SCENARIO 5: WILDE SAU
Background. August 1943. After Air Marshal Arthur Harris took the reins of Bomber Command in 1942, the RAF began to concentrate their bombers into denser formations. These “streams” of bombers could transit the target area in less than an hour, instead of over several hours.
The Himmelbett system could only engage a few targets at a time in each zone and was overwhelmed by the bomber stream. Following “Operation Gomorrah,” the devastating attack on Hamburg in July 1943, Generalmajor Kammhuber was removed and replaced by Generalmajor ‘Beppo’ Schmid, who cast around for new strategies to use against the RAF.
To cope with the concentrated bombers streams the German nightfighter force developed a tactic called Wilde Sau ("Wild Boar”). This concentrated single-engine nightfighters over the target, where they could hunt down bombers identified by searchlights. A special Geschwader, JG300, was formed to implement Wilde Sau.
This ad hoc tactic met with some initial successes, but soon ran into problems. Coordination with flak was almost non-existent, causing many Wild Boar fighters to be shot down. The difficulties of navigating ill-equipped day fighters at night resulted in losses when aircraft ran out of fuel, forcing pilots to bail out. Finally, the tactic only permitted the defenders to see the raiders when they were over the target. Many bombers were caught only after they had dropped their bombs.
VARIANT SCENARIO 5B: OPERATION GOMORRAH
Background. 27/28 July 1943. The first night’s raids on Hamburg saw the Luftwaffe’s entire air defense system fall to pieces as a result of jamming from a new system called “Window.” Two days later, the recently formed JG300 was thrown into the fight and performed creditably on a night when Window was continuing to cause chaos.
Difficulty Level: Normal.
Game Length. 15 game turns.
Sequence of Play. Ignore the Radar Search Phase and AI Search Phase.
Attacker Forces. (British) Elements of No. 5 Group, Royal Air Force. The attacker has 45 Lancaster Mk III bombers.
Attacker Entry. Three bombers enter on each game turn.
Defender Forces. (German) Elements of I/JG300, Luftwaffe. The defender has two Me109G-6s and one Fw190A-5. He may designate one aircraft before play as having an experte pilot.
Defender Setup. The defender sets up in any hexes with any facing.
Search Radar. None.
Searchlights. All searchlight zones (A to R) are active. Due to jamming, the searchlights are NOT radar-directed.
Flak. Yes.
Moon. No moon. HISTORICAL NOTE: There was a small amount of moon this night, but we treat this as no moon.
Visibility. Moderate 0/3.
Cloud. None.
Victory Conditions. The player wins if he shoots down three bombers. (“The player” in this case refers to the defending side. So our three players need to shoot down a total of three bombers, not three bombers each.)
Assignments
@Spock FW190A-5
Movement Points: 5* (has 6MP on all even-numbered turns, 5 otherwise)
Firepower: 4
Damage:2
@Tom_Mc Me109G-6 with experte pilot
Movement Points: 5
Firepower: 4
Damage:2
@AleccMG Me109G-6
Movement Points: 5
Firepower: 4
Damage:2
Please post your setup hex and facing. For purposes of facing in this game, with the map rotated as it is, we will use the following designations.
The purple numbers on the left designate the hexrows, so the leftmost hex in row 14 is 1401, the one to the right of that is 1402, etc.