Monday 6 November 2023

Dive Bombing in BTH

 


One of the scenarios I might play test tomorrow is a maritime strike mission by Swordfish from HMS Eagle against a flotilla of Italian destroyers in the Red Sea in April 1941. The Swordfish attacked using dive bombing, each aircraft being loaded with six 250lb bombs, something which might be a surprise given the Stringbags torpedo bomber reputation. 

Dive bombing in Bag the Hun is tricky, To hit the target each aircraft has to fly half a move to within one hex of the target, then dive to ALT 1, remaining within one hex of the target after the bombs have been dropped. Any overshoot or undershoot results in the bombs missing the target. This means that the best approach for bombing ships is lengthways but it also means being exposed to flak at low level on the way out.

To make this mission feasible for the Fleet Air Arm crews, most of them are rated as Veterans in the scenario, which is realistic given their training and experience. This means when dicing for movement they can choose to add a range of hexes to their base move from the d4 random modifier. I'm hoping this will give them a better chance of being in the right place to hit the target and to avoid overshooting after the dive bombing has been carried out? 

If we don't play this scenario at the club tomorrow, I'll definitely give it a try myself at home this week, if I can find the time. Here's a link to a description of the attack based on an Italian account from crew of the destroyer Daniele Manin:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/comments/mivruo/the_italian_destroyer_daniele_manin_she_was_sunk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button



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