CentMed Question for Axis Planners?

[EAF92_Meako]

Now the dust has settled and our campaign is over one question we Allies have for you.

Did we manage to spot all of the axis supply ships or convoys you tried to get through to Libya ? or did you succesfully manage to get your supply ships through to supply Rommel.

[150GCT_Veltro]

99% of our ships has been sunk if i remember well.

[EAF331_Starfire]

That means that those of us flying long and boring patrols actually achieved something.
I actually loved those recon patrols in the Mosquito, but It was quite disapointing to look at the stats afterwards.

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Yes, Starfire, I agree. In The Slot I found the Allied fleet on one long mission, and I am fairly certain that the Allies were regularly patrolling/reconning our 700 km long supply routes as well.

Cheers,
4S

[EAF92_Meako]

Yes we often had more than one pilot flying the full three hours looking out for shipping. I do recall on one time finding an axis convoy after the agreed 2 hour mark so was unable to do anything other than report the find and go back next mission.

This was one of the elements i found interesting in this campaign how the effect of operations in one sector like my long boring recon missions finding then sinking ships impacted on another like Libya.

We presumed later on the axis ferried some units possibly fuel to Libya
via Ju52's and maybe Fw200's. These were a much more difficult prospect for us to find and interdict and an historical way of overcoming the sea blockade.

The way we concentrated on interdicting supplies and reinforcements in this campaign was a first for me and made the whole affair a lot more interesting than my usual SE campaigns where i was only usually concerned about incoming large raids.

[IV/JG7_Warg]

G'day,

Then nearly all our missions in the Slot would be consigned to the "long boring patrol" category. I was always amused to see this term referenced so frequently in the Med and other European theatre campaigns. Check the mission stats for the Slot and you'll note that missions flying in excess of two and a half hours were of normal occurance. Personally, I spent about twelve hours patrolling over featureless Pacific before seeing an enemy contact and they were B-17's over Russell on their way to raiding Munda. To really do the Slot map and other Pacific Ocean campaigns justice, mission times would need to be even longer.

In this campaign, from Munda to Henderson, some combat and return to Munda was about the limit in regard to time. In real life, missions were sometimes flown from Rabaul and return, which is not even on the map and well to the north. The Zero could do this and is one of the reasons why it was an exceptional aircraft for its time. Usually our Zero's still had plenty of gas in the tank and we still could have flown them a hell of lot more economically then we actually did. The Betty was another matter. We discovered that the stock standard default version had a range of just under three hours when flown economically. Not good for aircraft with supposedly exceptional range.

My estimation is that the Slot would probably be an easier one to fly and navigate by Pacific standards. At least it has a few islands to pick out and breakup the monotony. Am sure that most missions in this part of the world would be lucky to have a single atoll in the endless tracts of the Pacific. But then again, as an Australian, when we want to visit the next big interstate city its usually ten or twelve hours drive by car to get there, which is probably across most of Europe distance wise. At least thats what it was when I last visited Sydney from my home in Brisbane.

Regards,
Warg