The Black Aces of VFA-41 have completed a long, nine month campaign in the area around Norway and the Kola Penninsula. The campaign started back in early January and included over 210 sorties flown in 42 missions. Pilots who participated in at least a third of the missions were awarded a campaign ribbon:



During Phase I of the campaign, Operation Fighting Withdrawal, the sole carrier strike group had to defend Norway from a massive land, air, and sea invasion, as the Russians attempted to move into position to cut off NATO's Atlantic supply lines.

During Phase II, Operation Return to Norway, our carrier took up position in one of the fjords and fought a pitch battle against the Red Banner Northern Fleet until a Marine Expeditionary Force could land and push the Russians out of Norway.

During Phase III, Assault on the Kola Penninsula, our task force took up position to attack Russian air bases and naval facilities around Murmansk. Brief and after-action reports with photos for the final climatic mission to destroy the ballistic missile sub pens can be viewed here: http://vfa-41.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2179

This campaign is based upon the three phase North Cape campaign in the great Microprose F-14 Tomcat simulator, FLEET DEFENDER, the best F-14 sim ever created. It also incorporates material from books IV, V, & VI of the fiction series CARRIER by Keith Douglas (the best books of the series. Books I - III, especially III, are good, everything after book VI was written by ghost writers and don't bother with any of them!). Finally, the non-fiction book Battle for the Fjords - NATO's Forward Maritime Strategy was used as a reference.

The missions from the campaign are F/A-18 based and will be available for download as three separate single mission sets in a few days. So keep watching for them.

FYI - scuttlebutt has it that things are heating up between China and Taiwan as the Taiwanese upgrade their F-16 fleet and the Chinese begin sea trials with their new carrier, Shi Lang. After a stand down period to re-train, VFA-41 expects to be sent to the western Pacific just in case....

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Dragon

Here is a link to the three single misson sets.

http://www.vfa-41.net/More_NCAPE.php

You can pick up books 4 - 6 of the Carrier series on Amazon. They are a good read while flying thiese missions.

Email me at lee61156@aol.com if you have any questions or problems.

Good hunting,

Dragon

Thanks for sharing the missions, and for the book advices!

Too, thanks for sharing this.

Cheers