Up this week: Unternehmen Bodenplatte

[Mister Fork]

Unternehmen Bodenplatte (English: Operation Baseplate or Operation Ground Plate), launched on January 1, 1945, was an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries of Europe during Second World War. The Germans husbanded their resources in the preceding months at the expense of the Defense of the Reich units in what was a last-ditch effort to keep up the momentum of the German Army (German: Heer) during the stagnant stage of the Battle of the Bulge (German: Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein). The operation was a Pyrrhic success for the Luftwaffe as the losses suffered by the German air arm were irreplaceable. The losses of the Allied Air Forces were replaced within weeks. The operation failed to achieve air superiority, even temporarily, and the German Army continued to be exposed to air attack. Bodenplatte was the final major Luftwaffe offensive during World War II.

Map: twin Rivers

Allies:
Aircraft:
typhoon
P47D-25
P47D-40
P51b
P51D
spitfire mk9
C-47

GV's
Jeep
all the M's
firefly

Axis
Aircraft:

190D-9
190A-8
109K-4
109G-14
110g-2
Me-410
C-47(sub for JU-52)

GV's
Jeep
Panzer
Panther
tigers
Sdkfz-251
wirble
ostwind

Killshooter is on.
Visibility is 12.0 miles
Fuel burn rate is 1.0
Ack settings are .50
Base capture: 10 troops Town down 50%
Radar (1943)
Sector 211200
Tower 105600
Icons Enemy Off Friendly 2.5K
Radar alt--200

Allied Vox --123
Axis Vox -- 126

[Tracerfi]

Battle of Y29

[Karnak]

And another example of how bad the anti-Spitfire bias is here.

A Merlin 61 F.Mk IX in 1945?  Really?

[Nathan60]

And another example of how bad the anti-Spitfire bias is here.

A Merlin 61 F.Mk IX in 1945?  Really?

The horse..its dead.

[Puma44]

[USRanger]

Someone that hasn't been in the arena for years but biaches about every setup? Really?

[captain1ma]

its a good setup, but needs to be tweaked a bit!

A Merlin 61 F.Mk IX in 1945?  Really?

what would you suggest?

[Slash27]

And another example of how bad the anti-Spitfire bias is here.

A Merlin 61 F.Mk IX in 1945?  Really?

You're accusation of a Spitfire bias is warrantless and stupid. This obviously is not an arena for you and it's not going to be.

[Guppy35]

what would you suggest?

Spit XVI is what it would have been.  They were the ground attack Spits and the ones on the ground during Bodenplatte.  If it wasn't an LFXVIe it was an LFIXe which is the same bird.  The bomb racks under the wings were pure 2 Group RAF which was the RAF equivalent of the 9th AF on the continent.  They would not have had FIXs with Universal Wings and Merlin 61s on the continent for ground attack.  Most if not all Spits at that time had E wings with the hard points and most had clipped wings for down low.

[Oldman731]

You're accusation of a Spitfire bias is warrantless and stupid. This obviously is not an arena for you and it's not going to be.

Very harsh, Slash, very harsh.  Call off the dogs.  Karnak is only sad that an arena he doesn't fly in lacks a plane he wouldn't fly.

- oldman

[Guppy35]

You're accusation of a Spitfire bias is warrantless and stupid. This obviously is not an arena for you and it's not going to be.

Nah Slash, in this case he's right.  It was the LFIXe/XVIe time.  Low alt Merlin 66, underwing bomb racks or rocket rails, clipped wings etc.

If this is purely to avoid Spit XVIs so be it, but the Spit IX variant we have in AH would not have been there in the winter of 44-45

[Guppy35]

And for what it's worth there were Spit XIVs on the continent at the time too   Those were the interceptors, along with the Tempests, while the Tiffies and the IXe/XVIe did the ground attack bit.

[jimson]

When someone has a suggestion, posing it in the form of a friendly suggestion is an approach that works very well here.

[Guppy35]

When someone has a suggestion, posing it in the form of a friendly suggestion is an approach that works very well here.

No problem with that jimson.   His presentation was lousy, but he's right about the Spit IX

My only interest is the history bit.  If it's the Spit IX for playability, that's all good too.  I went digging after I posted and any Merlin 61 Spits were still in England, and used for escorting RAF bombers in daylight.  The Polish Spits were all LFIXs with full span wings but had the bomb racks.  A number of the RAF squadrons such as 602 had given up their LFIXs for XVIs because of the ground attack.  The Canadian Wings either had LFIXs or were transitioning to LFXVIe for the same reason.

[Slash27]

Nah Slash, in this case he's right.  It was the LFIXe/XVIe time.  Low alt Merlin 66, underwing bomb racks or rocket rails, clipped wings etc.

If this is purely to avoid Spit XVIs so be it, but the Spit IX variant we have in AH would not have been there in the winter of 44-45

I'm sure he's right. Im tired of him bashing these guys and the implication of a bias is crap.