Made my day!
Like others here, I can hardly wait! Heartfelt thanks to all who are part of this project.
My Dad flew A-20s with the 417th BG, the "Sky Lancers." He joined them in July of 1945, as part of "E" flight in the 672nd Squadron, the "Tomahawks." A red slash on the vertical stabilizer identified the squadron (yes, that's a hint repainters!).
There's a wonderful book about the group that is now available as a PDF at
http://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=ww_reg_his. The best parts (after the pictures, of course) are toward the back, some personal accounts.
The stories Dad told, I'm sure, led me to a life focused--sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly--on aviation. But it's a wonder I ever heard those stories given that he and his buddies were fearless 20-somethings with thousands of horsepower to play with in a "there ain't no tomorrow" world.
One of my favorite recollections concerns the "tower" at Nadzab, in New Guinea, that had a board with a bunch of stopwatches fastened to it. When a flight came into the break, balls to the wall*, at low-level (50 feet or less), the tower would time each aircraft from the time the wing dipped until the tires touched. Which meant that they would pitch up, pull so hard the aircraft would start to shutter on the edge of a high-speed stall, and rack it around in the shortest, tightest pattern possible. Note I said pitch
up not
out. The climb (and high G drag) helped slow them down to gear and then flap speed, but that meant that he often extended the wheels by putting them up, since the aircraft's belly was to the sky.
And then there's the story about playing tailchase and getting into a Luffbury Circle trying to get on the tail of the guy ahead. A common enough maneuver, except they did it right on the deck with their wing tips in the tropical sawgrass, about the height of sugarcane. He said after they bugged out and pulled up they could see where they went round and round, the grass flattened by the tip vortex.
I've been flying the MAAM B-25 with the Solomons terrain and the Weapons4 package so all twelve .50s fire and I can actually drop bombs. But soon, I hope, I'll have orders to an A-20 outfit in the Philippines.
Did I mention I can't wait?
*For those who may not know, the mixture, prop, and throttle levers in WW2 vintage aircraft all had phenolic balls on the top. When they were all pushed forward to the firewall you were balls to the wall.