Question about setting up fighter escorts for bombers

[ch53A/Dvet_slith]

When, manually, setting up bombing missions against enemy airfields how do you provide fighter escorts from take off to landing?

A) Assigning fighter squadrons the attack command against the same airfield target?

B) Assigning fighter squadron's within range of the bombers base and target to Air Superiority?

I'm a little hung up on sending fighters to the target with the attack command, most, are listed as dual purpose Fighter/Bomber's containing a specific weighted payload. I'm unsure if the attack command is generic for both mission types or specific for ground target missions only. I'd like to be able to protect my bombers from take off to landing, the manual is a little vague on whether or not the Air Superiority command includes providing fighter escorts to bombers from takeoffs and landings as long as the mission is within the fighters operational range.

[TheeWarLord]

B. Air units on air superiority will escort automatically in range.

[Hellen_slith]

Advanced Rules seem to indicate that escorts are not always automatic:

Must pass Quality Check and Range Check

which meshes with my experience of not getting escorts with some of my missions, esp. if shock is high and proficiency is low.

YMMV.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: Hellen_slith
Advanced Rules seem to indicate that escorts are not always automatic:

Must pass Quality Check and Range Check

But presumably the bombers fly regardless of whether the escorts pass these checks? That seems sub-optimal...

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

But presumably the bombers fly regardless of whether the escorts pass these checks? That seems sub-optimal...

From experience, your fighters will be there unless they are in a seriously bad shape.

As per the previous poster, if you have a disorganised air force (a shock penalty or low proficiency) it's possible and not unreasonable that the fighters won't show up.

[ch53A/Dvet_slith]

Once, when I was using the Air Assist to run things in the background I set up a planned attack involving ground forces.
I didn't choose any other units (air, land or sea) to participate in S/2 support of the battle. When the battle was over I was surprised to see, listed in the after action report, that a single fighter squadron had S/2 supported the battle in the role of escort. However, all that effort was for naught, as no other aircraft participated in the battle that day, friend or foe.

This is what perplexes me when trying to utilize, correctly, all the various pieces of the game.

Thanks, to you all in trying to helping me grasp the mechanics of this game.

[governato]

In my experience if the attackers actually have global Air Superiority (as from the beginning of turn assessment) and the units on AirSup are within range they seem to work well in their role to escort bombers. Sometimes you get defenders planes set on AS to join as well...

follow up question tho: I have not checked the log files but what happens if ground units with AA capabilities are in the airfield hex? Do they get a shot at the attacking planes? They surely show up in the loss report (which was not happening in TOAWIII) but never show any casualties.