More Summary
Not a bad day's work all round. RAF strength has increased slightly with the addition of a squadron of Hurricane IIa fighters. A squadron has been moved back into Tangmere which had been abandoned for a while after some heavy raids.
T's Luftwaffe seem to have given up on the airfield campaign, although I never really felt under that much pressure in that regard. Although he did bomb Tangmere, Biggin, Kenley, Northolt, Hornchurch and Middle Wallop there wasn't enough concentration or follow up. Whilst I did fully leave Northolt and Tangmere and partly abandon Biggin and Kenley continual raids would have left the London area bases untenable. Hornchurch and Middle Wallop were hardly touched, a major oversight from T in my opinion especially as the Hornchurch Spitfies have been carving up the Luftwaffe. There were no efforts made against other bases in 12 Group, so I've been happy to concntrate my squadrons at those bases.
12 Group has more Spitfires than 11 Group because it gives them more time to climb to altitude to bounce the top escorts. I prefer to use patrols to block potential routes rather than direct interceptions. This means that most of the combats take place over land saving more pilots. Patrols are sent up to block the raids, and in the event of fighter sweeps aircraft are sent up from bases along the flight path to keep them out of the way. Fighters are avoided unless they're escorting bombers. Especially in the early days, I'd intercept recce kites as often as possible. Most are easy kills for Hurricanes and Spitfires, so it's easy experience for the pilots. At the campaign start 66 Sqn were mostly involved in these interceptions. Colt is far enough from the coast that there's plenty of time to climb to altitude and most of the LW recce missions came from Holland.
Things to bear in mind, Gladiators are not good against anything other than Stukas. Once I've got enough spare airframes the Glads will be upgraded to something else, probably Hurris or Whirlwinds.
My Spitfires have racked up some impressive scores, four squadrons each have 30+ kills. Generally the Spits are set to patrol at 25k until ordered to attack, when they are sent to intercept it's usually against the highest layer of escorts to reduce the chance of being bounced.
Hurricanes are your major workforce, their successes have been more limited than the Spits with most squadons having a kill:loss ratio that's fairly even. I suspect this is because they're operating at altitudes where they're more likely to be bounced and their targets are more robust than the 109s. There are no stand out performers amongst the units, although there's a new top ace. S/L John Aitken of 601 Sqn is currently topping the charts. The Huuris have had variable succes against the 109s, they can hold their own against the E-1. They're slightly outclassed by the E-4 with the E-7 being superior.
The Defiants are useful if there's no single seat fighter resistance. I'm thinking about packing mine off up to Scotland, currently they're in position to defend the Humber region where 109s can't reach. The Whirlwinds have only seen one combat so I can't comment on them at the moment.
The strength of RAF Fighter Command after the day's action and the Luftwaffe raids.
