ETO Battle of Britain campaign Mark II

[alcanallen]

BoB mark 11

Now after flying 5 sorties up to 31 July 1040 i get this. "As part of the Armistice between our two Nations your Squadron will be disbanded" i thought that Bob went into September some time.is there something iv`e missed?

alcanallen.

 

[33lima]

This campaign evidently follows its own path, independently of history, apart from the date it starts. I got invaded within a few days of starting. If I'd been a lot more successful, I might have invaded France instead (D Day 4 years early), though the odds seem stacked against the RAF.

Campaign fan Daiwilletti has indicated recently the sort of campaign file edits that could be used to delay Sealion - two weeks after the start of serious Luftwaffe land attacks on Adlertag (late August-early September) would be the most realistic early date, giving some tie-in with reality.

Although the CFS3 campaign engine extrapolates your squadron's success rate to your whole side in some fashion, I recently re-read one early CFS3 reviewer complaining that the campaign seemed to have a supermarket trolley style mind of its own, no matter what he did.

Stock, it seems that enemy production centres are the things to attack, but of course in this campaign flying for the RAF you just get intercepts (although I always pick the interceptions with three asterisks signifying the highest value targets). Not attacking enemy production centres may be one reason the RAF campaign goes downhill, so fast. It really does need a fix for a BoB campaign, from my experience - yours too, by the look of it.

 

[33lima]

forgot to mention - try the CAP campaign missions at your peril.

I'll watch out for those! Like Fighter Command I would generally steer well clear of flying any form of standing patrol, as wasteful. And stick to intercepts, unless the navy bullies me into flying air cover for their beastly convoys

The super BoB2 campaign has a mechanism where you can if you wish choose to ignore convoys during the early phase of the Battle; but if you do that, or don't fly enough cover for them, there is a possibility that you will get sacked and your campaign ended early! It was a chance I didn't take.

 

[33lima]

A ‘cheat’ look at the bogies reveals they’re a flight of Defiants! The aircraft faintly visible above them are my own Spitfires.

Shortly afterwards, the Huns show up. At first, there’s just a single bunch…

…then others, who could be friend or foe, it’s hard to tell. Anyway the nearest bunch coincides with the TAC/Controller’s directions to the raid, so I order the boys to attack. Which they accept, confirming that they think the targets are Huns, too. With more ‘blips’ on the TAC than usual, it takes longer to ‘tab’ through them until I get the group I want. On top of that, it would be good for padlocked targets to be a more distinct colour, as pale yellow, while very different from red or blue ‘blips’, is hard to distinguish from the white variety. Which is all that anyone but the most eagle-eyed get to see most of the time. I must check to see if the ‘padlocked’ colour is editable; an amber shade would probably be good enough.

I nose down and look for a target of my own, but see nothing initially. Oh for WotR’s ‘dot mode’ for labels! Of course, I could leave target brackets switched on, but they are very arcade-like. Not for me.

I dive down after the Huns, throttle chopped so as not to build up too much of an overtaking speed. Over to my right, others are also coming down. Escorts intervening? The Defiants pitching in? The latter, I think, but it’s hard to be sure.

There they are! I can finally make out a wide wedge of maybe half-a-dozen bombers, standing out as some of them flit across the tops of the clouds. I started at just over twenty thousand, so they look to be at maybe Angels ten to fifteen. Already, other Spitfires are closing in on them.

Right then, let's be having you!

...to be continued!

 

[Daiwilletti]

I'll watch out for those! Like Fighter Command I would generally steer well clear of flying any form of standing patrol, as wasteful. And stick to intercepts, unless the navy bullies me into flying air cover for their beastly convoys

CAP stands for Combat Air Patrol and covers the scenario of incoming bogies set to attack the airbase or nearby facilities - quite a typical BoB scenario. Nothing to do with convoys. I've been tweaking my campaign xml a bit and am trying to have both CAP, sweep and intercept pop up as three star options at times. Sweep is less of a BoB thing - the mission is to fly over to an enemy airbase (at the max cruising ceiling) and stooge around hoping to shoot down enemy aircraft. More of a 1941 and on scenario. If you aren't getting CAP as a three star option just PM me and I'll send you the ETO BoB (Allied) campaign as it stands.

 

[33lima]

I can now clearly identify the Huns as Junkers 88s.

I'm also by now conscious that there are other enemy aircaft in the area. But they don't seem to be closing with us, so I concentrate on the bombers. Dealing with them will be crucial to the mission's success and thereby to making a contribution towards getting the enemy's jackboots off our green and pleasant land!

As I start to level off, open the throttle again and close in, the Huns start turning right. Apart from interfering with my plans, this suggests they may be splitting up to bomb individually. I had better get cracking!

For the moment, the clouds obscure whatever it is they may be trying to attack...

...so I concentrate on one of the bombers which hasn't yet turned, leaving the others to at least one Spitfire which is curving in after them.

This is a team game and I've set the wheels in motion for the team to fight its battle. Now, it's time for the leader to make a more personal contribution!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

CAP stands for Combat Air Patrol and covers the scenario of incoming bogies set to attack the airbase or nearby facilities - quite a typical BoB scenario. Nothing to do with convoys. I've been tweaking my campaign xml a bit and am trying to have both CAP, sweep and intercept pop up as three star options at times. Sweep is less of a BoB thing - the mission is to fly over to an enemy airbase (at the max cruising ceiling) and stooge around hoping to shoot down enemy aircraft. More of a 1941 and on scenario. If you aren't getting CAP as a three star option just PM me and I'll send you the ETO BoB (Allied) campaign as it stands.

Understand the concept of CAPs (Americanism though it is) but don't quite understand what you mean. Fighter Command didn't generally put up patrols to defend a point target, like a factory or an airbase. When ordered to 'Scramble and patrol base at Angels XX' (or Canterbury, or the line Dover-Folkestone) it was generally to pre-position them to intercept an assembling or incoming raid whose precise target would not be known and which might not be where they where patrolling. Once at their patrol location, they would be vectored to intercept the threat, as far forward (away from the potential target) as possible. Or told to pancake if the threat melted away. References to 'patrols' in logbooks don't signify they were flying CAPs - an interception seems to have been called an 'I Patrol' if the squadron status labels on the 'tote' in ops rooms are anything to go by, as seen in the carefully-restored Uxbridge bunker when I was there last year.



...and yes I did sit in THAT seat.



As you'll know if you've read Gordon Olive's autobio, Fighter Command mounted low-level 'armed recce' patrols over NW France in the early stages of the Battle but they didn't last long.

I'm quite happy to stick to flying only interception missions (or patrols over shipping) in any BoB campaign. As you say, 'leaning into France' is really a 1941 onwards thing, a sort of BoB in reverse.

 

[33lima]

The Hun, who turns out to be a bit lower than my initial estimate, spoils my aim by starting his right turn just as I'm opening fire...

...leaving me breaking away without much to show for it.

By the time I've lined him up for another crack, he seems to be diving towards an airfield I can see through the thin layer of cloud ahead. I really do want to get him now, before he can do any harm down there.

But the best I can do is to cause him to break off his attack, with his bomb load still attached...the external ones, anyway.

I look back at him as I pull up and around for another go, and notice that he's trailing light smoke or vapour. Well, that's a start!

Before I can get after him again, the Hun suddenly goes out of control and plunges earthward, disintegrating as he does so. Right over the airfield he was trying to bomb!

I didn't see any Ack Ack fire or anyone else having a pop at him, so I''ll be claiming that one, thank you very much!

Now, where is everybody?

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

The bomber smacks into the middle of the grass landing area. Hopefully the damage will be easily repaired and they will not hold it against me! As you can see, I haven't come away unscathed.

For my next trick, I latch onto another Ju88, who is coming my way at a lower level, trailing smoke but not going down.

While I'm manoeuvring to get after him, I take the opportunity to have a look around and order some more of the bombers attacked, by squadron-mates who have reported they are rejoining. This one seems to be dive bombing and will be well worth clobbering.

Right, where was I...there he goes, trying to slip in underneath me.

This move forces me into going wide, and when I pick him up again, there are Ju88s going in all directions.

Spoiled for choice, I am!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

I quickly pick up the nearest bomber, not worrying if it's my original intended victim

…and this time there’s no mistake. He breaks up like an over-stressed balsa and doped tissue glider whose restraining rubber band has snapped – you know, the one you loop around to hold the wings onto the fuselage.

Speaking of fuselages, his goes down blazing…

…and smashes onto the airfield. Crashing bombers seem to be doing it more damage than anything else. I'll have to be a bit more careful where I shoot Huns down, next time.

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

I quickly pick up the nearest bomber, not worrying if it's my original intended victim

…and this time there’s no mistake. He breaks up like an over-stressed balsa and doped tissue glider whose restraining rubber band has snapped – you know, the one you loop around to hold the wings onto the fuselage.

Speaking of fuselages, his goes down blazing…

…and smashes into the ground close to the airfield. Crashing bombers seem to be doing it more damage than anything else. I'll have to be a bit more careful where I shoot Huns down, next time.

...to be continued!

 

[Daiwilletti]

CAP as a MissionType is nothing complicated. The stock cap.spawns table mainly calls up bombers or fighter bombers, near your airbase, to attack ground targets. My modified spawns just increase numbers of aircraft and try to add escorting fighters to most spawn events.

In your missions so far, I'm a bit surprised about the lack of other aircraft. The air.spawns file generates aircraft in concert with the intercept.spawns file. In their latest iteration, there are a lot of bogies around!

 

[33lima]

Ah I see - so a Luftwaffe CAP spawn is likely to come along and spoil your day as you're taking off thinking all you have to worry about is the raid you are scrambling to intercept - I like it!

I may well have installed something wrong somewhere and it's only one mission with the new spawns so far, but there were certainly more groups of aircraft around than I remember before. Again early days but what I would most like to see is this sort of thing, resulting from one of Rince33's experimental large formation spawns. They were a bit low and formation a bit wide, but it was close to the credible minimum for a default raid size. Of course campaign mission objectives would need to reflect the fact that your 8 fighters are only going to be able to do so much damage to a formation of 20-30 bombers, even if they have no escort nearby.

 

[33lima]

It's not long before I've latched onto another Ju88, which is tootling along outside the airfield's perimeter track.

A few well-placed bursts settle his hash. He has the decency to crash in open country, outside the airfield boundary.

As I climb up and away I my usual post combat upward spiral, I look back and get a fleeting glimpse of a slender, twin-finned aircraft below and behind me. I pull hard back and only just avoid a burst of fire from the marauding Me110. A few seconds earlier and he would have got me!

I call pull up harder and call for help, leaving the 110 struggling to keep up.

I call for help, but after a few more turns, I get the Hun out in front of me.

He's soon in my sights and I start shooting. But my ammo runs out almost at once!

Happily, the chap who acknowledged my call for help takes my place and fills the Hun full of holes. After which the combat seems to fizzle out. The TAC, once filled with mostly white spots, is suddenly almost empty. The boys are reporting rejoining. So I leave it at that and begin to turn for home, re-setting the TAC to show the leg back to base. At which point, the sim locks up!

What went wrong I don’t know. I took, or tried to take, at least one more screenshot (of the damaged 110) a minute or two before the lock-up, but ended up with a .bmp that I couldn’t preview or open. So it looks like something was wrong before the lock-up. I’ll see what happens when I re-fly the mission!

 

[33lima]

609 Squadron, Chilbolton, late evening, 17 July 1940

It seems that the campaign autosave has given me an alternative to re-flying the early evening mission. Instead, we're picking up again just over an hour later. This time I decide to see what other mission types (apart from 'intercept') are on offer. Lo and behold, though lower-value targets, Combat Air Patrol is on offer, in a closer front line sector. So I decide to go for it.

A pre-take-off check of my own map confirms we won't have far to go - no distance at all, in fact! It looks like we're protecting our own airfield.

I check with the TAC/Controller immediately after getting away. This tells me that the Bandits are over 8 miles out, to my right rear.

The Bogies ahead of us are Hurricanes, higher up...

...while astern and right, the boys who took off ahead of me are turning in to form up.

By this time, I'm tracking back towards our airfield, gaining some height. And the Bandits are just two miles out and slightly left.

Who are they, and what are they? I won't have to wait long, to find out!

...to be continued!

 

[sixstrings5859]

Love your stories . They keep me going till i can play again. Other concerns before getting a new gaming pc....so it may be a while. Sadly,this was one of my favorite hobbies till my pc died unexpectedly.

 

[33lima]

Thanks for that Sixstrings, my pleasure. Hope you're up and running again soon. With classic sims like CFS3 and Il-2 '46 looking and playing better than ever plus more recent fare like WotR and BoX available, it's a good time for WW2 air combat simming.

 

[33lima]

The new arrivals are 109s, coming in low and straight at us.

I order the boys in and sidestep the enemy's first onrush. A rapid change of direction and a tight roll to the left and I'm above and behind one of the Huns.

He obviously knows I'm after him - especially after I start shooting - and throws his kite about the sky this way and that, in an effort to get me off his back.

He finally tries to get away in a steep climb, but it doesn't do him much good. My next burst takes his tail off and the pilot wastes no time getting out of what's left of his aircraft.

That'll teach them for trying to catch us out. Now, who's next?

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

I ended up on my back hanging on my virtual straps after that last pass and recover by pulling back to get the nose down again then rolling out. Not terribly elegant, but it works.

The battle seems to be going reasonably well for us, judging by the R/T chatter. So I pick up on another potential victim who is skitting around just above the deck.

After a short chase, I catch him in a climb...

...and that's the end of him, too.

If you manage to line them up well enough, it seems these 109s don't stand up to well to being showered with .303s. And I still have rounds left, so it's time to see if I can make a hat trick, without becoming a victim myself.

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

I clear my tail with a steep, tight, climbing turn to the right.

　
This brings me into a nice position behind yet another 109, who was possibly trying to stalk me. He pulls up and I start the ball rolling with a deflection shot at medium range.
　

I get some hits and the Hun goes into a tight, fast left-hander. I turn after him, shooting as I come. I didn't notice it at the time, but the Ack Ack boys are also having a crack.

　
Got him!

　
This isn't going at all badly, don't you think?
　
...to be continued!