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Point Blank Range

 

 

Artist Credit: Wolfola screen shot

Point Blank Range

January 1945

On January 14th, 1945 the 8th Air Force sent about 600 B-17's into Northwest Germany. They were well escorted by the P-51's. Chuck Yeager and Clarence Anderson rolled as spares'. It was their last mission. It turned out they were not needed and they wandered around southern France and Switzerland. Out of boredom they dropped their drop tanks on a lake and strafed them. After returning home they had missed the biggest dog fight of the war. Below are some first hand accounts of that day by various fighter and bomber groups.

Colonel Irwin Dregne wrote, "North west of Brandenburg a large formation of fighters headed towards a the lead box of bombers. They were from JG300 and included about 75 Fw190's at 28,000' and about 100 Bf-109's as top cover around 32,000'."

After a dog fight that took them to the deck Ralph Mann and Robert Foy spotted a locomotive just east of Nienburg and destroyed it. Shortly after that he and his wingman destroyed a single Fw-190 sitting on the runway of a field.

John R. Stern wrote, "As three Me 109?s crossed from my right to left I broke into them, picking out the tail end charley. I fired several bursts observing hits near the cockpit and wing roots. We made a couple turned they he began to snap and spin."

Major John B. England wrote, "I caught on Me 109 which slipped through and started toward the bombers. I got on is tail but was out of firing range. The pilot displayed a little judgment by looking around, then put his sip into a ninety degree vertical dive from about 32,000'. I followed him down. At 8,000' he made a very tight pull out and leveled off. I made a tighter pull out and started firing at 200 yards closing to 50 yards. I got strikes all over the left side of the fuselage and left wing. Just before I released the trigger, about four feet of the left wing ripped off."

Lt. Sublett reported during an engagement, "The last four 109's broke into us. We started a honey of a Lufberry which went about six turns. I finally cut the butter and got a short burst into one of them. I was going straight down when I fired from about 100 yards, seeing many strikes go right into the pilots through the top of his canopy."

Leonard Carson wrote, "The leader broke off and headed for the deck. I dropped down to tail end Charlie as he started down. He pulled up, losing speed, I kept my excessive speed, fired walled it and started firing at about 300 yards to about 20 yards, getting hits all over the fuselage. He went into a tumbling spiral and crashed."

Raymond Bank called out a Me 262 that was bouncing his flight. "The enemy aircraft overshot and made a slight turn to the left. I turned on my gun switches and pulled my nose up and fired at the Me 262. The 262 disappeared from sight." Minutes later, "I closed to about 100 feet behind [a Fw190] and set him on fire. I bounced a third 190 as he dived and came up into a loop. At the top of it he kicked it into a hammerhead and to make a perfect head-on pass. He was going fairly slow and gave me a perfect target. I fired until he burst into flames."

 

Country Percentages:

Allies 50%

Axis 50%

 

Plane Set:

Allied Aircraft

P-51D

P-38L

P47D40

B-17 (min 30)

B-24 (Min 30)

B-26 (Min 30)

A20

Mosquito

Spitfire XIV

Spitfire XVI

Typhoon

Tempest (Limited to 20. Frame losses will not be replaced)

 

Active Fields:

Airstart Fields A70, A72, A73 (only B17's, B24's, and B26's may use the airstarts)

Regular Fields A48, A51, A63, A66, A75.

 

Special Rules:

Allies must use 9 of the 12 aircraft listed. Three of those 9 must be the B17, B24, and B-26. A minimum of 15 per each type used (other than the B17, B24, B26 which have a minimum of 30 each) by the CiC.

Players may land and rearm at any friendly field.

When attacking fields the only targets are the hangers (Bomber, Fighter, Vehicle) and ack are targets.

 

Axis Aircraft:

Bf109G14

Bf109K

Fw190D

Fw190A8

Me262 (Limited to a total of 16. Frame losses will not be replaced)

Me163 (Max of 8 per frame)

Bf110G2

 

Active Fields:

Regular Fields A10, A20, A22, A25, A29, A39, A42, A46, A53

 

Special Rules:

Axis must use 5 of the 7 aircraft listed. The Me262 and Me163 do count toward the 5 required aircraft. A minimum of 30 per each type used by the CiC with the exception of the Me262 and Me163.

Players may land and rearm at any friendly field.

 

Special Conditions:

Pilots may still reup without question in the first 15 minutes, but any aircraft destroyed on take off will count in the frame score against that side.

Only a squad that volunteers should be assigned the Me163.  Me163 pilots may sit on the runway and roll when ordered to by the CiC or C.O. Me163?s only have about 5 minutes of fuel at full throttle.

 

Victory Conditions:

Single pilot fighters -10 points

Mosquito -15 points

B26  - 20 points

B17 & B24 - 25 points

Strat targets 300 points each. (based on % destroyed)

Locomotives and cars -3 points each (targets of opportunity)

Hangers - 5 points each

Ack - 1 point each

*Points not awarded for strat destruction goes to the Axis for defending.

 

Arena Settings:

Terrain - WinterRhine

Icon Range - Short 

Radar - Off

Fighter and Bomber Warning Range - 52,800 (10 miles)

Tower Range - 52,800 (for display to match the above Fighter and Bomber Warning)

External view for bombers (F3) - On

Friendly Collisions - Off
Enemy Collisions - On
Kill Shooter - Off
Fuel - 1.0
Ack - 0.4
Time - 11:00 AM
Formations - Enabled
Bombsite calibration - Manual
Weather - Heavy Clouds, Thick Overcast

Time 2 PM X 1

Visibility - Will vary
Object Downtime - full

 Winds - Strong gusts above 21k

 

Special Notes:

Please note that the supply trains have many bugs. Some don't follow tracks, others have the engine separate from the cars.

 

Strat maps:

 

        

 

 

Design by: James "daddog" Glazier

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