Amerika Bomber - He 277

 More missions in alt-history 1947 with 'Amerika Bomber'. Unaccountably I seem to have failed to report our previous adventures in the Fw 300 on the blog. Regular readers may recall our first foray ended in our plane being shot down in flames over the US and our entire crew captured. We put together another crew and flew five missions in the Fw 300, then for this run, the survivors were assigned the He 277 and all awarded the EK2 for surviving five missions. By now I was an Ace gunner and John A was an Ace pilot

Now, who doesn't remember the venerable Airfix kit of the He 177, a four engined bomber with only two propellors. What a typically strange Germanic design. I had one of these and made a diorama of it crashed in the UK with converted Airfix WW1 infantry standing in as MPs rounding up the crew which my Dad claimed were a pretty good match.

Well, the He 277 is an upgraded version of the 177. Still four engines but now it has the correct number of propellers. A large bombload but sadly only four turrets, unlike the six of the Fw 300. As usual, this is a typical bomber management game, fly missions and deal with various events on the  way in and way out, tracking systems damage on the various boxes.

Encounters with fighters are resolved on the attack chart, with various directions and altitudes (the two yellow ones are vertical - climb and dive respectively).

During May - June 1947 we flew four sorties from the Azores against mainland USA in the He 277.

Target 1: Union Carbide, South Charleston

Intercepted by a total of 8 x Fighters (4 shot down) and encountered heavy Flak over the target. Missed the target completely and the plane was shot to bits with only a couple of airframe hits left, but we made it back safely. The plane landed OK but was written off for parts.

Target 2: Westinghouse Electric, Pennsylvania

Astonishingly we evaded all enemy fighters on the way in and out again, with only light Flak over the target.  20% of bombs on target and back home safely and undamaged. A good mission.

Target 3: Heinz Foods (!), Pennsylvania

Intercepted by a total of 12 x fighters of which we shot down 4. Moderate Flak over the target but only10% on target. The plane was pretty shot up by fighters and Flak, Heinz in the ventral turret was killed.

The damaged plane made a rough landing and all the surviving crew were wounded. So we got wound badges to go with our EKs and the plane was patched up. Could have gone better!

Target 4: Merck, New Jersey

At least we didn't have to fly quite as far this time, but the plane suffered a complete electronics failure on approach to the target. Apparently losing electronics was helpful as a mighty 50% of bombs were on target but we were shot to pieces by Flak as we'd lost our AA jammer. We were bounced by two fighters when almost back at base and barely made it back with just one airframe hit left.

The plane crash landed and was written off, the entire crew suffered wounds of varying severity but no-one was killed.

We left it there as there wasn't quite time to do another mission. The next will be the crews tenth and if we survive that we will all get the EK1. At some point some more modern aircraft will become available. We are a long way off getting a Horten yet though. I did eventually find the aircraft file for the Fw 300 from the previous game:

What a magnificent beast it is. Essentially an upgraded Fw 200 Condor and boasting no less than six turrets, although it only has about half the bombload of the He 277.

I don't seem to have made any mission notes during the game, although I did find a tally of enemy fighters I  shot down, no less than seven, hence my 'Ace Gunner' status which gives a bonus in air gunnery.