AAR swift vs fochinell

[wernerpruckner]

10/10/43

tactical raids, most of them in Italy
9:36


10/11/43
I let my forces rest => all losses due to AA fire [:D]
also only tactical raids, and once again most of them in Italy

0:33

[fochinell]

Another few days of weather-limited attacks, culminating in yet another "lead-group-only" raid by the 8th AF. Situation at the middle of October is as follows - losses: nothing too heavy, except maybe the Spitfire Vb losses, which are unsustainable given the number of new units equipped with it that appear while they represent a major section of the allies' fighter strength, and thus take hefty losses. I've converted a couple of MAC Spit Vb sqns to the P-40, and I'll probably inflict the P-39 on the French squadrons when they appear now that the 12th AF fighter force is entirely P-40/P-38H. The relative lack of B-17 losses indicates how few major attacks have been made due to the weather (128 in total, 121 of them on one day - the Bremen UFAC massacre of 9th October '43). There have been a couple of medium strength attritonal raids (5 Groups of B-17's with heavy escort to sustain LW attrition and fatigue) but the weather has kept the 8th AF effort at less than 50% of what I expected.

Another annoying factor is the automatic upgrade, which is constantly upgrading units that I don't want upgraded. At the moment, my B-17F force of 15 Groups has about 3 out of action on any one turn as they try and upgrade to the B-17G and get re-equipped to their original type. I've got 5 Groups equipped with the B-17G which I use for bad-weather RR raids lead by the H2X B-17G's to ensure they all cruise at the same speed and don't seperate, but I don't want any more just yet to allow me to expend all those B-17F's I'll be getting before the end of 1943. If I convert the whole 8th AF to the G too early, it will restrict my ability to sustain high attrition.

Well, that was the plan until the weather sabotaged it... [:@] Still, the relative lack of combat has allowed me to equip all the 8th AF P-47 Groups with the P-47D, which I only expected to be able to do by the end of the month.

[fochinell]

And now for my top Minions of Doom list.

[Reg]

Go the Mozzies........

[wernerpruckner]

but Hajo Hermann is still one of the top aces on the Axis side [:D]

[fochinell]

but Hajo Hermann is still one of the top aces on the Axis side [:D]


Werner can console himself with the scores of a couple of his aces, even if they're no better than the best Mossie NI aces; meanwhile, he occupies himself swatting some Spitfires like flies in the tactical raids supporting a twin 8th AF attack on major RR targets in the Ruhr. The AS score is miserable, but the industrial and terror scores are mounting while he diverts himself from the inevitable prospect of his defeat with pointless combat against the tactical fighters. "Look at my experten!" - meanwhile the bombers go to work untroubled by either his day or night fighters, who by this point are running scared.



[Current scores AS 1, SB 9 and TERROR 11 at my end]

[fochinell]

21st October 1943: A typical day in the air war.

The weather in the west breaks after another run of low cloud (I usually take into account cloud altitude as well as percentage coverage before planning raids, including the basic NW to SE motion of the weather systems). The 8th AF send 300 H2S-led B-17G's to RR targets at Cologne, with full escort (7 Groups of P-47D and 3 of P-38L), and supporting raids by the 9th AF (including the first mission of their first operational P-47C escort group) and 2TAF. OKL chicken out, and take a rest day while the citzens of Cologne huddle in their air-raid shelters and mutter about Goering. Meanwhile, in Italy, cloud reduces activity to some short-range fighter-bomber raids. Stab JG 53 come up to pick off some Hurricane stragglers, but the most serious annoyance is caused by 3 Spit IX's of the Borgo wing in Corsica crashing on landing.

At night BC hit the RR yard at Hamm with 3 Group (120 Lanc III's and 144 Stirling III's) with some light NI coverage of the closest Wilde Sau bases. Again, the Luftwaffe refuses to come up to play, although the chances of a destructive raid are reduced by the propensity of the Stirling crews to attack decoy sites outside Hamm.

In other words, a typical day of attritional conflict by the Allies while the Axis cringe in hiding waiting for their fatigue and morale levels to recover. Nothing exciting to report except the SB score creeping up to 10.

35 lost out of 2298 sorties for the Allies. Zero out of 7 for those workaholics in the Luftwaffe.

[>:]

[wernerpruckner]

22nd October 1943:

[:D]
well rested Bf109G-6 and G-6/R6 units of the Luftwaffe and the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana attacked a huge fighter bomber force....and it became the day of the Kittyhawk fiasco [:D][:'(]

0:77 losses, and most of them Kittyhawks

[fochinell]

the day of the Kittyhawk fiasco [:D][:'(]

Werner's gloating is entirely justified - 68 out of 96 P-40's from the 57th and 78th FG's lost attacking Cacina Vaga AF.

[X(]

There were 3 sqns of P-38H high escorts plotted, but they helpfully turned back at the Genoese coast as the P-40's started to go down, trapped in the usual strafe AF/damaged-by-flak/bounced-while-crippled cycle.

[:@]

Some days even a Galactic Dark Lord needs a little lovin'.

[von Shagmeister]

Hi Gavin,
 
You'll be pleased to hear that "fighter-bombers" are no longer arbitrarily dead meat in air to air combat.

[wernerpruckner]

oooohhh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo [:-]
don´t tell him that  - because the next rematch is me as Allied horde versus Gavin´s puny Messerschmitts [:'(][:D]

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: von Shagmeister

Hi Gavin,

You'll be pleased to hear that "fighter-bombers" are no longer arbitrarily dead meat in air to air combat.

the only trouble is, the P-40 is not a fighter-bomber

[fochinell]

the only trouble is, the P-40 is not a fighter-bomber

Yeah, the problem here was the propensity of fighters on a bombing mission to get sucked into a repeating strafe cycle, ignoring the 50-plus Bf 109's bouncing and killing their squadron mates after they got damaged by Flak on each strafing run of an empty AF. The P-40's should suffer when bounced by 190's and 109's, but this kind of massacre is just like shooting fish in a barrel. Also lost some Spit Vb's in the next turn when returning to base while red and therefore unable to fight back when attacked. [:(]

The killer was the fact that I knew the P-40's would attract a response, and so added some P-38H high escort to cover them (longer endurance, therefore should be able to fight when the P-40's go bingo fuel and would otherwise get slaughtered). Then these heroes turned back before reaching the combat. [:@]

Ah well, managed to get the 8th AF to hit Huls RUBBER and Munster RR last turn for minimal losses (a dozen B-17F's out of over 300).[:)]

[17poundr]

Wow! That looks like a pretty juicy game to me!!! [:)]

[madflava13]

Any action lately??

[wernerpruckner]

hi madflava 13,
 
last three turns was mostly coastal attacks - nothing really important was hit [:)]
 
score is 1/11/11
I had never so much ready pilots at this time in the game !!!

[fochinell]

OK, here's the data for the end of October 1943. Action has been heavily constrained by the weather (no missions on 31st October, for example), and has mostly devolved down to ineffective FB strikes in Italy to keep Axis fatigue up and inflict some losses, while the 8th Af has hit RR yards in the Ruhr and Cologne. A couple of CHEM sites were hit in the last week, with the 8th going to Paris to hit the Kuhlman factory after hitting the Ludwigshafen factory, while 5 Group made a rare visit to the major Ammoniawerke site outside Leipzig. The HB units of the 12th AF have been very quiet due to the poor weather.

A couple of new Spitfire squadrons have joined the OB, while the 12th AF P-40 Groups have entirely re-equipped with the P-47C now that it has been replaced by the P-47D in the 8th and 9th AF.

The top-scoring allied fighter units are:

8th AF - 78th FG (P-47D) 82 kills, 56th FG (P-47D) 75 kills, 20th FG (P-38L) 70 kills, with 19 Sqn leading the RAF 8th AF wing with 32 kills. The 8th has seven P-47D groups, three P-38L groups and the two Spit IX sqns.

9th AF - Two new P-47D Groups have only flown about 2 missions apiece for zero kills, so the two RAF Spit IX squadrons have the kills, with 66 Sqn leading on 14 kills. With two P-47 groups joining the two Spit IX squadrons, the 9th can stop draining escorts from 2nd TAF which should allow my sweep and escort options to open up a bit.

2nd TAF - 222 Sqn (Spit IX) in the Hornchurch wing leading with 22 kills, with 416 RCAF (Spit IX) tied with 132 Sqn (Spit Vb) on 20 kills. There are now 11 Spit Vb sqns and 9 Spit IX sqns available.

The four FC Spit Vb sqns are lead by 616 Sqn with the grand total of 2 kills. Yee-hah!

12th AF - The fighter groups continue to languish, with the re-equipment of the four P-40 Groups in Corsica with P-47C's only taking place a few days ago with no impact on their scores (3 with 1, the new 324th FG with zero), while the four P-38H groups based around Naples lead the way - just- with the 81st FG on 6 kills.

The main fighter force remain the P-38 squadrons based in Sardinia, with only two groups (the 325th and 31st) remaining on P-38H's while the rest are all using the L. The three leading units are 95th FS on 29 kills, the 71st FS on 25 kills, and the 48th FS and 308th equal on 22 each. The 308th is the top-scoring P-38H unit.

Med Air Command has 8 P-40 squadrons doing fighter-bomber work (4 in Corsica, 4 around Foggia) with zero kills, 7 Spit Vb squadrons (3 in Corsica, the rest at Foggia) and 11 Spit IX squadrons (8 in Corsica, 3 in the south). The leading scorers are all Spit IX units in the Borgo wing, with 145 Sqn on 13 kills, 92 Sqn on 11 kills and 1 SAAF sqn on 10 kills.

On the night-fighter front, there are two Mossie NF XIII squadrons (both in 100 Group), and 7 Squadrons plus 3 Flights of Mossie NF II's operating in the UK. The leading units are 68 Sqn with 21 kills, 605 Sqn with 16 kills, and B Flight of 25 Sqn with 12 kills. None of the NF units in the MTO (1 sqn plus 1 flight MAC, 4 Sqns in the 12th AF - all Mossie NF II) have been active yet.

[fochinell]

OK, here are the total aircraft losses at the end of October '43. Overall losses are 3556 Allied (1069 Flak) and 1742 Axis (30 ground). That's got to be the lowest level of ground losses of all time, and the favourable exchange ratio (less than 2 Allied aircraft lost in air combat per Axis aircraft destroyed in air combat) can't disguise the overall lack of quantity; I need to kill more of Werner's pilots than I've managed in October '43. [:@]

The overall lack of substantial action over the past two weeks of game time should be apparent in the detail of the aircraft losses. The only plus point is that the high level of Spitfire attrition has abated a little and the Spit Vb situation is no longer critical. One of the main problems with them are the new units arriving, so I sometimes stick them with surplus P-39's to fill out with new pilots and then gain exp and lose fatigue before re-equipping them with Spitfires and resting selected Spitfire units by exchanging their Spits for Airacobras. This time round I haven't had to bother with that as the weather is so bad that operational wastage is about half of what I expected.

The P-38 and P-47 situation is similar; I've been able to get the P-39 and P-40 out of the 12th AF early due to the availability of the P-38H and P-47C, which in turn has only been possible due to the low level of activity limiting attrition. The P-39 should return in Med Air Cmd with the new French squadrons as a specialised ground strafer (maximum expendability, mes infants! [:'(] ) and the P-40 will stick around for a long time to come as MAC's main FB (3 x 500lb bombload is quite useful).

I'll let Werner post a picture of the bombing damage now [8|]

[Hard Sarge]

over all looking good

the Spit trouble should not be so bad in ours (we got a number of different ones in there, so losses in one area should not hurt another area as bad

(off hand, Vbs, Vcs, VIIIs, IXs plus some HF IXs, LF IXs and the VII and XII)
(I know you know Galvin, I just saying to the gang

FBs and some of the lesser fighters should now defend themselfs much better

the Raid turns red and heads for home slaughter is gone (it can still get hammered) but there is a chance for a returning to base fighter, to pick a fight (before it could only defend)

one works out nice is the Tiffies, you can plot them to sweep a AF and then assign Tiffies to escourt them (which if you remember the rules, adding one or two to close escourt can have good bennies, just don't add too many, as the Flak will have a chance to wake up)

on my end, I can't do anything about the weather, and on the other end, they say the code of the weather looks good, but on the other hand, Weather was the big hangup in the ETO, even the MED where they thought it was going to be sunny 80-90% of the time, turned out to be bad info/dreams

[fochinell]

3rd November 1943 - 2nd Schweinfurt. 96/2527 Allied losses/sorties; 42/1227 Axis.

3 major BBFAC's hit by the 8th AF, with only 3 out of 416 B-17F's lost! [:)] Bombing results indifferent - one plant significantly hit, the others with marginal damage.

OKL concentrate on the escorts, and the Allies lose 28 P-47D's (almost all from the 8th AF) returning with bingo fuel. However, the supporting tactical raids by the 9th AF and 2nd TAF covering the 8th's return over Belgium inflict some useful casualties for the loss of 12 Spit IXs and a few Vb's. The major problem is the loss of 23 out of 72 2TAF Mitchells south of Aarshot. However, fully 20 of these go down after what looks like another "return over enemy territory after making friendly coast" fiasco. To my suprise, they take about 1 fighter down per 2 Mitchells lost, which is much better than their usual defensive score when unescorted.

BC send 3 Group with Lanc IIIs and Stirlings to hit the RR yard at Cologne Nippes for zero NJG response, while only some limited fighter attacks take place in the MTO. The 31st FG in the 15th AF upgrade to the P-38L, leaving one group in the 15th on the P-38H (the four in the 12th AF will stick on them well into 1944), while the B-24D is phased out of the 15th in favour of the B-24J and passed on to 205 Group to begin replacing their Wimpeys.