For those who don't know me, I'm Paul, callsign Stellar, OpsO for Claimjumpers, though mostly inactive this year in FSO since I'm in the UK and FSO starts at 4AM here. However for our CiC turn Kurt asked me to put together the plan and lead the mission, so I did. This is my first time out as FSO CiC and side planner.
For this frame, 8th USAAF had four assigned objectives, at Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart and Schweinfurt. Each objective had 3 strategic targets and a base, and our tasks were to get them destroyed and bring all our planes home. The operational area was fairly covered by enemy radar, restricting our options if we wanted an unexpected approach, and the enemy could be expected to mount patrols in the dead zones. This in turn suggested we'd face a running battle into target, unless we could mislead the enemy. The layout also suggested mounting two co-ordinated strikes, one in the north on Bremen and Hannover, one to the south on Stuttgart and Schweinfurt, deploying my fighters to protect the incoming bomber group as a whole, rather than close-escorting them. The fighters would be deployed as an advance guard squadron ahead of the main group, with the other squadrons arranged ahead, in trail, and to left and right of the bomber group. The routing meant that the whole group would overfly two objective areas, though adhering to the requirement that each target in each area be a specific, primary target for a single strike group. This approach also allowed me to unleash an independent fighter squadron as intruders, with the intent of triggering the radar and drawing the enemy out of position.This being my first FSO, I wasn't entirely sure if this degree of co-ordination would be legal (the rules are a little vague for the specific target arrangement and plan here), so I briefed the concept to Shifty, the scenario designer, who said it was good to go and rather clever
We were, it must be said, still spread very thin and vulnerable over the target areas, but before and after we were tight and well protected. The only other major decision was whether to go in high, low or inbetween, but really the best option was high, as it would make it harder for driven-down fighters to re-engage us. I assigned B24s for the southern strike, as their higher speed would make it possible to make their required ToTs over the longer distance to be covered there, and B17 to the northern strike, which nicely met the aircraft requirements. I never fly bombers in the MA, so I had to run a few missions to get a feel for the times, speeds and target effects on the ground - an education to be sure. UncleKurt gave me tremendous support in flying the photo-recon missions so I could make target assignments at the individual aircraft level. We had no specific mix of P47 and P38 to meet, so I left the choice of ride to the discretion of the fighter squadron commanders.
I then did up a NATO standard operational plan (somewhat abbreviated). I'm a ground forces guy and make no pretense of being up on air-ops planning factors. If you haven't previously worked with military orders format you might find them of interest.
http://paulchafe.com/fso/opavalanche.docOn the other hand, if you're a military pilot - move along - nothing to see here!
I also did individual target plans for the northern strike, broken down plane by plane, based on Kurt's recce flights - we just ran out of time to do them for the southern group as well. They were quite useful, and can be seen here...
http://paulchafe.com/fso/alphastrikenorthtargets.dochttp://paulchafe.com/fso/bravostrikenorthtargets.docThe mission itself was straightforward. I controlled the northern strike, and tasked Branch37 of VF-17 to command the overall southern strike, with LCA flying the other bomber squadron. In the north we formed up and flew our routes over the ocean and around the north end of the radar to come down almost due south over our targets. The formation wasn't bad, although my dream of an airshow-tight wingtip-to-wingtip bomber formation didn't materialize. The AK's were our intruder group, coming in to the southwest, and successfully made contact and lured away at least a squadron of enemy fighters. However, inevitably more enemy were waiting over the target (they knew, after all, that we were coming). Contact calls from VMF 101 (our advance guard) came in ahead of us, and I ordered the trail escorts (132nd and Air Raiders) forward to support them. In retrospect, I should have done this early, since once we were running in to target the odds of being bounced from behind were drastically outweighed by the certainty of a contact in front. The left and right wing escorts (49th and 353rd) were tasked to close protection to keep the fighters off us as we dropped. I learned at this point it is impossible to monitor the air situation, man the tail gun and conduct a bomb run all at the same time - especially because, as mentioned, I never fly bombers, so turret gunnery is a black art to me. I lost a drone to a 109, but my bombs were decently on target, and as the reports came back from the rest of the Claimjumpers it seemed we'd had a good run. I gave the order to regroup, and passed navigation control to G3-MF for their attack, just in time to lose my remaining two planes. I hopped back into the battle as a gunner for N1KDog, managing to down a 110, so I guess I can turret gun to some degree. G3MF also had a good run, we regrouped quite well, and exited the battle without further drama. Reports from the southern strike group were also positive, and the early results are on par with Frame 1.
Lessons learned (or at least experienced!) for future commanders
1) Backbriefs. Slipknot of G3-MF gave me an excellent backbrief (ie, a summary of his understanding of my plan, and an outline of the plan he'd done up to cover his part of it. This is standard military practice (and Slippie is an ex-marine) but not (in my limited experience) FSO practice. This was invaluable in co-ordinating our actions, and identified the fact that I'd set up the airbase bomb plan wrong (I targeted the VH and FH incorrectly - did I mention I never do any bombing?). Next time I'll specifically ask for backbriefs and outline plans returned in orders.
2) Voice procedure. I briefed basic callsign use in orders, but thought it was probably expecting too much as most AH pilots aren't trained to use it. However G3 and AK (and maybe others, I wasn't keeping track) did use it, and it really aided clarity. The value of fixed callsigns, and simply opening a communication with the person you're calling and your own callsign is invaluable. Next time I'm going to brief some basic brevity codes as well. I'll also sharpen up my own VP, which was sloppier than my professional pride is comfy with.
3) Organization. The best plan is no good if everyone doesn't know where they fit in it. This is an issue for FSO, as it's difficult to know for sure who is coming until they show up. My own standard is to set up flights of 4 as AH missions, and then assign slot positions (Lead, left wing, right wing and trail for the bombers) based on whether you're first, second, third or fourth on the mission roster. I set up all the bomber flights this way prior to mission start, and this was reflected in the target plans. It seemed to work OK, but I didn't feel warm and fuzzy that all the targets were properly covered, because I had no feedback that everyone understood how it was supposed to work. Backbriefs and an established SOP within our squad (CJs) would solve this - and I think to better target scores, though the mission recording will tell the tale for sure.
I also set up the fighter squadrons, but most of the COs preferred to set up their own, so next time I'll skip this step.
4) Last, I got MANY compliments on the thoroughness of the orders, which is really just about using the NATO standard format to guide my thinking and getting it all in there. This definitely paid dividends in terms of making sure that squadrons were they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be. Its a bit more effort to set these up, but well worth it.
Last, I'd like to thank all the squads for their support and participation. It was a good frame, well worth the effort, an excellent experience and rare opportunity to lead some 200 aircraft on a mission like this. Any help I can offer anyone looking to do this in future is yours for the asking.
Cheers!
Paul
