S3 Series

<S> Axis.

I ran with a bad fever and exploding headache last Sunday, but did my best to CO the frame. I think our teamspeak comms right after take-off sums up my disorientation quite well haha:

Bombr-: Robert has now the flight lead. Please turn west to 2, 7, 0. All please form on him.
Robert: Roger... (starts turning left 330°, 300°, 270°, 240°, 210°, 180°...)
Bombr-: Please come back to 2, 7, 0 degrees.
Robert: ... West... (keeps turning a full lap, totally disoriented by the spinning compass, for real not understanding when I'm supposed to level off...)
Bombr-: Robert come west please...
Robert: Ummm... (keeps turning several laps, trying to wrap my head around the order)
Bombr-: ... Ok... bombr- has the flight lead again...


First off I want to apologize to Dewolf for a snappy response late frame when he asked about the location of the 4th FG engagement. It seems my headache, unplayable lagg and a resulting oil leak got the better of my temper. Sorry sir, I never intended to be rude.

AAR
SUMMARY
A clear mistake was thinking that our twin-engine medium bombers could take the punishment of B17's and B29's in a "Bombers to Berlin" style mission. Running in against Spitfires intercepting at full force quickly tore our Heinkels apart, even with both the 4th and 352nd as escorts. The 4th tried to swat as many enemies off the bombers as possible until out of ammo or rtb for parts. The 352nd went beyond required duty and even hunted the Spitfires down SW of Malta. A big <S>.

Having the buffs as a diversion for the ship-hunters to strike was a success though, and they could strike nearly unmolested. The 23rd, LF 6 and NS/Nomads made sure the British sailors will pray in fear before being sent to Malta. It seems we sunk 7 freighters and 7 DD's in total (98 points?). WTG! Sending our northern fighters back in for a 2nd sortie to engage the Spitfires was also a smart move as it once again allowed our ship hunters to wreak havoc.


LESSONS LEARNED
* Getting rid off the droptank and gain altitude pre engagement was a good decision, altough with the Allied scramble rule we could have waited with the bst1 climb for 10 minutes as not to burn our engines out.

* Having a fighter squad protect the ship hunters also seems a good move, as the Bf 109's can soften the ships up with bombs and make sure the Allied can't deal with the hunters unless they send a major force of Spitfires.

* For the Ju-88's I understand that bombs are more effective than torpedoes against ships.

* When it comes to future bomber/escort missions, we clearly cannot send in our bombers while the enemy is still at full force. We've tried it twice with heavy losses. What I would have done differently is send in all the bombers as we did, but as soon as the Spitfires come in to engage, the bombers will make a 180° turn and run back to Sicily, while the escorts engage the Spitfires fiercly and try to kill as many of them as possible. The buffs will then hold over Sicily until the BF 109's are re-armed and ready to escort again. The prime objective must be to reduce the number of Spitfires before sending in the big boys.

* Alternatively the bombers can simply wait while we hunt for ships at full force and engage the enemy SW-SE of Malta if they try to protect their ships, and then start our bombing mission mid-frame once both sides have taken some fighter losses.
END AAR


<S> All and thanks for great cooperation and flexibility in a hard fought battle. It's to early to draw any conclusions but it should have been fairly close frame score wise.
/Robert
XO 4th FG

Two things jump out at me:
1)
sick or not if you are leading the frame you have too much to think about to lead the individual flight too.

2)
Torps are very effective vs ships... but you have to hit them. there is no torpedo sight...or training or formula for torpedoes it's all just dead reckoning. if there is something available that tells me how to torpedo effectively and aim effectively then I have missed it.

but you are right, I will give you much better results with bombs vs torpedoes.


I thought you did quite well.

<S>

I concur with you Coolon.
I'll take torps over bombs anytime, especially if target is a moving convoy! Also, as you state--practice making torp runs is all but impossible --in the past Jabo would at times load the S3 with boats and one could go into Free Flight and get some stick time. However --even then you could not practice together as a squad--just one more reason for our dwindling bomber force.


You mention the lack of bomb sights as a problem--you can use the bomb sights to make trop run--in fact, I find it more effective than dropping from pilot view.

<S>
Robert, you always give your best effort under any circumstance. Nice job.
<S>

Flash from the Past Dept.

Possibly some players will remember WhiteHawk, the former CO of the Red Radiers Bomb Group. "WHawk" always had a .dtf available for his Group's route to target with times and altitudes for RPs. IMHO a really helpful bomb group commander. While I, personally, have ZERO expertise in making torpedo runs with any type of aircraft, here was a "primer" he published shortly after "there was light". His view was that this method would work no matter which way the target ship happened to jink when the torpedo bombers approached. For your consideration....or not.

Horrido!

Good point Wolfie.

The torp tactic is basically a "wind triangle" that the RW pilots here know if they fly more than 50 miles from home base.

The torps cruise at 60 mph or so and boats at 30 mph or so. So we are dealing with a crosswind. If you can get the exact mph for both, then you can make a simple triangle like we pilots use when x-country flying ( before we had GPS and VOR and TACAN and.....)

I tried to measure all the speeds years ago and then work out the angles. Turned out you can release the torps way out there if you have the correct angle. Otherwise, ya gotta press in until the ack gets you.

Herr Gums sends...