Roscoe's last ramble

I recently needed to change my SSD drive as my previous one was running out of space. I also took the opportunity to install a new Nvidia graphics card and so I just wanted to brag about my +150 fps (limited to 35) with a little trip out in Virtavia’s exceptional B29, repainted by Matt Levi. Enjoy.

August 14^th, 1945. ‘Mornin’ y’awl, Captain Hayes of the USAAF here, commander of B29A ‘Ramblin’ Roscoe’. Me and my crew from the 882nd Bombardment Squadron have been based out here at Isley Field on Saipan for a couple of months now, part of the 500^th Bombardment Group tasked with daylight bombing raids on the enemy mainland. Our flying days begin early: briefing at 04:00 then out to the aircraft for pre-start checks. First taxi today will be at 05:30, just as the sun comes up. If the weather is nice we should see a nice sunrise.

The order to start engines comes in and we all head towards the runway. Today we will be flying with 871 Squadron of the 497^th Bombardment Group, around 20 aircraft in total, assuming we all get off the ground. These Wright 3350 radials have a reputation for overheating and are only averaging about 75 hours on wing between overhauls. This means we all have to do a lot of flying to keep the pressure on the enemy but there is a job to be done and anyway, what else is there to do here on Saipan?

We take our turn in line, number 14 for take-off. 20 aircraft with 20,000 lbs of high explosive and incendiaries on board - that is a lot of firepower heading the enemy’s way and I don’t mind admitting that I sorta feel sorry for them. I sure wish we could get this war over quickly.

Isley’s twin runways allow for a lot of aircraft to get airborne quickly and we are soon climbing out and tucking our wheels up.

As we pass over Tinian we look down on the airfield there. We have heard a lot of rumours recently about ‘special mission’ aircraft with no armament called ‘Silver Plated aircraft’, specially modified to carry some sort of wonder bomb. They have even built a special area in the north-east corner of the field, very heavily guarded. Sounds like a lot of bull dust to me but there are stories filtering through that the Tinian guys may have dropped a couple of these new bombs last week. But enough speculation, we have our job to do so we set the throttles for climb and start heading north.

25,000 feet and we formate with the rest of the fleet. 6 hours flying in front of us but no time to relax. We have not seen many enemy fighters on recent missions but that is no excuse to let our guard down.

Miles of empty ocean pass under our wings and we finally have the mainland in sight. Now is the time to deploy our most effective defensive strategy – altitude! Despite our massive concentrated firepower, 10 x 50 calibre Brownings per aircraft controlled by General Electric fire control radars (except for young Nathan down in the tail - he has to make do with his old-fashioned Mk1 Kentucky eyeball!), our best defense is height. We ease up to 32,000 feet, where no enemy fighter can reach us, and set course for the target.

Joe, our flight engineer, checks that everything is turning and burning as it should be …

… while bomb aimer Nick locks his bombsight in place and starts to adjust the bombing computer. Up ahead the snowy cap of the volcano acts as a guiding beacon, drawing us in to our target, a large airfield and industrial facility to the south east of the capital.

Suddenly the radio crackles into life: ’Pacific Command to all USAAF forces. The enemy has accepted terms for surrender. Hostilities are to cease forthwith. All aircraft are to abort their missions and return to base’. Holy mackerel! So maybe there was something in those stories of wonder bombs after all! We break off our bombing run and circle around the volcano before heading back out to sea.

We find a nice quiet corner of the ocean and jettison our bombs – Uncle Sam won’t be wanting these back. Normally after a hitting a target the crew gets quite excited but today we are all strangely quiet on the flight home, deep in our thoughts, relieved to have survived the war.

6 hours later and we are the first one’s back into the circuit. The tower clears us for a fly-by to celebrate what we hope was our last combat mission.

Our wheels kiss the steel mat runway and we slow to taxi speed. We can see everyone on the ground going crazy, we sure as hell are gonna have a party tonight to celebrate Roscoe’s last ramble!

Credits:B-29 – Virtavia; Ramblin’ Roscoe repaint – Mett Levi; Isley Field scenery – from Tom Stovall’s Marianas 1945 package, modified by myself using ADE to allow AI aircraft operation; AI aircraft – more Matt Levi repaints programmed into my own mission profile created using AI Flight Planner by Don Grovestine (that 20 aircraft formation was a real challenge ).

PS: The above text is a piece of fiction created for entertainment and education. In fact, the real ‘Ramblin Roscoe’, B-29 s/n 42-24664 was returning from a night raid on Tokyo on April 13th 1945 when it was attacked by Japanese fighters, sustaining damage to two of its engines and its landing gear. It crash-landed on Iwo Jima airfield, colliding with a truck, killing the two occupants. It also injured two other people sleeping in a tent on the airfield. That really was Roscoe’s last ramble.

http://albumwar2.com/boeing-b-29-ramblin-roscoe-bomber-after-the-crash-on-iwo-jima,

Thanks everyone for your comments, glad you enjoyed the post.

Sascha, as per my signature, I stuffed in an Nvidia 1060GTX ....