British Airmen take the fight to Hitler's Germany
AP, Dateline London.
The action in the night skies over Germany was fierce and bloody, as Lancasters of RAF Bomber Command played blind-man's bluff with night fighters of the Luftwaffe. A raid of about 30 bombers took off in groups of 4 and headed out along separate routes, each carrying approximately 10,000 lbs of bombs. Four their part, the Luftwaffe was able to concentrate approximately 17 fighters of the Fw190 and Bf109 varieties, launched in hunter-killer flights of 2 fighters each. These fighter pairs were guided solely by ground based radar control officers, as fighters do not yet sport an in-flight radar capability. The fighters were kept on the ground until hard radar contact with the first enemy intruders was reported. Losses on both sides were reported heavy, but RAF Bomber Command reports that a significant percentage of bombs found their targets in the rich industrial heartland of Germany. The German Ministry of Public Information went so far as to admit that the German capital of Berlin sustained "modest" damage. The greatest blow to the German came late in the night, when a lucky bomb hit temporarily knocked out the entire German Air Defense Network, allowing the surviving Lancasters to evade further interception on their flight home. In other news…
Great fight last night, and great participation. It was a full nighttime scenario with tower-based radar only. German fighters acquitted themselves well, destroying 10 Lancasters. For their part, RAF gunners downed 4 of the defending fighters, and 29% of the British bombs carried aloft found targets. The scattered approach left the German ground control intercept officers (GCIO) literally scrambling to guide fighters to the targets.
The RAF pulled a brilliant move toward the end of the scenario: The first wave of Lancs came in to the south, to hit the radar factory, refinery, and city. This drew the fighters defending the German HQ south, allowing a single Lanc to make a pass on HQ and disable enemy radar dots. As this was the only way to track the movement of the Lancasters -- since sector bars were disabled -- the Luftwaffe found itself blind. This allowed most of the surviving bombers to make a run for home.
Top Luftwaffe pilot was Ashr, with 3 kills. All kills by Lancaster gunners were single kills.
Thanks to everyone for their patience and professionalism. The Luftwaffe pilots especially had show patience, as they were required to sit on the runway until the first radar dot appeared. Special thanks to Frenchy and Loon for acting as GCIO's for the Luftwaffe. They share equally in the downing of every Lancaster. Thanks also to Jebo44 for volunteering to CO for the Lancs. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Don't forget that this Snapshot will be rerun on Saturday, March 31, 2001, at 3 PM EST.
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Sabre (a.k.a. Rojo)
[This message has been edited by Sabre (edited 03-31-2001).]
