" I still don't know how they managed to pull it off." Group leader's opinion of a battle in which he lost most of his squadron. The battle itself was won by a single troop drop by one of the C-47s in his group.
Most flights in the historical arena only recreate historic battles on a rather large scale. But what about the numerous skirmishes, small engagements, and one shot fights that took place in WW2? Here are some common encounters and small fight ideas you might want to use.
Ju-52 intercept
The intercept of Ju-52s was fairly common during WW2. They carried everything from supplies, troops, wounded, ammo, fuel, to everything in between. When they were intercepted, most often at low altitude, they weren't escorted or well protected. Russian aircraft had a lot less luck shooting them down, mainly due to the fact that Ju-52s ran well behind the lines. British and U.S. aircraft could attack from the channel or out of liberated France, and as such they had no troubles striking the German supply aircraft. As Ju-52s are slow and very easy targets, the Luftwaffe tried to give them some measure of cover.
This cover was mostly outdated Bf-109 F4s, and the occasional G6. After the Luftwaffe lost so many Ju-52s, they relegated them to supply ferrying and troop drops. Although they had a good number of them left, the Luftwaffe needed more. As more and more Ju-52s were being shot down by British and U.S. aircraft, German troops were running out of ways to get supplies. This is a good idea for a mission. Have your flight group intercept a formation of German Ju-52s carrying supplies. This was common for P-47s and P-51s on patrol. Once in a while they'd come across a bunch of Ju-52s just plodding along, loaded with troops or supplies.
Sometimes, the Russian pilots would find a Ju-52 lifting off after dumping fresh supplies or troops. They were easy targets. U.S. aircraft, namely the P-38, found Ju-52 hunting a nice spectator sport. Some of them would just go out to see who could down the biggest number of "Gooney birds", most often they only found a gaggle of Bf-109s. On rare occasions the Germans would have a small flight of Ju-52s escorted by FW-190s. This was a last ditch measure to re-inforce stranded troops, and the Fw-190s could be used to strafe ground troops and still be able to protect the Ju-52s. Although a fairly small number of Ju-52s were built, a lot of them were still active during and after the war.
Flak hunter
A thankless job. Flak hunter groups roamed all over Germany late in the war, looking for those radar sites and 88s. Flak hunters just hunted flak sites, and rarely engaged enemy aircraft. Since the flak sites themselves were a problem, especially for bombers, units were re-assigned to blast flak guns. Sometimes the flak problem would get so bad the U.S.A.A.F. would direct whole flights of B-17s just to knock out these guns. Most flak crews had a nice time of it. They could shoot at enemy planes for 10 or 15 minutes, then the days work was over. Late in the war flak crews were on 24 hour alert. Any aircraft flying at altitude was considered hostile, that included German night fighters flying out for an intercept.
An example of this can be seen in the botched Operation Bodenplatte. The plan was, according to Galland, to have 1,500 or 2,000 aircraft intercept a large bomber flight and down 3/4ths (500) of the total number of bombers. This would create one hell of a headache for the allies and force them to reconsider things. That's 500 less bomber crews around, 5,000+ men, that were trained to do the job. You can't replace those kind of losses overnight. If Germany could destroy 500 bombers with a rather drastic fuel shortage, what else could they do? Unfortunately for them, Galland's plan was called off. The Wehrmacht thought they could deal the allies a bigger blow by destroying 1,000 fighters, and that just before the Battle of the Bulge. It was a dismal failure.
The plan was so secret that the flak units in the area downed several dozen German aircraft, because they hadn't been informed. Another 100 of the German aircraft were downed by friendly fighters. And the total result for Germany was 200 enemy fighter aircraft heavily damaged or destroyed, all of which were replaced within 4 days. Germany ended up with less fuel, less ammo, and fewer experienced pilots. Not to mention the 281 aircraft they lost. Over 120 planes shot down by their own flak units. Or just about half of the overall casualties caused were due to their own flak.
Flak hunters are low, fast aircraft loaded for bear. They strike fast, get in and out of range too quickly, and cause troubles for the flak units. Since flak hunting almost requires several aircraft attacking the same flak site, you force the flak units to pick a target. There are only 5 guns at an 88 site, attack it with 6 aircraft and they have to pick a target. That leaves them open. All 5 guns are tracking targets, which leaves that 6th aircraft to perform the three Bs.
Bomb, blast, and burn.
Having your pilots attack a flak site gives them something to do, and it makes them better at dodging gunfire of all sorts. Especially that darn Golden BB.
Patrol intercept
Intercepting an enemy patrol can be an important part of any mission. Sometimes the Allies would get radar contacts and intercept them. It was later found out that what they were intercepting was enemy scout aircraft or the point element of a strike. Sending out scouting aircraft is a good idea, but if you plan on attacking airfields don't do it. It just might ruin your pilots time if you call the attack off just because your scout hasn't reported in for the past 10 minutes or so. As for the enemy scouts an old adage comes to mind; "Smoke 'em if you got 'em".
The enemy might send out scout or patrol aircraft to check in on you. The quicker you kill them the more confused their commander will be. If you jump them fast, and get them with the first pass then no radio transmission was sent. So their boss won't know what is going on, until it's too late. It could be just the software on the other end can't transmit or maybe his software can't receive. Then again maybe the scout forgot what frequency he was supposed to check in on.
It can be a number of things, but don't let him know you're coming. Radar is not very accurate, and mostly gives a base bearing to target along with primative range. So enemy patrol aircraft won't be much trouble for you, unless you don't fight smart. When that happens you loose. Most patrol aircraft just roam around a certain area looking for targets of opportunity, and pray that you pick the area they patrol as your strike route. It can get boring while your wing man keeps seeing phantom contacts, and eventually you just naturally tune him out.
When an enemy patrol comes close to your field don't let him call for friends, just engage him. Once you kill the enemy patrol aircraft you have the advantage, you are waiting for the strike while the enemy has to mobilize for it. The only thing you don't know is where they'll attack from, but you can figure that out by having your pilots make sure they know what heading the enemy came in on. From there simply backtrack the route and you know where they will strike from.
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