S3 Series

Dissatisfied with the effectiveness of his Liberators, LT Gen Spaatz, Comd 8th Air Force, ordered his bomber wings to concentrate on pin point attacks on rail tunnels rather than the area bombing of rail yards. After previous losses, the B-24 groups could only muster 16 aircraft (4 players, 12 AI wingmen). Launching from their fields in East Anglia, they headed south west and then south once over the Channel. Waiting for them was a staffel of 5 Bf 109G6/RVI. A lone P-47D took off from Kent and made a feint at the Axis fighter defences. As a result the Jagdfleiger were spread out when the bomber group appeared on LW radar. Crossing the coast near Fecamp, the bombers headed due south, then east to line up on the railway tunnels to the north of Rouen. The tunnel entrance to the west was destroyed and eastern entrance heavily damaged before LW fighters were able to engage. That engagement cost the LW dearly. The escorting P-47 shot down one, while the gunners from the B-24s shot down two more. In return only a single B-24 fell from the skies.
The Allied bomb group pressed to the east to attack the railway tunnels south of NeufChâtel. Enroute, one bomber was brought down as well as another Bf 109. A technical error lead to no bombs being dropped on the west tunnel entrance, but the east entrance was obliterated. The bombers turned to the north and then then east, south and west to make a second run on the eastern entrance. The attack run was successful, destroying the NeufChâtel tunnel, but the turning maneuver had caused the bomber group to break up a bit. Now under attack from Fw 190A-8s that had launched from Beaumont-le-Roger, the losses started. Three B-24s and the escorting P-47 were shot down. one Fw 190 was shot down, but not before it had cripple a B-24 that was now streaming fuel and oil from its starboard wing. While the bombers tried to regroup to provide support for the stricken bomber, it was not to be as it fell to the guns of another attacking Butcherbird. A running fight developed as the bomber group retired to England. There were more losses on both sides with the gun turrets of the B-24s scoring hits and the guns of the FW 190s causing enough damage to some of the buffs to cause them to crash on landing.


Team Gold (Allied)
5 pilots: WLDBIL, bombr-, muzz--, -deak-, jedijc
B-24J, 4 sorties (16 aircraft): three railway tunnel entrances destroyed; 2 Bf 109G6/RVI and 2 Fw 190A-8 shot down; 1 B-24J and 6 AI wingmen lost.
P-47D-25, 3 sorties, shot down 1 BF 109G6/RVI; 1 aircraft lost

Team Green (Axis)
5 pilots: juice=, =wilz=, redsgt, noflyz, okdoc-
Bf 109G-6/RVI, 5 sorties: 3 B-24J AI wingmen; 4 aircraft lost
Fw 190A-8, 4 sorties: shot down 1 B-24J. 1 P-47D, 4 B-24J AI wingmen AI; 2 aircraft lost.
Bf 109G-6, 1 sortie: no losses.

Scoring
Team Green scores 1 VPs for lost Allied fighters and 28 VPs for seven B-24Js lost, for a total of 29 VPs.
Team Gold scores 6 VPs for Axis fighter losses and 30 VPs for destroying both ends of a railway tunnel for a total of 36 VPs

After two frames:
Team Green: 89 VPs
Team Gold: 81 VPs

Arena is once again open for practice with the Channel 1944 terrain.
The S3 will be stood down for the US Memorial Day weekend.
Next frame 2030hrs, Sunday 4 June 2023. Log in early.
See you in the unfriendly skies.
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