Target: Omsk

The flash signal came in over the CRM-114: Its Wing Attack Plan R, time for some: Toe-to-Toe Nu’klr Combat with the Rooskies

We have been assigned the GREEN ingress route for the Primary target at Omsk - the 62nd Rocket Division - with a secondary target at Komsomol'sk.  Loaded up with a 30Mt, 20Mt for those plus a 10Mt spare for any targets of opportunity we might come across...  Defensive stores wise, we loaded up two each of chaff and flares.

Flying at High altitude, all threats are Low, nil damage...hold on boys, we're going in!

Ingress
Zone 1: Intercepted over the Yellow Sea by long range interceptors (MiG-1) - attack successful but no significant damage sustained.

Zone 2: Flew through the fixed coastal SAM battery zone, deployed chaff to successfully evade missiles.  Coastal radar site also detected us - all threats upgraded to Medium  

Zone 3: No doubt aided by Soviet radar tracking, we were intercepted again by MiGs flying a defensive pattern over the secondary target at Komsomol'sk.  Deployed flares to evade attack while we lined up for the bomb run...sucessfully released a 20Mt device to vaporise the area (6VPs) - Take that Ivan!

Zone 4: (-1 fuel).  Resistance getting tougher now - took damage from interceptors and deployed chaff against a mobile Heavy SAM launcher (+2) but it was ineffective and we took another hit which ruptured one of the auxiliary fuel tanks (now down to 18: dumped 1 fuel unit).  Almost there...

Zone 5: SAM installation protecting the primary target was ineffective due to our high altitude.  Deployed a 30Mt yield device fused for airburst at 10,000 feet,  producing a lovely mushroom cloud where the 62nd Rocket Division once existed (18VPs) - that'll take the sting out of Ivan's retaliatory capability.

Now to get home...

Egress
Zone 4: Interference from the 30Mt explosion has disrupted coordination of the local air defence system, and the local MiG squadron and Heavy SAM launcher were ineffective.  

Zone 3: Just ash where Komsomol'sk once was...  Smiles all round boys!

Zone 2: Overflew the fixed SAM site, which was ineffective due to our high altitude

Zone 1:  Intercepted by more MiGs as we exited Soviet airspace.  Deployed flares but they were ineffective and the MiGs remained locked on.  Took minor damage but managed to evade to return to base.

Zone 0 - Landed with the 10Mt reserve weapon unused (no targets of opportunity identified).  Important promotions and personal citations for all! (+3VPs for B-52 survival, +3VPs for crew surviving)

Total VPs: 30                                         Mission Result: Mission Success!

Summary- really enjoyed this mission, my first proper one and have decided to make it the start of the four mission campaign.  Played quickly and easily and gave a very cinematic experience true to the theme.  Surprised at the lack of random event cards, but it was a short mission after all.  Use of high altitude conserved fuel and minimised the SAM threat.

Next mission: Route YELLOW ...

Axis of Time Trilogy

I just finished reading this series of alternative WW2 history books and really enjoyed them.  Actually I bought these a few years back and had them packed in a box and forgot all about them, so it was like extra Chrostmas presents!

Essentially, this is an alternate WW2 history with WWW2 leanings from a tech and wunderweapon perspective (such as a Waffen SS Air Assault Division equipped with NVGs, kevlar body armour, assault rifles and grenade launchers, in late 1942).  And a great ride it is too!

Essentially (witholding the spoilers) a Multinational Naval Task Force in 2021is preparing for an operation in SE Asia when it gets sucked through a wormhole generated by an experimental research vessel.  The task group reappears in the middle of a US Battlegroup immediately prior to the 1942 Battle for Midway and predictably, all does not go well.  And once that is all sported out, it gets really interesting:

- The appearance of new technology radically shifts the balance of power, but once fired, the munitions are gone and the tech base cant make new ones.

- The cultural issues surrounding a Japanese ship in the task group, and the exchange personnel from Germany, Italy and Russia who face a bit of a dilemma.  Plus 1940s Australia, America and UK just arent ready to accept females and ethnic personnel in postions of authority - especially when some of them are Commanding Officers...

- Probably most interestingly is what happens when all the countries get access to the historical database and find out what happened previously: what gambles didnt pay-off, who the traitors were, and the impact of accelerated technological research.



The series is comprised of "Weapons of Choice: WW2.1", "Designated targets: WW2.2" and "Final Impact WW2.3".  Overall I found it to be an intriging series which was carried through pretty well.  Some of the character development could be better but the overall premise and story arcs are excellent.  Recommended!


More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Choice

Hellman of Hammer Force

If you're like me me you grew up with Battle and Commando Comics - and stout chaps having at stereotypical Fritzes and Tojos despite the odds.  Lots of material for gaming quotes too!

But did you know of this German chap, heroic in his own way?
Guess who is my new WWW2 Army Commander....

http://www.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/?p=519

And you'll find more Battle Action top chaps like the "Rat Pack" and "Johnny Red" here:
http://fanboy.frothersunite.com/battle.html

Soundkannone

An American officer stands in front of a captured German sound cannon, a dream weapon intended to translate explosions of oxygen and methane into killing noise.

In the strict sense, then, when we address the topic of German secret weapons of World War II, we are faced with an enormous task. But the term 'secret weapons' has a more precise meaning in general use: it implies something which goes beyond the development of a piece of more or less mundane equipment in conditions of secrecy. It implies a genuinely new concept, something truly out of the ordinary, which simply could not work without a new understanding of physical science or chemistry; a new mastery of technology; or some great leap of creative, imaginative invention. In the place and at the time in question, there was certainly no lack of those.

Perhaps the alternative term frequently used in Germany at the time - Wunderwaffen - comes closer to defining the true nature of these secret devices, for they were often truly things of wonder, being either completely new and hitherto undreamed-of outside a small select group, or achieving previously unthinkable levels of performance thanks to breakthrough innovations in science and technology. Some of them, it is true, were 'ideas whose time had come', in that the basic principle was understood, but had not yet been successfully applied, and in these cases, teams of scientists and engineers in America, Britain and Germany (and sometimes elsewhere: there were several significant advances made by Italy) were engaged in a headlong race to get the first reliable working version onto the battlefield. The development of the jet aircraft and of radar, not to mention the development of nuclear fission, stand out amongst those. But in other areas, particularly in rocketry and the invention and perfection of the all-important guidance systems, Germany stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Her scientists made an enormous and outstanding contribution, not just to the German war effort, but to modern civilisation. However, there were areas where German science and technology were deficient, most importantly - arguably - in the field of electronic computing machines, which were not weapons themselves but something without which the bounds of technological development would soon be reached. However, all too often these deficiencies arose as a result of demand chasing insufficient resource, and time simply ran out for the scientists of the Third Reich before a satisfactory result could be produced.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

Time and again in the course of this work we will come upon development programmes which were either cancelled before they came to fruition or which were still in progress at the war's end. Many of them, of course, did not get under way until 1944, when the spectre of defeat was already looming large in Berlin and many essential items were in increasingly short supply. We can only speculate upon the possible outcome of an earlier start on the course of the conflict. Others were cancelled simply because they did not appear to offer the likelihood of spectacular results, and in those cases we can, all too often, detect the hand of Adolf Hitler. In general, we can note what can only be described as a wrong-headed insistence on his part that big (and powerful) was always beautiful (and irresistible). This major flaw led him to push for the development of weapons such as the fearsome - but only marginally effective and very expensive - PzKpfw VI Tiger and King Tiger tanks, which would have been far better consigned to the waste bin from the very outset, and the resources squandered upon producing them - and then keeping them in service - redirected into more appropriate channels such as the more practical PzKpfw V Panther.

In a very real sense, Hitler himself motivated and ran the German secret weapons programme. There seems to be a direct and very tangible link between this programme and his psyche, and we are perhaps left wondering whether the Wunderwaffen would have existed without him. On balance, it seems certain that they would have done, given the creative imagination of so many German scientists and the readiness of many of her military men to accept innovation, but it is equally certain that without Hitler's insistence, many weapons systems which made a very real impact upon the course of the war would either not have been developed at all, or would, at best, have been less prominent.

Nonetheless, without the genius of many German scientists and the brilliance of German technologists and engineers, the entire programme would have been stillborn. Many of the weapons produced for the first time in Germany and employed in World War II went on to become accepted and very important parts of the broader armoury, and several have made an enormous impact on life as a whole outside the military arena. The more spectacular failures have a certain grandeur, despite their shortcomings, and even the outright myths - and there were many, some remarkably persistent - frequently had an underpinning of fact.

From http://www.deradlertag.info/2009/01/wunderwaffen.html