Luftwaffe airfield historical AA defences

[bell_rj]

I created this mission template to use it as a starting point for other Allied missions by placing historically deployed AA defences at Luftwaffe airfields.

 

Please note that you need to edit this mission to get the best out of it. I have included Allied A-20 bombers to attack Saint Omer airfield, German fighters to intercept and a playable Spitfire slot + wingmen as a starting point but I am not an accomplished mission editor. This mission is intended to give you the historical air defences so you can create cool missions on top of it.

 

I have also added in lightweight defences to the French ports and some to English ports and airfields in case you get followed home after a mission.

 

V0.1 23/11/2020 includes:

HAA at all Luftwaffe airfields - These are Flak 37 sites due to the 1944 timeline of the Channel map. Flak 41 deployment was apparently restricted to Germany due to servicing complexity. Each HAA position has 4 guns - this seemed to be standard - unless records indicate otherwise. There are no records that I've found showing where around each airfield the HAA or LAA batteries were exactly deployed, so I've had to guess.

LAA at all Luftwaffe airfields - the numbers match historical records for each airfield but there are no known deployment locations apart from a general radius given from the airfield.

Searchlights - there are no available records. I have sprinkled a few here and there.

Barrage balloons - I haven't been able to find any record of Luftwaffe airfields deploying barrage balloons, like they did for German cities and other installations. So there aren't any.

Ports - I have added LAA, searchlights, and some Schnellboots for target practice. These are not historical accurate and are total guesses (probably too light, but the focus is meant to be airfields anyway).

Cows! French cows are loitering suspiciously by one of the HAA sites. They should not be trusted.

 

I hope you find this useful. I welcome any comments and suggestions for improvement.

 

Download link:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.c...files/3313435/

 

Extract of info used to place sites which might interest you from "Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45 France (with Corsica and Channel Islands) By Henry L. deZeng IV".

 

Saint-Omer - Wizernes (FR) (a.k.a. St-Omer – Longuenesse,Wizernes) (50 43 40 N – 02 14 15 E) General: airfield in NE France 3.25 km SW of St-Omer, 2 km N of Wizernesand 1.2 km SSW of the village of Longuenesse.

Defenses: protected by 5 heavy and 18 light Flak positions that encircled the airfield on the W, N and E sides out to a radius of 4 km.

 

Dunkirk Mardyck - Defenses: had 1 heavy and 3 light Flak positions in the vicinity of the airfield in Jul 43. The entire area around the field was heavily fortified with bunkers, pillboxes, infantry trenches, coastal batteries and barbed wireentanglements

 

Merville Calonne - (FR) (a.k.a. Merville-Calonne) (50 37 30 N – 02 39 00 E) General: airfield in NE France 30 km W of Lille, 10.5 km N of Béthune and 2 km S of Merville. Defenses: Flak protection greatly reduced after summer 1941.

 

Abbeville Drucat - Abbeville-Drucat (FR) (a.k.a. Le Plessiel) (50 08 30 N – 01 50 43 E)General: airfield (Fliegerhorst) in NE France 4 km N of the city, 1.7 km SWof the village of Drucat and 1 km S of Le Plessiel.

Defenses: by 1 Oct 43, the airfield was protected by a 6-gun and two 4-gun heavy Flak positions together with 21 light Flak positions, all of these within 3 km of the center of the field. A system of defense trenches with numerous machine gun positions surrounded the airfield.

[Hiob]

People like you should be praised more!

Thank You!

[bell_rj]

You are very kind, thank you. I hope you found the mission file useful.

[Belly]

Hello,

Thank you very much for your template

It is used for the missions we build to play with friends.

Belly

[Rudel_chw]

On 11/25/2020 at 3:28 PM, bell_rj said:

I created this mission template to use it as a starting point for other Allied missions by placing historically deployed AA defences at Luftwaffe airfields.

 

Please note that you need to edit this mission to get the best out of it...

 

Thanks a lot for sharing this   .. I converted it into a Static Template, so that I can apply it to some of my existing missions, like this:

 

 

Best regards and thanks again 

 

Eduardo

[Rex]

On 11/25/2020 at 10:28 AM, bell_rj said:

 

 

Saint-Omer - Wizernes (FR) (a.k.a. St-Omer – Longuenesse,Wizernes) (50 43 40 N – 02 14 15 E) General: airfield in NE France 3.25 km SW of St-Omer, 2 km N of Wizernesand 1.2 km SSW of the village of Longuenesse.

Defenses: protected by 5 heavy and 18 light Flak positions that encircled the airfield on the W, N and E sides out to a radius of 4 km.

 

Dunkirk Mardyck - Defenses: had 1 heavy and 3 light Flak positions in the vicinity of the airfield in Jul 43. The entire area around the field was heavily fortified with bunkers, pillboxes, infantry trenches, coastal batteries and barbed wireentanglements

 

Merville Calonne - (FR) (a.k.a. Merville-Calonne) (50 37 30 N – 02 39 00 E) General: airfield in NE France 30 km W of Lille, 10.5 km N of Béthune and 2 km S of Merville. Defenses: Flak protection greatly reduced after summer 1941.

 

Abbeville Drucat - Abbeville-Drucat (FR) (a.k.a. Le Plessiel) (50 08 30 N – 01 50 43 E)General: airfield (Fliegerhorst) in NE France 4 km N of the city, 1.7 km SWof the village of Drucat and 1 km S of Le Plessiel.

Defenses: by 1 Oct 43, the airfield was protected by a 6-gun and two 4-gun heavy Flak positions together with 21 light Flak positions, all of these within 3 km of the center of the field. A system of defense trenches with numerous machine gun positions surrounded the airfield.

 

 

I know that this is a four year-old post, but it came up in a search, so forgive me.

I have the "Luftwaffe in France" doc too, and I use it for mission building also.   One thing that's always confused me was how they define a "Flak Position".  For instance is that one gun or an entire battery?

If almost seems like a position == 1 gun, because, for instance, if they are talking about batteries, then most light batteries had 6 -12 guns.  I think.  If we take an average of 8, and then multiply that by "21 light Flak" positions at Abbeville, that would equal 168 20mm guns at Abbeville alone.   168 guns within 3km of the center of the airfield.   I could be wrong, but that seems excessive.   Especially given that there were only 14 heavy guns.

I'm more inclined to think that there were 21 of said guns.  

 

Does anyone know?

 

 

Edited January 27, 2024 by Rex

[bell_rj]

The text doesn't help by using 'position' inconsistently. a 'battery position' has multiple guns, each in its own 'gun position'. A light flak position is one gun IMHO.

So I think you are correct in your thought that 1 position == 1 gun unless we are talking about a battery instead of a gun.  Your example of 168 20mm guns serves to back that up, as you are right, there is no way that number of guns would be available for a single airfield. So I agree, and in my mission file that's how I have set the number of guns.

http://www.missing-lynx.com/library/german/flak_dmourtizsen.html  On this page they describe a light flak battery, with 3 guns, arranged in 3 separate positions. The unit had a battery commander - so a battery had 3 guns. So at Abbeville I'd suggest there were 7 batteries of 3 guns each, giving the 21 guns in 21 gun positions arranged in 7 battery positions.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2024 by bell_rj

[Rex]

Gotcha, that makes perfect sense, thank you!  

BTW, I got the 6-12 guns/battery from ChatGPT.  In fact, I just asked again, and now it thinks they "generally consisted" of 12.

I don't think it's quite ready to take over the world 

User
How many guns did a typical German Light FLAK battery have in Normandy in 1944?

ChatGPT
A typical German light Flak (anti-aircraft) battery in Normandy around 1944 generally consisted of 12 guns. These were often the 20mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns, organized into three platoons with four guns each. However, the exact number could vary depending on the specific unit, location, and time during the war.

 

[Tree_Beard]

On 1/26/2024 at 8:00 PM, Rex said:

I have the "Luftwaffe in France" doc too, and I use it for mission building also

 

Can you point me to this document? Sounds very useful. 

[bell_rj]

19 hours ago, Tree_Beard said:

 

Can you point me to this document? Sounds very useful. 

Took me a while to find it because it's cunningly titled without mentioning the Luftwaffe... but this is it:

https://www.ww2.dk/Airfields - France.pdf

Enjoy!