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sandman455 -> RE: Parafrag Bombs (7/21/2013 1:37:46 PM)
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My thoughts on this thread an the other on night bombing in the War Room
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3366301&mpage=2�:
100' Bombing Setting in Game:
The altitude isn't real. It's a number that the game engine uses to calculate your hit chance among other things. This selection signifies that you are requesting the airgroup maximize its hit chance by bombing at the LOWEST possible altitude for the terrain, weapon, fuse settings, etc. It does not represent 100' AGL. A selection of 1000, 5000, 10000, etc would mean that you are requesting they use an altitude that much above the lowest possible. Your hit chance will be modified accordingly from best altitude setting of 100'.
I've dropped a few bombs and you can't drop anything significant @ 100'. You would need special ordnance with special retard/fuse settings like a parafrag which was 20-something lbs. Any issues/failures with your retard mechanism or fuse could lead to serious trouble if the weapon has a substantial frag pattern. Read about Operation Chastise - they used long fuses and special ordnance. They planned for months. They hand picked very skilled pilots. They lost 8 of 19 aircraft and many were to their own bombs. Yes they were brave and IMHO stupid. I've posted about skipping a bomb before. You don't do it any more - water or land. Just too dumb. Back then, with a good fuse (they had no retard mechanism) you'd need to be 200-400' off the water for some margin of safety from your own bomb bouncing right back up and smacking the bottom of your plane. If the fuse fails, hope your life insurance is paid up. If there is AA present, may luck be kind to you.
Parafrags:
The parachute is the retard mechanism for the bomb. That is all. It bestows no special benefits to the weapon and actually severely degrades its accuracy. It mandates that the bomb be dropped at tree-top level or you will have no hope of hitting anything you were aiming at.
If you want them in your game - simply use the editor to give the aircraft that load out. You can use the switches to control the mission if would like. Use a generous quantity on the extended profile since a non-attack bomber 2E would be using this for the mission. It will require that you remember to opt for the 100' selection on missions. Good luck against a target with any real AA.
IMHO the parafrag was not a successful weapon. I'm guessing they were not well received by the aircrew. If you think about the delivery requirement to make them work you will begin to understand why. You simply can't load these things up and kick the tires and light the fires. The planning required is far greater than the normal stuff. If your target is operational and with AA, you will need some waypoints to get surprise. You'll need a rock solid IP that you can easily see on the deck and under combat conditions. You'll need to fly dangerously low and maintain course/speed numbers so you know where you are on your delivery. Mess any of it up and the least you will do is miss the target or bring your bombs back home. On the other end of the possible outcomes is a smoking hole. If you lose surprise for whatever reason, your AA problems will give you nightmares. I can honestly tell you that all of these issues are big morale hits even before the bombs get loaded on the plane.
I posted something about this before. These low level missions are not what was going on in 1944-45 that you see pictures of and read about. Those missions were CAS and interdiction. Totally different stuff. In CAS you tool around at altitude waiting for someone to call you in and give you a mark. Easy, fun and if you don't see the mark you don't drop ordnance. Interdiction is even better. There you tool around at altitude and you pick the target. Anything moving on the roads or RR tracks and you dive in for your glory. Both of these missions are characterized by just loitering around waiting for your target to appear or get marked. These two missions are actually a big morale boost for units. And they are nothing like a low level mission such as dropping parafrags. A low level mission is really a strike on a fixed position - not so much a target. If the target is mobile, you may miss even with a flawlessly executed mission. Additionally, that target will often have a prepared defense. Not the case at all with CAS and Interdiction stuff - it is a cake walk in comparison.
Night Bombing:
Tactical night bombing in WW2 was pretty limited. You could do some if you had everything working for you and some good landmarks. But this is the Pacific theater and unless your target is an entire island, you aren't going to be able to use all the wonderful stuff they had in Europe to guide the way. A jungle, beach or the backcountry of Asia isn't going to cut it.
Bombing a city or town, sure. Bombing a port - maybe with some moonlight and great weather. Bombing an airfield - ugh - only with some help from dropped flares or star shells (IJN at Wake for example). And again you need a great moon and perfect weather. Everything other mission is out of the question IMO.
BTW - I'd have to recommend no low level night bombing unless you tell your opponent your plan a month before so he can stack the deck against you. It is that bad. Plus the player should research the hex. Find the highest peak in that hex - and then select the next highest altitude for your mission height. A mountain trumps AA everytime.
Thanks for reading.
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