Target for Tonight AAR

[pierre the shy]

A brief AAR of a solo game of Target for Tonight that I played recently - written up as there was some interest in playing further games.

April 5/6 1943 RAF Feltwell 75 (NZ) Sqn

There was hushed silence in the briefing room as the Intelligence Officer drew back the curtain on the target map.  "Right chaps, the target for tonight is the U-Boat Pens and dockyards at Keil" he announced "Our friends in the Admiralty are keen for our help to stem the flow of U-boats making it out into the Atlantic so this raid has been laid on accordingly".

"This should be a good test for B flight's new Lancasters. A NNE course out over the North Sea, coming in over Southern Denmark, then running south to the target and exiting German airspace out over the Helgoland Bight. You'll be loaded with a mix of 2000lb AP and 500lb SAP bombs to help pierce the pens and any ships or subs that are alongside. The weather is not expected to be that good with a cold front moving over the North Sea meaning visibility over the target will be limited. Take off will be at 1045 tonight. Your job is to bomb the target and bring your aircraft back safely, Good Luck".

B flight's roster for the raid was 6 brand new Mk 1 Lancasters just received from Avro's production line at Woodford. A-Apple would be flown by F/Sgt Cross and crew, veterans of 28 missions. B-Beer was in the hands of P/O Massey and crew with 9 previous missions. P-Popsie's pilot was F/O Muldoon, another veteran of 18 missions. P/O Blanchflower was in command of S-Sugar with 10 previous missions. Leading the flight in X-X Ray was S/L Rowling on his second tour, his vastly experienced crew had flown 35 missions together. Rounding out the flight was F/Sgt Deans in Z-Zebra, the newest crew in the flight with 8 missions.

All 6 aircraft took off into the stormy darkness successfully, though P-Popsie's starboard tyre must have hit some FOD on the runway during their takeoff run and burst as the undercarriage retracted, not that this put F/O Muldoon off carrying out the mission in the slightest. Flying through the cold front over the North Sea bought some danger of icing, but training paid off for all the crews and no icing problems occurred, though P/O Massey's wireless operator reported that his radios were unserviceable.

Coming in over the Danish coast, gunners vigilantly looking out for enemy nightfighters, the German defences reacted vigorously, filling the sky with flak of all calibres. B – Beer was suddenly bracketed by accurate 88mm bursts from a flak battery that had her range and a heavy explosion detonated feet away from her starboard outer Merlin engine, setting it on fire and badly damaging the outer wing. B-Beer veered out of control as P/O Massey vainly fought a losing battle to control the big bomber. "Bailout...Bailout I'll hold her" he ordered. The flight engineer, wireless operator and bomb aimer quickly bailed out via the front escape hatch just in time before the outer starboard wing of their Lancaster folded in and the aircraft spiralled down steeply, disappearing into the patchy overcast below. No other chutes were seen. The flight engineer and wireless operator's good fortune continued as they were able to make contact with the local Danish resistance who soon had them on their way to neutral Sweden and eventually back to England. The bomb aimer was a little less fortunate, being captured and sent off to a POW camp for the remainder of the war. 
   
The remaining five bombers continued on course amid the bomber stream heading for Keil, the crews on full alert for searchlights, flak and night fighters, though none were affected by enemy actions, though P/O Blanchflower in S–Sugar was forced to corkscrew violently when his Monica tail warning radar was set off by a false return.     

Turning on the bomb run to the south first was P-Popsie. The Pathfinder Force had managed to mark the dockyards with red Target Indicators despite the overcast and P-Popsie's bomb aimer was able to find and drop accurately on the TI's on their first run over the target as F/O Muldoon warned his gunners to keep a good lookout for the new German "wilde sau" single engine fighters. Next up was A-Apple. Again Cross and his veteran crew found the TI's and dropped accurately on the target despite the circus of flak, searchlights and milling aircraft, both enemy and friendly, going on all round them. 

However the other three aircraft, arriving over the target later, found it fairly obscured by smoke and cloud and dropped some distance before the TI's which were by then very hard to see. S-Sugar being forced to go round again before her bomb aimer could quickly drop his bombs by almost dead reckoning on what he hoped was the TI's and then set a course for home via the Helgoland Bight.

As they prepared to exit enemy territory however the German defences proved that they had not entirely finished harassing the raiders. P-Popsie's eventful mission continued with F/O Muldoon's  aircraft being forced to corkscrew violently when his Monica tail warning radar was set off by what proved to be a false alarm. However X-X Ray had to do it for real after his rear gunner spotted a Ju-88C nightfighter angling in from astern. In a long drawn out duel X- X Ray's gunners beat off no less than three attacks by the determined German pilot as S/L Rowling threw his aircraft around in violent evasive actions.  The Ju-88C pilot did finally manage to achieve a firing pass just before loosing sight of the Lancaster, but only managed to lightly damage his opponent. 
 
Once over the North Sea the crews could relax a little, though flying conditions were still tricky in the frigid air and the flight engineers watched their gauges anxiously for any signs of icing. Coming in over the coast towards their base at Feltwell the tower advised all crews to burn off remaining fuel till the early morning fog cleared enough for them to enter the landing pattern. One by one the big bombers landed and taxied to their dispersal areas where they were finally able shut down their four roaring Merlin engines.

Last of all came P-Popsie with her burst starboard tyre, held back by the tower till all the others had got down safely. With the crash tenders on standby those on the ground crossed their fingers as she came in, F/O Muldoon holding her starboard wing up expertly till she met the runway and slowly veered to a halt in one piece just off the runway. "Nice landing Skipper" said the rear gunner as the crew quickly exited the aircraft to wait for the tender to take them back to the de-brief and then onto a well deserved breakfast of eggs and bacon. "Well as they say – any landing you can walk away from is a good one" laughed Muldoon.

Once the surviving members of B-Beer's crew had returned to the UK In October 1943, some 6 months after the raid, P/O Massey's bravery was recognised by his being posthumously gazetted to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions on during the raid of 5/6 April 1943.

[paulr]

An interesting report and an interesting system, would definitely like to give it a try at some stage

I must admit a couple of the pilots have me stumped; F/Sgt Cross & P/O Blanchflower
I assume it is F/Sgt R Deans of Christ's College

[Steve J]

Thanks for a nice AAR. Are these games played with miniatures or cardboard counters?

[pierre the shy]

Thanks for a nice AAR. Are these games played with miniatures or cardboard counters?

Thanks for taking the time to read it.

1/300 Miniatures are recommended but I am using cardboard counters which work just as well. The cost and sheer logisitics of getting the planes/decals etc from various sources to NZ make it much easier that way for me. I also use an A4 sized raid map with coloured pins to keep track of each plane rather than having multiple tabletop "zones" necessary when using minis. I did make up a 6 by 8 square 4mm MDF board (60mm per square) to run the night fighter intercepts and bombing runs on.

Target For Tonight rules as republished 2018: http://www.wargaming...tfortonight.htm

Blog of a game played in the UK using the rules: http://devonwargames...t-big-city.html
 

[OldenBUA]

Interesting reading, thanks for that. Reminds me of playing B-17, Queen of the skies by Avalon Hill. Minor quibble: surely the target should be 'Kiel', rather than 'Keil'?

[Raider4]

<pedant alert>

By 1943 the RAF had changed their phonetic alphabet.

A-Apple becomes A-Able, B-Beer becomes B-Baker. Only an Australian ('Micky' Martin) in 617 Squadron (unofficially) used P-Popsie, everyone else used P-Peter.

</pedant>

Other than that, sounds like a good game.

Cheers, M.
--

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report, very atmospheric.

[pierre the shy]

Glad you liked it, even if I need to check my spelling of place names  

Raider4 - I used the phonetic alphabet table the author provides in the rules which says A-Apple and P-Popsie were "common WW2 variations".....I don't claim any expertise in the matter myself.

Here's the working links, as the originals did not copy over correctly.

http://www.wargaming.co/recreation/details/dwttargetfortonight.htm

http://devonwargames.blogspot.com/2017/10/target-for-tonight-big-city.html

Since Paul is keen I will put together another game in between cleaning up and sorting Scots infantry figures.

[Raider4]

Raider4 - I used the phonetic alphabet table the author provides in the rules which says A-Apple and P-Popsie were "common WW2 variations".....I don't claim any expertise in the matter myself.

Didn't mean to criticise - sorry if it came off that way!

As I understand it, the RAF changed their phonetic alphabet to basically the same as the US used sometime in 1942. It's entirely possible that some of the older ones were still being used into 1943 (e.g. A-Apple, O-Orange). Militaries tend to be very conservative in nature, I feel.

P-Popsie was not a common variant. As I said before, only an Aussie in 617 Squadron. P-Peter is the correct one here.

A little bit more information here.

I'm a big fan of the 'Able, Baker' alphabet, much prefer it to the current 'Alpha, Bravo'.

Cheers, M.
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[Raider4]

http://devonwargames.blogspot.com/2017/10/target-for-tonight-big-city.html

Ouch! Just read the AAR of the first game they played. 80% losses! Brutal. No wonder they changed to using a d20 for the second game.

Cheers, M.
--

[Raider4]

Raider4 - I used the phonetic alphabet table the author provides in the rules which says A-Apple and P-Popsie were "common WW2 variations".....I don't claim any expertise in the matter myself.

You can see the aircraft and their call-signs for the Dams raid by 617 (Operation CHASTISE) here. Click on the links for each wave.

Reading the history of the raid, the second wave did not fare well . . .

Paul Brickhill's "The Dam Busters" is an excellent read about 617's exploits during the war.

Cheers, M.
--

[pierre the shy]

Didn't mean to criticise - sorry if it came off that way!

None taken Raider, I like to (try to) be "historically accurate" myself 

Thanks for the info on RAF phonetic alphabet....next time I will use them.

If you like the Dams raid in particular there is this boardgame from GMT:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-728-enemy-coast-ahead-the-dambuster-raid-2nd-printing.aspx

They have followed up that game with a similar game depicting the Doolittle raid by B-25's.

[Terry37]

Really enjoyable and interesting! Love he Halifax bombers and must ask what colors/paints were used for the camo?

Terry

[pierre the shy]

Really enjoyable and interesting! Love he Halifax bombers and must ask what colors/paints were used for the camo?

Terry

Thanks.

The blog with the 1/300 aircraft isn't mine but got my inspiration from it.

I assume the Halifaxs are in standard RAF dark green/dark earth and matt black underneath.

Putting together another mission as Paul is keen to try the rules out.

[Terry37]

I am interested in knowing the brand and paint name used to paint the models. Sorry I wasn't more clear about that - my bad.

Terry