Battle of Britain

[Oberon]

Part One: Convoys.

10th July 1940

Luftwaffe target: Convoy 'Bread'

During the day the main effort was concentrated in two attacks on shipping. At approximately 1100 hours a convoy was attacked off Manston by 1 Dornier escorted by 10 Me109s but in consequence of timely action by two of our fighter squadrons, the enemy aircraft were driven off. They suffered losses of 1 Me109 confirmed and 4 Me109s probable. At 1325 hours a large force of about 120 enemy aircraft collected behind Calais and approached a convoy between Dover and Dungeness. Fighter interception by 5 squadrons resulted in 6 Me110s, 1 Me109, 1 Do17 and 1 Do215 being confirmed as having been shot down, and 2 Me110s, 5 Me109s and 4 Do215s as probable casualties.

Further enemy harassing raids took place along the West, South and East coasts. This was especially heavy in the West. Towards the evening, owing probably to bad weather, activity decreased. 1 Ju88 was shot down by AA fire. In the east, casual shipping was attacked and a few localities bombed including Raynham Aerodrome. During the course of these attacks 1 Do17 and 1 He111 were shot down and 1 Do17 and 1 He111 are probable casualties. No. 242 Squadron took part and accounted for one certain and one unconfirmed (included in the above). A few sporadic raids took place over the Scottish coast, none of these were intercepted.

Between 2130 and 0530 hours, 12 raids were plotted between Firth of Tay and Beachy Head. Owing to adverse weather, none of our fighters were up. Bombs were dropped on Guisborough, Canewdon, Hertford, Isle of Grain, Tobermory (Isle of Mull, West Coast of Scotland), Colchester, Welwyn and Ely.

Quotations:

".......for this victory, we must thank the radar in which placed us in readiness and allowed us to send our fighter squadrons out to meet them. I think that the way that these brave pilots stopped the convoy being attacked shows the maturity attained since France"
ACM Sir Hugh Dowding remarking on this encounter June 10th 1940

"It is difficult to describe my feelings during the next few days. We had just lost three pilots in thirty-six hours, all of them in fights in which we had been hopelessly out- numbered, and I felt that there was now nothing left to care about, because obviously from the law of probability, one could not expect to survive many more encounters of a similar nature....."
Pilot Officer D.M Crook 609 Squadron RAF

"The convoy had been sighted between Dover and Dungeness. Our briefing took only a few minutes and within half an hour of being airborne we had sighted the coast of Kent. The Channel was bathed in brilliant sunshine...A light haze hung over the English coast, and there far below us, was the convoy, like so many toy ships with wispy white wakes fanning out behind. As soon as we were observed, the ships of the convoy dispersed, the merchantmen maneuvering violently and the escorting warships moving out at full speed. Anti-aircraft shell peppered the sky. Our fighters now appeared. We made our first bomb run, and fountains leapt up around the ships....By now the fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force had joined in, and the sky was a twisting, turning melee of fighters....My wing was in the air for three hours in all. We reported one heavy cruiser and four merchant ships sunk, one merchant ship damaged, and eleven British fighters shot down or damaged. We had lost two bombers, two twin engined fighters and three single engined fighters during the course of this engagement."
Werner Kreipe III KG 2 Luftwaffe.

"Day long sallies by waves of German bombers against coastal objectives in England, Wales,and Scotland reached a grand climax yesterday in the greatest and fiercest battle in ten and a half months of war when seventy-five Nazi bombers, escorted by forty-five or more fighters roared across the English Channel in two formations and showered bombs on a strongly defended convoy bringing vital food and other supplies to these besieged islands."
Writing for "The New York Times", Frank Kelley

CASUALTIES:

• Enemy: Fighters - 8 confirmed, 11 unconfirmed; Bombers - 4 confirmed, 6 unconfirmed.
• Own: 2 Hurricanes confirmed. 2 Hurricanes crashed on landing.

[Task Force]

Nice report OBI.

[HunterICX]

Niiice, so you'll be giving us the historical reports after each mission we play?

HunterICX

[Oberon]

Red two - 32 Squadron - Biggin Hill.

Partook in lunchtime engagement near Convoy Bread, between Dover and Dungeness. Followed flight leader over to French coast and was shot down and captured with heavy burns by German forces. Spent rest of war in hospital.


Picture from Red Two as Red One engages 110s

Shot down over France by rear gunner fire from Me110.

Claimed one probable Me110.

Pilots Notes:
Next time Red Leader crosses the French coastline, shoot him with Webley revolver.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

Niiice, so you'll be giving us the historical reports after each mission we play?

HunterICX

If I've got them, I'll use them...and since I have records for every day, we should be good.

http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0021.html

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/july10.html

http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/document-22.html

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Pilots Notes:
Next time Red Leader crosses the French coastline, shoot him with Webley revolver.

Hold on , I understood that revolver was ment for you.
Right, I suddently picture seeying throught my mirror the canopy sliding open and a hand comes out holding that Webley revolver aiming at his 12 O'clock.

Right....I'll scrap any future attempts of visiting France!

HunterICX

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

Hold on , I understood that revolver was ment for you.
Right, I suddently picture seeying throught my mirror the canopy sliding open and a hand comes out holding that Webley revolver aiming at his 12 O'clock.

Right....I'll scrap any future attempts of visiting France!

HunterICX

Good idea, sir!

Truth be told, it did happen but not that often. It was frowned upon by Fighter Command to let valuable pilots gallivant off to France and generally the only time that British fighters found themselves there during the Battle of Britain was if they had been focusing so hard on following a target that they hadn't realised that they had followed it home. They usually realised about the time that flak started bursting around them, which meant it was time to go home.

[Oberon]

Just been trying to find out a bit more about that crashed Spitfire at Kemsing, the only reference I can find is one that made a safe crashed landing in 1941 with the only casualty being a civilian firefighter who had run all the way to the crash scene and then collapsed and died (presumably heart attack) when he got there.

Funny little note about Kemsing:

The American aviator, John Moisant, the first pilot to fly from Paris to London, and the first to cross the channel with a passenger, crashed at Kemsing in 1910. Perhaps this is not such a great distinction as Moisant crashed with great regularity across all of North Kent.

Heh...looking back at it, I was born within ten miles of Biggin Hill. I honestly didn't realise that it was that close. Always thought of it more west than it actually is.

[SgtPotato]

I don't know why did my engine suddenly stop for no reasons? Also, Task can see me smoking a trail, which I don't. WTF?

[Task Force]

Originally Posted by SgtPotato

I don't know why did my engine suddenly stop for no reasons? Also, Task can see me smoking a trail, which I don't. WTF?

Magic... thats my final awnser. lol

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by SgtPotato

I don't know why did my engine suddenly stop for no reasons? Also, Task can see me smoking a trail, which I don't. WTF?

You're flying the Spitfire Mk.I
if you pull negative G's (pushing the nose down) your engine will choke and if you don't be carefull it will shut off.

HunterICX

[Oberon]

The use of carburettors was calculated to give a higher specific power output, due to the lower temperature, hence greater density, of the fuel/air mixture compared to injected systems.However, the Merlin's lack of direct fuel injection meant that both Spitfires and Hurricanes were unable to pitch nose down into a steep dive. The contemporary Bf 109E, which had direct fuel injection, could "bunt" into a high-power dive to escape attack, leaving the pursuing aircraft behind because its fuel had been forced out of the carburettor's float chamber by the effects of negative g-force (g). RAF fighter pilots soon learned to "half-roll" their aircraft before diving to pursue their opponents.

If you need to dive, use a Split-S:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_S

Or (although not particularly realistic) cut power before you dive and then stick it back on once in the dive. Not exactly realistic but that's Olegs world for you.

[Oberon]

Err...Hunter, you might want to crack open the FMB on the 11th July mission. For some reason best known to themselves, the Hurricanes from Tangmere spawn in a giant clump in the middle of a field and promptly explode.



The Spits at Middle Wallop are fine.

[HunterICX]

Rgr, will check & fix it

HunterICX

[Raptor1]

Let 'em have it, serves them right for beaming all their planes to the same spot...