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Here's the 8th AAF hitting the bearing plant outside Paris. As you can see, the LW still has a decent presence in the area. I'll have to rectify that. I mis-timed a sweep by the 56th fighter group rather badly - they can be seen withdrawing well before the B-17s reached the target.

Here's the results of the raids. A light day. I'll need to step it up!

ORIGINAL: madflava13

The raids in and around Italy... Most units are moving the next few turns, so there will be less raids until they get settled into their new homes close to the front. It appears that, except for the FW190F unit and possibly a 109G-6 unit, most opposition pulled back to airfields across the Adriatic. There's nothing near the frontline, thats for sure. I've also converted several units to B-26s in this area, including both divebomber units. I find the B-26s are perhaps the best combination of offensive punch and survivability in a medium bomber package.

It is not that the Axis units pulled back. All the Italian units were removed after the invasion of mainland Italy. So that left a couple of FW190F units and a couple of BF109G units. I think that some of the Italian units wilol appear in a month or so. Enjoy the empty air space above Italy while it lasts.

It looks to me like you have a lot of fighters included in your bomb raids. Would it not be better if they were on escort missions instead?

Not that I would know since I have yet to have the patience to plan all those Allied raids. I just react as Germany instead.

Edit: Please keep up the good work. It is inspiring to say the least.

Orm,
The fighters you see listed in the bombing raids are escorts. They aren't used as bombers. I probably "over-escort" my raids, and could be hitting more targets, but I am trying to preserve the 8th Air Force until 1944 when longer range escorts are available - I want an elite force that can strike deep into Germany.

I've played several turns since these posts, but didn't have time to take screenshots. I'll try to get some up soon showing the situation in the various theaters. My score has dropped somewhat as well - I haven't been active with Bomber Command because of moonlight, bad weather, and laziness on my part.

I understod that they were escorts but I asumed that they are close escorts and part of the bombing mission when you set it up.

I think that separate escort mission is available and that using that for high escorts (1000 to 5000 feet above the bomber raid) can be used for good effect. You can also launch the escorts later and that way have better coverage.

Once again I reserve the possibilty that I got it all wrong.[:)]

Orm,
That's a combination of close and high escorts - they all show up together like that. I usually have 1-2 units on close escort with 3-4 up higher at various altitudes.

Thank you. Do the escorts have differenty launch times as well. I asume that they have but I would like to verify that.

Do you make your own reconnaissance missions?

I stagger the escorts so there is coverage throughout the route. I'll also often try to set a fighter sweep or two to cover the raid as it withdraws.

I generally let the computer handle most recon, although I will do my own for specific sites I want to bomb in the next few days. When I let the computer plan recon missions, I make sure to change all flights to max altitude - often the computer sets it to 500 feet, which is dangerous over flak areas.

I'll try to post some photos of a raid during planning so you can see how I handle the escorts.

Thank you. I appreciate it. [:)]

Sorry, it's been awhile - had some family medical issues to deal with. I've played many turns, but haven't had time to post. I'll provide some map shots to show the current situation. I hope to have the AAR moving again shortly. Here's the situation in France.

The situation in northern Europe:

And in Italy. As you can see, the Allies have invaded and moved up quite a bit. I've moved all the short range fighters up to the AFs near the front, while the bombers are based farther back...

Here's the top pilots. As you can see, we've lost some top notch aces.

And here's the campaign totals...

The last few turns here, I was held back because of rough weather over Europe. Meanwhile there are few targets worth striking within Italy, given the Avalanche restrictions. I've just been pushing back the railways. Here's the typical weather situation in Europe:

I've run a few more turns since these screenshots. Mostly more of the same, including several raids on UPEN sites in France. I just had a major raid to a 19 point Steel plant in the Ruhr which resulted in over 60 LW planes shot down. My biggest complaint with the AI is its use of heavy fighters within range of Allied escorts - they just get chopped up unfairly. Otherwise I think the AI does a decent job given the obvious difficulties. It moves Flak and single engine fighters around to deal with threats fairly well, I think. The war continues...

Mandatory UFAC targetting. Here's a raid showing how I stagger my escorts on a deep penetration raid like this. I try to have coverage over the whole route - again, I'm trying to preserve the 8th bombers until 1944 when I can really start hurting Germany.

All European raids for the day plotted out including recon.

A list of all of the day's raids. Lighter day, given weather and morale/fatigue issues...