I posted this idea on the 352nd board but need the bomber guys feed back for timing.
Quote:
I was thinking....
Because the axis knows exactly where we have to go to bomb targets, I think a direct as possible route to the target is best. This exposes the bombers the shortest amount of time and maximizes our fighter coverage. There might be an exception to this. I noticed most of the axis fighters attacked over multiple sorties. They first interceptors also met the bombers over the channel. The German A/C can be based initially anywhere in Germany. I'm not sure if the timing will allow it, but if we follow roughly the same ingress route to target as Frame 3 with all the allied fighters surrounding the bombers, and if they try to initially attack us over the channel again, we might surprise them. We start by having our own scouts in an arc ahead of the bombers. We also have most of our fighters over the bombers above 30k. As soon as any group of enemy fighters is spotted, the bombers would execute a 180 degree turn and continue climbing, but towards England. All our fighters would try to take out many of the initial intercept group as quickly as we can. The fighters would then RTB. With a 20k airstart, the fighters would then rejoin the bombers which would execute another 180 degree turn east towards their bombing targets. From there, it would be a normal escort mission.
This would only help us if the axis was aggressive and met us over the channel. I'm not sure how much of window we would have to engage the enemy. Worst case scenario, they don't come out, and the fighters just RTB to refuel and rejoin the bombers.
If we do manage to take out some enemy fighters, they won't have as many A/C to hit the bombers with later. We get the advantage of using our planes twice, effectively doubling the amount of ammo we have to hit them with. We also hit them as hard as we can, knowing we don't have to conserve our remaining ammo for the rest of the frame. To lengthen the window we'd have available to intercept the axis, the bombers would have to take off as soon as possible (T-30), and the fighters would go up without drop tanks on the first sortie. Depending on the timing, at a certain point all the fighters must RTB to reroll with drop tanks and escort the bombers to Berlin, whether we engage the enemy or not.
Pros, cons, opinions?
OhShix
