Hello All,
Here is my next contribution to our community.
Operation Strangle was a series of air interdiction operations during the Italian Campaign of World War II by the United States Fifteenth and Twelfth Air Forces to interdict German supply routes in Italy north of Rome from 19 March 1944 to 11 May 1944.
Its aim was to prevent essential supplies from reaching German forces in central Italy and compel a German withdrawal. The strategic goal of the air assault was to eliminate or greatly reduce the need for a ground assault on the region.
The Allies failed in the overly ambitious objective of the campaign, namely the forced withdrawal of German forces from the Gustav Line, but the air interdiction seriously complicated the German conduct of defensive operations and played a major role in the success of the subsequent Allied ground assault Operation Diadem.
Alto Airfield - Home of the 57th Fighter Group on Corsica
Two principal interdiction lines were maintained across the narrow boot of Italy. This meant that no through trains were able to run from the Po Valley to the front line, and that south of Florence nearly all supplies had to be moved by truck.
Over the course of eight weeks, the Allies flew 21,000 sorties (388 per day) and dropped 22,500 tons of bombs. The operation employed medium bombers and fighter bombers over a 150-square-mile (390 km2) area from Rome to Pisa and from Pescara to Rimini.
Alto Airfield Maintenance
Target example - Ammo Dump
Target example - Rail Yard Communications Center
The CountZero Expanded Italy Map is a required install for this campaign.
The Expanded Italy Map can be found here (cut and paste into your web browser):
http://www.derrierloisirs.fr/il2/bdd2012/The map is located under "Cartes" on the left of the page. Once you open the "Cartes" page look halfway down the list, my apologies, the page is in French, however the map is very visible as:
Italy Exp V1.0_HSFX7 par CountZero
Download the map and follow the readme instructions, they are in English. I wish to thank CountZero for this wonderful map as this campaign would not have been possible without it.
This is a 18-mission campaign, as seen from the Allied point of view.
I tried to keep the campaign as historical as possible with correct dates and times that I've been to accurately research. Due to limitations of the flight simulation some minor deviations were required, however, these deviations do not detract from the historical value depicted in this campaign.
I hope you enjoy.
The campaign has been submitted to M4T for approval, it should be available for download very shortly.
For those interested here is a film that was the inspiration for this project.
Film - THUNDERBOLT
Author
Topic: Operation Strangle Campaign (Read 5216 times)
