Operation Aphrodyte
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 5:31 pm
OK, so one of the pilots doesn't qualify for the thread title, but perhaps the rest do.
The idea was to strip non-essential weight out of B-17s and fit them with remote control apparatus and 20,000lbs of Torpex. The RC gear wasn't reliable enough to perform a takeoff, so a pilot and a flight engineer did the takeoff to 2,000'; armed the explosive charge(s); and took the Silk Route to Suffolk. An accompanying B17 then flew what nowadays would be called the drone to the target with great precision. That was the idea, anyway.
The whole thing was ultra-super-dooper secret squirrel stuff. Very very few US military personnel outside the unit knew what was going on and almost no Brits were clued in.
It was a total ****. In 14 missions 24 drones were destroyed. Not one, not even one, target was destroyed.
The exception to the "forgotten" bit is the man who had been chosen by the boss of the Kennedy Crime Family to become President of the most powerful nation on Earth was obliterated when something went wrong with the arming of the Torpex bombload. Jack was never intended to be PotUS, but he was the designated spare. It might be said that History was changed in that microsecond of white light, heat and blast.
I guess you could say that RAF Fersfield was perhaps the most unlucky "RAF" station ever. A 100% loss rate of all of its bombers, while in Septic hands anyway, is an unbeatable record.
The Septics eventually gave up and gave the station back to its owners and slunk away.
It became populated by Mozzies, but there's a sad tale there too.
An attack on the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen was well planned, but led to disaster. Aircraft of the first wave mistakenly attacked a school. Aircraft of the second and third waves presumed that the struck building was the target, so they flattened it. 84 children and 18 nuns were killed.
The idea was to strip non-essential weight out of B-17s and fit them with remote control apparatus and 20,000lbs of Torpex. The RC gear wasn't reliable enough to perform a takeoff, so a pilot and a flight engineer did the takeoff to 2,000'; armed the explosive charge(s); and took the Silk Route to Suffolk. An accompanying B17 then flew what nowadays would be called the drone to the target with great precision. That was the idea, anyway.
The whole thing was ultra-super-dooper secret squirrel stuff. Very very few US military personnel outside the unit knew what was going on and almost no Brits were clued in.
It was a total ****. In 14 missions 24 drones were destroyed. Not one, not even one, target was destroyed.
The exception to the "forgotten" bit is the man who had been chosen by the boss of the Kennedy Crime Family to become President of the most powerful nation on Earth was obliterated when something went wrong with the arming of the Torpex bombload. Jack was never intended to be PotUS, but he was the designated spare. It might be said that History was changed in that microsecond of white light, heat and blast.
I guess you could say that RAF Fersfield was perhaps the most unlucky "RAF" station ever. A 100% loss rate of all of its bombers, while in Septic hands anyway, is an unbeatable record.
The Septics eventually gave up and gave the station back to its owners and slunk away.
It became populated by Mozzies, but there's a sad tale there too.
An attack on the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen was well planned, but led to disaster. Aircraft of the first wave mistakenly attacked a school. Aircraft of the second and third waves presumed that the struck building was the target, so they flattened it. 84 children and 18 nuns were killed.