Took off in a Wellington in a group With Charlie Chap and Prof and 2x AI on our way to Brest.
In the previous mission Charlie had spotted a flottilja there.
After 15 minutes our escort closed in: CountZero, Petr, RiP, Keben and Biggles in their Spitfires. They came from Bodmin and had no trouble finding us.
Thanks to Radar, that was very helpful.
We could see them trailing @8 km, it was a reassuring feeling. We really felt protected in our Wellingtons.
About halfway our escort encountered a group of Me109F2/F4's, 6 in total. Pilots were chasing and shooting, one enemy was killed, an F4 Ace Pilot.
CountZero was credited, good job!
After 5 minutes our escort broke off to contact the Wellingtons again.
A few miles from Brest they were protecting us again.
But by then all hell broke loose!
Flak so thick..seldom seen it like that in IL2..One AI Wellington got his right aileron shot off..got out of control..thought he was going down but the pilot regained control and
that Wellington was on course again! Just like in the movies.
But ALL Wellingtons were hit in one or another way. And we still were not over target..
Over Brest we prepared for the bombrun. We went in all together.. I was perfectly lined up with 2 torpedo boats..3 seconds before bombdrop..2 seconds..
The moment I was about to release the boms a shell exploded in my cockpit..KABOUUM!
..dead as a doornail! That was it.
The nice thing in IL2 is you hang in the air like a floating camera.. I could see the other Wellingtons. They were not doing better than me. They all got hit. One by a direct shell, another just desintegrated. None of us released bombs, no ship was hit.
We learned our lesson. We will NOT do this in daylight anymore. During night the ships will not fire at you while the visiblity you have is not bad at all.
We come back at night. We will.
On a positive note: our escort flight came back unharmed. Well done chaps!
Next mission: dec 28, 2100h
Who =FI= will be there?
