Bomber pilots

[Ryan H 0]

My most recent pilot has been doing quite well, he's over 20 hours and 12 confirmed kills! I find that I like flying for the Germans than the British for some reason. I've been wondering though, most of my 12 kills have felt pretty hollow recently, almost all of them were on either FE2b's or Strutters. The thing that I find weird is their lack of evasive manuvers; I know thats not what those craft were designed for but still... If I were flying an FE2b and I saw an Albatros start cutting down my helpless wingmen I sure wouldnt sit there and wait my turn to die! Why dont they do anything when you start shooting at them?

[Ryan H 0]

and if they are that fragile/defensless, why are they not escorted?

[itifonhom 6]

Same with BE2c, they just fly straight even under fire. I have to admit though that when I see BE2c flying before me, I thank my good luck for this present! But even if they try to "escape" I don't think they got a real chance. And I think I read somewhere that they had in real orders to stay in formation and don't break. I think that was for the Fees for some time.

 

itifonhom

[Bullethead 12]

Escorting happened starting early in WW1, but from what I understand it wasn't an everyday occurance. It was rather hard to coordinate between the squadrons on the ground unless they were co-located or nearly so, and it was even harder in the air because of the lack of radios. Plus, there were way more 2-seaters than there were scouts, so even if escorting was on the agenda, most of the 2-seaters would still have been without.

 

Each country handled this problemin different ways. The Germans rarely crossed the lines in daylight except with lone recon planes, which for the most part relied on flying at extreme altitude for protection. The Brits crossed the lines as default, but instead of providing direct escorts, they usually had a small number of scouts patrolling a large area in a (usually vain) attempt to keep the Hun fighters out of it so 2-seaters could work undisturbed within it. Until about 1918, there weren't enough good scouts to make this very effective, however. Thus, most escort missions were actually other 2-seaters from the same squadron, say 1 RE8 with a camera surrounded by several others without, just there for their firepower. This tended to just make it a more target-rich environment for the Germans. The French did things rather like the Brits, except they built specialized escort "fighters". Despite the name, these things were at least 2-seaters and often twin-engined. For example, the Caudron R.11, with 2 engines, 5 MGs, and 3 crew, which mostly flew alongside single-engined, 2-seat Breguet 14 bombers as escorts.

 

As to the tactics used by 2-seaters in OFF, that's a function of the AI. There are several threads about this (search for "Fighting Rolands" for the most recent). The bottom line, however, is that most 2-seaters have the tactical_bomber AI, whose sole move is to run away. This works OK for conventional 2-seaters where the gunners in 1 plane can cover the blindspots of the others in the formation, but it doesn't work for Fees and Quirks, which lack conventional rear gunners.

 

I fly Fees a lot and I have changed the AI of my flight to fighter_bomber. This IMHO provides far more realistic results than the default.

[Olham 164]

Lt. Ryan, let me buy you a drink, mein Herr! You see it right - ze Dsherrman side is much more

fun to fly! Our fighters are not of depressive greens or browns, butt painted most colourful ant

individually! Ant you hav two gunzz on der most crates, no less!

 

Maybe you are in a boring area or time there; what Jasta and time do you fly?

I can recommend Jasta 10 or 28w, Wasquehal in May 1917, or MFJ 1 same time.

But if you want real action, fly 1918 - but careful, it's crowded in the air!

 

Bullethead, that is profound knowledge about two-seaters, thank you, Sir!

Does it work well with your Fee squad, flying as fighter-bombers? Do they act wrong or self-

destructive at times, or is it okay? And how did you do it?

[Bullethead 12]

Does it work well with your Fee squad, flying as fighter-bombers? Do they act wrong or self-destructive at times, or is it okay? And how did you do it?

 

In the c:\OBDSotware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\aircraft folder, find the folder that ends in "_Sqd" for the plane you want to change. For example, the FE2b_Sqd folder. It's the only folder for a given type of plane that doesn't end in a number.

 

In that folder, open the file (airplane x)_Sqd.xdp in a text editor (FE2b_Sqd.xdp, for example). Up at the top of this file, find the line that starts with "<General Allegiance=...". This is usually the 3rd line from the top, just below <UnitData>. Go to the end of this line and the 3rd item from the end should be "Category=tactical_bomber". Change this to "fighter_bomber". Of course, back up the original file first :).

 

I have found nothing but good to come of this as regards the Fee. They don't do anything stupid, they don't stall, etc. However, they don't go trying to chase Albatri around either. What they do is stay in the fight and stay together, instead of running away in all directions like they do with the "tactical_bomber" category. They mostly fly in circles, which effectively become a Lufbery. What I do is give them the H command and they tend to circle around me keeping my 6 clear while I fly more aggressively and actually do some ACM and chase the Albatri.

 

NOTE that I only fly the Fee in fighter squadrons. I don't know what happens if you try this for bomber Fee squadrons.

[Olham 164]

I see! This must be a great feeling for you, as it's what you always wanted them to do!

Glad it works well. I saved you post text, so I can try it some day - right now I have two

promising carreers to fly.

 

Lt. Werner Mahlo is with Jasta 15 at Le Clos Ferme, in July 1917 (see "screenshots").

He is flying a D.V - a rather heavy Albatros, but the others fly it too, so it must be done.

He has got 12 of 13 claims confirmed today (see "Semicolon, the claims killer") after only

short waiting time; it always was that semicolon, that ruined my statistics.

He also received two Iron Crosses.

 

Lt. Karl Alfred Mahlo is with Jasta 40 at Wasquehal, 1. May 1918, flying a D.Va, which has

a bit stronger engine, and 1.100 rounds (an good extra 100 is not bad!). He should soon

receive some metal too, and some confirms, I hope.

 

If one of them dies, I will start one in Jasta 4, to be there with you, and maybe help you out.

[Mr. Lucky 0]

Just read 'Horses don't fly' by Frederick Libby and he gives a good account of flying and fighting in Fee's. He started in summer 1916. Basically, they didn't even have formal training at that time, so that accounts for the flyers' inexperience. Even the trained one's later only got 5 to 10 hours in combat aircraft. Also, the bombers, esp. Fee's were told to stay close in formation for mutual protection as a lone plane was easy prey. They went pretty deep into enemy territory and the new scouts (N11's and DH2's) couldn't stay up as long, so had to rendeszvous on their way back. Also, one or tow flights of Fee's would act as escort while one flight would do the recon or bombing. It was a very interesting read.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Don't listen to Olham Ryan.

He is trying to coerce you into flying aeroplanes that can be spotted from a long way off..and as we all know, if you see the enemy before he sees you, the battle is 75% won!

I must admit, their aircraft are more colourful...and I do so enjoy watching multicoloured bits of fabric flying off in all directions, as my Vickers cut into them....and often marvel at the almost beautiful pyrotechnics of them burning all the way down!

 

But what sort of cowards are they?....Parachutes indeed!!

 

An allied pilot's aeroplane may be somewhat drab....but drab and alive sure beats colourful and dead!

[Olham 164]

Widow: ...as we all know, if you see the enemy before he sees you, the battle is 75% won!

 

Bordeauxred Baron: Really? Zen I can only vonder, how long it takes you olive drab boyz to get any furzzer viss us.

Ant your "Death from above" - do you mean your often fallink onto ozzer people's headz vizz your shot up crate?

 

Widow: But what sort of cowards are they?....Parachutes indeed!!

 

Have you ever seen any one of us jump with a parachute? I haven't.

 

I think, in real life, they got parachutes in mid (?) 1918.

Udet once survived a crash into another craft by using a parachute, but I think they where still rare then,

and often they didn't even work. Some German pilots died, cause the parachutes wouldn't open.

(So much to our technological efficiency).

Edited September 25, 2009 by Olham

[itifonhom 6]

Veee ar zee best, long leev ze Kaiser und ze faterland! No wan ken bit as bicoz vee heev ze best pailots!!

 

itifonhom

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Veee ar zee best, long leev ze Kaiser und ze faterland! No wan ken bit as bicoz vee heev ze best pailots!!

 

itifonhom

 

Ah well..hmmm....But we bloody won!

[itifonhom 6]

You won at land Sir bat not at zee aer. Ap zer vee ar die besten! ;-)

[themightysrc 5]

Can I rudely do a bit of cross posting and ask you chaps to have a look at the European MP thread in Multiplayer?

 

You might even get a chance to find out who actually is the best air force!

[Olham 164]

Sorry, Widow, but it was 5 against 1 (France, England, Canada, America and Australia).

So how can you say "we won" there - who is "we" in this case?