Il-2 Great Battles Expansions Concepts: Battle of Odessa

[[F.Circus]FrangibleCover]

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Thesis

Let's start with some core assumptions:

- We can't do anything CloD already does, it's eating 1C's own lunch. Neither should we do anything that CloD doesn't do yet but is better positioned to do, like France, Norway, bits of the Battle of Britain that aren't in Kent or the Western Desert Campaign.

- We can't do the Pacific, as Jason has said many times at length. The subject of this thread is not debate over whether he's telling the truth or what's stopping them or how we could get around it. No Pacific. The world of Il-2 Great Battles ends at the Urals and Iceland.

- I'm not going to do anything in which most of the aircraft are equipped solely or mainly with rifle calibre machine guns. Regardless of whether they're modelled correctly, I really just don't find them much fun. Yeah, this does rule out the Winter War.

Battle of Odessa

The start of the Great Patriotic War in the air is very interesting, but mostly from the perspective of German pilots who get to rack up loads of kills on parked aircraft rather than Soviet pilots, who get to receive a message at the start of the campaign that their unit has no aircraft left and then skip through two weeks of no operations before being captured and the career ending. There is, however, a possible solution...

Historical Notability

Romania, all told, had a pretty bad start to the 1940s. First the Hungarians took Northern Transylvania off them with German backing, then the Soviets took Bessarabia off them with German backing, then the Bulgarians took Southern Dobruja off them with German backing, then there was a coup organised by the (German-backed) Iron Guard fascist party and General Ion Antonescu of the Army, then there was a second coup attempt by the German-backed Iron Guard against Antonescu which was narrowly defeated. The obvious thing to do at this point was to ally with Germany against the Soviet Union, because the Soviet Union was a threat to their territorial integrity and independence.

 

Romania’s air war started on the 22nd of June 1941, the same day as the rest of Operation Barbarossa. The Romanian area of responsibility was the southernmost one, the Odessa Military District and its attached Black Sea Fleet units around Odessa and Nikolayev. While the other opening air raids of Operation Barbarossa were hugely damaging, the Romanians managed to fumble. Initial losses to the air units around Odessa were unpleasant and lopsided, but for reasons that are unclear to me, they seem to have maintained cohesion much better than other Soviet units and really stuck it to the Romanian attackers. Perhaps the older and less powerful Romanian aircraft couldn’t perform well enough, perhaps the Romanian pilots and doctrine were less effective without the experience of the Luftwaffe, perhaps the Soviet commander in the area, Fyodor Michugin, was particularly on the ball and perhaps it is simply the delay in the Romanian ground advance that allowed Soviet air units the time and space to get organised. The Black Sea Fleet even managed to launch some bomber raids on the port of Constanta in the first week of the war, although these were unsuccessful.

 

Whatever the cause, when the Romanian and German forces advanced into Bessarabia starting on the 2nd of July 1941, it was against stiff air opposition which was not really suppressed until the end of July, two months into Operation Barbarossa. In August, Romanian troops crossed the Dniester into Transnistria, beyond their 1940 borders and surrounded the city of Odessa. This started a brutal three month siege with heavy air action on both sides. Lev Shestakov’s 69th Fighter Aviation Regiment, operating from scratch bases around Odessa, put up a spirited resistance with MiG-3s, I-16s and I-153s; while Romanian, German and Italian aircraft swarmed over the city, striking constantly at its defenders. After holding out against impossible odds for months, the defenders of the city were evacuated over the night of the 14th and 15th of October 1941 and sent to reinforce the beleaguered garrison of Sevastopol, where most of them died. The 69th IAP had a nicer fate, being evacuated to Stalingrad and redesignated the famous 9th GIAP, home of Litvyak, Budanova and Amet-Khan Sultan. As a final footnote, when the Romanian forces occupied the city they set up their new headquarters in the old NKVD building, which promptly exploded and killed a bunch of important Romanian officers. In response to this, the Romanian authorities, with German assistance, slaughtered somewhere in the region of 30,000 Jews who had absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s important that while we play the fun and cool knights of the air plane game, we don’t lose sight of what we’re actually playing out and who these people are.

 

The Map

The map takes a chunk of the Black Sea coastline of Romania and Ukraine, as well as much of modern Moldova. The map is about 420km x 420km and has a land area of 105,000km2. This makes it a touch larger than the Bodenplatte map physically, but with 20,000km2 less land area due to all of the sea. This is approximately equal to one Velikye Luki of difference. For a picture of the borders in 1941, the Romanian border is in roughly the same place, the annexed area of Bessarabia is modern Moldova and the area of Ukraine between the Dniester and the Romanian border on the Prut (from Bilhorod south), and the areas of Ukraine beyond that are part of the Soviet Union. The map represents the major port cities of Odessa, Nikolayev and Constanta, as well as a number of other important points in the region such as the city and German air base at Iasi.

 

The Aircraft

In accordance with standard Great Battles practice, eight aircraft have been selected, plus two Collector aircraft bundled with the expansion.

Allies

Mikoyan i Gurevich MiG-3 series 10 (Collector)

Polikarpov I-153

Polikarpov I-16 Type 29

Sukhoi Su-2 (M-88)

Ilyushin Il-4

Axis

PZL P.24E (Collector)

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3

Heinkel He 112B-2

Junkers Ju 87B-2

Bristol Blenheim B Mk.I

 

In addition, most of the non-premium aircraft from Battle for Moscow would fit into the campaign, as well as the He 111H-6 from Stalingrad, the U-2VS and Ju 52 collector aircraft and, of course, the recently announced IAR.80 collector aircraft. The Hurricane Mk.II is technically incorrect, Romania’s dozen Hurricanes were Mk.Is, but I don’t think the performance difference justifies not including them.

 

MiG-3 s.10

 

In the summer of 1941, more MiG-1s and 3s had been produced than LaGG-3s and Yak-1s put together. All of the LaGGs were off in the Far East facing off against the threat from Japan and most of the Yak-1s seem to have been assigned to interceptor units around cities or else up north, so Odessa and its Frontal Aviation components were left with the MiG-3 as their only modern interceptor. However, the MiG-3 that they had was not up to the standards of the MiG-3 we have in game. 

 

Our current MiG-3 is a dangerous opponent in certain conditions and can carry a variety of useful optional armaments, such as air to surface weapons, Berezin pods, twin nose Berezins and twin nose ShVAKs. This MiG-3 has only the original and frankly kind of rubbish single Berezin and twin ShKAS armament, as well as missing out on the slats that give our MiG its reasonable agility. The most noticeable difference, however, is the use of the VISh-22E propeller, a badly designed unit that capped the top speed of the MiG to roughly 90% of its limit because of its limited pitch and also resulted in the propeller overspeeding and destroying the engine in a high speed dive. If you enjoy flying the Razor in Flying Circus 2 or Rise of Flight, you’ll love this MiG!

 

It’s not all doom and gloom though, there is a very interesting modification from the first days of MiG-3 operations. In November of 1941 the 402nd IAP at Velikye Luki performed a little sleight of hand in their maintenance pool and managed to get two of the regiment’s MiGs fitted with Mikulin AM-38 engines stolen from Il-2s instead of the intended AM-35A. These engines greatly boosted performance at low altitude and the resulting conversions were flown operationally, with the regimental commander Major Gruzdev recording two kills with the type. There are persistent rumours of other units making the same modification, either by necessity or choice, and the NII VVS also tested the configuration until their converted aircraft was mysteriously lost. The wreck was discovered and found to have ammunition fired from its guns, so I can demonstrate that at least three of these aircraft existed and took part in air battles. A bit of a unicorn, but a fun idea.

 

Polikarpov I-153

Ah, what a classic. The last, best biplane fighter ever built. Despite its antiquated appearance, the I-153 only entered service in 1939 and was actually a fairly modern aircraft. Equipped with the same Shvetsov M-62 engine as the contemporary models of I-16, it had a good burst of speed for a biplane coupled with the expected superb manoeuvrability. However, its fundamental planform was badly obsolete and it struggled to keep up with other fighters even in its hour of success at Khalkin Gol, needing I-16s to pursue or herd opponents for them. After a poor showing in Finland it was obvious that they needed to be replaced, but in the summer of 1941 they still made up roughly one third of the Soviet fighter fleet. The early war period went generally very poorly for the Chaika, given the already prevailing lack of organisation and surprise in the VVS, not to mention its poor speed and armament. However, the handling advantage coupled with the surprising power to weight ratio (comparable to La-5F) meant that it could hold its own and it recorded serious numbers of kills. In the absence of proper strike aircraft, many I-153s were also pressed into strike roles, including at Odessa. By the spring of 1942, most of the pre-war I-153 fleet had been destroyed, but the remaining aircraft continued in second line strike roles and even saw service over the Kuban.

 

Towards the end of the production series a number of different modifications were made to attempt to modernise the aircraft. There were serial production runs of aircraft with the M-63 engine from the I-16 Type 24, aircraft with a single Berezin replacing two of the ShKAS or aircraft with racks for eight rockets. I’m not really sure how these three modifications interact, I assume that they were all applied to the final production aircraft and that we should count forward from there to the aircraft not so equipped, but I don’t have sources either way. Regardless, the final versions of the I-153 were dangerous opponents that demand a disciplined approach from opposing pilots and team well with faster early war fighters like the MiG-3 to create traps from which Axis pilots cannot escape.

 

Polikarpov I-16 Type 29

I must confess that this aircraft selection is the one I am least sure about. The I-16 Type 29 is relatively similar to the I-16 Type 24/28 that we already have, with only some detail changes. On the other hand, an I-16 packaged with the Battle of Odessa pack is a necessity and I cannot really offer a Type 10/18 to the players in good conscience, knowing that it is a strict downgrade on the I-16 they most likely already have with no particularly interesting features. The Type 29 is perhaps not the most interesting selection, but at least it’s an upgrade rather than a downgrade.

 

When it comes to interesting features, however, the I-16 Type 29 does deliver. The main difference is the armament, a Berezin and two ShKAS all on the centreline. Given the popularity of the Type 28 with cannons in multiplayer servers, I expect this to be the new final word in the dogfighting I-16. Furthermore, some Type 29s were fitted with unusually heavy strike options. The standard load carried by all aircraft was six racks for RS-82 rockets, with many aircraft also being fitted with bomb shackles for two 100kg bombs that could be used at the same time as the rockets and some aircraft also getting an extra pair of rocket racks. The I-16 is already dangerous to incautious opponents and with it getting serious strike chops it could also clean up at low level with the capability to defend itself against attack.

 

Su-2 (M-88B)

 

The Sukhoi Su-2 is somewhat overshadowed by the immense legend of the Ilyushin Sturmovik series of aircraft, but in 1941 it was a highly competent strike aircraft in its own right. Most of the Su-2 fleet was concentrated in Ukraine, where they fought valiantly against the invading Axis powers throughout 1941, but their horrendous losses in combat and perhaps a little dose of politics ensured that production of the type was ended in early 1942 and the Il-2 became the sole provider of close air support to the VVS. At the same time they had built a small run of Su-2s with the Shvetsov M-82 engine, were struggling to find enough engines for fighters resulting in a series of programmes to wedge M-82s onto any airframe going (which turned up the La-5 and three or four total donkeys) and were cancelling the perfectly acceptable MiG-3 to transfer its engine production to make Il-2s. If you can square that circle, for God’s sake don’t bring it up to Stalin or we shall all be shot.

 

Turning to the actual characteristics, we discover a perfectly pleasant little two seat striker, carrying up to ten rockets (and closer to the fuselage than the comedy ten rockets on the Pe-2) and 400kg of bombs in a bomb bay, plus another 200kg external which may or may not interfere with rocket carriage. Allegedly one could also carry a pair of 250kg bombs on the external hardpoints alongside a full bomb bay, but I don’t really fancy trying it. Defensive armament is light, with four forward firing ShKAS to tickle fighters that cross you and a single ShKAS for the navigator, either in a heavy, armoured MV-5 ball turret or on a simple TSS-1 pintle mount with worse gunnery angles. Either way, you can carry a little more stuff than an Il-2 with a little more risk to yourself because you’ve got less armour.

 

Il-4

Technically this is the Ilyushin DB-3F, at this point in the war, but I’m not going to call it that because it’ll get confusing. The Il-4 is a development of the earlier Ilyushin DB-3, but with the major modifications made to the nose and wing structures it’s not really a derivative. The type was the only really modern medium bomber in the VVS/VMF inventory, competing in a weight class that could only otherwise be filled by the B-25 or A-20 via Lend-Lease. A good number were in service with Naval Aviation and Long Range Aviation in the summer of 1941 and their contribution in the Mine Torpedo Air Regiments around the Black Sea coast was invaluable in contesting Axis control of the seas.

 

I see no particular reason not to make this Il-4 represent the entire scope of the type, starting with the ones in service in 1941 with Tumansky M-87 engines and three single ShKAS defending them through to the final production variants in 1944 with Tumansky M-88Bs and three Berezins. The fundamental airframe changed very little across the course of the war, gaining more power and becoming heavier in equal measure. The payload of the aircraft is up to two tons of bombs, one or two torpedoes or, almost uniquely, a series of armour piercing rocket bombs. The more famous BETAB-750DS, a gigantic 12”, four metre long monstrosity that I think may have been designed to pierce the very heart of international fascism and then set off 75 kilos of explosives in it, saw a little use around the Baltic, but the more practical BETAB-150DS and 170DS were widely used by the AVMF from the Il-4, and also occasionally by VVS units with light fingers.

 

The Il-4, realistically, sits at the lower end of the capability range of medium bombers, being not significantly more effective than the A-20B in the role, but its unique weapons and ability to carry 500kg bombs differentiate it significantly and make it a valuable part of the Soviet arsenal in the Great Battles series well beyond 1941.

 

PZL/IAR P.24E

It's easy to forget that Romania until about 1940 was a strongly Western-aligned state, but their large stable of Polish aircraft were mostly purchased normally and manufactured with license produced French engines. The PZL P.11 that made up a significant part of Romania's fighter fleet in 1941 is frankly a bit crap, if people want to fly it then I reckon a double collector release alongside the I-15 should be fair, but the IAR-produced P.24E has some interest.

The last and greatest of Pulawski's famous "Polish wing" fighters, the P.24E has a light airframe mated to an anemic engine and a pair of MG FF cannons, giving it remarkably heavy and effective armament for an aircraft of its age. Unfortunately, its fixed landing gear and strut braced structure mean that it is very slow for 1941 air combat, slower even than the Polikarpov aircraft, but capable of hanging with the Chaika and turning inside the Ishak thanks to its minimal weight, as well as having an impressive burst climb. As old as it looks, this aircraft still has some tricks.

In Romanian service the P.24 was definitely considered a second line fighter, tasked mainly with home defence duties while the more modern types acted at the front. A number were also deployed forward as ground attack aircraft, although with a maximum bomb load of two 50kg bombs I can’t imagine they were hugely effective. By 1942 they were out of front line service, and rightly so.

Bf 109Ea-3

In some ways, they are inevitable. With the recent announcement of the IAR.80 collector's aircraft, I have little choice but to add yet another Bf 109 to the already huge Great Battles stable. However, I don't feel too bad about adding a truly iconic aircraft. Who among us does not yearn for the stirring score of Spitfire Fugue, the flashing, yellow-nosed hornets, the shrill screech of the late model Merlin engine… but in the absence of a Hispano Buchon this shall have to do.

Romania received fifty early model Bf 109E-3s in 1940 and 41, designated Ea-3 or E-3a for ‘Auslandisch’. Along with the IAR 80 they formed the majority of Romania's modern fighter force in the first years of the war. Some were modified with various newer components found on the Bf 109E-4 and E-7, such as the bolt on armoured windscreen, armoured headrest (visible in the attached image), and possibly also full refurbishments to E-4 standard with the new canopy and MG FF/M cannons. With all of the weight savings taken, this is probably the best dogfighting Bf 109 in the entire Great Battles line up, absent the extra weight of the armour on the Bf 109E-7/U-2 we have.

He 112B-2

Romania was the largest export customer for the Heinkel 112 and, in the end, the primary operator. The Germans rejected it in favour of the 109, the Japanese found it couldn't meet requirements, the Hungarians ended up with three delivered and in the end even the Romanians rapidly relegated it to the role of advanced trainer. A shame, really, that such a sleek looking aircraft should be consigned to the dustbin of history on account of its awful sub-700hp Jumo 210 engine. However, before that it had a short career on the front line with the Romanian Air Force, acting as a fighter initially and scoring the first Romanian kills of the war before moving into a ground attack role to which the fragile and unarmoured He 112 was poorly suited. They were temporarily withdrawn to home defence roles to accompany the PZLs, but moved back to the front for the Siege of Odessa to do further ground attack and tactical reconnaissance work until 1942.

 

The He 112 is not terribly slow, really, but it has very poor climb and acceleration. On the other hand it is a terror in a dogfight, matching the I-16 in turns and rolling well too. Another pair of FF cannons give it the punch to take on anything in the early war skies and I should imagine that a mixed formation of 112s and 109s would be a serious challenge for any opponents.

Ju 87B-2

Despite Romanian pleas for them, no Junkers 87s were actually deployed in either the Romanian Air Force or the supporting Luftwaffe Fliegerkorps IV at the start of Operation Barbarossa. However, with the Romanians making relatively slow progress, the experienced pilots of St.G 77 were sent to support the attack on Odessa. They successfully sank a number of ships, including the destroyer Frunze and gunboat Krasnaya Armeniya during a landing operation where the Black Sea Fleet managed to counterencircle a small part of the Romanian army besieging Odessa. Frankly, though, the relatively limited use of the Stuka on the Romanian front is irrelevant. The Stuka B is the early war period and it is sorely missed from Moscow and any other battle where it served.

 

In technical specification terms, the aircraft is dreadfully unimpressive. The engine is down on power, although without the ballooning mass of the D variant we have it’s likely to handle a little better, the maximum bombload is limited, much of the armour isn’t fitted and Hans in the back has only a single gun. But you never flew the Stuka for the technical specs anyway, did you?

 

Blenheim Mk.I

In the increasingly dangerous environment of the late 1930s, Romania turned to Britain to supply her with modern aircraft. That failing, they acquired 37 Bristol Blenheim Mk.I bombers. The Blenheim had been a revelation in its day, faster than any fighter in the world, but its day was very much drawing to a close by 1941. The Blenheim fits into the Romanian arsenal by representing the odd little light bombers they operated, both the Blenheims and also the Potez 633. The Romanian Blenheims operated mainly as reconnaissance aircraft but were set to interdiction of the seaborne route into Odessa, damaging the cargo boat Bryansk and the gunboat Krasnyy Adjaristan, while the Potez bombers conducted more conventional strikes on troops and airfields.

The Blenheim is lightly armed, with one fixed .303 in the wing that will do well to hit anything and one flexible .303 in the tail, along with a maximum load of 4x 250lb or 2x 500lb bombs, but the stores carriage is internal and the aircraft can manage a fair burst of speed. While it isn’t able to outrun the latest MiGs or 109s, it can put on a convincing showing against the obsolescent Polikarpovs that are so common in this theatre. In addition, the light weight and high power loading are likely to make it a pleasant aircraft to fly, although the pilot’s notes warn of a ‘vicious’ stall. At least, with the very modern looking all-glazed nose, you will have an excellent view of the crash.

Summary

I don’t think that any of this is critical to Il-2, but it’s a much more interesting way of getting these early aircraft into Il-2 than any other I’ve come up with. At the very least, it’ll do terribly well in Romania. I’ve got plenty more ideas that I’ll be posting in this format… whenever I can do the write ups, and you can preview them with the links above. Any comments, thoughts, supplemental suggestions or corrections are welcomed.

Edited September 1, 2021 by [F.Circus]FrangibleCover
Wrong date, claimed the Siege of Odessa lasted about a week

[namhee2]

 

[[F.Circus]FrangibleCover]

Hah, even better, a start on the map!

[Enceladus828]

More info about the Odessa map here:

Edited August 31, 2021 by Enceladus

[Hoss]

I still want to see a Crimean map, just start on Kuban, go across to Crimea and keep heading west, there are some nice mountains and harbors there.  Premium packages are good, i.e. Battle of Kuban, but you can take an earlier plane set and go East with the Germans advance, we don't need to use the Kuban plane set.  BoM/BoS planes would work.  Same for the Crimean map and the Odessa.  They are very under utilized in my opinion for the German early advances.  Same for battle of Normandy and Bodenplatte maps.  That's why I want the early RAF twin engine planes, along with couple of French planes for battle of France and we're in business.  Of course we need earlier Italian and Romanian aircraft too.  We can want in one hand and you know what in the other and see which one fills up first.. LOL  at my age patients is out the window..

 

Cheers

Hoss

Edited August 31, 2021 by 352nd_Hoss

[Eisenfaustus]

I‘d buy ^^

[354thFG_Panda_]

You got my attention when He112. Quite a cool plane

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

Include Poesti in the map and we can have new scenarios

[[F.Circus]FrangibleCover]

9 minutes ago, =gRiJ=Roman- said:

Include Poesti in the map and we can have new scenarios

Ah, but I have a plan for Ploesti and the air battles around Bucharest...

[PatrickAWlson]

If nothing else I appreciate the history lesson.  Thanks for posting such a detailed description.

[[F.Circus]FrangibleCover]

20 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

If nothing else I appreciate the history lesson.  Thanks for posting such a detailed description.

Thank you, that's very much my aim with these posts. Anyone can say "1C plz add Romania, plz add I-153, plz add PZL fighters", but I think that to really make an effective suggestion post of this type you have to put in the legwork and figure out how it would actually relate to the Great Battles series. There's some terribly interesting stuff out there, but if the Dev's eyes are never drawn to it, if they are never gripped or inspired by the stories, there's no chance of seeing them. Although not everything I'm going to talk about is as unknown as Unternehmen München, I've put by best foot forward here ?

[Nickkyboy99]

For me I would only buy the PZL P.24 collector, not the entire expansion 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

23 hours ago, [F.Circus]FrangibleCover said:

Thank you, that's very much my aim with these posts. Anyone can say "1C plz add Romania, plz add I-153, plz add PZL fighters", but I think that to really make an effective suggestion post of this type you have to put in the legwork and figure out how it would actually relate to the Great Battles series. There's some terribly interesting stuff out there, but if the Dev's eyes are never drawn to it, if they are never gripped or inspired by the stories, there's no chance of seeing them. Although not everything I'm going to talk about is as unknown as Unternehmen München, I've put by best foot forward here ?

Absolutely. And I would love a Battle of Odessa module. As you said, the aircraft would tie nicely into BOM, and in addition there's a nice opportunity for some 1944 eastern front combat.

 

But I'm slightly pessimistic as to the chances of BOO ever becoming reality. The primary concern of the Devs is how to make money, and they can only do that with modules that enough people find interesting. I'm not sure if the Battle of Odessa is either well-known or loved enough to make it commercially interesting. I sure hope so though, and if nothing else, like PatrickAWlson I at least really enjoyed reading your well-written history lesson

[Mtnbiker1998]

It would be cool to see some of the really early war stuff to flesh out pre-moscow. I dunno if I'd rather see this or Finland though. Finland especially has the cool lend lease aspects to attract more people (And I'm sure Finland would be a gorgeous map), but this has some neat lesser-heard of options that I'm curious about.

 

Either way I'd probably buy a battle that gives me an early E model 109 and some meme biplanes.

[oc2209]

On 8/31/2021 at 2:04 PM, [F.Circus]FrangibleCover said:

Summary

 

 

I don’t think that any of this is critical to Il-2, but it’s a much more interesting way of getting these early aircraft into Il-2 than any other I’ve come up with.

 

Excellent work.

 

When I saw the thread title, my reaction was something between 'meh' and 'pfft'.

 

By the end of your post, I was sold on the idea.

 

It might not ever happen, but it was a damn fine sales pitch nonetheless.

[DD_Arthur]

5 minutes ago, oc2209 said:

 

Excellent work.

 

When I saw the thread title, my reaction was something between 'meh' and 'pfft'.

 

By the end of your post, I was sold on the idea.

 

It might not ever happen, but it was a damn fine sales pitch nonetheless.

 

Agree completely.

[Missionbug]

Certainly very well presented and has my vote for sure.

 

Next to Finland this would be my other choice to flesh out the conflict in the East and the various nations involved in it, many interesting aircraft that can also be utilised elsewhere to build missing types from the other modules.

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[migmadmarine]

Certainly like the sound of this, and perhaps if anything it would compliment a Finnish module as down the road as well, adding a Blenheim here could perhaps leave the bomber slot in a Finnish lineup open for a Do.17, etc.