The official AHF Allied & Neutral Air Forces quiz

[Polar bear]

hi,

l'm searching for a single-purpose designed, rather ungainly lookin' USAAF aircraft with a rare layout and a crew of three ..

greetings, the pb

[Dreeze]

Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster?

[Polar bear]

hi, Dreeze,

a good idea, but no.

The a/c in my mind saw indeed "real" combat for more than a year.

greetings, Urs

[Ironmachine]

Northrop P-61 Black Widow?
It certainly was a a single-purpose designed, rather ungainly lookin' USAAF aircraft with a (relatively) rare layout and a crew of three, and saw "real" combat for more than a year.

[Polar bear]

hi, Ironmachine,

a bull's eye!

over to you, once again ..

greetings, the pb

[Ironmachine]

Thanks.
Who?

am.jpeg (15.72 KiB) Viewed 1840 times

[Polar bear]

hi

greetings, the pb

[Ironmachine]

Correct.
Your turn again.
Regards.

[Polar bear]

hi,

a little bit more difficult ... (who,) when and where ? The "43" is a real hint to ease it a little bit.

greetings, the pb

[Dreeze]

I think you forgot something, pb..

[EDIT:] Oops, it's there now..[/EDIT]

[Polar bear]

hi, Dreeze,

I'm grateful for the hint, anyway. The upload didn't work on the first attempt.

greetings, the pb

p.s. Now go on and get the answer

[Dreeze]

Let's see:

They look like B-25 Mitchell Bombers, so it's probably the U.S.A.F. or U.S.A.A.F.
They perform a low level attack against a merchantman, so there apparently is no warship around with a sizeable AA battery and any airborne escort is either absent or kept busy.
It apparantly takes place in 1943.

It's probably either an attack on Italian shipping during the fighting in Tunesia or somewhere in the pacific theater.

Italy is not very likely as I seem to remember that the blockade of the Malta straight was a responsibility of the Royal Navy and Kesselring's 2nd German airfleet was still a formidable opponent.

So that leaves the pacific and more specific the battle of the Bismarck sea, where Japanese transports were clobbered by combined U.S./australian air forces.

Just checked google: Yep! It's the battle of the Bismarck sea. PB's picture is even on the wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_ ... er_attacks

So my answer is 405th Bombardment Squadron USAF, march 3rd 1943 and the convoy had by then reached the Solomon sea.

Greetz,
Dreeze

[Polar bear]

hi, Dreeze,

Very good, Full points. I expected nothing less from you

Back to you, of course.

greetings, the pb

[Dreeze]

Thanks again,pb..

Next question, type AND users, please:



Greetz,
Dreeze

[Dreeze]

This aircraft is one of a batch that was produced in one allied nation, ordered by a second, diverted to and briefly used by a third and eventually transfered to and used by a fourth. With each (intended) user the role and configuration changed..

Greetz,
Dreeze