Yak-7B aircraft option in Battle of Stalingrad Career?

[No105_Swoose]

Salute!

 

I think adding a Yak-7B Battle of Stalingrad career option would make an excellent enhancement to the game.  Currently only the Yak-1 Series 69 is present.  The Yak-1 is a good aircraft, but it's challenging to go up in it against Bf-109G2s.  The Yak-7B with its better speed, handling, and firepower would make for a more even fight.  Yak-7Bs were certainly present in the Battle of Stalingrad as noted from these excerpts from Yakovlev Fighters of World War Two by Yefim Gordon, Sergey Komissarov, and Dmitrity Komissarov: 

(Quote)

            Large numbers of Yak-7B fighters were committed to action at the Stalingrad Front.  One of the regiments taking part in combat activities in that area was the newly formed 910^thIAP (Special Mission Fighter Regiment) which flew combat missions from August 1942.  Later it won the Guards title and was renumbered, becoming the 148^thGuards Fighter Aviation Regiment) on 9^thOctober 1943.

 

            Yak-7B fighters were used by the first group in the Red Army Air Force formed especially for ‘free chase’ missions. One of the pilots of this groups was Aleksey K. Ryazanov, a well-known ace (31 individual and 16 shared ‘kills’).

 

            April 1942 saw the emergence of the 434^thIAP, which was destined to gain fame later.  This was an elite air unit composed of hand-picked highly skilled pilots. During the summer of 1942 this regiment equipped with Yak-1 fighters downed some 90 enemy aircraft while operating in the vicinity of Stalingrad.  In September 1942 the Yak-1s were superseded by Yak-7Bs.  In all, while operating in the Stalingrad area, the pilots of the 434^thIAP shot down 163 enemy aircraft.  The regiment was commanded by Ivan I. Kleshcov, one of the most successful Soviet fighter pilots.  

 

            In August 1942 the 288^thFighter Aviation Division fully equipped with Yak-7Bs was committed to action in the Stalingrad area. On 27^thSeptember 1942 twelve Yak-7Bs, led by the division’s commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel S. F. Konovalov encountered a group of Junkers Ju-88 bombers escorted by 22 Messerschmitt Bf-109s.  In the first attack the Soviet pilots shot down two bombers and sent the rest of them scattering all directions; a few minutes later four of the German escort fighters were downed.  Information on Soviet losses in this episode is not available.   (End Quote)

 

Yak-7Bs, their regiments, and airfield locations were listed in the Stalingrad Air Order of Battle Excel document in the 2016 Career Assistance thread in answer to Jason Williams' thread seeking information on VVS units and where they fought and served in that epic struggle.  Unfortunately the Yak-7B did not "make the cut" when it came to setting up the various options for Battle of Stalingrad career mode.

 

I realize this falls in the "nice to do" category and that it would take a lot of time to research and implement adding the Yak-7B to Battle of Stalingrad career mode.  The career with its options is fine now as is.  No doubt the developers have much more pressing priorities now as Bodenplatte, Tank Crew, and Flying Circus move forward.  But retroactively adding the Yak-7B would add more historical realism and make for better game play for players like me who prefer VVS aircraft.

 

Thanks for your time and consideration of this suggestion.   Swoose

 

 

 

 

[56RAF_Roblex]

You can fly the 7b in Kuban careers and I assume this is because you can only own the 7b if you purchased BoK

[No105_Swoose]

12 minutes ago, 56RAF_Roblex said:

You can fly the 7b in Kuban careers and I assume this is because you can only own the 7b if you purchased BoK

Yes I have Battle of Kuban and enjoy flying the Yak-7B in it.  I should have mentioned that.  I guess I was trying to say it would be great to have the Yak-7B in Battle of Kuban AND Battle of Stalingrad similar to how you can fly the MiG-3 in the historically correct months it was available in the Battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kuban.

[-=PHX=-SuperEtendard]

If i'm correct the Yak-7B isn't included in Stalingrad's campaign scenario because it is a later variant than the ones that did participate there.

[LukeFF]

2 hours ago, -=PHX=-SuperEtendard said:

If i'm correct the Yak-7B isn't included in Stalingrad's campaign scenario because it is a later variant than the ones that did participate there.

 

That's correct. The model we have is appropriate to 1943, not 1942.

[No105_Swoose]

6 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

That's correct. The model we have is appropriate to 1943, not 1942.

OK! Thanks.  I understand now why the Yak-7B isn't in Battle of Stalingrad.

 

Given the developers' workload, time, business plan, and motivation I still think it would be great to have an earlier version of the Yak-7 in Battle of Stalingrad someday.  In the meantime I'll continue to enjoy the outstanding, constantly improving IL-2: Great Battles Series as is.

 

 

[MarcoPegase44]

Hello ,
If you have BOK, you can add the YAK 7b to the career mode.
I modified files of the SCG folder and it is possible to play with YAK 7B with the 296 IAP in squadron player. By cons when I play German side YAK 7 B does not seem to want to activate AI squadron, never meet.
Same for YAK 1b, as of December 1942.
For this to work, you must enable the Mod option.
My files as an example:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/7qc3cjfaax258w8/scg.7z/file

 

 

[MarcoPegase44]

Hello ,

 

A new File for the Yak 1b in Campaign Stalingrad for the31Gviap

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/h8ssdk66ugegdls/scgV2.7z/file

[No105_Swoose]

On 4/12/2019 at 9:08 AM, MarcoPegase44 said:

Hello ,

 

A new File for the Yak 1b in Campaign Stalingrad for the31Gviap

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/h8ssdk66ugegdls/scgV2.7z/file

A big SALUTE and merci beaucoup to MarcoPegase44 for his files and assistance in helping me with his Yak-7B and Yak-1B mods to make those aircraft flyable options in a Battle of Stalingrad VVS campaign.  The key was correctly placing the "14" and "scripts" files extracted from his download into the IL2/data/scg folder.