Dear Mr. Possum....

[Preuss]

I just started my first game with your v5. In it you have a plane called the Pe3/21. It's being produced in Gorki, and has performance much like the me-110. On recent air raids against over extended panzers, it worked some nice magic.
I've read extensively on WWII, and have found little mention of this wunderflugel. Can you tell me some more about it, please:)
....with vegemite on top?

[crusher]

Possum your ver 5. is really good the ai almost got control of the sky in late 42 early 43. the germans really had a rough go but managed to hold the reds off. thanks

[Possum]

Hello Crusher & Press.
The Pe-3/21 I put in my custom scenario is actually an amalgam of 2 aircraft. The Pe-3 and the Pe-21. the performance and arnament of both are pretty much identical. The main difference being in construction method. Basically, both of these aircraft are a figher variant of the Pe-2. The Pe-3 was a custom built LR escort fighter for the Bomber corps. But only 160 of these excellent aircraft where built (all prior to Barbarossa). and all were assigned to the 61st Fighter Division of the Bomber Corps, at the start of Barbarossa. The Pe-21 is simply a modified Pe-2 acting as a heavy fighter. (The modification being to add a couple of FF 23mm cannon, in a new solid nose, so no bombardier was carried in this variant.) (The Pe-21 designation is actually a contraction of the designation Pe-2 Interceptor.) Pe-21's were in production for most of the war, untill supplanted by the Tu-21 in early 1945. From what I can gather the Pe-3/Pe-21 was a fearsome beast to face in air to air combat. Like the UK Mosquito, it apparently had no bad points, and a performance you'd expect from a single engine fighter. I'd left it's Manuver value (and most other values to!) identical to the Pe-2 (but It did get me thinking, is the Pe-2 underrated? maybe the Manuver rating of the basic Pe-2 should be about 18-19?) Also Like the Mosquito, the Pe-2 was used for just about every combat role you can think of (It was in production as a Level bomber , Dive bomber, Torpedo bomber, Fighter-bomber, Escort fighter, Night fighter, and Tank-Hunter variants. The thing with the Pe-3/Pe-21 is that it was pretty much a Bomber corps only aircraft, and as such was never used by Frontal Aviation (the army support boys). And of course you never read about the thousands of missions being flown by the Pe-3/Pe-21 airgroups as they escorted the Bombers of the bomber corps on their raids into Germany and Rumania. (I also foud a reference to a Pe-21 Regiment that actually escorted a USAAF B-17 Wing raiding Danzig on occasion too! The Pe-21's would meet the B-17's over the baltic near Denmark, and stay with the B-17's untill they had returned to the Polish-German border.) Oh and the PVO also operated the Night Fighter variant too, but again you never read much about the PVO intercepting the occasional German night bomber raids either.

[Preuss]

I like the inclusion of the new type...but making it a "mosquito" like weapon...well...that makes me a bit nervous.
The German experten...those pilots that survived the war and gained many victories have described shooting down the p-38 much like shooting down the me-110. Though, to be certain, I know these planes performed excelently against many, perhaps less skilled pilots. They were still bigger and had a larger turn radius than the single engine craft.
I'm finding that more often than not, the me-110 is the star of the field, outperforming similarly skilled single engine units in air duels with the Russian fighters. Though it's nice to see when it's your side, one has to doubt the correctness of it. Thoug I can't claim cmplete knowledge...there were no Erich Hartmann-like scores for the 110 pilots.

[Micha]

My experience is that German fighter bombers like the Me-110 often suffer huge losses against Russian fighters, especially when being intercepted by small groups. I have for instance seen results like this: 60 Me-110 against 7 Yak-9 - losses 16/1. I think this is rather unrealistic.
I'm playing the "normal" WiR versions, don't know if there are differences in Possum.

[Possum]

Hello Micha
Such a loss ration vs a Yak-9 is realistic....
Pe-3's would have a simmilar loss ratio vs Fw-190D's too.
Try pitting your Me-110's against I-15's and I-16's (These Aircraft comprise the great bulk of the Soviet Fighter force in 1941)
You should find that it holds it's own against these types.
Remember that the Yak-9 is a "Modern" fighter and as such it is comparable to the Fw-190 series (although Fw-190's are still the better of the two.)

[Micha]

Possum - I know the Me-110 is not a very good dogfighter, and I don't expect them to be really competitive against good Russian fighters. I rarely even have my Me-110 groups on Escort, those air battles usually happen in bombing attacks.

My problem is that very small numbers of Russian fighters often manage to kill an extraordinarily high number of German fighter-bombers in big groups. I mean, although not great dogfighters the Me-110's are certainly not defenceless prey and won't wait to be shot down one by one.

[Bernard]

is this v5 somewher to be found ?
just about to lose as a russian against great opponent:o , so i may start again in v5.
best regards

[K62_]

Bernard,

Try www.davescorner.de