Day 1, "Hope Takes Flight"; Urza's Splendid Stint at Stanhope, Late Summer 1940

Welcome to this exquisitely named blog which will be the home of my RAF solo player RAF: Battle of Britain: 1940 after action reports (AAR). Feel free to post or send me any questions you may have about the game's rules and mechanics, my decisions, and the historical background that informs them. I will use a mixture of historical placement and game player perspective when writing these posts.

Prologue:

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Bentley Prior and RAF Fighter Command! It is a hell of a time to be alive for sure. The miracle at Dunkirk, the reorganization of the government under The Right Honorable (TRH) Winston Churchill, and the declaration that Britain will fight on are less than two months behind us today. Some of you in this room may have lost friends and loved ones already in this bloody war, and yet more of you wait anxiously for news from individuals scattered across our beleaguered Empire, her Commonwealth, and the world. I invite you to a moment of silence in honor of our fallen comrades and their besieged counterparts across the world today.

...

Thank you. Let's give Jerry a bloody right thrashing today!

Musical Suggestion: RAF March

TRH Winston Churchill has outlined in several speeches the stakes of today's actions. We stand as nothing less than the first and possibly last line of defense for both the British Empire and everything she stands for. Churchill, Parliament, the King, and the Empire have placed their faith in RAF Fighter Command. Our task is to break Hitler's air weapon as it attempts to bomb us into submission. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war, so the Luftwaffe will be coming at us with everything they got. We need to respond in kind, and show the world that Britain can stand alone against Nazi Germany for years if need be. The fate of the free world depends on us!

Hitler has publicly declared his intention to force us to submit to his domination of the continent, which can only happen as a result of either an invasion or a prolonged blockade of the United Kingdom's commerce. To accomplish either goal, the Luftwaffe needs to destroy our fighting strength and render us unable to respond to their bombers. Thus our goal is to survive, and every day we do so is open defiance to the threats of the Fuhrer. 

Unfortunately, politics are a constant in human endeavors and this has not changed since the reorganization of the government in June. There are many in the RAF (particularly RAF Bomber Command) who feel that the RAF Fighter Command's resources and manpower could be better spent on other operations. While the severity of the German bombing threat has cowed these voices momentarily, they will become assertive once more if we fail to show results in short order. 

To make matters worse, Commodore Trafford Leigh-Mallory of 12 Group Command has begun to voice concerns about our defensive operational strategy and has begun formulating what he calls "Big Wing" tactics. He has support for this position from powerful individuals in the RAF like the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff. A failure for us to produce politically significant results may result in resources being routed to 12 Group's fighter wings which are primarily geared toward defending from Norwegian raids. They need far fewer resources for the task than what they are asking for specifically because of Trafford Leigh-Mallory's obsession with engaging the Luftwaffe in big unit battles. These factors all mean that inflicting noticeable Luftwaffe casualties and minimizing bomb damage will be important goals for us as well, lest we want to see the best pilots drawn off to other theatres.

Fortunately, Air Marshall Hugh Dowding's efforts over the past 4 years as Chief of RAF Fighter Command have created the best equipped air defense system in the world. With god on our side, we shall prevail in this struggle. Get to your stations. The day is young, and there are a lot of Germans coming our way across the channel.

This board is a modified version of the plotting charts used by the main command rooms throughout Bentley Prior. It contains everything we need to conduct the defense of Britain. You can see here the various fighter command groups and sectors, the deployment of our various squadrons, and intelligence estimates of the German force opposing us. 

The Germans are split into two Air Fleets. Luftflotte 2 is mostly based in Northwestern France and the Benelux countries, and will strike targets in the Southeastern part of England. Luftflotte 3 is based in Normandy and Brittany, and will conduct raids on targets in Wales. Both formations have a considerable number of planes, and on paper the combined total outnumbers us quite badly. 

Our intelligence services, our network of radar stations (often called Chain Home), and distance the Luftwaffe must travel to reach us are potent advantages. If we are smart, we can use those to overcome the Luftwaffe's terrifying numerical advantage. 

Here you can see the timeline, the number of replacement pilots, spitfires, and hurricanes we can call upon, the number of Luftwaffe replacements available to the enemy, and indications for when additional Luftwaffe units will enter the theatre.

Here is the map key as well. Radar Networks, Airfields, Industry, and RAF headquarters are all critical to the operational effectiveness of our forces. Bombing damage inflicted to those targets may have ramifications for our future combat effectiveness. Bombing damage done to Cities and Ports will not affect our strength directly, but they are seen as critical strategic objectives for the Luftwaffe. Thus any bomb damage inflicted will have political ramifications, and we must prevent as much of it as possible. 

August 11th:

Well that concludes the orientation I will be able to provide for the moment. It is nearly 0600 and we need to go on operational standby for the day. I will provide additional information as it becomes relevant to the prosecution of your duties.

The first thing that happens each day is that we receive a briefing on any repairs that were attempted since the last raid day. Since this is the start of the Battle of Britain, we had nothing to report nor expect.

The second thing we do is draw an event card to determine the time that the first Luftwaffe raid will hit us. You can see here that the time advance is 2, which means that time advances 2 slots on the clock.

Which translates to 4 hours. A bloody long time to delay the an opening shot if you ask me. I wonder if its an elaborate ploy to hit us right as the morning caffeine is wearing off... 

The next thing we receive is the weather forecast for the day. More cloud cover adversely affects both the ability of the Royal Observer Corps to detect incoming raids and the accuracy of Luftwaffe bombing attacks. It looks like there will be patchy clouds over Luftflotte 2's approach vectors and clear skies in Luftflotte 3's sector. 

Our radar network is fully operational and the Luftwaffe haven't performed any measures to counter it. Because of that, we get an early warning of the next 2 incoming raids. Radar at these ranges isn't sophisticated enough to give us more detail than a general approach vector. Here you can see that we have two raids approaching on Luftflotte 2's Southern approach vector. 

The Blue line spotted line on the left side of the page just past Dover denotes the separation between Luftflotte 2 East and South. Luftflotte 2 South includes a multitude of targets across 4 different sectors as well as the bulk of our fighter squadrons. 

Not all of these targets are priorities for the Luftwaffe. Each raid day we will receive a briefing outlining the target priorities of the Luftwaffe raids on that day. Here is the one for today. The priority for Jerry today will be on knocking out Chain Home radar networks to reduce our early warning advantage and doing damage to port facilities to hinder our commerce and weaken the Royal Navy in preparation for an invasion. Our Airbases are an important secondary target for them. 

Considering I have to plan for not one but two raids in these four southern sectors, I opt for a conservative opening deployment. I don't currently know whether the second raid will arrive sometime during this 2 hour block, sometime between 1200 - 1400, or between 1400 - 1600. On top of that there is a chance that a follow-up raid is being masked on my radars, and I'm actually dealing with 3 raids in these sectors. I elect to keep most planes on standby in sectors 6/11, 7/11, 2/11, and 1/11 to have future reserves to call upon while mobilizing sectors 5/11, 3/11, and 4/10 to provide added support for the raid about to hit us. With enough prior warning the planes on standby should be able to get airborne in time if their sector comes under attack.

With my patrols committed, we get first contact.

Musical Suggestion: Luftwaffe March

The report has come in. The raid is heading for the port city of Dover. 

Normally there would be some ambiguity about whether this incoming attack is a minor or major raid, but the strategic value of Dover clues us into the fact that it is almost certainly going to be a major raid because the Luftwaffe has placed a high priority on bombing ports today. 

The sighting report gave 11 group a sufficient warning, which will be enough to get 6/11's planes off the airfield and into the fray before the raid hits Dover. The intelligence they have received on the composition of the raid is limited, which means they will have to choose to commit squadrons before knowing the exact composition of the raid. We actually got fairly lucky in this situation. Dover's coastal location usually limits the opportunities for the Observer Corps to confirm the raid's bearing and composition until they are nearly on top of Dover. 

According to 11 group's briefings, the raid they are intercepting will consist of 8 planes. We have to make the choice on what to commit to this raid based on that information alone.

Because of the advanced warning we received, 11 group command wisely chooses to send up the planes currently committed to patrolling in sector 6/11. They want to hold back the spitfire squadrons at Hornchurch airfield to use in the next raid, and the squadrons patrolling London are not in range of Dover. 

This is well balanced formation with a good mix of hurricanes and spitfires. It should be able to deal with your average raid well enough.

As the Luftwaffe formation approaches Dover our flight leaders receive information on the group's composition. Luftwaffe planes are organized into gruppen, the German term equivalent to squadron. The raid they've mustered is a fighter heavy formation of 3 He 111 Bomber gruppen escorted by 2 Me 109 gruppen and 2 Me 110 gruppen. Behind the formation lies another Me 109 gruppen patrolling the channel. 

Let's go over the latest intel on the two kinds of fighter equipped gruppen confronting us. The Messerschmidt 109 is Germany's premier single engine fighter. It is easily the most competent aerial combatant in Germany's arsenal. It has a performance edge on our hurricanes and is about evenly matched with our current generation of spitfires. Its greatest weakness however is its short range, which limits the reach of bombers that can be escorted by it. This also compromises its dogfighting capabilities to a certain extent as it will almost always be running with less fuel reserves than our intercepting fighters. The 109 is also a pretty terrible ground attack platform in its standard configuration. The vast majority of Germanys' deployed fighter strength are 109s.

The Messerschmidt 110 is a twin engine fighter that was developed to provide a long range counterpart to the 109. It has a range comparable to the Luftwaffe's bombers and can carry a lot more weapons and bombs than the 109. This makes it a surprisingly effective ground attack platform for a fighter. Its agility is awful however, and thus these fighter gruppen do not want to dogfight with our single engine fighters. Me 110 gruppen will not proactively hunt our squadrons like the 109 gruppen, and instead will focus exclusively on close escort of their bombers. Two of the Luftflotte 2's Me 110 gruppen are elite units trained to synchronize with fellow 109 escorts, and are thus better at ground attack and air combat than the standard gruppen at the expense of operational range. 

A Luftwaffe fighter gruppen contains somewhere between 24-30 planes. By contrast our squadrons will never fly more than 15 planes in a sortie. This game assumes that a 109 gruppen will be on par with a spitfire squadron in a relatively even engagement thanks to the lower fuel reserves it has to run on over Britain.

The first thing our fighters need to do to break up this raid is deal with the roaming 109 squadrons screening the force in the Hunt Box. Since we have more deployed squadrons than the enemy, we can actually send our excess squadrons straight to the bombers. In this situation, however, the margins are slim enough that sector command believes the better course of action is to have all 3 units concentrate on the 109s. We risk taking additional losses otherwise. 

As the squadrons close with the 109 gruppen... it becomes rapidly apparent that the entire German raid will have an altitude advantage over the British squadrons for both this air combat and the following interception of the bombers and their close escorts. This will make the combat more difficult for our intercepting squadrons, and makes our choice to commit every available squadron to clearing the 109s look wise in hindsight. 

It is an unenviable position to have to fight 109s coming out of the sun.

Considering the circumstances... this engagement went pretty well for us.

One of the 109 gruppen took significant casualties in the dogfight, putting it out of action for the rest of the day and granting a few lucky pilots their first kills of the Battle of Britain. However, the other 109 gruppen executed their attack runs flawlessly and disrupted all of the British formations. With no British planes able to pursue them as a result of their well executed strike, the gruppen decides to pull back to the bombers and perform close escort for the remainder of the raid. 

That dogfight gave us our first casualty of the war, as 56th squadron heads back to North Weald to lick its wounds. We won't be able to call upon it for the rest of the day, and it will need new hurricanes and experienced pilots before it can be put into combat again. 

Both of the remaining squadrons were disrupted by that dogfight, and have a choice to make. They can either press on and attack the bomber formation at reduced strength, or withdrawal from the airspace and regroup. It is imperative that the bombers are at least somewhat disrupted before they drop their bombs, so the hurricane squadron is ordered to press on. The Spitfire squadron by contrast is ordered to RTB in order to preserve the relatively more rare Spitfire airframes and limit casualties.

Each squadron that makes it to the bomber formations can intercept one enemy bomber gruppen, and each bomber gruppen that is not intercepted diverts 1 close escort away from combat. As a result, our reduced Hurricane squadron has to attack a single He 111 gruppen escorted by a Me 109 gruppen. 

Things are not looking good for 151 squadron. The Germans still have an altitude advantage, and while the He 111 is an easy target the escorting Me 109 complicates matters. Finally, the reduced combat strength of the squadron means that it is likely to be mauled by this exchange even if it inflicts significant damage. 

As if things couldn't get any worse, the Me 109 gruppen on Channel Patrol has shown up to contribute to the close escort. 

151 Squadron now has to somehow press home against the He 111 gruppen with two Me 109 gruppen to worry about. Its odds of doing damage and escaping without significant casualties just went from bad to awful. 

In a legendary display of Royal Air Force grit and determination, 151 Squadron beats the odds. 

151 Squadron somehow managed to inflict considerable damage on both the HE 111 gruppen and one of the escorting ME 109 gruppen. The Germans are so stunned by the brazen nature of the Hurricanes' attack that they fail to inflict significant casualties in return, and the group filters back to their airfield scattered but intact. The game doesn't hand out ace titles for shooting up bombers, but you can bet your ass that a pilot or two from that squadron is getting a Victoria Cross recommendation for that stunt they just pulled. 

The other two He 111s, who were not intercepted by our attack, press home their raid and inflict moderate damage on Dover. The heroics of 151 Squadron saved the port from taking catastrophic damage and produced enough kills to even out the political impact of the bomb damage, so the net result of this raid is neutral on our political fortunes. Not a bad result for our boys in blue considering they had to attack with the sun in their eyes. 

The various units now have to return home. The German units are done first. 

The fighter gruppen can participated in later raids today, and so they will go to the clock to represent the time they need to refuel and rearm. 

The bomber gruppen on the other hand are done for the day. They are placed in their airfield in a reduced state.

It looks like the next raid won't be for another 4 hours. However, it looks like that upcoming raid is being performed in such a way that it muddles with our radar system. This will prevent us from getting advanced warning on the following raid. 

We're already more than halfway through the day, and we've only seen 1 raid. There's no way Jerry let's us off that easily on the opening day of their operation to smash England... right? 

This is the state of all our airfields after conducting airfield operations for the last 4 hours. You can see that the only squadrons stuck on the ground are the two 5/11 squadrons that got banged up by the last raid. 

4 hours is enough time to re-arm and re-fuel squadrons that were on patrol for the 1000 time slot. Therefore our board is pretty well covered with the exception of a minor hole in sector 5/11. With any luck, no Luftflotte 2 Eastern raids will happen until 5/11 finishes re-arming 151 squadron.

Since we don't have any advance warning for this raid, all we know is what our radar contacts indicated at 1000. We thus have at least 1 raid incoming on Luftflotte 2's Southern vector. 

There are only 6 more hours in the day, so I opt to change tactics and utilize a much more aggressive patrol deployment. The only airfield we need to protect from bombing due is North Weald in 4/11, which has 2 hurricane squadrons stuck on the ground. Any bomb damage it takes can cause us to lose hurricane airframes and disperse the badass 151 squadron, forcing it to restart its re-arm and re-fueling cycle. My hope here is to catch one of the raids off-guard and vector in several sectors worth of squadrons onto it. I make sure to leave just enough on standby protect our current patrollers when they have to land in 2 hours.

Since there was no Advanced Warning previously, we now get the vector of the next raid alongside the confirmation that the first raid will hit Biggin Hill airfield in sector 5/11. 

Even though Biggin Hill is a critical airfield, the secondary nature of airfields at this stage in the Luftwaffe's strategy allows Jerry to try his luck with a minor raid against it. Its an odd move for sure, but perhaps he thinks the surprise factor combined with the detection penalty will allow him to sneak some damage in.

That gamble did not pay off for the Germans. Biggin Hill is well inland, and this provides plenty of time for the Observer Corps to confirm the heading of the incoming raid. The patchy clouds do prevent the Observers from getting a good read on the composition of the raid though. This is not ideal... as poor intelligence forces us to commit planes before seeing the size of the attacking force. The early warning though does mean that planes patrolling in sectors 2/11, 6/11, and 3/11 have a chance to reach the interception zone in time should that be desired. 

The target of this raid is the Biggin Hill airfield, so the two hurricane squadrons on standby in sector 7/11 will have to scramble if they want to avoid being bombed on the tarmac. The following raid will come from Luftflotte 2 East, so I decide to commit additional assets from just 2/11 sector. While it would be nice to maul this raid and drive the bombers back, its equally important to ensure that the other sectors are protected from potential follow-up attacks. 

No Spitfires allowed club.

Another raid formation with a decent ratio of fighters to bombers and a coastal patrol.

The one weakness of this kind of lineup is that the two ME 109s in the hunt box are in danger of being overwhelmed by a strong British response...

Ah... so the reason for the minor raid reveals itself. It would appear that Jerry was concerned that sending too big of a force was just asking for a coordination failure.

A pretty decent result. We traded light losses on 1 ME 109 gruppen for light losses on a Hurricane squadron. One Hurricane slips through the 109 screen and approaches the bombers, while the other squadron got disrupted and decides to fall back and regroup. 

If I was those bomber crews I would be getting nervous right about now...

So far we've been inflicting casualties at a 2-1 rate if you count bombers.

Luftwaffe would really like to perform a snap raid right about now, but its elite ME 110 gruppen are currently still refueling and thus the mission has to be cancelled. 

The strike is brutal and efficient. An He 111 gruppen and the escorting Me 110 gruppen take significant casualties and are forced to break off from the raid. The H3 111 gruppen that remains is thrown into disarray. The two attacking hurricane squadrons barely take return fire and are in excellent shape as they RTB. 

This minor raid idea is starting to look like a costly mistake 

The lone remaining bomber gruppen attempts to drop its payload on the airfield's facilities, but the bombs land wildly off target. This raid is a victory for fighter command, albeit a minor one in the grand scheme of things. 

Man its nice to see an inflight box where the Germans don't outnumber me for a change.

The lone surviving bomber gruppen returns to its airfield, carrying with it harrowing stories of bombers being shot out of the sky. 

There isn't enough time remaining in the day for the fighter gruppen from this raid to sortie again, so they go to their airbase in a reduced state to show that they cannot sortie anymore. 

It looks like our pilots will get 2 hours of breathing room before the next attack.

The fighter gruppen from the 1000 raids are ready to sortie again. 

It does kinda feel like the Germans never run out of fighters... doesn't it?

This is the status of our airfields right after the conclusion of the last raid.

Here's what our fighter coverage looks like after the squadron turnaround is complete... 

And here is our airfield situation after the squadron turnaround is complete. My strategy of aggressive patrolling has backfired a bit. Now we have a ton of airfields that need to be protected if we want to minimize airframe losses. 

Here's the advanced warning for the next 2 incoming raids. This is quite scary... most of our airfields are in these sectors and they have a lot of planes trying to re-arm and refuel right now. 

It turns out we only have 11 squadrons ready that can participate in the defense of 11 group, so I send all of them into the air. A bombing raid on Kenley airfield this time slot would be a disaster as it has 2 hurricane and 1 spitfire on the airfield, and thus sector 2/11 gets priority on patrols. Biggin Hill and North Weald are also quite vulnerable at the moment, but I can't pull away fighters from sector 6/11 due to the 3 high priority targets on the coast (including Dover which was bombed earlier today). In addition to Sector 11's squadrons, every fighter I have in range from 10 and 12 group has also been scrambled to support the Eastern sector. The Luftwaffe has a real chance to punish me here if they foresaw this set of circumstances and planned their raids accordingly.

Musical Suggestion: Mister Exposition

Before we plunge into the rest of today's action, I feel I should cover a critical mechanic or two that played a big role in my choice of fighter deployment just now.

Whenever I choose to commit fighters to intercept a raid, I have the option to delay the response. This allows me to improve the warning level of the RAF response to this raid by 1 level as long as it is currently at delayed or sufficient. This represents RAF command plotting their intercept to try to intercept the German bombers on their way back from hitting a target in order to buy more time to organize the intercepting units. If the Big Wing proponents had their way, this would be used on basically every raid. 

As you can see here, a delayed response option gives me a lot of confidence to keep fighter units on standby at airfields that could be attacked. It also increases the chance that patrols in range of the target can get involved.

To circle back to the deployment I decided on yesterday, a delayed response is what makes patrolling London, sector 3/11, and sector 4/11 useful for this situation. Sectors 3/11 and 4/11 can't be attacked currently because they are just beyond the range of ME 109 escorts... but patrols stationed in those sectors could respond to raids on several targets in sectors 1/11 and 5/11 if given early warning. Delayed Response also gives me the option to attempt to cover Kenley and Biggin Hill airfields without completely abandoning sector 1/11. This added tactical flexibility is especially important because I normally take political penalties for failing to respond to raids that contain at least 1 bomber. A Delayed Response is a response for preventing that VP bleed, and also prevents Luftwaffe bombers from getting a bombing bonus from being left alone if I can get interceptors into the bomber box.

A Delayed Response does not come without drawbacks. For starters, a Delayed Response prevents me from inflicting heavy casualties on Luftwaffe units. Those are downgraded to light losses to represent the fact I am engaging the Luftwaffe gruppen as they leave British airspace rather than when they are trying to push through our interceptions to reach their target. In addition, the channel patrol assigned to the raid is added to the hunt box automatically. A tactic like my delayed response is the historical reason why channel patrols were sent with raids. 

Finally, the bomber gruppen get to conduct their bombing attack before we roll for air combat against them. Thus, I cannot reduce their bombing capabilities by shooting them down, forcing them to abort the attack run, or disrupting their formation. 

This makes Delayed Response a lot less ideal when I need to protect airfields with grounded squadrons or radar networks, as even light damage to those targets could reduce my combat effectiveness and cause additional losses in later interceptions. I can still prevent the bomber gruppen from getting their bombing bonus for being left alone if I can get a squadron into the bomber box, so Delayed Response often comes in handy when it comes to responding to raids on ports or other less critical installations.

With that bit of exposition out of the way, let's see what Jerry has in store for us this evening.

Oh boy. One of North Weald's hurricane squadrons was shot up pretty badly earlier today, and is a sitting duck on the tarmac right now. 

As it was one of the airfields with fewer cycling planes, I also gave it a lower priority when it came to patrol allocation. Let's hope our early warning systems and the Observer Corps bail us out of this one.

(apologies folks, there was a technical snafu and 2 of the following pictures will have to be lower quality than their original version) 

Oh great... its a major raid as well. The Luftwaffe wants to put on the pain train from the looks of it. Hopefully that improves our air detection roll. 

... Wow. These bastards have no idea what's about to hit them.

Its not all perfect for us. We only get to see the raid size before we have to commit planes. Luckily for us we know that it will almost certainly be a force we can engage with extreme prejudice even with our reduced fighter strength. Time to avenge the fallen. 

Musical Suggestion: Battle of Britain Theme

As much as I would like to send our flyboys in the biggest pack we can muster, there is the potential for another raid this time slot that could hit sector 6/11. Therefore it makes the most sense to mobilize the squadrons from neighboring groups 12 and 10 alongside the 4/11 squadron patrolling over North Weald. 3 spitfire and 2 hurricane squadrons is a pretty hefty interception force, and those squadrons can't really assist that most of the southern sectors anyway. 

We're loaded for bear and ready to kill krauts.

... The arrogant bastards brought stukas to bomb one of our most critical airfields. Bloody stukas. Oh you foolish bastards, all those 109 escorts won't keep you safe from our righteous fury. 

Normally I would be tempted to limit potential casualties by sending some squadrons past the hunting 109 formations, but we outnumber them so heavily that taking significant losses on any of these units is very unlikely. Hence we instead opt to trap and shred the 109 gruppen unfortunate enough to be in our way.

As the fighters square off, we get reports that the clear skies over Wales have given way to patchy cloud cover. This won't affect the upcoming fight, but will be something to keep in mind later.

Wow. We pulverized these squadrons so hard that there wasn't enough opposition for more than a couple of pilots to make ace. 

Chalk up a 109 gruppen with light losses and a 109 gruppen with heavy losses. Heavy losses grant double the political sway compared to light losses, require twice as many airframes to replenish, and prevent that unit from being involved in the next raid day. Many of my squadrons got disrupted, but the opposition at this point is so feeble that I can press them forward in their reduced states without much concern.

As we approach the Stukas, it becomes apparent that they dropped below the clouds to get a better view of their targets. While it makes it much easier for them to place their bombs, it also makes it even easier for us to blow them and their close escort out of the sky. 

A Flawless mission. Savor that Ladies and Gentlemen. We won't get results like that often in this war. 

We've obliterated the entirety of Luftflotte 2's Stuka gruppen alongside their 109 escorts in one raid. Not a single bomber reached the target, and the channel patrol gruppen has been left stunned at how few friendly planes are filtering back to the Channel. And best of all, we avoided taking any damage whatsoever. If I could I would give the lads and ladies of the Observer Corps and our early warning services a raise and shore leave for that performance. This overwhelming victory wouldn't have been possible without them. 

There'll always be an England,

And England shall be free

If England means as much to you

As England means to me.

Man imagine the second hand trauma that surviving gruppen must be dealing with back at base. 

No time to rest on our laurels though. We got another raid incoming before any of our planes can make it back to base. I hope my preparations have been enough to fend off the worst. 

Ah... this must have been the priority target. Every raid before this has reduced our readiness and left us in a poor position to respond to this raid. 

Beachy Head is a critical radar network, as it protects sectors 7/11 and 1/11 as well as its own. In addition, its coastal location ensures that it will be very difficult for the observer corps to provide much in the way of actionable intelligence. London will definitely be out of range, which limits our potential response to just 3 planes. 

May god have mercy on our boys in blue. 

The late response reduces our response force to 2 squadrons max, even with a delayed response. On the bright side, accurate intelligence allows us to give our flyboys an accurate picture of the maelstrom they will be flying into.

...

Per Ardua ad Astra

Musical Suggestion: Vitoze Aerial Defense (Ace Combat 6)

4 ME 109 gruppen is a lot to handle. Our boys are in for a rough ride.

You can hear Goering's giggling from across the channel, I swear to god. 

The channel patrol makes this look less suicidal than it is. If any of those hunting 109s are allowed to fall back and close escort the bombers, our squadrons will be hosed if they try to attack the bombers in a reduced state.

Because of that very possibility, the flight leader on the scene makes the call to Fend and Evade. This allows us to push one squadron out of every 2 deployed (rounded down) through the 109 screen and into the bomber box even when outnumbered. The price is that that unit or its sister squadron will be at reduced strength before air combat begins. With only 2 squadrons against their 3 109 gruppen, however, I decide that fending and evading is worse than the alternative. The full strength Spitfire squadron has the best chance of surviving and making it back to base, so they do their best to make an opening for some of 145 squadron to slip through and make a pass at the bombers.

I forgot to take a picture of the approach event because it didn't do anything.

Wow, those spitfire pilots earned their keep today. They managed to survive and burn up enough fuel that all 3 of those 109 gruppen are now RTB. 

We figure we stand the best chance against the Do 17 gruppen. While it would be nice to damage the more rare JU 88 formations, its too risky for us in this situation. 

The Luftwaffe bombers seem surprised at the lack of close escorts in this raid. 

Not a great result, but our luck had to break eventually.

The Dorniers pulled after losing several bomber, saving the radar network from some bomb damage.

145 squadron ate a lot of fire from the bombers' gunners though, and will be combat ineffective for the rest of the day. 

The remaining JU 88s carry out their bombing strike. Cloud cover doesn't prevent a good number of their bombs from hitting their marks. If I hadn't pushed the hurricane into the bomber box, the radar network would have taken much heavier damage. Not a pretty operation, but we got the job done.

The light damage does knock out the radar network however, and that means that I will have less prior warning for raids in Luftflotte 2 South or Luftflotte 3 for the rest of the day.

The airspace is busy this time of day.

If Luftflotte 2 needs to deploy JU 88s, they can substitute other bombers the same way. JU 88s are the priority replacement unit for other bombers, with Dornier 17s being the runner up. 

No further raids this hour. Now we can celebrate, but we need to make it snappy. 

After all we have 2 more hours left in the day.

Remember all our crowded airfields?

Well they finally get the breathing room to get their squadrons back into the air... 

Just in time to receive a new batch of empty and shot up planes that need servicing. Bless our repair and maintenance crews. 

Here's the teaser for the last hour. Luftflotte 3 finally got the urge to join in on the fun from the looks of it.

There is a patrol limit of 14 squadrons for 1800 specifically to help reduce accidents during nighttime landings. As it turns out we have exactly 14 squadrons available, who are thus deployed in central locations that should allow them to respond to pretty much every possible sector. Hornchurch and Middle Wallop airfields in particular are vulnerable at the moment and thus receive priority on patrols. 

Get used to seeing Hornchurch airfield show up as a raid target. Its our most important airfield and the Luftwaffe knows it.

We should be pretty well prepared to shut this down.

Looks like Jerry is gonna try his luck with a minor raid. Perhaps a smart move considering our large number of forces deployed to sector 6/11.

Unfortunately for Jerry, Hornchurch airfield's approaches are very well covered by the Observer Corps.

Pathetic. Considering the tiny size of the raid, I choose to commit only 3 of my squadrons and hold the rest back just in case something wacky happens. 

Tallyho!

Looks like a pair of sacrifices are being sent our way.

Well at least they'll have each other.

Same drill as before. Clean out the 109s and then hit the bombers from all sides.

A larger formation would have struggled to maintain formation through the clouds, but this one is so small it has no issues.

Dammit, those bloody sods must have nodded off during the briefings.

Most of our forces were forced to RTB from that botched dogfight without any significant 109 kills to show for it. A few scattered hurricanes are all that's left to deal with the lone bomber. It should be enough.

Looks like this bomber got lost anyway. It won't be hitting the aerodrome even if this interception catastrophically fails.

... Secretary? Make a reminder for me that Squadrons 501 and 85 should join their comrades in Squadron 257 during their retraining. They seem to need a brush up on the basics of fighter combat. 

That really should have gone better for us.

"Hans, the hurricanes are leaving. What do we do now?"

"I don't know, I never thought we'd get this far." 

The bomber unit seemed surprised at its apparent survival and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if it tried.

Why don't yall just fly on back to Germany and save us the trouble?

The HE 111s have gotten a fair amount of usage today.

Keep pushing your luck Goering I dare you.

Damn I was kinda hoping for another raid. Oh well.

Musical Suggestion: In the Mood

Our pilots can finally hit the sack and catch some shuteye. For many of us though the real work begins now.

We performed above and beyond our projections and expectations. The whole force should feel damned proud of the show we put up today. We've showed the world that Herr Hitler's shiny toy isn't as formidable as he thinks.

Our airfield crews sure do put in sweat equity. Every squadron that needs repairs, refueling, and re-armament is back on standby before the next raid day thanks to their efforts. 

Looks like we get a 3 day reprieve to organize the replacements. While our performance was amazing today, it wasn't enough to get the RAF bigwigs to send us more personnel. On the bright side we received a good number of spitfire airframes, which will help us build a reserve for the future. 

Here are the replacements from the start of the game. They are split into 6 categories that should be noted. 

Firstly we have Luftwaffe Fighter Replacements. These will be used to replenish losses to 109 and Me 110 gruppen. Secondly we have Luftwaffe Level Bombers. These will be used to replenish losses to He 111, Do 17, and Ju 88 gruppen. If they ever run out of replacements for a category but still have units understrength, the units are still replenished and the Luftwaffe Depletion meter increases instead. If this meter hits certain thresholds the Luftwaffe take penalties to their combat effectiveness across the board.

For the RAF we have Spitfire and Hurricane replacements. These measure our number of available airframes and must be in supply for our units to become combat capable after suffering losses. Experienced Pilot Points are needed to ensure replenished squadrons enter the next raid day at full strength. If we run out of these, replenished units will start the raid day in a reduced state and remain that way until they survive an interception and make it back to base. Our replacements come in at a fixed rate but can be reduced through strikes on industry and from bombing raids on airfields that catch our squadrons on the tarmac. Experienced Pilot Points are harder to come by and the amount we get is dependent on our VP total, though we will receive a 1 time boost on September 8th from a planned stabilization scheme. 

We received 3 VPs for surviving 3 days without any raids. That puts us at a quite commanding 11 point lead after the first day. If we can ever get our point total to 35 we will have completely destroyed the Luftwaffe and win the Battle of Britain. The same is true in the reverse direction. Most likely though things will be decided by Sealion, which our intelligence believes will begin on September 11th based on current German plans. If we can get enough points to convince Hitler that the Luftwaffe will not be able to deliver him aerial superiority, he will be forced to cancel Sealion and we will prevail in this struggle. 

During the 3 day break days, the Luftwaffe underwent a strategic shift in targeting. These targeting shifts are also dependent on the current VP total and will adjust accordingly. The somewhat botched raid on Beachy Head combined with the disastrous minor raid on Hornchurch has convinced Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL) that our airfields need to be prioritized more heavily. 

That's a lot of fighters and fighter pilots for Goering to replace. Each of these gruppen will return to its airfield and be ready to strike us by the next raid day however. 

I'm happy to spend the administrative effort bringing these squadrons up to full strength. We inflicted casualties on the enemy at a rate of nearly 4 to 1 today. We still have a butcher's bill of 4 hurricane squadrons worth of hurricane airframes and 4 experienced cadres of pilots to deal with though. 

The two mauled 109 gruppen will each consume a fighter replacement point to move to light losses. They will be back in the fight on the following raid day. The JU 87 Stuka gruppen on the other hand will not be getting reinforced and instead will be rotated out of theatre. We proved that they are very vulnerable in the face of determined aerial opposition. 

This is the part of the calendar phase where I can choose to request up to 2 additional squadrons to bolster our strength. I usually avoid doing this in the first week of combat as reinforcements cost a premium until August 17th, but our overwhelming success on the first day has given us enough political capital than I am authorizing one squadron transfer. 

As a reward to you, dear reader, for making it through this lengthy but hopefully entertaining AAR, I am letting you participate in the decision of which squadron to bring in. There are several compelling choices available to us today, and all of them have been vetted and approved by RAF Fighter Command. I have my own preference in the event of a deadlock or lack of suggestions, but I do hope you will participate. 

Considering the comparatively high attrition rate of our hurricane units so far, Dowding feels that bringing in another spitfire squadron would be recommended. The clear frontrunner for this is 222 Squadron which would be earmarked for North Weald airfield in sector 5/11. It provides us additional squadrons to help cover the crucial sector of 6/11, and its flight leaders and squadron tactical culture would also balance out the tendencies of the existing hurricane squadrons at North Weald airfield currently. Squadron 46 is another strong choice. It provides the same tactical benefits as 222 squadron, it will be based out of North Weald airfield, and while it is a hurricane equipped unit it is one of our squadrons currently slated to be outfitted with Very High Frequency (VHF) radios on September 1st which will double their effective patrol range. 

Squadrons 610 and 79 are solid runners up. They would be deployed to Biggin Hill airfield in sector 7/11, an arguably more important sector than 5/11. The spitfire outfitted 610 Squadron is not as good of a fit tactically for that sector's roster as the hurricane equipped 79 Squadron, but superior aerodynamic performance can sometimes make up for less efficient tactics. 

The Royal Canadian Air Force has graciously transferred us one of their hurricane squadrons to help add to our forces operating from Northolt airfield in sector 3/11. This sector forms an important reserve for us, and will provide most of the available patrols covering London in the future. The sector is also the location of both 11 group headquarters at Uxbridge and our lovely offices at Bentley Prior which are based in Stanmore. It is thus an area of critical importance to our operations, though the RCAF Squadron will not see as much frontline service as the other options presented. Perhaps there is political wisdom in requesting their deployment however. It is rude to turn down a helping hand when it is given so enthusiastically. 

Finally, we have 310 Squadron. Trafford Leigh-Mallory of 12 group command is beginning to raise a big stink about our supposed failure to support his big wing tactics. Well if we provided him an additional unit to organize such attacks on the condition that it must be operated out of Duxford airfield, perhaps we can turn a fierce political enemy into a begrudging ally. If nothing else, it would allow us to deploy out of sector 2/12 in greater strength and see these big wing tactics in action. Definitely worth considering based on political grounds. 

I have until midnight EST Saturday before the request must be filed. I look forward to hearing your positions and suggestions. If any of my reads wish to lobby on this choice on behalf of either the Canadians or the Big Wing advocates I am all for it. In the end the most persuasive position will be adopted for our reinforcement strategy.

Here is a reference image with the relevant airfields circled. See you all next Raid Day!