SP Mission - From the JG 26 War Diary: Operation Market Garden: D+2

[JG7_X-Man]

Historic mission by JG7_X-Man based on documented events from JG 26 Luftwaffe Fighter Wing War Diary, 1943-45 by Donald Caldwell.

Date: September 19^th 1944

Time: Dusk

This misison was recreated to match the same atmospheric conditions according to both 357^th FG and JG 26 combat reports. 

SP Mission - From the JG 26 War Diary: Operation Market Garden: D+2

 

Backstory: Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's idea was to capture the bridges across two canals and three rivers in Holland, outflank the Germans' Siegfried Line, and provide a springboard into the heart of Germany on September 17^th, 1944.

Montgomery's plan included Operation Garden, the ground attack, and Market, the airborne portion. Two American and one British airborne division were committed, amounting to some 35,000 troops. Because over 3,000 transport and glider tug aircraft were required, the RAF and USAAF had to deliver the troops and their supplies over two consecutive days using the available 1,750 aircraft. Bad luck, bad weather, and bad intelligence all played a large part in failure of the plan.

 

Mission:

• JG 26 was active over the combat zone all day, along with other Luftwaffe units. Late in the afternoon, II. /JG 26 was flying the Geschwader’s last air sweep over the Nijmegen – Arnhem corridor of the day.
• The 357^th FG was tasked with flying cover for transports dropping supplies somewhere over the airborne invasion area as soon as weather permitted. Takeoff was called around 14:00

Aircraft available:  P-51D-15 (USAAF) and Fw 190A-8 (Luftwaffe)

 

Note:

• If flying Luftwaffe, you have to taxi into position. Take time to plot your taxi route to get to your takeoff position. Subtitles and airfield signs will guide you to the correct takeoff spot. AI will line up correctly so just stay out of their way.
• If you are flying USAAF, obviously your mission is picking up over the Dutch coastline but your mission will end at the RAF 2nd TAF base at Melsbroek.

 

Installation:

Download into your \IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data folder

This mission also comes with a skin pack.

 

Thanks:

-          MISSION BUILDING

@JimTM for his help and if it wasn’t for his Mission Editor Manual, I would have never given this a shot.

@Gambit21 and @Sketch especially who was never to annoyed to answer and show me how things worked multiple times.

@IckyATLAS, @SYN_Vander, @[DBS]Tx_Tip for their groups and tools and several other guys I can’t remember off head!

@BlackSix for his help in research and @Jason_Williams for being OK with me copying groups from the career geenrator.

 

-          SKINS

Huge shoutout to @schwarzerHund for his JG 26 skin collection (G-14 through D-9) and the guy in just amazing and thanks to the guys that created the templates he used.

Also, I would like to thank @adler_1 for his P-51 skins – his work is on Mission4Today, check them out!

 

Hope you like it! I have several more coming down the pipeline with some pretty cool custom skins .

 

I am open to criticism to give you a better experience.

[Gambit21]

Dude - awesome!

Congrats on this. I haven't actually FLOWN in a long, long time...but I'll have to check this out soon.

[DFLion]

Well done JG7_X-man,

I have just flown both missions and they are excellent. This was a very important time in the history of the WWII European Western air campaign's aerial warfare and you have captured the moment in history very well. Sadly a lot of lessons were found out by both sides during this time.

I enjoyed flying the FW190A-8's - they are a flying gun, shooting down six aircraft and carefully avoiding the Mustangs? On the other hand the Mustangs are a joy to fly and I claimed 2 Fockes. The USAF Mustang was to prove to be the 'nemesis' for the FW190A-8 as the war grinded on to its end.

Keep the missions coming.

DFLion

[easterling77]

Hey JG7_X-man

 

Just flown your Fw190 Mission..what an awesome flight.

The moment I dived on the C47's as they were dropping the Paras over the town....looks absolutely incredible.

And the Mustangs gave me a really good fight.

 

 

I flew back after the "disengage-message" and landet on my home field (6 of us made it back). But even after the last one of us landet, I didint get a successful mission.

Does this maybe depend on the time I intercept the Paradrop or did I miss something?

 

Regardless...a ton of fun. Thank you for this awesome mission.

 

Greetings 

easterling77

 

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by easterling77

[IckyATLAS]

Excellent, well done. I will be happy to try it as I am stuck since a long time in the Kuban Area ? 

[JG7_X-Man]

12 hours ago, easterling77 said:

...

I flew back after the "disengage-message" and landet on my home field (6 of us made it back). But even after the last one of us landet, I didint get a successful mission.

Does this maybe depend on the time I intercept the Paradrop or did I miss something?

Glad you liked it! That "disengage-message" was a tad rudamenrty I know - next mission I will try an audio message. 

 

For the the feel, I found this: Captain Arval Roberson was leading Dollar (362nd FS) Green Flight.

I think you only see a "sucessfully landed" on the exit screen after you end the mission but let me check on that.

 

The cargo drop was the Allied mission and zero C-47s were shot down by the Luftwaffe IRL on that mission, (D+4 it was a different story) so the AI Fw 190s will not target the transports. However, they did take a beating from AAA so I routed them accordingly.

10 hours ago, IckyATLAS said:

Excellent, well done. I will be happy to try it as I am stuck since a long time in the Kuban Area ? 

Thank you!

On 3/3/2021 at 7:33 PM, Gambit21 said:

Dude - awesome!

Congrats on this. I haven't actually FLOWN in a long, long time...but I'll have to check this out soon.

Learned from the best! 

Edited March 5, 2021 by JG7_X-Man

[JG7_X-Man]

20 hours ago, DFLion said:

Well done JG7_X-man,

I have just flown both missions and they are excellent. This was a very important time in the history of the WWII European Western air campaign's aerial warfare and you have captured the moment in history very well. Sadly a lot of lessons were found out by both sides during this time.

I enjoyed flying the FW190A-8's - they are a flying gun, shooting down six aircraft and carefully avoiding the Mustangs? On the other hand the Mustangs are a joy to fly and I claimed 2 Fockes. The USAF Mustang was to prove to be the 'nemesis' for the FW190A-8 as the war grinded on to its end.

Keep the missions coming.

DFLion

 

Glad you liked it. Luckly there were fewer days like this for the Luftwaffe - dragging European Theater War into '46 wouldn't have been good for the world. To me any mission that envolved the lost of a squadron/staffle commander is memorable.

 

Actually, the 357th flew a mixture of P-51Bs and Ds on that mission and I am not sure if that played a part in the outcome.

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

I have downloaded both missions and campaigns many times with complete success and almost all download and appear as zip files but JG 26 Market garden when downloaded appears as a Microsoft word file ?  this is the first time that this has happened, I suppose that the missions are the Rhineland map ?

[JG7_X-Man]

On 3/15/2021 at 1:53 AM, taffy2jeffmorgan said:

I have downloaded both missions and campaigns many times with complete success and almost all download and appear as zip files but JG 26 Market garden when downloaded appears as a Microsoft word file ?  this is the first time that this has happened, I suppose that the missions are the Rhineland map ?

Yes.