B-17 Flying Fortress 2: The Mighty Eighth

Once the plane is started, I release the brake and taxi the plane to the far end of the airfield, passing all the other seventeens that will be on this mission with us. Here we sit, at the end of the airfield waiting for clearance. I lock the tail wheel in place and perform the remaining preflight tasks. "Cleared for takeoff!" a voice booms through the intercom.

Throttling up, the aircraft lingers forward, her metal frame shaking with each surge in power. At about a hundred miles an hour I gently pull back on the yoke, the plane hesitates, but lifts away from the safety of the airbase. The copilot swings the gear lever up and the landing gear are pulled into the wings. Aimee's Pride is on her way!

At 0836 hours we are now cruising in formation at an altitude of 14,980 feet above the earth. I decide to check the crew stations; all is well. At 0905 we pass the Dutch coast, England seems so far away now. At 1018 we are now making our turn for the German coastline; flak batteries start spewing up smoke. The navigator announces the new course heading and also says we are over German territory. The flak looks so harmless at our current distance I think to myself. As we get closer the sound goes from a light puff sound to BOOM! Metal shards tear through the formation as each flak pocket bursts. But we make it through.

At 1026 hours the navigator announces that we are now making the turn for the bomb run. At 1027 the left waist gunner announces "BANDITS 7 o'clock low!" Two BF-109's scream into the formation, their guns blazing. On the seventeen just to the right and below us her right most engines erupts in smoke. The tail gunner lines up on the 109 that attacked the other ship and fires off a few rounds as the 109 peels away. The 109's engine cowling explodes in fire and smoke as it drops from the sky. "Somebody want to confirm that?" the copilot announces. Just as the remaining flight of 109's peel away, flak fires up towards our formation.

At 1033 the bombardier stares through the Norden Bombsite, trying to put aside what is happening outside the plane. With almost total cloud cover, the crewman must make a decision. Ask the pilot for a go around or try and get it right the first time. He takes the latter of the two and tries to paint a picture in the small scope. "Remember the recon film, town and then refinery." He says to himself. Then like a gift from God there is a small open patch through the clouds (a scene reminiscent of the movie Memphis Belle.) The Bombardier brings the lever on the site to line up with the other and the bombs are released. As the bombardier announces "Bombs away, pilot you have the plane!" another voice booms out from the rear of the plane "BANDITS, 6 o'clock level!"

The tail-gunner watches the FW190's level off and start the rain of deadly incendiary bullets. Aimee's Pride is ripped open. "Fire on the flight deck!" Announces the copilot. The radioman rushes to put out the fire. Tail-gunner lines up on the 190 and sprays bullets in its general direction. The 190 explodes, as fire rips through its pilots compartment and the rest of the plane. The remaining 190's flee or have been taken out by the escorts or the other seventeens. As the fire is put out on the flight deck, it is realized that the bomb bay doors are stuck open and the number four engine is smoking again. The time is now 1049, and another flak battery opens up the formation. One 17 is hit and her crew jumps to safety, however I only saw three parachutes.

At 1051 I order the formation to increase altitude another 1000 feet. We pull away from the flak barrage. The first cries for help come. In this last attack my copilot, bombardier and tail-gunner are all injured. I assign the left and right waist-gunners to initiate first aide on the injured crew. 1219 hours we have left German airspace and are now trying to get the plane in landing order, however England is not in sight yet. The ball-turret gunner goes to the bomb bay and lifts the doors manually, while the other able crewman tend to the injured crewmembers.

1231 we can make out the English coastline and at 1251 were back in jolly old England. The plane performs well even though it's damaged; there is a visible hole in the wing, a hole in the tail-gunner's compartment as well as the vertical stabilizer. 1305 we could make out our airstrip, and we had priority on this day to land because of our wounded. At 1318 the plane touched down and we made it home.

Upon our debriefing we found that we had made a near miss on the target (Don't let the computer do the bombing runs!). Four of my crew were hospitalized and placed on medical leave. Upon further inspection of the plane it was a pure miracle that we made it back.

End.

I wanted to draw you into the story of the simulation and I hope this did. Now into the technical aspects of the program.

At the main screen you will have the option of choosing a New Game, Options, Load Game and you also have the choice to replay the Introduction Movie. Once into the New Game section you can pick Historical Campaign, or Squadron Campaign, or Quick Start Mission, or Training Mission, and finally a Historical Mission. I would definitely suggest starting with the tutorial in the manual. Actually read the manual! My first mission was a disaster and I was totally discouraged with the program, but after I read the tutorial it made things a little clearer. I decided that I would be an observer the first couple of missions that I ran, I simply selected a historical mission and played it until I was comfortable with operating the 17. I found that the quick start missions are just a small set of missions and don't allow you to make a mission like that of Combat Flight Simulator 2. Even though I have yet to try it, the squadron campaign shows a lot of promise.

As for adjusting the detail levels in the program I found it to be dependant on the computer. Don't adjust them until after your first mission so that you can get an idea on how the program runs. Be sure to install the A3D drivers provided with the program. I skipped over them thinking it was the install for Direct X. When I got into the program the sound was terrible. But luckily due to a hard drive problem I had to move the program to a different drive and I soon realized my mistake.

Flight Dynamics:

B-17: Excellent, it acts almost as real as the real thing. This is where the program shines. It truly represents the B-17 Flying Fortress.

Fighters: Okay, the fighters don't have the stability that the fighters have in Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator.

Aircraft Representation:

B-17: Very well done, the cockpit is a little weird looking at first, but when compared to the real thing it's pretty close. Don't expect a cockpit like those in Flight Simulator; it's actually more of a virtual cockpit. Gauges are simple for that era. Interiors are fully represented with each station of the aircraft. My only complaint was that they were not rendered very well. Remember that each station has about 3 different views in both action and instrument views.

Fighters: Well done, makes dog fighting easier, no switching between static cockpit to virtual view.

Damage Model:

Planes: Excellent, holes appear in the wings of the aircraft and on up through the fuselage. Each interior view is also affected by the damage to the aircraft; bullet holes and flak damage litter the walls of the interior shots. I have not spent a lot of time with the fighters so I really can't say much about the damage effects there, but viewing them from the 17 is pretty impressive. The fire effects are also very good.

Scenery: