jrjacobs

The Ohka was launched around 55 miles(88km) from the target, usually from under the belly of a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber, at an altitude of about 27,000 ft (8,240m) and speed of 175-200 mph(280-320 km/h). The first 50 miles(80km) were covered by gliding at around 230mph(370km/h), upon which the pilot ignited the rockets to take the speed up to around 535 mph(860 km/h). In the final dive approach, speeds of up to 620 mph(1,000 km/h) were reached.
 
The first recorded attacks by an Ohka is on March 21, 1945, when 16 were launched to intercept a US Navy fleet at Kyushu. However, the G4M Ishiki-Rikko was one of the weak links of the Ohka, the Mitsubishi bomber was virtually unarmoured and its entire wing was a giant fuel tank without a self-sealing lining; it was slow and unwieldy at the best of times and the addition of the Ohka made it even more so. This mission illustrated this vulnerability to a T when it was intercepted by Grumman F6F Hellcats and all the bombers were destroyed.
 
The first successful attack is thought to have been on April 1 1945, damaging the battleship USS West Virginia and two cargo vessels.
 
On April 12 the American destroyer, USS Mannert L. Abele was sunk by a direct hit.
 
On May 4, the destroyer Shea was hit by an Ohka as was the USS Hugh W Hadley on May 11; while they did not sink, both destroyers were judged to be beyond repair.
 
MISSION DATE: Sunday, April 1, 1945
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 4.01m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: F4U CORSAIR 4, F6F5, G4M1-11
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 9 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

22 April 1943, Holy Thursday, just before Easter, was the blackest day of all for the Me 323s and their crews
 
14 Me 323s of II./KG.z.b.V each carrying about 10 tons of fuel destined for Army Group Tunis was intercepted by the South African Fighters at Cape Bon.
 
10 Ju 52s of Kampfgruppe z.b.V. 106 took off at 0640 hours bound for Tunis. The Junkers and a group of 14 Me 323s were supposed to fly to Tunis with the maximum available fighter escort.
 
Each Gigant was carrying 10 tons of fuel destined for Army Group Tunis.
 
The fighter escort of 39 Bf 109s assembled over Trapani. Another 65 fighters, including Macchi 202s, flew out from Tunis to meet the formation. West of Sicily the Kampfgruppe descended to a height of 20 to 50 meters above the sea. Halfway between Sicily and Tunisia the Me 323s separated from the Ju 52 formation and, contrary to orders, set course for Cape Bon. This splitting of the fighter escort meant that the Giganten had only 36 escorts instead of the planned 104.
 
At 0925 two large groups of South African fighters began attacking the Me 323s between Cape Bon and the island of Zembra. Conditions were hazy. The first group of enemy fighters engaged the Bf 109s of II./JG 27, which were flying at an altitude of about 2400 meters, and forced them away from the transports. This allowed the second formation, which was larger and made up mainly of P40 Kittyhawks of the South African Air Force, to attack the Giganten.
 
Once attacked, the Me 323s took evasive action and the wedge-shaped formation disintegrated. The huge, cumbersome transports had little chance of even reaching the African coast. Usually able to sustain a great deal of battle damage, on this day the Giganten were carrying volatile cargoes and most caught fire or exploded after a few hits. Though they put up stiff resistance, shooting down five to seven enemy fighters, the Me 323s were shot down one after another until the last Gigant crashed into the sea in flames.
 
MISSION DATE: THURSDAY, 22 April 1943
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: Bf-109G6, SPITFIRE MkVIII, P-40 Tommahawk 2B
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 8 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

At 0530 hrs, on October 5th 1943 the Japanese on Wake Island suffered retribution at the hands of the Largest American carrier force since the Pacific War began - and learned how the new Hellcat stacked up against the Zero.
 
MISSION DATE: October 5th 1943
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 25 players
MISSION TYPE: Airfield Attack
FLYABLE PLANES: A6M2 "Zeke/Zero", F6F-3 "Hellcat", SBD-3 "Dauntless"
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 15 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission was created/edited by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

Pacific Fighters Mission - Coop for 4/8 players
 
On November 11th, the Japanese assembled a large convoy of merchant vessels, loaded with 7,000 men and enough supplies and ammunition for a month's worth of fighting. And in order to assure the delivery of those supplies, they assembled a very powerful force, centered on the battleships Hiei and Kirishima
 
Rear-Admiral Tanaka Raizo would escort eleven transports carrying some 7,000 men and tons of ammunition and supplies to Guadalcanal. The Imperial Navy decided the battleships Hiei and Kirishima would smash Henderson with concentrated gunfire a day before the arrival of Tanaka's convoy.
 
In the darkness of Friday the 13th, 13 ships of the American Navy, engaged two battleships Hiei and Kirishima, a cruiser and 13 destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. When it was done the Americans had lost 1 Light Cruiser and 4 Destroyers sunk, and 2 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Light Cruisers, and 1 Destroyer heavily damaged. The Japanese had 1 Battleship (Hiei); and 2 Destroyers, sunk, and 3 Destroyers damaged.
 
With only two heavy cruisers the Japanese were unable to do enough damage to the airfield. Henderson Field was still operational the next morning. As a result, the Japanese transports, came under heavy attack.
 
Multiple missions were flown by Marine SBD Dauntlesses, by SBDs and Avengers from carrier Enterprise which staged through Henderson, and by B-17 Flying Fortresses flying up from Espiritu Santo. against the transports throughout the day.
 
This is where you come in.
 
Seven of the transports were sunk- Rear Admiral Tanaka, resolved to land the four surviving transports and any surviving troops on Guadalcanal, regardless of any US resistance.
 
By early the following morning the four surviving Japanese transports had to beach themselves on the shores of Guadalcanal. All four were destroyed by US aircraft and destroyer attack, with horrendous casualties among the troops they were carrying.
 
For Japan, it was the end of any hope of wresting Guadalcanal from the Americans. In three days of combat in and around the area, they had lost two battleships, one heavy cruiser, three destroyers and eleven combat transports, not to mention 5,000 infantrymen drowned, and several thousand sailors lost. From this point on, the Japanese would never stop retreating in the Pacific.

Pacific Fighters Mission - Coop for 4/8 players
 
On 7 April 1943, Marine Lieutenant James E Swett in an F4F-4 Wildcat called "Melvin Massacre" took off from Henderson field leading an element of VMF-221.
 
28 ?Wildcats? of VMF-221, 8 F4U-1s of VMF-124 and 6 P-38Fs of the USAAF?s 12th FS mission that day were to protect the fleet from an estimated 195 Japanese "Zekes" and "Vals"
 
Upon approaching Tulagi Lt. Swett found 67 D3A2 "Vals" and about 110 "Zekes" starting their attack. Accelerating, he quickly outdistanced his wingmen who were then jumped by the "Zekes" so with no one to help him he waded into the fray.
 
When he came out the other end he was wounded, had no ammunition left, an engine shot up bad enough that it would eventually seize up on him, and 7 confirmed and 1 probable D3A2s downed by his guns
 
For this Lt James Elms Swett earned a Medal of Honor. Can you do the same? Let me know what you think?

Raising Havoc in the Ardennes
 
It is January 23rd, 1945, and it's cold. The German advance in the Ardennes is nearly over, but the Panzer Army is desperately throwing more troops into the breach who try to keep their momentum going in The Battle of the Bulge.
 
Tasked with preventing German reinforcements from reaching the battle front, the Ninth Air Force including A-20 Havocs of the 410th Bomb Group launched a series of low-level attacks on enemy ground forces as they wound their way through the Ardennes. Flying conditions were not easy, cloud bases were low, and snow was in the air.
 
Locating an enemy convoy in open space, the Havoc pilots make a swift attack diving from 8000 feet (2,400m), catching the German force by surprise: Hurtling down the line of vehicles at 320mph (515kph) they release their parafrag bombs from 300 feet (90m) then, dropping just above the roofs of the army trucks continue down the column blasting everything in sight with their forward-firing .50mm calibre machine guns. In the space of a few minutes the attack is completed and the convoy decimated.
 
With amuntion expended and fuel running low the A-20 Havocs climb out of the zone and head for base in France. they return through a blizzard, but all aircraft make it safely home - the lead aircraft, on landing, counting over 100 holes of various sizes. For their part in leading the successful attack the Lead Pilot Russell Fellers and Bombardier/Navigator Gordon G. Jones received the Silver Star.

Pacific Fighters Mission - 4 players take-off from the Lexington -
 
....On 11 January 1942, CV-2, the USS Lexington sailed from Pearl Harbor as the flagship of TF 11. Task Force 11 consists of the Lexington, two heavy cruisers, and six destroyers The Lexington has been assigned the dangerous task of penetrating enemy-held waters north of New Ireland. From there her planes are to make a strike at Japanese shipping in the harbor at Rabaul.
 
Unfortunately, while still 400 miles from Rabaul, the Lexington was discovered by a giant four-engine Kawanishi flying boat.
 
Nine twin-engine enemy bombers have been spotted comming in from the South and Commander Thach has just led six Wildcats into the air to intercept them.
 
After Commander Thatch led the Wildcats towards the incoming enemy bombers, Lt Butch O'Hare noticed he had fuel problems, and turning 180 degrees he returned to his ship, the Lexington.
 
Suddenly he noticed nine more enemy bombers attacking from the opposite direction and alone and desperate, he attacked and took on all nine. single handedly destroyed five of them, and forced the rest to turn away.
 
For this Lt Butch O'Hare earned a Medal of Honor. Can you do the same with four aircraft Let me know what you think?

On 24 March 1942 the American Volunteer Group (AVG) raid on the Japanese Air Force at Chiang Mai in northern Thailand was one of the Flying Tigers most significant actions.
The 10 P-40s that came from China caught the Japanese off-guard and provided America with it's 1st news of victory.
 
MISSION DATE: Tuesday, 24 March 1942
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 10 players
MISSION TYPE: Airfield Attack
FLYABLE PLANES: Hawk 81A-2
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 15 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission was created/edited by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

On Palm Sunday, April 18, 1943, Over Cape Bon, Tunisia, an Axis force of *60 Ju-52 transports escorted by 21 Bf-109 Bf-110, & MC-202 fighters were headed for Sicily when they were intercepted by a patrol of 46 P-40Fs, 12 P-47s of the 314FS/324FG and with a high cover of 12 RAAF Spitfire Vs from No. 92nd Sqdn. The intercept was based on messages received from the German enigma codes (Ultra). The slow Junker 52 transports were on their way with supplies to the German Army in North Africa.
 
The American P-40s dove out of the sun and when the smoke had cleared, 59 Ju 52s and 16 fighters had been shot down for the loss of 6 P-40s and 1 Spitfire - arguably the finest single engagement for the P-40 Warhawks ever, a slaughter that came to be known as the "Palm Sunday Massacre".
 
MISSION DATE: Sunday, 18 April 1943
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 25 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: Bf-109G2, Bf-110G2, P-40M, P-47D22, Spitfire Mk Vb
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 10 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission was created/edited by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

U.S. Naval Intelligence has learned that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is flying into Bougainville at exactly 0800 hrs.
 
US side - you have one chance to get him - do so at ALL costs
 
Your planes are LOW... pull up immediately!
 
Japan Side - Protect our Commander-in-chief.
Your Honor depends upon it.

Stille Nacht auf Stalingrad
 
 
To supply the Sixth Army requires an average of 150 fully laden Ju 52s landing in the pocket each day.
 
At Pitomnik, they've stationed a heavy flak battery and all available light batteries.
 
Stalin has ordered the flights from the west be made "impossible"

September Mourn v1
Soon available at www.combatace.com and at www.airwarefare.com
 
 
Only very courageous - or foolhardy - pilots would have dared to fly through the curtains of fog and mist that blanketed the undulating lands along the frontier between northeastern Germany and Poland at daybreak on September 1, 1939.
 
Luftwaffe 1st Lt. Bruno Dilley and his wing-men, 2nd Lieutenant Horst Schiller and Sgt Gerhard Grenzel, were all thoroughly trained fliers, and they would be piloting Junkers 87 dive bombers, called Stukas. Their mission was of vital tactical importance to the German Army, poised to plunge into Poland that very morning to strike the first blow of World War II.
 
Dilley's objective was a pair of huge steel railroad bridges that spanned the Vistula River on the edge of the town of Dirschau. The Stukas were not to demolish the bridges, however; the High Command of the German Army wanted the twin spans intact so that German troops and supplies could speed across the Vistula in their intended Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, against the Polish Army. Dilley's task was to prevent the Poles themselves from blowing the bridges as a defensive measure. Polish Army engineers had already affixed explosive charges to the bridge structures; the three Luftwaffe pilots were to destroy the wires that connected the explosives with remote electrical detonators located within the Dirschau railroad station.
 
Severing slender wires with bombs dropped from planes flying at high speed was a difficult undertaking, to say the least. To increase their chances of success, Dilley and his wingmen had scouted the area, changing into civilian clothes and boarding the Berlin-Konigsberg express, which ran through a slim corridor of Poland between Germany and East Prussia and across the vital Vistula bridges. From the train the German airmen had seen the detonator wires for themselves: They were strung along the riverbank. To hit so small a target, the Stukas? normally used as dive bombers?would have to be flown horizontally at treetop level. It was a risky business at best, and the fog and mist on the morning of September 1 made it many times more hazardous.
 
At 4:26 a.m., Dilley, Schiller and Grenzel gunned their Stukas across a rough airfield near Elbing, East Prussia, and took off. Dirschau lay 24 miles away. If all went well, they would reach it in just eight minutes.
 
For six minutes the three pilots and the rear gunners sitting behind them in the Stukas' two-seat cockpits hurtled straight ahead through blinding scud, the planes' big 1,210-horsepower Jumo 21 ID engines roaring at full throttle. Even a small error in calculating altitude would have meant smashing into one of the borderland's rolling hills, and each Stuka carried a 550-pound bomb under its fuselage and four 110-pounders below the wings that would have made any contact with the ground instantly fatal.
 
Two minutes from the target, Dilley dimly perceived the silver gray water of the Vistula beneath his wings. He banked to turn downstream toward the bridges, his wingmen following in line-astern formation. All three skimmed along less than 100 feet above the river.
 
The moment he sighted the bridges glimmering through the mist, Dilley radioed his pilots, "target ahead," and eased his Stuka into line with the embankment to the left of the two spans. He pressed the bomb-release button on his control stick when his plane was barely 100 yards from the twin spans' girders, then jerked the stick back and to the left. The Stuka, relieved of its bombs, leaped over the bridges in a tight climbing turn to port. Schiller followed in carbon-copy style. So did Grenzel. As they swung away, they could see that their bombs had plastered the area where the wires were strung. The time was 4:34 a.m., 11 minutes before the Army's scheduled 4:45 attack.
 
MISSION DATE: Friday, 1 September 1939
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 6 players
MISSION TYPE: Bridge Defence
FLYABLE PLANES: Ju-87B, Pz.11c
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 8 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

In early July 1942, Britain's desert forces checked Rommel's advance and held him at El Alamein, just 150 miles from Cairo. Rommel's forces are getting only 6,000 tons a month, one-fifth of what they need. RAF planes and Royal Navy submarines from Malta are sending three-quarters of all convoys to the bottom
 
Rommel had set 26 August 1942 as the date to begin his final thrust to Cairo, but that day came and went with no German movement: Rommel's mechanized forces were held up for lack of fuel.
 
Two Tankers were on their way across the Mediterranean, but both were sunk.
 
Rommel was desperate and in the early morning of August 30 he appealed for fuel and was promised that another tanker, the San Andrea, would set out from Italy at once, under heavy escort. He decided to launce the attack that night knowing that he would need the 5,000 tons of fuel on the San Andreas to maintain his offensive.
 
Later that same morning, a British reconnaissance aircraft spotted a destroyer-escorted vessel steaming just off-shore along the inside tip of the heel of Italy. Overhead was a heavy Axis air umbrella that included a Ju-88 and seven Macchi fighters.
 
On battered Malta RAF Squadron Leader R.P.M. "Pat" Gibbs studied the reconnaissance pilot's report. Seeing that the ship's seaward side was protected by the destroyer, he decided that the best angle of attack would be from the Italian mainland itself. At 11:45 a.m. Gibbs led a force of nine Beauforts and nine Beaufighters down the runway and into the air.
 
Flying some two miles over the mainland, they banked and roared back toward the sea. The Beaufighters led the formation, fending off the Macchis, clearing a path for the torpedo planes. Gibbs, in the lead Beaufort, streaked low toward his target until he could read its name, San Andrea. Finally as the tanker loomed large before him, he dropped his torpedo from 500 yards and lifted over the ship, missing it's mast by inches. The San Andrea lurched in the water and exploded in a thundering ball of smoke and flame.
 
Deprived of his promised fuel supply, Rommel had to call off his offensive; on September 2 he ordered his mechanized columns to retreat.
 
MISSION DATE: SUNDAY, 30 August 1942
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: Beaufighter, Fiat CR-42
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 8 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

Marauders at Midway v1
 
June 4th, 1942 0710 hrs
Flying from Midway, four B-26s of the 69th Bombardment Squadron are sent to attack the Japanese fleet. Each plane carries one fish, hanging from its belly.
 
Heading through the tracers, they spy the Akagi.
 
"The whole world was on fire, the only place that wasn't was across the deck of that carrier". At a height of only 15 feet, Muri flew down the deck of the Akagi. He feels too close to the enemy to be shot at. But Muri goggles at Akagi's battle flag, snapping from her mast. He has seen the blazing Rising Sun flag in newsreels, but never in real life. Now it?s the biggest thing he's ever seen.
 
Muri pulls out surrounded by Zeros. The Japanese tear up the B-26, Cpl. Mello staggers into the cockpit, and says "The plane's on fire and everybody's hit back there." Co-pilot Moore rushes back with a fire extinguisher to douse the blaze. Then he gives sulfa powder, and mans a gun.
 
MISSION DATE: June 4th, 1942 0710 hrs
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: A-20 (B-26), A6M2-21, SBD-3
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 10 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Dig Daddy" Jacobs

"D-Day Targets of Opportunity"
Three historical missions of D-Day,
1) P-38 CAP of the beaches,
2) P-47's stopping 22nd SS Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions trains South of Caen
3) A-20 attacking the Rail marshalling yards at Le Havre
 
1944 June 6 D-DAY - on a foggy overcast day the Allies land at Normandy. Field Marshal Rommel was of the firm belief that the only way to defeat an invasion was to counterattack the beaches as early as possible with armour.
 
Two hours before the seaborne landings began, Field Marshal von Rundstedt ordered the two reserve panzer divisions available for counterattack in Normandy, the 12th SS Panzer and Panzer Lehr, to move immediately toward Caen. He did so on the basis of an intuitive judgment that the airborne landings were on such a large scale that they could not be a mere deception maneuver and would have to be reinforced from the sea. The only place such landings could come in lower Normandy were on the Calvados and Cotentin coasts. He wanted armor there to meet the attack.
 
von Rundstedt's reasoning was sound, his action decisive, his orders clear.
 
But the panzer divisions were not under his command. They were in OKW reserve. To save precious time, von Rundstedt first ordered them to move out, then requested OKW approval. OKW did not approve. At 0730 Jodi informed von Rundstedt that the two divisions could not be committed until Hitler gave the order, and Hitler was still sleeping. von Rundstedt had to countermand the move-out order. Hitler slept until noon
 
Hitler's mistrust of his generals and the generals' mistrust of Hitler greatly assisted the Allies. So were Hitler's sleeping habits, as well as his Wolkenkuckucksheim ideas.
 
The two panzer divisions spent the morning waiting. There was a heavy overcast; they could have moved out free from serious interference from Allied aircraft. It was 1600 when Hitler at last gave his approval. By then the clouds had broken up and Allied fighters and bombers ranged the skies over Normandy, smashing anything that moved.
 
 
MISSION DATE: Sunday, TUESDAY, 6 JUNE 1944
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: P38L, P-47D-27,A-20, Fw-190A8
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 10 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

A Tidal Wave Strikes Ploesti v1
 
The Ploesti Raid took place on Sunday, August 1, 1943. 7 refineries in and near the city were producing 35% of
 
Germany's oil and av-gas, its defenses had been bolstered accordingly.
 
Winston Churchill is credited with observing that "in war, nothing ever goes according to plan except occasionally,
 
and then by accident."
 
B-24 Bombers entered into a maelstrom of ground fire, Although damage to the target was heavy, the cost was high. Of
 
177 planes and 1,726 men who took off on the mission, 54 planes and 532 men failed to return. The operation resulted
 
in the awarding of 5 Medals of Honor, 3 of them posthumously - the most ever awarded for a single action.
 
MISSION DATE: Sunday, August 1, 1943
GAME REQUIREMENT: IL2-FB-PF 3.04m
GAME TYPE: CO-OP up to 12 players
MISSION TYPE: Air Intercept
FLYABLE PLANES: Bf-109G2, Bf-110G2, IA-80c
FLIGHT TO TARGET TIME: 5-15 minutes
MISSION INFORMATION: This mission by JR "Big Daddy" Jacobs

Fox Hunt at Caen
 
 
Gerry is throwing everything he's got at our home bases. This includes those nasty little buzz bombs.
 
We're throwing up a flight of Spitfires in the channel to act as CAP and spoil any Hun surprises.
 
There is a flight of P-38's on a fox hunt vectored toward Caen looking for those Buzz Bomb supply trains and launch sites.
 
We also have set up a picket line of rescue ships. if you get into trouble, make for them

Hurri-cats To The Rescue v3
Hurricats, Hurricanes designed for rocket assisted catapulting from the decks of Merchantmen were the British answer to the deadly long range attacks from German Condors.
 
In 1942 Convoys in mid Atlantic are outside the range of protecting fighters. The are not however, outside the range of the German Condors.
 
Hurricats, Hurricanes designed for rocket assisted catapulting from the decks of Merchantmen, is the British answer to the deadly long range attacks from German Condors.
 
This is a one-way trip, You are out at sea and when finished you will have no place to land, to survive, you must ditch near the convoy and hope they are still able to pick you up.