WIP: Historical Air Battles

[PatrickAWlson]

Working on something.  I want to add some more historical flavor to PWCG.  The goal is not to precisely recreate historical battles but rather to push the use of mission profiles that are in line with them and focus missions where those battles occurred.

 

Today: Arnhem is a movement of the lines.  You may be directed there for a mission or you may not.  If you are it will be more or less the same as being directed anywhere else.

 

After: Arnhem will be a focus area for five or six days.  Air drops will be common.  Allied fighter planes will be heavily engaged in ground attack and fighter sweeps in the area.  Luftwaffe on ground attack and intercepts.  So if you are flying PWCG on the Bodenplatte map odds are that you will be contesting Arnhem and you will see some of the things that happened.  

 

With that in mind, are there any interesting events that you would like to see modeled in PWCG?  The time span should be days and not months. 

 

For instance, PWCG already knows Stalingrad was a battle and that there was heave air activity over the front from August through January.  That is already modeled by increased mission frequency and heavy presence of ground battles.   What the new system will allow is more of a focus on the pocket in December and more frequent encounters with transport and cargo drops into the pocket, with action much more likely to be concentrated in that area as opposed to anywhere on the front.

 

Let's start listing ideas here

Rhine Map

Arnhem: Parachute drops.  Air drops.  Ground attack.

Scheldt: Focus in the North.  Heavy ground battles in that area. 

German parachute drop Dec 17

Bulge: Bastogne air resupply.  

Bodenplatte: airfield attacks

 

Moscow Map

Any specific armored engagements?

 

Stalingrad Map

German Bombing of City August: Bombing, escort

German attack on city: focus on city

Russian resupply.  Barge attacks.  Air defense

Russian offensive: focus on pincer.  Armored assault.

German pocket.   Air resupply

 

Kuban Map

Russian amphibious assault.  

Anti shipping - any specific battles?

 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by PatrickAWlson

[Leon_Portier]

Sounds great! It would be neat to have short, but focused campaigns if thats easier to make.

[TheSNAFU]

This sounds like a great idea. I would think the battle of the bulge would be a good focus area particularly once the weather began to clear. Airdrops to Bastogne and attacks on the German spearheads then the luftwaffe strikes against allied airfields at the beginning of January. 
 

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. 

[Murleen]

Operation Bodenplatte? Airfield attack missions for Luftwaffe, scrambles for Allies

[PatrickAWlson]

25 minutes ago, Murleen said:

Operation Bodenplatte? Airfield attack missions for Luftwaffe, scrambles for Allies

Kind of what the module is named for, right  

[Cybermat47]

The city of Stalingrad was subjected to a Dresden-like (or rather, the Bombing of Dresden was Stalingrad-like) series of day-and-night firebombing attacks on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of August 1942. This was a major part of the battle, and possibly the single deadliest Luftwaffe bombing operation of the entire war.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Stalingrad

 

Something fun for Ju-52 careers on the Rhineland map would be Operation Stösser, a German paratroop drop onto the High Fens on the night of December 17th, 1944. It went just about as well as most German operations of the time. The luckiest paratroopers were those who were accidentally dropped behind their own lines.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Stösser

Also, here’s a list of bombing raids against Cologne, some of which fit in with the BoBp timeframe: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Cologne_in_World_War_II

[jeanba]

Rheine :

Escaut (ground attack)

Edited March 25, 2021 by jeanba

[PatrickAWlson]

34 minutes ago, jeanba said:

Rheine :

Escaut (ground attack)

 

Can you expand on that or post a link with information?  Not familiar with it.  When I googled it it came up with WWI and not WWII.

[jeanba]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Scheldt?oldid=254181532

 

Escaut is the french name, english name seem to be Scheldt

[migmadmarine]

Afraid I've not got any details, only suppositions, but I think some of my observations from my thread on kuban anti-shipping apply. Perhaps a couple of dedicated Anti-shipping squadrons could be made? Don't know if any of the bomber units in the area were in charge of such missions, but something of a maritime patrol mission type would be great, where you'd have a zone with expected maritime targets in it, where you'd have to fly the route keeping an eye out for ships, ID and engage. I've always assumed that is what the Soviet bomber squadrons based at Alder were there for. 

 

Also, I recall seeing a mod to re-enable this, but apparently vanilla career had a mission type that was not introduced for the Germans fighters to go out to sea and meet with Ju-52s from the west end of the map (south of Kerch) and escort them into the area around Anapa. Something along those lines could be interesting to escort or intercept. 

[PatrickAWlson]

5 hours ago, migmadmarine said:

Afraid I've not got any details, only suppositions, but I think some of my observations from my thread on kuban anti-shipping apply. Perhaps a couple of dedicated Anti-shipping squadrons could be made? Don't know if any of the bomber units in the area were in charge of such missions, but something of a maritime patrol mission type would be great, where you'd have a zone with expected maritime targets in it, where you'd have to fly the route keeping an eye out for ships, ID and engage. I've always assumed that is what the Soviet bomber squadrons based at Alder were there for. 

 

Also, I recall seeing a mod to re-enable this, but apparently vanilla career had a mission type that was not introduced for the Germans fighters to go out to sea and meet with Ju-52s from the west end of the map (south of Kerch) and escort them into the area around Anapa. Something along those lines could be interesting to escort or intercept. 

 

I have the Russian amphibious assault as one of the historical points.  I can do focused anti shipping on the dates before, during, and after that event.  Not sure of other events where anti shipping was the norm.  If I do that then other missions like maritime patrol will fall out.

 

I like your idea of a dedicated anti shipping unit.  Not a role that currently exists but I might be able to make it happen.  Don't think the Germans had such a unit but I remember reading about a Russian A20 unit that did that.

Edited March 26, 2021 by PatrickAWlson

[migmadmarine]

I suppose you could always have one of the Ju-88 squadrons have a higher rate of anti-shipping missions than the others. 

[Stonehouse]

Operation Varsity down in the Emmerich - Wesel area late March 1945 on the Rhineland map is another large airborne operation with lots of fighter and fighter bomber support. Actual drop was March 24 just outside Wesel to the N and NW of the town. I assume there was an increase in fighter bomber and recon activity leading up to the operation plus probably level bombing raids against transport junctions etc further into Germany to help disrupt and prevent reinforcements and supplies moving up to the area of the landing

 

Shame (I think) there isn't any plans to add gliders as a loadout for C47s in Normandy.

Edited March 26, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse