[Cruver Collecter]

How about a crew of a Blackburn Skua of 803 Naval Air Squadron heading out of Trondheim Fjord at wave top height, full throttle and skidding side to side so his air gunner can try to a dissuade the BF 110 in pursuit not to follow? Mission started off on bad note when the Blenheim long-range fighter escort did not make the rendezvous and the Skuas of Nos 800 and 803 squadrons pressed on with out them. To make matters worse the Beauforts assigned to make a diversionary strike on Vaernes hit their target 30 minutes early. This insured Luftwaffe assets were all in place when the Skuas went into their attack run. On top of this the Skuas target was the battle cruiser Scharnhorst and their bomb load consisted of one 500lb semi-armour-piercing (SAP) bombs each, which were not up to the task of penetrating the Scharnhorsts armor. Result was one bomb hit amidships which failed to explode and 60% losses of the attack force. That has to be a really tough assignment. Photo from “Operation Skua Story” site

[Shamrock]

Another very frightning attack came to mind after my first posting. Lt.Cdr. Eugene Esmonde VC DSO leading six Swordfish of 825 Squadron FAA against Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen on February 12th 1942. All the slow flying aircraft were cut down by the murderous anti aircraft fire. Brave men indeed.

[Maple 01]

RFC pilot druing the Fokker scourge or Bloody April - life expectancy measured in weeks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_Scourge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_April

[Captain Eddie]

Originally Posted by Maple 01

RFC pilot druing the Fokker scourge or Bloody April - life expectancy measured in weeks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_Scourge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_April

Now why didn't I think of these??????

[mustangdriver]

How about a Wildcat pilot at Wake island?