Mosquito Squadron
MiGMan’s Combat Diary, 2002
These screens were taken using a Hercules 3D Prophet III Titanium 500with full screen Quincunx anti-aliasing enabled.
Mission 01
Baedecker raids
Ac : Mosquito FB Mk.VI
Date : 7th July 1942
Time : 1800
Briefing
Baedecker raids began in the Spring and Summer of 1942. During this period the Luftwaffe waged the Baedecker offensive against targets at British historic towns, such as Bath, Canterbury, York, and Exter, as well as other places of high historic value.
Fw-190's are on the way in. Scramble and intercept.
MiGMan's diary
Take off from BA Methwold was uneventfull with the other chappies flying nicely in formation.
A short 20 mile jaunt to the coast and we mixed it up with bally Jerry !
A right set to was in order and shortly Jerry had flaming pants. We lost a chap or two - he he - I actually shot up the wings of 2 of our chappies until I turned "Aircraft Labels" on... and I did spin in once... but all in all a good morning's work and back in time for elevenses.
Mission 02
Cargo
Ac : Mosquito FB Mk.VI
Date : 1st June 1943
Time : 0800
Briefing
Mosquito's bombed and strafed seven vessels in and around Hinder Bay on 1 June 1943.
Cargo ships have been spotted - take off and send them to the deep.
MiGMan's Diary
334 miles to the first waypoint ! Yikes... better use "warp drive" (the ' X ' key).
OK - in the target area and sure enough there is a convoy below. After ineffectually unloading all my bombs and rockets - and trying several strafing runs... I noticed my airspeed dropping. It was down to 150 knots, what was going on?
Looking out the virtual cockpit over the wings I noticed, belatedly, smoke and flames.
Aha. "That would explain it" I thought as the Mosquito flipped inverted and disintegrated.
The ships were throwing up a fair bit of FLAK ... and there was that flight of fighters I had been ignoring until now. OK - try again and this time I'd pay a lot more attention to the threats. This was no cakewalk.
This time the "Barnhof Boys", as they were called, made an initial nuisance of themselves, getting on my tail for a moment before heading up and away, they just didn't want to play after that.
Turning my attention back to the ships - and by now I had spotted 3 convoys - I put to one side the entreaties of my wingmen "Look out for the FLAK".. and went down for another strafing run.
It's very easy to exceed the VNE of 364 knots in a dive so I throttled back and was sitting on 350 knots when whamm bammm... the Mossie jolted from side to side then exploded.
This was proving to be quite a challenge. Note - I was playing the campaign on the recommended 'easy' setting.
Third time lucky - I shared a kill on "Doppelganger" and was able to warp home.
Mission 03
Chemical Plant
Ac : Mosquito FB Mk.VI
Date : 1st June 1943
Time : 1200
Briefing
Photoreconnaissance in Norway has uncovered factory facilities along the coast.
This afternoon the assignment will be the destruction of factories in Norway. Follow the valley to the factory site. Destroy all factories.
MiGMan's Diary
Still the 1st of June - but now it's mid-day - there's no rest for the wicked Mossie pilot !
This mission starts in the air and over some eye-catching terrain - probably the best mountain terrain I've seen in the Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 graphics engine. It's 130 miles to the target run-in and although I was tempted to fly there in real time I decided to 'warp'. This brought us to the mouth of a fjiord (see fig.2 opposite) so down we went to what was a milk run. I actually destroyed the factory on my first pass.
The flight home read as 742 miles... so it was warp time again. Mmmm I flew out to 670 miles and the warp wouldn't function. Must have been a bug in the mission design.
And about that factory - it sure looked lonely there - 2 buildings and a dock. But in other Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 add-ons such as Korean Combat Pilot (2001) , when I had lesser hardware, I complained about the frame rate drop in the densely populated target areas. Now - with an Athlon 1.8 MHz processor I was eager for more detail. Just goes to show you can't please 'em all.
Mission - Amiens Prison
Ac : Mosquito FB Mk.VI
Date : 18th February 1944
Time : 0900
gallery-039
Briefing
Mosquitos will attack the prison of Amiens in an attempt to assist 120 prisoners to escape. Take out the walls and guard posts of the Amiens prison without damaging the prison buildings. Expect flak and serious airpower in this area.
Check out the Recon Photo.Hit the Guard Posts on the same side as the Gestapo HQ. Avoid the prison at all cost. The prisoners will have enough trouble just getting out of the prison, let's not complicate their escape.
I tried this mission a few times without success.
Conclusions :
- I am an extremely bad shot
- Air defense is stiff
- This is a tough mission
- I am an extremely bad shot
Mission - Copenhagen
Ac : Mosquito FB Mk.VI
Date : 21st March 1945
Time : 1200
Briefing
On March 21, 1945 Mosquito's from 140 wing took off from England to attack the Bearing Factories in Copenhagen Denmark.
This afternoon we will be bombing German bearing factories in Copenhagen. Flak is reported to be serious in this region. Expect enemy airpower in this area also. So watch your six!!!!
MiGMan's Diary
Fairly easy to spot the targets - they were the only large 3D structures around. From altitude the city mapping looks very effective however - in the best tradition of the ' photo - imaging ' seen in Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998), and which I always felt had been under-utilised in the Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 engine.
Copenhagen is a very orderly town.
Well perhaps not that orderly! These structures only appear around the target, perhaps to encourage accurate fire.
Saying hi to some friends.
Conclusions
Pros
- Excellent Mosquito
- Good virtual cockipit and panels
- 21 decent missions
- lots of extra terrain added to Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2
Cons
- Only 1 aircraft
- No operating speeds or checklists