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Thread: Mission 4 OTT EYM - Bombs and Blondes - 4th February 1917 by Baz

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    Post Mission 4 OTT EYM - Bombs and Blondes - 4th February 1917 by Baz

    On 22nd December 1916, Admiral von Holtzendorff composed a memo which became a pivotal document for the resumption of unrestricted U-boat warfare in 1917. He proposed breaking Britain’s back by sinking 600,000 tons of shipping per month, expecting Britain to sue for peace within 6 months.
    On 9th January 1917 the Kaiser met with Chancellor Hollweg and military leaders at Schloss Pless to discuss measures to resolve Germany’s increasingly grim war situation. The campaign was bogged down in France and Allied divisions outnumbered the Germans. The military staff urged the Kaiser to unleash the submarine fleet on shipping travelling to Britain. On 31st January 1917 the Kaiser duly signed the order for unrestricted submarine warfare to resume effective from 1st February 1917.
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    On 3rd February 1917, in response to the submarine campaign, President Wilson of the USA severed all diplomatic relations with Germany, and the US congress declared war on 6th April 1917.
    The German plan was initially successful and led to food rationing in Britain and propaganda material.
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    Meanwhile the Americans, although not actively involved at this stage, sold Liberty Bonds to fund the Allied war effort.
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    In lieu of the above order from the Kaiser, construction of U-boat pens and bunkers was started to house the fleet in striking positions. One such construction started in Zeebrugge harbour in 1917, it was in the area of 80m x 10m constructed of concrete piles and a thick concrete roof.
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    La Dame Blanche
    Around the same time, a network of spies (many of them women), in German-occupied Belgium was formed and provided valuable information of German troop movements and construction progress, ship and U-boat movements, etc. By watching the Germans, they provided important data on daily movements of the Germans to British Intelligence in the Netherlands.

    The Mission

    The British wish to bomb the ongoing construction of the submarine pens at Zeebrugge to delay and frustrate the Germans.
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    Setup
    Two maps, countryside to the left, Coastal to the right (or equivalent). The whole area is German occupied. If necessary, the scouts need to exit the north eastern edge up to the centre join.
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    Mission 1
    A bomber (Short, Caudron, Handley 0/100 or a two seater if not available) has been sent to undertake this mission, however things are complicated due to the high level intensity of city defences (Archie, etc) around Zeebrugge. For this reason, the bombing must be carried out at high level (at or above altitude 5) to negate the enemy fire which will make it more difficult. The target area is indicated below. It will need to exit the W edge for safe return to base.

    Mission 2
    The Belgium spy who provided this information has been compromised, and for her own safety must be extracted, a makeshift landing strip has been cleared north of the city for this purpose protected by local resistance groups. A two seater (no observer) must be used for this purpose (Sopwith 1 1/2, RE8, Fe2b, Be2c). It will need to exit the W edge for safe return.

    Please use the RAP rules for bombing and landing/takeoff except where noted differently below.

    For landing, the plane must be at Altitude 1 and execute Dive (centre peg must finish over landing strip for this manoeuvre or the plane will crash and is eliminated) - Straight -Stall ( if the plane finishes either the straight or stall with it’s peg off the landing strip it will take and A damage for each).
    The plane must be stationary for 1 complete turn (3 phases) for the spy to get into the plane and the resistance to swivel/turn the plane on the airstrip ready for takeoff. Double this (2 turns) if the plane landed off of the strip to allow the resistance to wheel it back on course.
    Once in place, the spy has had basic machine gun training so can fire, load and unjam the gun. However, she has never fired from a moving plane before, only on a fixed tripod, so to allow for this, all damage cards will be at -1 and unjamming will be take 5 phases rather than 3.
    Takeoff will be as per the RAP book.

    Entente forces

    Bomber (or relevant two-seater) starting at Altitude 5 one ruler from the SW corner.
    Two-seater (no observer) starting at Altitude 3 behind the bomber straddling the SW corner (see diagram)
    Scout escorts x2 (Pups, Tripes, DH2, Nieuports) starting at Altitude 4 1/2 ruler to the left and right of the bomber.
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    Central forces

    NB Kogenluft has issued an order grounding all Albatros D.III’s pending resolution of the lower wing/strut issues so none to be used.(use Alb. D.I/II, Halberstadt D.III, Fokker D.II, etc).
    Scout patrol (x3) starting at Altitude 4 in NE corner 1/2 ruler from E edge, then 1/2 ruler between each plane.
    Landing strip ( approx 25cm x 7cm) to be 1/2 ruler from centre map joint edge and middle. Target card at mouth of canal on Coastal map or 1 1/2 rulers in form E edge and 1 1/4 rulers in from N edge.
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    NB if playing Central forces, you will either need to control the bombing sequence and landing/takeoff for the Entente or to contrive a scenario switching forces around (use AEG G.III or Friedrichshafen bombers and relevant two seaters)

    Victory Points
    Entente
    Bomber hits target. 20pts
    Near miss. 10pts
    Scout shot down 5pts
    Scout FRTB 2pts
    Spy returned to base 10pts

    Central
    Bombs miss target altogether 10pts
    Bomber SD or FRTB a before dropping bombs 15pts
    Bomber SD or FRTB after dropping bombs 7pts
    Scout/2-seater shot down 5pts
    Scout/2-seater FRTB 2pts

    Any questions please ask


    Note from Uncle - The bomber will be from an independent unit so no need for Bulldog crew to be created or used.
    If you don't have a P2 available for the spy mission, use a scout pilot.
    Last edited by flash; 02-01-2023 at 07:25. Reason: Note added re crew.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mikeemagnus View Post
    Looking good so far Baz
    All done now Mike

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    Aah thanks Baz - Looking forward to setting it up and playing it. Nice one.

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    Cheers Baz

    The orientation is a bit off, in reality north of Zeebrugge is the emptiness of the North Sea; West is also the North Sea & then Kent; East is (occupied) Belgium & then the Fatherland; South is also (occupied) Belgium & then finally France. Nor'east along the coast gets you to Holland, Sou'east along the coast will get you to allied held Belgium.
    I will adjust my game accordingly for escape routes.
    Last edited by flash; 01-31-2023 at 07:12.

    "He is wise who watches"

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    Baz just a quick question, are you intending to limit the scouts to altitude 4 maximum so shoot at the Bomber when within 1/2 ruler or can they climb to alt 5?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vagabond View Post
    Baz just a quick question, are you intending to limit the scouts to altitude 4 maximum so shoot at the Bomber when within 1/2 ruler or can they climb to alt 5?
    No limit so can choose to go after the bomber, but may then find it difficult to get down to the spy plane, which may be an easier target as it is stationary on the floor and the bomber can climb too?

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    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    Cheers Baz

    The orientation is a bit off, in reality north of Zeebrugge is the emptiness of the North Sea; West is also the North Sea & then Kent; East is (occupied) Belgium & then the Fatherland; South is also (occupied) Belgium & then finally France. Nor'east along the coast gets you to Holland, Sou'east along the coast will get you to allied held Belgium.
    I will adjust my game accordingly for escape routes.
    Not a problem, re-orientate (swap) the maps or exits as you wish.

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    Think I will use one of my O/400 but with the XA deck and damage limit etc. per the unofficial stats.

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    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    Cheers Baz

    The orientation is a bit off, in reality north of Zeebrugge is the emptiness of the North Sea; West is also the North Sea & then Kent; East is (occupied) Belgium & then the Fatherland; South is also (occupied) Belgium & then finally France. Nor'east along the coast gets you to Holland, Sou'east along the coast will get you to allied held Belgium.
    I will adjust my game accordingly for escape routes.
    Just found that there were some German airfields west of Zeebrugge before the front line, Nieuwmunster for example, so not unreasonable to exit that way to closest airfield?

    Surprisingly very little info available for West Flanders German airfields.

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    I will be interested to see how you chaps tackle this one.

    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Baz View Post
    No limit so can choose to go after the bomber, but may then find it difficult to get down to the spy plane, which may be an easier target as it is stationary on the floor and the bomber can climb too?

    Ok, I'm going to have to practice high level bombing again, I think I was pretty hopeless last time out.
    Cheers

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    I will be interested to see how you chaps tackle this one.

    Rob.
    With nonchalance and grace.

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    Water all around, eh? This looks like a job for the Short 184 seaplane! It hasn't been out of the barn since that fiasco of a scenario that saw the Short 184 picking up a spy from a lake on the Swiss-German border in the dead of night. What idiot dreamed up that lunacy, I wonder? Might as well have been flying around in a cloud... Oh wait, flying around in a cloud is much worse. Things go "boom" inside clouds - and you never know why.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vagabond View Post
    With nonchalance and grace.
    That's sounds about half right.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ShadowDragon View Post
    Water all around, eh? This looks like a job for the Short 184 seaplane! It hasn't been out of the barn since that fiasco of a scenario that saw the Short 184 picking up a spy from a lake on the Swiss-German border in the dead of night. What idiot dreamed up that lunacy, I wonder? Might as well have been flying around in a cloud... Oh wait, flying around in a cloud is much worse. Things go "boom" inside clouds - and you never know why.
    "I wandered lonely as a cloud" have you not heard that poem? You need to find your own cloud, not go sharing it with other pilots.

    Or to quote the Stones "Hey you get out of my cloud" ........ well almost quite them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Baz View Post
    Just found that there were some German airfields west of Zeebrugge before the front line, Nieuwmunster for example, so not unreasonable to exit that way to closest airfield?
    That's SW of Zeebrugge seafront - not sure my chaps would want to go there, it being German and all !
    I'll make it work, cogs turning, smell of burning !

    "He is wise who watches"

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    This looks like a job for the Short 184 seaplane!
    Ditto

    The rest will be down to imagination methinks - and why not. A wonderful challenge

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vagabond View Post
    With nonchalance and grace.
    Sounds right up your street then John!
    Who the heck is Grace?
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

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    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    That's SW of Zeebrugge seafront - not sure my chaps would want to go there, it being German and all !