Slavyansk-na-Kubani (Kuban peninsula)-Bagerovo, Crimea, Sept. 1943

[hasegawa]

The military situation was getting worse for the Germans after the encirclement of the 6. Army in Stalingrad, and the failed relief. The other objective of the Sommer-Offensive 1942, the capture of soviet Oilfields near Maikop, Grosny and Baku failed.Maikop was captured, but the Oilfield near Maikop was destroyed by the Soviets, giving the enemy nothing. Grosny was nearly reached, but here the Sowjets could stop the german advance and Baku was never in danger.

After Stalingrad the Germans gave way back to the Taman Peninsula and the Crimea. A bitter fighting at the Taman Peninsula began April 1943-September. On 3rd of september the evakution of all troops at the Taman Pensula was ordered. On 9 October 1943 the evacuation was over. One part of the evacuation was the german Luftwaffe. From a small airfield near Slavyansk-na-Kubani they withdrew 15,661 men...
Herre is the wikipedia for the complete overview.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuban_bridgehead

This is the situation you can find at this simulation: https://il2sturmovik.com/store/battle-of-kuban/

The mission today is a flight, that may more or less happen this way in September 1943. It is another Evacuation-Flight from Slavyansk-na-Kubani to Bagerovo, at the Crimean Peninsula a bit behind the city of Kertch wich has given his name to the Kerch Strait, between the Peninsula of Taman and the Crimea. This strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerch_Strait

The aircraft today is a former Bomber, the Heinkel He 111H-16, wich was used in the failed airbridge to Stalingrad as a transport aircraft, because the losses of Junkers Ju 52/3m Transport Aircraft (and its crews!) are so heavy, that the Luftwaffe has never replaced all of them. And in 1943 the german losses in the last days of its "Afrika-Korps" and over the Mediterranean Sea are also very high.

This aircraft was 1941 obsolete but the last was build in September 1944. Replaced as a bomber by the Junkers Ju 88 and the Heinkel He 177 "Reichsfeuerzeug" (Empire Lighter) because of Unreliability and frequent engine fires, and used as Torpedo bomber and transport plane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_111

How to plan such flight?
Avoid all concentrations of enemy flak. Defended zones like Airfields, City´s, railway stations and ... trains, Convois on streets, ships,
Fly low and avoid every enemy flight.









Under such circumstances aircraft are often enough overloaded and very heavy.





I avoid to overfly towns and strategic points ...







Over the Kerch Strait
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerch_Strait








View on the City of Kerch and his harbour.









Bagerovo airfield... another airfield with only an unpaved runway





Good, that's it. Parking with that damned tail wheel makes my copilot.

I hope this is my attempt to do something different in this historical simulation than dogfighting ius interesting for one or another Reader....

[Splitpin]

Most excellent post Sir .... wonderful history , great aircraft .
Thank you very much

[hasegawa]

Thank You.

It is difficult in Germany to bring such things in a forum... But i think we must tell such stories and never forget... Historical simulations are in my eyes more than another "virtual shooting", it is a piece of history, presented in a contemporary way. It is the users who decide how to handle it...

The Heinkel He 111 has an american "ancestor." The The Günther brothers, designers at Heinkel where inspired by the Lockheed "Orion", an elegant and aerodynamically beautiful little plane faster as the fighter aircraft of its time, nearly all of them Biplanes. The first He 111 came out as a "Mail plane" for Lufthansa, but that was just camouflage. The Versailles Treaty forbade the Germans to have an Air Force. 1935 the "Luftwaffe" which already existed in secret was officially presented.
For the first time it was used as a bomber in the Spanish Civil War
Guernica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica

The end of its Days of first Line Aircraft came with the Battle of Britain, where many He 111 were shot down. Here the defensive armament, that "sprayed all around the aircraft" proved to be nearly useless, because it was impossible to concentrate the firepower of that armament, like the B-17 did...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_111