Wings over France - Mission 3 This mini campaign is set in France in May 1940 with a French fighter squadron (escadrille) equipped

with the Morane Saulnier MS 406 in focus. The scenarios are generated by using the Too Fat Lardies

(TFL) scenario tool “Squadron Forward” and then played as solo games using the rules “Bag the Hun

2”, also by the TFL.

The current escadrille rooster

Name Pilot rating Notes

Esc.cdr. also 1st Patrouille leader

Cmt. Philipe Vadaut Veteran Killed one He 111

Pilot 1 Veteran

Pilot 2 Regular

2nd Patrouille leader 2nd Ltn. Emile Galoaise Regular Shot down in mission 1

Pilot 1 Sprog/green Killed one He 111

Pilot 2 Regular Shot down in mission 1

3rd Patrouille leader Cpt. Alexandre Balconette Veteran

Pilot 1 Veteran

Pilot 2 Regular Shot down in mission 2

4th Patrouille leader Ltn. Pierre Torsion Veteran Shot down and killed in mission 2

Pilot 1 Veteran Hit the ground and killed during mission 2

Pilot 2 Regular Shot down in mission 2

Mission 3 Mission: Intercept (B) with the entire escadrille organized in two patrouilles (1st and 3rd).

Target: HQ (Speed 0, strength 3)

Encounter: six fighter bombers (Bf 110) and four fighters as escort (Bf 110)

Fighters (Bf 110)

1st Rotte 2nd Rotte

Rottenführer Junior ace (Schwarmführer) Sprog

Rottenmann Veteran Sprog

Fighter bombers (Bf 110)

1st Rotte 2nd Rotte 3rd Rotte

Rottenführer Regular (Schwarmführer) Junior ace Regular

Rottenmann Veteran Regular Veteran

Intercept: Normal (= game will last for 6 turns)

Advantage: French fighters have a tailing advantage (one patrouille is set up at 6 o’clock and 10

hexes behind the Germans).

Victory:

Minimal victory –Protect the target by breaking up the attack.

Major victory – Shoot down one or more enemy fighters as well.

Set up

Turn 1 The German fighters broke off to engage the French fighters, thus buying time for their fighter

bombers to continue towards their target. The German fighter ace dived in a split –s that surprised

his wing man, so that rotte was split up. No firing so far.

Turn 2 The German fighter bombers carried on with the 1st French patrouille chasing them. The bombers

are still just out of reach for them.

On the other side of the board the German fighters swarmed all over the French 3rd patrouille but

none of them managed to take aim. The French fighters split up with the idea that it would be easier

to engage the Germans individually. We’ll see how clever that was.

As some of the planes are about to leave the board, I will from now on deal with this mission on two

separate boards.

Turn 3 The veteran pilot in R2 catches French B5 in his sights and fire. The burst causes one critical hit on B5

fuel line and B5 dives to get away from the battle with the Bf chasing him. The German junior ace in

R1 makes a long smooth turn and ends up on the tail of sprog in French B6. The sprog tries a snap roll

but fail the advanced maneuver. R1 fire and kill the pilot on the spot, sending the plane spinning to

the ground. B4 maneuvers and get on the tail of R3 but did not quite make it.

On the other board the French 1st patrouille was a bit lucky with the cards and managed to catch up

and gets on the tail of the fighter bombers third rotte. The rotte drops their bombs and split up in

order to shake of the French. Two of the three French pilots manage to stick to the Germans. The

leader in B1 fire a long burst on Red 10 and scores a really critical hit on its wings. The rear gunner of

R10 returns the fire but without any effect.

Turn 4 R2 jinks and easily gets on the tail of the damaged B5 and then fire a long burst. The French fighter

explodes. The two sprog pilots in R3 and R4 changes side in order to make it harder for B4 to focus

on any one of them while R1 tries to attack B4 in the flank. R1 fires and score a cockpit hit. With a

damaged and destroyed sights B4 have had enough, makes a split-s and tries to get away.

On the other table B2 makes an Immelmann and get on the tail of R9, while B3 climbs and start a

long circle to come in behind the Bf’s again. B1 fires and damage the left engine of R10. At the same

time B2 fires on R9 and inflict a really critical instrument hit and killing the rear gunner.

Behind their back, the four remaining fighter bombers exit the table and approach their target.

Turn 5 Back on the first board, the three Bf’s swarm around the lone French fighter, who climb two levels

and manages to disappear into the clouds.

B1 fires on R10 but misses and ends up critically low on ammo. B2 scores another hit causing the

pilot in R9 to temporary lose the control of his A/C.

Turn 6 On the last turn the two French fighters B1 and B2 tried to finish of their pray. B1 inflicts a fuel line

damage on R10 while B2 missed. The French fighters were now low on fuel and ammo and had to

break off and head home.

After action events Since the two Germans (B9 and B10) were in deep trouble, I wanted to see if they managed to get

home. I diced a couple of times on the “out of control” chart to see how the pilot in R9 was doing.

Just before impact he regained control of his A/C and made it safe home. R10 had more severe

damages, a damaged fuel line and a damaged engine, so just for fun I used the “all knowing odds-

chart” in “Squadron forward” to see if the plane would make it home. I ruled it as “possible” and

then diced. The dice said nope. So the day after this engagement words reached the squadron that a

Bf 110 had crashed and that the patrouille leader (flying the B1) was credited for that kill.

Mission result Only two out of six fighter bombers abandoned their mission, so the French side can hardly claim

that they managed to protect the target. In the following dogfight they also lost 2 of their own planes

while the German side lost only one. Ok, one of the Bf’s was badly damaged and is not likely to fly for

a number of days, but still…

I rule this mission as another German success and the escadrille is now down to four pilots.

Name Pilot rating Notes

Esc.cdr. also 1st Patrouille leader

Cmt. Philipe Vadaut Veteran Killed one He 111. Killed one Bf 110.

Pilot 1 Veteran

Pilot 2 Regular

2nd Patrouille leader 2nd Ltn. Emile Galoaise Regular Shot down in mission 1

Pilot 1 Sprog/green Killed one He 111. Shot down in mission 3

Pilot 2 Regular Shot down in mission 1

3rd Patrouille leader Cpt. Alexandre Balconette Veteran

Pilot 1 Veteran Shot down in mission 3

Pilot 2 Regular Shot down in mission 2

4th Patrouille leader Ltn. Pierre Torsion Veteran Shot down and killed in mission 2

Pilot 1 Veteran Hit the ground during mission 2

Pilot 2 Regular Shot down in mission 2

Lessons identified:

In this mission the French MS 406 encountered the heavier Bf 110, so let’s see if the differences

between them had any significant impact on the game.

Speed. The Bf 110 have a higher basic speed than the MS 406. Even though some of the germans

were slowed down by their bomb load, the French fighters had problems to catch up on them. Once

engaged in a dog fight, I didn’t notice that the difference I n speed mattered.

Maneuverability. The MS is more agile than the Bf and that definitely counts, especially when dicing

for getting on the tail.

Firing and taking hits. Here robustness, size and firepower interact. The Bf 110 is far more robust

then the MS and this is clearly an advantage, especially when you add the firepower to it. On one

side you have the massive fire power that the Bf produce, released on the fragile MS, on the other

side you have the quite moderate fire power of the MS aimed on the fairly robust Bf. Ok, the German

fighter is larger, thus easier to hit, but that isn’t decisive. When it comes to comparing firing and

taking hits the Bf is clearly the winner.

The effect of the rear gunner. Yes, the Bf has one mg that can engage a pursuing fighter and there

were several occasions when the rear gunner fired – with no effect what so ever. The only bonus the

Bf had by having a rear gunner was that it made it slightly trickier for a fighter to pass the “get on the

tail test”.

To sum it up: The MS 406 is more agile than the Bf110, but once the Bf is on your tail – its deadly and

that is what counts in this game.

There is one more factor though, pilot quality. In order to see how important this factor is in the

actual fighter duel, I have prepared this chart:

Killer plane Pilot quality Pray Pilot quality

Bf 109 Veteran MS 406 Regular

Bf 109 Junior ace MS 406 Veteran

Bf 109 Junior ace MS 406 Regular

Bf 109 Junior ace MS 406 Regular

Bf 110 Junior ace MS 406 Sprog

Bf 110 Veteran MS 406 Veteran

MS 406 Veteran Bf 110 Veteran

So far I have seen seven fighters downed due to enemy fire in pure fighter duels. In five of those the

killer have been of a superior quality and in the remaining two the killer have been of the same

quality as the pray. So far, no pilot of an inferior quality has managed to score against an enemy

fighter.

All the killing has been done by veterans or Junior ace´s.

Sprogs and regular pilots have been quite easy preys as they often fail when testing to perform tricky

or hard evasive maneuvers. Veterans don’t have to test (unless trying to stay in formation) and that

is a great benefit. In the third game we once again saw a junior ace in action. I have said it before (I

think) but I still feel that the ace’s has an unproportional advantage by the extra junior ace card, at

least from a gaming perspective.

By now I know that the in a duel between the MS 406 and the Bf 110, the result can swing either

way. I still have no clear picture of the duel between the MS and the Bf 109 E-1 as the junior ace was

too dominant in mission 2.

I guess that an upcoming mission will have to be an engagement against a bunch of Bf 109, but

without ace’s.

Then I would like to see how the Devoitine 520 fares against the Bf’s. But before that I think I have to

send what’s left of the escadrille to the southern front and face the Italians.