EDanaII
12/10/2013 8:16:42 PM | Yesterday on FB I mentioned that I had set up the Mission to Solingen (#2) in B-17 Flying Fortress II - the Mighty Eighth.
To set it up, I used our mission reports and looked carefully at the planned route and the actual route to the target. As I laid out the route, I found something very curious. First, the historical route:
Green is the actual route, red is the planned route. Notice the difference in the two. Now, look at this map from the game:
I included the game map for one reason and one reason only: the red and blue circles. Red indicates flak zones, blue indicates fighter zones.
Now, look at the actual route flown and compare that to the game map. The route shown in the game map is the actual route flown and it minimizes the amount of time through the red and blue zones. This is exactly what I would expect the planner to lay out. And, if you look at the historical map, the route in does this, more or less, on the way in -- to be clear though, if I had planned it, I would have gone right down the middle of both fighter zones. But what I find interesting/curious is the return route. The historical map shows a return route through some of the heaviest flak zones on the game map. More interestingly, the group didn't choose that route, but instead, chose to return almost exactly back the way they came.
This, naturally, has me curious. First off, you're supposed to follow orders, so... why didn't they? Not that I blame them, in the simulation, I took the worst amount of casualties following the planned route. So, why did they do this? Were missions at their discretion? I know they could get lost and often did, but that return route is not a "lost" route. It's a clear choice to return exactly the way the came. Or is this just bad data from the game? It could be that.
So, anyone have any thoughts on this? Inquiring minds wanna know. 🙂
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Paul Bellamy
12/13/2013 4:57:27 PM | The game "Flak Map" may not be entirely accurate.
On the original map, the red route is the one the Group actually flew, as opposed to the green one which was the planned route.
Having said that, I'd have to check that against the actual position plots recorded in the lead navigator's log in that mission report folder.
There's a number of things in the mission report bumf that don't quite add up at the moment which I'll have to look into further, especially the statement that the course was "flown as briefed", which it clearly wasnt.
Paul Bellamy
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