A Tale of Four Gamers - the Sequel

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Have seen T-26's and T-28's with a white ring round the top edge of the turret, as an air id marking I think. That and white code numbers.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

And in 10mm Renaissance:  48 knights and 12 handgunners nearly finished.

[d_Guy]

You don't sleep, do you Mr. Lemmy?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Goes with borderline insomnia and depression!

[fsn]

Certainly some seem to have made it near to Germans whilst sporting a red star. I think1 of my 3 T35s sports stars.




Nicely turned out

[Steve J]

Yep, found the same 'photos earlier today FSN, so mine will have red stars too .

Slight diversion from tanks this evening into painting some scratch built ruins I made 3 months or so ago, as they are taking up space in the painting tray and I could use them for my planned BKCII game.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Renaissance stuff done, photos later!

[fsn]

I think I have sourced the problem with the T35. We have always assumed it was underpowered, unreliable, over large and under armoured. In fact, it was the perforated turret tops that let it down.

[Fenton]

Do you mean the crew drowned when they took it out in the rain?

[toxicpixie]

The Germans thought it was an instruction to "tear here", so they did

[Ace of Spades]

Good all-round vision though! hard to surprise these fellows...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

96 Marlburian Infantry started for an August member of this forum, which I'm sure will be much to his and my relief. Base coats and inks done.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Highlights on jackets and trousers done last night. Facings and sashes sorted too

[Steve J]

Base colours applied to 1/144th Typhoon (old Revell kit IIRC). Not sure whether to add D-Day stripes to the wings or not, mainly due to the effort involved. However, it does make the plane 'jump' when on the table.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Sorry, but no option, all Tiffes carried the stripes, seems they were supposed to resemble FW-190s. Don't see it myself though.

IanS

[toxicpixie]

At 400mph and in whirling 3d  fighting with rapidly changing ranges, every plane looks just like another

What's the stats for the NWE theatre? Was something ludicrous like 60-40 in favour of getting knocked out by your own side, either your own AA or other pilots! Might have been about 50/50, but yeah.

[Steve J]

Come mid-late '44 onwards, it appears that the invasion strips were restricted to the underside of the plane. Presumably due to the absence of the Luftwaffe, it was AA fire that they had to worry about.

[toxicpixie]

Given the amount of "whoops" moments from Allied pilots versus Allied ground troops, I'm not surprised! Everybody shoot at everything, you're bound to hit the one eventually...

[Ace of Spades]

At 400mph and in whirling 3d  fighting with rapidly changing ranges, every plane looks just like another

What's the stats for the NWE theatre? Was something ludicrous like 60-40 in favour of getting knocked out by your own side, either your own AA or other pilots! Might have been about 50/50, but yeah.

I believe these are more or less the stats for German planes; during 'Operation Bodenplatte' on 1st January 1945 when the Luftwaffe gathered all it could muster to attack allied airfields in the West they lost close to 250 airplanes in just one day... roughly 20% of the losses were attributed to allied planes; 40% to allied AA fire and the other 40% to german AA fire (I could look up the exact numbers if anyone wants them). The problem was that the operation was so secret they hadn't informed the FlaK commanders and they in turn were not used to seeing German airplanes anymore so that they shot on everything that flew in their airspace... Losses in % to allied aircraft by friendly groundfire will have been remarkably lower although they certainly did occur in the heat of battle. I can also imagine gunners on bombers doing considerable collateral damage when trying to track German aircraft with their .50 cal.s...

Cheers,
Rob

[toxicpixie]

I think it was the American tactical airforce in Normandy I'm thinking of (although it might have included the heavies when used in theatre as opposed to strategically); I was mildly astonished -  the chances of harm from your own side somewhat outstripped that from the enemy (all sources included, ground fire and air fire). Losses to friendly AA over the Commonwealth sectors were slightly better - attributed to better AA control and being less jumpy, as they hadn't been plastered quite so effectively by their own air

I can't find the bloody article now, but losses by aircraft for the Allies in the ETO worked out slightly more likely to get knocked out by your own side. I don't recall they were as bad as 60/40, as with that German operation to be fair, it was only a shade more likely. And it did include training and accidents, which were horrifically high.