GriffinCheng+ Posted March 8, 2001 Share Posted March 8, 2001 Is there any, by chance, that German CAS played roles in the peroid of CMBO? Or is there any historical scenario out there feature this? Well, I think I have seen too much Allied FB. TIA. Griffin. ------------------ "When you find your PBEM opportents too hard to beat, there is always the AI." "Can't get enough Tank?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted March 8, 2001 Share Posted March 8, 2001 Originally posted by GriffinCheng+: Is there any, by chance, that German CAS played roles in the peroid of CMBO? Or is there any historical scenario out there feature this? Well, I think I have seen too much Allied FB. TIA. Griffin. The Luftwaffe was active in the 1944-45 period, but sporadically from what I can tell. I am far from an expert, but obviously a lot of aircraft were tied up in Russia and in the defence of the fatherland from Allied bombers. Stan Scislowski, a Canadian vet of Italy who served between Jan and Aug 1944 does mention German aircraft, mostly at night and flying nuisance raids. The Calgary Highlanders history tells us of a raid by Stukas sometime in July of 1944 (IIRC - might have been August); again this seems to have been a nuisance raid, and not CAS - the Highlanders were in the rear waiting to be trucked forward. Close Air Support seems to have been a thing of the past by Normandy, at least in the West. There was a large raid by German aircraft on 1 Jan 44 on Allied airfields in Europe, but again, this did not coincide with ground actions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoncawley@ameritech.net Posted March 8, 2001 Share Posted March 8, 2001 There are only two periods I know of in the CMBO campaign, when the Germans had significant support from the Luftwaffe. During the Bulge fighting, ~600 fighters were committed to the battle, diverted from air defense duties. The attack was timed to coincide with bad weather, though, as the Allied air forces were superior, obviously. The Germans still got some CAS out of it, specifically in the fighting at St. Vith in mid December. And they got some support again between Dec. 25 and January 1, especially around Bastogne and points southeast of it (where 3rd Army attacked). January 1 was the last big effort day, and included a mass raid on Allied airbases around Liege. Ground support in this period would be mostly FW-190s. The second occasion was after the capture of the Remagen bridge. The Luftwaffe attacked in a determined fashion over the following week or so, and eventually dropped the span. Three pontoon bridges had been put in in the meantime, so this did not have a decisive effect. But through that whole period, German units fighting to contain or eliminate the bridgehead had some CAS support. This period also saw, incidentally, the first serious use of jet bombers, as a number of Ar-234s took part in the raids. Other than that, a German aircraft flying support was a rare sight indeed, in the west. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimShady Posted March 8, 2001 Share Posted March 8, 2001 Originally posted by jasoncawley@ameritech.net: The second occasion was after the capture of the Remagen bridge. The Luftwaffe attacked in a determined fashion over the following week or so, and eventually dropped the span. I thought the bridge collasped due to structural stresses more than enemy action. LimShady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted March 8, 2001 Share Posted March 8, 2001 Originally posted by LimShady: I thought the bridge collasped due to structural stresses more than enemy action. LimShady Enemy action caused much of the stress - explosions nearby, for example, from near misses (Allied bombs also caused some of the stress, as they tried to destroy the bridge before it was captured). The volume of traffic across the bridge added to the stress. I believe the bridge was closed the vehicular traffic when it finally gave way, killing some of the engineers working to shore her up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Germanboy Posted March 8, 2001 Share Posted March 8, 2001 When UK 11th AD crossed the Weser close to my home, south of Nienburg, German planes came in and tried to destroy their bailey bridges. This would qualify as CAS, I support, since the bridgehead was under attack as well, IIRC. Brendan Phibbs, author of the 'The other side of time' talks about German strafing runs carried out by Me-262 jets, and how impressed they were that the Germans could throw these planes at them well into March/April 1945. Those were not CAS though. The major operation Jason talked about was called 'Bodenplatte', IIRC. It was the final gasp of the Luftwaffe, in true 3rd Reich Götterdämmerung style. Few and far between. ------------------ Andreas Der Kessel Home of „Die Sturmgruppe“; Scenario Design Group for Combat Mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted March 9, 2001 Share Posted March 9, 2001 There's an exciting account of a Luftwaffe raid, maybe several, in TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, an excellent, deeply involving book over at www.tankbooks.com. You can read the whole thing online, if you wish. Regards, John Kettler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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