WW2 Unit Graphics

The He177, the rare example of infamous German engineering going wrong.
This plane was a poorly-implemented mess of an idea. Wasted loads of time and resources, which was good for the Allies!

The reasons why are a huge topic in itself. Thankfully for the world, allied factories where out of reach for the Luftwaffe, while their own cities were pummeled to dust (at a huge cost to civilian lives though). What the battle of Britain demonstrated is even when they had bombers with sufficient range (the Ju 88), their fighters didn't have the range to escort them (Bf109) or where inadequate for the role (Bf110) against the RAF.

Anyway, here comes the tiny THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER, the CAC Boomerang and its sibbling, the Wirraway:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAC_Boomerang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAC_Wirraway

For the battle of Australia scenario.

And the Defiant for the Blitz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulton_Paul_Defiant

Nice units Tanelorn

Thanks, G!

Various stuff

Are you on holidays, perchance, Tanelorn? And if so, whereabouts?

Southern Crete. I have family here. It is off the grid, i have to go to the beach to get WiFi or decent 3g. But it is great.

Small world! I got back from Crete on Tuesday. Pity I didn't know you were there, could have met up for a drink. I was staying in the village of Koutouloufari a little west of Malia. Drove all over the island and there's still so much to see. Rethymno is lovely and we made it down as far as Ierapetra one day. Did a bit of horse riding and for the first time in my life I have a lovely bronzed tan!

While I was there I was reading Cornelius Ryan's excellent book 'A Bridge too far' and yesterday I successfully played through Techumseh's masterpiece 'OMG' using the aggressive Plan B. Would have had the Guards Armoured Division in Arnhem by D-Day plus 2 if the Germans hadn't blown the canal bridge at Veghel I did have the luxury of hindsight on my side so I'm not thinking I'm some kind of military genius, but it was very satisfying to see the plan work out almost perfectly.

On the flight home we flew over northern Greece, Albania, Montenegro and up the Croatian coast and I was comparing the real geography with the map I built for Yugoslav Partisans. This has put me firmly back in the frame of mind to crack on with this ambitious project. We also flew over Antwerp and Walcheren Island, reminding me of my Great Uncle who was based in the great port during 1944/45 as a Major (later Lt. Colonel) in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He had also landed on D-Day to set up supply dumps on the beaches and was mentioned in Dispatches as well as winning the MBE which I have in a small display cabinet by my desk.

Ah, yes, the OBE. As I recall, our former PM in Canada, Pierre-Elliott Trudeau (the father of the current Canadian PM) declared Canadians were no longer ordinarily eligible while serving in Canadian service to earn the OBE, Victoria Cross, other British war medals, titles of peerage, or other such honorifics, but instead to only receive Canadian equivalents (like the Order of Canada, a Canadian Victoria Cross, etc.), or so it's my understanding. I believe at some point thereafter, the Australian and New Zealand governments made similar declarations and their own analog medals, again, to my understanding. However, I inherited my grandfather's medals from his WW2 days, but I don't believe they're as grand in calibre as the OBE or Victoria Cross, but they are from the days of a unified medal system across the British Empire.

McMonkey - only one blown canal bridge? You just got lucky! I assume you found the sappers in time to save the river bridges?

Yes there was some luck involved, but in some ways the bridge at Veghel is the worst one to lose as it takes longer for the engineers to get there and begin repairs. I kept the long range bombers and Jeeps aside with the specific mission to hunt down the sappers and allowed the bridges that would bring in German reinforcements to be blown, though the one to the east of Arnhem took the Germans some time to find, allowing quite a few Panzers across. Luckily Plan B meant I had plenty of Paras in the city to hold them off.

I might have another crack today using plan A and with the house rule that all aircraft have to return to the two airbases (I forgot to check if that is already a house rule ). That should make the task a lot tougher.

Plan A (historical) is somewhat harder, since it's more difficult to capture Arnhem, allowing the Germans to reinforce Nijmegen. Plan B was supposed to be riskier, but I didn't really add any more risk elements in the design, so it's actually the better plan and easier to win. I haven't really evaluated Plan C relative to the others. It was never a plan that was considered historically. I just made it up, but it's an interesting alternative.

There is an airbase rule in the Readme that restricts the aircraft to a few specific cities plus the 2 airbases. If you only use the airbases, your Sptifires and Typhoons will be out of range for much of the game, and when the Luftwaffe begins to arrive in the second half you'll have serious problems.

Greetings from the beach. What a pitty, it would have been great. Maybe next year.

Techumseh,
I was using major cities such as Nijmegen, Eindhoven etc as airbases and not landing in villages so it's good to know I wasn't ignoring the house rules.

Plan B is much easier to pull off. Use the element of surprise to take all the major objectives quickly and dig in to wait for XXX Corps. Plan A would require 1st Airborne to fight & march their way into Arnhem. Also in Plan A the 82nd Airborne's focus on the Groesbeek heights seems like a distraction to me. Better to secure Nijmegen then push east if troop levels allow.

Tanelorn,
It never occurred to me that any of the Scenario League lads would be in the area else I would have said something. If I go back next year I may go in May or June. August in Crete is just a little too hot for this pasty northern European.

@McMonkey - If you're ever in Edmonton (to see the dolphins, maybe, if they're still here), I'll likely be hanging around town, just in case...

Thanks Pat. If I ever happen to be in your neck of the woods I will be sure to look you up buddy.

Out of just pure curiosity, was the IK-3 ever drawn for ToT, even though apparently only six ever flew in active combat (and unverifiably claimed 11 aerial kills against Axis air forces).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogožarski_IK-3

I've been mutilating Fairline's units again.......

At least you didn't put wings on one of his tanks this time...

I actually did that once........ over a decade ago....