New Air support?

[Sequoia]

Minor point since we don't actually see the aircraft, but are we early enough to have P-40s and Stukas? I have no idea of Italy's ground attack capabilities at that stage of the war.

[Michael Emrys]

Unless I am mistaken, P-40s were still being used in this theater and at the time of Sicily. But I think the Allies had too much air superiority for Stukas to be employed. There should be some other bomb carrying Luftwaffe planes about though.

Michael

[MikeyD]

To quote Shakespeare " Cry (A-20) HAVOC and let slip the dogs of war!"

[ChrisND]

Americans get P40F Warhawk and A-36A Apache. There's also the A-20, but there's some... internal debate on whether this should be in.

Germans get Bf-109G6, Bf-109G6/U4 and FW-190A5 Jabo. No Stuka. They don't tend to last very long with lots of enemy fighters prowling about...

[Vanir Ausf B]

That's great. Now if we could please get something capable of shooting back at the planes...

[MikeyD]

when I first saw the name 'Apache' I had to google it, I simply could not summon a mental picture of that airplane. Ooooh, an early ground attack version of Mustang! If I ever knew that plane existed I had forgot all about it long ago.

[John Kettler]

MikeyD,

The A-36 Apache was designed specifically for ground attack to Britsh specs and was fitted with dive brakes and the Allison engine, which performed poorly at high altitude. The Rolls Royce Merlin engine, which worked great a t all altitudes, and some redesign were what gave the later P-51 Mustang its sterling performance and reputation.

Regards,

John Kettler

[LongLeftFlank]

But didn't German Stukas and Ju-88s sink a number of Allied ships during the landings? I find it hard to believe the Allies would secure forward airstrips so fast as to sweep them from the skies for at least a week or two thereafter if not longer.

[JonS]

Dunno about Stukas and Ju-88s, but yes; a couple of ships were sunk over the first day or two. But that's not really too relevant to CAS in a CM context.

The GAF and RA were swept from the skies pretty rapidly. A lot of the airfields were overrun in the first couple of days, and that coupled with the pre-invasion bombing campaign pushed the Axis air forces back to airfields around Salerno pretty soon. Also, the Allies were REALLY snappy about getting a/c operational from airfields on Sicily - the distance from Tunisia was a bit too far, and Malta/Gozo/Pantelleria could only hold so many planes.