Attack on Siverskaya Airfield : October 1941

Regular readers will know I have a (very) long running air combat campaign based around the war in the air over the Eastern Front. It is not a competitive campaign rather a linear project where the Germans and the Russians alternately take turns in specified missions broadly based on the operations which took place all over the Eastern Front. For our latest scenario (again taken from the excellent Barbarossa : The Air battle by Christer Bergstrom) we have moved to the North and the air Battles around Leningrad.

In an attempt to break the siege the Russian Airforce (VVS) mounted a series of raids on forward airfields controlled by Luftflotte 1. On the 12th October they attacked Siverskaya airfield, with Pe-2 bombers and Il-2's supported by MiG-3 fighters. After a relatively successful attack the Russians ran into the scrambled planes from the airfield but also a group of returning Bf 109's. At the controls of one of the MiGs was Lt Dmitriy Kokorev who up till then had already scored a number of kills, he was sadly killed in the action.

A good set up for the battle. VVS Bombers attempting to kill targets on the ground around the airfield. MiGs to keep off the Bf109s which would come in randomly but no later than turn 6. Each of the planes on the ground together with the fuel dump are targets, we were using my usual amended aeronautica rules.

Snow covers the ground as the VVS attack, Germans have managed to scramble two FW 

but no sign yet of the returning Bf109's. Germans heavily outnumbered at this stage

Those with a detailed knowledge of WW2 Russian aircraft will spot I have had to swop 

the bombers for SB's a deficiency in my collection which needs to be rectified as I don't have any Pe-2's

Russian MiG's fly ahead to clear a path for the second wave of bombers and ground attack aircraft

Bombs are now flying, the fuel dump is ablaze and several planes are trailing smoke.

Out of nowhere the returning Bf109 Rotte arrive to find their home base

being attacked they immediately engage

With planes, bombs and targets all going off or busting into flames the air battle reaches a climax

In the skies above the airfield.

A side shot, at this scale I still haven't been able to find a reliable way to identify altitude, most commercial 

flying bases are just too big for this scale

Eventually with the majority of targets destroyed, and the defending MiG's out of ammo the final

bomber turns to make its way home, we had three more anxious turns with the Messerschmitts attempting to

bring it down which they failed to do, the final shot shows the black smoke billowing into the sky from crashed 

and burning planes from both sides

In the end is was a great battle close as always, two bombers made it back to base and unlike the historical situation Dimitriy was one of the few surviving Russian pilots, with several more kills to his name he is likely to be made a hero of the Soviet Union......until next time😀