This mission is one of many that I believe comes with the excellent ETO add-on for CFS3.

It's 18th November 1941 and 615 Squadron, operating from RAF Manston, is putting up eight Hurricane Mk.IIs as part of low-level fighter-bomber strikes on targets in the Abbeville area. Here's the briefing...



...and here I am, started up and ready to roll. The weather is much as you'd expect it - there's a layer of about 8/10ths cloud with the base around three thousand, but at least it isn't raining. Our kites actually have the squadron codes of No.1 Squadron.



I'm soon at off the ground...



...and then at the head of our formation, as we slip out to sea near the harbour at Ramsgate.



Above or below the cloud, that's the question.



An attempt to nose above it finds my kite being knocked about by turbulence, and then everything goes grey. I notice in good time from my artificial horizon that I'm in a dive towards the sea and correct accordingly, switching to flying on instruments...



...until I come out into clearer skies.



Above the clouds it will be, then, at least for now.



Shortly, the next hazard looms up ahead. It's the Dover balloon barrage.



I put on a little height and slide slightly to the left...



...the boys keeping station nicely...



...and we're soon passing the gasbags safely to our right.



We're soon heading south over the Channel, with a very convincing cloudscape below and bubbling up to our height in places.



This leg takes us south across the Channel and parallel to the French coast near Dieppe, though we won't be going that far. We have a way to go, so I settle down for the ride. I don't see any of the other participating aircraft; but never mind, we've a job to do.



...to be continued!

Perhaps I'm imagining things, but the cloud layer seems to a little thinner, off the French coast.



Nevertheless, there's still plenty of it about, so I decide it's time we dropped down below the cloud. This will help us pick up the target and possibly evade enemy radar detection.



As you can see, we're carrying a 250lb bomb under each wing rack. This was a fairly standard load for Hurribombers, although in 'Hurricane at War', 174 Squadron's JW Brooks records that they were required to haul two 500-pounders for the Dieppe Raid on 19th August 1942. 'The chop rate was high', he says of the squadron's operations generally, and they lost half their pilots on that one day. It's all just a game for us, but at least we can remember those for whom it wasn't.



I decide to warp the last leg before the turn east towards France, and am pleasantly surprised to find we don't spring up to 20,000 feet. In fact we're still just below the cloud, when the time comes to make that left turn.



I slip up into the white stuff briefly...



...and on coming out again, get my first glimpse of enemy territory.



I level out, increase the revs, and start the run in towards the target, which is now almost straight ahead.



Won't be long now!

...to be continued!

In we go, towards the coast...



...then over it. There's been no sign of activity, apart from a solitary ship I saw out to the left as we came in.



Now, where am I? As the shot-down P47 pilot says to himself in the CFS3 intro video. The target is maybe a little over ten miles out, up ahead.



There's still no flak, as we barrel on in. It seems the Huns don't yet know we're coming.



Well, they'll find out soon enough. We have sixteen two hundred and fifty pound presents for them, and are keen to deliver them and be gone.



There's the target! I turn on the Tactical Display so I can order the boys in, which I do right away. The enemy must have seen us at about the same time as we saw them, because the flak has started to burst around us.



Here we go!

...to be continued!

Having told the others to take the buildings, I decide to see what damage I can do myself. I should have waited for other attacks to develop before going in, but patience was never my strong suit.



Bombs away! I just let fly into the middle of the target - there's everything from armour to stores to flak guns, down there. The odd crosses above the trees I'm seeing for the first time - I have a tree mod active plus a new monitor which required some CFS3 config settings adjusted, so will figure t out at some point.



Missed! It seems impossible with all that to aim at, but I still manage to drop my bombs short!



It's always a bad idea to make a second pass on a defended target, but I feel I have to make some contribution. So around I go and roll in. I can see the muzzle flashes from the flak, but for some reason it doesn't occur to me to go for them. Or to wait for the boys to start attacking, to divide their fire.



A trainload of something- or-other explodes under the fire of my four 20mm cannon.



I have time to shift my aim to a second rake of wagons....



...and manage to do some visible damage to them, too.



I'm not conscious of taking any hits as I contemplate making another pass.



This is were the screenshots ran out, for some reason. I decided to attack that row of 88mm guns and destroyed one of them. But on the way out, I could feel the power draining away and knew my motor was on its way out. So I got clear and bailed out. My 'chute opened, but I suppose for me, the war is over!

With the ETO and now Ankor's DX mod - goodbye fisheye external views, hello internal and external dynamic shadows, head bobbing, mouse look and more - CFS3 is still CFS3, but a whole lot better, with much more content, better looks, and great fun.

Good job. 33 Lima

Great post 33Lima..I decided to put CFS 3 back in yesterday..Too hot to be up and about and too much flu around ,,Got the ETO up and running going to try to get Ankors shaders in and going to look over Sweet FX..Somewhere I have a DVD full of CFS 3 stuff but can't locate it so It's Sim outhouse later ..Getting tired of the Lifeless IL-2 world and need a change..
Looking forward to any AAR's you might post

Thanks Carrick and RW! As for other mission reports, I have three ETO-BoB campaign reports over at sim-outhouse, the current one on Blenheims, to see if I could fly RAF bombers in the 'alternative history' but engaging BoB campaign...which I can, but possibly not for much longer: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/120121-ETO-Battle-of-Britain-campaign-Mark-III

Considering the screenshots are from CFS3 they look pretty good.


Wheels