My 109s are equipped with 3 colors of flares; red, green, and white.

[DocDocbruno]

Please explain the signals for each color.  Attack?  Cover me?  Return to base?  Leave me to die?  I cannot find them in Settings.  Thank you. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

They do nothing, really. Although mission builders can (and occasionally do) trigger stuff whenever you fire a flare.

 

Historically, they were used when radio wasn't available, especially in WW1, to signal stuff such as "attack", "regroup" or "return to base".

 

The AI in IL2 fires a white flare whenever the RTB command is triggered, which is basically a leftover from Rise of Flight.

[DocDocbruno]

Thanks, I've noticed that a white flare signals RTB but the others, like AI, are worthless.  I have a photograph of a Bf110 pilot (a night fighter ace whose name I cannot remember) with his flying boots stuffed full of signal flares.

[ACG_Bussard]

Assuming your interest, I have attached from the German Federal Archives the 1944 Luftwaffe Flare Signal Guide. 

Flugzeugstern-Signaltafel 9-1944.zip

[AEthelraedUnraed]

14 hours ago, Bussard* said:

Assuming your interest, I have attached from the German Federal Archives the 1944 Luftwaffe Flare Signal Guide. 

Flugzeugstern-Signaltafel 9-1944.zip 398.24 kB · 10 downloads

That's pretty interesting, thanks!

 

It does match the one instance I've read where air to ground flares were clearly used. I cannot remember exactly where I read it, but a Bf-110 night fighter with a heavily wounded pilot returned to base, and being unable to find the runway, fired a single red flare. In response, the airfield temporarily turned on their runway lights, enabling the Bf-110 to land.

Flares were still pretty rare and a bit of a last resort though; especially in night fighting, which had rather advanced air-ground radio contact, one'd usually not expect any flares.

 

One other example I know, although this time a ground to air signal, was a single red flare to indicate the German forward positions to incoming Stukas. Anything beyond where the flare was shot from, was Soviet. Of course, the Soviets figured out this system pretty soon and started firing their own shells. For instance in the final days of the Stalingrad pocket, the Germans used flares to signal air drop locations. Whenever a Ju-52 entered the Stalingrad skies, there'd be a whole forest of flares and most cargo drops were made on Russian positions.

[Sgt_Joch]

this is from the 1949 movie "12 O'Clock High". at 1:00, you can see a B17 fire flares and ground personnel fires flares in return. This is to notify ground crew that there are wounded crewmen on board the AC. It is a movie, but it was written by two 8thAF veterans as were many of the crew working on the movie.

 

 

[LukeFF]

Yes, firing red flares was definitely a way they would notify the ambulances they had wounded on board that needed immediate medical attention.

[Yogiflight]

On 9/30/2023 at 1:19 AM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

One other example I know, although this time a ground to air signal, was a single red flare to indicate the German forward positions to incoming Stukas.

I like the friendly frontline positions in game firing white flares, when you come around with a ground attack aircraft, to make sure you don't attack them.

[Dauntless]

I remember, in Red Baron II that if you were wounded, an ambulance would come out to meet you on the field. 

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

14 hours ago, Yogiflight said:

I like the friendly frontline positions in game firing white flares, when you come around with a ground attack aircraft, to make sure you don't attack them.

The problem is enemies revealing their position firing red flares too, many times. Seems that they are saying "I'm here! Please, drop a bomb on me!" ?

[Yogiflight]

3 hours ago, LF_Mark_Krieger said:

The problem is enemies revealing their position firing red flares too, many times. Seems that they are saying "I'm here! Please, drop a bomb on me!" ?

Really? I never noticed that. I'll have a look for that. Can it be, that there were enemy ground attack aircrafts around, too, so that the enemy frontline positions wanted to tell them, here we are, don't attack us?

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

10 minutes ago, Yogiflight said:

Really? I never noticed that. I'll have a look for that. Can it be, that there were enemy ground attack aircrafts around, too, so that the enemy frontline positions wanted to tell them, here we are, don't attack us?

I've seen it in many mission and campaigns. I'm not sure if it is a matter of the game or the mission designer. And no, there were no enemies. It is my plane that triggers the enemy ground vehicle flare shooting.

 

[[CPT]Crunch]

Part of mission design, Apollo campaigns active air bases always send up red flares when enemy triggers encroachment into the area, and white flares when they vacate the air space for the all clear signal.  If your the aggressor entering their area it's best to pay attention, when you see the red flare pop know they are alerted to you being in the area.  After a while you generally figure out how close you can get without triggering the alarm.  Sometimes its good to trigger it when your already on the back side on your way to another target deeper behind the lines, it generally draws away flies covering your intended target.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

10 hours ago, LF_Mark_Krieger said:

I've seen it in many mission and campaigns. I'm not sure if it is a matter of the game or the mission designer. And no, there were no enemies. It is my plane that triggers the enemy ground vehicle flare shooting.

It's definitely part of the mission scripting, not the AI.

 

Historically, I don't think I've heard of flares being used to warn of incoming enemy aircraft. On the other hand, flares were a pretty common way to signal the location of the own forward positions to friendly attack aircraft, at least for some countries/periods (the Western Allies seem to have favoured coloured smoke as signals).

 

Of course, this resulted in an unofficial "rule" where if you'd see the enemy fire a flare, you'd fire a similarly coloured flare directly afterwards to confuse them.

 

The flares you mention, might they have been in response to a flare by friendly troops? If so, that'd be really cool, I think.

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

7 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

It's definitely part of the mission scripting, not the AI.

 

Historically, I don't think I've heard of flares being used to warn of incoming enemy aircraft. On the other hand, flares were a pretty common way to signal the location of the own forward positions to friendly attack aircraft, at least for some countries/periods (the Western Allies seem to have favoured coloured smoke as signals).

 

Of course, this resulted in an unofficial "rule" where if you'd see the enemy fire a flare, you'd fire a similarly coloured flare directly afterwards to confuse them.

 

The flares you mention, might they have been in response to a flare by friendly troops? If so, that'd be really cool, I think.

No response of any other flare. If this afternoon I have time I'll try to remember the missions where this happens.