23.01.2010, 18:59
Hey Guys !
A few hours ago, I was rescued by a US Navy submarine several miles south of Kyushu and am now recovering from wounds sustained by the Japanese as a POW in one of their remote POW camps. I'm just now able to comprehend what has taken place and am sending out a situation report on my status. I expect to be back at Iwo Jima within the next week.
Wearing the squadron skin for the 462nd Fighter Squadron, 506th Fighter Group, I left Iwo on a VLR mission destined for Southern Kyushu. My flight of four ships ran into trouble when we were bounced by elements of the 343rd Kokutai and had a running gun fight all the way back to the coast before I took a nasty hit to my engine and had to parachute out not before I bagged two of the Georges. Needless to say, once I reached the ground I was only able to evade for a few hours before I was captured by Imperial Marines and led off in chains. I sat in a POW camp for several months before I had the strength to plan my escape. The events that led to that escape attempt are marked SECRET.
Some time ago, I formed the 506th Fighter GROUP or "506FG" for short that envisioned having the three historical and fully operational squadrons within this group represented by the 457th FS, the 458th FS and the 462nd FS. The idea was to have a Mustang fighter group organized for IL2's PTO with its main focus to support the highly anticipated B-29 release by AAA. The home airfield was to be out of Iwo Jima using the B-29 Alley map while the B-29's sortied out of Tinian further to the South East of Iwo.
In any event, there is a B-29 alley map that was created to support this idea that has Okinawa and Kyushu and the Marianas occupied by allied and or axis base locations depending on the islands location that also uses an older Zuti MDF as well as a moving naval task force in vicinity of Okinawa to support allied air operations over Okinawa. Unfortunately, the B-29 alley map isn't in the latest HSFX 4.1 release so that idea was shelved.
Having a intense campaign designed where the 506th FG provides fighter escort for the big bombers as well as ground attack action afterwards would be ideal. Using the capabilities from the Zuti MDF would really plus up this effort if we could see more interest within the community for the PTO in general.
Today, I just saw the map WIP that has Tokyo, Nagoya and other parts of the Japanese homeland modeled map wise is just totally amazing. If that map can come to fruition, that would be fantastic and would really help support the VLR missions that were flown from Iwo historically by the 506th FG. Many thanks to those who decided to take up this idea and make things happen.
P.S., Doodle...we can debrief later once I get back to Iwo. Till then....
Salute,
506FG_Harper
:wink:
A few hours ago, I was rescued by a US Navy submarine several miles south of Kyushu and am now recovering from wounds sustained by the Japanese as a POW in one of their remote POW camps. I'm just now able to comprehend what has taken place and am sending out a situation report on my status. I expect to be back at Iwo Jima within the next week.
Wearing the squadron skin for the 462nd Fighter Squadron, 506th Fighter Group, I left Iwo on a VLR mission destined for Southern Kyushu. My flight of four ships ran into trouble when we were bounced by elements of the 343rd Kokutai and had a running gun fight all the way back to the coast before I took a nasty hit to my engine and had to parachute out not before I bagged two of the Georges. Needless to say, once I reached the ground I was only able to evade for a few hours before I was captured by Imperial Marines and led off in chains. I sat in a POW camp for several months before I had the strength to plan my escape. The events that led to that escape attempt are marked SECRET.
Some time ago, I formed the 506th Fighter GROUP or "506FG" for short that envisioned having the three historical and fully operational squadrons within this group represented by the 457th FS, the 458th FS and the 462nd FS. The idea was to have a Mustang fighter group organized for IL2's PTO with its main focus to support the highly anticipated B-29 release by AAA. The home airfield was to be out of Iwo Jima using the B-29 Alley map while the B-29's sortied out of Tinian further to the South East of Iwo.
In any event, there is a B-29 alley map that was created to support this idea that has Okinawa and Kyushu and the Marianas occupied by allied and or axis base locations depending on the islands location that also uses an older Zuti MDF as well as a moving naval task force in vicinity of Okinawa to support allied air operations over Okinawa. Unfortunately, the B-29 alley map isn't in the latest HSFX 4.1 release so that idea was shelved.
Having a intense campaign designed where the 506th FG provides fighter escort for the big bombers as well as ground attack action afterwards would be ideal. Using the capabilities from the Zuti MDF would really plus up this effort if we could see more interest within the community for the PTO in general.
Today, I just saw the map WIP that has Tokyo, Nagoya and other parts of the Japanese homeland modeled map wise is just totally amazing. If that map can come to fruition, that would be fantastic and would really help support the VLR missions that were flown from Iwo historically by the 506th FG. Many thanks to those who decided to take up this idea and make things happen.
P.S., Doodle...we can debrief later once I get back to Iwo. Till then....
Salute,
506FG_Harper
:wink: