The weather at the start of move 5 was fine as a result air operations would resume. As this was the final move before nightfall, and with all 3 Arados available, they all took to the skies to resume their designated patrol areas. A reminder -
Aside from patrolling the sea on the lookout for allied ships or aircraft formations, those that passed over islands not occupied by Axis troops were instructed to check for any signs of enemy activity. In this instance Kasos is the only island where British commandos had landed. Aside from daily checks to establish if they had been discovered through intelligence, each time an Arado passed over them they threw a D6 and if a '6' result they would have been sighted. Neither of the 2 Arados passing over Kasos spotted any activity.
Continued -
No intelligence was gained by either side this turn, however the Rhodes Arado #1 successfully located the main allied fleet steaming north. The fleet had a flight of Seafires performing a CAP. A test was conducted to establish if the Arado 'Snooper' had been seen by the CAP or picked up on radar. The Arado escaped unnoticed and was able to transmit its report before evading contact.
With the main allied fleet (red 1 and 2) sighted, the U-boats (blue 3 and 4) begin heading in their direction. Other Axis naval units are all light and incapable of challenging the allied fleet. The German S-boat flotilla (blue 10) having sailed out of Pighadia refuelled, could cause a problem.
Axis air units were scrambled to intercept the allied fleet. 8 x ME110 fighters and 9 x HE111 torpedo bombers out of Samos rendezvoused with 8 x Italian Fulgore fighters and 6 x SM79 torpedo bombers out of Kos before heading out in the direction of the allied ships.
The allies were not complacent though with a concerted effort to take out one of the airfields on Rhodes. 12 x Mitchells and 7 x Bostons escorted by 12 x P38's and 12 x Hurricanes flew out of Cyprus heading for the Maritza airfield in the northern end of the island. They arrived at the airfield undetected and this time they found ME109's and Stukas on the ground.
Before I go into detail about the air raid on Martitza, a brief update about the rules. I was not happy with the results of the first two high level bombing runs, the sum total of which was one truck destroyed. I had been using the air bombing rules contained in General Quarters 3 which was geared towards hitting planes on the ground or damaging the runway with one dice roll for each flight of 3 bombers. I have therefore reworked the rules keeping some elements of GQ3, introducing some aspects of Bag The Hun and added a few of my own.
The result being that each bomber would have its own dice roll recording a hit or near miss as per GQ3. A further D12 was rolled for each hit or near miss with the result checked on a chart I created based loosely on that in BTH. This details what has been hit and the severity of the damage inflicted on the operational capability of the airfield. If any aircraft on the ground or land units positioned around the airfield are hit then further dice rolls are made to determine which plane or unit is affected. Land units are either suppressed or destroyed. Planes can be destroyed or damaged. Any aircraft that are already damaged are destroyed if receive any further damage.
The attack on Maritza would be completed in 2 phases. The first being a level bomber strike followed by straffing runs by the fighters. As with the earlier airfield bombing raids, this would be a paper exercise rather than setting up the entire airfield on the tabletop.
19 bombers in total approached Maritza out of range of the 20mm AA guns defending the airfield. There would therefore be no AA phase prior to the bombing calculation. All bombers dropped medium bombs and 19 dice were rolled scoring 6 direct hits and 3 near misses.
In total this translated to 4 hits on the runway, a building damaged and a building hit and on fire. Furthermore, 2 x ME109's were damaged and an Italian infantry position suppressed (had this been an AA position suppressed then they would not have been able to fire on the incoming fighters). The airfield would now be out of commission for 11 hours (3 moves) to affect repairs.
As the bombers flew off into the distance, the roar of engines signalled the approach of a squadron of P38 Lightnings flying low level towards the airfield. The German and Italian 20mm AA batteries opened fire downing one Lightning and damaging 2 others. The remaining 9 aircraft straffed the ME109's and Stukas destroying 6 and damaging 2.
The Hurricanes formed the second wave suffering 2 damaged planes to AA fire. The 10 remaining aircraft accounted for 7 destroyed and 2 damaged on the ground.
This proved to be a resounding success for the allies and hopefully a turning point! All ME109's were now destroyed with only 3 Stukas surviving, 2 of which were damaged.
Returning now to the Axis formations heading for the main allied fleet, they were detected on radar at 15,000 yards. Perilously close to the fleet! The 4 Seafires performing CAP head out to intercept with a further 8 on the deck of HMS Avenger scrambling to get airborne.
Continued -
No intelligence was gained by either side this turn, however the Rhodes Arado #1 successfully located the main allied fleet steaming north. The fleet had a flight of Seafires performing a CAP. A test was conducted to establish if the Arado 'Snooper' had been seen by the CAP or picked up on radar. The Arado escaped unnoticed and was able to transmit its report before evading contact.
Axis air units were scrambled to intercept the allied fleet. 8 x ME110 fighters and 9 x HE111 torpedo bombers out of Samos rendezvoused with 8 x Italian Fulgore fighters and 6 x SM79 torpedo bombers out of Kos before heading out in the direction of the allied ships.
The allies were not complacent though with a concerted effort to take out one of the airfields on Rhodes. 12 x Mitchells and 7 x Bostons escorted by 12 x P38's and 12 x Hurricanes flew out of Cyprus heading for the Maritza airfield in the northern end of the island. They arrived at the airfield undetected and this time they found ME109's and Stukas on the ground.
Before I go into detail about the air raid on Martitza, a brief update about the rules. I was not happy with the results of the first two high level bombing runs, the sum total of which was one truck destroyed. I had been using the air bombing rules contained in General Quarters 3 which was geared towards hitting planes on the ground or damaging the runway with one dice roll for each flight of 3 bombers. I have therefore reworked the rules keeping some elements of GQ3, introducing some aspects of Bag The Hun and added a few of my own.
The result being that each bomber would have its own dice roll recording a hit or near miss as per GQ3. A further D12 was rolled for each hit or near miss with the result checked on a chart I created based loosely on that in BTH. This details what has been hit and the severity of the damage inflicted on the operational capability of the airfield. If any aircraft on the ground or land units positioned around the airfield are hit then further dice rolls are made to determine which plane or unit is affected. Land units are either suppressed or destroyed. Planes can be destroyed or damaged. Any aircraft that are already damaged are destroyed if receive any further damage.
The attack on Maritza would be completed in 2 phases. The first being a level bomber strike followed by straffing runs by the fighters. As with the earlier airfield bombing raids, this would be a paper exercise rather than setting up the entire airfield on the tabletop.
19 bombers in total approached Maritza out of range of the 20mm AA guns defending the airfield. There would therefore be no AA phase prior to the bombing calculation. All bombers dropped medium bombs and 19 dice were rolled scoring 6 direct hits and 3 near misses.
In total this translated to 4 hits on the runway, a building damaged and a building hit and on fire. Furthermore, 2 x ME109's were damaged and an Italian infantry position suppressed (had this been an AA position suppressed then they would not have been able to fire on the incoming fighters). The airfield would now be out of commission for 11 hours (3 moves) to affect repairs.
As the bombers flew off into the distance, the roar of engines signalled the approach of a squadron of P38 Lightnings flying low level towards the airfield. The German and Italian 20mm AA batteries opened fire downing one Lightning and damaging 2 others. The remaining 9 aircraft straffed the ME109's and Stukas destroying 6 and damaging 2.
The Hurricanes formed the second wave suffering 2 damaged planes to AA fire. The 10 remaining aircraft accounted for 7 destroyed and 2 damaged on the ground.
This proved to be a resounding success for the allies and hopefully a turning point! All ME109's were now destroyed with only 3 Stukas surviving, 2 of which were damaged.
Returning now to the Axis formations heading for the main allied fleet, they were detected on radar at 15,000 yards. Perilously close to the fleet! The 4 Seafires performing CAP head out to intercept with a further 8 on the deck of HMS Avenger scrambling to get airborne.
NEXT: Air attack on main allied fleet.
A lovely part of the campaign, helped I think by your change in the rules. It all has a realistic resonance as the story unfolds.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm. I agree a more realistic expectation of what would have been achieved.
DeleteNow that was a much more effective air strike! Looking forward to the next instalment. Really enjoying the campaign, thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Richard
Many thanks Richard. Yes I think the GQ3 air strike rules were just a little too basic for what I needed for my set up.
DeleteQuite a contrast to the anemic results of the first bombing raid! The allies certainly needed a break like this, didn’t they?
ReplyDeleteThey did Peter. Their next challenge will be the threat posed by 15 torpedo bombers en-route to the main allied fleet! If they can see that off then all is not lost.
Delete