May 21 1997 : The Wednesday Night mission into Santaland
Raxx's Story....
Rather than wait on the ground I was in warbirds at about 7:30. Purple owned most of the center fields and red only held f4. I grabbed my flight kit and headed to my trusty B17. None of the RNZAF heard my calls over the squad radio so I grabbed Otto the gardener as my gunner and took off heading to f4. Little did I know honk and -bc- were on their final runs on f4.
It closed and the war was won by purple. I thought about heading deep into Santaland, and smoked F1 then F2. I called to otto to test his guns as a red launched from f2. Otto never replied. The parachute drifting back to f2 was all the reply I needed.
Memo to CO. "I suspect ex-gardener Otto is a German Spy. Request
that assistant gardener Hirohito replace ex-gardener Otto as stand in
gunner."
After that everyone arrived and we attacked f1. I planned on doing a
crossing route and split from the group 5 minutes before the run. As I looked back at f1 it was a sea of flames. There were no targets for me to hit. I dived and we caught several reds on the ground. Otto's half brother let rip and we were swatting reds like flies.
The rest you will find out from Dyna's post.
All I have to add is to thank all the pilots who took unfamiliar
bombers up and I hope you all had some fun, (yes Roml I can hear you
calling "Dora..., my Dora...." =). I enjoyed myself immensly and
took lots of photos again. You see the better ones below.
On 21 May at 1430 hours the RNZAF Bomber Group left from field 14 to attack field 1
Dyna's Story....
Well, we (arts, goer, rom1 and myself) got into the arena and were greeted with a bevy of 'hiyas'. So, we decided to get some fields with the lads :) (raxx, glrs, 3192, goer and nut-). purp had all of its fields due to a significant number advantage, and was in the process of taking 4. a few minutes later, the process was complete :). The CV was handy, so that soon fell.
But were left feeling unsated, needing greater, stronger challenges. So, obviously, we decided to take one. We got about 4 of us in bombers (with
nut- as hvy p38) and with raxx in the lead, were well on our way. it was
quiet so the fiters were given a free reign, their main task 'keep reds low at
one'. This tactic seemed to work well as our trip was very quiet. The bombrun went like clockwork ('cept I missed tower, :) and the field was left with about 2 targets up. the 4 bombers dived, greatly surprising the three red defenders bravely making a stand. There stand was short as combined Otto took its toll.
It got kinda close, most of us missed the last couple of targets with our
remaining bomb/s. This task was made harded by the fact that on a couple of ocassions, one of the reds was fortunate enough to get airborne. Goer soon came to the rescue tho, and cleaned up the last target, shortly after we landed and the field was ours! Purp's were very happy, even got a 'nicely done purp' from some other flier. Capping was simple, then we quickly took 3.
The plan was now to repeat our success at one and take greens home. Glrs
had come, and we had about 5 bombers up. Then a lone red p38 came in a hit us bad. 3192 crashed, and I lost half me gunnery crew.. sure was a mess back there =). Reforming, we headed to 6, and started to rally purps as we
approached. One bright purp lad informed us that he was pleased as he was
'dragging a green at 15k' .. a little higher than we were.. :/ Bad thoughts
flashed through my mind about my commrad in purpledom, but we struggled on. A bloody gunner informed.. well, gurgled, that we had lost an Ailron after a harrowing fight with this high green. He cut us up badly and the final bombs dropped although accurate, were not enough to give us much hope. At this point, as we plumeted into the ground, or struggled to hold 3 (depending on ones circumstance), I decided to call it a night :)
Everyone did very well, bombs well dropped and the teamwork was great. The
loose 'fighters forward' tactic seemed to work.. as I wasn't there, I'd like
rom1's and Goer's opinion on this. Lotsa fun all round.. ahh.. I still smile
thinking of those 3 reds trying to take off as 4 b25's circled over the
reventments :)
After taking Field 1 by storm the RNZAF headed off to F6, (the land of Kermit and his gang of Street Frogs)