33LIMA

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: 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! 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! ...to be continued!

SERIOUSLY good work there. The stonework effect on the church and other buildings is a work of art.

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. 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! 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. 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. 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. 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. 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?). 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!

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. 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. 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. 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. '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. 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!

VERY nice - great job!

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. 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. 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. ...to be continued!

Defending the Reich...with a difference! This mission report is designed to showcase another IL-2 Reich Defence campaign: this time FlatSpinMan's 'Luftwaffe Pilot - Defence of the Reich 1943', available over at Mission4Today, here: http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3856 As the campaign description says, "Fly as Willi Jedermann as he attempts to save the Fatherland from the murderous waves of Allied bombers. Over 20 missions flying for JG1 and JG 11 in their titanic struggle against the Allied behemoths. Get a taste of the spectacle, excitement and terror of the most massive aerial combats in history." I was so pleased with the experience afforded by Boelcke's similarly-themed campaign that I thought I'd try a second one. This report is the result. As to the significance of the title - and no prizes for spotting that it was the closing line from that memorable 1960s air war movie, '633 Squadron' - well, the connection will become apparent, very shortly! The first mission in the campaign came as a bit of a surprise. As you can see from the 'blurb' above, the campaign was billed as flying with Jagdgeschwader 1 and Jagdgeschwader 11 (the latter being spun off from JG1 to bolster defences in northern Germany and the Baltic coast area) so I was rather surprised to find my first mission involved flying for JG5 'Eismeer'. That unit's traditional stomping ground, as its name suggests, was Scandinavia. I neglected to take a screenshot of the briefing but the mission seemed to involve a transit flight, with myself and my wingman flying off to join my new unit. The map in question looked to be of Finland's Baltic coast [edit - I checked and it's actually Norway's west coast, which is fine]. My mount was a Bf109G2 and following the instructions in the briefing, I had selected a JG5 skin, which came with the skin pack which the campaign's download page recommends you install as well as the campaign. That's me, in Yellow 4. Evidently my pilot had previously served with the Kondor Legion in the Spanish Civil War; at least, I assume that's the reason for the small Spanish Nationalist air force insignia, on my fuselage to the rear of the cross. The badge on the cowling is, of course, JG5's. It's a nice skin, with 74+75 upper surfaces and 76 below, and the fuselage sides mottled in 02 and 70 - textbook stuff, and the wing camouflage pattern is also a common factory standard for the time. Nice job. ...and yes, the mission was an air start. Most of this campaign's missions are, apparently. Personally, I prefer to start 'on the deck' but with IL2 not having a magic 'warp' or 'go to next encounter' facility, I can understand why the designer decided to spare us the long climb to altitude with which your average Reichs Defence sortie would otherwise have started. In my previous, somewhat sporadic flying with IL-2, I never got out of the habit of flying with the map screen set to display my course and icons for other planes, including enemies. I generally prefer to minimise my reliance on such things. But given the IL-2 on-screen 'kneeboard' map is quite small and covers a limited field (even zoomed well out) I'm inclined not to baulk at using it both for navigation and to identify foes. I don't use the equivalent facility in First Eagles or Rise of Flight, for example, but in WW2, with fighters commonly flying with the assistance of ground-based controllers using radar and other aids, I consider the IL-2 map with icons on is a reasonable supplement to the sim's ground controller, who when asked, seems only able to give you an enemy force's bearing, not its course, composition or most importantly, height - European Air War was much better in that regard. Anyway, I was understandably curious to find out whether or not my transit flight was going to be uneventful. So I turned on the map...and there they were! But what were they? And what were they up to? One way to find out...I slammed the throttle forward, turned onto an intercept course, and started gaining some height. ...to be continued!

Leaving the Cold War era of radar-guided nuclear-tipped air-to-air missiles and returning to the days of reflector sights and cannon...though getting some hits, I was too late to prevent the Mossie I was tailing from letting go his bombs at the coastal defence ship or Monitor that was the moored convoy's primary defence. But fortunately for whatever was left of my reputation with my comrades in the Kriegsmarine, he missed. I pulled up after him as he broke away, with my wingman gamely keeping up, leaving the battered convoy behind. What I didn't realise until I looked at the mission replay, was that there were also some rocket-firing Beaufighters involved in the strike, preoccupied as I was with the Mossies. How I managed to miss them, I have no idea! Anyhow, I crept up underneath the Mosquito I had attacked, who was leaving behind him a thin wisp of dark smoke, indicating engine damage. Another burst finished him off, and down he went. You can see from the second pic that the two crew members managed to bail out. Hopefully, their 'chutes opened in time. At this point I called up the kneeboard map, rather than trusting to the limited abilities of the IL-2 ground controller to give me a vector (strictly speaking a bearing is all he gives) to the remaining enemies. This led me out to sea after a damaged Mossie who was making a high-speed escape just above the wave-tops. Diving to translate my height advantage into speed, I was soon able to catch him. He took no evasive action and after a series of short bursts, his right wing root burst into flames and he went straight into the drink at high speed, throwing up a terrific splash. By this time my ammunition - for my motor cannon, at least - was about gone so I checked my whereabouts on the map and set course to the north, back to the nearest airfield, with my faithful Katschmarek (as the Luftwaffe called their wingmen) still in tow. It was a short flight and I was soon back on terra firma. Well, that was it. I was credited with three kills and got a gong. Not bad for a transit flight and a good start to the campaign, even if it was not exactly what I was expecting! It's the sort of variety you don't get from EAW's more repetitive mission-generator Reich Defence campaigns and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if the Kriegsmarine, more conscious of the damaged shipping than a few lost enemy planes, might not have been as appreciative of our efforts as they could have been. I'm really looking forward to flying the next mission in FlatSpinMan's campaign, to see how that plays out.

As our two 'Hundert-neuns' chased off after the unknown enemy formation, I asked the ground controller for a target bearing. I don't know what target he had in mind, but I'm glad I was relying on calling up the map and its plane icons at intervals, because the bearing he gave me - 090 - was in pretty well in the opposite direction to my quarry. The enemy's height was my biggest concern. Looking up in their direction, there was nothing to be seen, but scanning down and to the right revealed two flights of three aircraft, flitting low over the island-dotted seascape and crossing left to right. I banked around after them and steered to intercept. It wasn't much longer before I could make them out to be RAF Mosquitos - FBVI fighter-bombers (and, or course, the inspiration for the '633 Squadron' reference in this mission report's title!). Bombed up, they were likely on an anti-shipping strike. The Norwegian coast, rather than the Finnish, would have been a rather more likely setting for such depredations but this was no time for reflections on the limitations of IL-2's maps. [edit - as per previous post, the map IS of Norway] The Mossies swung right, around the western fringes of the nearest island then tuned left, heading up a channel. I cut across the intervening headland and gained ground. As I closed I could see that matters were now urgent - the bomb-doors on the enemy aircraft were open. I was closing on the first flight, relying on my wingman to protect me, in the event the second flight of 'Wooden Wonders' decided to have a crack at me. Soon I was within range and let fly at the nearest Mosquito. The enemy rolled over and broke hard right and down. He was fast as lightning and led me a merry chase, but I managed to keep up with him and I got a good burst into him, at which point his port engine burst into flames and down he went. By this time, the other Mosquitos were getting stuck into some shipping moored in the channel. Clearly, there was no time to lose. If I could not prevent further attacks, I could at least make the remaining Englishmen pay for their temerity. I banked around and came out of my turn onto the tail of an enemy as he ran in for his attack. ...to be continued!

Subtle changes Stephen but the net result is a significant improvement! With the possible exception of a common 1916-17 French 2-seater, this has to be the plane that FE needed most, the RFC's mainstay as it looked between 1915 and 1917! Very well worth waiting for, whether you'll fly it, shoot it down...or both! I'm going to cry if I'm shot down on my first mission in this!

Great little mod there- thanks!!!

"Inspired by true events"...now, where did I last see that...I remember, it was Red Tails. Pass the sick bag, please. Looks like more of the same. "Memphis Belle" (original or 1990s version) did this better without the CGI. 'Twelve O'clock High' too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1GbiuG40Ak

Only other suggestions would be to (i) round out the curve of the fin slightly, in profile view, with one or two more vertices, in particular to reduce the effect/visibility of the 'point' ahead of the rudder post and the visible kink about half-way along the leading edge; and (ii) to reduce just slightly the width (again, in profile view) of the undercarriage V struts. Together with a finer nose and the 'clipping' of the aileron tips to produce a better wingtip profile, I think these changes would help the model capture even better the sort of 'angular elegance' that characterised the BE. Looking good! PS this pic is a good illustration of both the wingtip profile and the point at which the upsweep of the lower nose starts; as i suspected it's level with the front spar. The slenderness of the box section of the rear fuselege is also prominent. http://sceptre63.deviantart.com/art/royal-aircraft-factory-be2c-111354701

Hi Stephen! Have to agree with Quack that the nose - specifically, the front of the sump, under the engine - looks off - too deep, like a caricature of someone drawn with an exaggeratedly-long or wide chin. Not by comparison with the drawing above, but certainly by comparison with the drawings in Windsock data file 42, and such photos as show the nose. Same with the drawings and pics in Squadron Signal # 123. There's not much in it, but enough to make it look very apparent, to my eyes, and all the clearer now it's skinned. I think it's a matter of depth, not length - in the sideview screenie, the nose appears shorter because the perspective (or viewpoint) angles the wing leading edges forward, making the nose look shorter than it really is. I think the issue may be that in real life, the upward sweep of the lower edge of the nose started with the fuselage, at about the point of the lower wing's front spar, somewhere behind its leading edge. In the model, it looks like the upsweep starts at the point where the (grey) metal cowling starts, resulting in the nose being too deep, noticeable mostly at the very front. Have to say also that the wingtips are a little too rounded; the aileron trailing edge at the tip should have a pronounced straight section, from near the trailing edge to the aileron's leading edge. Sorry to be critical!

[shameless plug alert] IL-2 fliers, or indeed those with an interest in re-flying the classic daylight air battles over the 'Thousand Year Reich' - and who don't regularly check out the CombatAce home page or mission reports section, might find this interesting. http://combatace.com/topic/80489-campaign-report-defence-of-the-reich-il-2-style/?p=643603 Actually if anything, this is a plug for Boelcke's 'Defense of the Reich' campaign and Dark Blue World, not my report thereon!

Part 5 - down and out! At this point, my move to position myself for a second head-on attack was thwarted as the bombers made their turn for home, leaving me out of position. Instead, and encouraged by the good results and low losses of the others, I decided to take advantage of the reduced cohesion of the enemy formation and play a little game of 'Devil take the hindmost'. Specifically, I rolled into a beam attack on one of a trio of Fortresses that was lagging behind the others and was already under attack from another Messerschmitt. This, alas, is where I came unstuck. I was merrily blowing large holes in my target bomber, anticipating the moment when he would burst into flames and fall away, when my own aircraft was hit hard by return fire; possibly from the last B-17 in the group, which was trailing somewhat behind, rather than my own intended victim. My engine seized almost immediately and as my speed rapidly fell off, I found myself carried forward by my momentum, right past my former target's left wingtip, making a perfect mark of myself, before I had the sense to break hard away and down, as quickly as I could manage it. Somehow I escaped further damage and duly relieved, sailed quietly and ingloriously away from the battle. A hasty check of my map was made, and duly revealed an airfield apparently within gliding distance. However, I misjudged my rate of descent, had to make a 360 degree turn to lose excess height, and ended up too low on 'finals', compounded by the fact the airfield was on a sort of plateau, higher than the surrounding countryside. At least I made it onto terra firma in one piece, and my aeroplane looked like I might have made a great landing after all, by the classic definition ('It's a good landing if you can walk away from it; a great one, if you can re-use the plane.'). Provided the ground crew don't mind a bit of work to straighten out or replace a few bent bits and pieces, here and there. So, that was it. Personal score, two B-17s damaged (plus one Bf109, namely my own!). The mission debrief sadly recorded one of my men killed, but confirmed several Staffel victories, between the others. So how did it compare to the same sort of mission, flown in the classic European Air War? Well, it has to be said that IL-2 suffers in the comparison from its reliance on limited maps, whereas the likes of EAW and CFS3 provide whole theatres. This leads to some compromises. In this case, I was operating in defense of the Berlin area, which did not come under serious attack from the 8th AF until early 1944, several months after the period of this mission. The basic IL-2 written briefing I find inherently less satisfactory than the EAW verbal one, which, though rather 'canned' in content, is, to me, just so much more engaging. IL-2's confusing radio chatter from other flights is absent in EAW and the latter's ground control target directions are a lot more useful. As had been said before, IL-2 looks and feels optimised for lower-level ops, with a curving horizon, rather close in, when seen from higher altitudes; and I fancy my '109, renowned as superior to the Focke-Wulf above about 20,000 feet, felt rather slow and sluggish at height, even allowing for my external gun-pods. The B-17 formations seemed a little bit spread out and also seemed to get worse as things progressed, even allowing for losses. Perhaps that's a tad more realistic than text-book combat boxes being maintained at all times. The lack of flak in the target area was surprising, even on the bomb run; though I'm not sure if that was a problem or was a case of clever AI flak gunners holding fire, while friendly fighters were engaged. More positively, the IL-2 graphics are just incomparably better than in the older classic, and likewise the damage and flight models. The heavy bombers in EAW seem way too easy to knock down, and their defensive fire too weak. It can be thoroughly satisfying to make several passes in EAW, each time knocking a B-17 or a B-24 out of a combat box, and just taking the odd hit with quite a low risk of death or serious engine or airframe damage, even in attacks from dead astern. Had it been so easy, the Luftwaffe would not have needed to resort to dropping time-fused bombs on the bombers, nor using long-range rockets. Nor would they even have needed to resort to head-on attacks, leaving astern ones to heavily-armoured 'Sturmbock' Focke-Wulfs. So I rate rather highly the realism and immersion of the IL-2 experience of 'Defence of the Reich' operations, despite the compromise in the use of a Berlin map in this campaign. And I don't know if the EAW modders have fixed it, but while in IL-2 the bomber formation may have got a bit ragged, in EAW I recall that if the lead bomber was damaged and headed down, the whole formation would gradually lose altitude with it, which could lead to some very odd and unconvincing scenes. Best of all, IL-2 proved able to bring to the screen an impressively-large formation of 'heavies', and although the scale of forces engaged on both sides was below what EAW can render (especially with settings tweaked) the IL-2 experience was sufficiently large-scale to create the 'suspension of disbelief' that's necessary to create immersion and a sense of faithfulness to reality. So overall, while I have to say that EAW is still the unbeaten champion in several aspects of the presentation of its single-player campaigns, IL-2, in the shape of campaigns like Boelcke's 'Defense of the Reich' (of which the foregoing mission is but a small sample), can now provide a great way to re-fight those classic tussles between the Luftwaffe and 'The Mighty Eighth'. Many IL-2 regulars will already know as much, no doubt; for me it was a pleasant and welcome surprise, that I was able to re-create so well a classic Western Front operation, in a classic Eastern Front sim!

Part 4 - blow for blow! I gave the order to drop tanks and away they went. As the range to the enemy formation rapidly wound down, two things became apparent. First, my target was indeed a large formation of four-engined bombers - B-17s, to be precise, and unescorted. Second, I had screwed up my head-on pass: despite the briefed mission height of about ten thousand feet, I had climbed to what I knew to be more like the historical altitude at which the 8th AF flew bomber missions, in this case about twenty-one thousand. The bombers were much nearer this height than the paltry altitude in the mission briefing but I was a little high and worse, they were not closing head on, but slipping somewhat from left to right as we closed. By making a last-minute turn first right then back left, I was able to make a short head-on pass at one of the 'heavies' on the edge of the enemy gaggle, and although needing a deflection shot because I had to put the nose down to get my guns onto him, I was pleasantly surprised to see the flashes of some hits on the B-17 before he slipped rapidly past. Needless to say, in the rush I had no time for a screenshot, but you can just about make out my machine above and ahead of the tail of the nearest B-17 in the first pic below, as I flashed past the flank of the enemy formation, unscathed by return fire, as far as I could tell. As for my Staffel, they had been somewhat caught out by my late swerve, and had not engaged. So I decided to remedy this by coming up on the radio and commanding them to attack the bombers, on their own initiative. Even had I managed to get us into a neat extended line formation attack into the front of the Ami combat box, I'm not sure it would have helped: having made a few tests in quick missions, there seems no way to organise it so they make such an attack; unless the mere act of leading them head-on into an enemy formation is enough to get them to engage any targets coming into their arcs of fire. It seems giving them free rein to attack, is about all one can do. Knowing how dangerous AI bomber gunners can be, and unsure what the result would be of reducing their effectiveness (by setting Bomberskill=0 in the IL-2 conf.ini file, as campaign maker Boelcke recommended) I awaited the results of my Staffel's attacks with considerable trepidation. I pulled up and around, flying past the Fortresses just out of range, intending to come in for another head-on pass, on my own if need be. As I overhauled the Boeings, watching the action unfold and listening to the excited cries of the others on the radio as they got stuck in, I was gratified to see that they seemed to be doing rather well. Defensive fire flew in all directions from the big bombers, but they began to take casualties. Smoke streamed from some, while others fell out of formation, on fire or minus important parts of their airframe, as German cannon-fire took its toll. Inevitably, the casualty list was not entirely one-sided. Before long, my number three was going down with a dead motor and - though still apparently under control - from the blood-spattered canopy, a badly-injured pilot. The rest of the Staffel were undeterred. They pressed home their attacks to good effect and with considerable determination, using a combination of level and diving attacks, even as the Fortresses made their bomb runs. They were not alone. The boys from JG300 had also joined the fray and were making their presence felt amongst the increasingly ragged enemy formation, whose ranks seemed to be thinning out appreciably. ...to be continued!

Part 3 - battle is joined! At this point a small confession is necessary. I'm an IL-2 newb. Yes I started with the original IL-2 not long after release and worked my way, over the years since, through Forgotten Battles, the Ace Expansion Pack, Battle over Europe and Pacific Fighters, all the way to IL-2 '46. But for various reasons, I've only ever played in intermittent bursts, too short individually to get to grips with all the little foibles and distinctive features that any sim has. It's only since downloading Dark Blue World that I've got back into IL-2, and have begun to appreciate the many recent improvements, like the end of the original awful droning external engine sound and the fact that aircraft markings - the 'decals' - now look less prominent and less like badly-applied and over-thick waterslide transfers on a model kit. Plus the European Theatre of Ops (a.k.a. Western Front) is now much better catered for. For example, the Beaufighter is now a kosher representation of the RAF model rather than a repaint of the Aussie-built version. I like to fly pre- and post-combat in the external view; it looks good and helps compensate for the limitations of 'flying' and 'fighting' in glorious, peripheral-vision-free MonitorVision. So since DBW, I appreciate more than ever not only the fine IL-2 environmental effects, but also the great aircraft models. Though lower-polygon that those of some recent sims and lacking modern refinements like self-shadowing, the planes in IL-2 I still find rather marvellous to behold. Take my mount on this mission, the Bf109G5. She may look more like a G6, with the little airscoop in the triangular fillet under each windshield side panel (which the pressurised-cockpit G5 lacked). And a tropical G6 at that, having the extra small cowling bulge and airscoops below the main starboard MG cowling bulge. But I still think she looks better than ever in DBW, and is brought to life by the rotating spinner which animates the 'burbelschnauze' corkscrew marking. Plus the pilot figure looks from side to side at times, and his oxygen mask appears at altitude. Compare this with the Gustav from Combat Flight Simulator 3, below. Apart from the rather distorted view produced by CFS3's unfortunate wide-angle lens effect, it's not a bad looker, here seen in its reskinned guise from the ETO expansion mod: However, comparing with the IL-2 version, though the latter has somewhat fewer polygons, the CFS3 prop spinner isn't animated (neither are the radiator flaps), the pilot has no animations and looks like he forgot his parachute (as he is wildly low in his seat) and the prop diameter looks much too big. And the IL-2 cockpit is much better, from the inside. IL-2 afficionados will already know all of this but I think it's worth repeating, especially for anyone who hasn't tried the sim in its most recent incarnations (and with DBW, in particular). Anyway, meanwhile, back at the war... ...one of the issues with IL-2 is the radio chatter. Yes it is there, and it's much better done than in, say, CFS3. Unlike the latter, you can actually use the radio to do all kinds of useful and interesting things, like issue a much wider range of commands to your wingmen, and interact with ground controllers, such a prominent feature of WW2 fighter ops (especially defensive or tactical fighter ops). For a WW2 sim, the inability to interact with a ground controller was a really glaring omission from the CFS series (CFS3 in particular) and in this respect, IL-2 is up there with EAW, which did all of this and did it well. The downside in IL-2 is that you are on the same radio net as other flights or squadrons. This is not necessarily un-realistic, of course, but the problem is that nobody uses callsigns. So unless you mute your radio, you will hear the radio traffic of other flghts, announcing things like course changes or sightings. This can be distracting, misleading even; especially if you have decided to call Ground Control for (say) a vector to your target at the same time, or are in the landing pattern and can't tell if the instructions or warnings from Control are for your mob or the other lot. I daresay more frequent IL-2 players learn to distinguish radio calls better than I do. But while good old EAW's ground controller will give you the bearing, altitude and heading of targets, the lazy sod in IL-2 will just give you their bearing. Partly to compensate for this, and perhaps because I'm a lazy sod myself, I tend to fly with the on-screen text displays and icons turned off - but with MAP icons and flight-path turned on. I consider this some compensation for the limitations of ground control and the difficulties of orientation and navigation in MonitorVision. So you can see in the screenie below that, from turning on the map screen instead of calling the Fat Controller on the radio, I have twigged the fact that things are about to get interesting. As my plane (white plane symbol) leads my Staffel (following cluster of blue plane icons) around the holding pattern - accompanied by some other friendlies (small stack of blue plane icons orbiting in the opposite direction), I can see that the Amis (red plane icons) are inbound in strength, my direction. I mentioned there there was another friendly flight in the area. This consisted of some Focke-Wulf 190s; A6's by the look of it, as they had the long-barrelled MG151's outboard instead of the short-barrelled MG FF's, and no cowl bulges for the MG131s that came with the A7's and later. They carried the Wilde Sau badge of JG300, a relic of the time when these 'all weather interceptors' were primarily single-seat night fighters, introduced after the use of 'Window' radar jamming on RAF Bomber Command's Hamburg raid forced the Luftwaffe to modify their previous tactics of tightly radar-controlled fighters operating in 'boxes' on the 'Kammhuber Line' system. Anyway, I now knew the Amis were coming, and I turned gently left to bring the Staffel onto a reciprocal heading, for a classic head-on attack, where fewer guns and a much faster closing speed reduced to manageable proportions the risks of tackling the expected 'heavies' . As I stared in the direction from which I knew the enemy to be coming - from past experience expecting to see a typically small IL-2 bomber flight or two, rather than the masses that you get in EAW - I could literally feel the hairs on the back of my neck tingle as I noticed the big cluster of specks hanging in the distant sky. There, hung row upon row of what could only have been four-engined bombers, boring relentlessly straight at me. ...to be continued!