Red Tide: Crimean Offensive 1944

Red Tide: Crimean Offensive 1944

April 1944. Axis forces have collapsed in Ukraine. Soviet troops have pushed all the way to the Romanian border, laying siege to the Ukrainian city of Odessa and isolating the Crimean peninsula. Hitler commands that Crimea be held at all costs, fearing it being used to base Soviet bombers intent on raiding Romanian oil fields. The Axis troops in Crimea number just 230,000 men, 65,000 of them being Romanian. Opposing them are the 460,000 troops in the Soviet 4th Ukrainian Front staged along the Perekop Isthmus in the north and the Kerch bridgehead on the far eastern coast. 

The Soviets commenced their attack across Perekop on April 8th. The Axis defensive line in the north, which Hitler had been assured could hold out “for a long time,” crumbled in just over a day. By the 11th, the Axis had fallen back to a defensive line anchored by the city of Simferopol. Knowing that this line would never hold for long, preparations were made in spite of Hitler’s orders to hold Crimea to evacuate troops via the port city of Sevastopol and to occupy a defensive line closer to the city to facilitate the evacuation. The Romanian Navy was enlisted to provide the shipping for what had been called, “Operation 60,000”, with the aim of transporting that many men from Crimea back to Romania. 

Axis fighter defense consisted of just 7 squadrons of Bf 109G’s of JG 52, including the squadron of Croatian volunteers. Since the Romanian Air Force was tied down in combat along its own border, and defending against American bomber raids to the oil fields, it could only commit a training unit of obsolete Bf 109E’s to escorting the convoys. 

The Red Air Force had both the 4th and 8th Air Armies as well as the Black Sea Fleet Air Force at its disposal for the Crimean offensive. Soviet fighter strength numbered 19 regiments of  Lagg-3’s, P-39’s and Yaks. Bomber and ground attack regiments were just as numerous.

Between April 15th and May 14th, the convoys successfully evacuated over 130,000 Axis troops before Sevastopol was liberated by Soviet troops. 

This FSO will represent the frantic air battles over the Crimean front lines and the troop convoys in the Black Sea.

Side Split: Allies 52% / Axis 48%

First Sortie Aircraft

Subsequent Sortie Aircraft (Hour 2)

Ordnance Restrictions:

• All bombs and rockets will be disabled on the 109G-2, 109G-6, P-39D, P-39Q, and Yak-7b.
• 20mm gondolas for the Bf 109G-2/G-6 are available for the first sortie only.

• Tu-2’s will be limited to only the 2x 500Kg wing bombs to represent the Pe-2. 

Event Rules and Clarifications

• Alt Cap is 16K for fighters, 12K for all bomb/rocket/torpedo carrying aircraft.
• Minimums and Maximums are for the first sortie of each frame. CiC’s satisfy the requirement for aircraft with minimums by assigning squads whose combined minimum commitment level meets or exceeds the aircraft minimum.
• The minimum requirements for P-39D/P-39Q is the combined total of each type in that cell. It is valid to use just one aircraft type and not the other. 
• Hour 1 target areas must be bombed before T+60 and Hour 1 targets become invalid after T+60.
• Hour 2 targets are only valid for pilots launching G4M’s and IL-2’s after T+30 or rearming their Tu-2’s  after T+60.
• G4M’s, IL-2’s and 109E-4's become available at T+30. The remainder of the Hour 2 aircraft become available at T+60. 
• G4M’s and IL-2’s may attack the Hour 1 target in Hour 1 but will only score Hour 2 point values.
• Fighters may not strafe down target objects. Only bombers and solo attackers will score points for destroying target objects. 
• Tu-2’s must be used with formations as level bombers.
• G4M’s must be used with formations as level bombers or torpedo bombers. 
• 109E-4’s are worth Hour 2 values to kill (1 point each), even before T+60.
• G4M’s and IL-2’s only score Hour 2 values on ground targets, even before T+60.
• Fleet targets are custom that feature a CV and 14 destroyers. The CV’s will be sunk prior to the frame beginning, leaving just the destroyers representing a convoy.
• Hardness of destroyers is set to 1,000 pounds.
• Any non-target object that is destroyed will be restored at the earliest convenience by a CM. 
• Scoring values will be reduced in Hour 2 to compensate for an increased sortie rate. Aircraft on their first sortie will always score full points against enemy aircraft even after the second hour begins. A player's first sortie ends once they rearm, land, or are shot down. This is to prevent a situation where a last minute strike in Hour 1 can award full bombing points while only risking 1/2 points for a death on the way home. 
• Both sides will have 5K air spawns beginning at T+30. These will be placed near the Hour 2 objectives, but not directly overhead of them. 

Scoring

Arena Settings 

- Terrain: Blksea

- Fuel Burn: 0.8 (to ensure all Soviet fighters have over an hour of endurance) 

- Icons: 3K Friendly/Enemy for aircraft.

- Ack: .3

- Object hardness mults[shp]: 1.0

- Object shape settings[de]: 1.0

- Fighter and Bomber warning range: 63360 (about 12 miles)

- Tower range set to 63360 (for display only to match the above setting)

- Haze/Fog: 15 miles

- Radar: Off

- Enemy collisions: on

- Friendly collisions: off

- Killshooter: off

- Time: 1100 (11AM) Game Clock

- Clouds: light5k

- Wind: 0K-2K NO WIND

2K-12K: NE TO SW - Speed 5

12K-16K: NE TO SW  - Speed 10

16K+: 45MPH downdraft