The more you know...
Thanks, guys!




Hit 'em HeinKill, hit 'em hard!

OK, here we go!

The afternoon of Eagle Day, and we have been ordered to keep up the attacks on the RDF stations.

Immediately, we run into a problem.

The Einsatzhafenkommandanturen have reported that all operational fighters were in action this morning, and are not available for operations this afternoon!

(The brackets () around a unit indicate it is refueling and rearming.)



Someone will be shot for this!!

A quick radio check discovers that our 110 gruppen are similarly hard used and not available.



We have two Stuka gruppen available, from StG 77, but they are useless without escort.



There are ample bombers, but dare we send them against Britain without escort?



Are we mice or men?!!! The Tommy RDF is damaged, they are filling in holes on their forward airfields. Now is the time to strike, no?
Yes!

(But carefully...)

Figuring there is safety in numbers, we send two gruppen of our faster Ju88s in for a strike on Hawkinge, which intel tells us is home to two RAF squadrons.

We are met off the Channel, but the box formation gives us good defensive coverage, and the RAF does not have it all it's own way.



Soon Hawkinge looms under our noses.



And we lay a carpet of bombs across its vulnerable hangars



Dare we use the Stukas? General der Flieger Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen comes from a long line of courageous airmen...he volunteers his Ju87s for a daring low level raid on Foreness, to try to knock out the RDF there once and for all, and clear the way for a heavy strike on Manston. The raid is plotted - 2 gruppen Ju87s doglegging in from the east, at 2,000 feet. And



Ten miles out, and still no RAF...



And they get away clean! Foreness is destroyed! The way in to Manston is clear. But why just Manston? A quick plan is drafted.

- 2 gruppen Do17s to hit Dover CH at 1830 and egress SW. This should leave the RAF blind over SE Kent and if the Do17s are intercepted they will drag the RAF away.
- 2 gruppen He111s to hit Manston at 1850 while the RAF is occupied elsewhere.

The plan works in part. He Do17s successfully knock out Dover, and get away clean.

The He111s run into an RAF patrol in squadron strength, moving down from the north, just as they reach Manston. It is too late.



All they can do is chase the lead element of the He111s while the rear elements bomb unmolested.





So ends Adlertag.

Studying the intel reports from late evening recon flights later that night, our experts assess that Manston was considerably damaged.



As was Hawkinge



And we have kicked in the door of the British bastion, over SE Kent, opening the way deeper into the heart of Fighter Command.



Further west we have not been so successful

We have caused some damage to RDF stations west of Rye, but around the fighter command airfields of Tangmere and Westhampnett the British defences have not been troubled.



Our efforts have cost us 76 aircraft destroyed, and 63 damaged, lightly enough to be repairable. We have received 30 replacements. And encouragingly, very few fighters were lost and morale is high. Yes, we lost 76 aircraft today, but only 12 of them were fighters. For this price, we claimed 44 British fighters!



The RAF took their greatest beating of the war so far. They cannot possibly sustain such losses for long.



And so, a new day dawns, Eagle Day +1...

Your advice kamaraden!

Let's put that in perspective: 64 bombers lost, each of them with 4-5 men aboard... that's 300 men

I wonder if it was luck that let those unescorted raids get through, or if the loss of radar has indeed made the RAF blind?

A bit of both most probably but from my experience knocking out the RDF stations really hurts the RAF.


Well done, HeinKill, you really put some hurt on the Tommies on day 1!

Fantastic, well done! Glad to see you pressed forward with the plan even without the escorts!

Is it possible to use the Ju-88 as a dive bomber in BoB?

Bombers: In the morning hit the RDF and fields west of Rye. In the evening send across low-level raids again in the same direction as the morning raids to convince the emeny that a follow-up strike was imminent but divert them back to knock out what remains of Lympne and Manston.

Fighters: I'd escort the morning raids against new targets whilst keeping enough fighters in reserve for mid-level 'friejagd' duty in the afternoon over Lympne and Manston and Rye RDF. Let the RAF think that your low level raids will be unescorted and lure them to the area where the fighters are active.

Stukas: Assigned to opportunistically mopping up damaged RDF stations.

I believe so. Let me check.



If the rdf doesn't get repaired overnight, then this strategy would only work if eg Ventnor is able to pick up the raid building up over France. We would need to rendezvous over eg Le Havre.



Good idea. We would need to meet the RAF with critical mass for this to work and the AI doctrine is to avoid fighter sweeps, so this might suck them into a fight...



Yes, we have to keep hitting RDF to keep it knocked out (same for airfields, though they are slower to repair), so this would be a good use of the Stukas, while we are still operating along the coast. I wouldn't like to send them inland.

Yes good point. And many were lost over the Channel, so chance they were rescued, either by GAF or RAF, is limited, though the Luftwaffe did have a better organised search and rescue operation than the RAF. The game doesn't model pilot capture/return for the LW, only for the RAF, where it models % likelihood of bailing out, surviving and time getting back to base.

H

What JimmyBlonde said.

+1