CFS3 ETO: Spanish Civil War

[33LIMA]

La Guerra Civil Espanola in the CFS3 ETO Expansion!

The Spanish Civil War, fought between 1936 and 1939, foreshadowed the monumental clash that was to follow between fascism and communism, with the Italians and Germans backing the Spanish nationalists and the Soviets backing the republican side. For all that, this was a distinctly Spanish affair, the product of a deeply-divided society. Matters came to a head in 1936 when the Left, having secured a narrow electoral victory, nevertheless pressed on with a radical programme. Divisions deepened and political violence spiralled. The Right responded with an attempted coup, led by elements of the army, which failed in places like Madrid the capital, culminating there in siege and massacre at the Montana barracks. These events set the tone for the long, bloody and vicious civil war which ensued, won in the end by the nationalists under Franco.

 

Air power played a key role from the start. Fanco's leadership was established after the revolt's original leader, General Sanjurjo, was killed when the DH Dragon Rapide carrying him back to Spain crashed, supposedly from overloading with all the personal luggage the 'Jefe' insisted on bringing. Later, Hitler commented that Franco should set up a victory monument to the Junkers 52 transport, the type having flown in from Spanish North Africa colonial troops who helped secure, then advance, the nationalist cause in mainland Spain.

 

In the actual fighting, the German Condor Legion despatched to Franco's aid played an equally important part and tested out many tactics and weapons that would be used to good effect in WW2, including the Ju87 Stuka, the Bf109 fighter and the 88mm flak gun. The devastating Condor Legion air raid on the Basque town of Guernica became infamous, and was one of many air raids on urban areas in which civilians suffered badly. The Italian Regia Aeronautica also contributed 'volunteer' personnel and aircraft, while the Soviets supplied the republican side with some of their own latest military hardware, including I-15 and I-16 fighters and SB-2 fast bombers. Thus was the scene set for some of the fiercest air operations in Europe since the World War.

 

If you want to 'fly' in the SCW, there are several options, including the venerable Luftwaffe Commander (which actually runs on my Vista 64 machine) and the Strike Fighters SCW add-on, available at the A Team Skunkworks, under 'All inclusive installs', which looks great and I'm looking forward to trying out:

 

http://cplengineeringllc.com/SFP1/[link]

 

This mission report features a different option - the CFS3 ETO Expansion. Amongst the Expansion's many and varied additional aircraft is a decent selection suitable for this conflict, all in appropriate markings. From a quick look, this comprises:

 

Nationalist:

Messerschmitt Bf109E

Henschel Hs123:

Fiat CR-32 'Chirri'

Breda 25:

Savoia Marchetti SM 79:

Cant 501 floatplane

Junkers 52 bomber:

Fiat G50

 

Republican:

llyushin IL-15 'Chaika':

Ilyushin I-16 'Mosca':

Grumman G23:

 

...plus some aircraft captured and repainted eg the CR-32 and the Il-16. the main gap seems to be a bomber for the Republican side; the Soviet Tupolev SB-2 fast bomber would have been ideal.

 

Although the Expansion doesn't feature a CFS3-style dynamic campaign for the Spanish Civil War, there is a good set of single missions which enable you to fly in - and against - the appropriate aircraft in Spanish skies, for both sides. And stock CFS3 covers much of northern Spain, no messing about here with mere map segments.

 

The mission

 

Before firing up the ETO Expansion, I used the supplied 'spawn selector' to set 'stock spawn mode' and then the 'era selector' to start the ETO expansion in '1936 to spring 1940'. To be honest, I've not yet worked out exactly what difference this era selection makes, as planes from different eras seem to be available no matter which is selected; I suspect it's a way of getting around a CFS3 limit I've forgotten on the number of installed planes, which in CFS2 was 90, if I recall right.

 

No matter; thus prepared, I opened the list of Historical Missions and selected the first one labelled 'SCW' - titled 'Air conflict over Llanos airfield'. This assigned me the role of a fighter pilot in the Nationalist Air Force, flying an Italian Fiat CR-32 biplane fighter and leading a formation of six.

 

The mission was an air start, flying on the northern front. This was one of the country's few industrialised regions, where the Spanish coastline meets the Bay of Biscay. It was October 1937, over a year into the war. Our task was described as a Combat Air Patrol  - a piece of (originally USN WW2?) jargon I dislike to see used out-of-context - what other sort of patrol are combat aircraft going to fly? Anyhow, the briefing helpfully described our patrol as part of a 'Nationalist Air force attack on Llanos airfield', which is on the coast between the towns of Oviedo and Santander. Looking at the mission 'Assignments' tab, I could see that we were not on our own. Our order of battle for this mission comprised:

 

- six SM81 'Pipistrello' bombers (a type I missed when looking up the available planes, so not listed above - it's a 3-motor bomber like the SM79 but with fixed undercart);

- six Breda Ba 25 biplane army co-operation planes (what their role was, I have no idea, but I'm relieved not to have been flying one on this trip!);

- another flight of six CR-32 biplane fighters, like my own flight.

 

The default loadout gave us a pair of small bombs. These, I kept: I reckoned that we could always ditch the bombs if we encountered aerial opposition. And if we didn't, we should hopefully do some useful damage with them, down below.

 

Here's the briefing. As well as our flight (yellow aircraft icon), you can see other icons representing what I take to be other flights. Friendlies are blue; enemies red. I'm not sure why there appears to be an enemy airfield well out to sea (red crossed runways icon, there's one just off the top edge of the map in this screenie); maybe it's on a small island. Anyway at least I was now able to orient myself.

 

 

And here's my mount. The CR-32 was apparently one of the best of the pre-WW2 biplane fighters, lightly-armed but highly manoeuvrable; a good match for most enemy machines iin spanish skies and seemingly superior to the mediocre Heinkel He-51s which formed the fighter component of the Condor Legion until the early Messerschmitt 109s were rushed into action to replace it. The Fiat is a neat bird, sleeker than the later tubby radial-engined CR-42 and she looks the part in her ETO Expansion incarnation, complete with Nationalist Spanish camouflage and markings. I'm not clear whether my unit or my machine's 'skin' represented one of the Italian 'volunteer' formations or an indigenous unit flying the sleek Italian fighter, but no matter, she looks like a typically racy Italian job.

 

 

And here's the 'office'. In flight, you'll notice the benefits of the extra power if you've been used to the biplanes of Over Flanders Fields; one being that your wingmen keep formation better, recovering more quickly during course changes, instead of drifting well wide and being left behind. Even if they still look rather far away, thanks to the CFS3 'wide angle lens' look, which tends to distort things, especially in the external, 'spot' view.

 

 

Below us were the hills of northern Spain. Having flown over this area often enough on holiday trips, the topography looks to be captured fairly well, although the textures are to my eye a little green and lush for the region and the field patterns and hedgerows look more northern European.

 

 

Turning on aircraft labels. I was a little bemused to find we were all apparently Germans. Strange, as I don't think the Condor Legion flew Italian fighters in Spain, unhappy though they may have been with their Heinkels. Perhaps we were on an unofficial exchange programme...yes, that must have been it.

 

 

I turned on the CFS3 Tactical Display and cycled through target types. It picked up a flight of aircraft some distance to our left. Part of our attacking force...at least I hoped so. I kept a better watch in that direction, just in case, even though such use of the 'TAC' was a bit naughty - lacking radios, we should not have been able to get any help from a ground controller in locating stuff we couldn't see for ourselves.

 

 

I considered for a while orbiting to let the other friendly flights catch us up, but we seemed to have been awarded the dubious honour of going in first so I kept on my way. As for the actual flying, I had trimmed elevator to keep my kite's nose from dipping at a fast cruising speed but the torque kept pulling down my left wing, which I contented myself with correcting without resort to aileron trim.  And what were we flying into? 'Light air opposition' the briefing said. Were the Republican pilots going to come out to play, or were they not, I wondered? So far, the six of us seemed to be on our own in this particular patch of sky, and at least until we'd dumped those bombs - preferably upon something deserving of them - I was quite content for it to remain so.

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

Target ahead!

 

As we neared the coast, with the Tactical Dispay/TAC turned on, I noticed that the blue line on the display which showed the direction of the next waypoint - which will point up, towards the twelve o'clock position when you're on course - had swung around. So I altered course to follow it. Perhaps we were supposed to orbit and await the other flights in our raid on Llanes airfield? The in-flight map wasn't much help; not just because it was the usual horrible CFS3 low-resolution muddle, but all the waypoints and course legs drawn on it for all our flights produced an indecipherable cat's cradle.

 

 

I did a '360' and rolled back out onto my course to the north, as I dod so switching the TAC to display airbases. Time to get a fix on the one which was our target! My course changes seemed to had the desired result, inasmuch as the blue course marker line now lined up with my course north.

 

 

Finally, we crested the last row of hills before the sea. The course marker line flicked around to the two o'clock position. Roughly in that direction lay an airfield. As I turned tentatively towards it, flak started bursting around me. You'll do, I thought to myself. There was no sign of other aircraft, so I judged that the time had come to do something useful with our little bombs, while we had a target in sight and the opportunity to hand.

 

 

I selected the airfield as a target, noting the little trianglular target icon in in the TAC turn from red to yellow. Then I hit the 'A' key, to initiate the attack. Looking back, as expected, I saw two of my flight of six peel off to the right. I also head them acknowledge the command on our non-existent radios...I don't think CR-32s usually carried RT sets. Anyway the point was, we were in business.

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

The ups and downs of the airfield attack business

 

I'm a bit rusty with my CFS3 flight-leading drills, outside of Over Flanders Fields where I made minimal use of the TAC as it's even more out of place in WW1. But it all began to come back to me. Bits of it anyway. I had ordered in my first pair to attack the airfield, which I hoped was Llanes. I now carried on with my usual drill for a CFS3 ground attack, which is to fly past the target, ordering in a pair with a gap in between, so that the target is hit by a succession of pairs coming in from different directions; hopefully also not too far apart in time, as I'm gradually getting closer. Last of all, I turn in for my own attack with my wingman. I'm glad to say, this mostly went to plan, if not entirely well.

 

 

As I swung out over the sea then around for my own attack, I heard my flight-mates give the usual canned CFS3 radio chatter, confirming 'Target spotted' and that they were generally on the job. And I had the satisfaction of seeing one of them plonk his bombs pretty well right in the middle of the runway.

 

 

At this point, I realised what I'd done wrong. I'd picked the airfield itself as the target. What I should have done was selected its buildings or its parked aircraft (assuming the latter also showed up on the TAC) which are a separate CFS3 target type you have to cycle through to select. So I did this now and, hitting the 'A' key several times, ordered an attack on the hangars instead. I hoped this wasn't going to be a case of 'order - counter-order - disorder'.

 

Then I turned off the b***dy TAC and concentrated on making my own attack.

 

 

This didn't go too badly. I lined myself up on the row of hangars and armed (selected) my bombs, firing a few MG rounds as I came in, just for the hell of it. Finally, I let fly with the bombs at what seemed like about the right point in time and space. The results were about as satisfactory as I was entitled to expect, from a couple of small bombs. Not bad at all, really.

 

 

I pulled around and dived in for another pass, this time with my MGs. I was aiming at the parked aircraft outside the front of the hangar I had attacked but with the smoke from the burning hangar and the bursting AA, I failed to get a decent sight picture and did no visible damage. Mierda!

 

 

Nothing for it but one more pass! I should have known better...

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

Mission goal? What mission goal?

 

Having missed them on the first attempt, I was determined to nail one of those parked fighters on my next pass. I could see they had Republican markings, even though they were Fiat CR-32s like my own...some arms dealer somewhere was likely making muchas pesetas from selling the enemy the same planes we had. All the more reason to burn a few of them while we'd caught them on the ground. That'll teach 'em.

 

This pass, I didn't do much better. Still no burning wrecks on the ground. Fleeting targets like these really needed a bit more firepower than a couple of heavy MGs, I thought to myself...couldn't possibly be anything wrong with my shooting. One more pass ought to do it.

 

 

As I banked around to come in for one last, final, absolutely-and-positively-no-more-after-this pass, I had the satisfaction of seeing one of my flight make a firing pass of his own. I could see the muzzle flashes of his MGs as he dived in; it was nice to watch. I couldn't see what he was firing at. I hoped he was not still attacking just the airfield itself, 12.7mm bullet hits being only likely to give the runway repair hombres something to laugh at. Anyway his heart was in the right place, bless him.

 

 

This time I decided to come in from the front of the hangars, to give myself a clearer shot at the planes parked outside their doors. As I did so I noticed several aircraft flitting about well above me. I watched them anxiously for a moment, but they seemed to have no plans to come down and interrupt us. Possibly this was part of the rest of our raid, arriving in the area at last. I continued with my own atack.

 

 

This time I had more luck. One of the enemy Fiats blew up under my fire, its wings being flung up over the hangar roof in suitably emphatic fashion. That's more like it! I needed to pull up sharply to avoid making an unorthodox entry into the hangar itself. I had the feeling that this rather violent change of attitude should perhaps have pulled my wings off but my stoutly-braced Fiat stayed in one piece. The boys back in Turin know how to build 'em strong, evidently.

 

 

Relieved more than elated, I levelled off somewhat and looked back. One hangar and contents thoroughly bombed, one aircraft burned on the ground. That would do nicely. In the second screenie below, you can see that there were warships off the coast. Something to mention during the debriefing back at base, for a possible future anti-shipping strike, I thought.

 

 

At this point, I returned my gaze to the front and became aware of two things, neither of them good, and together, very bad indeed.

 

Firstly, I was flying straight towards sharply rising ground. Secondly, my motor seemed to be struggling to maintain revs, having doubtless ingested some shell fragments from all that AA fire. I turned right, resisting the temptation to pull up hard as I did so, knowing that any attempt at a steeply climbing turn with a struggling engine could see me stalling in a situation where recovery was unlikely and disaster a near certainty.

 

 

The immediate risks averted, I flew parallel with the line of the ridge for a while. The flak continued to throw rounds in my general direction but fortunately, my turn had been away from the airbase, where the guns were sited. I contemplated trying to make a break left, across the ridge at any point there was a gap in the crests. But my engine was steadily fading. She soon died and my propeller spun to a stop. Clearly, a forced landing was now inevitable.

 

 

Looking ahead, I was glad to see a stretch of unobstructed open pasture between stands of trees. I steered for this and set down my wounded bird. She ground-looped at the end but stayed upright. Time to grab my escape kit and slip away quickly! They say that ground troops are always keen to meet the pilots who have just been strafing them, but I was not feeling particularly sociable.

 

 

So concluded the mission.

 

Unsuprisingly, the debrief didn't regard my performance as particularly successful. I was credited with an aircraft 'shot down' (!) and two bomb hits - but no buildings destroyed, despite one of these clearly being what the bombs had hit. In fact I was faced with a list of failed goals, none of which had been presented to me in the mission briefing - visit all waypoints (who cares if I missed one!) survive, and return to final destination and destroy an Hs123 formation. This is one thing that's badly wrong with CFS3. No real-life mission briefing would fail to be specific about the mission's objectives. And of course, no real life mission is likely to be planned in the certain knowledge that there's a formation of Henschels in the target area or therefore to insist the mission's a failure if it's not destroyed.

 

Many sims dress up their briefings - 'orders' as the Army more accurately calls them - with a bit of padding about the situation or mood-setting musings or amusing observations; but yet fail to convey basics in a realistically military style.  CFS3's briefings, with their hidden and often unrealistic 'mission goals', are at the wrong end of this particular scale. In the absence of a decent mission brief, I'd interpreted my task as a fighter sweep over a raid objective with the secondary mission of slipping down to ground level and attacking either the raid's target or other targets of opportunity in the absence of aerial opposition. I can live with getting clobbered doing this because I made too many passes over an alert and well-defended objective. But I'm not cool with the debrief.

 

Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable mission in what for me is a novel theatre, an opportunity to relive some of the history that my happy holidays in sunny Spain have prompted me to study a little. Despite the CFS3 legacy limitations of the briefing and debriefing, the mission itself was well-constructed and gave me several tactical options - for example, how to interpret my task, whether or not to try to link up with the other flights in the raid, which targets to go for and when. Satisfying stuff. I also really like the ETO Expansion's CR-32, which looks great, has lots of little detail touches and has excellent engine and MG sounds. I'm looking forward to playing further ETO Expansion SCW missions for both sides and flying more of these pre-WW2 birds in combat. Definitely recommended.

[thedogfighter]

Another good example fo ETO versatility. I just regreat that no Spanish Civil War campaign is in fact availiable. Tell me in this mission the radio chatter voices were in spanish? For some reason my installation keeps onlu the english ( american and british ) and german althought NEK voices pack is fully installed.

Grettings.

[33LIMA]

Thank you! TBH I don't recall the voices, but if the labels visible in one of the screenshots is anything to go by, they will have been in German!

 

I didn't think the NEK added localised voices, just the slots that the aircraft are grouped into, and related stuff like pilot uniforms, ranks and bases. Maybe I need to try out the NEK voicepack, if it's not included in the base ETO Exp install.

 

Perhaps if there are only three sets of voices available at any one time, there is a step you have to take to enable anything but British or US English, or German.

 

Anyhow, the SCW planes look a lot better with Ankor's mod...