This is a 10-mission SAAF campaign putting you in the seat of a Spitfire Vc as the Allies invade the Greek Dodecanese islands.
Download here:
https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=3239Background and History by LarsWhen the Allies had pushed the Axis forces from North Africa by May 1943 thought was given to where they could strike next. Sardinia, Sicily and the Italian mainland were given priority invasion planning and the Dodecanese Islands were also considered as, if successful, they might encourage Turkey to join the Allies.
Four months later an invasion force was gathered for the occupation of the main Dodecanese islands. It was thought that now the Italians had surrendered the invasion would not be resisted by the local Italian garrisons. Meanwhile the Germans had moved in to occupy Rhodes, a key defence point in the area, beating the Allies to it.
There were few usable airstrips in the area and they were hundreds of miles from support units, but the invasion forces needed protection. Therefore, after establishing a usable base on the Island of Kos, a flight from 7 Squadron SAAF were flown in as local air cover. From 14th to 29th September 1943 the squadron flew the Spitfire Vcs usually in pairs, sometimes in fours. They were opposed by the superior Bf109G5s of JG27. Due to the lack of oxygen bottles and supplies the Spitfires were restricted to flying below 15000ft. However, the excellent ground crews kept the serviceable numbers steady despite a lack of spares.
The overwhelming German air and ground forces eventually took back the Dodecanese Islands by October. It was an ‘experiment’ that failed.
Nineteen SAAF aircrew flew from Kos. Six were killed, three flew out, one was captured and eight escaped by boat. Half the 38 ground crew escaped as the Germans invaded the Islands. The flight shot down 12 and damaged 4 enemy aircraft, probably more as records were lost in the evacuation. The AA gunners claimed another 7 aircraft. An honourable result considering the circumstances.
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 zip file to a temporary directory.
• Copy the decompressed Missions folder and the decompressed PaintSchemes folder to your IL-2 1946 root folder. If prompted to overwrite, select Yes to overwrite existing files This will load Whiskey Sierra’s SAAF campaign folder as well as the campaign itself.
• In the New Pilot Career page, choose South Africa in the Air Force selection drop-down. Choose 7 Squadron SAAF in Kos 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.
We highly recommend that you install the Larschance South Africa Voice pack available here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/bwqsvpkraonwe1u/SAAF_Voice_Pack.zip/fileTo install the SAAF Voice Pack unzip the contents and copy the #WAW3 and Samples folders to your IL-2 main directory.
CreditsWhiskey Sierra created a SAAF Campaign folder for us to use. The folder includes appropriate background, ranks and medals and is included as part of the installation.
We use many collections of mission objects from Kurfurst’s templates available at Mission 4 Today.
Marcost was extremely helpful and supportive of the creation of the South African Voice Pack.
Many thanks to the BAT team for developing, maintaining, and improving the BAT Modpack.
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Topic: Short Tours 1: 7 Squadron SAAF in Kos (Read 323 times)
