[Rain Man]

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B-17 #19 – War Dog

Pilot Baby Lee (11)
Copilot Brock Landers (11)
Bombardier Boozer (11)
Navigator Sure-Oz (11)
Engineer Gunther_Fan (11)
Radio Op. Lightning Rod (11)
Tail Gunner chi3fs (10)
Ball Turret Gunner Chief Faithful (11)
Right Waist Gunner Braincase (5)
Left Waist Gunner Big Chief Homer

Target: La Rochelle (a tough one – extra flak, extra fighters)
Mid-formation horizontally, low vertically (high vulnerability)
Distance: 8 zones

Zone 1 Out: Britain

No enemy

Zone 2 Out: English Channel

No enemy

The weather is particularly cold at altitude today, so baby lee orders each crew member to fire their weapons once to ensure that none are frozen. All of the weapons are fine.

Zone 3 Out: Western Channel

1 Fw190, 3 Me109s attack – 1 Me109 is driven off by fighters

Gunther_fan fires, kills Fw190
Boozer fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, misses
Chief Faithful fires, misses
Big Chief Homer fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Me scores 2 hits
-superficial damage to bomb bay
-radio room – the radio is knocked out of commission

Me circles, attacks again

Braincase fires, hits Me109
Gunther_fan fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

4 Me109s attack – 2 are driven off by fighters

Sure-oz fires, misses
Chief Faithful fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, misses
Big Chief Homer fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Me scores 2 hits
-port wing root slightly damaged
-waist – braincase curses as he takes a light wound to the left thigh. It’s going to be a long few hours on the rest of the flight with that.

Me circles, attacks again

Braincase fires, misses
Gunther_fan fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Zone 4 Out: France

3 Me109s are driven off by other B-17s

Zone 5 Out: France – out of fighter range

5 Fw190s attack

Sure-oz fires, damages Fw190
Boozer fires, misses
Gunther_fan fires, kills Fw190
Chi3fs fires, kills Fw190
Big Chief Homer fires, misses
Braincase fires, hits Fw190

After that onslaught of B-17 fire, 3 Fws miss, break off attack

Zone 6 Out: France

1 Fw190 attacks

Lightning rod fires, misses
Gunther_fan fires, misses
Big Chief Homer fires, misses

Fw scores 1 hit
-superficial damage to radio room

Fw circles, attacks again

Chief Faithful fires, kills Fw190
Big Chief Homer fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, misses

Zone 7 Out: France

4 Me109s attack

Sure-oz fires, damages Me109
Gunther_fan fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, damages Me109
Chief Faithful fires, misses
Big Chief Homer fires, misses

3 Mes miss, break off attack

Damaged Me barrels in at 12 o’clock even and scores 3 hits
-pilot compartment – baby lee takes a light wound to the neck
-superficial damage to pilot compartment
-pilot compartment – brock landers takes a fatal “guy on the beach in Private Ryan” hit to the stomach. It’s ugly.

Me circles, attacks again

Gunther_fan fires, kills Me109

Baby lee, applying pressure to the bloody wound on his neck, continues flying with one hand. He lets Gunther_Fan know the situation in case he gets hit again.

Zone 8: France (Entering Target Zone)

4 Me109s attack

Boozer fires, damages Me109
Sure-oz fires, misses
Gunther_fan fires, kills Me109
Lightning rod fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, misses

3 Mes miss, break off attack

Entering Bomb Zone
Bad Weather – A thunderstorm has rolled in.
No Flak
The good news is that the weather is keeping the flak from firing, so boozer takes his time on the aiming. Even in the bad weather, he connects – 20% score

Zone 8 Back: France (Leaving Target Zone)

1 Me110 is driven off by other B-17s

Zone 7: France

No enemy

Zone 6: France

2 Me110s attack

Gunther_fan fires, misses
Boozer fires, misses
Lightning rod fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, kills Me110
Chief Faithful fires, misses

Me misses, breaks off attack

Zone 5: France

1 Fw190, 3 Me109s attack

Big Chief Homer fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, kills Me109
Gunther_fan fires, kills Me109
Sure-oz fires, hits Me109
Boozer fires, damages Fw190

Me, Fw miss, break off attack

2 Me109s attack

Gunther_fan fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, misses
Chief Faithful fires, misses
Boozer fires, kills Me109

Me scores 2 hits
-port wing root damaged again. It would be a bad idea to try any violent maneuvers.
-superficial damage to starboard wing

Gunther_Fan and chi3fs simultaneously call out that they’re running low on ammo.

Me circles, attacks again

Gunther_fan fires, misses
Braincase fires, misses

The Me strafes in from 9 o’clock high and plants 8 hits into War Dog!
-superficial damage to bomb bay doors
-superficial damage to nose
-pilot compartment – Brock Landers’ lifeless body takes what would’ve been a light wound to the hand as his left index finger is shot off.
-superficial damage to bomb bay doors
-superficial damage to radio room
-waist – Big Chief Homer sees the tracer come in, but can’t avoid it. As with his copilot, he takes a fatal wound to the stomach and drops to the deck.
-tail – chi3fs loses his heating system
-superficial damage to port wing aileron

Me circles, attacks again

Chi3fs fires, damages Me109
Gunther_fan fires, kills the same Me109

Zone 4: France – back in fighter range

No enemy

Zone 3 Out: Western Channel

3 Fw190s attack

Gunther_fan fires, hits Fw190
Sure-oz fires, misses
Braincase fires, misses
Chief Faithful fires, misses
Chi3fs fires, damages Fw190

2 Fws miss, break off attack

Fw scores 1 hit
-waist – the shell creases braincase with a light wound to the right thigh (giving him matching bloody spots with his earlier left thigh wound), and then imbeds itself in Big Chief Homer’s body, in what would’ve been a serious wound to the stomach if it wasn’t already spilled out onto the deck. Braincase ends up sitting on the deck, looking for fighters coming in from high positions. He lets Chief_Faithful know that he can’t help cover the area below the plane’s waist any more.

Fw circles, attacks again

Chi3fs fires, misses
Gunther_fan fires, hits Fw190
Boozer fires, misses

Fw scores 3 hits
-starboard elevator is destroyed
-superficial damage to tail
-pilot compartment – in a fluke shot, the Fw puts a shell into the pilot compartment from the back and nails baby lee in the left side of the head. Baby lee instantly loses consciousness, and dies within minutes from the blood loss.

Gunther_Fan jumps from his post as the plane begins nosing down and grabs the yoke. As a veteran, he has received some basic lessons, but not much.

Fw circles, attacks again

Lightning rod fires, misses
Chief Faithful fires, misses

Fw misses, breaks off attack

Zone 2: English Channel

No enemy

Gunther_Fan yells back to Lightning Rod about the troubles in the cockpit, and Lightning Rod lets the rest of the crew know. Boozer and lightning rod convene in the cockpit, and boozer takes over the copilot seat as lightning rod helps pull the bodies of baby lee and brock landers out of the seat.

Chi3fs reminds them that he has no heat and hasn’t been able to feel his hands for a while, but the new leadership isn’t comfortable dropping out of formation with no pilot, no copilot, and no radio. Instead, lightning rod moves back to the tail gun and the half-frozen chi3fs comes up to the heated radio room to thaw out and man that gun. With numbed hands, he pats the bloody braincase on the back as he goes, and grimaces at what’s left of Big Chief Homer.

Zone 1: England

Good weather

In safe air over England, the B-17 formation begins descending. Gunther_Fan and boozer figure out how to descend, but don’t want to land just yet. With no radio, they can’t signal their intentions, so boozer goes to the top turret to keep an eye out for descending planes above them. As the rest of the formation descends, War Dog stays higher and begins a great sweeping circle. Back in the tail, lightning rod tries to give hand signals to other nearby B-17s, but isn’t sure that anyone saw him.

With no enemy to worry about, the crew begins exiting from their positions. Chief Faithful cranks himself up from the ball turret, and lightning rod comes up and helps him open the hatch. Up in the nose, sure-oz calls out that he’s got a good bead on the air base. Chi3fs comes out of the radio room and attempts to help braincase treat his wounds, but it’s becoming apparent that he’s got frostbite.

Despite the damaged elevator and port wing root, the plane is relatively easy to keep on the straight and level. The problem is landing, though. With no radio, Gunther_Fan and boozer aren’t sure about the landing procedures, and they aren’t confident landing the plane anyway with no training. For another thirty minutes, they circle while Chief Faithful and Lightning Rod confirm that baby lee, brock landers, and Big Chief Homer are dead.

At long last, the two officers (boozer and sure-oz, along with Gunther_Fan, make their decision. Remembering other flights where engineers were unable to land B-17s, they decide that it’s not worth losing another crew member to attempt a landing. They’ll just point the plane toward Germany, and then everyone will bail out over England. War Dog will merely become an American buzz bomb.

The B-17 circles again while lightning rod and chief faithful put parachutes onto the three dead crew members. Slowing the plane as much as possible, Gunther_Fan positions near a mid-sized city that sure-oz identifies as Cambridge, and the three dead crew members are parachuted out so their bodies can be recovered. The three chutes open without incident, and baby lee, brock landers, and Big Chief Homer are later recovered by villagers.

Next out are the live crew members. Lightning Rod and Chief Faithful drag Right Waist Gunner braincase toward the door and unceremoniously dump him out while deploying his chute. The groggy braincase, ever the lucky guy, floats to earth and is dismayed to see a river rising up before him. Attempting to maneuver the parachute doesn’t work, despite his frantic efforts. Saddled with two leg wounds, he hits the water hard, and then is covered by the parachute. Struggling and sinking, he gets entangled in his chute cords and cant’ fight clear of the fabric, either.

He later awakens on shore, coughing and spitting, a soaked Englishman on top of him pumping the water out of his lungs. The factory worker had seen him go in, and pulled him out as he was on the verge of drowning. Braincase begifts him with his flight jacket, and promises to become his butler after the war.

Tail Gunner chi3fs (10) is next. Lightning rod and Chief Faithful position him near the door and, since his hands are still useless, they pull his cord as he jumps out, too. Chi3fs hurtles toward earth, and notices quickly that the chute is tangled. Falling, falling, falling, he desperately tries to work the chute free from itself, but can’t get a grip on the cords. In a stroke of bad luck, he just got a poorly packed chute and can’t get it straightened out. 5,000 feet later, he destroys a farmer’s tractor, doing himself in in the process. Tough break.

With all of the dead and injured out the door, Radio Op. Lightning Rod (11) and Ball Turret Gunner Chief Faithful (11) give each other the thumbs up and dive out the hatch. Both land safely and have nothing worse than a short walk as a result of their efforts.

Navigator Sure-Oz (11) salutes the two erstwhile pilots and somersaults out the door. 5,000 feet later, he’s being dragged across a wheat field until he can disengage his chute.

Boozer and Gunther_Fan stay with the plane another 30 minutes until it reaches the coast. They then circle once so they can make a bailout over land. Bombardier Boozer (11) works with Gunther_Fan to figure out how the autopilot works, but they can’t find it. Gunther therefore mans the yoke as is his duty, and boozer’s the next one out. He leaves Gunther_Fan at the helm and wishes him luck. Boozer makes his jump, and ends up dangling from a 600 year-old oak tree until the rescue teams can get him down. No harm done.

Engineer Gunther_Fan (11) has a bit of a tricky task. Since he can’t figure out the autopilot, he can’t get the plane to stay straight and level while unmanned, since the bad elevator keeps forcing a bank. Making sure he’s got all his ducks in a row, Gunther_Fan ties off the yoke with a bootlace, then makes a run for the exit. Hoping that the plane won’t circle back and kill people on the ground, Gunther_Fan clambers toward the exit and makes his escape, just a little too late. Instead of dropping onto land, he finds himself parachuting over the ocean about a quarter-mile out. Hitting the water, he treads water as he ditches his parachute and heavy clothing, then watches as War Dog circles overhead. During the next 10 minutes, he paddles toward shore in the chilly water as War Dog slowly banks further and further into a death spiral. Once he reaches shore, the chilled Gunther_Fan watches as War Dog eventually noses down and slams into the North Sea. Mission over.

Aftereffects

Since multiple crew members survived, War Dog will fly again, albeit with a lot of new faces.

Eligible for next mission

Pilot XXX
Copilot Boozer (11)
Bombardier Sure-Oz (11)
Navigator Gunther_Fan (11)
Engineer Lightning Rod (11)
Radio Op. XXX
Tail Gunner Chief Faithful (11)
Ball Turret Gunner Braincase (5)
Right Waist Gunner XXX
Left Waist Gunner XXX

Is it worth it? Is war really worth it?