Vintage Mission Sunday - Aug 13, Somme Offensive - 1916

[cubancoverunner]

Greetings gentlemen, this week's Sunday Vintage Mission will see us in the legendary Somme Offensive - Battle of Flers-Courcelette - 15 September 1916.

Mission Start: 1900GMT

Both sides will be given new orders in 45 min intervals. The Allied forces are on the offensive. Their air force has to support the ground troops by targeting tactical targets and flying photo recon patrols to determine the enemy defences.

The Central forces are on the defensive. They have to make sure the Allied aircraft are kept away from the battlefield while the bombers attack the enemy's line of communications.

Weather report:  Heavy cloud cover at 5000ft/1400m, foggy. Wind 4 m/s, from the North

Orders will be repeated every minute by subtitles. Please follow these, NOTE: you can't complete objectives until the order has been given, however once orders are given, the objective is active until destroyed.  In other words, you have the entire game time to take down an objective once given.  List of objectives in order is as follows:

Entente- 1. Bombers have to destroy the train station at Bapaume
     2. Bombers have to destroy artillery near Courcelette to protect our tanks
     3. Bombers have to destroy enemy transports on the Albert-Bapaume road
     4. Recon planes will photograph Flers and Beugnatre airfield
     5. Bombers have to destroy the the depot at Lechelle

Central- 1. Bombers will destroy the British Army camp
     2. Recon planes will photograph Foncquevillers and Mailly
     3. Bombers will destroy artillery near Albert
     4. Bombers will destroy a depot at Saint-Amand
     5. Battle planes will destroy transports on road A


Historical Background:  The Battle of Flers–Courcelette took place on 15 September 1916 as part of the Somme offensive and is most famous for the fact it was the first time tanks were deployed in a battle.

We've had some good furball dogfights running this mission in the past, particularly with the Central forces utilizing the powerful Rolands as fighter/bombers!  It's a tighter area of operations than last week, and this time everyone knows the targets.  So dust off the old flying kit, get a shot of courage from the mess and let's go flying!

Good luck and happy hunting S!

[Klaiber]

Thanks for the update Cuban!

[cubancoverunner]

You're welcome Klaiber, I'll try and post these each week like I was doing before.  Summer days made me lazy