Boldly Go Collection/version40.iso/TS/14A/MEMPHIS2.ZIP/README.2ND

Text File | 1992-02-24 | 5.5 KB | 84 lines

                        BELLE'S BASTARDS FLIGHT STATS


The following were the official flight stats turned in by the Memphis Belle
for flights 21 through 25.  Confirmation was difficult by reconnaissance
planes the day after because the Belle was usually the only plane to return
and there wasn't many others around to challenge their claims as to who blew
up what.  Also, by the time Belle got to number 20, the Eighth Air Force P.R.
Brass decided that Memphis Belle was going to be a common household name
back in the U.S.  These were the heroes they needed to parade up and down
Main St. USA for their recruitment program.  What did it matter how they
managed to survive all those missions?  The important thing was to show the
American public and more specifically the American youth that it could be
done.  And the Belle Boys were living proof to that testament.  Short on
Pilot's, they desperately set out to put together a huge series of recruit-
ment spectacles of which the Belle Boy's would be the centre attraction.
Central Command wasn't too keen on the orders from the top about fudging
their bombing stats.  But although they had no say in the stats, they did
have a say in where their targets would be.  Heavily fortified Bremin, they
hoped, would swallow them up and thereby solve their Belle Bastard problem
for them.  And so they kept sending them back to Bremin but to their surprise
the Belles kept making it back in time for Happy Hour.

Compare your stats to theirs.  Create a Flight Crew and call it ALLTWITS
then fly that crew through all 5 missions.  The minimum score requirements
for each flight for this similation are listed in the far right column.
See how you stack up to their claims.  You must fly the mission according
to the briefing.  You may not use a Belle Bastard dirty trick procedure from
one flight in another flight.  The mission must be flown as detailed or your
score doesn't count.  Also note that their highest scores were on the missions
which had the fewest survivors, except for Flight number 25 which is still a
mystery to this day and only conjecture can even come close to what really
happened on that day.

 ┌─────────┬────────┬───────────┬──────────────────╥╥─────────────────────┐
 │Flight # │ Losses │ Victories │ Ruined Bldgs     ║║    SWOTL SCORE (min)│
 │  21     │   7    │   3 (3)   │  13 (3)          ║║         230         │
 │  22     │   9    │   4 (0)   │  22 (4)          ║║         975         │
 │  23     │   9    │   3 (0)   │  35 (0)          ║║        1250         │
 │  24     │  11    │   4 (0)   │  12 (0)          ║║         520         │
 │  25     │   6    │   6 (0)   │  22 (0)          ║║          25         │
 └─────────┴────────┴───────────┴──────────────────╨╨─────────────────────┘

The four victories they claimed for mission #22 is hard to believe because
according to the Pentagon file, they dove down to 500 ft to level bomb
and straffe, leaving their buddies to fight it out upstairs with the
BF109's.  But since nobody but them returned from flight 22, who could
argue?  Also, the 22 buildings destroyed seemed ridiculous, especially
since 22 was the same number as their mission number.  General Eaker was
livid when he saw that number.  "How can a plane with eight 1000 pound bombs
destroy 22 buildings?  That's almost three per bomb.  I refuse to accept
this ridiculous insult to my intelligence", he was heard to say.  This
figure was later reduced to 16 bldgs and 2 victories at HQ's request.
Sensing that they had HQ's on their side, they then submitted a figure
of 35 Bldgs for their next mission which HQ reduced to 25 causing Eaker
to send a personal memo to President Roosevelt to which there was no reply.

Another interesting point about Flight 22 is that after the war, a story
came out of a small village just west of Bremin and north of Essen about a
giant plane that came out of the sky and landed in a field beside a Church.
It was a Sunday morning and all the German villagers and farmers were in the
Church at the time.  It apparently pulled up to within a hundred yards of the
Church and fired a few bursts at the bell tower whose ring from the shells
could be heard for miles.  A voice from the plane yelled out in badly broken
German to send out all the women and children.  The parish priest came
running out with two cases of Sacramental wine and was manhandled into the
plane along with the wine.  The plane took off with him in it and he was
never heard nor seen from again.  Some claimed that there was a poorly painted
figure of a half naked plump woman on the side of the plane.  The day the
villagers say this happened was the same day as Flight 22.  Flight 22 was
two hours late arriving back.  The crew claimed engine trouble and bad weather.
One of the waist gunners was wearing a St. Christopher medal which no one had
ever seen him wear before mission #22.  It raised curiousity among the other
base members because he was Jewish.

Under Victories and Ruined Bldgs, the unbracketed number is the number they
submitted.  The bracketed number is what Central Command believed to be true.
The number under the SWOTL SCORE column is the minimum score you should
attain to have a successful Belle's Bastards mission.  Your total score after
the five missions should be greater than 3000 and you should attain the rank
of Captain.  If you succeed, consider yourself qualified to have served on
the Memphis Belle and to have earned the right to call yourself a true
BELLE BASTARD.