Thank you!

It's a good landing, if you can walk away from it, they say. This isn't a great landing, though, because I can't re-use the aeroplane.

Some pics from operations later in the day of my AAR for the morning of 20th July...

Squadron SCRAMBLE! Flying as Green 1 in UP-L, I wait for the leading Hurricanes from 605 Squadron to get moving...



We're a bit late, but make up for it by chasing the raid back towards the French coast.



The others wisely turn back before reaching France, but I lead Green Section on and clobber one of the Huns...



...before heading back to Blighty, feeling rather chuffed.



Soon after, Flying as Green 2, I'm waiting for the off in ZP-X, with 74 Squadron. Sadly I forgot to let off the brakes and nosed over, soon after this picture was taken.



Jumping in as Green 1 when 32 Squadron intercepts a raid, I'm glad I had opted to pause the action at the start, because it kicked off with me in this unusual, rather disorienting position.



I got one of the Stukas...



...as the others pitched in too...



...but I got caught in a cross fire during another pass, and had to break off...



I was lucky to get off with a misfiring engine, having taken this burst in the side of the cockpit.



A busy day indeed! And it's not over, yet!

Later the same day...

234 Squadron catches the 109s napping...



Now, where to begin...



This one, I think...



Now, who's next...



This one, definitely...



Ok, whose turn is it now?



Apparently I'm next, the 109s having woken up.

It's only mid-afternoon and the raids are coming in thick and fast, with and without close escorts, hitting targets inland, not just convoys.

I've reduced the channel convoy patrols, tasked 10 and 12 Groups to patrol 11 Group airfields instead, and started scrambling or diverting patrols to intercept raids. This lot is on its way home having knocked the spots off the exposed airfield at Manston.



There's a mounting feeling of backs being against the wall, and again I'm colliding with bombers in my anxiety to hack them down while I can.



We're still in business, but the battle has really stepped up several gears and I'm not sure how long 'we few, we happy few, we band of brothers' can keep this up!

Lunchime is rudely interrupted by Hostile 101, which is plotted coming in from the south-east towards Bognor Regis. There's no convoys near there, so it looks like the target is one of the coastal region fighter airfields, at Tangmere or nearby Westhampnett.

Tired of being on the back foot, I decide to teach this raid a lesson. I re-vector the squadron patrolling over a convoy to the west, and bring down a 12 Group squadron patrolling an 11 Group airfield to the north. Two further squadrons are scrambled to intercept. With wicked satisfaction, I watch as their markers converge on the 'thirty plus' raid, which is in for a nasty shock.

The Spitfires of 234 Squadron make contact just before two other squadrons do so. I'm flying as Green 1 again, in AZ-K.



There look to be about thirty bombers, in three wedges of ten, just above and ahead of us. The 109s out front of them break formation, apparently to deal with another RAF squadron which you can see climbing up on my left. I can make out more Messerschmitts to the bombers' right, but we have the escorts well outnumbered, this time....



...and I'm able to lead Green Section into the bombers from astern.





To my right, Hurricanes and Spitfires are also coming in from behind.



I take the wing off a Heinkel in my section's first attack from astern...



...then break up and away. As I do so, a veritable swarm of our fighters is about to hit the Heinkels!



I pull off to my left and clear my tail. From the R/T chatter, some of us are engaged with 109s. But I can only see the bomber formation, which is losing aircraft steadily.



In my next attack, hardly noticing the tracers zipping past all around me...



...I can only damage a Heinkel before I have to break off again.



Coming back in for another crack, I decide to hit the right-hand side of the formation, this time. As the range winds down, more bombers are burning or falling.



I aim for the port engine of my target and am rewarded when a wing suddenly shears off...



...but again, I've left it too late to break, and rip off one of my own as I clip the stricken bomber.



By now, I've become a bit of an expert at bailing out in such situations, and luck is with me once more. Not so much the Heinkels, who appear to have lost nearly half their number, and the air fight isn't over yet.



Don't you just love it, when a plan comes together! If we can keep this up, Goering will have some explaining to do, to Adolph! The downside - the Huns still managed to hit Tangmere heavily, having done the same to Manston earlier in the day.

Even if he is old, this game is still interesting !!!

I's only mid-day on 20 July and the Luftwaffe is making another airfield raid, this time on Manston. The Hurricanes of 605 Squadron, scrambled to intercept, can't make contact until after the raid has bombed. But they harry the raiders all the way back to the coast.

Thanks for stirring up interest. I'll go find and install game and updates.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

Good luck! If you have Windows 10, the best you'll likely be able to do is fly the many single missions with a CTD when you exit, with campaign missions regularly CDT'ing. To get BoB2 running fully, I spent about the cost of a new sim on a second SSD (preferred that to partitioning the Win 10 drive), a legit copy of Win 7 and about an hour getting drivers etc all installed in the 'new' O/S. Now I just boot into 7 by default as it's still supported and all my other sims run fine on it as well. Worth every penny - this campaign has me hooked and I haven't even started the Luftwaffe one, or either side's pilot campaigns, yet.

First time in action against Ju88s. This mob has just bombed Lympne airfield but was caught by 32 Squadron as they tried to leg it back across the Channel.

Turned into a bit of a Punch and Judy Junkers show - all that was missing was Red Leader squawking on the R/T 'THAT's the way to do it!'





Aha! Stragglers! You'll do nicely!

Good stuff! I remember when this was new! *gasp* Wish I had more time to get into the whole "full theater" kind of role....

That's what put me off persevering with BoB/BoB2, Rick. That and 'Where's my pilot campaign?' (and of course there is one, now).

But I found this time around that I could happily play the stock RAF 'commander' campaign by simply accepting all the defaults offered by the 'wargame' in the Ops Room. And just accepting the offers to fly when they came up. And there is never long to wait. It was only after ten campaign days of doing this and flying mostly air starts (plus a few on takeoff) that I decided to intervene, after getting a feel for how that could work. I might have been better just letting the AI commander carry on fighting the battle and sticking to flying the missions - time will tell!

I think the improvements made up to and including BDG update 2.13 help a lot. Plus I have a better PC now so everything except particle density is maxed out. Plane skins and terrain seem to look sharper, autogen trees flesh out many areas, there seems to be less wobble when flying, aircraft you're chasing don't 'jump' and your gunsight doesn't wander or 'hunt' so much. Apart from 109 close escorts not zig-zagging and sometimes ignoring you, apparently sticking to their station rather zealously because another staffel is reacting, I don't remember BoB2's air combat side being this good before. But I'm finding it top drawer stuff, now.

Excellent! I always wish I could have gotten more into this as well as Mig Alley - time for a big reboot of that one!

One thing I have learned from my most recent venture off the campaign trail and into the single missions is...don't underestimate Defiants. Not while they're in formation.

From reasonably shiny new Messerschmitt...



...to smokin' hole in the ground, in one easy lesson...



Bailing out too low didn't help, either.

This is an illustration of the one really major weakness I've found in BoB2 - 'unresponsive escorts'...

BDG member Stickman explains it over on the A2A BoB2 forums, but in a nutshell, close escorts have a proportionate response to threats. The typical gruppe detaches one of its typically three staffels to counter each threatening RAF squadron. Which is great. The weakness is that if you're playing as an RAF wingman or section (vic) leader not the squadron leader; and if you leave the squadron and go swanning off, you may encounter one of the uncommitted staffels, which will ignore you as the committed staffel's problem. Even if you attack them. If it's against your principles to gun down defenceless 109s or 110s you can always fly as the squadron leader, or not go swanning off, or not pop off the unresponsive escorts if you run into them. Not a fatal price to pay for the big and realistic formations, the rest of the time. A code fix would be nice, though.



In the pic above, the 110 close escorts have ignored me, despite having attacked and damaged one of their number, and two Hurricanes, probably my wingmen Green 2 and 3, who are attacking the Stukas the 110s are supposed to be protecting.

Very next mission, the escorts are back on form.

Mid-afternoon, 20 July 1940. I decide to arrange a hot reception for an incoming channel convoy raid by scrambling a squadron and re-vectoring two more that are on airfield patrols, to join the patrol covering the convoy itself. I opt to fly as Green 1 with 302 (Polish) Squadron when it makes contact...



The situation is a bit confused. Somebody comes on the blower reporting low fuel, though a look at my own gauges shows I'm about half-full. And looking ahead and left, I'm not sure who's who. Are the aircraft up front the other RAF squadrons intercepting the raid, on the left? Or are they the raid, and the crowd on the left, who look a bit dispersed for bombers, the escort?



The boss doesn't seem sure either, because his only order is for our own squadron to reform, at which point he leads us down and to the right. Following him down, I notice the convoy far below, apparently under attack, with bomb splashes and distant aircraft whirling around it. Anticipating orders to attack this lot - Stukas, probably - I lead Green Section down after the squadron, wondering who it is, already reporting on the R/T that they are being shot at and need help.

Next second I'm the one that needs help. Rounds slam metallically into my crate and I roll inverted to get out of the line of fire. But it's too late, next second I'm dead. We've been bounced again, by 109s this time.

About to drop in on a Stuka party...



...while this one's already in full swing...

Early afternoon of 20 July and the raids are still coming. These fellows have just bombed Lympne airfield, close to our base at Hawkinge. I've led Green Section around to cut off their escape, but the boss has taken the rest of 79 Squadron in behind the raid and got there first. They are cutting the tripe out of the leading bombers, by the look of it, and I'm chomping at the bit to join the fray.



This is one of three Heinkels I'm claiming destroyed, having got my chance.



Overall, we are later credited with five destroyed and the same number damaged, for one Hurricane damaged and none lost. I'd thought we'd done a bit better than that but no complaints. Somebody reported Messerschmitts early on, but there was a lot of cloud about in places, and we never saw them after that.

Returning to Hawkinge - you can see BoB2's very accurate rendition on the left - I can see Lympne burning, not far to the west. The specks above and right of Hawkinge are the rest of the squadron, in the circuit.



Our airfields closest to the coast are taking a bit of a beating. While we are intercepting the raids, it's generally only after they have bombed. I'm wondering if I should start putting up patrols over the coast, accepting the strain on men, machines and supplies for the sake of getting to the Huns earlier. At the moment, our claims of enemy aircraft destroyed are not much higher than our losses, so it's all a bit of a worry.

Cuckoo in the nest. An 87 Squadron Hurricane joins up with a rather battered Spitfire squadron for protection, after an air battle.