Fighters of the Mighty 8th - A historical single player mission pack by KW_1979

[357th_KW]

Greetings!

 

I've started putting together a series of single player missions focused around the 8th Air Force's Fighter Command.  You will need the Bodenplatte expansion to play these, and Normandy content will be added as it becomes available.  The philosophy behind these missions is to put the player into the cockpit on real missions that took place - date/time/location/weather/aircraft etc have all been carefully researched to the best of my ability.  Because of the huge distances involved in most 8th AF missions (East Anglia, where these units were based isn't even on the map and won't be on the Normandy map either), all of these incorporate an air start and don't require returning to a base or landing.  Once you have completed the mission goals and broken contact with the enemy, a mission debriefing will pop up to give you some historical perspective on the action that just took place, and what really happened all those years ago.  This results in some fairly short missions, perfect for when you only have a little bit of time to jump onto IL-2. 

 

Because we don't have any heavy bombers in the game, and only have western Germany on our map, you'll notice that all the missions either involve functions other than escort, or take place before or after the actual escort portion of a mission.  Hopefully one day we'll have some B-17s or B-24s to work with, along with a map of central Germany.  I fudged a little with the one P-38 mission (there were really never any J-25's with the aileron boost and dive brakes in the 8th, but that doesn't impact the particular mission much).

 

These should all be playable on any realism setting, but they work well in full realism.  Text version of radio calls from your fellow pilots will help guide you along in the missions.  Try to stick together with your formation, but if you get separated things will generally still function.  I'm still fairly new to mission making, so I'd love any feedback you have to try and improve the later updates.

 

As of today (3/3/20) I've included 4 missions, and I have a couple more I'll be adding very soon.  I hope to continue adding to this collection and I'll keep updating the post as I do.

 

I've used the following skins that I recommend you download for best results (this will get updated as the missions are expanded):

Detroit Miss:  http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads4&file=details&id=484

Cathy Beloved: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/phi1lz9x5bnosjc/AACCBoto77E62h4rs63CNznna?dl=0

 

Note on mission completion:  When the debrief loads, the mission is complete.  You can exit the mission at that point.

 

Notes on the K-14 gunsight:  A lot of people probably aren't familiar with this sight, but it was very widely used and so I've included it where appropriate.  Make sure to set the wingspan correctly (in feet), and then adjust the distance to match the wingspan of your enemy.  If you are having trouble with it, an easy starting point is a 33' wingspan and 300 yards as a set and forget setting - this works nicely for both the 109 and 190.  You can also just force it into boresight mode instead if you prefer - or disable it in the aircraft setup if you choose.

 

Just unzip the attached folder into your \IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles\data\Missions folder and they should appear in game.

 

Fighters of the Mighty 8th - v2.zip

Edited March 3, 2020 by KW_1979
Updated with V2 - added a new mission

[Zeev]

Thanks for the missions.

Some questions:

1. Its not clear what planes we are using.

2. Does it tell or have waypoints to land? Or after mission completed you just quit mid air?

Its really a bummer to not have takeoff and landing sequence in my opinion and I would be glad if there would be a version (maybe seperate, named 'Full flight') to allow taxi, takeoff and land.

[357th_KW]

2 hours ago, Zeev said:

Thanks for the missions.

Some questions:

1. Its not clear what planes we are using.

2. Does it tell or have waypoints to land? Or after mission completed you just quit mid air?

Its really a bummer to not have takeoff and landing sequence in my opinion and I would be glad if there would be a version (maybe seperate, named 'Full flight') to allow taxi, takeoff and land.

Thanks for taking the time to download them!

 

1: The aircraft is listed in the mission description seen in game, and at the end of the briefing.  Two of them are P-51 missions and one is a P-38 mission.  There will be some P-47 missions as well as the razorback versions of the 47 and 51 once those become available.   I may squeeze a Spitfire in at some point.

 

2: I should have been clearer on this point.  Once the debrief loads, the mission is over and you can just end it.  I didn't want to throw in a function to force the mission to end because it might take some longer to read through it than others.

 

At some point I'll do some missions centered around the 352nd and 361st FGs that were based on the continent during the Battle of the Ardennes, and those will have takeoffs and landings, but we just don't have the map or bases for the others, and I don't think anyone wants to sit through a 5-6 hour mission.  I've got a couple ideas for some semi-historical missions to do on the Normandy map that will feature some of the challenges these crews faced and will feature either a takeoff or a landing.

 

I appreciate the feedback!

[Blitzen]

Happy Days!

[357th_KW]

New version is up with an additional mission added.  The v2 download contains all the content so you can just overwrite the existing version.

Edited March 3, 2020 by KW_1979

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Great concept, historical missions with the real-life after action report ? Funny to see how at least two of these reports described exactly what happened!

 

Just one bug and two small remarks. To start off with the bug, at the end of the February 1945 mission, so with the after action report already showing, the flight leader kept giving the "enemy aircraft spotted, follow me" message. Pretty annoying with those big white letters in front of the debriefing text.

The remarks:

- Personally, I wouldn't mind a minute or so of normal flying, to get your bearings and tune your aircraft etc. before the mission starts. Right now, you start pretty much in the middle of the action, which caused me to more or less fail to spot the enemy aircraft in two of the missions as I was still doing basic engine and gunsight management.

- You might be able to construct some of the flight leader's radio messages from the audio files in data\audio\radio\usa, in addition to the written messages in the middle of the screen.

[357th_KW]

12 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Great concept, historical missions with the real-life after action report ? Funny to see how at least two of these reports described exactly what happened!

 

Just one bug and two small remarks. To start off with the bug, at the end of the February 1945 mission, so with the after action report already showing, the flight leader kept giving the "enemy aircraft spotted, follow me" message. Pretty annoying with those big white letters in front of the debriefing text.

The remarks:

- Personally, I wouldn't mind a minute or so of normal flying, to get your bearings and tune your aircraft etc. before the mission starts. Right now, you start pretty much in the middle of the action, which caused me to more or less fail to spot the enemy aircraft in two of the missions as I was still doing basic engine and gunsight management.

- You might be able to construct some of the flight leader's radio messages from the audio files in data\audio\radio\usa, in addition to the written messages in the middle of the screen.

 

Thanks for the bug report!  I haven't seen that one yet in my play testing - I'll try to get it figured out and fixed.

 

With regard to the extra time at the beginning of the mission, that can easily be arranged.  I'll work that into future missions and go back and tweak the existing ones as I get a chance.

 

I'll have to experiment with doing some audio - although it might get a little old hearing the same voice over and over. 

 

Thanks for trying them out, and thanks for the feedback!

[Jazzhetienne]

Hi VBF-12_KW

I am unable to play the missions. I believe it needs to be updated. Do you plan on updating the missions to the newest version of IL-2?

Thanks a lot for all your work