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Day #17 - Thursday 2nd September 1943

Action Report

A couple of bomber raids accompanied by a gaggle of escorting fighters attacked airfields in France. Numerous fighter sweeps as well. On the Italian front there was the regular parade although less intense probably because of interfering weather conditions. The frontline troops are strained from the relentless aerial attacks. No night raids this day.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 0
Bf109: 5
FW190: 1
Co-Axis: 2
NJ: 0
Total: 8 in 309 sorties & 5 pilots dead, 3 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 57
Bombers: 2
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 0
Total: 59 in 1591 sorties & 31 pilots dead, 25 missing, 6 wounded.


FlaK

Frontline troops in Italy were reinforced.




A view of the situation on the southern front.
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Some of the stats I'm tracking using Excel, the above is a composite image from different sections of the spreadsheet.
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Day #18 - Friday 3rd September 1943


Action Report

Challenging weather today and the Allies resorted to fighter sweeps over the low countries. In southern Italy the raids bunched up in packages to hit windows in between the clouds. Only 8 interceptors lost while the Allies lost 13 of their fighters.

Only two more days and FW190A-6 production will be up to 41 per day.



Challenging weather in the West.
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Challenging weather in the South.
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Still the allies managed to send raids against the troops in Italy, finding a gap in the clouds.
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Scoreboard
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Day #19 - Saturday 4th September 1943

Action Phase


Never before seen a radio activity of 1300!!! It actually peaked well above.
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This is going to get ugly.
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First wave is engaged, some of the fighter bomber raids to the south have actually been forced to turn back!
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Second wave is crashing headlong into the massive bomber formation of several hundred viermots.
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The damage has been dealt. Engine factories! Allied fighter sweeps in Italy wiped out 20 or-so a/c on the ground.
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Now to try and maximize damage to the returning bombers, many if not most are now damaged.
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Action Report

This day radio activity peaked above 1300 with a massive effort by the Allies over Germany. Day bombers hit engine factories around Kassel primarily, but other areas were hit as well some even bombed at night. What is troublesome is that this is what the Allies have the capacity to do, despite my best efforts. On the positive side, I doubt the allies are happy with the damage dealt and the Jagdwaffe pilots managed to give a good serving in return downing no less than 95 Allied bombers. A considerable number that will be felt and affect morale for weeks. My losses will be regained within days but production rates at the damaged sites will be affected for weeks as well. The outcome of today I have to assess as close to a draw, the uncertainty factor is too great. We will not know for some time to come if today's effort was good enough.

The many NJ losses were because of the abundant night fighter patrols over German airfields. These patrols very effectively take out NJ-fighters in the landing pattern since the routine seems to be to light up the nav lights and landing lights when landing. At which point the Beaufighters can sweep in and take them out with ease, few of the pilots who fall victim to this tactic survive.

Some 20 fighters were lost on the ground in strafing attacks on Frosinone AF where two Gruppen of JG27 + Stab were located. After this attack they were relocated to Paderborn as continued efforts against the engine factories are bound to take place.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 9
Bf109: 49
FW190: 29
Co-Axis: 20
NJ: 59
Total: 166 in 3060 sorties & 47 pilots dead, 67 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 65
Bombers: 95
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 27
Total: 187 in 3748 sorties & 90 pilots dead, 86 missing, 16 wounded.


FlaK

Frontline troops in Italy were reinforced.

NJ: 59, these looses look very high, where does that come from?

Beaufighter patrols over NJ airfields primarily. My opponent plan these meticulously which is very time consuming. Few have the patience to bother, but this guy is very much into the details.

I'll edit and clarify in the post.

Day #20 - Sunday 5th September 1943

Action Phase


After a morning full of fighter sweeps, and severely understrength Gruppen after the day before, this won't be a great afternoon.
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Stuttgart engine factories hit, day and night fighters are called into action.
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Action Report

All morning was fighter sweep time and one raid took out ~20 FW190s of JG26 on the ground. It was my mistake, having overlooked the fact that most of JG26 was deployed on the same Airfield (Hody) without low level AA. Most allied bomber raids on Stuttgart hit the jet factories there that are not yet operational. I believe this is a bug which in effect destroyed part of my opponent's planning. Not particularly great for any of us to have broken features. In Italy there were raids on troops.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 9
Bf109: 16
FW190: 25
Co-Axis: 10
NJ: 29
Total: 89 in 1024 sorties & 27 pilots dead, 24 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 48
Bombers: 23
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 0
Total: 71 in 1804 sorties & 40 pilots dead, 29 missing, 4 wounded.


Losses so far this campaign.
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The raids over Germany.
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The scoreboard.
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Campaign score so far.

Did you modify the map?
The font of the bigger names looks great, would you mind sharing it?

ORIGINAL: BigDuke66

Did you modify the map?
The font of the bigger names locks great, would you mind sharing it?

Hey, the Feldgrau Map (by Turner) is here: tm.asp?m=3425699&mpage=1&key=�
in the post#1

Thanks!

Day #21 - Monday 6th September 1943

Action Report

Today the enemy targeted two major engine factories, BMW Barsdorf and BMW Spandau. Both assemble the BMW 801D radial for the FW190A. Spandau took 100% damage and is out for a long time, Barsdorf took 60% damage and will repair sooner but for some time ahead I've lost 15 engines per day in production. It is a good thing I have 153 of them in stock, they will be sorely needed. Daily production of BMW 801D radials is down to 18 per day, which is quite far from what is needed in order to equip the bulk of the Jagdwaffe with the 190A type swiftly. It will be done, despite the delays.

What is equally bad is the fact that some of the Jumo 213A factories have also been bombed out, further delaying the 190D type. We shall see how the situation develops, I still have a daily production rate of 43 FW190A-6 so long as the stock of engines last, which will be crucial in rebuilding the Jagdwaffe into a potent fighting force. Right now the situation is very bad as I had single digit numbers of ready a/c per gruppe this day, and the situation is deteriorating further due to the attrition from daily attacks.

Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 0
Bf109: 5
FW190: 0
Co-Axis: 9
NJ: 19
Total: 33 in 814 sorties & 11 pilots dead, 8 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 2
Bombers: 30
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 15
Total: 47 in 1175 sorties & 25 pilots dead, 15 missing, 12 wounded.


The raids of today.
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Day #22 - Tuesday 7th September 1943

Action Report


British Bomber Command was active tonight, otherwise not very much activity.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 0
Bf109: 0
FW190: 1
Co-Axis: 3
NJ: 23
Total: 27 in 729 sorties & 14 pilots dead, 9 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 8
Bombers: 4
Recon: 1
Night B/F: 10
Total: 23 in 993 sorties & 10 pilots dead, 8 missing, 5 wounded.


This turn 429 FW190A-6 were in the field, of which over 300 have been built over the course of the past 22 days. The gruppen alotted the type are all fully equipped now so next turn it should pool meaning more gruppen can make the switch from Bf109 to FW190. Currently building at a rate of 43 per day but the stockpile of engines is declining quite rapidly since only 8 BMW801Ds are built per day.

Did some changes to industry reassigning 2 of the Me410 lines to FW190A-6 and FW190D-9 production each. Given the situation any 2-engined day fighter production seems like a waste of resources and perhaps even Messerschmitt will have to swallow their pride and build Focke-Wulf designs. We'll see about that next turn, after all the Me410 is useful because of its long range.

Day #23 - Wednesday 8th September 1943

Action Phase


The Allies playing the strong hand by numbers. Not much I can do about this there is no chance to reduce the effectiveness of these bomber raids. 884 intercepts called, late as forced by low ready numbers and strained resources.
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Stormclouds gathering.
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Forces clash. Here the weather is also showing.
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Fighting a losing battle. Kassel area was hit again and all engine factories there are now out of action. It was at about this point I realized the last raid egressing was actually headed the wrong way (return to target bug) and I called off further intercepts on that raid.
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Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 1
Bf109: 38
FW190: 36
Co-Axis: 0
NJ: 4
Total: 79 in 1481 sorties & 22 pilots dead, 41 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 34
Bombers: 81
Recon: 1
Night B/F: 0
Total: 116 in 1514 sorties & 61 pilots dead, 52 missing, 4 wounded.


Raids this turn, do you see the pattern? This is the strategy that truly strangle the Axis player.


Industry

a/c type - active production/total ordered (engines delivered/total ordered)

FW190D-9 - 35/61(8/79)
FW190A-6 - 45/61(8/57)
Bf109G-5/AS - 0/6(0/5)
Me410A - 4/4(19/27)
He219A-2 - 4/9(19/27)

Me410 and He219 share same engine type. As you can see I'm all in industry wise for D-9 and A-6 production, not much compromise there. However due to the Allies effective day bombings of engine facilities delivery numbers remain alarmingly low. I am hoping for a break in weather, or low bomber crew morale forcing a break. The expected bad weather of November is still many weeks away.


By necessity a few gruppen redeployed from Italy to protect engine factories in Germany. For the first time losses were recorded on the B17G type, 19 downed. 62 B17F airframes went down as well. These losses are too low to have any lasting impact on the 8th and Luftwaffe losses were today high. Given the current situation it would seem the Allies are winning the war of attrition. It all depends on how many new fighter aircraft the Axis industry can deliver.

When a *FAC took 100% damage vs AI, it close and reopen in another place (40 days x 1 slot, if
I remember well); it happens the same in a pbem game?

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Yes same rules apply.