Bf.109E "Jabo" with bomb - historical scenario?
Hello.
Can anybody please quote me a date, a place and a few details of a mission where Bf.109Es with bombs attacked an airfield or other structure during the Battle of Britain, defended by AA but not by fighters? I have generic references to such missions, and precise references to attacks to London, but I'd like to get some specific historical notes for a little scenario of mine.
Thanks so much!
While I can't help you with any details, your post got me thinking. Always a bad sign!
Maybe you are designing a little mission to be included with a potential Battle of Britain Starter/Duel pack!? Maybe an idea could be to put a mission in with a single airplane box instead of (or as well as!) the 'special cards' that are being included in the latest releases. A mission relevant to the pilot/ squadron represented. Might have to be fine print to fit on a manoeuvre card though!
Nice idea indeed, but a bit out of scope for Airplane Packs. We did that in Special Packs in the past - the Dambusters Avro Lancaster has even a special mat and several rulers and gadgets for a couple of scenarios against German dams, while the Staaken and HP O/400 have scenarios for them in their rulebooks. You encourage me to do the same in the future... Actually I already had a few ideas...
I did some quick searching; it doesn't appear that the Jabo raids were aimed at airfields. They started at shipping first, then tip-and-run raids against industrial targets.
By the time they started with the Jabos, airfields were pretty much off the target list, and the effort was to break British morale. This isn't to say it never happened, but the next time Germans were targeting British airfields was the night intruder missions.
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
I know they attacked coastal towns later in the war Andrea - Eastbourne in Sussex being one of them - where my family lived at the time !
Check out these for some info on the Tip & Run raids:
http://www.oldpolicecellsmuseum.org....bourne_in_1942
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meads
This might be more like what you want: 15th September 1940...Attack on London...
"....The Messerschmitt 109 fighter-bombers, flying above 20 000 feet, reached the capital first and delivered their attack more or less as planned. Interestingly, RAF records make no mention of the attack by fighter-bombers. When the defending fighter squadrons saw Me 109s above them, they took them to be a free-hunting sweep by German fighters and left them well alone. The fighter-bombers aimed their bombs at rail targets in the capital, and caused minor damage and a few casualties in the boroughs of Lambeth, Streatham, Dulwich and Penge. Then they withdrew without loss."
(page 8 RAF Historical Society Journal 29 pdf)
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/document...ritain-Day.pdf
Sapiens qui vigilat... "He is wise who watches"
Thanks a lot, I will study! I know the attacks on London, if I read well at first with problems for RAF fighters to catch the intruders, seen by radars 17/20 minutes before getting on the target. Later (as on the 15th of October against Waterloo Station) a costly system of continuous patrols allowed to catch Jabos in time.
On a report about the 15th of October attack, I read that fortmations split to attack both the center of London and several other targets around, among them Biggin Hill. So I hoped to get some info about that.
Any case is good for the scenario, as long as there is no opposition by fighters and some AA fire from the ground is credible.
Another tidbit of info here involving 109 fighter bomber raid on London & the Molder Brothers...
And this might shed some light ?
Sapiens qui vigilat... "He is wise who watches"
The link you posted seems to be lost. Here it is:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...201940&f=false
Very interesting indeed. I actually read somewhere that it was young Moulders' fault if he has been hit - everybody was going home but he wanted to go back on his target and have a look to the damages he inflicted.
Very, very interesting. But I am now looking for Battle of Britain's events - no later than October 1940.Originally Posted by flash
Last edited by Angiolillo; 04-13-2016 at 11:03.
Hi Andrea... I've got some additional info which may be of some help. It comes from Stackpole Military History Series' Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers Over Britain: The Tip and Run Campaign, 1942-43 by By Chris Goss, Peter Cornwell, Bernd Rauchbach (pages 30-36).
During the spring of 1940, the German Air Staff and the Luftwaffe Technical Office began exploring the possibility of adapting the Messerschmitt Bf.109 to carry bombs.
The result was the ETC500, a centrally-mounted bomb rack contained in a streamlined fairing and bolted to the belly of the aircraft between the undercarriage legs. It could carry a 250kg bomb without an appreciable loss in performance and was put into production and issued as a kit to retro-fit aircraft already serving in the field.
As a result, 110 E-1/Bs and 226 E-4/Bs were produced, with the first fighter-bomber variants being issued to 3 Staffel of the newly formed (1 June 1940) Erprobungs Gruppe 210 (Erpr.Gr 210). Commanded by Hptm. Walter Rubensdörffer and trained by the leading proponent of using the 109 as a fighter-bomber, Hptm. Karl Valesi, the Gruppe moved to Denain in France on 10 June 1940, where they continued to develop tactics and train using the unit's Bf.110 (1 and 2 Staffel) and Bf.109 aircraft. A 45° dive path was determined to be most effective, a red line aligned with the horizon painted on the cockpit canopy being used as a guide to help pilots maintain the proper angle (anything steeper and the pilot risked taking off the propeller when the bomb was released).
On 19 July 1940, 3 Staffel flew two attacks on shipping in Dover Harbour. An armed trawler was hit during the first, and the Admiralty oiler Sepoy was sunk and several near misses caused damage to the destroyer HMS Griffin during the second. 3 Staffel flew an additional 13 anti-shipping attacks during the following week. By the end of the 16-day campaign, Erpr.Gr 210 claimed to have sunk 89,000 tons of shipping, in addition to shooting down three RAF fighters (at a cost of three Bf.110s lost in action and two Bf.109s in accidents).
3 Staffel continued to seek out shipping in early August, probably sinking the armed trawler Cape Finisterre off Harwich on 5 August.
The Gruppe shifted focus on 12 August, when it made simultaneous strikes against radar stations at Dover, Pevensey, and Rye on the Kent coast, and the inland station at Dunkirk. All but the Dunkirk station were knocked out of action temporarily. For their part, 3 Staffel attacked the Dover station with 8 aircraft (all Bf.109s), their bombs falling within the compound and nearly bringing the aerial down... but leaving no lasting damage.
Later that afternoon, the entire Gruppe led I/KG 2 on an attack of Manston airfield. The attack was a complete success, with the Bf.109s of 3 Staffel adding their bombs and then machine-gunning the airfield before retiring.
They attacked Martlesham Heath in Suffolk on 15 August, their raid lasting no more than 5 minutes. In their wake they left two hangars destroyed and many buildings and a Fairey Battle on fire (its 1,000 lb bomb exploded, adding to the chaos). In this case, British fighter controllers were unable to vector an adequate defense in time, but they were learning.
The second attack of the day (scheduled to be Kenley airfield) went astray, bombing Croydon (two miles north of Kenley) causing little structural damage, though the raid killed 62 and injured 37. This time, the Gruppe ran into Hurricanes from 32 and 111 Squadrons. The attack cost the Gruppe six Bf.110s and one Bf.109, as well as the Gruppen Kommandeur, Adjutant, and Technischer Offizier.
The Luftwaffe was coming to the realization that, although the Bf.109 was the superior fighter-bomber (the Bf.110 being hopelessly out-classed), low-level jabo attacks were proving costly and there simply weren't enough to go around.
In response to these needs, OKL began to expand fighter-bomber operations by ordering the re-equipping of two additional Gruppen.
Erpr.Gr 210 was re-equipped and joined by Hptm. Otto Weiss's II (S)/LG 2 on 2 September 1940 (at Calais-Marck) and Hptm. Herbert Ihlefeld's I (J)/LG 2 the first unit to receive the improved Bf.109 E-7, at Denain. I(J)/LG 2 did not, however, fly its first sortie until 4 October 1940.
Hopefully this info helps!
Chris
Last edited by fast.git; 04-13-2016 at 17:32.
Thanks a lot! This is a very valuable load of informations. Exactly what I was not able to find in more generic books and sources.
I think that something like that can be an adequate reference for a scenario with no RAF fighters (in flight I mean - targets are ok) and some flak and ground fire.For their part, 3 Staffel attacked the Dover station with 8 aircraft (all Bf.109s), their bombs falling within the compound and nearly bringing the aerial down... but leaving no lasting damage.
Thanks, really! With a couple of AA guns and some ground fire on the table, to give the game some challenge, an airport seems to be a better choice.
This is a very detailed site:
http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0024.html
But without your references I would have not been able to tell which was the contribute of Jabo Bf.109s to the actions.
As an example, for the Martlesham Heath attacks of the 15th of August, I read references to Bf.110s only:
http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0026.html
Thanks again for the time you dedicated to this and for the detailed infos!
Last edited by Angiolillo; 04-13-2016 at 20:35.
I found a bit more on this. In Osprey's "Luftwaffe Schlachtgruppe" (Aviation Elite #13), they note that Gruppe II.(schl)/LG 2 was re-equipped with Bf-109E-7s, and started raids with a mass raid on London, but soon went to targets including airfields. This started at the end of the BoB, and continued through the winter.
The experimental Gruppe, Erprobungsgruppe 210 started using the 109E-7 first, and their results encouraged Goring to insist that a 3rd of the fighters on the Channel be bomber carriers.
I found mentions in the following books; unfortunately, I have exceeded the limit on viewing, so I don't know if the links will work for you:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ly...0raids&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=36...ritain&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=wm...0raids&f=false
http://lest-we-forget.co.uk/post/101...rth-weald-29th
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=37486
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
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