Finland Frame 3 - Axis AARs

[ghostdancer]

Well I thought I write up an AAR for last night's frame from the overall Russian perspective. So here it is.

THE NORTH
Looking at the map, targets and active base I constructed my battle plan and initial deployment based on some initial assumptions and fears.The first decision I made was to concentrate the VVS in the SW and only deploy the Shillelaghs and Birds of Prey to defend the trains in the N (11.8.5 area).

I mainly made this decision based on the fact that the axis target was seperated by some distance from their other target and the objectives they were going to attack. Plus, that outside of the Finnish base A54 it was very distant from all other bases. So I had hoped that the Axis would just rely on Finnish 109G2s and FM2 to conduct a JABO strike out of A54. However, what I feared was that the Axis would plan a late frame stike and stage JU87s and escorting fighters with drop tanks out of A49 (3.5 sectors away). Basically I feared this because the Russian planes don't have great gas tanks and if they had done this there was a chance they could caught us while refueling. Plus, the JU87s then could have used a second life to stage out of A54 in 109G2s a launch a rapid strike on the trains while our defending forces were low on ammo and fuel and possibly returning to base.

Fortunately this did not happen. Another fear was that the Finns would skirt around our defnding force once they knew is location in the N. Some of the N VVS accidently setoff a base alarm near Hirvas. But it didn't seem to matter. The Shillelaghs (in YAK9Ts) and the Birds of Prey (LA5Ns) located 109s at 11,9,1 and then FM2s (low) at 10,9,3. I ordered them to fall back and link at 11,8,7 and then engaged.

From what I can tell it seems like that Shillelaghs and Birds of Prey did very well in the North and ripped apart the attacking forces. I think the Shillelaghs suffered 50% casualties and the Birds of Prey about 30% at this juncture. Only after the event looking at the logs did I see that the Finns got one plane through and hit a train getting 5 kills messages (didn't realize you could only partially kill a train .. although in hindsight it makes sense since you can partially kill a convoy one truck at time).

The surviving nothern defenders stayed on station defending the trains (didn't know one had bit hit and partially destroyed at the time) until I was pretty confident another attack was not coming). They then return to base and rearmed and refueled. I had the LA5Ns up with bombs initially and dump them right away. So I tasked the surviving YAKs and LA5Ns to make a run Joensuu supply train in the 10.6.1 area. I did this for two reasons.

[list=1]

• The battle in the SW was really raging and at this juncture it seemed like we stop the initial attacks on Leningrad cold. So I thought that the Axis might shift some of the defenders from Joensuu supply train to the SW to bolster there forces there.
• If not I wanted the N force not to twiddle their thumbs for the rest of the frame but instead even if they ran into defenders at the target I wanted them to try to thin out the defending Axis planes. Setting up the area for a strike from the SW forces (IL2s second life strike) later in the frame.

Seems option 2 played out when the Shills and Birds of Prey ran into 109s near Suojarvi. A battle developed there and I am not sure how badly the Axis forces were mauled. But I know the surviving Shills were taken out and the Birds were basically taken out. I hoped they took a lot of defenders with them or exhausted their Axis planes ammo and fuel.

THE SOUTHWEST
The southwest is where I expected the Axis to concentrate their forces. Mainly because we had our two targets and their target roughly in a 2 sector by 2 sector area. And they had two LW bases very close to Leningrad; A76 and A75. Plus, the Finnish base A74 was practically within spitting distance of Leningrad.

Looking at the rosters it seems this assumption was correct since the LW upped 72 planes and the Finns only 20. Initially, before the event, I feared that the Axis would up a massive Finnish 109G2 force out of A74 which would have been able to hit Leningrad before I could have gotten defenders there from A5. With this in mind I tasked 3 squads of LA5Ns (~FATE~, 325th, Arabian Knights) to up from A5 and head directly to positions covering Leningrad. I then tasked the Marine Air Wing (also in LA5Ns) to up from A5 but to cover our south flank and scout toward A75 looking for either JU87s or JU88s tring to swing around our flank in the south and then up into Leningrad.

Base under attack warnings at A1 and then P2 clued us into what the Axis were up to since A1 went on first and then P2, indicating an attack force out of A75. The Arabian Knights were the first to make contact and encountered 190s at 9.6.6/3 area. I shifted the 325th from their North position to head toward and station right over Leningrad while I threw the AKs and ~FATE~ into the battle.

Additional 109s showed up in the 9.6.1 area and the 3 defending squads became heavily engaged. From my perspective it looked like the AKs, ~FATE~ and 325th stopped the attacks cold and inflicted heavy losses on the LW. Although its possible these planes were just trying to sweep and establish air dominance over Leningrad and had no bombs. Whatever, was their real purpose the the AKs and ~FATE~ seemed to have good numbers still in place after the battle.

Meanwhile the Marine Air Wing found a large force of JU87s in the south just NE of Luga (roughly 10.6.4/7) and engaged them. They scored 15 kills but their must have been a few escorts also since 5 Marine Air Wing were killed. I then swung the 325th south to support but seems like everything was over by the time they got on scene. The 325th actually proceeded to overfly A75 and then do a search pattern back to Leningrad looking for anything trying to sneak through.

At this juncture it looked like we had stopped the JU87 attacking. Looking at the logs what really seemed to happen is that the either the JU87s already started hitting Leningrad and then Marine Air Wing hit them (killing 12 JU87s). 7 USMC JU87s hit Leningard out of 16 that upped. It is also possible that it was running battle all the way to Leningrad considering that the Marine Air Wing got 12 out of 16. But basically seems like the JU87s were able to punch through and hit from 11:22 - 11:37 EDT. At the time though I thought we had stopped the LW cold.

[ghostdancer]

THE LAPPENRANTA ATTACK
The initial plan was that the ~FATE~, 325th, Arabian Knights and Marine Air Wing would rocket from A5 to defend Leningrad. After that defensive battle was over they were to rearm and refuel and then sweep Lappeenrant Bridge target (9.7.1) . I planned this to maximize our number of LA5Ns hitting the Axis defenders there. These squads were going to proceed our two JABO squads.

I assign the 68th Lightning Lancers to stage out of A9 in 10 Hurricanes IICs with bombs and the rest in LA5N escorts. So it turned out to be 10 Hurricanes and 7 LA5Ns. They were to proceed to A5 and hold until I gave them the go ahead.

The Nightmares VMF-101 were assigned to fly 10 IL2s and the remaining LA5N escorts. So that was 10 IL2s and 8 LA5Ns game day. They were also to fly to A5 and hold until given the go ahead.

As the battle played out the 68th waited until arounD T+10 to launch to conserve fuel and both JABO squads really watched their fuel. We ended up rallying instead at 10.6.5. But the battle in the SW took a long time and the squads down their took a bit to rearm and refuel. So I had the two squads escorting LA5Ns land and refuel at A4. This caused havoc with trying to get the squads to link up but I also hoped that the LW would be running low on fuel by the time we really hit the Lappeenranta bridge.

Meanwhile I had the Arabian Knights, Marine Air Wing, and 325th start a sweep of the Lappeenranta bridge. The AKs ran into heavy resistance there and fought things out till the last man. I pulled the 325th back toward A4 when the AKs started reporting the numbers of defenders. The AKs weren't able to pull out and the last Marine Air Wing might have also died in the scuffle.

During the fight the Nightmares and 68th were also headed in and were at 11,6,7 when I found out that the 7 68th LA5N escorts weren't with us but were rearming still. This also prompted me to tell all the SW squads to fall back to A4 and link back up after ALL the LA5Ns finished refueling.

The Axis probably saw the engagement as beating off our initial attack. While I saw the AKs and few others that stayed behind as burning the Axis fuel and ammo.

Finally all the planes were refueled and I sent in the 325th (8 LA5Ns), 68th escorts (7) and Nightmares escorts (8) to sweep the target. While the Hurricanes and IL2s struck due north to skirt the fight at the target. They went to 10,7,1 and then dove west to the bridge.

From a post on the BBS seems we caught the Axis refueling when we struck, so the delaying plan worked. The 68th took down the bridge and we withdrew back toward A1 and A4.


LENINGRAD ROUND 2
During all of this I left the ~FATE~ to guard Leningrad (still believing it was mostly intact ... should have had somebody overfly it and check it out). My best guess is that the JU87 squad came back up supported by a few others and sweeped Leningrad in 109s and 190s. Mainly because I got reports from ~FATE~ of these plane types; they also reported they were outnumbered.

~FATE~ engaged and put up fight but were knocked out of the fightintg at this point. Fortunately I sent most of JABO strike force and escorts to A4. Myself and fsCage in IL2s went to A1 since we got cut off and encountered 5 109s. We went swimming.


JOENSUU ATTACK
The surviving 325th, 68th and Nightmares landed at A4 to regroup. While the IL2s deplaned and switched to Hurricanes to join the dead IL2s. Stupid me I forgot that A4 was not an active base for launching. The 2nd life IL2s had to switch to A5.

This was a bad mistake on my part. I should have all forces land at A5. As is the Axis forces near Leningrad and A1 were able to sweep A4 while planes were just upping. The 325th survivors were lost there and the 68th escorts. Although 1 Nightmares escort survived and the 68th Hurricanes.

The Nightmares Hurricanes upped A4 and headed N but the Axis 109s found us and attack causing us to drop bombs and fight for our lives. The 68th Hurricanes were able to link up and a furious battle of Hurricanes versus 109s developed over Lake Ladoga. The Hurricanes were forced to fall back to A5 and actually we only lost maybe 4-5 out of 15 and I think bagged a few 109s but not sure about that. But this battle proved a diverision for the LW.

All LA5Ns were initially tasked to up with bombs then jettison them. While the Hurricane vs 109 battle was going on. I detached the surviving LA5Ns (thought I had 2-3) to disengage and rearm and then strike N fast.

Fdutchmn was able to break through with bombs and go to the Joensuus train uncontested. He was able to get off bombs just before the train AA took off a wing. Before he hit the ground he got 9 kill messages from hitting the train. Basically killing it completely.

At this point the battle was over and the surviving VVS landed.

I made two main mistakes here. One I should have my forces land and rally at A5 instead of A4. And two I should have all the IL2s take LA5Ns as their second lives instead of Hurris. This would probably have discouraged the 109s from attacking. Instead they saw Hurris and engaged to break out what they correct guessed was a second JABO attack. And two LA5Ns would have given the 109s a much better run for their money.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall a very interesting night and battle. Sides were very close in numbers with 92 Axis and 100 Allies. Leningrad was pummelled either 100% loss of 90% (there were a few buildings still up but I am not hopefull). Allies train seemed only partially destroyed (5 kill credits). While the Axis train seemed to be completely destroyed (9 kill credits) and the axis bridge was taken down.

In the air it seemed to be a slug match with the Axis shooting down 65 russian planes and the russians shooting down 73 axis planes.

I will say that from my perception I think that hte Axis used their second lives better and almost stopped my second life strike on Joensuu train by sweeping Leningrad, A4, and A5 in force.

[Nifty]

the best part about waiting to attack the bridge was the puffy ack from the Finnish base couldn't tell the difference between a German 109 and a Russian plane.   We lost at least 3 pilots before I logged off in disgust (yeah, I was the 3rd.)  Flying around minding my own business when the puffy ack targets me, and frickin' takes out my engine on the first shot.

It's very rare that I log off pissed off from a Squad Ops, but last night was about the most pissed off I've been from a game.

[ghostdancer]

Wait a minute your own ack hit you?

The Russian attack was delayed on the bridge more so than plan because we got rather disorganized around the T+60 mark and I had to pull us back and regroup. Otherwise I feared sending in my forces piece meal to be gobbled up by you guys.

I know we set off the ack at A74 quite a bit.

Shocks me to hear it was hitting and damaging LW planes. I didn't think it could do that.

[ghostdancer]

Oh, I get it now .. you were LW 109s and that was a Finnish (R(Rooks) base shooting at us Russians (Bishops) and you LW (Knights).

Never even occurred to me that they might also be shooting at you.

[dfl8rms]

Ghostdancer,

It was the CAP of the bridge NE of A72 that made A1 and the Port flash early in the frame.  As you noted most of your enemy were LW flying over and defending Finish targets.  

As a note, the next time we do 3-sided affair, the frame COs should make sure they keep target CAP assignments to the country owning them.  With us being LW, we had no "early warning" from the base flashes as it could just be us doing our CAP route.

It was a well played out frame.   to you and the rest of the Russian forces.

The 2nd hour 109/190s you saw over A4 and Leningrad were the outraged LW who were refueling when your massed hurricane/il2's destroyed the bridge.  They / we were attempting to shoot down as many as possible to hopefully pull out a victory from the ashes.