Raid on Schweinfurt

Quick record of a solitaire wargame I played in which you have to plan and execute the bombing campaign against Schweinfurt in August-October 1943.

I have 390 B-17s (!) and 62 B-24s available. Very good so far.

I plan on have a diversionary raid with 50 B-24s, and then I'm going to divide the main body into two waves: the first wave will consist of 170 B-17s, and the second wave will have 220 B-17s and 12 B-24s. I order my fighters to focus solely on the main raid.

The weather over England is clear, but it's very poor over the target. I decide to delay the attack for a few days. Ugh. The weather begins to cloud up over England, and it's STILL poor over Schweinfurt. I reluctantly give the go-ahead.

Sixteen B-17s in the first wave abort before takeoff, leaving 154 heading to assembly. Thirty-six bombers aborted in the second wave, leaving 196 heading to assembly. Six bombers from the diversionary raid aborted, leaving 44.

The two waves assemble over the North Sea and rendez-vous with fighter escorts. Meanwhile, the diversionary raid manages to pull some of the Luftwaffe that would otherwise attack the first wave.

Well, it seems the Luftwaffe is fighting very aggressively today. Ugh.

The first wave lost 4 bombers to the Luftwaffe but shot down a total of 24 German planes. Not too bad. The second wave lost 6 bombers and shot down 28 Germans.

As the bombers arrive over Schweinfurt, they encounter a moderate amount of flak. The first wave lost 6 bombers to flak, and the second wave lost 4.

144 bombers arrive over the target in the first wave. In the poor weather, they achieve only 15% damage. The second wave achieves 19% more damage, for a total of 34%, which is not enough for success. The bad weather was the problem.

On the return to England, the Luftwaffe shot down 11 more bombers from the 1st wave, losing 13 German aircraft, and 14 bombers in the second wave, losing 18 Germans. The end result is a loss rate of 13%.

Checking the victory conditions, I find that I was one damage point away from achieving a draw--this in the face of a very aggressive Luftwaffe and terrible weather over the target. In short, I failed, but the odds were certainly stacked against me.