ETO Battle of Britain campaign Mark III

[33lima]

59 Squadron, Fairoaks, morning, 10 July 1940


This could be a short series of mission reports, since I decided to see if and how this campaign supported flying an RAF bomber. The notion came to me after browsing the Haynes manual on RAF Bomber Command - possibly not one of my better ideas, but we'll see!

I'm assigned to lead No. 59 Squadron, assigned to Coastal Command after operations in France and flying the long-nosed Blenheim IV. We're based at Fairoaks in Surrey, which was apparently a civilian airfield that was taken on by the RAF pre-war and use mainly for training. Our first mission is to attack shipping in the Channel. It's only a low-priority '1 star' target but I forgot to check if better were available.

This isn't a scramble so I've time to check out my map before we climb aboard. There's not much to see - just a single leg down to the target.

Time to get weaving! Here I am about to start up, at the head of four Blenheims, with the other four in the air and waiting, as usual. The sun has only just come up above the eastern horizon.

Fortunately, one thing I did remember to do, now I'm flying bombers, is check our bombloads. These were set to two 250-pounders plus some rather puny depth bombs. I changed this to four of the 250 lb variety. With these aboard, the take-off run was fairly long and far from sprightly, but otherwise unremarkable. As you can see, our aircraft carry the correct squadron codes (technically, identity letters) for Fifty-nine, 'TR'.

Once the gear is up, my kite can manage a slow climb. The other four Blenheims are circling to my right, three of them being visible in the pic below.

As the boys begin to form up on me, I begin a lazy turn to the left to get us onto our plotted course.

It's a quiet start, but it won't stay that way for long!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

The peaceful early morning scene comes to an abrupt and violent end. An explosion erupts just behind our base's hangars, amongst the station's administrative and accommodation buildings. My first reaction is that one of our Blenheims has come an early cropper.

But then the whole area is blasted. We're being ruddy-well bombed!

I open the throttles and get away from there as fast as I can. Fortunately everybody seems ok...so far.

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

Our base is in fact being subjected to a low level attack by a squadron of Dornier 17s!

The Huns aren't having it all their own way, however.

This is why. They're being intercepted by some Spitfires!

Aware only of the bombing, I'm just happy to get away unscathed. Throttles still wide open, I slowly come around onto our course to the south-east. Our base and the aircraft buzzing around it fall away behind. The peaceful early morning scene returns...for now.

...to be continued!

 

[FlyingsCool]

These are so awesome. Thank you. I love your writing style.

 

[Daiwilletti]

Great idea to try bombers! At present the Missiontypes for bombers are limited, you could always add more from the stock campaign.xml, and tweek the MSP values to suit. (eg. strike missions against ground targets.

<Tip> If you choose a sector (one of the squares on the campaign map) with a Port in it, the MissionType="StrikeFactories" mission for that sector is nearly always the Port facility.

You always get an escort when flying a campaign bomber mission. Looks like it is Spitfires this time.

<Tip> Checking loadouts before a mission is always a good idea. I "cheat" for shorter missions especially in a less capable fighter, and use a low amount of fuel. This translates to all my wingmen and means we are more agile when engaging with the enemy. Trouble is the low fuel loadout influences the choice of available mission types for the following campaign mission (due to shorter range); until you change the fuel amount again. More quirks of CFS3

 

[33lima]

Many thanks for the feedback and the tips, guys!

Meanwhile, back on the mission, we clear the vicinity of the airfield without further incident. If nothing else, the air raid was a useful reminder that this is not your average CFS3 anti-shipping mission; it’s being conducted to counter altogether more intensive pre-invasion air and sea operations, thanks to Daiwillettii’s new spawn files.

Anyway, on we go. We haven't seen a Blenheim cockpit yet; but just to prove I don't fly the whole mission in the external view, here's one now. The ring and bead sight is all we have for our single fixed forward-firing Browning.

I warp until near the coast and check my map. To its right is one of my replacement briefing texts, which as you can see is a bit longer than for the interception missions, which are all close variants of 'Get off the ground now!' As you can also see, it is not yet typo-free!

I do wish that the default warp height could be just a little more campaign-mission-sensitive, instead of twenty thousand feet every time. Fifteen thousand would be fine for interceptions or some types of bomber missions (the player could always put on another few thousand, on the approach to the target). And one or two thousand feet would be enough for typical shipping strikes, pinpoint attacks, close support and the rest. Again, the player could come out of warp early enough to avoid terrain or to pop up to whatever height he reckoned he needed for the attack. If it can only be a single height for a campaign mission, ten thousand might be a ‘least bad’ compromise; CFS3 isn’t primarily a heavy bomber simulator so the big, four-engined tail shouldn’t wag the smaller, single- or twin-engined dog. But I digress…

The sun's a bit higher now...

...and our Blenheims make a fine sight against its amber rays, Dark Green and Dark Earth above, and Sky below.

The coast is now just ahead. Beyond it lie our targets....and goodness knows what else!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

I notice some aircraft on our right, which turn out to be Spitfires. Company, or escort? They're not in the usual position for the latter, above and behind, so I'm not sure which they are.

We cross the coast at Brighton...

...then I warp again, until we're under ten miles out from the target, knowing I’ve got a lot of height to lose. I reduce the power and push down the nose. Power, attitude but I don't bother to trim - which is lazy of me, but the forces on a short, mostly plastic joystick are not especially tiresome, are they?

Suddenly, Bogies are spotted to our right, beyond the Spitfires. If I hadn't got the TAC turned on, I would have been unaware of them, as it's the only report CFS3 will give us of such sightings.

The newcomers close in. Looking up in the direction indicated, I can see a shower of fighters on a converging course, splitting up as they pass above us. We’re being intercepted!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

The new arrivals are Messerschmitt 110s.

They and the Spitfires seem to be irresistibly drawn to one another, leaving us to carry on...for the time being.

A big air fight develops behind us as scan the sea ahead for any sign of the enemy ships, whuch the TAC/navigator assures me are just a couple of nautical miles away and slightly left.

There they are! Just three of them, it appears.

Back in the day when I first played CFS3, my usual method for dealing with ships was to orbit them just outside flak range. Every so often, I would order a different ship attacked, which sent in a pair of attackers. This meant that the squadron would come in from different points on the circle, without too big a time interval. As these attacks usually took time to develop, I would watch, wait and go in only when I saw that other attacks were already under way. So the enemy was attacked from different directions and I wasn’t the sole target for the flak.

This time, however, there are enemy fighters close by and I want to get in and out again before we’re attacked ourselves. So I order the boys in, pronto, ensuring all three ships are receiving attention. I’ll still delay my own attack until they are making theirs. I'm not that gung ho.

I draw some flak and open my bomb bay doors in readiness...

...revealing the four 250-pounders inside. I believe that in reality, Blenheim bomb bay doors were held closed by bungee cords and were opened by the weight of the dropping bombs!

Come on boys, we haven't got all day! Let's get it done and then make ourselves scarce!

...to be continued!

 

[Daiwilletti]

This is great. The bomber dimension of campaign play is sadly overlooked.

The natural point of approach of the AI in anti_shipping missions is about 3NM astern. If time-pressed (ie the thought of 4 x cannons up your lug-hole in the form of an Me110), launching the attak whilst approaching the ships from 3NM astern will mean the AI bombers go straight in without too much wafting about.

As for the warping height for bombers - that is set by the cruising altitude for the aircraft and needs to be edited for individual aircraft. But it may be worth me doing so for the campaign package, so thanks for the suggestion. For the Blenheim, right at the bottom of the xdp file it reads: <Aircraft MinAlt="50" MaxAlt="6462" CruiseAlt="4572" etc. I'm not sure if adjusting the cruise altitude works, or if I need to adjust the .cfg file also. Actually there is no similar parameter in the .cfg file, the only other place could be in the .air file, but I think editing the .xdp will suffice.

NB if you don't lead your level_bomber wingmen down in altitude, they release their bombs at the cruise altitude which can be rather inaccurate from a great height. For tactical_bombers it is a different story.

Most Blenheims seem to be set as level_bomber.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next progress report

 

[33lima]

Thanks for that Daiwilletti, an air-dropped sea mine of useful information as always

So if I've got this right, A/C type (eg level or tactical bomber) determines AI behaviour but cruising/warp altitude is that setting in the .xdp file (and .bdp spin-off). And in campaign missions anyway, is not affected by the mission type selected.

I presume scripted missions use their own intra-waypoint cruise altitudes instead, so for present purposes, we need only consider the effect of editing this .xdp setting as regards campaigns.

Anyway 15-20,000 feet is WAY too high for Blenheims. For example, the Haynes Bomber Command 'manual' says 'During 1941 and 1942 the Blenheim squadrons of 2 Group CONTINUED [my emphasis) to carry out low level daylight bombing raids against targets in occupied Europe'. I appreciate that Coastal Command also operated the bomber variant in the GR (General Reconnaissance) role but we could treat the same way.

So if we're to check and correct aircraft cruise altitudes, this is what I'd suggest, with compromises for playability in mind as well as realism:

Primary role ---- Cruise/warp height (feet) --- Typical types

Interceptor or escort fighter --- 18,000 --- Spit, Hurri, 109, 190A or D, P-38, P-47 razorback, P-51, F4U, F6F, Me110/410 fighters

Heavy bomber --- 18,000 --- Lanc, Halifax, B17, B-24

Medium or dive bomber --- 13,000 --- Wellington, Whitley, He111/Do17/Ju88, Ju87A/D, B-25, B-26, Me410 bomber

Torpedo bomber, light bomber, close support/ground attack --- 2,000 --- Barracuda, Beaufighter, Blenheim, Battle, Hurri IID/IVD, Typhoon, Tempest, Hs123/129, Me110 Jabo, Ju87G, FW190F/G, P47 bubbletop, TBF

Lots of compromises there - eg treating the razorback P-47 as an escort/interceptor and the bubbletop as a tactical aircraft, and all P-51s as the former. Not TOO far from reality.

Heavies I'm suggesting at 18 rather than 20,000 because interceptors and escorts have to deal with both those and medium bombers; we don't want them WAY too high for the latter, as happened all the time in my BoB ETO campaigns.

For the BoB mod, where we don't have to worry about heavies coming in at 18,000, interceptors and escorts could be rated to cruise at say 15,000 and if playing them, the player can decide if he wants to go higher (to protect against possible escorts) or stay there or go lower (to concentrate on bombers and risk any escorts) and come out of warp in time to do so. And vice versa, if flying an escorting 109 or 110.

Anyway I'm going to edit the Blenheim bomber .xdp to set cruise altiture to 2,000 feet and see how that works.

PS I wonder if these cruise altitudes apply to just the player warping - or ideally, do they cover the altitudes that campaign spawns cruise at, too? I'm sort of assuming and hoping for the latter!

 

[33lima]

Calls on the R/T confirm that the others have singled out their targets and that attacks are in the making. Finally, steeply dive-bombing aeroplanes over the ships and splashes near them indicate the party has started. Unfortunately, accuracy seems to be lacking. I don’t see any hits at all!

The good news is that despite quite heavy flak, no-one has been shot down. I narrowly escape proving myself wrong when, in all the excitement, I make a needless pass over the ships, drawing a lot of noisy but happily inaccurate flak. As you can see, the ships' wakes give them this semi-submersible look - I'm fairly sure it's not from damage.

Time for me to go in! Where are they? Ah yes, over on my right. So I roll hard that way, to line them up.

Not for me, all this dive bombing lark. I have already made up my mind that I will bomb along the line of one of the larger ships, from close to masthead height. As I come in, I can see that other Blenheims are now making what look like diving strafing attacks. With only a single fixed forward firing gun against all that Flak, it seems a very foolhardy thing to do.

Blenheims are still milling about as I come in. Apart from the lack of rocket trails, the sight reminds me of those pictures of a Strike Wing's Beaufighters in action. Same company, different (and more effective) aircraft! Back to the business at hand - I pick out the large ship on the right for the chop. I’ll be dropping by eye, from the pilot’s seat.

It's certainly all very exciting - those fighter boys clearly don't have the fun all to themselves!

..to be continued!

 

[Daiwilletti]

Thanks for that Daiwilletti, an air-dropped sea mine of useful information as always

So if I've got this right, A/C type (eg level or tactical bomber) determines AI behaviour but cruising/warp altitude is that setting in the .xdp file (and .bdp spin-off). And in campaign missions anyway, is not affected by the mission type selected.
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Anyway I'm going to edit the Blenheim bomber .xdp to set cruise altiture to 2,000 feet and see how that works.

PS I wonder if these cruise altitudes apply to just the player warping - or ideally, do they cover the altitudes that campaign spawns cruise at, too? I'm sort of assuming and hoping for the latter!

Thanks for your thoughts on cruise altitudes. I think that mission type does affect the altitude the player flight comes out of warp at. There seem to be two scenarios where cruising altitude is influential. One is for bombers on all missions, the other is for fighters on intercept/sweep/recon missions.

For fighter_bomber ground attack missions, the height that the player flight comes out of warp is always the same - 5000 feet, with escorting fighters about 500 feet higher. So setting the cruising altitude for fighter_bombers won't affect ground attack missions AFAIK.

For this discussion, fighters and fighter_bomber can be used interchangeably.

For non-player flight spawned aircraft, spawn files can have the altitude specified, in the stock spawn set the spawning altitude is not often set IIRC. It may be that for enemy fighters which are the objective in intercept/sweep/recon missions, and the altitude is not set in the spawn file, then the cruising altitude in the xdp may be the default.

I'm sure this could all be set out far more coherently but my brain is on strike today

 

[33lima]

Ok if the .xdp cruise altitude is used as a default if the spawn file doesn't set one, then I'm thinking that it would still make sense to check and adjust the .xdp settings to the sort of settings above. That could be done as part of this update, or later as a mod to the update if it turns out still to be worthwhile.

Anyway I have in the meantime adjusted TR-K's cruise altitude to 625 meters, which should at least establish if that works as a warp-to height for whatever missions types I fly next - I can test a variety, to check the effect of mission type if any.

Incidentally reading earlier today the chapter in Ralph Barker's 'Strike Hard, Strike Sure' on Hughie Edwards VC, I see the Blenheims on the epic Bremen raid went the whole way in and out at about fifty feet! But I see also from Geoffrey Wellum's 'First Light' the 'bombing height' for the 12 Blenheims 92 Squadron's Spits escorted on their first such mission about the same time (to Boulogne) was 12,000 feet. I reckon I'll stick with 2,000 as it seems low level strike was the 'default' Blenheim mission and that height would also be reasonably suitable for other 'tactical' aircraft.

One other thought - as it would likely be preferable if mission type determined the warp altitude, the thing to do would be to edit the setting there. For example the shipping strike I just flew shows that if my warp alt was set by THAT mission type, it is set way, way too high. I wonder if this is hard coded or editable.

 

[33lima]

Bombs away! They drop in pairs with satisfying clunks, and I pull out of my shallow dive.

The good news - for me if not for the others - is that the Blenheims already milling about have drawn away the flak. Nothing nasty seems to be coming in my direction, as I come off the target.

The bad news is that despite the different technique, my bombing accuracy isn't much better than anyone else's – probably doing splinter damage or pushing in some plating, at best. I'm guessing that there’s only two waterspouts because the bombs were dropped so low as closely-spaced pairs.

All this way for nothing! We must be a badly-trained bunch. I should have remembered from making rudimentary airstrikes in Atlantic Fleet that crossing a ship at an acute angle is a better way to get a hit, if only with one bomb from a stick. Perhaps dive-bombing would also have been better, though that’s what the others did, with even worse results from what I saw.

Turning for home, I nearly run into the rest of the squadron coming the other way, apparently keen to join up again.

At least we’re all still in one piece! Now it’s time to see if we can stay that way. I confirm the order to form up and set course for home.

I should have thrown in a dog-leg return route. But in the aftermath of all that excitement, I'm instinctively following our unimaginatively-plotted course, straight back to base. And straight towards the air battle we recently left behind.

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

Bogies are soon reported ahead, between us and the coast. But I'm more concerned about the blood-red bunch of Bandits which is suddenly snapping at our heels!

They're 109s, obviously intent on spoiling our day.

And they're above us, as well as behind. This isn't looking good!

There are at least some Spitfires amongst the aircraft up ahead of us - and it looks like they're coming to help us.

But they're too late! Fighter attacks are now coming in from behind, and the first Blenheim is soon on fire.

It's now Devil take the hindmost and a long way to go!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

As for the warping height for bombers - that is set by the cruising altitude for the aircraft and needs to be edited for individual aircraft. But it may be worth me doing so for the campaign package, so thanks for the suggestion. For the Blenheim, right at the bottom of the xdp file it reads: <Aircraft MinAlt="50" MaxAlt="6462" CruiseAlt="4572" etc. I'm not sure if adjusting the cruise altitude works, or if I need to adjust the .cfg file also. Actually there is no similar parameter in the .cfg file, the only other place could be in the .air file, but I think editing the .xdp will suffice.

I just flew a first mission in a new test campaign with TR-K, with a cruise altitude set to about 2,000 feet by editing her .xdp file: <Aircraft MinAlt="50" MaxAlt="8620" CruiseAlt="625" . When I warped, I went up to over 23,000 feet. Same as before I think. Mission type was Anti-ship (coastal), that and Anti-ship (water) being the only options available at this early stage. I definitely deleted the .bdp file and allowed it to regenerate from the new .xdp source file, after making the edit, but I will do that over again and repeat the test, to eliminate that source of error.

So it seems that either I messed up something in what should have been a simple edit, or this cruisealt value is not used in anti-shipping missions (at least). Which suggests it may be no more than a sort of default safety net, used if at all, when nothing else is dictated by the mission type, by that spawn option you mentioned, or by the inter-waypoint settings in a scripted mission file.

Only one test mind you, bit even so...

Leaves me needing to look for something editable which could specify the cruise/warp altitudes for each mission type. And if it isn't hard-coded, testing edits to that.

 

[Daiwilletti]

Darn, I had read somewhere that Cruisealt would do the trick, but I have not tested it myself! If the Blenheims are warping to 23,000 feet, that is more like the Maximum altitude rather than the cruising altitude? I will do some testing of air file and xdp when I'm on the FCS3 'puter.

 

[33lima]

I'm beginning to suspect the .air file, on the not very good evidence that while it could be somewhere in all the hexadecimal gash you get if you open the .bdp in Notepad, you can still see many values and text strings normally - but the values for that .xdp file block on altitudes are no-where to be seen in the .bdp. Suspicious. Alt values not being implemented in the .bdp might explain why editing the .xdp and then regenerating the .bdp seems to had no effect.

Edit - another weird thing is with the edited .xdp, my pilot figure has disappeared, when I come out of warp! And all I did was edit that one CruiseAlt value!

 

[33lima]

Back over the Channel, help is finally at hand - Spitfires wheel in behind us and take on the 109s.

I continue my full-power shallow dive towards the coast. Whether we'll really be safe when we get there or not, it looks like safety, something to aim for.

The others are doing their best to keep up.

We all know what's at stake - our necks!

I see a harbour up ahead and steer for it. If it has Ack Ack defences, maybe we can use them to scrape off the remaining pursuers.

We'll need all the help we can get! One of the Messerschmitts has eluded the Spits and is making short work of another Blenheim, which is on fire and straggling.

I supress an urge to turn back and go for the Hun myself. That will break up our formation, such as it is, and likely make things even worse. Nothing for it but to keep eyes front and press on regardless!

...to be continued!

 

[33lima]

Just when I think that last 109 is going to chase us all the way back to Blighty, the attacks stop and the Hun turns away for home. It's too late for that crippled Blenheim, though. All that's left of him now is a fading patch of white foam on the steel-blue water.

It seems the rest of us have been reprieved. That leaves six bombers out of eight coming back from this trip. Light enough losses, compared to those the Blenheim squadrons sustained in France, but still bad enough. And with nothing much to show for it, bar the experience gained. Were it not for our escorts, casualties would almost certainly have been much worse.

The shallower waters turn a greener shade as we near the coast.

Much relieved, we roar in over the port, which happens to be Newhaven, between Beachy Head and Brighton.

Time to get a course from the TAC, who is standing in for the bomb aimer/navigator. As it happens, a gentle left turn will be all we need.

At this point the sim crashed to desktop! So it looks like I'll get to fly today all over again. In fact, I'll scrub the mission and let the campaign advance to the next one. Perhaps we'll have a solution to warping way too high, by the time I come to fly it!