'43 Grand Campaign AAR - Luftwaffe

[Turner]

Working my way through the action phase right now, will update with results later.

[Turner]

Very much as suspected, the Steyr-Daimler-Puch plant was his target with this unescorted B24 raid. I was prepared though, and he has to fly the return leg over Italy where he will suffer more losses.

[Turner]

#06 - Sunday 22nd August 1943

Today was the first concentrated effort by the 8th to break into German airspace in a big way. The Ruhr was hit by several big massively escorted raids and the Jagdwaffe responded in earnest, upping some 939 fighters to give the yanks a warm welcome to Westfalen. A couple of the raids broke off the main force over Antwerp to bomb engine facilities near Strasbourg, one of which were notoriously unsuccessful at their job thankfully. The other big raid on engine factories was a gang of B24s penetrating italian airspace making a little detour over Banja Luka to bomb the big facility near Graz.

All of these engine factories are critical, and potentially hurt me more than the big raids on the Ruhr did in bombing the refineries. Concerning losses we were doing fine until the Italians showed their splendor intercepting the returning B24s. Sometimes I think it's a mistake to even send them up. But I figure their losses are their problems as I do not care for their italian crates. Oh well, maybe some day they will learn how to fly too.

Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 2
Bf109: 39
FW190: 33 (20 Fs)
Co-Axis: 66 (Italian fireworks)
NJ: 4
Total: 144 of 2147 sorties

Allies
Fighters: 63
Bombers: 92 (Well done!)
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 10
Total: 165 of 2879 sorties

The Allies have in 6 days time lost no fewer than 172 fighters and 149 (day)bombers vs 360 fighters lost by the Axis. I'm not all too pleased with the numbers, but it's not too bad. My primary concern right now is to endure until FW190A-6 production come online at full 43 a/c per day capacity as ordered.

[madflava13]

Wow - big battles there...

Quick question: Where do you place your rail flak units? I consider them some of the most important units you have as the Axis player. Have you moved them around at all?

[Turner]

Obviously the low-level FlaK units I position at important airfields in use and they are much easier to move around than individual guns. The heavy FlaK units I place at important rail connections such as Hamm that need extra heavy protection, or other strategic locations that the allied player is known to target.

[Turner]

#07 - Monday 23rd August 1943

Today was showcasing the capacity of Regia Aeronautica. Bad weather grounded the 8th, so the 15th was conducting business on the Italian peninsula mainly bombing railroad hubs. In intercepting these raids the Italians showed their worth. While Jagdwaffe units if deployed in the area could make these raids more costly for my opponent, they are of little consequence to the overall war effort and the airspace over southern Italy is, given the current strategic situation, undefendable. So these assets have been redeployed in defense of the industrialized areas of Wien, Graz, the Ruhr and Kassel primarily. The raids were very heavily escorted, as the action reports show below, the Italian pilots were facing long odds and had no real opportunity to do damage to the bombers. I would call this baiting by the Allied player (not gamey at all btw), a obvious strategy to force intercepts and attrition on the defender.

Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 0
Bf109: 1 (flown by a Italian unit)
FW190: 0
Co-Axis: 28
NJ: 0

Allied
Fighters: 11
Bombers: 1 (whew, at least the got one!)
Recon: 0
Night F/B: 0

[Turner]

#08 - Tuesday 24th August 1943

Today saw mainly activity in the form of fighter-bomber raids and fighter sweeps over France, Belgium, Holland. 40k recon flights penetrated as deep as München. Over Italy some bomber activity but heavily escorted so today saw mostly fighter vs fighter combat.

Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 1
Bf109: 0
FW190: 2
Co-Axis: 35
NJ: 1
Total: 39 in 850 sorties

Allies
Fighters: 32
Bombers: 2
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 1
Total: 35 in 1567 sorties

The numbers speak for themselves. Considering the recon flight pattern I believe the Allies still have some heavy interest in my engine manufacturing facilities around Kassel and Stuttgart-Strasbourg, as they should. I am guessing though the effects of Sunday's raids on these plans, since 92 bombers were lost it has been realized how well defended this airspace is by now.


Early bird catches worm.

[Turner]

#09 - Wednesday 25th August 1943

Bomber raids in Italy on Cancello Arona, Capua and Caserta rail. Otherwise quiet in the south. Over Germany, 2 strike packages feigned attacks on the Ruhr trying to draw my fighters up but to no avail. The two raids turned back to hit rail targets in Arnhem and Rotterdam without much interference. I did send up small numbers of 109s to test their fighter escort and ended up taking down a few B26s as well.

The main bomber raids of today targeted the Bremen U-boot factories. Against these raids (4 of them totalling ~400 bombers) I sent up a maximum effort intercept with a number of NJ gruppen on patrol some way E of Hamburg, since I did not know how deep these raids would attempt to penetrate. As it turned out the Nachtjagdgruppen were not needed. The ISS Sagan schwärme from FW Cottbus on CAP over the BMW Barsdorf facility was also sent home. My Jagdgruppen took a fairly heavy toll on the B17s over Bremen and on the return leg, as shown by the loss figures below.

Really looking forward to tomorrow, when daily production of the FW190A-6 will increase from 13 to 20 per day. On the 27th another 2 produciton lines come online and on the 29th three more, of the 43/day I have planned. So soon the conversion from Bf109G-6 to FW190A-6 will gain momentum when production no longer just make up for losses.

Leipzig, Halle & Merseburg were targeted by Bomber Command and the NachtJagdGruppen shot down 21 RAF bombers to the loss of only 1 Bf110.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 7
Bf109: 20
FW190: 11
Co-Axis: 14
NJ: 1
Total: 53 in 2079 sorties

Allies
Fighters: 51
Bombers: 55
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 21
Total: 127 in 2506 sorties

[Turner]

#10 - Thursday 26th August 1943

No activity on either front today due to weather.

Tomorrow I will start refitting Bf109G-6 Gruppen with the FW190A-6 type. All Stab schwärmen are already flying the A-6, or in some cases the A-5. I expect pilot losses to decrease slightly and enemy losses to increase slightly at the rate the Bf109 is replaced. Pilots will also be able to gain more experience since they won't find themselves shot down as often.




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The heavily armed FW190A-6/R1, a excellent
bomber killer but quite the lame duck when up
against escort fighters.



In this picture a Jagdwaffe pilot is taking to his parachute after pulling the canopy which was jettisoned utilizing
explosive bolts since aerodynamic force made it impossible to open in flight.

[Turner]

#11 - Friday 27th August 1943

No daytime raids at all today. 5 raids sent by RAF Bomber Command of which 12 a/c were downed at the loss of 3 night fighters. III./JG77 at Lonner Tannen airfield exchanged their Bf109G-6 for FW190A-6 today, will be up to strength sometime tomorrow and ready for action again on Sunday.

[Turner]

#12 - Saturday 28th August 1943

No action this day due to foul weather. Moved around some low level FlaK to protect airfields, nothing else done.

[npsergio]

Hi Turner,
I like the mod that you use in the aces list window.
Can you share it? or post a link to the file?


regards-

[Turner]

#13 - Sunday 29th August 1943

Action Phase:

Something tells me that this package of raids is a completely different animal from what I've seen so far. It does look somewhat intimidating, and I'm fairly sure they are
headed for my engine factories, a/c assembly plants, component factories, or a mix of aircraft industry.
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The first interception orders are sent out and the experienced jagdfliegern of JG53 are all in!
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Some 849 interceptors are ordered into action. That is barely half the number of a/c that the 8th USAAF has in the air here. In this picture the first wave is engaged while
the second wave has just scrambled.
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The first wave seem reasonably successful in wearing down the fighter escort. A lot of Allied fighters returning to base (RTB) can be seen in this picture. The second wave
of interceptors is made up of a good portion of zerstörers with rockets.
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Action Report

I really have no idea what the Allies had planned for this turn, but think that it can be concluded that it did not give the results that were intended. If this was some sort of experiment or a deliberate attempt to strike at my airfields, or an attempt to wear down my Jagdgruppen in a mass fighter engagement... I have no idea. Three Primary Airfields were targeted by viermots, Lonner Tannen, Vechta and Bissel. None of these airfields sustained any notable damage. So I have to assume this was another attempt to engage my Jagdgruppen in a battle of attrition. Perhaps, in an attempt to reduce my # of ready a/c for the next day. Because the vast number of a/c available to the Allies make it possible. Maybe tomorrow there will be even bigger strikes and then, directed at targets that truly count.

Either way... today my Jagdfliegern brought down a lot of Allied aluminum from the skies in what must be regarded a fairly impressive display of what can be done even against escorted raids. My strategy in protecting the German core industries is to have a depth in defense. Farther back the heavy fighters are based and up front in the first wave are the fighters set on engaging the Allied escort, to draw them away from their bombers so that the Zerstörer Gruppen can do their job with minimal interference from enemy fighters. Today, this proved a successful doctrine. I saw a lot of allied fighters tied up in fighter sweeps also, which should have reduced the # of escorts significantly.

The night action was intense and I lost many interceptors to Beaufighters patrolling the airfields. The performance of my Nachtjagdgruppen outweighed these losses however, and overall I'm satisfied with the results. If this is how the Allies will continue to run night ops, let them.

In southern Italy the frontline troops of 29. Pz-Grenadier and 26. Panzer had to endure a day of relentless and never-ending aerial attacks. Especially the 29th is very exposed as I have essentially ceded the airspace to the 15th USAAF, since it is practically undefendable. The resources simply aren't there and any attempt to defend southern Italy in force would only reduce the means at my disposal even further.

My impression is that the Allies missed their target today, but the battle is far far from over. This has only just begun and if the Allies missed their target performance today they can come back stronger and better coordinated tomorrow, next week or next month even. Historically the Germans never could imagine what was ahead of them in terms of what capacity the Allied air power would be built up to, it was just assumed by high command that it was not that big of a deal. Until they were proven wrong, at which point it was much too late.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 9
Bf109: 34
FW190: 20
Co-Axis: 1
NJ: 27
Total: 91 in 2381 sorties & 31 pilots dead, 39 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 56
Bombers: 63
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 68
Total: 187 in 2622 sorties & 101 pilots dead, 76 missing, 20 wounded.


Industry: # manufactured / # ordered - of daily production

FW190D-9: 17/54
FW190A-6: 22/61
Bf109G-5/AS: 0/9
Me410A: 9/9
He219A-2: 2/9

II./JG 51 at Butzweilerhof is today refitting to the FW190A-6, despite there only being 2 available. The gruppen refit in order of experience, so the units that have accumulated the most experience in the 109 get to fly the 190 sooner and become that much more effective in them. The less experienced 109 units are not so lucky.



The Jagdwaffe took a significant toll on the B17 groups this day with no less than 57 airframes lost.



Below I'll show the practical difference between the performance so far of the Bf109G-6 Gruppen vs those equipped with the FW190A-5 and A-6, and why I choose to manufacture the FW190 type instead of the Bf109.


Above are the Bf109G-6 Gruppen listed after kills awarded to active pilots.
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The FW190A-6 Gruppen show a notable difference in kills awarded as well as morale.
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Even the Gruppen equipped with the FW190A-5 show better results than those flying the Bf109G-6.
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[Turner]

#14 - Monday 30th August 1943

Action Report

Today the only action by the enemy was attacks on 29. Panzer-Grenadier Division. The attacks were successful in that the unit's combat value was degraded so much that it triggered invasion of Italy. The bulk of Regia Aeronautica dispersed to Allied air bases to surrender, even Italy surrendered. So... almost all of the movement points this turn were used up to redeploy units to Italy. JG 27 is back in theater, and some co-axis units from the Balkans have been redeployed to the area.

All-in-all, only 8 fighters were lost by the Allies in the raids, and no axis interceptors. No other activity whatsoever, as the picture below shows.

Industry: # manufactured / # ordered

FW190D-9: 17/54
FW190A-6: 25/61
Bf109G-5/AS: 0/9
Me410A: 9/9
He219A-2: 2/9


Allied raids.
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Italy invaded!
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[Turner]

#15 - Tuesday 31st August 1943

Action Report

Better weather allowed the 8th to resume ops, mainly in the form of fighter sweeps and a few airfields were strafed resulting in some lost airframes on the ground. One such fighter-bomber raid took out the Junkers Strassbourg Flugmotoren Werke which had 3 production lines, up til now. I lost 3 of the precious Jumo 213A production lines that are now dispersed to return online in about a month. Several airfields were also targeted by level bombers and sustained damage to service facilities.

A huge group of B17s penetrated as deep as Bordeaux, to hit the numerous aircraft industries there. However weather interfered and only one of the bomber raids dropped on their intended target Bacalan which sustained only 17% damage so the two FW190D assembly lines there remain. Yes, the French factory workers are pretty skilled.

In the south the Allies focused on bombing frontline troops, and they really dished it out. Still redeploying assets to the area and it will be at least one more day until the 15th will see much opposition in Italian airspace.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 3
Bf109: 13
FW190: 9
Co-Axis: 1
NJ: 39
Total: 65 in 1826 sorties & 22 pilots dead, 29 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 36
Bombers: 19
Recon: 6
Night B/F: 12
Total: 73 in 2353 sorties & 27 pilots dead, 35 missing, 10 wounded.


Industry

Despite the many raids on various aircraft industries, daily deliveries remain unaffected.



Fighter sweeps all through the morning.
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Here the B17s have turned for home, only one formation dropped on their intended target.
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Night raids were very well planned and coordinated, as is evident in the loss figures numerous CAPs were set up over many airfields.
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The bomber raids of today and the damage inflicted.
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Losses
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[BigDuke66]

I see you use the Map mod from Nicholas Bell, is it 2.1?
Did you also tried is 2.1c that has the different countries colored?
Or the version with rail lines?

[Turner]

No I do not have the maps you mentioned. Do you have any dl links, would love to try them out?

[BigDuke66]

All here on the forum:
This is 2.1, I think you already use it:
fb.asp?m=2262466

And here is 2.1C the colored version:
fb.asp?m=2342535

Check for screenshots here:
tm.asp?m=2262466

PS
Found the Road/Rail version but the designer says its a-historical:
fb.asp?m=3035591

[BigDuke66]

Maybe you want to try a overall gray map:
tm.asp?m=3205913

[Turner]

#16 - Wednesday 1st September 1943

Action Report

Three fighter sweeps over France targeting a troop and a/c industry in Paris. In southern Italy this day there was a parade of Allied air power on display from early morning until about 2 pm. The raids targeted frontline troops and were quite successful. As soon as one raid left the area another was coming in so the troops were hit practically non-stop throughout the day and the Axis men and machines eventually exhausted. Devastating to the frontline units.

The enemy suffered during their attacks from FlaK as well as interceptors. No night action on this day.


Losses

Axis
Zerstörer: 0
Bf109: 7
FW190: 0
Co-Axis: 15
NJ: 0
Total: 22 in 395 sorties & 5 pilots dead, 9 wounded.

Allies
Fighters: 22
Bombers: 17
Recon: 0
Night B/F: 0
Total: 39 in 1331 sorties & 16 pilots dead, 18 missing, 6 wounded.


Jagdgruppen

Four gruppen were listed to refit to the FW190A-6 even though there are only 23 available this day the following units will be equipped to full strength within days.

II./JG 3 - Venlo AF
II./JG 53 - Gütersloh AF
II./JG 11 - Jever AF
III./JG 11 - Oldenburg AF


FlaK

Frontline troops in Italy were reinforced.