BOAC flight 777 - the killing of Leslie Howard - mission

[jollyjack]

A tragic historical event where actor Leslie Howard got killed on June 1st 1943

 

You'll need Normandy, the Hurricane and c47a for this. Download is setup as JSGME installer file, because of a skin and media needed.

 

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BOAC Flight 777A was a KLM flight scheduled as a British Overseas Airways Corporation civilian airline flight from Portela Airport in Lisbon, Portugal to Whitchurch Airport near Bristol, England. On 1 June 1943, the Douglas DC-3 serving the flight was attacked by eight German Junkers Ju 88 bombers and crashed into the Bay of Biscay, killing all 17 on board. There were several notable passengers, among them actor Leslie Howard.

One theory suggests that the Germans attacked the aircraft because they believed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aboard; another suggested that it was targeted because several passengers were British spies, including Howard. During the Second World War, British and German civilian aircraft operated from the same facilities at Portela, and Allied and Axis spies watched the incoming and outgoing traffic. The Lisbon–Whitchurch route frequently carried agents and escaped POWs to Britain.

Aircraft flying the Lisbon–Whitchurch route were left unmolested at the beginning of the war, and both Allied and Axis powers respected the neutrality of Portugal. However, in 1942 the air war had begun to heat up over the Bay of Biscay, north of Spain and off the west coast of France; the Douglas DC-3 lost in this attack had survived attacks by Luftwaffe fighters in November 1942 and April 1943.

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You can change history if you fly your Hurricane fast enough Southward to save poor old Leslie.

Chances are BOAC flight 777 saves itself due my experimenting with overcast clouds set for hide out and so that some nasty nazi planes crash into one another if you're lucky. Compliments for the devs here and their Ai programming !

 

For the record: Alas the Biscay Bay is not on the Normandy map so i placed the event Northwards, and flight 777 is set to land at Selsey airport instead.

This mission was and is severely tested and when i get the time might be corrected later in an updated version.

Estimated play time about one hour.

 

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/nhcwo23cbh8ag9d/The_killing_of_Leslie_Howard.zip/file

Edited September 28, 2023 by jollyjack

[E69_julian57]

[Sheriff88]

Interesting and surprisingly challenging. You are tempted to go into boosted mode or override rpm limits in order to reach C-47 before Ju-88s. Germans converging from different directions. Once engaged to have to shoot conservatively if you keep 4x 20mms as armament. Weather conditions make for some dramatic screenshot and video backgrounds. One oddity is other aircraft in flight are in Russian default skin while your aircraft appears in RAF skin. Also we saved C-47and landed successfully but received a "Mission Failed" result. (perhaps because number of aircraft shot down?)

Thanks for a truly imaginative mission offering.

 

[jollyjack]

Spent quite some time on getting some gaming sports involved .. you can do it but some lucky shooting also has to do with that.

[WitchyWoman]

Wow! Had no idea a famous actor from Gone With The Wind died in this attack.

 

Since the attacker was a Ju-88C-6, those nose cannons must of made quick work of that Dc-3?

Edited December 12, 2023 by WitchyWoman

[jollyjack]

Must check them Russian skins ... problem is the default ones in the ME for the Hurricane are often Soviet with out showing that on plane selection there.

Names are seen in the Viewer only, so i'll suss it out.