"and they shall reap the whirlwind"

[nelmsm]

Mission 4 - Stettin Part 2

  We get the Patricia Ann II turned and headed for home but the searchlights pick us up again and we all brace for the flak we know is coming but the Gods must be watching out for us as everything misses.  Give a sigh of relief at that when all of a sudden tracers are flying by and can feel the plane shuddering from the hits.  Someone yells out that it was a Ju88 coming in from 3 o'clock low.  Ventral gunner couldn't spot him in time.  Tail took 3 hits and the O2 is out back there but I had moved the W/T Gunner to the ventral position where he could plug in his heated suit and we can stay up high.  Port wing took 3 more wing root hits and only has one left before it rips off.  Ju88 comes back around and attacks from 6 o'clock level where there is no one to shoot at him.  Plane shudders again from the hits but is still flying when I hear the Flight Engineer yell out that the starboard wing was on fire from a hit to the inboard fuel tank there.  No way to put it out so I order the crew to bail out, damn the luck any how (another snake eyes rolled on damage).  I hold until everyone is out and then hit the silk myself.  Hoping I come down near some AA site rather then somebody's garden that I just bombed.  Sure enough I come down close to one of the site's and the Jerries are waiting for me to land.  Was taken to a barracks where I saw everyone but the Flight Engineer had been gathered up as well.  Months later when we finally got mail again there was a letter from my Flight Engineer from merry ol' England.  Apparently he had managed to find one of the few resistance cells in Germany when he came down and they managed to sneak him back to England via rather complicated and long route.

So ends my Target for Tonight campaign.  I keep thinking that I had bad luck rolling as many snake eyes as I did on damage tables and how many bad rolls I had on spotting attacking fighters and being unable to shoot at them.  But looking back at the logs we had managed to shoot down 3 fighters on this last mission and I did get a fair share of Superficial damage rolls as well.  Had fun with this and wish I had gotten further along but I was probably destined for doom given how the RAF Bomber Command faired in early 1943.  Hope you enjoyed the story.

[JasonPratt]

I somehow completely missed seeing "using Target for Tonight" in the first post! 

The campaign reminded me of how fortunate my grand-uncle John was, to pilot a full B-17 campaign without serious loss (though he rarely liked to talk about it).

[W8taminute]

Very good story, too bad you just couldn't get a good long run going.  Thanks for this AAR!

[bobarossa]

Enjoyed the AAR!  I'm surprised by the sheer number of interceptions.  Did you forget to turn your landing lights off?

[nelmsm]

I had bad die rolls for bomber stream placement and ended up in the last 1/3 for every mission.  Gave the Germans a favorable die roll modifier for the radars, searchlights, and fighter intercepts.  No surprise at all when you are in the last 1/3 of those streams.

[W8taminute]

I had bad die rolls for bomber stream placement and ended up in the last 1/3 for every mission.  Gave the Germans a favorable die roll modifier for the radars, searchlights, and fighter intercepts.  No surprise at all when you are in the last 1/3 of those streams.

Oh I see, yeah that makes sense.  In this case it would not be right to force re-roll in rage until you get the desired result because the modifiers are setup fairly and squarely given the position in the formation.