Meteor Strike is a semi-historical BAT WAW campaign for the Gloster Meteor. The 21 missions cover the Meteor's activities in the Low Countries and Germany at the end of the war. You will experience ground attack missions as well as dog fights with some of Germany's advanced weapons of the period.
Download here:
https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=3044
History and Background by LarsApart from the various German operational jet aircraft, the Gloster Meteor was the only other jet aircraft that was used in combat in World War Two.
It was in operation with 616 Squadron RAF from August 1944 to the end of the war, with other squadrons under training by then. There were rarely more than 2 or 3 Meteors in action at one time over the Continent of Europe, due to on-going training of air and ground crew and poor weather.
The initial Meteor Mark One was used by RAF Fighter Command as a part of its defence force fighting the V-1 Flying Bomb campaign. With only 616 Squadron involved, it achieved a reasonable score of 13.5 Doodlebugs shot down for no losses. The nickname ‘squirt’ was invented by the pilots due to the take-off sounding like a vacuum cleaner starting up. The Mark One had a slow start up and low climb ability and these were improved on by the Mark Three which had a more powerful engine and further streamlined cockpit area. The latter was considered the first truly operational type.
The authorities were initially reluctant to allow the new jet to operate over or near the front lines in case the Germans captured one and used the technology against the Allies. It was not known at the time how far the German jets had progressed although they were aware they were in combat already.
As the training expanded the pilots were authorised to test the jet under proper combat conditions, so eventually they were transferred to the 2nd Tactical Air Force, which was advancing steadily behind the Allied armies as they pushed the German forces back into Germany. Initially, the Squadron, now fully equipped with Mark Threes, flew around the newly acquired bases in Europe so the Allies could get used to seeing this strange ‘engine-less’ aircraft that may have prompted the trigger-happy ground and air defences to fire at it. It was then cleared for weather recon duties and local patrols over the vital supply ports such as Antwerp.
In the last days of the war the squadron was released for ground attack missions and used its cannon to great effect against the retreating armies. Only two Meteors were lost on operations and those were in a collision in cloud. In over 500 sorties the squadron destroyed seven aircraft on the ground, and hundreds of vehicles. The nearest to an air victory came when a Fi156 Storch was caught at low level, but the German pilot continually out turned the Meteor. The pilot then landed and the crew ran off. The Meteor then strafed the Storch and destroyed it.
We join the squadron at this stage, where they are now fully operational in the Mark Three Meteor and based in Belgium. There are around 12 Meteors but they usually operate in flights of 2 to 4, sometimes as many as 8 in later actions.
The Meteor never fought air to air combat as such, only against the V-1 Flying Bomb as noted above. Thus we have created most missions against the relevant Luftwaffe aircraft as were in action at the time period. Of course, it depends on the simulator’s FMs of all aircraft as to the accuracy of the fight, but we hope you will enjoy the fun anyway. Incidentally, a captured Me262 was flown against a Meteor 3 just after the war, and it was found the Me262 was faster by 20mph but not quite as manoeuvrable.
Flying NotesAs you may have limited fuel on some missions do not linger over the target area, especially if you receive a fuel leak from flak or enemy fighters. Beware high speed dives as you may break up at over 500mph I know some of you prefer to use AI for takeoff and landing. Beware of erratic behaviour if taking off under attack, and when taxiing after landing the plane may taxi into a building and you will die. I suggest remove AI after touchdown and manually taxi to safety.
InstallationThis campaign was written and tested using the SAS BAT Mod Pack, available here
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?board=264.0It 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 MeteorStrike.zip file to a temporary directory.
• Copy the decompressed Missions folder to your IL-2 1946 root folder.
• In the New Pilot Career page, choose RAF in the Air Force selection drop-down. Choose Meteor Strike 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.
CreditsMany thanks to the BAT team for developing, maintaining, and improving the BAT Modpack. This campaign uses Command and Control and Trigger functions that were recently added to BAT.
As in all of our campaigns, we make liberal use of Kurfurst’s mission templates, available at the Mission 4 Today site.
We used default skins in this campaign, but thanks to skinners everywhere. Skins add greatly to any mission rendering activity.
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Topic: Meteor Strike! A Gloster Meteor campaign for BAT WAW (Read 1062 times)
