When do escorts really sweep?

[Telemecus]

Have to thank eskuche for bringing this to my attention.

Fighter sweeps by the manual are just ordinary bombing missions with the bombers deselected. But in the battle details we can see some fighters are actually listed as "sweep" and not escort. How is this decided? Do they get the sweep bonus?

[Telemecus]

Here is a similar mission where none were allocated to sweep in the battle report!

[eskuche]

Thanks to telemecus to taking the initiative for my lazy butt

The reason behind the questions is that sweep mode fighters supposedly get a bonus vs. CAP per the manual. It’s also very confusing terminology because as a non military historian I had no idea what Combat Air Patrol was or how it was acronymed...

[morvael]

It wasn't something I ever visited or investigated, so I'm in the dark just as you.