As you called a warning to JaVa, and you weren’t sure of how Stickz and Roke
were doing, you really ought to re-visit your comm’s, any language barrier and
"reaction to a warning" because JaVa acted as if nothing wrong was going to
happen and, as you knew enemy were around, you had plenty of time to all drop
bombs and return to fight as the remaining 6 before we attacked the rear pair
of Tempests.
In real life…. The 2nd TAF books are full of AAR’s where fighters dropped their
bombs, the instant enemy fighters were seen, and engaged the enemy
aggressively, I remember one AAR of, IIRC, 4 Polish Mustangs on their way to
bomb a bridge saw 12 LW fighters, dropped their bombs and got stuck in
regardless of the odds, shooting down several enemy. I don’t remember seeing
many reports where half a flight of of four would not go and support the other
pair.
And of course, IRL, 56 Squadron Tempests wouldn’t have carried bombs.
I think it might be worth a poll of the current 56 members as to whether
they’re in favour of bombing regardless of casualties or, would they prefer to
mix it with enemy fighters if engaged while “heavy” en-route to target.
But that does then beg the next question, if you’re going to bomb regardless
then shouldn’t you all be in A-20’s? You get way more range, bombs and AI
gunners that give you advanced warning and give good defensive fire. I mention
this because “we” often see on ComBox, the limited Tempests are all gone,
because people take bombs and die, seems a waste of a great fighter to us.
On 27 Apr 2021, at 10:55 pm, 56RAF_phoenix <phoenix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I actually called a warning to Java. They're not great at keeping consistent
formations so we can spot attackers. Also, I think they're having real
problem spotting with their Reverb G2s. I sorted out a cockpit-moving problem
for them at the end of the evening.
So, in real life, as long as they weren't directly attacked I think the
Tempests with bombs would have continued to target as we did, because that's
their mission. Shooting down enemy fighters is a secondary objective. Us
bombers assume the escort can look after themselves unless outnumbered.
There's a case to be made that we should have turned back when Roke & Stickz
got attacked. But by then I wouldn't have known how many were down.
56RAF_phoenix
