B-29 Superfortress: Bombers Over Japan, 1944-1945 (Mission Logs)

[JasonPratt]

So too could the B-29 herself, as she was still relatively new and full of bugs. Keeping her in the air would be an 11-man job, and even then, who knows.

THE CO-PILOT IS ORDERING THE WAIST GUNNERS TO FLAP THE WINGS HARDER WITH HIS MIND!!  :D

[JasonPratt]

Yep! All images you see are Photoshopped. I just grabbed a variety of pics from different bomber positions as best I could and took out the view from the window and replaced it with other bits to illustrate the narrative. The cockpit was a pain, to remove each and every pane of glass, but ultimately I thought it would look cool so it was a labor of love.

Ouch! But where did the position pix come from? They look like a sim.

[BanzaiCat]

Not sure what you mean by 'position pics' - you mean the map of Japan? I created that from an image someone uploaded to the BGG site for the game.

[JasonPratt]

No, I meant positions inside the plane.

[BanzaiCat]

Oh, hell. Duh.  :-[

LOL

I forgot I said that. Anyway, yeah, I found a plethora of resources online. Not the best in some cases. Thing about the B-29 and her waist gunners...they remote-controlled the guns from their cupolas. The tail gunner has a rather dramatic view, but that's about it. Couldn't get decent CFC pics unfortunately. I figured I'd get some placeholder images to use anytime their positions or part of the plane have trouble. IF, that is. ;)

[GJK]

So too could the B-29 herself, as she was still relatively new and full of bugs. Keeping her in the air would be an 11-man job, and even then, who knows.

THE CO-PILOT IS ORDERING THE WAIST GUNNERS TO FLAP THE WINGS HARDER WITH HIS MIND!!  :D

I'm flapping, I'm flapping...but I want to shoot something!! GJK to Cap'n Cat...is it ok if I test my gun? Over.

[BanzaiCat]

After getting back from Nagoya, we felt like veterans. But we'd learned very, very little as to what was really waiting for us out there. We'd only had a taste of how vicious Pacific weather can be, and had only seen Japanese fighters far off in the distance. Truthfully, our first mission was a long-distance milk run and, as we found out afterwards, a waste as not one bomb fell on target.

This time, our target would be a teeny bit larger.



When the mission was revealed, we were instructed to "hit the urban area." Given that Kobe is a city of one million souls, that shouldn't be too difficult. As soon as I had that thought, I tried to push it to at least arm's length. Thinking like that would be bad luck.

Even better, a grim-faced Intelligence officer briefed us that the Japs were starting to take notice of our bomber raids, and would likely step up their fighter resistance.

Indeed,  I rolled 'Heavy' for Japanese Fighter Resistance. Oh – and despite this, once again we'd have no 'little friends' to escort us. I was willing to bet our gunners would have a chance during this mission to fire their weapons, finally...

The weather wasn't good this morning, with some squalls coming in and dumping rain everywhere. The meteorologists had told us the rain wouldn't last and it wouldn't get too bad. We covered up as best we could, because nobody wanted to get onto an airplane that would head up close to 30,000 feet and have a wet uniform.

When we got back to Miss Punctuality to brief the gunners, there was a brief lull in the rain though the low-hanging clouds stuck like glue to our flat island. I saw that our Crew Chief had painted a bomb on the side to indicate our successful completion of our first mission. He must have done it during the night, when it was still dry outside.



It looked nice, but it was an empty mark as far as I was concerned.

The Crew Chief saw me staring at it and said, "A mission is a mission, sir."

I nodded...couldn't argue with that.

We briefed the gunners on our target. They had a mix of fear and eagerness in their eyes now, unlike the last mission, where it was more eagerness. One 'good' mission and we'll see. Hopefully we don't get hit with the sh*t too fast, but there's no better way to tell how good your crew is except during a disaster. Not to mention, how well I could fly the plane or make the right decisions to ensure they all came home. I'd still be worrying about that, God willing, when we reach Mission 35.

For now, we had a Jap city to bomb.

The engines started with no problem as our ground crew stood by with fire extinguishers. M/SGT Barthheart got the engines purring again, and we taxied into position like last time. It was daylight, a few hours into it, which meant we'd be landing at night. I was not looking forward to that, but had been assured the fields would be lit like Christmas trees and would be covered by dozens of night fighters. That made me feel a bit better, but not much.



When it came our turn to take off, I took a deep breath, nodded to 1LT JasonPratt in the co-pilot's seat, and we slowly pushed the throttles to their stops. The engines strained in their mounts, trying to pull the heavyweight B-29 along with them, and our fully-loaded plane started to roll down the runway. Like our first mission, we had two auxiliary tanks in the bomb bays as there was no way we were going to reach Kobe without them.

The weight, the bombs, the tons of fuel...it was a lot to push down a runway and take off with, so I held my breath as we got to the 'no return' point and we both pulled back on the stick...

Miss Punctuality's nose came up obediently, though sluggishly, as she was wont to do weighed down like this. She pushed against the thin air, engines working mightily. If a bad thing was going to happen during this mission, this was the first chance it had to make an appearance.



...fortunately, she obliged and we got into the air. We went through the checklist, and 2LT Mirth called out our bearing to the rendezvous, some distance away. We pulled Miss Punctuality through the low-hanging clouds, and headed off to meet the rest of the mission group.

Initially, our navigation was not a problem. The weather stayed poor and the clouds didn't seem to have a ceiling. Meteorology must be the easiest job on the planet, I thought. If you got it right, you did great. If not, people shrugged and thought 'well, they'll get it next time.' We couldn't get away with that in our jobs. If we didn't get it right, anything could happen, most of it bad.

As we moved on, the weather continued to be poor, and we lost our way. 2LT Mirth called out that he'd given us a slighting incorrect heading. A miniscule error could result in hundreds of miles' worth of course correction and lots of fuel burned for nothing. We were all new at this, and if he was going to screw something up, better it get caught now than in the middle of the Pacific. Besides...it wasn't just him. We'd stayed on course in the previous zone even though I totally screwed up myself.

As I mentioned in the previous mission, navigation checks are required in Zones 1, 2, and 3. We made it through Zone 1 with no problem despite me blowing the Pilotage roll. Zone 2, though, the only thing we got right was SGT bob48's radio signal location. We still managed to get lost in Zone 2. We had to hope we'd get a better result in Zone 3 to not only stay on course and find our mission formation, but also to not burn extra fuel. I was worried about our fuel load since Kobe is a bit further than Nagoya was.



When we got to the rendezvous zone, the weather got worse. Storms greeted us and rain lashed the canopy. I'd pulled us up to HI altitude as this was the altitude required for the mission.

In preparing for this mission, I realized I screwed something else up in Mission 1 –specifically that Missions 1-10 are flown at HI altitude. We flew it at MED altitude. The modifiers for navigation, bombing, and fighter attacks are different at HI altitude than MED.

Also, being off course and then hitting 'Bad' weather in Zone 3, where we're supposed to, on top of everything else, form up with the other bombers, is NOT good.

"Great," I muttered. Then I keyed the intercom to all crew: "Everyone, be prepared to sh*t your pants if Mother Nature hits us with another lightning bolt."

The storm was getting worse, and the winds were headed right at our nose, so we burned even more fuel.

From Zone 2 to Zone 3, we climbed from MED to HI altitude. Moving one Zone with a full bomb load costs 2 Fuel. Climbing in altitude costs 2 Fuel. The storm made us use up yet another fuel. So, 5 fuel gone in one zone. I was worrying even more now about getting back home.

Despite the fuel burning, we not only managed to get back on course (no thanks to me as I blew the Pilotage roll yet again), we also found the formation. However, the storm meant we'd be disrupted for the duration of the mission, which meant a +1 to all Fighter Resistance rolls.

And I never should have mentioned lightning strikes, because...

BOOM



DAMMIT, ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS AGAIN?
We flew right through the storm clouds, praying we would not hit another bomber in this soup; we had little choice but to do so, to hope we were on course. The randomness of lighting striking near your plane, much less ON the plane, two missions in a row?

This time, the damn lightning actually hit us. It felt like we had received a hammer blow from below, and the plane lurched up as if kicked by a giant.

We reacted immediately, trying to keep Miss Punctuality's fat ass under control. The instrument panels sparked again, but the lights remained lit and they looked functional. I glanced over to M/SGT Barthheart at the Flight Engineer station, and he gave a thumbs-up...his controls were good, too.

However, I noticed the landing gear was inoperable thanks to the strike. We investigated once we confirmed we had the plane under control, and sure enough, their controls were fried. If we wanted to lower the gear (which is a good thing when one wants to land), we'd have to do it manually from the bomb bay. So some lucky soul was going to get to go in there and try to lower it manually.

In game terms, this is not good. We'd be able to try to lower the gear with one attempt per Zone. Once down, they drag the plane severely, meaning we'd be spending TWO turns in each Zone...essentially, burning double the fuel on the way home, as if carrying bombs (2 Fuel per Zone). So, obviously, our best bet was to wait until we got close to Home Base. If we did it too soon, we'd use up extra fuel that we don't have. Then again if we wait too long and I blow the roll, we'd be circling until we run out of fuel. And it's no foregone easy thing to manually lower gear – it's a roll of 1-2 on a d6. The mission was JUST starting out, and we already had this hanging over our heads.

There were actually two hits to our wings – that first nailed the landing gear controls, and the second one, fortunately, only caused superficial scorching.

Shaken, and with one more thing to worry about now (and worse, something tangible), we proceeded to the next zone. The weather cleared up finally, though the formation was still a bit scattered. We didn't have the fuel to wait around, so we'd have to go in as is.



The weather held up all the way to Iwo Jima, where we had a welcoming committee.

Flying Warrant Officer (飛行兵曹長) W8taminute-san felt excitement; they had fuel, and yet another B-29 raid was heading right over their heads. They were cleared to attack!



His formation was small, as American carrier raids had been felt tremendously. There were a dozen of them taking off to attack more than a hundred American bombers. However, their formation was not nearly as tight as he saw the last time. Flushed with both excitement and the duty he felt to his Emperor, he pushed the Oscar's throttles and launched himself at the bomber stream.

The Ki-43 was a dominating aircraft early in the War, much like it's nimble Zero cousin. Unfortunately, like its cousin, it would break apart with a few good hits. The idea was to stay nimble and hit hard. These B-29s were fast and there'd only be one pass at this...

He flew into the formation, seeking a target in its heart. Shooting down a B-29 on the fringe would be a victory, but shooting one down in the midst of the Americans would be a GREAT victory. Besides the loss, the Americans would see their brethren crashing to the ocean far below in flames, hopefully demoralizing them!



Several B-29s took shots at him as he raced in between the planes; his brother pilots had  taken off on individual hunts, all semblance of formation gone. It mattered little. FWO W8taminute-san dodged one B-29 by flying under it and saw another one a short distance away, this one with a scantily-clad woman sitting provocatively on a bomb adorning its nose. He grinned as he chose that one to attack.

The glint of the sun off of the Oscar's wings was the first indication of attack. Both SSGT Jarhead and SGT GJK, the CFC and Right Gunner, respectively, called out the target at 3:00 low, headed right for Miss Punctuality. Heads turned to get a look at the Oscar – at least, those that could see out of the starboard side of the aircraft.

SSGT Jarhead turned in his seat and took control of the lower rear turret; SGT GJK took control of the lower front turret. Both excitedly turned them to face their attacker. Both called out what they were doing, and the turrets erupted in flame. The monster .50 caliber twin machineguns in each turret thumped loudly, and everyone aboard Miss Punctuality could feel her shudder in response.

FWO W8taminute-san hunched over his Oscar's controls as he brought the B-29 into his sights. It was above him, so only half of the bomber's weaponry would come to bear. Just as he thought that, he saw the telltale winking of the bomber's two lower turrets, telling a staccato story of hot lead slung at him at incredible speeds. He held his breath...



Both gunners missed. Whether it was excitement or nervousness...regardless, it's not easy to hit a Japanese fighter, much less one as nimble as an Oscar.

SGT GJK yelled out a warning as both turrets continued to pour fire after the Oscar, but it was obvious they were not going to hit it. The Oscar erupted in flame as it fired on us...

NEXT: MISSION 2, PART 2

[BanzaiCat]

MISSION 2, PART 2

The angle of attack wasn't quite right, and his Oscar's fire arced short of the bomber. The closer he got, the more off his fire was. Cursing, he dived under the B-29, seeking out another target.

Breathing a sigh of relief – especially both GJK and Jarhead, since they had front-row seats to the whole spectacle – we left Iwo Jima behind. We'd already had enough excitement to last us the rest of the Mission, and we weren't even halfway there yet.

As we approached Japan, Zones 7 through 9 were all Good weather zones, giving us a bit of a break. But as we entered Zone 10, Japanese fighter coverage would get thick. Knowing resistance would be heavy, we braced ourselves for action. The target zone is Zone 12, so we could possibly be attacked three times before we had a chance to drop our bombs on Kobe.

By the way...once we entered Zone 10, counting the fuel in the Auxiliary tanks, we were at 1/2 fuel load. Not even to the target yet...this should be interesting.

As we neared the city, no Japanese fighters came up to attack us. We were thinking Intelligence was another job like Meteorology, where people said "meh" if they didn't quite get it right. In this case, we didn't mind. Kobe came into sight, though, and things changed a bit.

For one, we had a super-clear view of the city.



Which meant enemy flak would have a good chance of pounding us.

While we worried about that, SGT GJK shouted a warning – an Oscar was coming right at us from the 3:00 low position, as if that was the only direction they could come from. Both he and S/SGT Jarhead swung the turrets they controlled over Iwo, and depressed the firing switches. Miss Punctuality shuddered a bit as both twin gun setups spoke, hurling fiery lances at our attacker. But, like over Iwo, both turrets missed. They cursed loudly, and we braced ourselves for its attack run.

The Oscar's cowling blazed as if on fire, shooting at us, but its shots went wide and it lanced under us like a roach under a spotlight. Then, it was gone.

Before we could catch our breath from that one, puffs appeared almost immediately. Our brains barely registered it as flak before we felt three hits in rapid succession – BAM-BAM-BAM – causing Miss Punctuality to lurch up a bit with each hit, like a prizefighter getting slammed. Any flak that could make this heavy plane move in mid-air was something to be feared.

The first hit exploded a dozen feet from our bomb bay doors, which put some small holes in it but otherwise it had no effect.

The second hit, however, nailed the bomb bay door's controls. This froze them in place.

The bombardier, 1LT Nefaro, called out in frustration. "Bomb bay doors won't open!"

I saw the indicator lights were out, saw his arm moving as he kept trying to flip the switch. This was NOT good.

In game terms, this is VERY bad indeed. If we can't drop our bombs, we have to turn around and head home – with a full bomb load. Meaning 2 Fuel per Zone. Meaning we'd have to ditch in the ocean somewhere near Iwo Jima once we ran out of gas. Not to mention if a Jap fighter or flak hit us in the bomb bay, it could mean sayonara as we disintegrate in mid-air. Needless to say, I figured this was lights out for us!

I had once chance – to try the controls myself from one of my panels at the Pilot's station. I said a quick prayer, and jiggled the switch. The light didn't come on. A heartbeat or two passed. The light came on and we felt the bomb bay doors open, the rumbling moving through the plane. We felt a rush of relief flood us.

However, S/SGT Jarhead called out: "Lower aft turret is out. It took a shell."

SGT Shelldrake, our left gunner, came on next: "What are we going to do? Can we fix it?"

Jarhead answered: "Nope, it's a wreck. We'll just have to hope no Japs come at us from that direction."

The bomb bay doors open, though, was the biggest thing now. I just wanted us to get through this bomb run without anything bad happening...and 1LT Nefaro called out he had control of the plane. More flak bursts exploded around us, and my anxiety hit the roof as I had no control until he released the bombs. Seconds seemed to stretch into an eternity until, finally, Miss Punctuality jumped up like a bucking mare as the bombs fell.



We saw that the bombs were more or less falling on target, but we had other worries. The formation turned to return home, and more flak came up at us. Nothing hit is, thank goodness, and our nose was now pointed to home.

That did it for the Japanese fighter defense, though. Swarms swept up against us, like angry bees protecting their queen. None of them picked us out, though, and we stayed more or less in our shaky formation as we slowly left Japanese ground behind and headed back out to sea. By the time we reached Zone 10, Japanese fighter resistance in that Zone became 'light,' and no fighters came up to take us on then, either.

Cue another sigh of relief.

Heading to Iwo, we were met with Good weather in each Zone we traveled through. But our fuel level was dropping fast. As long as nothing bad happened to us (knock, knock, knock...) we might have two boxes of Fuel left when we get to Home Base.

We flew over Iwo, but apparently they didn't want to come up to play this time. I wondered if we gave them a licking or not – we'd have to wait and hear the scoop from the other crews and from the mission report to see for sure. Until then, we focused on our instruments and kept an eye out for storms or gremlins or anything else that might want to bring us down.

The weather got 'Poor' once we entered Zone 5, just past Iwo on the way home, but this time the headwinds that gave us such a problem heading out were now pushing us from the tail. Fortunately, we gained a Fuel box, giving us a bit more padding.

Zone 4 was no different – Poor weather again, and again we get lucky as I rolled an extra Fuel box. The tail winds remained strong, as if guiding us home.

However, we still had the landing gear to worry about.

Once we entered Zone 2, I dropped us to MED altitude. I wasn't about to let a crewman get into an unpressurized bomb bay at 26,000 feet! This way they'd be able to work without a possibility of losing digits to frostbite.

It didn't matter who did it, but it made more sense to depressurize the rear compartment and let one of them try instead of depressurizing the pilot's compartment. Just in case.

S/SGT Jarhead volunteered, so after the chamber was depressurized he crawled into the noisy bomb bay, hooked up the portable generator, and worked the controls to try to bring the gear down.

It didn't work.

We moved into Zone 1 and I crossed off another Fuel box – we had five left. If I blew the roll again for the landing gear, we might be doing some circling around Tinian. Jarhead tried yet again, and unfortunately again, the gear refused to come down.

By now, Tinian was in sight, and our gear wasn't. We radioed ahead. At least, if we had to ditch or crash-land, we'd be rescued most likely – better than taking chances in Japan or Iwo or close by either. When we entered the Home Base zone, I rolled again...



...and the gear came down.

Even though it was night, we managed to put Miss Punctuality down cleanly, and rolled up to our part of the air base. The Crew Chief would be mad that we'd put holes in 'his baby,' but that would be his covering for being glad to see us again.

FINAL MISSION REPORT
30% of our bombs hit the target, which is an 'Excellent' rating. (30% and higher is Excellent, actually, so we just made it.) This counts as a Victory, and after the Draw in the last mission, this is welcome news indeed.

Also that we made it home in more or less one piece. The Crew Chief and his mechanics could patch the holes, repair the bomb bay doors and the rear lower turret. We had 33 more of these to go. I hope this was the worst we'd see, but I wasn't that naïve to think that was true.

NEXT: MISSION 3

[undercovergeek]

wooohooooo - awesome

great write up, and goddam if those radars didnt do a perfect job again!

[Barthheart]

Excellent!  O0

Off to the PX to buy Mirth a pocket compass and Jarhead and GJK BB guns fer target practice.  ;D

[Barthheart]

Oh and BC.... quit flying into lightening bolts!!!  >:(

[JasonPratt]

Oh and BC.... quit flying into lightening bolts!!!  >:(

It isn't his fault; I keep summoning those to keep me us awake and to relieve my our tedium so that y'all I will have something to do.

My aim is getting better!!

Soon, I shall have a way of shooting at our opponents when they attack us. Like Thor. I can't hurl my chainsaw out the window, after all -- I may need it for crew morale repairs.

[mirth]

Great stuff BC!

[JasonPratt]

(When I say "relieve my tedium" I don't mean reading the AARs which are great.  O:-) That's just a running joke about the copilot being of no real use in the game mechanics.)

[Staggerwing]

You could bring us coffee...  ;)

I need to get a rear-view mirror for my end of the plane so I can see where we're going next time, not just where we've been.  :))