[Airhog]

12/31/43 Trouble brews on New Years Eve

This mission starts off like all of the rest, we head towards france on our way towards the target. We reach the coast of france, and immediatly we are targeted by 8 109's They hit us hard and heavy. Hitler sucks crew is stunned as a cannon fire rips through there number 3 engine. Black smoke pours out as the pilot trys to get everything under control. The immediatly drop their bombs to save weight, and prepare to turn back asap. We eventually take out the 8 fighters. Flying horsemen and Tommyknocker both score one kill. Stormbringer bags 6. Hitler sucks heads back for england on 3 engines. Seconds later we watch in horror as the Four Horsemen suddenly starts to lose altitude at an alarming rate, they vanish from sight and that is the last we see of them.

We continue on towards our target and near the bomb run. 4 more enemy planes assualt our depleted numbers. 2 of them are taken out by Stormbringer. The other 2 are damaged and we dont see them anymore. We drop our bombs and head back to base, with the loss of Four Horsemen. We land our planes, and head to the de-briefing. It is then to our sursprise that we learn the fate of the FH. both the pilot and co-pilot were shot and unable to continue flying the plane. One of the gunners came up and took over the plane, however he barely knew how to fly a plane himself. He was able to get back over english soil, and then 3 of his engines acted up. Since he was flying without a co-pilot he had no idea of how to adust the engines for the altitude. He hastily dropped the landing gear, and luckily was able to sit the plane down in a wheat field 30 miles or so from the base. The two wounded men were rushed to the hospital were they underwent surgery. both are expected to return in a few days.