$.02 from a newbie to AH...
All sides employed some type of ground based spotting system for detection of air-raids. These systems consisted of both electronic and human intelligence. Radar was not the only thing relied on. If a NOE raid is coming in and one of the pilots "talks" using the text buffer, should the raid be identified? In RL, radio intercepts often gave away valuable info used intercept the raid. If one of the planes inadvertantly pops up above the radar threshold, how long does that counter stay up? While no pilot in AH may be looking at that particular sector at the time, the RL radar operations center whose job it is to scan 24/7 would surely pick it up and determine that a low level raid was happening. If the troops in the front line saw a bunch of bomb-laden P-47s or B-26s fly overhead at 200 ft, don't you think they would tell somebody?
The British confounded the Germans during the BoB with their ability to intercept the bombers. The LW was able to detect the inbound bomber streams and accurately concentrate forces to intercept (albeit sometimes on the out-bound leg due to the time needed to concentrate their scattered forces). Heck, the U.S. even detected the raid on Pearl Harbor with plenty of time to effectively intercept if only they had interpretted the radar correctly. Did the detectability of raids lead to NOE attacks on Berlin or even on targets anywhere but on the fringe of the Air Defense belt? Yes it did... at Ploetsi. While low-level attacks of airfields and other facilities took place throughout the war, they were rarely done with deep penetration NOE raids. More often, they were done with standard altitude approaches through skies where the allies had already effectively won air superiority.
My point? NOE as an available tactic any further into a country than the forward line of airfields is taking advantage of the things left out of the game. While I understand the desire for it, let's be honest about how effective it would be. The bar dars are probably the most accurate represnetation of the overall reporting systems available at the time. All we know is that there are enemy planes reported in sector and that they don't appear on radar. How else could that be interpreted? It is a raid below radar or radar isn't working! To make it more realistic, you could enlarge the sectors (giving more area to search) or create a lag between when a raid crosses a sector line and when it actually shows up. This would emulate the time between reporting of in-bound raids and the time required to interpret and disseminate the information. Totally removing any indication of a raid before it gets, let's say, to HQ where it destroys all radar is a bit far-fetched. Even when HQ is destroyed, enemy "dar-bars" should still appear over friendly territory. Again, there should now be some lag there, but the information would be available. Now, NOE flights over your own territory shouldn't show up until you cross the enemy lines...
Dang, guess I gave $.10 worth here
HAMMER
[This message has been edited by xHaMmeRx (edited 05-28-2001).]
