To Fly or Not?

[BK6583]

I believe this has been covered so apologies in advance. Playing Allies in the D-Day 44-45 campaign. When hits France and Europe in general, should I keep the air forces grounded and resting - specifically: Still fly tactical interdiction and ground support but not city bombing? Or none of the above?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: BK6583

I believe this has been covered so apologies in advance. Playing Allies in the D-Day 44-45 campaign. When hits France and Europe in general, should I keep the air forces grounded and resting - specifically: Still fly tactical interdiction and ground support but not city bombing? Or none of the above?

You want to hit the axis really hard on the invasion and the next 3-4 turns very hard and very sustained.

So everything needs to build up to that big blow out.

In the build up I'd rest all my tactical bombers - these are key to delivering interdiction etc. I would still use the 2 and 4 engined bombers. The 2Es can hit rail interdiction and rail yards. Equally using the strategic bombers to go for rail yards is good preparation - all this undermines axis resource moves.

I wouldn't do tactical interdiction. that works best as a tool to hit movement or stop the movement of supply from depot to unit. The Germans won't be moving much before the actual invasion and they should have their depots pretty full.

[BK6583]

Ok Loki - I should have been more specific. I'm in July now and rain pours over France and Europe. Use AC? Keep bombing cities? Tactical support? Interdiction?

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: BK6583

I believe this has been covered so apologies in advance. Playing Allies in the D-Day 44-45 campaign. When hits France and Europe in general, should I keep the air forces grounded and resting - specifically: Still fly tactical interdiction and ground support but not city bombing? Or none of the above?

You want to hit the axis really hard on the invasion and the next 3-4 turns very hard and very sustained.

So everything needs to build up to that big blow out.

In the build up I'd rest all my tactical bombers - these are key to delivering interdiction etc. I would still use the 2 and 4 engined bombers. The 2Es can hit rail interdiction and rail yards. Equally using the strategic bombers to go for rail yards is good preparation - all this undermines axis resource moves.

I wouldn't do tactical interdiction. that works best as a tool to hit movement or stop the movement of supply from depot to unit. The Germans won't be moving much before the actual invasion and they should have their depots pretty full.

[loki100]

if you are in France then you need airpower so keep on with a mix of interdiction-GS-railyards etc.

Keep an eye on fatigue and morale, poor weather will cause more problems than good weather so be prepared to rest more formations so they can recover.

My feeling is you can only start to reduce your air commitment once the Germans start their retreat back into Belgium. At that phase you may as well rest the tactical airforce till the front lines re-establish.

[HMSWarspite]

I agree with Loki. I tend to fly pretty much regardless of weather but adhere to strict rest regimes for morale and fatigue. Generally I fly in all but the very worst weather but units get to rest more often. As long as casualties don’t rise you don’t suffer from flying unsuccessfully. Now, ops losses will tend to rise some but I find this isn’t a huge factor. The one exception is deep SB sorties where the losses to fighters don’t drop and if you aren’t doing any damage you lose out, but you probably aren’t flying deep SB raids just after DDay... I wouldn’t fly in ‘poor’ or below for SB. On the other hand if you had broken the LW and we’re winning the air war I would fly even then (never managed that by the invasion though!)