| ...AFTER ACTION REPORTS...
Mission 18 - Peenemunde, Germany
HARRIET'S CHARIOT (Klippert crew)
Thank Heaven for the new H model! Take off and assembly went fine. We were
hit over the North Sea By Fw 190's- our nose gunner shot down 2 in the next
30 minutes. Over Denmark the fighters eased off a bit, then swarmed all over
us all the way to the target and back to the North Sea. During this running
gunfight our top turret gunner shot down 4 E/A, - an FW190 and 3 ME109's!
Our tail gunner also shot down a 110 trying to sneak up and launch rockets
on us. We got hit also---the fighters tore up both our wings, almost
severing the Starboard wing root, shooting out the flap and aileron, also
hitting the port wing and filling it full of holes. Both Rudder empennages
took hits, and the auto pilot was shot out. The tail oxy also took a hit.
Flak filled us with holes all over the fusalage, but somehow no-one was hit
or any serious damage done. We were off target--we hit a group of buildings
that was about a mile away from the target area. When we landed we
discovered that our port brakes were out. The crew chief says we have 150
damage points.
SHOOT HIM! (Redd crew)
Middle of the North Sea, we got jumped by four 109s. By the time we drove
them off, the bombardier and navigator oxygen systems were kaput. (And that
after Arthur and Fox had put out an oxygen fire.) With a jillion zones to
go, I killed a school of mackerel and headed for home.
Crew Chief Report:
Replace entire nose oxygen system, plus miscellaneous holes around the
forward part of the aircraft. (65 Peckham Points)
SPECIAL DELIVERY (Brainard crew)
The tail end plane of the lead squadron was seen to turn for home trailing
smoke after coming under heavy enemy attack. At least one JU-88 made some
positive hits on the plane. The plane had 95221 on the tail. I assigned LT
Jimmers section to try to cover it back. They reported that it failed to
respond to radio calls and turned for the coastline. The plane was seen to
go down over the land. At least 6 chutes were seen.
Reported by CPT Elvergen
P-38 flight leader
PEGGY SUE (O'Conner crew)
That was a damned nightmare! Don't ask me to do that again. Ever.We got
bounced over the North Sea by a bunch of 109s, one of which pinged my new
nose gunner. Nothing serious, just a bit of metal in the calf. Thank God for
Kilpatrick in the top turret, though. he got five of the little bastards all
told. If it wasn't for him, who knows what would have happened. We missed
the main target, but or eggs seemed to hit surrounding buldings pretty
damned near spot on. Turing away from the target though saw a whole bunch of
Krauts hit us. We lost the bomb bay doors, our wing root on the starboard
side took a 20mm cannon shell and the instruments were shattered. We
couldn't lowe the gear, and we sweated it out all the way back. With the
bomb doors US, it was touch and go if we'd flip on landing. Over England, we
waited for the others to go in before trying to land. I ordered the crew -
co-pilot aside - to bail out, as I couldn't guarantee thir safety. Sweeney
and I put her down soft as a feather, though, and the crew chief says she'll
be fine by the next trip.
BAD HARE DAY II (Roberts crew)
You have got to be joking. We landed with 8 bursts of ammo left on the
starboard waist gun and 2 bursts left on the tunnel gun. The rest had been
shifted around the plane so much that the rounds had more miles on them than
the airframe. We were kept fairly busy on the way out by our friends in the
FliegerKorp. You know the guys, the Hermann Goering fan club.
The flak missed us over
the target but then some jerk-off tried to park his plane inside ours and we
just missed the moron (Random Events - Mid Air!!). We got a solid bomb run
in and hit the target well (60/2 = 30%). We then turned for home. If I'd
known then what was going to happen, I would have told the crew to get the
hell out the bird there and then.
The nav got himself in
the way of a Christmas present from Herr Krupps and friends and had to lie
down for a bit. Turned out to be a damn long lie down. Like eternal. We got
to spend 2 turns per zone after that. The pilot picked up 2 light wounds.
The engineer got a bad one in the chest but the quacks say he's gonna pull
through and be back on the flight line sometime soon. The radio op got
smeared all to hell in the top turret. His radio got shot to hell in zone 3
outbound anyway so he'd being doing stuff all. The waist gunner got a nick.
I am not going to give a
blow-by-blow account of our joyful exodus from krautland but will give a
quick summary. The bombardier, tunnel gunner and engineer all made ace
status on this one mission. The guns need to be re-barrelled, the oil tanks
need to be replaced as only the rubber is holding them together from all the
self-seals, the radio and intercoms are screwed - what's left of them that
is, 2 oxygen fires and 3 oxygen stations U/S, the port wing root got hit,
the starboard wing root got 2 hits (was somewhat bloody concerned with this
one!), the starboard rudder and flaps were U/S, the port aileron was U/S,
the port empennage got hit, the rafts were shredded, the heat in the butt
end of the crate was out, and the control cables got hit.
The number of
superficials was starting to become a joke. We could have used any part of
the airframe to strain limey tea. The good ole Peckham's just kept on
racking up. Considering the number of times we got hit, it's a miracle we
got home never mind being mostly alive and unscratched.
Now to get my 2
scratches dressed and hit the O-Club before I hit the genius who dreamt up
this little ride through hell.
MAIL CARRIER (Post crew)
What is there to say? We survived but only through the grace of God. Tail
end charlie? We should only have to do that position one time.. ever! Crew
chief says 306 points of damage and it will take several days to repair our
bird. And they may not want to! I dont even recall everything that happened.
It just happened, and kept on happening! From the beginning of the mission
to the end, we fought and fought and fought. Yeah, we hit the target for all
you bean counters. My bombardier suffered a light
wound somewhere in that time. We shot down a lot of enemies even though our
tail and nose guns were out. My crew did a wonderful job. We all kept each
other alive. According to the chief our major damage was nose and tail guns
out, oxygen fire damage in the nose, heat out in the nose, #3 engine shot to
hell, intercom system gone, 2 port wing root hits to go along with 2
starboard wing root hits, windscreens destroyed, bomb bay release destroyed,
rafts destroyed, both wing ailerons were damaged, and more superficial holes
than they cared to count. We need a drink...
THUNDERSTRUCK (Piper crew)
At about 400 miles from the base, outbound to the target, we took intercom
damage and many wing hits. My co-pilot and I talked about aborting and after
conferring with Captain Haygood in Weasel God he advised us to turn around
and abort. We salvoed our bombs and turned for home. We got jumped by
several krauts on the way back but nothing we couldn't handle. I hated
turning around but with the intercom out we would have been easier meat for
the Luftwaffe as our .50s would have not been as effective.
STEEL RAIN II (BHaygood crew)
Lots of enemies. Lots of flak. Lots of everything but friendly fighter
cover. We were doing ok until about 100 miles from the target. We lost our
#1 engine to enemy fire and we had to jettison our load. At least we hit
German land if nothing else. We stayed with the formation over the target
trying to help keep fighters off others in the group. It wasn't a noble
thought, just it was safer for us as well. We did our share either way. We
will be posting a huge kill tally on our bird after they spend a lot of time
patching her up. My bombardier took a severe leg wound and will be going
home, lucky bastard. My navigator unfortunately was not so lucky and we will
be shipping him home in pieces. 162 damage points sustained.
|
Target for Today...
