Mogster

Some ground running recently.

Data for the SE5a is apparently pretty good, also the Fokker D7. Other WW1 aircraft much less so.

Quite a bit about the differences in this thread. GR9 with radar and a full a-a loadout would have been very interesting. Damn the bean counters… GR9 could have supplemented increasing numbers of F35Bs on the QE carriers for some time. Would have given the RN airborne anti shipping capability with Sea Eagle and possible later derivations also.

Ron Zambrano when interviewed on the now defunct ACS podcast said Razbam initially intended to model the GR9 and Illustrious. They modeled the USMC version when information on the RAF version made this impossible. Same goes for the Sea Harrier. Information on UK stuff remains classified for a long time it seems.

Always a sucker for new land to fly over. Paid for the whole thing, I’ll end up buying it anyway…

It is odd as there was a Luftwaffe base nearby. I have read various things from fuel shortages, antipathy between the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe leading to poor co-ordination and infiltration of fighter control by Norwegian resistance. Whatever, none of the daylight attacks on the Tirpitz in Norway seem to have faced strong Luftwaffe opposition.

I mean there’s no record of any RN F4U a-a action with the Luftwaffe, at least that I know of, happy to be proved wrong. It wouldn’t be too ahistorical to include it though.

As I understand it RN and USN F6Fs were used from carriers during Overlord and Dragoon. Theres not much info on RN F6Fs vs the Luftwaffe but the USN F6Fs did engage air targets I believe. So it wouldn’t be completely ahistorical to have an a-a and a-g F6F campaign on the Normandy map, but it would need suitable carriers. F4F was used by the RN but not over France during the Normandy campaign it seems, unless anyone knows better?

I think less assets to produce credible historical missions would be applicable maybe. There were Italian aircraft in the BoB, and TFC have a very beautiful CR-42 The Mediterranean and Malta is quite large in the British view of WW2 also. It’s just such a large and complex theatre.

Apologies, but I don’t understand. Should Pacific Theatre Operations (PTO) or Eastern Front (EF) be in there somewhere?

With a few changes we can have the map for Channel 1940. The good thing about the BoB is that you can create credible scenarios with relatively few flyables and AI. The flyables are in the low hanging fruit category regarding references and surviving examples also. You can use the same, near enough, aircraft and for BoF scenarios and Barbarossa. Id love the Med and North Africa. It’s mostly overlooked but is increasingly viewed a very significant theatre for WW2 aviation, particularly for the Luftwaffe. However MTO requires many more aircraft types, ships, carrier ops, and maps we don’t have. PTO is the same and apparently it’s a nightmare for references beyond a handful of US types.

I can feel a FW190 windscreen bar discussion coming on

I do wonder if even a medium threat CAS environment is just too hot for aircraft now. You can suppress and destroy long range anti aircraft assets but short and medium range kit firing from an ambush stance is a much more difficult proposition In Ukraine air defences are being cued onto target by thermal, e/o sensors, remote radars or just someone’s ears, no one with any brains is turning on a radar without a target being detected already by other methods. The F35 is an incredibly loud medium sized dark coloured aircraft with exhausts hot enough to melt steel. The only reliable way to detect a hidden mobile anti aircraft asset is from muzzle flash or missile launch at which time you’re about to be reaching for the ejection handle in a few seconds. You read online suggestions that the F35 is going to loitering over the battlefield doing CAS and SEAD at the same time, surely it’s too big, hot and boomy for that?

Tempest II not V unfortunately so has the Centaurus up front. Really gives an idea of how large an aircraft the Typhoon/Tempests were. Fabulous aircraft, hopefully it’ll make an appearance on the 2024 UK airshow scene. Problem with the Typhoon/Tempest V will be the Sabre. Merlin or Centaurus are much more of a known quantity, especially the Merlin. Just having a Sabre engined Hawker as a ground runner would be a start.

At least it’s slightly more believable than owning a TF-51D on government wages…