'43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

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Turner
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'43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Just started a '43 GC 700 turn game with TaggedYa. We have agreed to make one AAR thread each here for your enjoyment so that you can read both sides to the story as it plays out, and a third thread for open communication between us playing. This is a gentlemanly agreement as none of us can prevent the other from reading the others AAR. We ask you to respect this and not disclose sensitive information to the other player in these threads.

My first setup turn is sent so he's busy planning recons and whatnot. I'll update with pictures etc once he hand it back to me.




Update: This seems to be very slow starting and I'm waiting to hear from 'TaggedYa' with turn #02 and him to put up his AAR thread before continuing with this AAR. I have the habit to save the game file for each turn in order to be able to go back and review so nothing will be lost.




Image

If anyone know how to get Johan Wallin's artwork in prints that'd make my day. I've tried to reach him by mail and phone but not had any success.
"There are no desperate situations, only desperate people." - Heinz Guderian

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Turner
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

August 17th 1943

The first day was, as expected, mostly recon flights. My pilots managed to down no fewer than 12 recon flights, 9 fighters and 26 night bombers for a total of 47 enemy aircraft down to the loss of only 5 of our own. 1 109G-6, 2 190A-5, one 109G-6/U4N and a 110G-4 were lost.

This day due to the numerous reconaissance sorties by the allies the LW actually flew more sorties trying to intercept. This is not common, but I wanted to get as many recon flights as possible to interfere with his plans hoping to delay his intended action somewhat. It does put some additional strain on pilots who'd otherwise enjoy a day of rest, but we bagged a dozen and at that loss rate he'll have to start to pick his recon flights more carefully.

There were three bomber raids on coastal targets I did not interfere with. Then there was one fighter bombing raid on the Ruhrbenzin refinery between Wesel and Bottrop, near Krefeld AF. Thinking it was a fighter sweep I let it pass but when they started bombing I scrambled nearby units to take at least some of them on egress. Apparently there were about 160 allied fighters and fighter bombers in that raid and my pilots managed to down 9 of them, with many more damaged from flak. This raid surely display the capacity fighter bombers have in destroying strategic targets, when used in numbers. Holten Ruhrbenzin AG refinery is down with 90% damage.

Braunschweig, Magdeburg, Dessau were hit by RAF night bombers. The first two cities took severe rail damage, but a fair number of intruders were also downed.

Industry wise the first turn is a chore. According to our agreement I'm not allowed to go for any of the Ta152s until at least one squadron (minimum 12 a/c) is active and flying with the FW190D. So naturally that's where my research goes now. The D-9 does not offer much in terms of bomber killing capacity, it's about even with the 109 in that regard. What it might offer is a better capacity to deal with escort fighters before sending up the heavy fighters with rockets and whatnot. Right now however it's a matter of enduring the retooling of the industry to get more 190A-6s out of the factories. I certainly am not a fan of the 109 series, it will be phased out completely.

One flyer managed to score 3 kills in one night sortie, well done! Picture below show the scoreboard.

Hals und Beinbruch!!!


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cohimbra
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by cohimbra »

AAR subscribed!
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

August 18th 1943

[The forum just splendidly ate my entire post, as I was logged out during the time it took to edit.]

Today the enemy feigned attacks on the Ruhr in a massed appearance of 5 heavy bomber formations penetrating as deep as Krefeld, only to turn back hitting targets in the Amsterdam / Utrecht area. This triggered a mass intercept which resulted in mass fighter engagements since the bulk of the escorting fighter force could remain with the bombers.

This was something I did not expect and the obvious intention of the enemy in this action was to engage the Jagdwaffe in numbers with big escorted formations playing his strong hand by numbers, and in that they succeeded today. Jagdwaffe pilots downed only 12 heavy bombers for the loss of 39 fighters (some of which were destroyed on the ground at Deelen) and 12 heavy interceptors. In Italy three airfields were bombed. Italian pilots added to the overall losses with some 39 aircraft, hardly impressive.

All in all this was a high price to pay in men and machines against raids that largely could have been left on their own. It will be a big problem if this is how the enemy run operations. Interceptors may have to remain grounded until such point that enemy intentions are known in order to spare men and machines. This could mean waiting until bombs have already been dropped.

Assets at hand are glaringly inadequate in both numbers and quality, some very difficult choices have to be made and all axis fighter pilots are suffering for it not to mention civilians. Though no night bombing raids this night.

Currently I'm hard pressed to redeploy assets where needed.

Losses
Axis: 91
Allied: 45

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by madflava13 »

Following this with interest. I'd be interested in hearing more about your choices for production - specific models, how you plan on effectuating the change, where you'll be building them, etc.
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by npsergio »

Keep the AAR coming!
I'm playing the Luftwaffe in a 44 campaign, and I'm interested at knowing some other's tactics.

I know that 43 and 44 are very different for the axis side. Do you use single engine with rockets and extra guns? And if you do so, do you order to use the extra armament in the post action turn phase, or do you order it during the action phase? I'm curious becouse I don't know if you, guys, think that to order to use extra guns during the action phase is some sort of gamey or not.

I would like to know if you send patrols, or you order interceptions, do you send 4 planes groups, or fo you send entire JGs...
If you send patrols, do you send them towards the BGs path in orfer to maximize the probability of a frontal attack, etc?
How will you manage the experience and moral? Deployments... A lot of questions, I know it, but it could be an interesting discussion.


Regards
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

August 19th 1943

This day saw action on all fronts. Allied air raids in Italy are targeting airfields and railyards but I have to give that TOA a lower priority than the attacks on industry in Germany. So all JGs stationed in Italy have been pulled back to defend the Ruhr, including the 190F units (Schlachtgeschwadern). By far the most devastating attack this day was the Daimler-Benz facility at Stuttgart, a 10-sized factory. It was already in retooling so it does not affect operations directly, still a heavy blow to take this early on. The attacks were all timed so that I had few interceptors available when the deep penetration raids showed up. Thankfully these raids were not heavily escorted all the way to target so it was possible to deal some damage in return.

All in all a very interesting day. On the loss count; 9 heavy fighters, 25 Bf109s, 14 FW190s, 12 co-axis, 21 NJ. Inflicted losses on the enemy were not bad, but not great either; 43 fighters, 42 bombers, 1 recce and 4 night bombers. So apparently the NJ units suffered and it was very obviously because of numerous Beaufighter CAPs on their airfields. I've not gotten around to rebasing the NJ units yet but they will be reorganized as soon as the JGs are where I want them.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 9
Bf109: 25
FW190: 14
Co-Axis: 12
NJ: 21
Total: 81

Allied
Fighters: 43
Bombers: 42
Recce: 1
NightF/B: 4
Total: 90

Image

Industrially I'm enjoying management powers free of interference from political intrigue as well as prestige and profit interests. So with the dictatorial powers at my fingertips I can order any factory to manufacture whatever is practically useful to my Jagdfliegern. Historically this just didn't happen, and the factors I listed were some of what interfered with the operational capacity of the Reichsverteidigung.

Anyway, the only logical way of dealing with the situation in '43 is to manufacture FW190A-6s. Yes they are poor performers at higher altitudes however they have a couple critical aspects to them and the most important one is toughness, the 190 can take some punishment helping pilots survive (!) and it brings some more guns to the fight so experienced pilots will be that much more effective in them. Maneuverability wise they are equal to the 109G-6. So it is a no-brainer really. So I'm retooling up to a level of 40-per-day currently, while the Bf109G-6 remains at a lower level of 26 a/c per day. The Bf109 will be reduced lower it is just that I do not want to be completely without daily replacements right now in case I take heavy losses for several days in a row. I'm likely going to retool the 6 and 4 Bf109 assemblies to the G-5/AS type once the 1-unit 190 assemblies come online in 7 days. The G-5/AS is the only aircraft available at a reasonably early date (Jan '44) capable of reaching even the 40k recon flights and thus make a good choice for the höhenjäger units for recce intercepts. It also has a maneuverabilty rating of 36 (1 point better than the G-6 and A-6) so should be ok with intercepting escort fighters as well.

The toughness of the 190 is critical in keeping your pilots alive. It is not so much a positive attribute of the 190 as it is a negative attribute of the 109, which was simply piss poor at taking damage and the game reflects it well. I'm of the opinion that the 109 should not have been manufactured in large numbers past '43. It had reached its design limits and more suitable designs should have taken its place.

The FW190D-9 I'm aiming for a 38 a/c per day rate. This should make the Dora available in Nov-Dec '43 and probably sooner than later I would hope. It has a good maneuverability rating at 37 and speed putting it on equal footing with the P51. If available before '44 it can really help get the heavier gun packages to bear on the bombers, which is what it all comes down to. For that reason I'm retooling for a rate of 9 Me410A per day. It is still a viable long-range interceptor within the Reich (and France) even if it is expensive in that it requires 2 engines. This production capacity will later (in 2-3 months or so) likely go towards the He219 (it uses the same engine) of which I'm already retooling for a 7-per-day rate.

I'm contemplating retooling the Italian industry to take up some FW190A-6 lines as well, for afaik the BMW was not as challenging to manufacture as the DB line of engines.
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

To answer some of your questions...

I find rocket attacks particularly effective for the Me410s, for they could carry more of them. I also tend to use rockets on the FW190F units, because they should be considered as 'zerstörer' units to be positioned farther back close to critical industry you want to protect. The FW190A-6 should be left in its basic configuration for the simple reason it will help in keeping your pilots alive allowing them to build experience. With that experience they will become very dangerous once equipped with better hardware. I like to keep some of the staffel detachements in the /R1 configuration but they should not be used around allied fighters as their maneuverability is so poor. The /R1 configuration is very effective in taking down damaged stragglers though!

I never change gun packages in the action phase, did not know it was possible and it should not be possible. Surely the change could be done in a matter of hours for one airframe but to change a entire Gruppe is a overnight task, not a daytime activity. It should not be done daytime and yes that would be a gamey tactic.

Patrols are useful to get the early morning recce flights which otherwise are typically on their return leg by the time your units are ready to up. They are also useful in saving fuel/endurance to manually direct intercepts. To not be able to alter altitude once airborne is a limiting factor though. What I've seen is that patrols go to 20k automatically when you change their location and that limits their usefulness a lot.

Recce flights I intercept with 4 or 2 a/c. When intercepting bomber raids you should send the whole lot. Concerning morale and experience that's not something you can bother yourself with this early in the game in my opinion. Only if morale is very low should you consider grounding the unit for a while, at that point the unit is probably also in need of both pilot and a/c replacements so it's probably the best anyway. Experience is not a factor you don't have the luxury to pick and choose. The pilots who survive combat are likely to gain experience and without combat there is not experience to gain. So don't be afraid to use units with low experience but perhaps you should place them farther back so that they are less likely to face the vicious gaggle of allied escort fighters.

That's all for now. Let me know if there's anything else you want to know, or if the above answers felt inadequate I'll try to explain better.

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by BigDuke66 »

Is it realistic to retool the Italian factories to German production?
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Historically I don't believe they ever were, but we are taking extraordinary measures here which is what's required to win the war. Historically that wasn't really done either. I mean in early '45 German aircraft manufacturers were still competing for the 'Emergency Fighter Program' contract.

I've not started any retooling of Italian industry yet but am considering doing so in the facilities up north in the Milan - Pisa area. 5 more 190s per day does make a difference and seeing how good my opponent is in getting the bombs to where it really hurts my pilots will need those airframes. The Italians are hopeless really against the heavies and I do not care for their own fighter types. If the axis are seriously attempting to win the air war the Italian manufacturers may have to swallow their pride and make German planes. I'm already tooling and schooling the French factory workers in how to make FW190s!

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by cohimbra »

Hi, in my opinion it could be a good idea to produce 'junk' a/c in the Engines, Parts and Assembly factories
that are more exposed to allied bombing (Italy, France, Holland, Romania); for example, in Italy you can build
Re.2005(that is not junk, it's one of the better a/c you can have), in France, Holland & Romania you can build
all your Bf 109, so you can take your heavy production of Fw 190 etc etc in the heart of the Reich. Just an idea.
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Well, all a/c production is critical industries especially the engine factories. If I'm going to pay the penalty in daily deliveries to retool any of them I'd want to do that for something useful and the only really useful day fighter in '43 is the FW190A-6. One can even go to such lengths to refit all Jagdgruppen with the A-6 even if you don't have enough to equip all of them, meaning they will be greatly understrength until your production has caught up in replacements. This would put all your Bf109G-6 into the pool so that you can refit co-axis units with some better junk than the worse stuff they start off with. One of the advantages of that is that you'll save most all of your pilots from risking their necks in the flying casket Bf109. The obvious drawback being that for a week or two the allied player will enjoy air superiority wherever he want to bomb.

My best facilities in the Reich are the research facilities, they need to be the best protected in order to secure the supply of future better aircraft. The situation is really really bad already in '43 at the start of the campaign and the only sensible thing to do is to pull all available Jagdgeschwadern into protecting the German aircraft industry positioning them accordingly, within range of the factories. If the allied player dare to risk hitting the core industries he'll have to pay for it. I consider all industrial assets outside of Germany low priority already from the start of the campaign.

Historically the German high command had a lot of prestige to upkeep and political propaganda was thick of refusing to see the seriousness of the situation for what it was, to the point of being counterproductive to the war effort. So fighter units were positioned to be vulnerable and the pilots were blamed for the failures of proper strategic planning. That's what slowly but surely killed off the experienced Luftwaffe pilots in the air as well as on the ground.
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Creeper »

thank you for the detailed AAR and all the infos, Turner!
[:)]
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Something happened to the forum, it was down for a while and now some posts are missing including my August 20th AAR. Will have to do it again I guess.
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Friday August 20th 1943

The baiting continues with raids of 30-some heavy bombers and 100+ fighters. It is obvious what his intention is with that strategy, to drag me into a battle of attrition against his fighters. I can not penetrate a fighter screen of 100+ escort fighters so the only choice i have in the matter is to target his fighters, or not fight at all.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 0
Bf109: 14
FW190A: 9
Co-Axis: 14
NJ: 2
Total: 39

Allies
Fighters: 30
Bombers: 3 (!)
Recon: 8 (Mainly in Wien-Graz-Budapest area)
Night B/F: 0
Total: 41

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Here is the current standing in the fighter league.

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Saturday August 21st 1943

No action today most likely due to the bad weather over the continent. I can live with that, it buys me a bit of precious time.

Current score after fifth turn.

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Currently playing through turn #06, Sunday 22nd August 1943. I do believe something BIG is brewing in England... some fighter bomber raids in this picture, look at radio activity.

Image



So here they come, it begins. This should get interesting if the radio activity is any indication...

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Caption this...

Image
I do believe this is the real deal. He's going for the Ruhr, or beyond. Intercepts have been called accordingly. This is a maximum effort, now let's see what happens...
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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by Turner »

Maximum effort, let's see how his flying fortresses cope with 939 of the Luftwaffe's finest!

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RE: '43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

Post by cohimbra »

Losses?
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