FLYING FISH HEADED FOR OSCHERSLEBEN

 Our ship is the top right - near the tail of the middle squadron. Quite a safe place to be but the Luftwaffe must be expected to put up a major effort.

The log so far. 2 ships lost and 16 men KIA - 2 WIA and INV - 6 POWS. The ENGINEER and RADIO OPERATOR are the only survivors from COTTON CLUB flying this mission. They wouldn't know it but the CO-PILOT is about to return from France having evaded capture.

 Lots of fuel but only 4000lbs of bombs.

Patchy escorts expected as far as the ZONE 4 - then maybe an odd P-47 until the Heligoland Bight - after that it's 90 minutes with only the big friends for company. It's an 8 hour mission.

RESULT - Having ramped up the tension in anticipation of a big fight - FLYING FISH made it all the way there and back with hardly a scratch - a couple of FLAK hits over the target caused no injuries or damage and  the middle position saved them from BANDITS more than once.

NEW TOUR - MAY START

I started again with COTTON CLUB which did well but crashed over Normandy returning with a destroyed rudder from Bordeaux. They'd had quite a fight of it fending off BANDITS every step back from the target - but the pilot failed his ATC DR and 7 crew bailed. 3 are about to turn up in the UK having been smuggled back!

BANDIT BAIT a new B-17 and crew took over after 10 days. A mission to Abbeville went off OK - but in the 2nd to Emden aerial rockets caused them to break formation and they fell prey to an FW190 coming in from 7 o'clock high - see previous post.

4 of the men survived their bath in the North Sea but one became a POW.

These 3 survivors form the nucleus for the crew of FLYING FISH - all 7ML new guys.

ROCKET ATTACK!

Aerial rockets actually hit BANDIT BAIT - but caused no damage. The Pilot panicked however and broke formation.

The FW190 came in from 7 o'clock high and destroyed the pilot compartment - destroying the flight controls and causing an uncontrolled bail out.

4 men got out and 3 were rescued by air sea rescue - one became a POW.

ZONES MAP - CORRECTED

Realized I had Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels in the wrong place! I think it's right now....

THE END COMES OVER EMDEN

Flak hit to the wing root - crashed - uncontrolled bail out but 8 chutes counted. All POWs since this is over Germany.

 Close up.

GREEN GAL's last two victories - the other smoke trail is a P-47 shot down by the Me 410.

I forgot to take a screen shot of it - but despite the bad weather the Bombardier was able to score 30% hits.

Now I'm going to go back to May 1943 and start a new crew and A/C in order to test the numerous minor rules changes.

I should probably add the Norwegian targets too.

LUDWIGSHAFEN DEBRIEF

New mission map - brighter and clearer and I corrected some glaring errors in geography. A also added Norway (though not as far north as Trondheim). I've changed the background to a less dazzling shade of blue.

3 e/a shot down in one move has got to be worth a close up :-)

A good hit on the target.

P-38's got the legs but not the muscle. This one fell to an FW190 after achieving nothing.

Green Gal's veteran crew (+ newbie TG) - ready for Emden - again.

EMDEN MISSION DEBRIEF

BREMEN MISSION DEBRIEF

7 - SEVEN- BANDITS!

But a lone Thunderbolt shoots down 3 before succumbing itself...

The B-17's guns shoot down 2 more and drive off the others with no damage or casualties.

Flak kills the TG.

More bandits.

And yet more - one of these killed the Radio Operator.

But at least they put some bombs on the target - 15%.

GDYNIA MISSION - DEBRIEF

GREEN GAL and crew after landing. Lots of .50cal ammo consumed but no damage to the A/C. An impressive array of new kill markers show it was not all wasted. 

Sadly, Pilot 1LT PITTS was KIA and the TG WIA - though he has recovered in time to fly the next mission - to Bremen. 

A [6,6] DR (the worst possible) on the bombing TC caused all the bombs to miss the target.
Galling  for the crew and tragic for the Poles who were likely killed in error.

 FLAK all the way across Denmark.

GREEN GAL HEADED FOR GDYNIA

The easy missions well within range of the P-47s couldn't keep coming up for ever - but this one is a real doozy. To add to the danger escorts are only POOR and weather is GOOD. LOW squadron position is neutral for BANDITS but there may be FLAK in zones 7,8,9 and 12 - making 7 rolls of the extra FLAK dice with a 30:70 chance.

There's an interesting WW2 era propaganda film on the historical mission to Anklam, Marienburg, Danzig and Gdynia called TARGET FOR TODAY. It's on youtube.

GREEN GAL TAKES OVER THE MANTLE

As soon as one A/C and crew are shot down, another takes their place!

Here GREEN GAL and her crew have completed 7 missions - all to France and Holland - with 2 KIA and one WIA - invalided home. Bombing percentage averages 25%. Attrition rate just under 2%.

They've had a pretty easy work up and have got HEROES manning the WAIST and BALL guns. However - all these easy 3-4-5 zone missions cannot continue forever.

I've greatly reduced the impact of FLAK - though it has caused all the losses and damage so far. I've added a DRM to the BANDITS DR for A/C returning - since a few references have mentioned that after bombing the target  the formations were more vulnerable. I suppose it figures since the German controllers would know the end and start point of a pretty straight line back to base. Major deviations from this course would be unlikely given limited fuel and the need to get damaged planes and wounded men back to safety.

This drm will especially add to the danger of high and lead/tail positions.

LAZY LASS III SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES OVER GERMANY

A Bf 110 got on the tail over the target and destroyed engine #1 which caught fire. The Bf 110 was later shot down itself and LAZY LASS III proceeded on to the bomb run only to miss completely. Turning for home the engine burned out of control and the crew attempted to bail out - only 2 men made it.

Casualty rate for these crews ran 26% KIA  - 33% if you include men WIA who were invalided out.

3 A/C were lost - but 2 were ditched after the crew bailed out.

LUSTY LASSIE'S DEMISE

18th mission over St Nazaire - hit many times by FLAK - oxygen system in waist caught fire and burned out of control - the crew had to bail out over Rennes. 6 chutes all POWS.

LUSTY LASSIE'S LOG MISSIONS 1-10

This A/C and crew seem charmed. Only 2 KIA and 1 INVALIDED HOME so far. Quite a lot of bombs on target and a lot of kills 'claimed' though I am going with the exaggerated claims made by the crews during this time period.

Bremen comes up like a bad penny and is a tough target to reach.

The date is now 19th June 1943.

I have made a Ju 88 nightfighter/bomber destroyer and also added aerial rockets - though their use was limited and ineffective at this time. I may want to factor them in come the Summer proper along with up-armed ME109G6/R3. The up-armed FW190A6/R6 seems to have come into use in November 1943.

All these beasties don't seem to be effective if there are any ESCORTS around. There would need to be close cooperation between the Sturmbocke units and regular fighters to keep the ESCORTS off - not yet sure how to portray that.

Rules for the Rockets are also still not settled - but I have workable pieces for them which is necessary for testing.

I'm finding this era more interesting than the 1942 B-17 QOTS campaign. There is more variety and more danger/challenge.

LUSTY LASSIE MISSION 3

Back to Bremen - this time in the middle of the formation and with poor weather so it is not too intimidating. Hope the bombardier can hit the target in the poor weather though...

The crew are shaping up well and have 8 'kills' to their credit - though in reality many of these would be duplicate claims with other A/C.

LATEST MISSION MAP

A few extra targets and correction of one or two that were misplaced. I'd like to put the Norwegian targets on too but that is proving fiddly. Maybe later.

HEAVY FLAK OVER HAMBURG

This was a very tough mission with plenty of action and 3 KIA. The aircraft had to be ditched with surviving crew bailing out over England - since both pilots were out of action and the aircraft had significant battle damage.

NEW ZONES MAP

Changed the scale of the map and zones are now 120km or 75miles across. This irons out a few anomalies dating back to the earliest versions. It helps the B-17 since there are far fewer zones to cross and therefore fewer DR for bandits/Flak. Still very tough these long missions  into zone 7 with no escort the last two.

MID 1943 TOURS

I've been trying a few 1943 tours and it's tough. Long missions to Kiel and Wilhelmshaven have ended in disaster for two a/c.

SPITFIRE V

I've added a Spitfire V counter and set it to appear 2/3 of the time with Spitfire IX appearing 1/3. I have a spreadsheet with lots of data on  8 USAAF missions and Spitfire Vs appear as escorts a lot while IXs not at all.

The Spitfire V is a lot less capable -  maybe a little too weak. We'll see.

Recent changes swing the ESCORT battle in favour of the LW quite a bit but the defensive fire of the B-17 is proportionally a lot more powerful.

More changes

Just decided that the fighter armament in the game had too much range - this was due to my changing the scale from 6 pixels to 1 m to 2 pixels to 1m and not readjusting.

The B-17s guns keep the same range - effectively double the equivalent calibre gun on a fighter. I am rationalising this due to the guns on the fighters being synchronised to about 300m while the .50 cals on the B-17 being intended for longer range fire.

This will help the B-17 fend off the Bandits since they will be at normal range and the Bandits at long range...

But on the other hand the P-47s and later the P51s have short rang .50 cal armament while the Germans all have at least some 20mm - meaning the P-47s have to get in close or the Bandits will escape and perhaps turn the tables.

Escorts should ideally engage enemy at lower altitude using a 'bounce' tactic - zoom in fire and climb away to repeat. If the Fw190 or Me109 sees the P-47 climbing up from below it will be able to counter the threat.

Spitfires are ideal for the dogfight and have 20mm guns too,  while P-38s have the advantage of a 12 maximum range 20mm gun.

Thunderbolts are powerful and tough and if they do get in close to a Bandit they will usually blow it to bits.

Recent changes

I've been tinkering about to balance the game - a very difficult process of trial and error.

I improved the level of ESCORT cover a bit - but now have reduced it. I also increased the number of German fighters by reducing the chance of 'none' being rolled on a dice. The maximum is still 6 but now I get 2-3 more often.

The new Flak placement is quite a big change and is causing a lot of losses and damage.

I am hitting the target more though - with 20-30% now typical.

Now if the B-17 is in HIGH TAIL or LEAD position it will get a lot of fighters over the target zone - a DR <= 9 suffices [~80%]. If beyond escort cover this could easily prove lethal - but so it should really. There is only a 10% chance of being so exposed in any given mission. And 30% of missions 6-25 will be in the MIDDLE with only a 42% chance of BANDITS over the target.

With 20 missions using FORMATIONS the B-17 should fly 1 mission in LEAD [-2], 1 mission in HIGH TAIL[-2], one in LOW TAIL [-1] 6 in HIGH [-1] and 6 in MIDDLE [+1]. The other 6 should be LOW [+0].

I can't pretend it's done yet - probably never stop tinkering as that is half the fun for me - but I feel it's close to ready. 90% or so.

MISS CHIEF LOST OVER NORTHERN FRANCE

MISS CHIEF was literally picked apart by Flak and multiple waves of fighters. With both pilots KIA and WIA I judged that no-one was qualified to attempt the ATC required to maintain control with the rudder destroyed. The autopilot or a the engineer can maybe keep formation but without a rudder and with two engines out she was doomed. Bail out went quite well - the BALL GUNNER was stuck in his turret, wounded and didn't make it. 3 chutes all POWS.

I don't think I've had a B-17 so badly shot up before.