The Buzz

Sept. 7^th, 1946

We came in hot and heavy flying at tree top level. I don't think they even looked up until the first few explosions started to register in their uncomprehending brains. I can't say that I would have reacted any differently. Mosquito engines at full throttle, guns firing, rockets launching then the explosions. Oh what explosions. We must have hit something big.

Believe it or not I thought I caught a glimpse of an owl surrounded by explosions and chaos dodging and weaving his way through the noise and bright flashes that were once Soviet Tu2 medium bombers. I lost sight of him almost right away but I'm pretty sure it was an owl just like we use to have out in the old barn. Great creatures for keeping the mouse population in check. I bet he was surprised by all the mayhem around him.

As I climbed to gain a little altitude some tracers flashed by but not from the ground. At first I thought it was friendly fire but then I saw the Tu2's rear gunner plugging away at us from way too far away. I guess he was pretty upset at what we had done to his buddies and was trying to take some revenge. I hit the right rudder and the nose came around and when lead was right I squeezed the trigger and was blinded by the flash. Even with those suppressors it still can be pretty bright in the pitch black of the night.

Basically my 2 second burst cut the bomber in half. The tail gunner was still firing as he plunged out of sight. I guess he was so pissed or scared that he just couldn't think of anything else to do even as he spiraled through the air separated from the rest of the aircraft. It didn't take him long to hit the ground. Not much of an explosion because there was not much fuel in the back end. The front half made quite a dent and lit up nicely.

Against the Skippers expressed orders Wilkins in Number 4 went back for seconds. This time some gunner with a 35mm `was ready for him or just got in a lucky shot. I caught a glimpse of him going down as the radar picked up a blip about 2 km to our south. I notified the Old Man and he sent out Reynolds and Hardt in numbers 5 and 6 to track it down. Minutes later the sky was lit up by a ball of flame that seconds ago was a perfectly good Tu2.

What I want to know is why the Reds were messing around at night with the landing field lights on? It was obvious that they were not night fighters but just regular schlub bombers. What the hell were they taking off for a full three hours before dawn? I sure hope the Skipper remember to tell someone about this. It certainly made it easy for us but why would they do that?

The end results are we lost one and pretty much wiped out that whole squadron an accompanying support personnel. Not much will be taking off from that field for a while. I would say it's a resounding success.

Hopefully HQ with authorize more of these raids. I mean if Ivan is going to keep the lights on for us it would be rude of us to not drop in. Leaving the porch lights on is always an invitation in times of war.