[Rain Man]

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B-17 #3 – Dreamsicle

Pilot Logical (12)
Copilot memyselfi (12)
Bombardier Hoover (12)
Navigator The Bad Guy (12)
Engineer BigChiefDave (12)
Radio Op. Ecto-I (12)
Tail Gunner cntrygal (12)
Ball Turret Gunner JennyGump (11)
Right Waist Gunner EBOLA (5)
Left Waist Gunner Warrior5

Target: La Rochelle, in southwest France
Mid-formation horizontally and vertically (low vulnerability)
Distance: 8 zones

Zone 1 Out: Britain

No enemy

Zone 2 Out: English Channel

2 Me109s are driven away by other B-17s

Zone 3 Out: Western Channel

2 Me109s attack

Hoover fires, misses
The Bad Guy fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Me scores 3 hits
-nose – bomb controls are damaged. The bomb run will have to be aimed manually
-superficial damage to starboard wing
-tail – rudder slightly damaged

Me circles, attacks again

Jennygump fires, misses
The Bad Guy fires, damages Me109

Me scores 2 hits, breaks off attack

-superficial damage to waist
-superficial damage to tail

Zone 4 Out: France

4 Me109s attack – 2 are driven off by fighters

The Bad Guy fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Ebola fires, misses
Hoover fires, misses

2 Mes miss, break off attack

Zone 5 Out: France – out of fighter range

No enemy

Zone 6 Out: France

No enemy

Zone 7 Out: France

3 Fw190s attack

BigChiefDave fires, kills Fw190
The Bad Guy fires, misses
Ecto-I fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, misses
Ebola fires, hits Fw190

2 Fws miss, break off attack

Zone 8 Out: France (Entering Target Zone)

2 Me110s attack

Jennygump fires, misses
Ebola fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, hits Me110
BigChiefDave fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Me scores 3 hits
-superficial damage to bomb bay
-PING! A shell hits a bomb, but it doesn’t explode
-port wing – outboard fuel tank begins leaking

Me circles, attacks again

Jennygump fires, hits Me110
Warrior5 fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

5 Me109s attack

Hoover fires, misses
The Bad Guy fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, damages Me109
Ebola fires, misses
Warrior5 fires, hits Me109

4 Mes miss, break off attack

Me scores 3 hits
-superficial damage to starboard wing
-radio room – the radio is knocked out of commission
-bomb bay – PING! Another bomb is hit, but doesn’t explode

Me circles, attacks again

Cntrygal fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Ebola fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Entering Bomb Zone
Poor Weather – Rain and mist
Light Flak – 3 hits
-superficial damage to tail
-tail – rudder is heavily damaged
-superficial damage to port wing aileron

Between the weather, the flak hit, and the damage to his controls, Hoover has no chance – 0% score

Zone 8: France (Leaving Target Zone)

1 Me110 is driven off by other B-17s

memyselfI is doing some calculations, and she’s worried about the fuel, with the port outboard tank now empty.

Zone 7: France

No enemy

MemyselfI is now really worried about the fuel level. She thinks that there’s not enough to get back to base, and there may not even be enough to reach England. She takes the yoke, and logical confirms her calculations.

Zone 6: France

5 Me109s attack

The Bad Guy fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Ecto-I fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, kills Me109
Ebola fires, misses
Warrior5 fires, misses

2 Mes miss, break off attack

Me scores 2 hits
-superficial damage to nose
-nose – hoover takes a light wound to the stomach

Me scores 3 hits
-superficial damage to tail
-bomb bay – doors inoperable
-tail – port elevator is knocked out

2 Mes circle, attack again

Jennygump fires, misses
Hoover fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Me scores 2 hits
-pilot compartment – unbeknownst to the logical and memyselfI, the landing gear mechanism is jammed
-nose – hoover takes a second light wound to the right foot

Me circles, attacks again

The Bad Guy fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, misses

Me scores 2 hits
-radio room – control cables are damaged, but still operable
-waist – warrior5 takes a light wound to the forehead, dropping to the deck unconscious.

Me breaks off attack due to low fuel

Zone 5: France

No enemy

Logical and memyselfI have a problem. The fuel gauges are all reading near empty, and it’s still a long way home. They might be able to get some more range if they cut a couple of the engines, but that would just get them to the English Channel. If they crashed alone with no radio, they’d be doomed.

Their choices appear to be just that, or crash landing in France and taking their chances. They consider their odds, and decide to take their chances on the water. If they can stay in formation long enough, they’ve got a reasonable chance of running into fighter cover, and possibly signaling to a fighter to follow them down. Landing in France means that most or all of the crew will likely be captured. Logical sets the engines lean, and the crew begins tossing overboard anything that’s not absolutely necessary.

Zone 4: France – back in fighter range

Warrior5 awakens with a huge headache.

The crew is delighted to see a flight of P-47s waiting to escort the flight in. As logical begins to pull out of formation to attract the fighters’ attention, the #1 engine sputters and dies for lack of fuel.

5 Fw190s attack – 3 are driven off by fighters

BigChiefDave fires, misses
Ecto-I fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, misses
Ebola fires, misses
Jennygump fires, damages Fw190

Damaged Fw misses, breaks off attack

Fw scores 2 hits
-superficial damage to pilot compartment
-nose – hoover once again takes a hit, this time a serious wound to the right side of his head. He goes down in a heap, and dies of his wounds a few minutes later.

Fw circles, attacks again

The Bad Guy fires, misses
BigChiefDave fires, misses
Cntrygal fires, misses

Logical pulls out of formation, but stays at altitude. Two of the P-47s pull in close to see what’s happening, and back in the radio room, Ecto-I passes signals to the closest of them. He reports up that the pilot gave him a thumbs up.

The #2 engine sputters to a stop as Dreamsicle crosses over the coast. They’re still a long way from home. A water landing is inevitable now, and logical begins easing the plane down, realizing that a powered landing will be much safer than a gliding landing.

Zone 3 Out: Western Channel

The crew gets busy at this point, donning their parachutes if they didn’t already have one, and ebola ducks into the bomb bay to get the life rafts ready to go.

Unfortunately, the bomb bay doors won’t open. Cursing, ebola calls up to the crew, and jennygump, now wearing her parachute, moves up to help him drag them back to the waist. They won’t be able to inflate the rafts ahead of time since they won’t fit through the waist door. They’ll have to hope that the plane stays afloat long enough to get the rafts out and inflated.

The #4 engine sputters to a stop.

MemyselfI gives a thumbs up to the escorting P-47 pilots, and logical guides the ship toward the water. Inside the plane, everyone braces for a landing. The Bad Guy moves back from the vulnerable nose and hooks himself into warrior5’s harness. Jennygump, no longer in the vulnerable ball turret, does the same with ebola’s harness.

Dreamsicle cruises down toward the water, the #3 engine still purring. MemyselfI calls out the altitude so the crew will know what’s coming. “300 feet…200 feet…100 feet…50 feet…brace yourself!”

In an enormous cascade of water, Dreamsicle slams into the English Channel. A massive wave washes over the pilot compartment, and the plexiglass nose shatters, sending water cascading through the front of the plane.

Navigator The Bad Guy (12), Ball Turret Gunner JennyGump (11), Right Waist Gunner EBOLA (5), and Left Waist Gunner Warrior5 pile out the waist gunner hatches, dragging the bulky rafts with them and struggling to swim in their chutes. As a team, they paddle away behind the wings as the nose of Dreamsicle begins to sink, The Bad Guy hauling the bloodied and woozy warrior5 to the left, and ebola heading right with two of the rafts. Jennygump waits with the third raft as water sloshes up to her thighs, then ducks out the left side with the third raft as soon as The Bad Guy is clear.

Bombardier Hoover (12) lies KIA in the flooded nose, and will go down with the ship.

Pilot Logical (12), Copilot memyselfi (12), and Engineer BigChiefDave (12) scramble out the top of the plane. After a moment’s hesitation to find the waist gun crew, they all take off their parachutes, dive off the top of the plane, and begin dog paddling, the two pilots heading left and the engineer heading right.

Tail Gunner cntrygal (12) waits until the plane settles, then calmly opens her tail hatch and scouts the situation. Climbing out onto the rising tail of the plane, she sees ebola swimming away from the plane, and dives in to join him after doffing her parachute.

Radio Op. Ecto-I (12) was in a tougher position to escape, and gets slammed into his radio room by the wave of water. Slogging through instant waist deep water, he makes his way to the left waist gun hatch and makes his escape as the tail starts rising into the air. Weighed down by his parachute, he struggles to get clear as the waist of the plane submerges.

Jennygump and ebola are in good shape, and are able to take a moment to shed their parachutes. With a flourish, jennygump pulls the inflation cords on the small raft that she holds, and it inflate perfectly.

On the other side of the plane, ebola inflates the first raft, and then the second. BigChiefDave joins him, and they help each other aboard. A moment later, cntrygal arrives and she too is pulled aboard into ebola’s raft.

On the left side, The Bad Guy keeps warrior5 afloat and safe as jennygump climbs aboard the raft.
Logical and memyselfI approach, but realize that warrior5 needs it worse. They hang onto raft as jennygump maneuvers it, and The Bad Guy and warrior5 climb aboard. A coughing Ecto-I also reaches the raft at that time and hangs on as well.

Only the tail of the plane is visible now, and the rafts paddle away as their trusty steed sinks below the seas. Once it’s clear, BigChiefDave and the Ebola/cntrygal team steam over to the overloaded boat, and logical and memyselfI climb into BigChiefDave’s raft. Ecto-I is hauled aboard the Ebola/cntrygal raft, and at that point the nine crew members wave in relief to the two P-47s circling overhead.

Twelve long hours later, and after three shift changes of escort fighters, the trio of rafts sees lights on the horizon. The Bad Guy fires a flare, and the crew rides home in style in a Lend Lease destroyer.

Aftereffects

Despite the plane loss, nine of the ten crew members are coming back for more. Dreamsicle II is in the works.

Eligible for next mission

Pilot Logical (12)
Copilot memyselfi (12)
Bombardier The Bad Guy (12), promoted
Navigator BigChiefDave (12) , promoted
Engineer Ecto-I (12) , promoted
Radio Op. cntrygal (12) , promoted
Tail Gunner JennyGump (11) , promoted
Ball Turret Gunner EBOLA (5) , promoted
Right Waist Gunner Warrior5, promoted
Left Waist Gunner XXX

Water, water everywhere, and hoover’s in the drink.