Homage to 633 squadron

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

The DeHavilland Mosquito will be released in a couple of weeks. In preparation for this I have been working on a mission that runs through the valleys near Batumi. The mission will be to destroy a power station. You have to fly near the ground otherwise a flight of FW190s will come after you. Near the ground is a bit safer, but not much as there are AAA batteries dotted along the route. I have been testing the mission with Gunthar and Adder, it is doable. It helps if the AAA batteries are attacked on the way in. This may be doable if the lead draws the fire and the wingman strafes the battery. I will add Spitfires and Mustangs incase there are not enough Mosquitos (only 2 at the moment).

 

Here are a few pics to give you a sense of what you will be up against.

 

Take off from Batumi

 

 

Do a 180 and fly upstream. First AAA encounter.

 

 

Fly Low

 

 

Take evasive action

 

 

Keep evading

 

 

The old planes can take a few hits in the rear, not so many in the front.

 

 

If you managed to stay low and survive the run in you get to bomb the power station. When you have done that there are 2 more.

 

Are you up for the challenge!

 

Here is the practice scene from the film.

 

 

 

[custard~SPARTA~]

I am requesting permision from the long haired indoor governor to purchase the Mosquito so I can just sit in the co-pilots seat.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Good luck with that, you are welcome as a co pilot, but you will be able to fly.

 

Yesterday I referred to alert fighters coming after you if you climb too high above the valley floor, this is what you will see. As a matter of interest the building you are trying to destroy can be seen below the fighter.

 

[Cent~SPARTA~]

chocks away - Pilot reporting for duty! 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Great!

 

This what I am hoping the run will look like using A20s

 

 

But I hope we do better than them as none made it to the target.

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Since the AAA emplacements are visual only I tested darker hours in winter,

 

Here is 18:00 in December

 

 

And this is 17:00 in December.

 

 

18:00 is ok at first, but it will get darker and flying low in the dark is impractical. 17:00 seems better and in both cases I didn't notice the AAA guns firing at me. I will try to find an evening with a full moon to see if that helps.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Target destroyed with rockets

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I thought this map would help visualise the route to the target. We will take off to the west from Batumi, then do a 180° turn and head back up river. After about 8 miles we will bear left following the power lines and pylons. I have added smoke to help with the navigation but, since I have left the map markers on, you will also be able to see the AAA markers. There are 4 on the way to the first target, the fifth is at the target. 20 rockets from a Mustang will destroy the target. The Mosquito carries 8x60lb rockets or 4x500lb bombs. With rockets we can stay at low level. If we go with a small interval between planes we can assess the damage from the plane ahead before firing, once target one is destroyed we can move onto targets 2 and 3.

 

[Cent~SPARTA~]

very nice

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

First bomb hits from my Mosquito, sadly I was shot down by the AAA shortly after release of 2 bombs. I also managed to kill 2 emplacements with cannon fire on the way in.

 

The mission has five Mosquitos as well as some P51Ds and Spitfires for fighter cover.

 

[Cent~SPARTA~]

You'll have to tell me how you managed to release them! 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I will show you when we are next in game, but for now, open the perspex cover for the bomb switches and leave it open. When the cover is closed you can see there is a silver coloured bar style switch in the top left hand corner, When the cover is open you can pull that switch down. That activates the bomb release.

 

Adder and I were able to shred the AAA with our cannons on the way in, it only takes a couple of good hits to destroy them.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I have found a way to compensate for not having a time delay on the bombs, which is big problem for low level bombing/

 

There are three rows of switches for bomb control (behind the perspex screen), the two top rows control the 4 bombs individually, the bottom 2 switches control the fuse. Left switch for nose, right for tail or both switches for nose and tail fuse.

 

Using only the tail fuse I was able to drop bombs at low level without damaging the plane. I cannot be sure how high off the ground I was but I was low, maybe less than 200 feet.

 

Anyway this is the panel

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

A welcome sight returning from a raid on the Gestapo Headquarters at night!!

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

The raid I have presented so far is a practice mission to enable us to familiarise ourselves with the equipment. The advantage is we don't have to fly far and we can practice flying low and dropping bombs from a low level.

 

The actual mission will be harder, here is the briefing:

 

Welcome, Our target today is a Heavy Water production facility located 70 miles up the Patara Enguri River.

Alert fighters are on standby at Sakhumi Babushara.

Resistance fighters have cut communications from defensive positions along the river.

The Enguri Dam is 35 miles up river, Defensive Positions are located along the river for the remaining 35 miles. We will be under fire but they will be unable to alert the target or the alert fighters. However if we climb too high we will be spotted by other observers and they will call in the alert fighters. If Alerted the fighters can be at our position in under ten minutes.

 

Primary Objective - destroy the Heavy Water Facility (N43 3 18 E42 26 28).

Secondary Objective - destroy any other enemy assets in the vicinity, including Fuel trucks, Ammo dumps and barracks.

 

 

[Cent~SPARTA~]

ooooooooooooooooo

 

i like

[custard~SPARTA~]

You may be reliant on me as Navigator to get us to target so there may be a lot of swearing involved

[adder360~SPARTA~]

  looking good!

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Lets try and get some practice in today,  it would be cool to see a flight of Mosquitos in DCS.

[adder360~SPARTA~]

Sounds good, i should hopefully be around later afternoon/ evening.

 

The new rockets should hopefully make this more phew phew!

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I managed to blow up the target with bombs and not too much damage to my plane.

 

 

[custard~SPARTA~]

Thanks for the tour, looking forward to more. 👍

[custard~SPARTA~]

Found a good guide to setup my Tobii maybe I will now be able to look behind the seats to the fuel taps:)

 

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Excellent! We might try longer range next then finally with no map marker aids.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Well that was interesting,as predicted I did cause swearing.

 

That did feel like sitting an exam I didn't study for but I must have enjoyed it because I have been downloading E6B calculators today  

 

I have some questions so I can do some homework.

 

I will plan an infil from airfield to target and and exfil to same airfield?

Do we need an alternative airfield to land at?

What airfield do we take off from?

Do we need to exfil initialy in a particular direction to avoid enemy fighters?

Airspeed at low level is about 260?

Is there an offline map with tools I can play with, my brief search hasn't proved fruitful? If not I will just plan from the mission briefing.

 

I will also research the bomb controls so I can get them ready for pilot to drop and switch fuel tanks when requested (not to off).

 

Initially as the distances are very short I will just provide a heading for a set time to a known landmark then provide a new heading repeat until we get to target/airfield.