North Atlantic: Death Of The Backfires D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part IV

The Bears were now the prey and the aircrews were fully aware of it. There were armed predators out there beyond the horizon actively searching. The hunt was on and the crews of the Tu-95s were well aware their life expectancy was now being measured in minutes. The raid commander knew this too and he …

The North Atlantic D+20 (29 July, 1987) Part II

Author’s Note: Going to have split North Atlantic into 3 parts. Real world commitments have cut my blog writing time down this week,  so we won’t finish North Atlantic until Friday. Not a terrible setback,  but still. 😊 –Mike 0632- Sixty miles southeast of Bear Island, the USS Kitty Hawk turned into the wind and …

The North Atlantic D+12 (21 July, 1987) Part IV

The plan Admiral Kapitanets devised was indeed a compromise of sorts. Instead of assigning an entire regiment of bombers to seek out and attack the American carrier group detected earlier by the Tu-95, Kapitanets ordered a smaller attack to be launched. Instead of twenty plus Tu-22 bombers, and a dozen support aircraft, the attack force …