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Battle of Britain-Redux mission 5, Sat 23 Jan


OF Winston

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Saturday 23 Jan at 6:00pm pacific time on the Old Fokkers teamspeak. (Use Wing Walkers teamspeak if Old Fokkers is down).


Mission 5: The Raid on Dover.



Historical briefing
-------------------
August 11, 1940: A change in Luftwaffe tactics.

The Luftwaffe had failed to draw Fighter Command into the air in large numbers on previous attacks over the Channel. Something now had to be done to destroy the RAF both in the air and on the ground. Göring promised that provided the weather was in their favour, the Luftwaffe would destroy the RAF within fourteen days. He had nearly 2,000 serviceable aircraft at his disposal, which consisted of some 800 medium range bombers, 700 Bf109s, 250 Ju 87 dive bombers and 160 Bf110 twin engine fighters.

In comparison, the RAF had just 650 fighter aircraft, and approximately 1,250 pilots and many of these lacked the proper training, in fact many of them had to complete their final training on an operational airfield.

0800hrs: The 11th of August was a Sunday, and the port of Dover in south-east Kent was just like any other Sunday morning. It was early but many people were either getting ready to go to church or for those non-believers, were having their usual sleep in while the rest looked forward to the usual good Sunday breakfast. That is until they heard the drone of bombers coming from the direction of the Channel. Many thought it unusual as all of Germany's attacks up to now had been over the sea lanes. Why now were they heading towards Dover and the coast of England?

It was not long before they found out, most thought that the enemy planes were on their way to the industrial centres along the Thames or even London itself. They were quite surprised when explosions started to erupt in the harbour, tall fountains of water spouted into the air as bombs landed, and many surrounding houses fell victim to the bombing. People ran screaming and shouting and running in all directions and even though the siren had sounded when the aircraft were first heard, many ignored the fact that this could well be an air raid because so far the Luftwaffe had not yet resorted to attacking land bases in Britain.

Fighter Command had been warned of the small build up that was moving in towards the coast at Dover, radar had supplied the position and direction of the enemy formation, and the Observer Corps reported the type and strength. Air Vice Marshal Park was informed that the formation consisted of 30+ Bf110's and an equal number of Bf109's.

So the 110's from EprGr 210 and a couple of Bf109 fighter sweeps had Dover all to themselves.... well, for a while anyway. A number of Luftwaffe Squadrons came over in quick succession and it looked as though something could be building so Park had no alternative but to allow some of his fighters from Hawkinge and Manston to "scramble".

74 Squadron Hornchurch (Spitfires) operating out of Manston and 64 Squadron Kenley (Spitfires) were the squadrons released to cover Dover. Official records state that only a few skirmishes took place and that Dover Harbour was the prime target of the German attack. But the Luftwaffe plan was to attract as many of the British fighters into the air as possible at Dover while the main strike of the day was to be concentrated much further west near Portland.


Game briefing
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Date: Aug 11,1940 - 08:00hrs
Weather: Wind from the E at 5 mph. Clear skies /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=%7BSMILIES_PATH%7D/icon_dance.gif&key=65f19a6d05a09be1f895d829fab41c622bfc913b50b24e6486fcf1b21f74ee50"> medium clouds above 10,000 ft.
Flyable aircraft: Spitfire Ia 100oct.

Scramble from Manston in grid P-8 and proceed immediately to Dover grid P-5, climbing to Angels-10 on the way. Groups of Bf110's escorted by Bf109's are bombing the harbour and town. Protect the harbour and town! Don't go off chasing rainbows!

After your first sortie from Manston, you may use Hawkinge airfield grid N-5.

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