. By this time, the enemy had a lot of fighters up SE of v41, in the heart of the territory we were fighting for. I decided to head far east, then go north up the 11-12 column line (staying just inside column 11 so as not to give my position away). When I was one sector east of V41, I turned west and attacked heading west.
The area was clear of enemy fighters, so I radioed that to the other guys who would be targeting v41. The folks who were going for v41 and v38 had a hornet's nest of activity near them. I believe several of them were shot down in the action.
I lined up very carefully, not wanting to botch my drop again. As I drew close, I noticed my sight drifting off to the side. I realized there was a fair bit of wind. I aborted my drop and radioed the squad. We all checked it out through the settings. Yes - up to 6k, there was wind at 6 mph, and above 6k, there was wind at 10 mph. That was plenty enough to spoil a drop if you don't take it into account.
We decided we'd do our drops from just under 6k. Also, as the wind was in the SW/NE direction, some of us decided to do our drops heading either SW or NE. Others just took into account the direction of the wind and made sure to line up left or right of the target to take care of it.
In the meantime, the other members of VVS10 destroyed the VH's at v38 and v44. Good work, guys!
After aborting my drop, I flew around to the NE of v41 and then headed back SW to do my drop. Before I got to v41, command radioed that v45 had just become the top priority target, so I altered my course for v45 and asked the rest of VVS10 to concentrate on v45.
I flew in, lined up very carefully on a VH at v45, approached heading SW, and did my drop. I got some bombs on target, but not enough to take down the VH. Some missed short and a little to the left. They were perhaps short because I was flying into the wind. Well, it was still annoying, but I knew that only another couple of bombs would take down the VH. I announced that both VH's at v45 were still up and asked VVS10 to keep going for it until it was down. Shortly thereafter, the guys destroyed both VH's and put the base out of action.
After I landed at A16, much of the rest of VVS10 was landing, too. At this point, we had put down V38, V44, and V45, although it had been a while since V38 and V44 were destroyed, so they might have been either up or coming up soon. I called to command to find out the priority targets currently.
Command came back with V57 and V48 as the top two priorities. We split VVS10 into two groups and took off immediately. HB555, GypsyB, Hawco, and I took V48; and Skech, Scotch, Odd, and Monday took V48. Rompa and Mal were in route to targets as we were landing, so they continued on to those targets.
We headed east a ways, then north, then NE to v48. HB and I took the westernmost VH; GB and Hawco took the easternmost. This time, we destroyed all the VH's in one pass.
The group headed for v57 also killed all their VH's. Excellent work.
As we were on the ground, Mal and Rompa were in the air again with bombs. V38 was still on our target list, so we gave them that as a target. Then, those two guys took out both VH's there. Excellent work!
At this point, V38, V48, and V57 were down as well as anything left over, such as maybe still V45. I asked for the latest target list as V44, V45, V57, V56, V48, and 23.
I picked the first two from the list, V44 and V45 (after checking that the VH's there were back up). We put Skech, Scotch, Odd, and Monday on V45 and HB, GB, and Hawco on V44. I initially followed Skech's group but could go for either target that still needed bombs. Also, Mal and Rompa would be back up soon, as they were on their way to land at A16 as we were on the way to target.
As we were on the way to target, Flossy reported in and said she was assigned to Boston duty. I told here loadout and explained about the wind and told her that V44 and V45 were targets until they were down.
As I approached V45 with Skech and the boys, HB reported that they got one VH at V44 and damaged another, but one VH was still up. I changed my target to V44. I went into bomb sight and used maximum stick deflection to turn around toward target. It was slow going - I was afraid I wasn't going to get lined up in time, but I just made it. I lined up, dropped, and finished off the easternmost VH.
As the other folks went into the V45 area, they reported enemy fighters in the area. I radioed that in, so that we could get some friendly fighters into the area. Unfortunately, we lost several Boston pilots there. I'm not sure if they were able to kill both VH's at V45. Mal, Rompa, and Flossy were in the air with bombs and could go for it next.
About then, the call came in for everyone to get in ground vehicles for our final ground assault. I relayed the order to all Boston pilots. It was frustrating for Mal, Rompa, and Flossy, as they were up with full loads of bombs, ready to hit targets. At this point, I was busy working to come back to land and to find out where we should spawn, what we should attack, and so on. So, I wasn't very responsive to Mal and Flossy's radio questions - sorry, you two.
Those of us headed back to base landed and started spawning in T-34's, except for me (and Flossy, once she was back down), who took M3's with troops. We started at 18, spawned NW, drove to 6, exited our vehicles at that base, respawned NW, and drove to 2. Some of the guys (the ones out in front), exited at 2 and repawned NW to get toward V22. Along the way, I almost got stuck in a swamp, but the little swampy patch that I hit was small, and I was going top speed when I hit it. So, I hit it and splashed to the other side just barely and continued on.
By the time I was at 2, it looked like the fight was at 21/37. So, I took a chance of spawning north from 2. It did put me closer to 37. I drove toward the action and stopped in a grove of trees on the south side of v37. I called if it was clear for me to come in and drop off troops. Folks said it was, so I came charging in. There were many T-34's and several M3's there, including Jordi. We weren't completely sure if everything was set for troops, and there was a Bf 109 in the area. However, time was running out, and there were enough M3's that the 109 wouldn't be able to shoot all the troops. Jordi called for most to launch. I waited and a call came in shortly thereafter that some people should wait just to see what happens, so that we have some troops in reserve just in case. I continued to hold onto my troops.
The troops that were released were enough, though, and we captured the base right near the end of the frame. It was a wild time!
In the end, here were the tallies according to the logs for VVS10 for the missions in Bostons.
HB555: 2 VH's, 0 deaths
GypsyB: 2 VH's, 0 deaths
Mal: 1 VH, 1 death
SkechCAF: 3 VH's, 1 death
Scotch: 3 VH's, 1 kill (excellent!), 3 deaths
OddCAF: 1 VH, 1 assist, 2 deaths
Rompa: 3 VH's, 1 death
Monday: 1 VH, 0 deaths
Hawco: 1 VH, 3 deaths
Brooke: 2 VH's, 1 death