East Africa!

Vickers Wellesley by John Young

I have been working on the outlines for several scenarios for the Italian vs. British Commonwealth campaign in East Africa, 1940-41. These are, by the very nature of the campaign and the small numbers of aircraft deployed to the region, smallish in nature, some being one player per side. But it is an interesting campaign, featuring some odd aircraft such as the Junkers 86, Vickers Wellesley, and even the Hawker Hartbeest. It gives players the chance to use more biplanes as the Italians featured the CR.42 and CR.32, while the Commonwealth forces had the Gladiator and Hawker Fury. Later scenarios saw the introduction of the Hurricane and the FIAT G.50.

I have started reading a rather dry account concerning the air war (Air War in East Africa 1940-41: The RAF Versus the Italian Air Force by Cantwell and Sutherland) - dry in that it gives the dates and number of planes in the encounters, but does not use any first person accounts, nor details of how each action evolved. Granted, I am only a bit into the book, and it is well written, but the details on the actions are a bit slim. Luckily AI has been able to create scenario parameters for these missing details.

Here are the plane counts for the twenty-two scenarios I will be putting into Check Your 6! format:

More Generosity

A couple weekends ago, while gaming with friends at DayCon, I was chatting with one who does 1/600 scale (heathen!) as I was complimenting him on his Battle of Britain planes that he had painted up and used for another event a few years before. For some reason I misremembered them as being 1/600 when he corrected me and stated that they were indeed the Chosen Scale of 1/285. He also mentioned that he needed to figure out what to do with them since he now games in that tinier scale. A few days later I mentioned to him that I would be interested in the planes if he decided to part with them.

Yesterday he brought the planes to me and told me to keep them. Bear in mind these are beautifully painted planes, twenty-eight in sum, and he did not want anything for them! (little does he know I have a cunning plan to repay his kindness) So now I have another theater for World War Two, and what he bequeathed to me can cover a half dozen scenarios from the various scenario books (Over the Channel, Days of Glory, and Battles Above 1)

Lentolaivue 32

Model 75A of Lentolaivue 32 in the later scheme of olive green and black over light blue

For those who have interest in the Continuation War, you probably know of the exploits of Lentolaivue 24 and their amazing successes while using the Brewster Model 239 against the numerically superior Soviets. However, the Finns fielded other squadrons that also delivered impressive kill ratios from mid-1941 until the Finns signed an armistice with the Soviets in mid-1944. One of those squadrons, flying another outmoded American fighter, was Lentolaivue 32. This squadron, which started the war flying Fokker XXIs, supported by a flight of Hawker Hurricanes, transitioned to the Curtiss Model 75A a few weeks into the war. The Sussu (Sweetheart), as the Model 75 was known in Finnish service, served in LLv 32 for three years and chalked up an impressive kill ratio over their Soviet counterparts. I have covered the Curtiss in Finnish service previously (found HERE) so I will not rehash those details. This post focuses on Lentolaivue 32 and its impressive string of victories, even when flying against advance Soviet fighters later in the war.

The squadron received its first victory on June 25, 1941 when Veikko Evinen, flying a Fokker XXI, shot down a pair of Tupolev SB-2. Evinen would obtain four victories in LLv 32, all in 1941. He would later transfer to LLv 34 and obtain ace status before being killed. LLv 32 would obtain 7.5 victories while flying the Fokker. LLv 32's first aces would be Paavo Berg and Kyösti Karhila, both obtaining their fifth kill on September 19, 1941, both victorious over MiG-3s.

A schwarm of Sussus

The following list shows the claims of the squadron, most of the claims verified against Russian archival sources. Note: FR = Fokker XXI, HC = Hurricane, CU = Curtiss, and MT - Messerschmitt.

Let's look at Lentolaivue 32 by the overall numbers. The squadron racked up 206 victories against nineteen losses for a ratio of nearly 11:1. Of the losses, six planes were lost due to anti-aircraft fire, three were lost due to Soviet airstrikes on Finnish airfields, while only ten were lost in combat, yielding a ratio of almost 21:1 when only counting combat losses. Ten LLv 32 pilots were killed, two wounded, and one was made a prisoner of war. Sixty-three of the squadron's pilots had at least a half kill and sixteen pilots made ace status. These numbers are even more impressive when taking into consideration that the squadron was rarely anywhere near full strength.

As seen on the following chart, the squadron was very successful against early war Soviet fighters, but also racked up numerous kills against the superior LaGG-3s and La-5s, again demonstrating the quality edge the Finnish pilots possessed as late as mid-1944.

I will discuss my final thoughts on rating the Finns in a future entry as a follow up to my previous post on Finnish aircrew quality.

The Commissioned Projects - Part VI

From the Wardrawings site

Next up, completing the Burma project. I recently received an order from Table Top Flights that will allow me (once the planes have been painted)  to host six different scenarios from a variety of sources (the core rules, Battles Above 3, and one additional scenario found on the Check Your 6! discussion group). Focusing solely on fighters as the prospect of having a dozen bombers on the tabletop does not excite me.

I am adding three Ki-44 Shoki (Devil Queller), two Curtiss Hawk Model 81A-2 (known to most of us as the P-40B/C), six Ki-27, two Hurricanes, and three P-40E models. This will provide, along with the existing planes I have already for Burma, all the aircraft needed for the following scenarios:

With these planes getting ready to ship off, once completed they will give me all the Burma I need!

Burma!

Yesterday I hosted a Check Your 6! game at the local gaming store (if a 50 minute drive is considered local), using the Burmese Buffalo Hunt scenario found on the CY6 forum with a few minor changes. It was a fun challenge for both sides as the scenario takes place in the rain and fog and visibility is drastically reduced. Also, the Hurricanes of 17 Squadron have their long range fuel tanks still attached, severely impacting their speed and maneuverability.

Nine Nates faced off against three pairs of Allied aircraft - Hawk 81s of the American Volunteer Group's 1st Squadron, Buffalos of the British 67 Squadron, and the aforementioned Hurricanes. It was interesting to watch the player's morale ebb and flow with the game. After spotting the Buffaloes, and having a set of the three Nates drop down from above just a few hexes away from them, the Japanese players continued to place hits on the Brewsters, but the robustness of the Buffalo coupled with the two light machineguns of the Nates meant that the Buffalos were not going anywhere for some time. However, the tide began to turn a bit with one of the Buffalos taking damage and the other receiving a lucky hit, impacting its fuel. By this time the slow climbing and slow moving Hurricanes, along with the faster Hawks, made their way into the fry, but the Nates were able to react and drive off the Allies. If memory serves me correctly, one Nate was shot down and one damaged, with the Allies suffering the loss of a Buffalo, the other damaged, a Hurricane shot down, and a Hawk likewise. Several of the Nate ran out of ammo during the course of the game (I believe four in total, but it was still an overall Japanese victory. I probably should have balanced the players a bi more as the Japanese side all had experienced gamers, while the Allies had one experienced gamer, one who had played CY6 a few times, and one who had never played.

All the planes were painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

Mat - Hotz Mats

Planes - Raiden

Commission Work in Hand!

Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures reached out to me recently let me know that he was once again doing commission work, and of course I just happened to have planes sitting about waiting to be painted! I sent him two small Check Your 6! projects, those being Pearl Harbor and Burma. The Pearl Harbor scenario you can find on the Downloads page above, and the Burma planes will allow me to do a few scenarios from the Battles Above Pacific scenario book. Here are some pictures of Kevin's work (and these pictures do not do justice...the planes are so much cleaner looking in person).

Flying Tiger Project:

Pearl Harbor Project (my buddy Matt has the Japanese covered):

And the details on the undersides of two of the planes:

These two projects are now complete, short of adding magnets.

Kevin offers high quality paintjobs at affordable prices. The planes for these two projects were $5.00 each.

Shipping Planes for Painting!

Today I mailed off a few Raiden planes to have painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures. Kevin had contacted me via the Wings of Glory Aerodrome to let me know that he was doing commission work once again, and so of course I was ecstatic to hear that great news. Kevin has painted some beautiful planes for me in the past, including my 1948 Arab-Israeli War collection.

Today's shipment included two projects - Burma and Pearl Harbor - for the former Ki-27s, Hawk 81s, Brewster Buffalos, and Hawker Hurricanes, and for the latter P-40s and P-36s. With what I am having painted for Burma I will be able to host three scenarios and for the Pearl project I will be able to do the Second Strike scenario with my friend Matt (he is handling the Japanese side of things).

I am really looking forward to seeing how these planes will turn out, as well as finally getting some scenarios for Burma on the table as I have had the unpainted castings sitting in a box for a few years now!

Mat - Deep Cut Studio