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[Dreamk]

After a lot of time I had to involve most of my energy to Real Life matters, I got lately a few free days and this enabled me to complete some mods that have suffered a real long delay, the present one being one of them.
Air dropped mines used in ww2 (and beyond) - an exhaustive list - most are parachute mines (sometimes quite complex like the Soviet MAV-1 that is opens first a stabilizing cover and parachute, then expels the cover to open the slowing parachute, then expels the main parachute case to open the mine third parachute) but some are dropped like bombs. They include contact mines (they will explode when the bow of a ship enters in contact with them, and influence mines (magnetic or acoustic mines - they will explode when the ship passes over or near them, the explosion being at mid-ship generally). Most of them are under the sea level but some are drifting mines with an emerging part (although most drifting mine remain also under sea level).
The main problem is the envelop of drop (min and max height, max speed) - see the included pdf chart. However, if you fly at 200m at a speed of 180-200km/h this will be fine for the overwhelming majority of these mines.
One fluvial bomb is included - the British "Waterbomb MkI/II/II" used extensively by the RAF to disrupt fluvial traffic in Holland and Germany.
Just drop these bombs (if you receive a message "Mine Did Not Arm at Entry in Water" or "Mine Damaged at Entry in Water!" well, don't expect them to detonate when a ship passes by  ) but if they enter (even if you will not always receive a "good entry" when a ship will passes some time after ......) I didn't include delay, these mines become active as soon as they enter water.
If dropped over land, they will explode at random in 50% of the time (the German use of LMA and LMB in early ww2 against British target was due to their shortage in heavy blast bombs - there were a lot of duds...that helped the British to solve the mysteries of magnetic mine mechanism, beyond limiting the huge damage these mines could cause in urban surroundings)

UPDATE 13/05/15 Aerial Mines v2

 update for 4.12
It includes 4 additional US mines, which java files got forgotten i the first release, though the mesh folders were present, and cod files for the following planes that get now mines added to their present array:
B17E
B25J1
B29
G4M1_11
H8K1
HE_111H2
HE_111H6
IL_4_DB3T
PBN1
RE_2002
SM79i
TB_3_4M_17
TB_3_4M_34R
TB_3_4M_34R_SPB

(also included in the !_AerialMinesCods are the meshes folder and java files correcting a mistake in the original G4M1_11 class - now the bomb bay doors are closed when small volume bombs are in it and open when large cumbersome mine or torpedoes are int - and adding hooks for the central attachment point under the fuselage of the TB3, so as to be historically correct)


https://www.mediafire.com/download/8r4vof71l27n51x/AerialMinesv2_4_12.7z

Update 14/05/15
additional cod files for adding mine laying capacity to Ju-88A4 and Ju-88A17
https://www.mediafire.com/download/z63debovww99rp6/MineLaying_Ju88A4_A17_cod.7z

Erase the former _AerialMines folder and the AerialMinesDemoPlanes Folder,
Remove the entries you added to the air,ini files for the demo planes (see above)
Then just drop in your mods folder the two folders included in this new archive (_AerialMinesv2 and !_AerialMinesCods)

List of mines in the mod
AMG-1   URSS   Contact Mine
      
MAB-1   URSS   Parachute Contact Mine
MineJI   Japan   Parachute Contact Mine
MineJJ   Japan   Parachute Contact Mine
Torpedine_Beta   Italy   Parachute Contact Mine
Torpedine_TipoV   Italy   Parachute Contact Mine
WaterBomb   UK   Parachute Contact Mine
      
BM250T   Germany   Influence Mine
BM1000_I_1   Germany   Influence Mine
BM1000_I_2   Germany   Influence Mine
BM1000_I_3   Germany   Influence Mine
BM1000_I_4   Germany   Influence Mine
BM1000_I_T   Germany   Influence Mine
LMC    Germany   Influence Mine
LMF    Germany   Influence Mine
Mine_Mk13mod3   US   Influence Mine
Mine_Mk13mod9   US   Influence Mine
Mine_Mk12mod0a1   US   Influence Mine
Mine_Mk19mod1   US   Influence Mine
Mine_Mk25mod0a7   US   Influence Mine
Mine_Mk36mod1a7   US   Influence Mine
MineA_MkII_Tail   UK   Influence Mine
MineA_MkV   UK   Influence Mine
      
AMD_500   URSS   Parachute Influence Mine
AMD_1000   URSS   Parachute Influence Mine
BM250   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
BM1000_II_2   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
BM1000_II_3   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
BM1000_III   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
BM1000_III_B   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
BM1000_IV   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
LMA_I    Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
LMA_II    Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
LMB   Germany   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk10mod6   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk10mod9   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk12mod1   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk13mod9   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk25mod0a1   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk25mod0a4   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk36mod1a1   US   Parachute Influence Mine
Mine_Mk36mod1a4   US   Parachute Influence Mine

MineA_MkI   UK   Parachute Influence Mine
MineA_MkIV   UK / URSS   Parachute Influence Mine
MineA_MkIX   UK   Parachute Influence Mine
MineA_MkV (P)   UK / URSS   Parachute Influence Mine
MineA_MkVI   UK   Parachute Influence Mine
MineA_MkVII   UK   Parachute Influence Mine
MineP1   Japan   Parachute Influence Mine

The download Link
https://www.mediafire.com/download/dxb2aw6k34dm3tx/AerialMines.7z

As usual:
This mod is for 4.12 and has been tested on SAS modact 5.30 (I used the Pacific Islands map and friendly cargo as targets).

 
This package is freeware.
This software may be freely used, copied and distributed with the following restrictions:
1) the present post must be included as a "Readme" text file.
2) DO NOT place these files anywhere that requires a fee for downloading.
3) DO NOT place any of these files in any commercial package or any CD collection without the authors consent.

Original 3dModel, Java Files, FM: Dreamk

Theses files should not cause any problems with your computer, but we accept no responsibility if you think it does.

Thanks to Oleg Maddox and Qtim for creating Il2 and opening the gates to Mod creation, to Kumpel for his matrix tool, and thanks to SAS for enabling modders to share their knowledge on Il2 modding.
                                Create!

Enjoy!!!!

HUD messages: "Mine Detonated" = contact mine exploded - "Mine Activated" = Influence mine exploded

[max_thehitman]

AH! Splendid good news!  Aerial Mine drops have arrived for the IL2+mods - No safe harbor for the enemy!
This war will soon be over by Christmas!

Thank you DreamK and all mine bomb engineers involved in this project.

[Dreamk]

Excepts from “Mines Away! - The  Significance  of  U.S. Army  Air  Forces Minelaying in  World War II by Major John S.  Chilstrom.
Defense Technical Information Center - School  of  Advanced  Airpower  Studies. Air  University. United  States  Air  Force. Maxwell  Air  Force  Base,  Alabama. 1992”

The Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command laid 47,307 mines——eighty percent of the total offensive effort. From the first few mines laid by Handley Page Hampdens on April 13,  1940, the number delivered raised to just over 1,000 in 1941, and then an average of 1,000 mines per month for the rest of the war.
Offensive aerial UK mining operations began in April 1940 when 38 aerial mines were laid at each of these locations: the Elbe River, the port of Lübeck and the German naval base at Kiel. In the next 20 months, these mines sank or damaged 164 Axis ships with the loss of 94 aircraft. By comparison, direct aerial attacks on Axis shipping had sunk or damaged 105 vessels at a cost of 373 aircraft lost.
Meanwhile German aerial minelaying of the Thames estuary in Nov 1939 threatened to close the port of London. In that one Month, mines sank 27 merchant ships, a destroyer and a cruiser while many other ships were damaged.
Bomber Command dropped mines along the Norwegian coast, in the Baltic Sea, Heligoland Bight, the Bay of Biscay, and the Mediterranean along the Italian—Sicilian coasts. As an example of tactical support, the RAF laid nearly 4,000 mines between April and June  1944 to prevent interference with the Normandy landings. The British also mined inland waterways, in particular the Kiel and Koenigsberg Canals, and the Danube River. Thus, the objectives of minelaying varied, from threatening warships and U-boats, to disrupting Germany’s ability to import raw materials, transport supplies, or move troops.
For the effort, (about five percent of Bomber Command sorties), the RAF could eventually claim 762 Axis ships sunk and 196 damaged. (Altogether, British mines in the European theater totalled 260,000- mostly defensive - and ship losses from them numbered 1,590).

In the Far East, the aerial mining of Japan's "outer zone" was a true coalition effort - the Royal Air Force (RAF) flew twenty-two percent of the sorties, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) thirty-eight percent, and U.S. Army and Naval aviation the remainder. The mines they used came from both Britain and the United States.
In the Southwest Pacific, the U.S.Seventh Fleet commander, Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, directed the aerial mining almost exclusively conducted by the RAAF. In a letter to the CNO in July 1944 he claimed, "Aerial mining operations were of the order of 100 times as destructive to the enemy as an equal number of bombing missions against land targets." Initially flyi ng from Australian bases at Darwin and Cairns, then from captured island airfields, three squadrons of RAAF PBY-5 Catalinas laid mines in key enemy harbors in the Southwest Pacific. The PBY-5 Catalinas used by the RAAF were amphibious aircraft that provided good results. Out of 1,130 successful sorties that laid 2,498 mines, the Australians lost nine aircraft, a 0.8 percent loss rate. Altogether, the postwar U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey estimated these mines sank 90 ships totalling 250,000 tons, or approximately 40 percent of Japanese losses in the Netherlands East Indies.
From bases in India and Ceylon U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) B-24s and B-25s of the Tenth Air Force and B-29s of the XX Bomber Command worked together with RAF Liberator bombers of Nos. 222 and 231  Groups to conduct long-range mining missions from Indochina to the Southwest Pacific .
Altogether, the British laid 3,450 mines in 697 sorties from July 1944 until July 1945. By mining the harbor at Penang, Malaya, they closed the submarine base used by both the Germans and Japanese. To keep up the pressure against Malayan ports, the RAF laid over 1,000 mines in the first quarter of 1945 alone.
Tenth Air Force B-24s flew from India, while Fourteenth Air Force B-24s and Twentieth Air Force B-29s operated from China to lay mines from the Tonkin Gulf to the Yangtze River from 1943-45.
In the Central Pacific, the Navy performed most of the minelaying, but Seventh Air Force B-24s from Guam and Saipan supplemented the effort from November 6th through December 18, 1944. Then the 42nd Bomb Squadron flew 101 sorties and laid 227 mines in "Project Mike" to blockade shipping in the Bonin Islands, prior to the invasion of Iwo Jima. Carrier based TBF Avenger torpedo-bombers occasionally used mines to support anti—shipping air strikes and amphibious landings. When naval aircraft used mines, the objective was a direct, immediate and synergistic effect with another form of attack.
On 30 March 1944, in Palau, USN TBF Avengers of Carrier Task Force 58 made the first American carrier-based mine-laying attack. They dropped 78 mines, stopping 32 Japanese ships from escaping Koror harbor; Together with simultaneous conventional bombing and strafing attacks, the combined operation sank or damaged 36 ships. The mines brought port usage to a halt for 20 days. Two Avengers were lost and their crews were recovered. That action, and additional mining, led the Japanese to abandon Palau as a base.
Navy land-based aircraft of Fleet Air Wing One also did limited mining. Their most notable missions were flown from Okinawa in the final months of the war with PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol-bombers operating along the Korean coast.
Altogether, naval aviation contributed only a small proportion of the minelaying effort, amounting to three percent of all air-laid mines in the Pacific. The Navy's first minelaying was from surface ships and submarines, a form of warfare with which the Navy had become familiar. On the other hand the Fleet was reluctant to accept the new idea of mines laid by aircraft and was quite willing to have it carried out by other forces. For this reason...the operations were mainly conducted by the Army Air Forces, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the Royal Air Force

Of the approximately 13,000 mines laid in Japan’s "outer zone," aircraft dropped 9,254 mines in 3,231 sorties to create 108 minefields. Across this large area, aerial mining sank or damaged as many as 405 ships amounting to 776,260 tons at a cost of 40 Allied aircraft.

In Japan's "Inner Sea zone", "Operation Starvation" sank more ship tonnage in, the last six months of the war than the concentrated efforts of all other sources combined. The Twentieth Air Force flew  1,529 sorties and laid 12,135 mines in 26 fields on 46 separate missions. Mining demanded only 5.7 percent of the XXI Bomber Command’s total sorties, and fifteen B-29s were lost in the effort - just under a one percent loss rate. In return, mines sank or damaged 670 ships totaling 1,251,256 tons

[Dreamk]

Operation Starvation
To satisfy ever-increasing demands, Japan entered the war with 6,000,000 tons of shipping and seized another 823,000 tons in early conquests. However, its military failed to use this sealift capacity efficiently and also to plan shipbuilding for a lengthy con i ct .From 1942 on, the Allies sank ships faster than Japan could replace them. 4 By the start of "Operation Starvation," shipping had been reduced to only 2,000,000 tons. Significantly, traffic between inland seaports became even more critical as industry dispersed due to Twentieth Air Force bombing. These factors made mines an especially potent threat to what remained of Japan's merchant fleet and naval forces.

The aerial mining of Japan’s home waters took the name "Operation Starvation"- a five-phase campaign that began on March 27th 1945, aimed at strangling what remained of Japanese sea lines of communication. Its architects believed mining would so starve both Japan’s industry and population that the blockade would fatally weaken the nation’s will to continue the war. The plan had three objectives: To prevent raw materials and food from reaching Japan, to prevent the supply and deployment of Japanese military forces, and to disrupt marine transportation within the Inland Sea.

On January 27th 1945 LeMay approved the tactics for individual bombers flyi ng at low altitude (between 5.000 and 8.000 feet) to deliver mines at night. This approach eliminated the need for large defensive formations, enhanced accuracy, allowed more mines to be carried, complicated Japanese defensive measures, and provided twelve hours of daylight for search and rescue should the bomber not make it back.
In February 1945 the newly arrived 313th Bombardment Wing at Tinian began training B-29 combat crews for the minelaying mission. Their aircraft required the AN/APQ-l3 radar (for night and bad-weather mine drops over featureless waters, but needed only minor modification to carry twelve 1,000 pound mines, seven 2,000 pound mines, or a combination.

Although four missions involved 100 B-29s of the 313th Bomb Wing in a "maximum effort,”most of the campaign only required the thirty aircraft of its 505th Bomb Group. Between March 27th and April  12th, the wing few 246 sorties and dropped 2,030 mines on seven separate missions. Mines closed the Shimonoseki Strait for almost two weeks and so restricted Japanese naval traffic that the only passable route was through the Bungo Strait - the Inland Sea’s
southeastern exit. If ships attempted to sortie through this passage, they faced almost certain detection. Here, on April 6th, a B-29 sighted an Oklnawa-bound task force led by the battleship Yamato. The next day, carrier-based torpedo and dive bombers intercepted and sank the Yamato with most of her escorts.

Phase two, the "industrial center blockade,"  consisted of only two missions on May 3rd and 5th, but sent almost 200 aircraft carrying a wide variety of mines against Japanese ports. Its purpose was " to destroy sea—bome commerce between Japan's great industrial zones." Phase two targeted the Shimonoseki Strait, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe-Osaka harbors, and snipping lanes of the Inland Sea. The majority of the 1,422 mines used were the 2,000 pound variety, and half were a new, "unsweepable," pressure type. Reconnaissance now showed the number of ships and estimated tonnage passing through the Shimonoseki Strait was only about one-tenth what it had been before the mining campaign. Ship losses mounted, and as shipping diverted to western and northern harbors, the mining campaign targeted additional ports as well.

Phase three began on May 13th, extending the minefields from Shimonoseki to northwest Honshu and Kyushu. Its purpose was "to blockade the bulk of enemy shipping moving from the Asiatic mainland to Japan".  In eight missions, 209 aircraft laid 1,313 mines of disparate varieties, including a small number of "unsweepable" low frequency acoustic mines.” The results in May 1945 showed, for the first time, mines sinking more ships per month than submarines - l13 in the Shimonoseki Strait alone, which amounted to nine percent of Japan's dwindling merchant fleet.

Phase four intensified the blockade of northwest Honshu and Kyushu, extended it to secondary harbors, and continued to target the Shimonoseki Strait. It began June 7th and for a month consisted of missions flown  on alternate nights. During this phase, 404 aircraft, on 14 missions, dropped 3,542 mines.

The fifth and final phase, a "total blockade," lasted from July 9th through August 14th and followed the pattern of the previous month’s operations. By now, B-29s sometimes returned to Iwo Jima rather than Tinian to extend their effective range to 3,675 miles and put all of Japan under a nearly complete blockade. The bombers maintained the minefields in the Shimonoseki Strait, the ports of northwest Honshu and Kyushu, and also Korean harbors at Pusan, Masan, Wonsan. Hungnam. and Chongjin. During this period the minelaying B-29s also dropped four and a half million psychological warfare pamphlets emphasizing to the Japanese that their deteriorating food situation was one effect of the mine blockade. In the last phase, 4-74 aircraft on fifteen missions laid 3,746 mines.
The minelaying continued until the final day of the war.

[max_thehitman]

This new addition is not good for DBW-4.10 users. Game crashes at 20% 

So, its only good for 4.12 ....?

[SAS~Gerax]

Many thanks for this mod DreamK. 

20% CTD in 412.MA5.30:
can't load the Swordfish, had to disable its air.ini line (wrong entry?)
to have the mod running, all other planes loads OK.

Code: [Select]

[11:06:34 PM] Spawn.get( com.maddox.il2.objects.air.SW2_B ): com.maddox.il2.objects.air.CockpitSW2
[11:06:34 PM] java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com.maddox.il2.objects.air.CockpitSW2
[11:06:34 PM] at com.maddox.il2.objects.air.SW2_B.class$(SW2_B.java:96)
[11:06:34 PM] at com.maddox.il2.objects.air.SW2_B.<clinit>(SW2_B.java:106)

[Dreamk]

You must have the Swordfish II for 4.12 installed  in addition to the regular Il2 Core Swordfish - see https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,14919.msg458656.html#msg458656

Download link for the Swordfish II mod including all fixes
(delete all the files of the previously installed Swordfish II mod as they would keep interfering with the SAS_Flyable pack):
https://www.mediafire.com/?c6bzc67go1j39bq
air.ini additions are the same:
SwordfishMk.II     air.SW2 1                     NOINFO   gb01 SUMMER


On this you can install the present files for the Swordfish IIB

[SAS~Gerax]

got it, many thanks! 

[max_thehitman]

Alright then, with this new Air.ini line...
SwordfishMk.II     air.SW2 1                     NOINFO   gb01 SUMMER

The airplanes now load into the DBW-4.10. Including the Swordfish MK.II
Good looking aerial mines on these airplanes. Some of them are very HUGE looking .
Very impressive stuff! I like it.

There still seems to be a small problem with some airplanes not showing up in flight or on some maps.
Not sure what it is.
The other airplane types fly with no problem on the maps. But they don't all carry these Aerial-Mines.

If I just disable these new airplane folder but leave the aerial-mines folder in the game. The game loads OK.

Thank you DreamK

[Dreamk]

which aircraft are the "elusive" one? and which maps?
The planes can be divided in 2 sub-groups:
one - the He111 H6B, the DB-3TB and the Swordfish IIB  - these are the ones for whom, I didn't made a dedicated cockpit as in QMB they flew without problem using the cockpits of the He111-H6/DB-3T/Swordfish II. Or may be it's map related
the other one: B5N2M, Re-2002S and A-20CS that have their own dedicated cockpit.

[Tofolo]

Wonderful feature, glad to see you back!

Thanks!




But...
Is that the He-59???

[slipper]

superb work Dreamk


I will now have to get to work and add them to my Bomber Command Mod so that we can have historical loads for the Wellington, Lancaster and Halifax.


I am working on a 4.12 update anyway so this comes as a nice surprise at a good time.

many, many thanks mate, will post an update when i am finished.


regards

slipper

I got lately a few free days and this enabled me to complete some mods that have suffered a real long delay, the present one being one of them.

wouldn't happen to have any WW2 British bombs or Pyrotechnics/Target Indicators in those 'some' mods would you?