Battle of Britain mini AAR….at one point 19 planes were in the air.
Wow what a battle we had over London on 7 Aug at the Battle Barn in W'burg VA.. John brought his hand made fight map and designed a exciting scenario.
We used the Warbirds in Miniature rules.
Instead of multiple scenarios John designed a mini "one day in Aug 1940" aerial campaign.
There were 6 RAF pilots (3Hurricane, 2 Spitfire) vs 8 Luftwaffe (1 Stuka, 1 Do-17, 1 HE-111, 3 ME 109, 2 ME-110)
Fighter pilots each ran two planes while Bombers pilots ran 3-4 planes.
The RAF had an overall WING Commander who had to send up Hurricanes and Spitfires according to availability, fuel, operating air fields and advance warning radar.
The Luftwaffe flew with limited fuel (Fighters only) and Germans a battle plan based on bombing operations for one full day.
The battle started with 3 Hurricanes taking off on turn one to attack two ME-109s. One of the ME scored the first kill on turn 2 when a RAF pilot took a bullet!(Pilot kill) On turn 4 the first flight of Bombers (DO-17s) arrived over the coast and targeted an Airfield just out-side of London. The Bombers were escorted by 4ea ME-109s two of them flown by a green pilot)
Hurricanes and Spits made many attacks on the bombers but the Germans fighters did their job and ran the RAF off in most cases. One Spit did shoot down a green Luftwaffe pilot.
On turn 10 the DO-17 had destroyed the RAF Beaconhill airfield and headed home but the escorts had run low on fuel headed home earlier leaving the bombers unprotected. The RAF jumped on these and despite withering MMG fire by the German crews (forced two RAF planes to abort) lost two planes on the return. One Bomber had it is wings shot off and crashed in England. The 2nd bomber with a wounded pilot crash landed in France killing all but two of the crew.
On turn 10 the second Luftwaffe wave attacked…this time 4ea Stuka's escorted by MW-110 attacked and destroyed two radar stations. This affected the RAF early warning system.
Turn 12 the Italians entered the battle with three SM 79 bombers. These snuck in under the battle above between fighters and destroyed RAF East Church and later discovered two hurricanes on the ground about to take off! The Italians quickly raced for home. One of the bombers was credited with a 1/2 kill along with a rookie ME 109 pilot downing a Spitfire near Dover.
On Turn 14 4ea HE-111 were sited over the coast and were heading to towards RAF Westchurch. One of the HE-111 was badly damaged III but all four made it and dropped bombs and all four missed their targets. One the return trip 2 of the HE-111 were shot down and a third was set afire. Tow made it back to France. The burning plane landed safely the un-hurt plane crashed landed just short of the airfield.
The Stuka's sunk in around turn 20 and took out two more radars sites. One Stuka was hit hard by a spit but that Gren piloted ME-109 (now with 1.5 kills) drove the Spit off!
In the sky's over London Fighters took their toll. One of the ME-110's was hit by 90mm AA fire and lost its' landing gear and took a bomb hit…lucky no bombs on the plane as it would have exploded!
In the end I believe the Luftwaffe lost 4 out of the 10 bombers that attacked but destroyed 2 out 3 targeted RAF airfields and 4 Radar stations. Germans lost 3fighters.
The RAF lost 7 fighters (not exactly sure of exact count as I was playing Luftwaffe)
According to John the GM it was a Luftwaffe victory for the day due to ground damage…
You can view photos on the Battle Barn Yahoo site…
link
What a great aerial battle. We look forward to more in the future!
Ron
