U2 in great battles

[Na-zdorovie]

Just a quickie, can the u2 be used in SP in great battles without flying circus? 

[Gambit21]

The U2 is not a FC aircraft.

 

I can't comment on the stock career for it, now that you mention it I wonder if @PatrickAWlson has included it.

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by Gambit21

[PatrickAWlson]

U2 is a WWII plane.  PWCG includes it and I'm pretty sure the stock career does too.  Night missions only.

[Avimimus]

11 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

U2 is a WWII plane.  PWCG includes it and I'm pretty sure the stock career does too.  Night missions only.

 

Are there He-111 night fighters? I'd assume not - but I find it fascinating that there were He-111 night fighters (and that they were the most effective U-2VS interceptors)! Probably a better subject for a scripted campaign though?

[PatrickAWlson]

@Avimimus Can you tell me a bit more?  What did an He111 night fighter look like?  Was it just an He111 with radar?  How did they manage to find and shootdown U2s?

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

U2 is a WWII plane.  PWCG includes it and I'm pretty sure the stock career does too.  Night missions only.

 

Yes, night bombing missions on the Stalingrad and Kuban maps. 

[Feathered_IV]

2 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

U2 is a WWII plane.  PWCG includes it and I'm pretty sure the stock career does too.  Night missions only.

What are the flight times like in PWCG?  I noticed that the stock career has the U2 flying from rear airfields rather than advanced staging areas.  As I understand it the U2 crews would move up to improvised fields in the evenings and fly repeated missions before retiring to their home fields in the morning.  

[Avimimus]

50 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

@Avimimus Can you tell me a bit more?  What did an He111 night fighter look like?  Was it just an He111 with radar?  How did they manage to find and shootdown U2s?

 

I'll track down more information. They were bombers converted for the task - but had basic night fighting equipment (muzzle flesh covers, exhaust covers). They seem to have hunted visually using the MG-FF and gunner positions to spot for it.

 

I'm not sure if they carried a full crew though (they could probably have flown lighter through leaving the side-gunner and ventral-gunner on the ground - flying with just a crew of three - but that is supposition on my part, guesswork.

 

They may have eventually added more modifications but it seems that most of the work was basically done in normal He-111. I think the two highest scoring aces against the U-2VS were He-111 crews.

 

I'll look up my info.

[Na-zdorovie]

Thank you fellas, my mistake I did think it belonged in FC, gonna get them in the end as well,

[Avimimus]

Here is a start:

 

1) This thread has several excerpts:

 

This document has some mentions (~p.43):

https://web.archive.org/web/20181030072302/http://dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a213571.pdf

 

This thread is focussed specifically on He-111 in night fighting roles:

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=218143

 

After that I'd look up the pilots, for example:

Engelbert Heiner - 11 kills

Waldemar Teige - 12-14 kills

Arnold Döring - At least some of his night kills were in a He-111

 

Researching them might lead to additional historical information.