Fighting Irish Forums

Mission will use 4.09b1m Unified Installer version and takes place on the 1940 Channel Map - the following brief is adapted from the actual paperwork written for the raid.

FEBRUARY 18th, 1944
EMERGENCY FORM "B" (Copy)
HNO T 140 A/F
UGI T 11 GROUP
V GPB GPB 5/18 'O' FORM 'B'

FROM 2 GROUP 180940A
TO 140 WING/AIRFIELD
INFO 11 GROUP, HQ T A F MAIN, HQ A D G B, HQ A E A F
SECRET QQX BT

AO,241 18th Feb.
Information: Mosquitos of 140 Airfield are to attack the prison at AMIENS in an attempt to assist 120 prisoners to escape. These prisoners are French patriots condemned to death for assisting the Allies. This air attack is only part of the plan as other assistance will be at hand at the time. The target must be hit no earlier than 12.00 to coordinate with French Resistance and SOE personnel on the ground.
Date and Time: 18th February, 1944.
Zero 1200 hours.
Route: Base – BIGGIN HILL - Via appropriate lattice to HASTINGS – BERCK SUR MER - ABBEVILLE - One mile East of Amiens - Target – Regroup M6 numpad 5 – cross coast K7 numpad 6 - HASTINGS - Base.
Bomb Load: 2 x 250lb M C Mk.IV fused T.D. 11 secs.
Method of Attack: All aircraft to attack at low level.
1st Attack: Six Mosquitos as detailed by O.C. 140 Airfield.
Intention: To break the outer wall in at least two places.
Method: Leading three aircraft to attack eastern wall using main road as lead in. Second section of three aircraft when ten miles from target will break to the right at sufficient height to allow them to watch leading three aircraft and then attack northern wall on a North-South run, immediately following the explosion of the bombs of the leading section.
Timing: Attacks to be made at Zero hours.
2nd Attack: Six Mosquitos as detailed by O.C. 140 Airfield.
Intention: To bomb the auxilliary prison buildings.
Method: Leading three aircraft to attack west and south groups of barracks but avoid main prison building and second section of three aircraft to attack the barracks at east end of main building. Attacks to be carried out in a similar manner to first attack above.
Timing: Attack to be made at Zero plus 3 mins.

Reconnaissance: Targets marked on photos below of prison and surrounding area.







Fighter Support: Each formation of six Mosquitos will have one flight of Tempests as close escort. Fighters will rendezvous with Mosquitos as follows:-

1st Attack: 1 mile east of BIGGIN HILL at Zero minus 25 mins.
2nd Attack: 1 mile west of BIGGIN HILL at Zero minus 22 mins.

Signals: 1st Attack: Bomber call sign: D Y P E G.
Ground control call sign: A I L S O M E on 2 Group guard 1.
Bomber leader may call escort direct in emergency on 11 Group guard 1.
2nd Attack: Bomber call sign: C A N O N.
Ground control call sign: B E L L F I E L D on 2 Group guard 1.
Bomber leader may call escort direct in emergency on 11 Group guard 1.

Fighter call sign: D U N L O P.

General: Emergency homing to FRISTON on 2 Group guard.
A.S.R. on 2 Group guard.
Special V.H.F. codeword: RENOVATE.
Notes: (1) Following each attack sections of three aircraft of each formation are to endeavour to regain close company as soon as possible.
BT 180940A.
XS
BARON AS FOR K WITH R +

Superb Neil .





Vin

Really nice work Neil.

Supplemental photo intel: CORRECTED



possible route,



approaching Hastings from NW,



Berck-sur-Mer from the NW, Abbeville and aerodrome in distance, the inlet/estuary to the right of Berck is the river Authie, NOT the Somme,



approaching Amiens from the north west, road indicated, river Somme from Abbeville.

Thanks for the nice words but most of it was a cut and paste job

Stu

Thanks for the extra pics, really useful.
I think you have the prison location slighty wrong in the final 2 pictures - I have it further west on that side of the town, and on the other side of the river - of course I can always move it to suit your pictures..........................

Edit - sorry Stu - realised I made a mistake on the picture, should read view from West - now corrected

Thanks- much appreciated

Really great work Neil , so you volunteering to be our Intel officer.

:FI:Nellip[color=#FF0000]-G2[/color] wrote:I think you have the prison location slighty wrong in the final 2 pictures - I have it further west on that side of the town, and on the other side of the river - of course I can always move it to suit your pictures..........................

Edit - sorry Stu - realised I made a mistake on the picture, should read view from West - now corrected

Yes indeed! My photos are right, move the prison!!!



Sneeriously, sorry about that. The ~east thing~ threw me.

Pics corrected.


F

Excellent mission Neil!

... and pretty sneaky too.

Who'd ah thunk there'd be two 190's just south of Hastings!!!

~~~

One quick comment. Just before the Mossies approached the prison, I presumed to give a short brief on bombing tactics. A comment was made that that was too much talking. I disagree. Ignoring the fact that the AI apparently made a direct hit on all our dear Frenchies, I made the suggestion that we should bomb west-to-east along the north or south walls minimizing the probability of friendly casualties. If we bombed the west wall and over-shot, the bombs would land on the main buildings. I feel this quick brief was appropriate.

I know I wasn't the lead, but I am a terrible back-seat driver.

Thanks for the fun and excitement,


Falcon

Stu I think that was me sorry.
I know you had good intentions but that should have been taken care of before y'all got to France. I'm sure you were going to impart pearls of wisdom to the rest of the flight, but everything anybody Say's on comms just confuses some guy's, they in turn start yapping non stop then and before you know it the whole mission is gone to hell in a hand cart because no one can get a word in edge ways. Some people go to Lot's of trouble to make the briefs, plan and build the missions and on this one do Intel brief on it, others turn up never having looked @ the forum, read the brief or the Intel and then wonder why they are getting shot down, lost and generally killed EVERYWEEK, I swear it makes me so mad I'd just about pack the whole lot in, this is the 2nd draft of this reply , you wouldn't like to see the 1st one 'Gorden Ramsey would blush". But to stay on topic Stu, again sorry I had no right to say anthing to your bomber flight.

Greg - have to say I agree, see my post in the Squadron forum

People have to appreciate how much time and effort goes into writing and testing these missions and be prepared to take some instruction to follow the damn brief!

No problem Greg,

I had read the brief and even remembered some of it! The practice flight we had before the big show got me to thinkin'. I had lobbed a few bombs at some buildings near the target area, there was no prison on the test map, and overshot slightly. If that had been the prison then it would have been bad news. When we were in the co-op I saw the target for real. Well, it's always good to do a last minute review. I know there is always a possibility that someone in the flight may not have caught the intel, or forgotten bits of it. That's when I thought it may be safer to bomb along the length of the wall and not perpendicular to it. I stuck that idea into the approach brief. I s'pose I made two errors though. I may have waited too long too explain a possibly confusing idea, although it was before any contact reports and radios weren't busy. The other faux pas, I wasn't lead. Armitage seemed to have everything under control.

Anywho, we made plenty of erm ... holes in the walls for the prisoners. I ummm ... hope they appreciated the effort ...

those who lived ...

Oh well. Live n'learn.

Falcon

Wow, nice work-up on this gents! Sorry I was away & unable to join it last weekend. Too bad it didn't go better, but sounds like there were at least a couple of good "lessons learned."
Any chance we'll consider a repeat at some later date??

Bluetwice,

I'll second that. I'd sure like another shot at that rocket fuel plant and I think most of us would like to try to kill fewer French types in Amien.

Falcon

I would personally like to thank the designers of the scenario, it was very well put together. I also appreciate the mini-map and the marked routes in. Although I think I may have been in the wrong Mossie group, I was able to keep the flight in sight all the way to the target. The attacking fighters were a nasty surprise, and right over the damn target! Me thinks there was loose lips that let slip intel before the mission that the Jerries got hold of, what? At any rate I got as far as setting up my bomb run when I got jumped by I fighter. He never hit me but my violent maneuvering with a full bomb load at low altitude did me in. Sorry mates!