DESCRIPTION
The summer of 1940 had not turned at all like the British had hoped for when they first declared war on Germany. The “Sitzkrieg” had given way to the brutal realities of the blitzkrieg and resulted in the British being kicked off the continent. Their only silver lining was the miraculous evacuation a large portion of their troops (minus their equipment) from Dunkirk along with some French forces. However, the French surrender on June 22 1940 made overshadowed this and made it seem insignificant.
Meanwhile Hitler believed that war was practically over and he expected that the British, defeated on the continent and without European allies, would quickly comes to terms and negotiate an end to the war. This attitude resulted in German forces taking a leisurely several weeks to replace their losses and to take over captured airfields in France while waiting for the British to capitulate. Meanwhile Winston Churchill, the newly installed Prime Minister of Britain, use the time to harden public opinion against coming to terms with Germany to prepare the British public for a long war and what it would take from them.
Finally Hitler and the German high command came to the realization that Britain would not yield but would have to be brought to heal and the only way to do this would be by an invasion. The Germans started planning Operation Sea Lion, the amphibious invasion of Britain, but they realized for a successful cross channel assault that they would need to neutralize the RAF and control the air over the channel.
The Luftwaffe started significant operations against Britain in July 1940. This first stage of the battle was to be known later as the Kanalkampf. The Luftwaffe’s plan was to concentrate on attacking British shipping in the Channel, attacking their Channel Ports, and attacking radar installations along the British south coast. They hoped these attacks would draw out the RAF and allow them to destroy the RAF and they estimated that the RAF would be overcome in four days.
They were wrong.
After 32 days (not four) they finally believed that the British early warning system had been destroyed and their coastal towns and installations had been sufficiently softened up for an invasion. The Luftwaffe then began the next stage of their plan, the Adlerangriff (“Eagle Attack”).
Their strategy was to now concentrate on attacking the RAF coastal airfields. By doing this they hoped to be more successful in destroying the planes of the RAF fighter command while at the same destroying their supporting infrastructure.
However, weather delayed the start of this phase of their plan until August 13th and it would last to August 23rd. The Germans would conduct both low level raids, to sneak past the battered but still working radar stations and also high level raids at the same time. The whole goal was to put pressure on the RAF and destroy their planes in the air or on the ground.
This pattern continued in September and pressure on the RAF 11 Group ground it down to a desperate state. The RAF was forced into pressing into service civilian airfields and suitably level grass fields to compensate for their badly damaged RAF stations. However, there was nothing they could do about their maintenance and spares parts supply situation which had become dangerously stretched. Ground crews working in the open suffered heavy casualties from the raids, and many maintenance facilities were destroyed in the Luftwaffe attacks. Despite this, the crews kept the fighters as combat ready as possible in an attempt to hold on as best as possible against the Luftwaffe onslaught.
The question is can the RAF and hold on?
PLANESET FOR THE FSO
RAF PLANESET
Hurricane Mk I
Spitfire Mk I
LW PLANESET
Bf 109E-4
Bf 110C-4b
Ju 87D-3
Ju 88A-4
COUNTRY PERCENTAGES
The sides will be divided into roughly 45% British and 55% German.
SCORING
SURVIVING FRAME BONUS
Any pilot who survives the whole frame and lands his plane successfully (is recorded as a land .. bails, ditches, captures, etc. don't count) will earn a survival bonus the equivalent to half the points of the plane he is flying. So a Hurricane, Spitfire, Bf 109 would earn 2.5 pts for survival.
AIRCRAFT
05 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
BASES
288 - Small Airfield
396 - Medium Airfield
572 - Large Airfield
219 - Vehicle Base
SHIPS
CA - 60 points
DD - 30 points
NOTE: The German’s score points for destroying objects at their designated target (base). A list of the point value per object will be released with the objectives for each frame. The British get points for any undestroyed object at a target.
ARENA SETTINGS
- BoB04 terrain
- Fuel 1.25
- Icons short
- .5 Ack
- Radar (Bar only) : 60 mile range,10 minute update, altitude 500 ft and up
- 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, 9 miles
Frame 2, 11 miles
Frame 3, 8 miles
- Radar off
- Friendly collisions off
- Enemy collisions on
- Kill shooter off
- Calm winds
- Time: 11 AM
SPECIAL RULES
NOTE: special rules sent out with the objectives trump these special rules.
1. Nobody on the British and German side gets a second life flying a plane. This includes Ju 87s.
2. Bomber formations are enabled / available.
3. 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 aircraft types and in split they wish as long as squads are assigned same objective).
4. If both CiCs agree they may have the setup CM end the frame early by calling a cease fire and RTB publically. All players need to return to base if the CM does this. This is usually done if one side wipes out the other side (i.e. 60 versus 5). Logs will stay open until either the last player is down or T+120.
5. Dead pilots may gun bombers. They may not man the guns of airfields or ships.
6. Ships can maneuver by the allied side during the frame as long as they stay in their containment area. Ships must stay in containment area defined in the objective orders. If they go outside of the containment area a penalty will be assessed.
7. All targets must be attacked within the first hour of the event. Both CiCs should include sending their battle plans to me so that I have proof that they planned to attack their targets by T+60.
8. All attack targets assigned must be attacked by a credible force. I define a credible force to be at the very least 3 x 4-6 squads (so 12-16 planes) or 1 7x10 squad and 1 4x6 squad or 1 11x15 squad. Obviously CiCs can deploy a larger force per target as their plan dictates but no defending or attacking with just 1 x 4-6 squad.
9. All defense targets must be defended by a credible force. I define a credible force to be at the very least I define a credible force to be at the very least 3 x 4-6 squads (so 12-16 planes) or 1 7x10 squad and 1 4x6 squad or 1 11x15 squad.Obviously CiCs can deploy a larger force per target as their plan dictates but no defending or attacking with forces less than the minimum credible force denoted here.
10. Radar is going to be used on the British side since it was a key part of the battle. The radar is bar dar not dot dar. It also has a 10 minute refresh rate to simulate the lag that it took for the radar operators to report information to command and control and then for command and control to relay that to the fighters in the air.
