Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
33LIMA

Defence of the Reich, IL-2 style - the next mission

Recommended Posts

Mission #2 in FlatSpinMan's campaign - the 'heavies' show up!

 

Having flown the first mission in FlatSpinMan's campaign 'Luftwaffe pilot - Defence of the Reich' and to my surprise, found myself intercepting an RAF shipping strike while on a transit flight, I was keen to fly the second mission and see what was next in store. I had certainly enjoyed swatting some of those pesky Mosquitos - and earning an Iron Cross in the process, tho perhaps not the universal admiration of the Kreigsmarine, over the small matter of certain shipping losses which, despite my best efforts and three kills, I had not been able entirely to prevent. But my main aim in signing up for this campaign had been to defend the Fatherland itself from flocks of marauding Ami heavy bombers - to the Jagdflieger, known variously as 'dicke autos' (fat cars) or 'mobelwagen' (furniture vans) - did somebody in the nachricthen/signals section have a road traffic fixation??? And I also wanted to confirm - as Boelcke's Reichsverteidigung campaign had already indicated - that IL-2 '46 plus Dark Blue World plus a suitable campaign or two equals a satisfactory-or-better fix for my craving for the sort of action I used to get in spades from good old European Air War.

 

I wasn't disappointed!

 

The mission

 

Notwithstanding my transfer flight south having been rudely interrupted by the impertinent Englishmen in their little wooden planes, I found from the mission briefing that I was evidently now well settled into my new unit, I Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 1 (I/JG1). And as I'd hoped, our tasking for today's mission was intercepting incoming Ami bombers. The date wasn't given, but would have been consistent with spring 1943, likely prior to JG1 giving up the eastern part of its North Sea/Baltic Sea area of operations to JG11, which was created at that time, with units of JG1 being transferred in to form the nucleus of the new unit. Here's the briefing:

 

16.11.2013 19-03-14.jpg

 

The briefing itself is nicely written, with some succinct but excellent advice. The 'int' (or 'intel' as the Amis call it) on what we were intercepting is a bit scant and/or scattered and a tad vague but good enough, taken together. The short verbal briefings in EAW were quite good in that respect though uncannily, they were always able to tell you the raid's target, not just an estimate thereof! As you can see, though the placenames show that this is Latvia/Lithuania on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea, FlatSpinMan has made the best of IL-2's available maps by telling us it's the Heligoland area, on the western side of Denmark, for which the map is quite a good proxy, placenames apart.

 

I chose the briefing's recommended 'skin' for my aircraft, which came with the campaign's recommended skinpack: 'White 3', still an early 'Gustav' with rifle-calibre machine-guns atop the engine and no bulges there to spoil my machine's clean lines. Knowing we were up against unescorted heavy bombers, I naturally chose the R6 'loadout': a pair of 2cm MG151 cannon in underwing gondolas (or 'bathtubs'). Here's my 'kanonenvogel', in which I was leader of a 4-plane schwarm for this operation. Fortunately, we were not the only defending flight on this mission, as it turned out!

 

16.11.2013 19-29-38.jpg

 

It's a nice skin, looking like the JG5 aircraft I flew in mission #1 has had the yellow wingtips removed, the aircraft ID number overpainted, and the JG1 'Winged 1' unit emblem substituted for JG5's. I don't think that JG1 adopted that emblem until rather later in the war but that's a small quibble. As you may have gathered, this was another air start, not my ideal perhaps but certainly a real time-saver plus it gets you to the correct height as well as on the correct course, in this case for the head-on attack recommended in the briefing, well out over the sea.

 

And there they were - the Ami bombers. Still just a cluster of specks in the clear blue sky well above the scattering of cotton-like clouds, but heading right at us on a steady course. I could feel the corners of my mouth curling almost imperceptibly in satisfied anticipation as I sat slightly forward in my seat, tightening my grip on the joystick and placing my left hand on the throttle. Not long, now!

 

16.11.2013 19-09-13.jpg

 

...to be continued!

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Battle is joined!

 

I haven't flown many IL-2 Reich Defence missions yet, but one thing I have learned is that I'm rather good at messing up head-on attacks. I think I'm closing directly head-on, but at some point, often rather late, I realise that my targets are slipping left or right and I need a hasty course correction, often ending up with a deflection shot as my targets slips past at an angle. It is some consolation to see from actual Luftwaffe gun camera footage, which you can see on Youtube, that - whether by design or not - head-on attacks were often made like this, in real life. Take the first sequence in this compilation, for instance:

 

 

And so it came to pass, on this occasion. It's no co-incidence that statistically, the most dangerous slots in the USAAF combat boxes were those on the outer extremities of the formation, when viewed from the attacker's perspective. They are less protected by the guns on other bombers and just seem the natural target for any attack...except (in the immortal and eloquent words of Sgt Wells in 'Dog Soldiers') for '...glory boys, kamikazes, or full-on f***ing f***wits'. Not particularly seeing myself in any of those categories, I steered towards the left edge of the enemy formation as the range wound down rapidly. But finding, as usual, that the oncoming Liberators were crossing slightly left to right, I managed only a short burst of deflection shooting, from which, alas, I observed no hits.

 

16.11.2013 19-34-09.jpg

16.11.2013 19-10-17.jpg

16.11.2013 19-34-46.jpg

 

I flashed past the flank of the nearest 'vic' of Liberators, without taking any damage. Having not found a way to command my flight to make attacks in formation - head-on or otherwise - I had instead led them into the attack with me. I did this in the hope that they might engage any target that crossed their path, or if not, that their presence near me might at least deter the enemy gunners from concentrating their fire on my aircraft alone. Whether it worked or not is hard to say; but we were all still in one piece as we came through. Not the most successful of openings to the fight but at least we were still in business.

 

16.11.2013 19-10-47.jpg

 

I turned left, away from the bombers, and came onto a parallel course, out of range and climbing slightly. My plan now was to come around for another head-on attack, but in the meantime, to watch for any opportunities for easier pickings. My flight had spread out a bit and I throttled back and called them to order, determined to do better on the next pass.

 

16.11.2013 19-38-12.jpg

 

...to be continued!

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
First blood!

 

As I began to overhaul the unescorted Liberator formation, it became clear that a battle was still under way down there, even though my flight had pulled away with me after my (sort of) head-on firing pass.

 

16.11.2013 19-12-34.jpg

 

In fact, battle had been joined before I'd fired a shot. If you look at the first and last of the trio of screenies featuring my attack in the previous post, in the first pic, you can see quite lot of orange-red tracers from bomber gunfire, down in the bottom left-hand corner; and bottom centre, against some clouds, a couple of specks which must be fighters. And in the third screenie, you can see a pair of 109s diving steeply through the far side of the formation, even as I closed in, firing, on the near side.

 

Tunnel vision being what it is, I noticed none of this, at the time. But now, seeing that the Liberators were under attack by other comrades and that their formation had begun to look rather stretched out, towards the rear, I decided to let my flight-mates off the leash. Having given them the order to attack, and accompanied now only by my own wingman, I looked around for a suitable target.

 

Most of the potential victims I could see seemed to have been singled out already by other fighters. So after some hesitation, I decided, rather rashly, to try for a rear three-quarters attack on the outermost Liberator on the outside of the formation nearest to me, ahead and below. As I swept in at him, I became aware that he wasn't in as exposed a position as it had seemed initially, with several bombers to his left likely close enough to take me under effective fire. My head told me to break off before it was shot off. But my hands refused to take the hint. I was committed.

 

16.11.2013 19-14-04.jpg

16.11.2013 19-14-29.jpg

 

By this time I had abandoned the pleasures (and advantages, in terms of situational awareness) of flying in the external view and I was back in the virtual cockpit (and the current IL-2 Gustav's 'office' is still a very satisfying rendition). Throttle wide open, I worked my controls as smoothly as I could, to bring my Revi reflector sight to bear on my chosen target. In Il-2 - as, reportedly, in real life - it can be convenient to find the range with your lighter weapons and cut loose with the cannon when you know you're on target. But here, with an enemy brimming with .50 calibre machine guns growing ever closer right in front of me and other equally well-equipped bombers looming to my left, I had no time for such niceties. I squeezed both triggers as my sights came on.

 

16.11.2013 19-14-43.jpg

 

The results, it has to be said, were both immediate and satisfactory. There was a series of flashes on the B-24's airframe as my rounds hit home and his number 1 engine burst into flames. He rolled rapidly left and plunged away, down through the periphery of the formation, even as I pulled back on the stick and rolled into a right-hand climbing turn to avoid return fire.

 

16.11.2013 19-39-49.jpg

16.11.2013 19-15-30.jpg

16.11.2013 19-17-54.jpg

 

'Viktor, Viktor!' I would have shouted on the radio, to invite comrades to witness my victory claim. But I didn't have a radio, and anyway, I was confident that I could rely instead on IL-2's game engine keeping tally and chalking up my kill.

 

16.11.2013 19-15-45.jpg

16.11.2013 19-16-20.jpg

 

For a moment, suddenly conscious of what it was that I was seeing being simulated, brought to life so vividly by the aged but still exquisite combat flight sim that is IL-2, I watched the Liberator fall. Then I gritted by teeth and turned my attention back to the business in hand.

 

…to be continued!

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Back into battle!
 
This was no time or place for sentimental reflections on the horrors of war. I was the virtual leader of a flight that was still in contact with the enemy and there was work yet to be done. By now, the Ami formation was beginning to look seriously harried, with several stragglers slinking away, damaged engines streaming smoke and mostly still under attack by our fighters. I contemplated reforming my flight but as things stood, we seemed to have the upper hand. So I decided to leave them to it, for a little longer, and released my number two to make his own attack. Searching for a potential second victim, I noticed a 'vic' of three Liberators which had become well separated from the rest of the formation. To their right, a solitary B-24 was under attack from another '109. As I watched, the lonely Liberator took the final plunge.
 
16.11.2013 19-19-52.jpg
16.11.2013 19-19-43.jpg
 
As I drew closer to the three bombers remaining ahead of me, they came under attack in turn. One of them, already trailing dark smoke, fell out of formation and slipped across my nose from right to left, as his attacker zoomed up and clear. This was too good a chance to pass by!
 
16.11.2013 19-20-33.jpg
 
Closing rapidly, I opened up with all weapons on the damaged bomber. Once again, the impact of three cannon and two machine-guns was rapid and in this case, even more devastating. The Liberator broke apart in mid-air and I narrowly missed flying into the shower of disconnected parts, large and small, that had, just a split second before, been a enemy bomber in full flight.
 
16.11.2013 19-21-13.jpg
16.11.2013 19-22-34.jpg
16.11.2013 19-23-03.jpg
 
I was not done yet. For my next victim, I selected a solitary B-24 that was sliding off to the right, obviously in distress and trailing a long, broad streamer of dark smoke. But though still heading inland - with, possibly, a full load of bombs -  he was losing height steadily and, I judged, unlikely to get much further. So I left him to his fate.
 
16.11.2013 19-24-35.jpg
16.11.2013 19-25-02.jpg
 
Instead, I pulled up and went for a head-on pass at another 'vic' of three Liberators which was trailing well behind the main formation. However, the gap was not really wide enough for me to line myself up and I aborted that attack, swinging around so as to make a firing pass from astern. Not usually a good move, of course. But I had asked myself THAT question and the answer was, yes, I AM feeling lucky. Besides, the trio was already under attack from astern from a '190 or another '109, possibly one of mine, and the two of us would split their defensive fire. This cunning plan promptly turned to liquid poo before my very eyes as my comrade's aircraft suddenly pulled up from his firing pass trailing a long banner of orange fire.
 
16.11.2013 19-45-51.jpg
16.11.2013 19-46-00.jpg
 
No longer feeling particularly magnanimous, and without giving the Liberators time to redirect their fire onto me, I held down my triggers and raked the offending bomber. I got some hits but the Liberator carried on seemingly without serious damage, my cannon ammunition having chosen that moment to give out. I broke away, no longer willing to be the sole target of the return fire of three enemy bombers, with nothing to hurl at them in return but some rifle-calibre bullets. The battle was over, I had decided.

 

16.11.2013 19-46-17 - Copy.jpg

 
I throttled back, started an orbit well out of range of the Amis and called up my flight, ordering them to reform. Having mostly left them to their own devices, I was mightily relieved to find that they had not suffered unduly from my rather lax leadership and were all still in the Land of the Living. Checking my kneeboard map, I oriented myself and turned our formation back for home, as the battered Ami formation disappeared gradually to the east. We had not turned them back, but we had reduced their number; and without loss to ourselves.
 
I was rather flabbergasted to be credited in the debrief with no less than five victories, which is as many (or more!) bombers  I remembered actually engaging! I can only guess that some of the others I had put rounds into - generally, aircraft already damaged - had come to grief later. By my own reckoning, I can legitimately claim two, at most three, Liberators downed; the others can be added to the Staffel's score! I got another medal for my pains, at any rate (despite the friendly kill recorded against me...had it been my fire which 'flamed' that other '109, as we converged, firing, on the same target?).
 
16.11.2013 19-30-19.jpg
 
This was a very satisfying and enjoyable mission. Perhaps the bombers' defensive fire was a bit weaker than it should have been. But if there is one thing I really hate in any sim, it is 'sniper' gunners (on the ground or in the air); in this instance, the lesser evil is the lesser accuracy/lethality, in my book. Up to now, with the same settings in Quick Combat or in campaigns, I had been clobbered fairly regularly by bomber gunners. So I'm telling myself that my tactics have improved. I know they haven't, much; but perhaps just enough to make the difference between virtual life and death. When the fighter escorts show up in the campaign, that will be another matter, and we shall see!
 
Of course, the forces involved in all these Reich Defence missions are smaller that you'd get in EAW and smaller again than in real life, beyond the early probing attacks the USAAF made in 1942. But they are large enough to give a believable and very satisfactory impression of the missions they portray. 'B17 - the Mighty Eighth' - even tweaked - gives you a maximum of eighteen bombers in your combat box. And many of those are 'ghosts', visible but with no other part in the mission, beyond window dressing. And that sim still manages to secure the necessary 'suspension of disbelief', in its otherwise faithful portrayal of those forays over the Fatherland. At least as successful in its way is IL-2, a classic sim if ever there was one, now able to provide us with the great ETO experience the early iterations lacked.
 
There's no question in my mind, then, of the proof of my original equation - IL-2 plus Dark Blue World plus campaigns such as Boelcke's or FlatSpinMan's DOES equal a very satisfactory fix for anyone who wants to defend the 'Thousand-Year Reich' from the 'heavies' in the best traditions of that classic, European Air War. Highly recommended!
 
16.11.2013 19-38-31.jpg
  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Similar Content

    • By KJakker
      I think I installed the Daidalos Team patch back in 2012 but it has been years since I touched it IL-2 1946. I would appreciate some advice as to patching, updates, and mods.
    • By 33LIMA
      Flying World War 1 from the start, with some new campaigns for Il-2's CUP mod!
       

       
      The recent Combined User Patch (CUP) for Il-2 1946 now has four modules: Dawn of Flight for World War 1, Golden Age for the inter-war period, Wings at War for WW2, and the Jet Age for the post-war era. For the first of these, SAS's Monty, of The Full Monty fame - the Il-2 mod, not the movie! - has just released a set of scripted-mission campaigns. And naturally, being long interested in the air war of that period, this was one that I wasted no time in trying out.
       
      So far, the first part of an eventual 32 'mission set campaigns' is available, and you can find the details over at the SAS forum, here. Most unusually for a WW1 sim, what this first part gives us is the ability to fly from the very start of the First World War, in August 1914. The first mission set - 'Demarcation' - kicks off in the Vosges, where the demarcation line ran between the French and German empires or that period.
       
      Up to now, the earliest WW1 flight sim missions have flown have been from the era of the Fokker Scourge in the summer of 1915. So while I knew not to expect too much in the way of air combat at a time when most aircraft were unarmed and those that were, generally relied on carbines or pistols carried aloft by their crew, I was keen to try out something new, with the option of jumping ahead any time I wanted; in particular, the 1916 Verdun campaign tickled my fancy, with the opportunity it seemed to fly as the famous Jean Navarre, whose Nieuport Bébé, painted red before von Richthofen copied him, was the terror of the Boches and the hero of the Poilus.
       
      The 'Demarcation' campaign is the first mission-set in the series and sees the player flying a Nieuport N4 monoplane. This famous French company is of course more famous for their V-strutted fighters starting with the Nieuport 10 and 11. But pre-war, Nieuport was noted for its racing or sports planes including a line of neat monoplanes, from which comes the aircraft I’ll be flying on this campaign. There’s some more info about the type on Wikipedia, here; evidently the type was quite widely used, albeit in small numbers, notably by the Russian Air Service. For this campaign I’m with the French air service, which was probably the biggest and best of the combatant air forces at the start of the war and in the thick of it from start to last.

      In the early months of WW1, aircraft were purely for visual reconnaissance and were not routinely armed. Rare exceptions included the Farman of Louis Strange, 5 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, who contrived to fit a Lewis Gun, only to be ordered to remove it after the extra weight resulted in the aircraft failing to get high enough to intercept a snooping German warplane. Thereafter, pistols and carbines remained the only (generally ineffectual) option for aircrew who fancied having a crack at their opposite numbers in the air. The first air-to-air ‘kill’ came in October 1914, when Sergeant Joseph Frantz and Corporal Louis Quénault brought down a German Aviatik; Quénault reportedly had to finish the job with a rifle after his Hotckhiss MG packed it in.

      As I was soon to discover, my single-seater Nieuport is armed from the get-go, with what looks like a Danish Masden mag-fed LMG. The real catch is that it’s mounted to fire upwards to clear the propeller arc, this being before the introduction of deflectors or interrupter gear. Lanoe Hawker had some success in 1915 in a Bristol Scout with a Lewis gun mounted to fire left and ahead so this arrangement isn’t entirely untypical of the sort of lash-ups early aviators made from early in the war, to get a decent crack at the enemy in a single-seater, with no observer to man a flexibly-mounted gun.
       

       
      Here’s the mission brief. It's just as well I've got the MG, because apparently, the enemy fliers have been activer over our territory. While my patrol zone is marked as a recce objective (eye graphic on a yellow triangle) our aims are offensive in nature. It's a defensive patrol, for two of us, though by the sound of it, my companion’s dodgy motor means that I might be alone. We don’t have far to go, in the horizontal sense anyway. But this is the Vosges and elevation will be a different matter, as I will soon find out. Typically for these new missions, you can forget about one of IL-2's most useful navigational map aids - there's no minimap path. This is 1914 after all, just over ten years from Kittyhawk and Orville and Wilbur's first successful flights in a heavier-than-air flying machine.
       

       
      Intrigued to find out how my first venture into virtual 1914 military aviation will work out, I wasted no time launching the mission, having made sure that in the difficulty settings, I had turned off flutter and wind effects (which the WW1 flight models can’t cope with – IIRC they result in planes having regular attacks of ‘the wobbles’).

      And this is what I saw. Truly, our airfield is a veritable diorama, packed with people, vehicles and other aircraft. While the people aren’t animated, it’s still an impressive spectacle, packed with interest.
       

       
      My number two tried a couple of times to get his engine running but each time it spluttered to a stop; possibly just as well as the bloke in front of him seemed disinclined to get out of his way. My motor showed no such reluctance and after a quick look around I decided to take off straight ahead, without worrying about runways. This worked out just fine, my lightweight aircraft lifting off at a speed which didn’t seem much faster than some of the trucks motoring around the airfield.
       

       
      Sitting roughly at mid-chord above a broad wing, it was obvious I wasn’t going to see much from the cockpit. The Voisins and Farmans parked around the airfield would have made much better reconnaissance machines, and indeed they served on after Nieuport monoplanes had disappeared from the front lines. Flying from the external view, I got a much better view of both my aircraft and its surroundings.
       

       

       
      And fine surroundings they were. Our airfield turned out to be on a little plateau set into the side of an impressive mountain, which comprised a series of peaks with lower ‘saddles’ in between. I resisted the temptation to play that song from that musical, but the hills, if not alive with the sound of music, certainly looked worth the trip.
       



       
      After a bit of sight-seeing, orienting myself with the help of the map, I realised that my reconnaissance objective had been rather inconveniently sited at the top of the highest peak. As my rate of climb seemed to be rather close to the  ‘imperceptible’ end of the scale, this presented me with a bit of a problem. Throttle fully open, I settled into the best climb I could manage on a course parallel to the long side of the ridge or peaks. Compared to the WW2 planes I’m used to flying in Il-2, it felt like I was in a powered glider, and a nose-heavy one at that. Heck, this ‘racing’ plane felt slow, compared to the WW1 planes I’d flown in other sims. Slow...but not too sedate, with a tendency to dive away or begin a roll to either side, if I didn’t concentrate on keeping things level. With little dihedral, a small unbalanced rudder and wing warping for lateral control, this seemed to make sense. Quite an interesting experience in itself, the flight was shaping up to be.
       

       

       
      Realising that I was not going to gain enough height on one leg, I could not resist the temptation of turning right and crossing the ridgeline over one of the saddles. Even getting high enough to do this, took a certain amount of time and effort and I just scraped across. Having gone over the mountain to see what I could see, like the bear in the song the result was not unexpected – the other side of the mountain.
       

       

       
      I now flew a long leg away from the objective to gain sufficient height. That done, I turned around - gently, so as not to lose any of my precious height - and made my way back, aiming for the top of the correct peak.
       


       
       
      Finally I was right over the summit. I should have over-flown my objective to one side or the other, but I was quite keen for my track on the map to intersect the centre of the target marker, lest such precision was needed for mission success or to trigger some necessary mission event.

      In fact it worked – I got the ‘mission completed’ text so that was it. And I didn’t get shot at, or even see a single enemy aircraft. They were there, though, but I only realised that later, when I noticed an enemy aircraft icon on a screenshot which I had taken with the mini-map view briefly turned on!!! To be honest, I'd sort of forgotten the briefing, having been so taken up with the actual flying side of the challenge. And I had become rather fixated on overflying that big marker, as if I were genuinely on a recce flight. Anyway, the top of that mountain was about as bare as a mountain-top can be. Giving up on earlier ideas about putting in a flypast at the castle I’d seen on a lower peak nearby, I decided that honour had been satisfied; it was time to go home. A nice hot brandy in the Mess would help me recover from the rigours of flying amongst the mountains in my little powered glider. Down we went. The early aviators were in the habit of turning off their motors during a descent but I just cut the throttle to idle and experimented a bit with diving angle and airspeed. The unfamiliar flight model I found quite convincing; I have no idea at all how a real Nieuport 4 handled but this one felt just about perfect, for such an aircraft.
       

       
      It wasn't long before I was turning onto my final approach...although to the wrong airfield I believe, a deceptively-similar one on a similar mountainside plateau. I must have had my mind firmly set on that brandy!
       

       
      For a sortie on which I'd missed my opportunity to have my first air fight, I'd actually found the experience surprisingly absorbing. I think I'll try at least one more campaign mission in the Nieuport 4, before moving on to something more warlike. There's just something about the mission which seemed to capture so well the experience of stooging around in an aircraft that is little more than a docile but ungainly powered glider..albeit one with a sting.
       
      ...to be continued!
    • By 33LIMA
      Flying a vanilla campaign in the classic WW2 sim's latest mod!

       
      You can say what you like about the newest addition to the Il-2 line, Battle of Stalingrad (BoS) - and many of us do just that! But one thing it has done for me, is stimulate my interest in its predecessor's original, Eastern Front campaigns. No mean achievement, that, for until relatively recently, I'd regarded Il-2 as mainly offering planes I didn't especially want to fly, in places I didn't especially want to fly them, to adapt another simmer's comment.
       
      At the moment, I have two installs of Il-2 1946 - one for Dark Blue World (DBW), the other for the new Community User Patch (CUP). Due to different files, units and other factors, it seems likely to take a while, before many campaigns that work in DBW or other versions of Il-2, also work in CUP, though some already do and the list is growing steadily.
       
      Both to check out the compatibility of some stock Il-2 campaigns with CUP and to indulge my new-found interest in the Eastern Front variety, over the last month or two I've been running, on and off, a standard Soviet fighter campaign, flying one of the aircraft available in BoS - the rather sleek but not especially high-performing LaGG-3. Like other aircraft before and after, this seems to have been a basically decent design which needed a more powerful engine to turn it into a competitive fighter - which it got, when its inline engine was replaced by a radial, creating the Lavochkin La-5.
       
      From this campaign's timeframe, though, the La-5 is about a year away. It's July 1941, just weeks into Operation Barbarossa, and I'm flying a LaGG-3, defending our dearly-beloved Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics against the fascist hordes of Nazi Germany. And an interesting challenge it's been, keeping my virtual neck intact, up against superior numbers of superior planes and - historically, anyway - superior aircrew.
       

       
      So far, courtesy it seems of some Soviet Socialistic miracle, I have not only survived, but knocked down some enemy aircraft. I'm on my fifth mission, no less...but wondering how much longer my good fortune can possibly continue.
       
      Here's the latest briefing. As you can see, it's a fairly straightforward escort job, with a hint that we might want to shoot up some stuff on the ground at some point, too. Maybe it's a difficulty setting I applied when I created the campaign, but the usual Il-2 red and blue front lines aren't shown on the map. But I'll be able to gauge the whereabouts of the enemy from the front-line target the bombers we're to escort will hit. Happily, the target's not too far off, so I can fly the mission in real time with no need to use 'warp'...which as just as well, as Il-2's never had that, relying on autopilot and time acceleration.
       

       
      The briefing doesn't tell me how many are in our flight, or the type and strength of the bombers. Nor do we get their or our altitudes. I put this down to a level of uncertainty, even confusion, in an air force with its back against the wall...or perhaps, against a Commisar with a small-calibre pistol and a willingness to employ it, in stiffening our resolve, should that become necessary.
       
      At the flight line, I find that there are in fact three of us on this hop. Having chosen a high enough rank to avoid the (to me) hateful chore of formation-flying - and to enjoy the extra challenge of flight leadership - I'm at the head of the queue. This being a stock mission, there's none of the newer formation takeoffs. Happily, the default Il-2 conga line is a short one, today.
       

       
      The current LaGG-3 I find is a nicely-rendered bird. More rounded contours in some places, inside and out, would be nice but I'm not complaining. Her authentic, subtly-weathered camouflage and national markings are convincingly-applied. There's no sign of the original opaque Il-2 markings, which looked like the over-thick waterslide transfers you used to get on plastic kits, guaranteed to blot out all but the crudest surface detail. And the cockpit, though clearly well behind the latest self-shadowed, finely-curved marvels, is still quite serviceable.
       

       

       
      One new feature the LaGG does enjoy are more rounded wheels, and very welcome they are, too. Soon, I was aloft and retracting the gear. After the crazily finnicky ground handling of BoS, takeoffs in '46 are...well, whether more realistic or not, more what I'm used to.
       

       
      Another, older improvement to Il-2 that the modders have wrought is the engine sounds. I absolutely loathed the dreadful external engine drone of the original sim. That's a distant memory now, so I can admire my bird in the external view without feeling that I need to turn down the sound.
       

       
      In fact, so much was I enjoying the external aspect of my LaGG sweeping over the Steppes, that I decided to let the autopilot fly, for a bit. There was now sign of the bombers and I thought, rightly as it turned out, that my alter ego would have a better idea than I, were they were and at what height we should be.
       
      My number three lagged (sic!) for a bit but my number two wasn't long in catching up. We perhaps tend to take for granted these days such Il-2 wonders as different planes having different individual numbers but even now, not all sims have this and it's still a fine thing to behold.
       

       
      Three of us had left our airfield. How many would return, and would I be amongst them? The answers would not be long in coming.
       
      ...to be continued!
×

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..