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Originally Posted by Rain Man
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B-17 #12 – Yard Dart
Pilot Taco John (9)
Copilot Joe Seahawk (9)
Bombardier CHIEF4EVER (9)
Navigator ZachKC (9)
Engineer Archie F. Swin (9)
Radio Op. oleman47 (9)
Tail Gunner RJ (9)
Ball Turret Gunner KC2003 (9)
Right Waist Gunner kcnut
Left Waist Gunner ROYC75
Target: Abbeville
Mid-formation horizontally and vertically (low vulnerability)
Zone 1 Out: Britain
No enemy
Zone 2 Out: English Channel
No enemy
Zone 3 Out: France (Entering Target Zone)
2 Me110s attack – 1 is driven away by fighters
Chief4ever fires, misses
KC2003 fires, misses
RJ fires, misses
Me scores 2 hits
-superficial damage to tail
-starboard wing – The #4 engine gets hit and begins revving up. Joe Seahawk attempts to shut the engine down, but it won’t respond. It continues to speed up, and Taco John is having trouble keeping the aircraft moving straight. Joe Seahawk attempts to cut the fuel, but it won’t respond. The engine speeds up more. This is trouble.
The engine is redlining now and still increasing. Yard Dart is yawing to the left and Taco John can’t control it any longer. The plane whips around and does a quick 360, then repeats the maneuver. Taco John curses and hits the bailout alarm.
The team bails out of the plane, with left waist gunner RoyC75 the first out and copilot Joe Seahawk second. Taco John is next, then Archie F. Swin and oleman47. KC2003 makes a clean getaway, then RJ and kcnut.
The two men in the nose are the last out, which is unfortunate. As they approach the bailout hatch the #4 engine explodes. Bombardier Chief4ever takes a piece of the engine disk to the head and dies instantly, while Navigator ZachKC takes a serious wound to the right upper back. He is thrown out as the entire right wing goes supernova, but manages to get his parachute open.
ZachKC floats to the ground but is too injured to escape. The Germans find him within an hour, and he convalesces in a POW camp.
Archie F. Swin and RoyC75 team up on the ground and run…right into the sweep of a German patrol. They have no choice but to surrender, less than an hour after the plane was hit.
Kcnut ends up alone in the middle of a large plowed field. German soldiers approach from the east to capture him, and French resistance fighters approach from the west. Caught in the crossfire, kcnut hugs the ground as bullets fly all around. More Germans arrive from the east and the French are forced to retreat. Kcnut sighs and raises his arms. His war is over (again).
Taco John and Joe Seahawk land near each other and hit the ground running. Once again, they learn that Abbeville is heavily defended, only this time they learn it from the ground instead of the air. With soldiers milling about everywhere, they have no chance. They manage to evade the enemy for almost an hour before getting cornered in a small valley and surrendering.
Radio Op. oleman47 (9) and Tail Gunner RJ (9) land near a small farmhouse. Unsure of how to proceed, they knock on the door, and the homeowner sends word to the resistance. They enjoy a nice meal, but then there’s a knock on the door. As they scramble toward the cellar, German soldiers burst in to search the place, and it doesn’t take long to uncover the two fliers. The family is arrested as well.
Ball Turret Gunner KC2003 (9) lands near a farmhouse as well, and he also knocks on the door. He is taken in by a French family, and after a couple of days of masquerading as a French peasant he is picked up by a group of French Underground fighters who are shorthanded. Over a three-day period he helps the group detonate a bomb underneath a loaded German halftrack and conduct sniper kills on two German sentries, working his way north all the while. At the Channel, a British minisub shows up at the appointed time and KC2003 reports back to base none the worse for the wear.
No bomb run
Aftereffects
No more Yard Dart, alas.
Eligible for next mission
Pilot XXX
Copilot XXX
Bombardier XXX
Navigator XXX
Engineer XXX
Radio Op. XXX
Tail Gunner KC2003 (9), promoted
Ball Turret Gunner XXX
Right Waist Gunner XXX
Left Waist Gunner XXX
What an ignominious end. They encountered one plane and went down.
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