Wednesday 28 October 2020

WW2 Operation Compass: Turn 1 Air Phase

10th December 1940

The first real action of the campaign involved British and Australian fighters intercepting an escorted Italian bomber formation.

2 squadrons of SM79 Sparviero bombers are escorted by fighters (left to right) 1 squadron each of Fiat Cr32 Chirri, Fiat Cr42 Falco and Breda Ba65.

They spot the British formations ahead of them at a higher altitude: 

Australian Gladiators on the left with Hurricane I's have yet to spot the Italians.

Continued -
A closer view of the Italians as their fighters prepare to intercept the British and Aussies.
It is not long before the allied fighters spot the Italians and immediately move to intercept them. The fast moving Hurricanes plough their way through the Italian formations:

33 Squadron of Hurricanes are fortunate to have 2 Junior Aces. The Squadron Leader and the Section Leader. In the foreground the Section Leader has pealed away to target the bombers. The slower moving Italian fighters desperately attempt to engage.

The Ba65's with a squadron of SM79 bombers gradually pull away from the main group hoping they will not get noticed!

Another view of the action at this stage of the game.

The Cr42's begin to mix it with the Gladiators. 

The lone Hurricane Ace pilot causes a serious fire on one of the SM79's who fail to extinguish the flames leading to the plane's demise. As the Ace gets on the tail of another SM79 he comes under very accurate fire from the bomber squadron's air gunners resulting in the pilot being wounded.

The Italian bombers manage to pull away leaving the fighters to see off the allied aircraft. Formations gradually break up leaving a swirl of aircraft fighting out their own battles.

2 x Cr42's manage to maintain a formation but it was not to last as one gets shot down.

In the centre 2 Gladiators turn tightly to support their mate top left.

Having turned, the Gladiators find themselves in a shooting position on the squadron of Ba65's successfully shooting one of them down.

What followed closely resembled a turkey-shoot. The 2 Ace Hurricane pilots in particular caused mayhem. The Squadron Leader had 4 kills and the Section Leader 2 before the latter pulled out having been wounded twice. 

The Italian pilots struggled to get on the tail of the Hurricanes consigning themselves to firing bursts during the brief moments they were in their gunsights. They had more success against the Gladiators downing one of them but a combination of inferior pilots and aircraft told. 

In total the Italians lost 7 fighters and 1 bomber with the allies losing 1 Gladiator. A comprehensive British and Australian victory leaving the Italians reeling. 

For the next battle in the campaign will be the land element, Selby Force engages the Italians at Matkila.


18 comments:

  1. Very exciting! I'm impressed that you can manage all of the action with Bag the Hun playing solo.

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    1. Many thanks Jim. Bite sized chunks is the answer. Playing it through in one sitting would be quite a challenge.

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  2. Hi Jon -
    An account as exciting as the visuals. Where do you get the models and the stands - and the sea scape!? I have some home made small scale kit of this type, but - man, I like what I'm looking at here!
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Many thanks Ion. The aircraft are 1/600 from Tumbling Dice and the sea mat is from Tiny Wargames. The bases consist of perpex hexes and rods I bought some years ago I think maybe from ebay but not sure. Assembled them myself with small magnet attached.

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  3. Looks wonderful. What scale are the planes? What make? What make are the flight stands?

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    1. Many thanks Peter. See my reply to Archduke Piccolo above. I have added links to the section on the right of my blog.

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    2. Thanks for the info. I’ve been looking at the TD range to go with my 1:2400 ships. I have TD ships from the Victorian and Dutch Wars periods but appreciate the pics of their planes. Table looks great.

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    3. Thanks Gordon. I use their planes in conjunction with my 1/3000 ships and works well.

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  4. Cracking looking game and nice AAR Jon:). I must admiit being very taken with this sort of game and some form of air combat is on my to do list.

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    1. Many thanks Steve. Air warfare is a fun addition to any campaign or even a campaign in its own right. Definitely adds a little variety to the hobby.

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  5. This looks so good Jon. All those planes over water. Is it tricky to track so many, or is that all part of the fun?
    Regards, James

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    1. Many thanks James. Yes it is part of the fun. I print off a roster of all aircraft (based on the example in BTH) and it is easy to keep track of the status for each including damage sustained, ammo used etc.

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  6. Hi Jon,

    Bit late to the party as I’ve only just found your blog. Excellent work, great ideas and a real passion for our hobby....bravo sir. I’m powering through reading Operation Nostalgia as I’m already invested in land and air WW2 and I’m about to embark on Naval. I have had to take a slight break as I read about your problems with FB morons and got angry on your behalf :) . I’m not a member of social media (just my unloved blog and a couple of select forums) as I don’t need to hear any more idiotic opinions about how I play with my toys (it’s amazing how negative some participants of the hobby are even though the word ‘game‘ is in the title!).

    Enough rambling, I’m going to add your blog to my list to watch, keep it up it is appreciated by those that matter.
    BALM

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    1. Welcome to the blog Balm, Pleased that you are finding it entertaining and thank you for your kind comments. Unfortunately I stopped Op Nostalgia as you will discover. Not something I like to do but it has been replaced by another WW2 campaign based around Op Compass. Naval battles and possibly a campaign are still on the list of projects for the future.
      Kind regards
      Jon

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    2. At least it got to the table - many of my miniature fantasies don’t make it past the to-do list :). I haven’t been that productive recently due to a mixture of my own lack of functionality and good old ‘2020’ in full effect, but the hobby is a positive influence on my mental state so in times of no progress I tend to slipstream off of others creative achievements to keep me going - your blog has now joined my select list of hobby muses (no pressure!).
      Keep up the good work, stay safe,
      BALM

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    3. Thanks Balm. Certainly my intention to keep the blog churning over. Hope to get the first of the 'Britannia' campaign battles posted over the next few days.

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  7. Two thumbs up Jon! Keep ‘em coming!

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