The Beginning [MiG-3]

[CzechTexan]

The Beginning

 

*updated July 12, 2025           Download:  https://www.mediafire.com/file/sb621o52eyd1evq/Beginning_v1.2.zip/file

 

The Beginning is an 8-mission single player scripted campaign in which the Player will fly the MiG-3 on the Odessa map.  Missions are at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, June 22 through July 1, just before Operation Munchen.  The ground war is static during the first week of the war but the air war has already begun.  Incidentally, the future Soviet ace, Alexander Pokryshkin, would see his first action for the 55 IAP at this time.

 

*Notes:  You MUST HAVE the Odessa and Leningrad module for the ODESSA MAP and the MiG-3 from BoM.

A mission is successful when the player destroys a target or makes a successful landing.  

If target objectives are completed then it is not necessary to make a landing.

Most missions start on the runway with engine running.

Mission descriptions are in English-only, sorry.

Books cited:  Three Kings by Patrick Cloutier; From Barbarossa to Odessa by Bernad, Karlenko, Roba.

 

Enjoy!--created by CzechTexan

 

Thanks to @E69_julian57 for the early-war skins that you can download in the link below.

The skin is not necessary for the campaign but it is one of the best I've seen.

Mission #7 uses a Romanian blank Hurricane skin found in the link below.  Not really necessary to have but it might be nice to see it while you shoot it down in flames.

 

Edited July 12 by CzechTexan

[CzechTexan]

By the way, I do plan on converting these missions into an IAR 80A campaign.

This supposedly is Pokryshkin's MiG:

[Sandmarken]

Ah iv been waiting for an Odessa campaign thx very much! 😀

 

Is the mig3 we have accurate for odessa? 😁 

[AndreiTomescu]

Wow! The skilled texan strikes FIRST, with the first Odessa campaign! Good job ! You're the first, mate !

I'm sure the campaign is great, all your previous ones (and i've done almost all) were really, really good. And thank you for that, and for your gifts to the community. At least some of us (or maybe all) are appreciating this very much.

Can't wait for the IAR conversion to enjoy this campaign

(sorry, but i can't, i simply can't do it in this ...setup. My wife's grandfather was one of the few soldiers that escaped on foot from Karpova. Her great aunt's -sister to her grandfather, dunno how to call that- lover was Alexandru Serbanescu, Romanain second ace (died in '44 against the Mustangs) and he was also at Karpova.)

But i really hope for that conversion. I I can be on any assistance with historical data, i'm here.

6 hours ago, Sandmarken said:

Is the mig3 we have accurate for odessa?

yes, it is, but it was supplied in small numbers, and was rarely encountered compared to the well known I-16 s and I-153. The german threat in the center and north was considered much worse (duh, they were right...) and the brand new and soo good looking Mig-3 was deployed there.

In the southern part of the front, dedicated almost exclusively to the Romanian army (the few german troops were there because Hitler didn't trust his new latin, ill equipped, not combat proven, enemies from ww1,....allies) the Mig-3 was very rare.

What we know for sure is that immediately after the capture of the brave city of Odessa one Mig-3 was captured. The germans wanted it, the romanians wanted to keep it for themselves. So the sneaky romanian allies made a plan.

[AndreiTomescu]

to get hold only for themselves with the Mig3: they called on Cantacuzino (he was grounded on the order of the germans for having an Jewish actress as a lover -they married 2 times!-   because they trusted him on being able to fly the aircraft without any trials, because he had a huge experience with a lot of different planes. Also he was against the germans, so no risk of betraying, and also because he was dispensable....

So they ordered him to take the plane and bring it in secrecy straight to Bucharest. The germans got wind of that plan and sabotaged the aircraft. Or maybe russian partisans did?

He took off with the aircraft "worked on" and crashed landed some time later.....

[E69_julian57]

Hi @CzechTexan
I made the skin of Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin

https://www.mediafire.com/file/c8ij62a7q3vh11r/Mig3s24_Aleksandr+Pokryshkin_16+GvIAP_W5.dds/file

[CzechTexan]

@E69_julian57

yes, that's a nice skin - for 1942 😁  I believe he flew that one in Ukraine and Caucasus.

During mid-1941 planes did not have stars on the tail - I think they were added later that summer or perhaps the order was in July - and then only if there was opportunity to paint it.  That's why I use the skin #12 that is at the top of this page.  It is excellent for this campaign!

3 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

yes, it is, but it was supplied in small numbers, and was rarely encountered compared to the well known I-16 s and I-153.

Actually, "The Red Air Force had a large number of MiG-3 fighters based on the Southern Front around Odessa at the beginning of the war.  55 IAP at Beltsy, 4 IAP at Kishinev, and 146 IAP at Tarutino were the three main commands which had about 200 MiGs."

 

There was a small number of MiG-1 but I'd say 200 is a lot of MiG-3s.  Nobody ever says what series they were but if this Series 24 was at Moscow during Fall 1941 then it's safe to say that it was also at Odessa in June/July.

There were a lot more I-16s, true.

[AndreiTomescu]

Exactly. So the Mig 3 was there, for sure. The sources I've taken into account (romanian ones, but i've also asked the good new chatgpt for a search) reported the soviet fighter opposing them at about 6-700 machines, the I-16 making about 350, the I-153 about 250 and a combined force on new models (mig3, yak1 and lagg3) of about 50 to 100.

The romanian pilots NOT equipped with Bf109E were particularly worried about the Mig-3, due to its good firepower and manevrability.

https://chatgpt.com/share/6862f050-b280-8007-93f9-955daf0f8a22

 

Of course the soviet sources are far more accurate, I guess they knew better what they had in store! 😆

 

What is interesting is that the encounters with one of the modern Russian fighter models was regarded as an event, so I've guessed that this combat encounters were less frequent due to the scarcity of those models.

[AndreiTomescu]

As far as I know, the 4 IAP based at Chisinau (Kishinev) was in the process of converting from Rata to Mig 3 at the beginning of the Barbarossa campaign. Due to heavy bombing of the airfields the unit suffered heavy losses on the ground. The aerial combat took place at low altitudes, where Mig 3 was disadvantaged: was conceived as a high altitude interceptor.

In the mid July about half of its machines were mig 3 s.

Later on took part in the defense of Odessa.

The experienced Soviet pilot Aleksandr Pokryshkin, bu then with the 55IAP,  later triple Hero of the Soviet Union, with over 65 kills fought on the MiG-3 (later switched to Aircobra) and said:

 “It was like trying to dogfight in a refrigerator. Fast, but blind and unforgiving.”

[E69_julian57]

@CzechTexan

I can make the skin of the profile you show.

[E69_julian57]

@Checo-texano

https://www.mediafire.com/file/r2v4rec99ob9agq/Mig3s24_Aleksandr+Pokryshkin_W7.dds/file

 

[CzechTexan]

@E69_julian57

Thanks Julian.  Yet another fine machine quickly off the assembly line!

 

@AndreiTomescu thanks for this topic.  I had to go back and look for the stats.

Book:  From Barbarossa to Odessa, written by a Romanian, a Ukrainian, and a Belgian. 

Has an order of battle for the VVS-Odessa mid-June 1941...

 

55 IAP @ Beltsy, Semenovka MiG-3 62

4 IAP @ Kishinev                     MiG-3  60 / 7 unserviceable

146 IAP @ Teplitsa, Tarutino   MiG-3  57 / 2 unserviceable

69 IAP @ Odessa                     MiG-3    5

                                                   Total:  193

(The table also included 5 MiGs near Nikolayev, Ukraine)

[AndreiTomescu]

Yes, your source is very good and trustworthy.

Bernard Dénes is a maghiar (hungarian) ethnic (like my grandmother) born in ro in '64, living in Canada. He also has some good books on hungarian and romanian airforces. He wrote for Osprey, also.

Possible that those figures included reserve aircrafts, not shipped to the front line yet, maybe. Or maybe that was accurate. The numbers doesn't matter, actually, for game purposes, the fact that was used is really important.

But what's most important is that you did, do and keep doing a quite fine job in bringing those times to life!

Thank you!

[EAF19_Marsh]

Thank you all / both for your work Look fwd to flying when I have time. Have been off sims for a while out of general busyness etc, but I like the early war stuff (109E-4s coming to this at some stage, I presume?) and generally where it is a bit madcap and people are making it up on the fly.

 

I have a slight soft spot for crap aircraft (basically VVS) as when I first started flying I began some Russian campaigns and was actually nervous about meeting the opposition as I knew that they were simply far batter and while the AI is what it is, you cannot 'cheat' like you could in older sims and win simply by having an IQ: fight wrongly in a  MiG and you are likely going down.

 

Will try and give it a god this week.

[CzechTexan]

There is a nice Romanian blank skin for the Hurricane found in the link below.  It is only needed for Mission #7.  Not really a big issue if you don't have it.

 

[CzechTexan]

campaign is *updated July 12, 2025           Download:  https://www.mediafire.com/file/sb621o52eyd1evq/Beginning_v1.2.zip/file

 

There was a problem with mission #3.  All objects were moved out of place.  

The old mission would still work but objects were not in their right position. 

It's not really necessary to update but you can just replace the old mission #3 with the new one.

[Tony_Kito]

Having a great time with this campaign, the Odessa map is truly the pinnacle of Eastern Front map making thus far.