FSO: 1943 - Tunisia or Bust - Description

[ghostdancer]

1943: Tunisia or Bust

This FSO will recreate the conquest of Tunisia by the Allies in 1943.
 
In the east Montgomery and his 8th Army, the famous desert rats, race through Libya had been finally brought to a halt by Rommel at the "Mareth Line" where he was forced to dig in and end his long retreat from Egypt. Fortunately for him the 8th Army was had almost at the very end of its supply chain which brought its rapid advance to a screeching halt until ports in Libya were repaired and supply dumps created closer to the Tunisia border.
 
Meanwhile in the west the Allied 1st Army had landed in Morocco and Algeria November 8th and had rolled up both countries in the face of only sporadic Vichy resistance and light German defenses. However, Hitler was determined to make Tunisia the cornerstone of the Axis defense of North Africa, swearing to turn it into the Verdun of the Mediterranean. General Arnim was immediately sent to take command of the German and Italian forces in Tunisia and to seize it from the French before they could switch sides and turn it over to the Americans and the British, as they had just done in the "Darlan Deal" for Morocco and Algeria.

All told Arnim had 110,000 troops, 200 tanks (with some of the new Panthers present) and Flieger Korps II had been reinforced to 445 combat aircraft and 637 transport aircraft.
 
Facing this in the west was the Allied 1st Army made up of green American troops, unreliable French divisions (freshly come over from the Vichy regime), and fresh British divisions new to North Africa. The western airforce made up of both USAAF and RAF was untried and had yet to develop the command structure and tactics that the Desert Air Force in the East had developed after several hard years of warfare.
 

ALLIED AIRCRAFT
Boston MK III (bomber formations enabled)
Hurricane MK IIC
Hurricane MK IID
Martlet IV (F4F-4, 6 gun package)
P40E
Seafire MK IIC
Sea Hurricane (Hurricane MK IIC)
Spitfive MK V
   
 
AXIS AIRCRAFT
BF109F4
BF109G2
BF110C2
BF110G4
C.202
FW190A5 (limited)
JU87 (gets 2 lives)
JU88 (bomber formations)
 
Please login and request a side preference and set your squad commitment level here:

http://ahevents.org/site/component/option,com_staticxt/Itemid,144/

 
COUNTRY PERCENTAGES
Roughly 50 / 50 with the Axis having slightly more.

 
SCORING
CV - 200 points
CA - 100 points
DD - 50 points

5 pts - Single Engine AC with 1 crew
10 pts - Single or double engine AC with 2 crew
15 pts - Double Engine AC with 3+ crew

TBD - Small Airfield
TBD - Medium Airfield
TBD - Large Airfield
TBD - Port
TBD - Vehicle Base
TBD - Grunt Facility
TBD - HQ

 
ARENA SETTINGS
- Tunisia terrain
- Fuel 1.0
- Icons short
- 0.5 Ack
- Fighter and Bomber warning range 52,000 (about 10 miles)
- Tower range set to 52,000 (for display only to match the above setting)
- Clouds / visibility
      Frame 1, 29 miles
      Frame 2, 33 miles
      Frame 3, 14 miles
- Radar off
- Formations off - Friendly collisions off
- Kill shooter off
- Calm winds
- Time: 11 AM

 
SPECIAL RULES
[list=1]

• JU87 pilots get a second life in an aircraft assigned to them by their CiC (it can be any of the available Axis plane type except fw190A5s).
• 50/50 rule is NOT being used.
• A minimum and maximum number will be assigned to each aircraft type. The CiC of each side must deploy the designated minimum per aircraft type and can not more than the maximum per aircraft type. Outside of that the CiCs can deploy the aircraft types anyway the want (i.e. can have squads fly 2 or more aircraft types and in split they wish).
• If both CiCs agree they may have the setup CM end the frame early. This is usually done if one side wipes out the other side (i.e. 60 versus 5).
• Dead pilots may gun bombers. They may not man the guns of airfields or ships.
• If ships are used in a frame each side can maneuver the ships as long as they stay in their containment area.
• All targets must be attacked within the first hour of the event.
[/list=1]

 

SIDE COMMUNICATIONS
You can contact all the squads on your side here.

http://ahevents.org/site/component/option,com_staticxt/Itemid,168/

[ELD66]

When is the first frame?

[Nefarious]

Feb 2nd.

[ELD66]

Ok thanks Nef.

[Bronk]

Quick question as I am not sure of med entry dates.

Why no limited Mk IX ?





Bronk

[blkmgc]

- Time: 11 AM

Is this arena time or the start time of the event? If not the start time, what is it EST?

[TracerX]

Hey Blkmgc,
11:00 PM Eastern is the correct time.  I think you are part of the new Pariah squad right?  If not, and you need a squad to fly with, we will take you!  

[blkmgc]

Nope, XO of the 550th BGH (like sig). Thanks for the offer, but I cant get my guys to start an event at 11:00 EST. Were all old farts with jobs , kids , ect. hehe.

[ghostdancer]

While the Spitfire MK IX started to be actively used with the RAF in 7/42 that was the home islands. Remember the Meditterean theater, like South East asia did not have first call on the latest and most advanced weapons. Even with Operation Torch the British still were not deploying the best equipment they had to North Africa.

This FSO basically is taking place in 1/43 and 2/43 .. so 4 to 5 months after the Spitfire Mk IX started to actively serve with squadrons in Great Britain. It would be a while before other theaters such as Libya (8th Army), Middle East, India, South East Asia, etc. started to receive the Spit IX in force.

[ghostdancer]

Now in regards to the Germans getting the fw190A5 .. basically Hitler did a strategic blunder and rushed in planes that would have been better used elsed where. This includes some fw190s (not the A5 but that is the closest we have to that model). However, these were extremely limited.

The axis get 12 .. each frame CiC can deploy them or not during the frame. But here is the rub they get 12 total for all three frames. So if the Axis CiC deploys 12 in frame 1 and 8 are lost. There are only 4 left for the next frame.

[Bronk]

Thanks ghostdancer.




Bronk

[doobs]

Will there be a movie on this Flight?

[ELD66]

Im 3rd in command of 613th Pariah tracer.

[TracerX]

Originally posted by blkmgc
Nope, XO of the 550th BGH (like sig). Thanks for the offer, but I cant get my guys to start an event at 11:00 EST. Were all old farts with jobs , kids , ect. hehe.

I saw the sig, but somewhere I think I saw an application that had the Pariah and 550th grouped for FSO.  Maybe it was the 505th?  Not sure, but anyway, you don't work on Saturday do you?  If you're ever up late on a Friday night, give me a holler in the SEA.

EDIT: I just checked.  I am not sure how I linked 550th and Pariah.  Synapses got crossed on that one I think.

ELD66, say hi to UShowler for me.  It is good to see you guys comming to FSO.  


(BTW blkmgc, I flew an S3 event, not sure how many more I will fly.  It is hard to learn two different flight models, and I think the AH FSO is easier for squads to organize and communicate in.  Other than that, they are about the same event.)

[TracerX]

Originally posted by ghostdancer
Now in regards to the Germans getting the fw190A5 .. basically Hitler did a strategic blunder and rushed in planes that would have been better used elsed where. This includes some fw190s (not the A5 but that is the closest we have to that model). However, these were extremely limited.

The axis get 12 .. each frame CiC can deploy them or not during the frame. But here is the rub they get 12 total for all three frames. So if the Axis CiC deploys 12 in frame 1 and 8 are lost. There are only 4 left for the next frame.

In almost every other category except dive speed and firepower, the 109G-2 is better than the 190A5.  So if your Allied and are worried about the 190, don't get too distracted, those 109's can bite too.