Per Ardua Ad Astra Dixie (allies) vs Swift BTR 43

[Dixie]

14th September 1943
J-Jug Dispersal
RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire

Although time is rapidly advancing into mid-afternoon there is an unusual lack of activity around the dispersals. The recent full moon as curtailed Bomber Command's activities as the bright moonlight makes operating over the Third Reich too dangerous. Instead Bomber Command sends out smaller formations to attack French military factories, such milk runs are highly valued in Bomber Command. Despite being a similar distance to, or even further than, the Ruhr French targets are widely considered to be far safer.

J-Jug is not scheduled to fly to France tonight, instead she sits quietly waiting as LACs Arthur Smith and "Snowy" Winters complete their latest vital task on their new ward. Although she succesfully went to Germany for her first mission the flight was almost a disaster as a series of technical faults culminated in fuel starvation of the port inner engine on final approach. Both men clamber out from the rear crew door leaving behind their latest work, a small grinning figure is painted opposite the door above the legend "Shonni". As Gremlins almost caused disaster on the last flight the crew want to know where "their" Gremlin is at all times so he can't cause any more trouble.

[Dixie]

15th September 1943
J-Jug, 18,000 feet
Emden, North Germany

"Bombs gone skipper", J-Jug soars further from the devestation far below as her deadly cargo tumbles earthward. The momentary flash of the cookie is quickly swallowed by the raging fires tearing through the city. Even the flak was non-existant, as if terrified into silence by the firey devestation around them.

Sgt Virgil Fitzgibbon had already flown halfway around the world before setting off for Germany. The land below is far removed from the Canadian prairies where he learnt to fly. Back home the navigation was easy and the skies were safe. Now he must fly through hostile skies above a blacked out land or the cold sea.

As the bomber turns for home rear gunner "Shag" Fraser looks on with quiet satisfaction at the bright burning landscape behind him. His hometown of Plymouth was hit hard by the Luftwaffe and joining the RAF had allowed him to take his revenge on the people he viewed as responsible.


xxx

Pretty much a 'standard' raid for me. There were two raids, Emden and Bremerhaven, with TOT seperated by a couple of hours. The raids were split into three waves each with 5-10 minutes between each individual wave. Serrate equipped Mosquitos were in and around the bomber streams, although they didn't manage any sighting tonight. Beaufighters and Mosquito NFs were sent to a few LW fighter fields where 8 LW planes were shot down, 4 were shot down by a single pilot.
The bombers were routed out over the North Sea outside the German radar range before the flight path turned towards Germany. The idea is to keep the bombers clear of as much of the flak and fighter opposition as possible. The route does add time and distance and lessens the bomb load, but the extra safety makes it worthwhile in my view.

[Dixie]

16th Spetember 1943
J-Jug Dispersal
RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire

Whilst the men of 5 Group take a break from the business of warfare the rest of Bomber Command is gearing up for further action. Tonight will be busy for the men of the Luftwaffe and RAF Bomber Command, almost the entire strength is being directed against Germany hoping to take advantage of poor weather over Germany. The met forecast has predicted 90% cloud over Germany with almost clear skies over England, a fact which will hopefully keep the Luftwaffe grounded whilst providing safe landings for the exhausted bomber crews.
Although Skellingthorpe is not involved in the bombing tonight the activity still continues, routine maintenance is carried out and deferred minor repairs are made good. Guns are stripped and re-assmebled, paintwork is touched up, perspex cleaned and missing fasteners are replaced.

[Dixie]

17th September 1943
RAF Skellingthorpe

It is a scene repeated across dozens of stations for thousands of men, a crowd of young men briefly fall silent as the station commander enters the briefing room. All attention is focused on the board at the front of the room, enquiring eyes peer through the smoky cigarette haze as the cover is pulled aside from the route map. Regardless of the destination excited chatter always breaks out as the target is revealed.

"Gentlemen, your target for tonight is Bremerhaven, this is entirely a 5 Group show, the Pathfinders are engaged in other operations tonight. Command feels that the German population will be reeling from the raid two nights ago, our task is to go and hit Jerry again before the emergency services can fully recover from the blow that was dealt to them. The latest reports are that fires are still burning in some parts of the city which will aid in navigation however tonight, as you will notice, you will be attacking the target from the south-west before exiting to the north-west and home over the North Sea. Friendly nightfighters will be operating in direct support of the bomber stream, so I cannot emphasise enough the importance of correct identification of aircraft. In addition aircraft from other groups will be sharing part of the route to the target so stay aware of the danger from collision. OK, chaps report to your section leaders for your seperate briefings."

[Dixie]

18th-26th September

As summer 1943 draws to a close the days roll into each other as Bomber Command allows no let up for the German defences, each group is operating as an almost independent air force in their own right. Wilhelmshaven, Emden, Bremerhaven and Bremen hit by heavy blows. Hamburg is revisited for the first time since the earlier Operation Gomorrah and the ever present trips to "Happy Valley". Losses have remained low throughout the last few months, combined with the nearing onset of winter this has allowed Bomber Command to consider longer range raids into the heartland of Germany. Although 5 Group were not involved rumour has spread throughout the RAF that the recent raid to Munich was a resounding success and Harris is considering more long distance raids in the near future.


***
Things seem to be going well for the RAF in particular, several German cities are reduced to ruins and recce reports indicate that rail links in some smaller cities are heavily damaged (75%+). Each night has seen operations by one or two of the 5 Main Force Groups whilst the others rest up. The low losses meant that it was worth a taking a punt on a long range effort to Munich which paid off.
Intruder ops are wearing down the LW nachtjagers and I'm hoping that the current tempo will cost swift some of his more experienced pilots before the winter arrives. Having said that, the LW seems reluctant to come and play during the darkness now. I'm wondering if swift has concentrated his fighters towards the north and the Ruhr catching his forces out of position for a raid into southern Germany.

So far the main opposition has been 110G nightfighters and Wilde Sau NFs. The recent raid on Hamburg was opposed by Ju88s, I'm assuming that they're based between Hamburg and Berlin. There's a cluster of airfields there spread far enough apart to make shutting them down with intruders an intensive effort, it's also where I'd put them as it minimises the amount of time the Mosquitos in particular can spend loitering. Recce flights are a useful aid in finding some bases, but the nature of the game means the info is often a day out of date by the time I can use it. If in doubt, the rail flak units are a useful (but not sure-fire) guide to finding where swift is basing his nightfighters.
Every raid has NI support, the amount varies on a night to night basis, RCM aircraft are also up on a nightly basis. I can't remember when they turn up, but it shouldn't be too much longer before 100 Group get some proper ECM aircraft and then the real fun begins.


If only I could get the same level of success for my daylight raids... With the 8th AF bombers any lower than 30k makes even my top cover Spits too vulnerable to being bounced, but at that height they can barely hit a city. 2 TAF has the added 'bonus' that 95% of their fighters are LF Spits and their bombers can't fly much above 20k anyway. If I can get the LW to come and play down low without bouncing me then even the MkVs can hold their own, even the Tiffie squadrons are getting some kills, but getting them down there is the problem.

[Dixie]

4th October

Bad light stops play today, 85% cloud cover over England means that I'm not bothering with any operations in more than squadron size. Fighter Command and 2 TAF will be carrying out tip and run raids on tactical targets in Northern France as well as fighter sweeps. VIII AF and BC Main Force get the day/night off although 8 Group's Mosquitos will be out and about.

A day off has it's advantages, the strategic forces will be at full strength again and rested ready for a new series of raids. I'm going to try and get some shufti kites off the ground, although there's no guarantee they'll see anything...

In Italy things are business as usual, railway busting is the order of the day for the heavies and twins with some ground attack put in for good measure. Some forces have been rebased on Sardinia to better reach Western Italy, a mix of heavy and tactical forces.

[Dixie]

I really can't get into this stroy telling, as you can probably tell. So instead it's going to be more factual now... So if Herr Swift is reading this thinking it's more story, I'd appreciate it if you stopped now [:)]







13 Oct 1943

Italy
Low cloud coverage (5%) means an active day for the Allied forces in the area, the main focus points are:

Tactical raids against the Gothic Line, RAF Bostons and USAAF B-26s today.
FB raids along the Western coast; Hurribombers and Mossies at the moment flying from Corsica and Sardinia.
B-17s are going to Florence, although LW fighter opposition has been non-existent the heavies are still getting a lot of fighter escort, why take any chances?
Recce. Lots of recce. All at max altitude, there hasn't been an effort to actually intercept the shufti-kites, but why tempt swift into trying? Up high they're safe for now so I'm grabbing as much intel as I can whilst swift isn't trying to stop them.


Northern Europe
24% cloud cover over France and the bomber form up areas, very good for the time of year so there's more raids incoming.

B-24s are heading to Vaires railyard, I've hit several targets in and around Paris. The region is well within fighter range, both USAAF and 2TAF Spitfires so fighter coverage isn't an issue. Apart from the P-38s of the close/lower escort formations the fighters are split into two parts, one half will escort from the start with the second half picking up the raid after they leave the target area.

A tactic that's worked fairly well over France is sending Typhoon raids along behind the B-17s mixed in with the later waves of fighters for the heavy bomber raids. The Tiffies then break from the path to hit tactical targets. Mixing them with the escort fighters means that it's harder to tell what squadrons are escorts or sweeps or tactical raids.
The Typhoons of 2TAF and Fighter Command are hitting several airfields near the VIIIth AF route. I know that LW fighters are somewhere in the area NE of Paris, so I'm going to smack a group of airfields at once in the hopes of hitting the actual lair whilst the wolves are out. The important thing to remember is- make sure the exit route for the FBs is well away from the rest of the heavy bombers' flight path.
2 TAF mediums are attacking Chartres AF whilst this is all happening, there will be plenty of Spitfire and Mustang escorts as well.

Again, lots of recce.

Night-time
This is the part of the war I can probably claim to be winning, the combination of Window and intruders has brought low RAF casualties in return for heavy NJ losses.

I've got several 'standard' plans that I like to use, tonight's plan will see a diversionary raid by 3 Group's Stirlings followed by another spoof raid and the Main Force raid later in the night.

The Stirlings are headed to the docks at Munster, it's just across the border into Germany with a safe route in and out so the low fliers won't take too much flak. It's also close enough to the Ruhr and North Sea ports to bring up some of swift's NFs if he's coming out to play. In a change from my usual tactics the raid will have just two waves, set to arrive 15 minutes apart.
Departure: 2100 hrs, TOT 2237 (pathfinder Lancs)

Main Force for tonight consists of 3 Groups Lancaster squadrons in conjunction with 4 Group's Halifax squadrons operating against Cologne. Their route will take them over France and Belgium before Germany and out over the Netherlands. The raid is split into waves of 3-4 squadrons seperated by 5 minute intervals.
Departure 2300-2315, TOT 0044-0054 (the fourth/final wave Lancs is faster than the other three).

The Spoof raid is made of RCM Wellingtons flying to the German/Dutch border along a well used bomber route to the Ruhr. The raid is scheduled to depart 10 minutes before the first wave of the Cologne operaton.

Night Intruders
The RAF is up again in strength tonight, the usual planning for NIs sees known or suspected Nachtjager fields patrolled for a period of 3-6 hours to coincide with the bombers' missions, normally they will arrive over the AFs as the bombers are reaching their targets. Mosquitos are sent up at 30 minute intervals and Beaufighters at 1 hour intervals, unless the target AF is further away when the timings will be shortened.
The plan tonight calls for the AFs to be patrolled between approx 2230 and 0100, meaning a Mosquito squadron can take 2 aifields and Beaufighter sqns can cover 4.

Excluding recce missions, there are 111 missions planned for today. 85 of which are NI missions, it's a labour-intensive project but it pays off IMO with the havoc you can wreak amongst the nachtjagers in the early days.

The recce missions, with a few exceptions, are all auto-plotted by my staff. I then go along behind them and raise the altitude to max so there are no silly 500' missions.

The VIII AF raid and Typhoon follow up routes.

[Dixie]

It turned out to be quite a bloody day, luckily the losses slightly favoured the Allies and with the heavy damage done to most targets it's a succesful day.

ITALY
No sign of the Luftwaffe, even against the relatively deep raid to Florence. Raids against the Gothic Line continue to wear down the German defenders in return for light losses. Short range FB and tac bomber raids by the RAF against targets in the Piombino area are quite succesful as well.
205 Group hit Rome during the night, quite accurately for a change.

NORTHERN EUROPE- Daylight
Burning wreckage covers a chunk of France, quite a lot of it is German which makes a nice change. The VIII AF raid is the cause of most LW losses claiming 27 aircraft shot down. Allied losses are 10 fighters and 3 bombers and heavy damage is done to Vaires marshalling yard.
Further raids and sweeps by 2 TAF claim to account for another 9 fighters shot down as well as 10 destroyed on the ground. In particular the Mustang squadrons manage to be quite succesful managing to shoot down several 190s in the landing pattern near Rosieres-en-Santerre. 2 TAF Mitchells manage to almost level Chartres, but no-one is home so possibly a missed opportunity there.
On the positive side, 2 TAF has managed to (temporarily at least) deny swift the usage of another 4 AFs near Paris. More recce is needed to loacte where the rest of the LW is hiding now, I suspect some may be hiding out in AFs that are marked as wrecked but haven't been recce'd for a while.
The heavy action has also seen some USAAF and RAF FC pilots start to climb the kills leaderboard, although it's still dominated by 100 Group's intruder pilots.


NORTHERN EUROPE- Night
Raids against Munster (port) and Cologne are mostly on target. Creepback is a factor though, particularly at Munster where several crews bomb open countryside. At Cologne it's less of a factor as crews bombing away from the aim point hit outlying suburbs instead.
There's not much sign of the Luftwaffe tonight, either swift is resting them (still) or he's concerned about the losses they would have suffered. In the end two He219s are claimed shot down but that's the limit of success in the darkness.
RAF BC losses are 6 bombers (1% of the force dispatched) and a pair of Mosquito NFs.


All told it's a decent enough result to a long day. Bomber Command has managed to increase the terror score whilst the VIII has managed to slightly arrest the fall in strat points.

[Dixie]

ITALY
Heavy cloud meant that most raids were inaccurate, tactical raids against the German defences had to bomb through cloud cover achieving negligible results. Small raids by tactical aircraft against targets in the Piombino/Grosseto are managed to damage both railyards.
Again, the Luftwaffe was noticeable by it's absence and the few losses in theatre came from flak damage.


NORTHERN EUROPE- Daylight
More heavy cloud meant that options were limited here as well, only two major raids were sent out over Belgium. 8th AF attacked the John Cockerill Steelworks near Liege. The area is reported to have been hit hard despite the attentions of the Luftwaffe, swift seems to be targetting the escorting fighters rather than the bombers, which is fine by me although a little annoying when Ju88s bounce damaged P-38s.
At the same time 9th AF attacked the AF at Nivelles causing a decent amount of damage. This raid escaped a lot of the LW attention, mostly because of the heavies which went in earlier and also becasue the later waves of escorts for the 8th AF raid provided a degree of extra escort for the B-26s.

NORTHERN EUROPE- Night
Just one fairly large raid tonight, aircraft from 1 & 6 Groups combined to attack Stuttgart. Although the NIs were up tonight they didn't catch any of swift's nightfighters [:(] 9 bombers were lost from the 400 sent out (a 2.25% loss rate). Bombing looks to have been quite well concentrated on the aim point (Canatadtt BBFAC).