Sept. 7th, 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.
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