Para-frag bombs

[m10bob]

Cpt Paul "Pappa" Gunn loaded A-20 and B 25's with generally up to 10 .50 cal MG's for low-level strafing, but his "secret weapon" was to drop entire batches of 21 pound fragmentation bombs which were slowed by small parachutes, so the delivering bombers would be out of the way when the bombs hit.
The bombs would be very destructive to flight lines in particular, as 40 of them were dropped at a time, (from the A 20's, which had been up-armed with 6 of those .50cal MG's.
On Sept 12th 1942, 9 of them destroyed 17 Japanese planes on the ground with the parafrags.
With this success, Gen Kenney had the special racks made for the parafrags to be carried on Bristol Beauforts, and Curtis P 40's..
Later, the B 25's in his unit got 10 of the .50cal MG's., and replaced the A 20's in the parafrag missions with the 3rd Bomb Group....
(Source:Story furnished by ex-pilot Sam McGowan in WWII magazine, Ja.2004)
Is this bomb replicated in WITP ?
I looked through the CHS 1.06 database and could not find them.


http://aupress.au.af.mil/Books/Rodman/rodman.pdf

[el cid again]

No.

It would be difficult to put in.

Code would not understand it properly.

We could define the device - with some thought - and we could assign it as a normal load for some planes. But code would then upgrade it sometimes, if you got "lucky" in your die rolls! Even for that plane.

[Iron Duke]

Hi,

correct me if i'm wrong but arn't para-frags just ordinary fragmentation bombs with parachutes attached to slow their decent down to allow the a/c to escape its destructive radius[bombs were dropped at low level - as the code doesn't cause this type of damage to aircraft[i think?I've never seen low level bombers being reported as damages from bomb blasts]] just creating a para-frag bomb should be simple?

cheers

[DuckofTindalos]

It's not applicable for this game...

[Iron Duke]

why?

[DuckofTindalos]

Well, because there's no specific mechanics for using them in the game; you could make them more accurate no problem, but that still wouldn't differentiate between dropping them at 100 feet or 10,000 feet.

[Iron Duke]

Hi

But thats true with the excisting bombs , i can drop 4000lb bombs at 100 feet which you wouldn't want to do in real life.

[DuckofTindalos]

Correct, but then what would be the point of making a new bomb device in an already overflowing list?

[Iron Duke]

Hi
not sure where my thinkings going[&:]

maybe add them and have house rule but then i can't change bomber loadouts so ............[&:]

[DuckofTindalos]

That's sorta my point; if you define, say a B-25, with 50 para-frag bombs, it'll have a hell of a lot less power in naval attack. This is one of the basic weaknesses of the air model; that you can't have alternate loadouts to switch between for the same basic mission.

[m10bob]

Just a "what- if"...Torpedo planes apparently know to drop from low altitude.
Only certain squadrons used those planes to drop those para-frags, and might be considered "special ops" just like, nightfighter a-20's, etc.
Whose to say a new kind of plane could not be created just for those para-frag attacks, and against only land targets,(and even just airstrips)??
If they were available, (as in real life), I would certainly use them..
Just some chrome for the game, based on history, ya' know??[8D]

[DuckofTindalos]

Hey, I'd like more chrome too, believe me, but I can't see it happening in the current game engine.

Some time back, I experimented a bit with creating an extra B-29 variant carrying only ICB's; it didn't seem to do a lot of damage, and I ended up ditching it as something that just took up another slot in the aircraft db without actually doing much. Same thing with rocket-carrying aircraft. I'm not saying they don't work, but I couldn't get them to do anything...

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Hey, I'd like more chrome too, believe me, but I can't see it happening in the current game engine.

Some time back, I experimented a bit with creating an extra B-29 variant carrying only ICB's; it didn't seem to do a lot of damage, and I ended up ditching it as something that just took up another slot in the aircraft db without actually doing much. Same thing with rocket-carrying aircraft. I'm not saying they don't work, but I couldn't get them to do anything...

Terminus..I have read your threads in the past...I am glad you are an open minded person who also seeks to push the envelope, by word, if not deed.

[DuckofTindalos]

Heh...

The problem with pushing the envelope in WitP is all the debris from previous games you run into. I haven't done much, compared to others...

But hey-ho, it's still fun, when it's not murderously frustrating. Now where'd I put those napalm tanks?[8D]

[el cid again]

Just a "what- if"...Torpedo planes apparently know to drop from low altitude.
Only certain squadrons used those planes to drop those para-frags, and might be considered "special ops" just like, nightfighter a-20's, etc.
Whose to say a new kind of plane could not be created just for those para-frag attacks, and against only land targets,(and even just airstrips)??
If they were available, (as in real life), I would certainly use them..
Just some chrome for the game, based on history, ya' know??

There is no priority to write special code for this. The only way to make them be low altitude only right now would be (a) to define them as renamed torpedo devices; (b) to use them on naval targets!

Now the altitude problem is not too severe: the model does penalize you for going in high - and you CAN set your bombers to go in low. But the code is ALSO going to REPLACE small bombs with larger bombs when you "win" die rolls - you do not have control over those! And it is meaningless -

OFFICIAL: 1x1000 pound bomb = 2x500 pound bombs = 4x250 pound bombs. No matter what option the code picks, results vs land targets are same same.

[m10bob]

Maybe this would be something really elaborate for WITP II folks to look at ?[:D]