Slavyansk a Kubani (Taman Peninsula) - Bagerowo (Crimea)

[Bravo1hasegawa860]

The military situation was getting worse for the Germans after the encirclement of the 6. Army in Stalingrad, and the failed relief. The other objective of the Sommer-Offensive 1942, the capture of soviet Oilfields near Maikop, Grosny and Baku failed.Maikop was captured, but the Oilfield near Maikop was destroyed by the Soviets, giving the enemy nothing. Grosny was nearly reached, but here the Sowjets could stop the german advance and Baku was never in danger.

After Stalingrad the Germans gave way back to the Taman Peninsula and the Crimea. A bitter fighting at the Taman Peninsula began April 1943-September. On 3rd of september the evakution of all troops at the Taman Pensula was ordered. On 9 October 1943 the evacuation was over. One part of the evacuation was the german Luftwaffe. From a small airfield near Slavyansk-na-Kubani they withdrew 15,661 men...
Herre is the wikipedia for the complete overview.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuban_bridgehead

This is the situation you can find at this simulation: https://il2sturmovik.com/store/battle-of-kuban/

The mission today is a flight, that may more or less happen this way in September 1943. It is another Evacuation-Flight from Slavyansk-na-Kubani to Bagerovo, at the Crimean Peninsula a bit behind the city of Kertch wich has given his name to the Kerch Strait, between the Peninsula of Taman and the Crimea. This strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerch_Strait

The aircraft today is a former Bomber, the Heinkel He 111H-16, wich was used in the failed airbridge to Stalingrad as a transport aircraft, because the losses of Junkers Ju 52/3m Transport Aircraft (and its crews!) are so heavy, that the Luftwaffe has never replaced all of them. And in 1943 the german losses in the last days of its "Afrika-Korps" and over the Mediterranean Sea are also very high.

This aircraft was 1941 obsolete but the last was build in September 1944. Replaced as a bomber by the Junkers Ju 88 and the Heinkel He 177 "Reichsfeuerzeug" (Empire Lighter) because of Unreliability and frequent engine fires, and used as Torpedo bomber and transport plane. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_111

How to plan such flight? 
Avoid all concentrations of enemy flak. Defended zones like Airfields, City´s, railway stations and ... trains, Convois on streets, ships,
Fly low and avoid every enemy flight.

 

And here are the pictures: http://www.nzff.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28280