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[vonofterdingen]

Short Tours 2: The Polish Fighter Flight in Tunisia is the second of our Short Tours campaigns. Here you will fly a Spitfire MkIX with the Polish contingent of the allies’ Desert Air Force over Tunisia in 1943.

Download here: https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=3243


 
Background and History by Lars
The Polish Air Force, under the umbrella of the RAF, had been fighting since 1940 and had built up a formidable reputation. By the end of 1942 there were less opportunities to claim kills over Europe so a Polish Officer proposed a group of experienced pilots was sent to join the Desert Air Force in Libya. This was to learn how the DAF used its various squadrons to help the ground forces advance against a determined enemy. The acquired knowledge would help in the forthcoming invasion of Europe where air support for the invasion forces will be crucial to success.

Over 70 Polish pilots volunteered of whom 15 were selected to create the new unit, initially called the Polish Fighter Team then the Polish Fighter Flight, attached as C Flight to 145 Squadron RAF, part of 244 Wing. They arrived in Libya in March 1943 and were at first equipped with Spitfire Vs. This was a disappointment as they had all flown the Spitfire 9 in the United Kingdom.



By the end of March the unit was allocated Spitfire 9s and assigned as top cover for most missions where their experience enabled them to become the top scoring fighter flight over the next forty days. They were unofficially named Skalski’s Circus, after their leading pilot Squadron Leader Stanislaw Skalski.

Using just 11 Spitfire 9s and 15 pilots they scored 25 kills for the loss of just one plane and its pilot who became a POW. Nine enemy aircraft were claimed damaged and three claimed as probables. The unit was disbanded by 13th May when the Axis forces surrendered in North Africa. The pilots were due to return to the United Kingdom but the local Air Command was so impressed by their record the pilots were offered to be rightly promoted and spread among units to pass on their expertise.



Installation
This campaign was written and tested using the SAS BAT Mod Pack, available here:

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?board=264.0

It may work on other modded systems but the campaign uses Command and Control objects and Triggers, so many mission features would be lost or unworkable.



Extract the zip file to a temporary directory.
• Copy the decompressed Missions folder and the decompressed PaintSchemes folder to your IL-2 1946 root folder.
• In the New Pilot Career page, choose Poland in the Air Force selection drop-down. Choose The Polish Fighter Flight in Tunisia in the Career drop-down.
• We recommend turning off No Instant Success for this campaign.
• The campaign is designed to be compatible with any rank selection.


 
Credits
Many thanks to the BAT team for developing, maintaining, and improving the BAT Modpack. As in all of our campaigns, we make liberal use of Kurfurst’s mission templates, available at the Mission 4 Today site.

We all know how valuable skins are to campaign building and enjoyment. Known skin credit:

Spitfire Mk IX by Pavlav

This campaign also uses skins from the BAT install and we do not know the author(s). If you spot a skin here that did not receive proper credit please let us know and we will rectify the oversight.

[Yaro59]

Thank you vonofterdingen and everyone else for this campaign. 

[genXgamer]

Thanks guys, another short tour I'll gladly play.

I've played Skalski's Circus twice, so I would be interested in playing your campaign and seeing the differences.

[vonofterdingen]

Thank you both for the comments. Feedback is always appreciated.

And thanks for that picture, Yaro. That is one confident-looking bunch.

The idea for this campaign, all historical, research, and the mission briefings come from Larschance. I have long been interested in the Polish contributions in WW2, but I had absolutely no idea that a Polish contingent of fighter pilots was involved in the Western Desert campaign. The subject matter made this one particularly fun to do.

[Yaro59]

Minor correction on the skin. Plane no.7, right side.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/heegmov0ciuwgr3/Improved_skin.zip/file

[larschance]

Thank you Yaro.

[Brother B.]

Thanks to Von and Lars and everyone who contributed to this campaign.

[Seppel]

So many interesting (and informative) campaigns and so less time.


Thanks for your work!
(and all you other mission makers)

[genXgamer]

Taking a break from modding projects and doing some flying.

Three kills and a medal on the first mission, I think I'll enjoy this campaign.