Soft White Underbelly

[Smirfy]

Since I seem to be the bete noire of WitW or the forums at any rate. I'll run through a Campaign I have been doing to see where I, or the game is going wrong. I don't pretend to be an accomplished player and prefer the the immersion and role play escapism to hex carpets, counter shoves and pointless mechanics. I am sure you will be aware in advance not to expect any fancy graphics All input cordial or otherwise welcome. So without further ado a nice AAR. Soft White Underbelly.

“If we lose the war in the Air we lose the war and we lose it very quickly”

B.L.Montgomery

Opening move here trying to get any utility out of my Beaufighters and Nightfighters, you dont know if they have a point until you try. So a couple of custom boxes on the first turn.

The plan is, I think Sicily will be pretty much a first round so I don't really want to expose my Strategic airforce to losses before I attempt to land in Italy so much to Doolittle's chagrin he is largely going to be supporting the army. I'm not worried about destroying the Luftwaffe on the ground plus Flak is overpowered and airfields = Flak. Husky believe it or not planned for the loss of 300 vessels of all descriptions. So I'm going to use Ultra here and interpret the Luftwaffe threat for what it was and destroy it in the air.

[Smirfy]

“Find the enemy shoot him down, anything else is nonsense”

Baron Manfred Von Ricthofen

Okay I have numbers, high Green numbers are good, high Blue numbers are bad got to be careful not to let the fighter pilots turn this into a wild DFC and CMoH hunt. One Hundred and Eighty Axis planes destroyed at little loss. Pretty happy apart from Nightfighters dont do Naval Patrol. What do they actually do? Going to put them on daylight Air Superiority.

Kinda wonder how air detection works after that first turn.

[LiquidSky]

I read somewhere that planes don't do the naval thing at night. If the night fighters are set for night only, they wont fly a naval patrol. The AI also stopped trying to interdict the water the moment it faced the hurricanes I brought over from Africa/Malta into Sicily. I didn't bother putting them on Air Superiority....just parked them on the airfields for interception.

[Smirfy]

“Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die”

Blue Oyster Cult ME262

Turn two and the Luftwaffe intends to go down swinging. We have got high Blue numbers which I assume arnt good, not only that we have Red Hexs! I am assuming without reading the manual that is bad. But to me the number that matters is five hundred Axis planes have been downed, again at an excellent exchange rate. I believe in preserving my pilots for Italy and unfortunately have played this game long enough to know there is not much the Allies can actually do on the ground in Sicily that is worth the “Bones of one British Grenadier” or pilot

Now Im going to play this fairly sensible. Alexander and his Staff prepare Operation Trent Bridge the Invasion of Italy at Salerno. Mark Clark's Fifth Army will storm ashore here in force in a prepared operation to be supported by the Eighth Army at a later date on the Southern Italian Coast just west of Taranto (Operation Chester le Street)when landing taskforces become available. Arthur Coningham's 5th Tactical Airforce will redeploy to Sicily as soon as the situation allows to support both operations. Coninghams staff begin facilitating the upgrading of Spitfire units to the latest model (at a reasonably believable rate). The Coastal Airforce Blenhiem's convert to Mosquitos and the first Tyhpoon squadron appears. Unfortunately as aircraft they are too cool not to. Now if only Beaufighters had some utility after all a couple of Squadrons ran Biscay perhaps specialist coastal aircraft get bonuses, just a thought, anyway on we go.

One thing I did not do which someone probably has, is actually deployed allied Flak in numbers to Sicily, does this harvest more Axis planes?

[Smirfy]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky



I read somewhere that planes don't do the naval thing at night. If the night fighters are set for night only, they wont fly a naval patrol. The AI also stopped trying to interdict the water the moment it faced the hurricanes I brought over from Africa/Malta into Sicily. I didn't bother putting them on Air Superiority....just parked them on the airfields for interception.

I ended up just using them by day as the Luftwaffe did not seem to threaten me by night. Im still not sure they did much. I actually forgot to bring planes over first turn but got them coming over after that.

[Smirfy]

“Between Scylla and Charybdis”

Unknown Greek, I'll go with Homer


Turn three, Dolittle claims its Messina and Reggio Calabria and not so much the Luftwaffe casting their malign influence down the East Coast of Sicily and seeks permission to take them out with his heavies. Alexander refuses, too much flak. Flak=losses. Alexander plays the long game here, priority repairs in Siracusa and Catania should help nulify the threat and presently all the supply is coming over the Southern beaches and ports and he is fighting a low intensity campaign which all being well is not taxing on supply. Manuever should bring Messina.

Seven hundred and twenty one axis air losses suggests the Axis cannot maintain this intensity.

[Smirfy]

“What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?” “…My health, I came to Casablanca for the waters.” “The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.” “...I was misinformed.”

Captain Renault and Rick, Casablanca

Every picture tells a story and this one could write an espionage novel. The Axis bomb the embarcation ports for Operation Trent Bridge. French North Africa was alive with spies even in late 1944, the Germans knew the ships were preparing to invade Southern France they had a lot more forewarning than DDAY they did not know where but with Anvil they knew when. Intel sadly is not really part of the game. Anyway in my AAR the Gendarmes are rounding up the usual suspects after that air raid. Alexander holds his nerve he has thousands of miles of coastline, Sicily is in the bag and the Axis air weapon has been broken

Nine Hundred and Thirty Four Axis aircraft destroyed

[Seminole]

Turn three, Dolittle claims its Messina and Reggio Calabria and not so much the Luftwaffe casting their malign influence down the East Coast of Sicily and seeks permission to take them out with his heavies. Alexander refuses, too much flak. Flak=losses. Alexander plays the long game here, priority repairs in Siracusa and Catania should help nulify the threat and presently all the supply is coming over the Southern beaches and ports and he is fighting a low intensity campaign which all being well is not taxing on supply. Manuever should bring Messina.

I would side with General Doolittle here.
Reducing ports reduces the flow of supplies, and reduces the ability to stockpile supplies, this has the effect of increases enemy losses and reduces your own. Lost freight also equals lost equipment in a reduction from production pools to simulate the destruction of replacement stocks amongst the freight. IF supplies can't flow, then replacements cannot be received. Supplies are the lifeblood, and draining your opponents blood from the start is a good strategy. Refusing to do so in order to save your airplanes for WWIII is a mistake. Just watch your production and adjust your mission rate to keep losses below that. Time is not on your side.

In short: Doolittle wants to kill Krauts and break their war machine, and it will have the added bonus of reducing the naval interdiction on the ports you intend to count on for supply that are currently blockaded by naval interdiction.

A week's bombing by 4-6 bomber groups in an air directive covering both ports should shut them down for as long as you'll need to capture Sicily. Use the Recon Fortresses to observe your damage. With P-38 escorts everyone should get through and flying over the target at 21,000ft I haven't seen bad flak loss. Have you changed the settings in any of the air doctrines from default?

At the start of turn 5 I'm showing:



That is flak losses that are <15% of my total losses, and I'm flying my bombers out to destroy ports and rail all the way up to Salerno and Bari. But this is against the AI

Not sure what the lost Axis air frames are. Be careful of putting too much stock in numbers that might be largely Italian at this point. You'll see high operational Axis losses due to automatic naval patrol by the Italians.
In my same game, at the start of turn 5, 36% of 1028 Axis air losses are Italian.

[Smirfy]

I would agree with you except for one caveat, the Axis tend to withdraw from Sicily very quickly so I'm unconvinced any Allied loss in Sicily is worthwhile. In Italy you tend to burn through your Wellingtons pretty quickly and you cant change them all to Halifax's for some reason. You could go Mitchell but I always think there more sort of tac ops in RAF service (not that I would swap them all out because they flew operations in theatre right up to the end for immersion purposes and I do like the Wellington) So Alexander has to keep Dolittle on a tight leash until the main event begins.

[Smirfy]

“I did not bother about that, it would have meant enormous casualties. It wasn't necessary.”

B.L. Montgomery

The butchers bill for Sicily, a small price to pay to rebase the Tactical Airforce in Europe! Alexander is now Marquess of Messina as well as being the 1st Earl of Tunis, Coningham receives a peerage. Dolittle wants of the leash! No Glory for Patton or Monty in this campaign nor the next phase both relegated to support for the main Operation, Trent Bridge in a intricate deception campaign, Operation Blaine.

[Smirfy]

“In practicing low-altitude flight, the pilot should make certain the propeller tips touch the water”

Written order, Hans Jeschonnek

If I thought the Allied operational losses are bad the Axis ones are catastrophic, Coningham can feel hard done by only getting a Peerage! A two for one loss ratio in my favour. The vulnerability of the Wellington even on tactical operations is graphically demonstrated. After the Sicilian campaign Curtiss sent a team of specialists to the theatre to demonstrate to fighter groups how to get the best out of the machine as pilots began to express disquiet about their mount. The RAF Kittyhawk pilots seemed content enough with their machines even though rumours began to circulate that they would be switching to ground attack missions.

The Defence of Sicily cost the Luftwaffe dear

[JeffroK]

Not visiting Sardinia??

[Smirfy]

Ike being privy to the negoiations between the Allies and the Italians is waiting until the Armistice until he commits troops there. At the minute he is bluffing De Gaulle that Sardinia and Corsica will be invaded and then the South of France, all part of Operation Blaine. De Gaulle believes the Free French Corps are being prepared as part of Pattons 7th Army for the invasion and we know how leaking French headquarters are. In reality Patton will cross the straits into Italy in support of Clarks Landing at Salerno and the French Corps will take Corsica and Sardinia once the Italian armistice occurs.

[marion61]

Not sure if you know this but you can use the wellingtons effectively for naval. Load them with mines. You should use coastal af, tac af, and strategic af for naval interdiction. Axis should never get naval interdiction on you. Also Id bomb the crap out of every port nearby so no one escapes by sea. You can have 9,s in those sea hexes.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: meklore61

Not sure if you know this but you can use the wellingtons effectively for naval. Load them with mines. You should use coastal af, tac af, and strategic af for naval interdiction. Axis should never get naval interdiction on you. Also Id bomb the crap out of every port nearby so no one escapes by sea. You can have 9,s in those sea hexes.

I noticed the MINES loadout on the Wellington, now know what it's for....Naval Interdiction missions. Good to know.

What other loadouts work best for Naval Interdiction? Torpedos I know, but should you use more, smaller bombs? Rockets or no rockets?

[marion61]

Mines are best, then torpedoes, then rockets, then small bombs. That's how I do them. You really want ac that can linger in the box. The longer they can fly, the more interdiction you'll have. The CR has all the weapon systems and they explain their uses.

[Smirfy]

Yeah good to know and I will bear it in mind for the future but like all Bomber Barons in my AAR Jimmy Dolittle would see such a diversion as heresy. I'm trying to get some Mitchells to jon a Naval Patrol mssion and they just would do it whats up with them? (or me)

[marion61]

Check the options for that directive, under the groups option you can check the no fly box at the bottom and see why they aren't flying.

[Smirfy]

Thanks Meklore that is one helpful button. Okay so I was up to turn 48 ish (and it was a very interesting campaign but further to the dabate on the sea transport thread Im going to test keeping aircraft round my shores so I will continue from turn 5. Which is the best method for doing this just leave the aircraft on airfields or have big patrol boxes?


"Nothing Should be denied which will nourish the decisive battle for Naples"

Winston Spencer Churchill to Harold Alexander


The Task ahead, not going to change my landing zones no matter what is encoutered. Dolittle is let off the leash to start wrecking ports and Railyards with Strategic Air.

[Smirfy]

"A good Plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week"

George Smith Patton

Patton not content to be part of an elaborate deception campaign see's his chance and takes it, without orders catching his own superiors and the Germans by surprise crossing to the Italian mainland with 2nd armoured division. Alexander orders Mongomery to support who then throws the only available units from XIII across the straits in support.Allied units start rushing to Messina.