RFC Tempo of Operations?

B

Bullethead

Guest
Anybody know what the usual sortie rate was for the RFC in Flanders in early 1916? The Somme isn't due to kick off for several months, Flamelle is still some ways in the future, and the Intel Officer keeps telling me "all is quiet on the Western Front". Even so, I'm doing 3 sorties per day and, because things are quiet, usually not spotting any H/A. The squadron is taking a lot of wastage in accidents, however, which seems rather pointless, all things coinsidered. Was this normal?
 
Can't give a 'Historic' answer, but obviously the Wing Commanders were a very 'Gung Ho' lot, figured they'd tie it up with a bow, and get back to London for the cricket tourniment. Damn primative this France

Boy; did they get a surprize
 
Don't think flying 3 sorties a day was the norm. in 1916. Also I don't think they flew as much in bad weather in 1916 as I have in OFF. But I could be wrong.
 
I would expect the 'historical' setting adjusts sorties flow based on historic weather (it says something to this effect in the menu box), but perhaps it doesn't adjust your sorties per day based on for historic front activity?...only Winding Man will know.

You can turn your 'campaign mission frequency' down to light or medium in the workshops area and you will only get one mission per day or two missions a day respectively (if it mimics Phase 2), which seems more correct, but...

Looks like you possibly lose the benefit of historical weather by doing this though. Not sure what the best solution is.

Hopefully Winding Man will give some insight into how the manager handles these settings.
 
Historically, about 50% of operational losses were down to accidents - more, in the early period of the war, when pilot training was rather basic and a/c were more prone to mechanical and structural failure.

Bletchley
 
Mission frequency was discussed in this forum way back at phase 2. I don't think anyone really came up with a good answer, but it seemed to show that when it was quiet at the front, pilots did a routine patrol; and later struck out on their own if they wished. When an op was on, than it was all hands on deck, 3 missions a day being common. So I quess its up too the player to strike a balance that seems reasonable.
 
Broadly speaking, war in the air gets more frantic around the major campaigns: Somme, Arras, Messines, Passchendaele, Cambrai, Kaiserschlacht and the Last 100 Days. Specifically, some days are busier than others - based on records contained in the 'Comic Cuts' and various other archives. So, there will be slow days, even during some of the big campaigns - usually due to poor weather. Then again, sometimes big air battles erupted just because - elements in the air attracted to each other, and growing into a firestorm.
Cheers,
shredward
 
Is there a hut with a nice warm pot-belly stove where we can gather out of the rain and drink hot chocolate while gazing out the window, thinking "Golly jingo, I'm glad we're not up in that beastly weather, what?!"

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