B17 2 Preview - By William "BBall" Ball - Page 2 of 3
"A bomber in another group, probably the 305th, had just
been hit by a rocket. The planes right wing folded upward: the fuselage
opened "like an eggshell", and a man with one arm torn away fell out
to begin hurtling earthward. For a moment, Peaslee could see the pilot,
still at the controls; then the entire plane burst into flames and dropped
out of sight below the left wing of Peaslee's plane." From Decision
Over Schweinfurt by Thomas M. Coffey
Once back in the hall, we take a hard left and are in the briefing room.
Here we are shown the target for the first time. We must page through
the Briefing File (and "sign" it when finished), noting all kinds of
useful information, i.e.; Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Targets, Ordnance
selected, distance to target, fighter info, flak info, etc. By clicking
on the blank movie screen on the wall, we can view a "recon" film of
the primary target (nice touch…looks to be done from within the sim itself….
black and white, flak bursts, etc). And lastly, we can view the "big
map" in detail by clicking on it. It takes a few seconds as it "draws"
itself in, but when done, it's actually quite detailed. You can zoom
in, zoom out, lay it almost flat (it you desire), obtain waypoint info,
view the Pri, Sec and Tertiary targets along with all sorts of other
target in that part of the world. Ok, enough paperwork, let's get to
the aircraft and go to work. Click on the "exit" doorway, and you're
there.
We're at the plane, now what? Once onboard, we find ourselves in the
cockpit "compartment view" (essentially there are six "compartments"…nose,
cockpit, bomb bay, radio room, waist, and tail), which is basically just
a view from behind the two pilots. Rather than walk you through all the
views, let me just say they are intuitive, easy to use (once you get
the hang of it), and really get the job done in a big way. But wait,
you can't start the mission until you've sent the radio message to "Begin
Mission". How on earth do we do that? You go to the radio room compartment,
and click on the radio operator (you can select him a number of different
ways). Once you're him, you select his "instrument view", click on his
file of "Outgoing Messages", hit the "M" key to toggle the A/I off, click
on the "Begin Mission" statement at the top of the page …and viola',
the next sound you hear will be the pilots starting the engines (you
can peek out his window and see the smoke belch from the number one and
two as they start…cool). You can of course, be in the cockpit during
all of this doing that "pilot thing" to start the engines, or you can
choose not to. If not, where are you going to sit for this takeoff? Are
you going to BE the pilot and fly this monster into the air, or be one
of the other crew members just along to "look out he window" until your
time comes? (My favorites have to be riding in the Bombardier or Tail
Gunner's stations during the takeoff.) It's right about here that you
start to see that "this aint your ordinary flight sim Cletus".
"The copilot in one of these planes, apparently dazed by
a shell explosion, climbed onto the right wing through a gaping hole
the shell had torn in the side of the fuselage. He was not wearing his
parachute. As if he were just now realizing this lack, he reached back
into the plane, but it was too late. The slip stream swept him off the
wing and dashed him against the tail. No one else emerged from the plane,
which nosed upward two hundred feet into a stall, then exploded into
thousands of scraps of metal and flesh." From Decision Over Schweinfurt
by Thomas M. Coffey
All right, we're airborne and circling the field doing the "join formation"
dance, what now? Well, the boys in the cockpit are going to need an initial
heading to start this mess toward the point of destruction aren't they?
Let's head over to the Navigator's seat and see what he's up to. Here's
where reality and the simulation world start to diverge a bit. No, you
don't have a stack of "winds aloft forecasts", an E6B flight computer,
a compass, a protractor, a slide rule and a government issue navigation
chart. You have something better; once you click on the map on his desk,
you have a little green 3D version of the B-17, flying along roughly
the same detailed map you saw in the briefing room (you do have a porthole
looking directly down and some sort of drift meter… but without a manual,
you got me on how it's all supposed to work).
Your intended course is a dashed blue line, and your actual course is
a rather easy to see fluorescent green one. Again you can zoom in/out,
lay it almost flat, add waypoints, move waypoints, adjust altitudes,
etc. You can actually left click on the green B-17 and "move" it where
it needs to be…again, not very realistic, but fun to do (I caution you
against "moving" them around much, here's my Navs communication to the
pilot after I moved him a couple of times…"pilot from navigator, I'm
totally lost now."…he found himself at the next waypoint).
"Still flying on Captain Rubell's right wing, he dived toward
the rear of the bombers, contemplating not their guns but their beauty.
He admired the lines of their gigantic tails and their silvery aluminum
fuselages shimmering in the sunlight… Slipping to the left, he fired
again at the wing section between the two engines…the wing exploded;
the plane rolled left and disappeared straight down…. An explosion right
in front of his face blew away the glass bubble above his head. For
a moment he knew panic….Lieutenant Stedtfeld began to realize what a
busy introduction to combat he had just experienced. In his first battle
he had shot down his first B-17, had been shot down himself, had received
his first wound, and had made his first parachute jump. It was, he decided,
an occasion to celebrate. He drank more cognac while his hands and face
were being bandaged." From Decision Over Schweinfurt by Thomas M.
Coffey
You've formed up with the "little friends" (BTW, while actually flying
this bird, one can press the "H" key for the "pilot helper" white line
box to form outside the aircraft…this is a dramatic depiction of where
you need to be flying your bomber in the formation, and comes in very
handy), checked the weather at the Primary and Secondary from the Radio
Operator's station, took your turn through the gunner stations looking
for Axis fighters, navigated your way to the IP, now "who you gonna call?"…why
the Bombardier of course. (The flak has begun, and it looks much heavier
than the "light" reported in the Briefing File.) He will report "on the
bombrun", then from his "action view", you can press the spacebar to
access his "Bomb Panel". Here you open the bomb bay doors, arm the bombs,
turn on the bombardier's autopilot, and turn on the four rack switches…we
are now ready to "rain destruction". I won't go into the intricacies
of the operation of the Norden Bombsight, lets just say that when the
light goes on, and "you" yell "bombs away", the view will switch to the
bomb bay, where you can watch your deadly cargo embrace gravity and begin
the long fall earthward. Pressing the F6 key will view the target from
above, and pressing it again will switch the view to ground level….quite
a sight to behold when the bombs begin to impact.
We're off the run now, heading to the rally point, and here comes the
Luftwaffe…now things are starting to get VERY busy. "Bandits, one o'clock
level. Coming in!" This message flashes across the screen in red, but
how on earth am I going to think fast enough to decide WHICH gunner would
best be used to counter the threat? Easy, no matter where you're located
in the bomber at that moment, you can simply click on the message (if
it's in red) and you are immediately transported to that position. Pretty
slick, eh? What about when you hear that a crewmember is wounded? You'd
better get someone attending that person in a hurry. If he dies you'll
obviously lose him (and his skills) for the rest of the mission, but
you'll also see some pretty low morale from the crew when the mission
is complete (plus you'll have a rookie in that position on the next mission).
Fire in a compartment? Get someone on it now, for it can spread with
disastrous results! An engine shot out (and possibly on fire) from flak
or fighters? You've now got to become a copilot and get that engine secured,
including feathering the prop and activating the fire extinguisher if
needed, for an engine fire WILL spread with some ugly results.
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