Great job to all of the ALLIED squads <<S>>
My plan called for using nearly all fighters and putting up only a very limited amount of bombers with no formations. My decision was based on point values of bombers vs. the possible point value of ground targets. In other words I wasn't going to risk 300+ points of bombers and escorting fighters to get 45 points of hangers. Also being a holiday weekend I was also sensitive to the fact that many squads might be short handed and that was not a time to have a full squad of bombers being escorted by a short fighter squad.
I didn't plan on getting many points on the ground targets (VH's and Airfields), in fact I only sent what I had to with ordnance to meet the rules. I had hoped that the maximum effort of fighters would net us more points by shotting down more enemy AC then we lost.
I positioned 3 of the largest squads (68th / 332 / VF-15) on a large fighter sweep of the narrow channel area and into France itself to the forward AXIS fields. I had hoped to catch the AXIS bombers and fighters transitioning through that narrow water point. Or catch them rearming and deny these forward bases to the enemy. If successful we could intercept the AXIS fighter sweeps and maybe a strike package and weaken them for the defenders.
Small Mossie squads escorted by large fighter squads made up 2 of the strike packages.
I sent my Bostons to the AXIS DD's with a large escort as the DD's were worth 20 points each. They were also the closest points to get and would limit the exposure of my bombers.
Perked AC (Spit IX / P-47): As loses would not be replaced I elected to only use my fair share of 1/3 of the total strength to ensure AC availability for frames 2 and 3. These AC were sent to A71
The Hurri IIC's were sent to A61
All of the bases that had to be defended were defended by a 7-10 man squad. Lighter than I would have liked, but i calculated that if I could catch the main enemy bombers near the coast with the fighter sweep they would be able to engage them long before the defenders would have to.
I wasn't concerned about V82 or V83 as they were not worth many points. The air bases were worth more points and I expected the JU-88's to those points.
Do to the vastness of the coast and possible attacking routes i elected not to send out scouts and allow the radar to provide the early warning.
It appears that we inflicted little or no ground damage as I expected. I think all of the strike packages made it to their targets. The fighter sweep i placed in the wrong location and the JU-88's got around them to the south. The Spits being to slow to relocate quickly. We only lost a single DD which was very good. The enemy formations of bombers and fighter escorts were impressive and outnumbered the defenders in nearly every location. So even with early warning there wasn't much that could be done to move squads to where they were needed the most.
In hind sight a more "even" distribution of defenders and no fighter sweep would have made for a more positive outcome in ALLIED points I am sure. I was surprised at the number of JU-88's I saw given the number of ground target points available.
Great job to all of the ALLIED squads that followed the orders and did their best. Great job to most of the squads for getting as good a turn out as you did given the holiday weekend. Hopefully all squads saw action and got to mix it up in even combat.
<S> to the AXIS CIC "SD". Nice plan and it worked well.
Viper 61 Allied CIC Frame 01
Operations Officer
325th VFG
