S3 Series

It’s the end of October, 1943. After the defeat at Kursk and hasty withdrawal from the Kuban, the Wehrmacht’s 17th Army is left behind to defend the Crimean Peninsula. Der Führer has forbidden retreat. To the north, overland contact with the remainder of the Wehrmacht has been cut off. The Soviet Fourth Ukrainian Army has pushed back Generalfeldmarschall Von Manstein’s Army Group South to defensive positions along the Dneiper River and is threatening Romanian positions at Perekop. To the east, the recently reformed Soviet Coastal Army is threatening amphibious assaults against Kerch and other locations on the peninsula. Elements of Luftflotte 4, specifically fighters of JG52 and ground attack aircraft of StG2 and StG3 are tasked to support the 17th Army. Against this small group are the vast resources of the 4th and 8th Air Armies of the Voyenno-Vozdushnyye Sily (VVS).

But the LW has three aces up their sleeve, Major Gunther Rall, Haptmann Gerhard Barkhorn and Leutnant Erich Hartmann; between them over 600 kills before the start of the battle. Can they blunt the VVS assault?

Series schedule:
Frame 1 – 9 Jan 22 – Soviet Amphibious assault at Kerch, Nov 1943
Frame 2 – 16 Jan 22 – Perekop and the Sivash, 7 Apr 1944
Frame 3 – 23 Jan 22 – Retreat from Kerch and escape by sea, 11 Apr 1944
Frame 4 – 30 Jan 22 – Simferopol - The Gneisenau Line, 13 Apr 1944
Frame 5 – 6 Feb 22 – Stevastopol: The last stand, 5 May 1944

Side Assignments (tentative – may need to adjust for balancing):
LW – 4th, AE, 13VRAF, 23rd, JG51 (7-10)
VVS – 352nd, RCAF, 13 VRAF (9-12 pilots)

Additional squads and/or individual pilots are welcome. Please post in this thread or send me a PM.

Over course of series, aircraft will be:
LW - Bf109G-6, Fw 190F-8, Ju 87D-5, Ju 87G-2
VVS – P-39Q, LaF-5, Yak-9D, Il-2

Details for each frame to be posted separately. Questions welcome.

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Edit - themes for frame 3 and 4 adjusted. I got ahead of myself on the 23rd and combined Kerch and escape by sea.