Tough old boot, the airwar over Italy 43-45

[Smirfy]

"No plan survives the first contact"


Carl Von Clausewitz

After the tough fighting round Foggia and Kesselring denying Naples and Salerno for so long, Marshall reluctantly agreed to throw in one more landing North of the Gustav Line as it seemed impossible to breach it in winter. Montgomery's exploitation however of 2 weeks fine weather to drive a wedge into the line started a chorus for the abandonment of Shingle from across the Atlantic led by Admiral King. With preperations at an advanced stage Ike felt there was no choice but to go. This caused a flurry of activity in the air staff as preparations for neutraliasing ports for the landing were well behind schedule due to the resistance in Naples, Salerno and Taranto. Dolittle was heard to curse Admirals as well as Generals now whilst Coningham had little time for profanity as he struggled to find suitable bases for his tactical airforce.

[Smirfy]

"I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat into the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale"

Winston Spencer Churchill

Winston finally gets his wildcat, Juin and Crerar storm the beaches. Kesselring never passive seals off the beachhead then throws back several parachute landings and ensures Anzio will be a thorn in the side of the landings. Always the optimist he assures a worried OKW with unfavorable weather a defence of Rome is possible. Across the front units report that Allied air attacks have been largely ineffective.

[Smirfy]

"Sir, if you want to know the significance of this battle let me tell you within five days you will take your dinner in Triumph on the Capitol"

Marharbal

Problems begin to mount for the Allies, Kesselring cutting the beachead in two means heavy congestion in the Northern sector, isolation on the south forcing most of the Canadian Corps to land north of the Tevere. Thrusts by both French and Canadian Corps fail to take their objectives and Montgomery's advance slows in the mountains. Renewed Luftwaffe activity starts to cause problems over the beachhead as the 1001st fighter wing struggles for supply and 800 Group suffers a logistical nightmare. Churchill starts to bombard Ike with telegrams warning him not to let the battle go "cold". Ike turns to his last reserves, Dolittle's 15th and Tedders airforces to hammer German logistic capability. Kesselring meanwhile radiates optimism

[Smirfy]

"The Bomber will always get through"

Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard Bt GCB OM GCVO DSO


Answering Ike's call Dolittle smashes the Rome marhalling yards for little cost and without escort in virtually his first "dime" raid of the campaign. Eaker recommends Dolittle for a promotion for transforming 15th airforce's performance

[Smirfy]

"We will be fighting five miles above the earth there are no foxholes up there"

USAAF pilot


Coninghams tactical bombers however are savaged by the Luftwaffe on their interdiction missions. The USAAF starts to run out of B-25's! A black week for the Allied airforces losing nearly one hundred machines. Tedder flies to the beachhead and demands 800 group sort out their logistical and support problems and get some Spitfires in the air!

[Smirfy]

"The boys are back in town"

Thin Lizzy

800 Group and the 1001st sort out their logistical problems and decimate Luftwaffe activity in an around the beachead. One of the many victories this week

[Smirfy]

"Doubtless these means of attaining power are cruel and destructive of all civilized life"

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli


Dolittle now has the full confidence of his Bomber force and sends them to the far North of Italy against the Florentine railyards, escorted however this time. Kesselrings grip on Rome loosens and its surrounded by 8th Army

[Smirfy]

Well since the new patch is out there is little point playing on which is slightly sad because I was enjoying the game and it looks like the new patch has made the Italian campaign totally unplayable from an air point of view so Ill post a few screens and observations

Here is the overall losses from the final turn, turn 58, 4921 Allied aircraft destroyed. Despite careful baby sitting, the airforce not even flying for the last period except strategic air and with no Luftwaffe we have an impressivie figure. I enjoyed trying to preserve my airforce but for alot of micromanaging my airforce did nothing to help me actually win. There are plenty of specific problems but I will stick with generalities. The question is would it be fun to micromanage air in another game knowing its pointless, the answer is a resounding no.

[Smirfy]

The RAF losses

The Typhoon, The Lancaster, and the Liberator are practically all training losses (half the Halifax also) niether mark managed to reach my criteria. I tried every method possible with the Lancaster and Liberator setting the thing to 70 in the doctrines, hitting training in the CR hitting rest when they went near 10 fatigues. I even enjoyed forming an OTU with my 3 heavy squadrons bombing undefended targets just over the front with heavy escort and recon. It was a painful process only the Halifax got near the *magic* 70 for the loss of a year and practically 100 of each type. If anyone knows how to train a unit properly I am sure I would not be the only one interested.

I ran out of Kittyhawks pretty quickly close support burned through them and I switched them to ground attack, the Hurricanes were rarely in action due to range and again training issues .

The Spitfires had just hit the buffers as the game was ending and I would have run out.


The mediums suffer losses so the commonwealth units always need training

Pride of place however has to go to my improved performance with Halifax and Wellingtons these two marks really appreciated careful handling.

[Smirfy]

The USAAF

This time round the Liberator had to put its shoulder to the wheel without rookie Halifax and Lancaster units to take losses but I was very happy with their performance vis a vis loss ratio on raids etc. They behaved eactly as you would imagine they would. 15th Airforce flew the most yet had the most realistic casualties

The Warhawks were put on Close support which seems to be a death sentence, they had a wing of Spits flying escort and were rested anytime they got near my criteria but still suffered heavily.

The 51D's never flew one combat mission and lost 12 planes????????

Aircobra mainly operational losses with naval patrol

Some mediums flew with 15th airforce some with Tactical air, I got the impression the crews were happier being in 15th airforce. Bar that one disastrous raid tactical air mediums were always escorted

Thunderbolts and Apaches were just on interdiction and escorted

Spitfire was solely used for Air superiority

[Smirfy]

15th Airforce

Enjoy playing about with these guys very rewarding completing a raid with minimum casualties. The pity is in the Italian scenario you dont get enough stuff to effect anything. El Hefe if your reading this it would be a whole load more fun if you gave the scenario more units from the 15th. I know what you say about strategic targets but they did bomd a shed load of railyards. Discounting bombing effects, which never seemed to effect anything (ref meklore and feedback aswell) the 15th made the airphase worthwhile, well apart from lethargic training anyway. Just try getting those Wimpeys of those elite crews now

I nearly forgot, what is the point bombing at night if you cant hit anything?

[Smirfy]

Tactical Air

Big disappointment did not really effect anything should be the driving force in the Italain campaign and it turned out to be the caboose. I honestly could have stopped using the tactical airforce and it would have made no difference. Only thing it was useful for was Naval Interdiction (and that burns through your planes) and Air superiority (air superiority it was at least fun) which were both essentially defensive. The Miltary situation was always ahead of Interdiction and you just cant get the numbers in the Italian scenario unless you thrash your airforce. Close Air support was just an aircraft burn. did not seem to matter whether it was there or not.

[Smirfy]

Naval Patrol

It is vital in the Italian scenario you get every pssible Naval patrol squadron in the Med otherwise it just becomes an exercise in frustration. So c'mon El Hefe there was an ASW Liberator Group, Hudsons, Albacores, the Middle Eastern Airforce and Gibraltar and the player gets two Squadrons! When you take the 15th off bombing stuff for naval inderdiction your taking away fun.

[warshipbuilder]

Minor nit picky thing here. The only time 420, 424 and 425 sqn. were in the Med was from June to October 1943, flying Wellingtons from Tunisia. From December '43 on, they were with 6 Group in the UK(flying Halifax's), where they had been prior to going to North Africa.

[Smirfy]

To tell you the truth they may as well have been back in the UK for all they done. . But they are usualy quite good with OOB's so I'm sure in a future patch they will be in their proper home