Allied aircraft common nationalities pool?

[Dili]

Is it possible that British, Commonwealth, Australian air units get an aircraft model from a common pool?

I mostly played Japan so i don't know well the other side.

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: Dili

Is it possible that British, Commonwealth, Australian air units get an aircraft model from a common pool?

I mostly played Japan so i don't know well the other side.

Air groups can be set up to draw aircraft from different nationalities' pools, but while it is done for a few groups in several scenarios I've seen it isn't common (again, that I've seen).

My recollection is that when US aircraft were sent to the UK they were fitted with UK armament and radios, but I don't know how much difference other than the paint job there was between, say, a Spitfire in the RAAF, and one in the RAF, etc.

[Dili]

Yeah it is mostly for aircraft of RAF, RAAF, SAAF(Commonwealth nation in this case).

[Ian R]

Yes & No.

There are separate pools for Canadian, NZ, and Aust. Kittyhawk IA, III & IV. And for things like Hudsons, Venturas, B24s, and Spitfires. Canadia has its own Hurricane pool, too. Patrol aircraft as well.

BUT: The "Commonwealth" nationality aircraft pools are available, generally to all of them. Those pools contain mostly carrier capable types, and the Tiger force bombers. (Lancasters, & Lincolns. But not the Lancaster B.1 Spcl - that is RAF only, along with the Mosquito B.35.)

And to complicate things more, the RAAF and RNZAF eventually get their own pools of P51Ds, but they have a normal range on DTs 380nm less than their USAAF counterparts.

There are exceptions that reflect historical anachronisms. There are, off the cuff, and not an exhaustive list:

- A USAAF squadron (group?) that can commandeer some 'spare' Dutch B25Cs in Australia.

- HMS Victorious arrives with USN TBF-1s in its strike group*, which has something to do with its alter ego as USS Robin.

- an RAF wing (broken down into two "5" series squadrons) that turns up in Aust and uses RAAF Spitfires.

- a USAAF Cargo group than can borrow C46As from the Chinese pool.

* I think that if you swap them out, you can't get them back.

[Big B]

There is a way to do this that circumvents the games built in system if it is not normally allowed - but it's a bit time involved.

You will have to go through each individual squadron's upgrade path (for any squadron you want to be affected)and add the aircraft you want shared...
For example, ...if you wanted all (or certain) British, Commonwealth, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand fighter squadrons to be able to draw Spitfire Vc Trop (aircraft #113) - you go to the Air Groups tab, find the squadrons you want, then in the upgrade box - type the aircraft number (in the example 113).

Now, each squadron you did this for is eligible to draw that aircraft from the same pool.
This is the only way to cross all nationality boundarys to make shared pools that don't exist in stock.

It's a lot of work potentially, but it will do what you want.

B

ORIGINAL: Dili

Is it possible that British, Commonwealth, Australian air units get an aircraft model from a common pool?

I mostly played Japan so i don't know well the other side.

[Kull]

Following up on Ian's list:

1) The Dutch B-25C Mitchell pool is shared by an Australian (No.18 Sqn RAAF) and a US Army Air unit (3rd BG/90th BS)

2) The Dutch B-339-23 pool is shared by an Australian unit (No.25 Sqn RAAF Det)

3) An Australian unit (No.22 Sqn RAAF) can upgrade to the DB-7B, after which it draws planes from the Dutch DB-7B pool

4) The H81 A3 pool (the P-40 variant flown by the AVG) is shared by the US Army and China, but the latter doesn't have any air units which can upgrade and make use of it (at least with PDU Off)

5) Kind of an oddity, but the Dutch have a PBY-5 Cat (No. 321 Sqn RAF) that shows up in Trincomalee and can upgrade to the Catalina I, and thereby shares the British Cat I pool. It's technically an RAF unit, but the pilots all come from the Dutch pool.

And there's probably more....

[Dili]

Thanks. If like IanR says the Commonwealth pool is available to all of them then i can deal with it. Also Big B idea. This is for my Med scenario.