Official Historical Campaign "Sky Nomads"

[BlackSix]

Sky Nomads

In May 1943 the battle for the Kuban bridgehead entered its decisive phase. The North Caucasian Front troops managed to capture the village of Krymskaya, but the main German defensive line was never broken through. The Soviet command began preparing a new offensive operation, which began on May 26 in the Kievskoye – Moldavanskoye sector. The success of the actions of the ground forces largely depended on the outcome of the battle that unfolded in the air between the Red Army Air Force and the Luftwaffe.

You will take on the role of deputy squadron commander of the 43rd IAP (Fighter Air Regiment), which is part of the 278th Fighter Air Division of Major General Savitsky's 3rd Fighter Air Corps. The regiment arrived in the Kuban at the end of April and immediately joined the struggle to gain air supremacy, changing airfields several times and taking part in all the main events at the front.

You can expect both the standard tasks of covering friendly ground troops, patrolling, escorting, and intercepting, as well as intense battles over your airfields and sorties for reconnaissance and strikes deep in enemy territory.

Timeframe: May 6th – June 5th, 1943
Unit: 43rd IAP of 278th IAD
Aircraft: Yak-7b series 36
Duration: 15 missions
Average playtime: 8 hours
Languages: English, French, Spanish and Russian
Author: Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshkov

This campaign requires IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban

While being an independent creation, Sky Nomads continues the story of the Soviet fighter pilot you may know from the Blazing Steppe campaign. 

  

  

The origins of the battle
In late April 1943, having thwarted the enemy's plans to eliminate the 18th Army bridgehead around Myskhako near Novorossiysk, the troops of the North Caucasian front launched a new offensive in the central sector. By May 4, after many difficult and violent encounters, they managed to liberate Krymskaya, but their progress was halted once they reached the main German defense perimeter. The Soviet command needed an operational pause to regroup its forces and prepare for a new offensive.

The operational situation as it was at the end of April, at the time of the campaign start, and at the end of May 1943: 

  

Soviet fighter aviation in the spring of 1943
The battle in the air above Kuban that began in mid-April was growing more intense and reaching a scale never before seen. On the Soviet side, the 4th and the 5th Air Armies participated in the battle, as well as the Black Sea Fleet Air Force which had been exigently supplemented with two air divisions and three air corps. Major General Savitsky's 3rd Fighter Air Corps (IAK) was expected to play a key part in ensuring air supremacy.

The 3rd IAK arrived at the front on April 19 and immediately joined the combat effort, remaining at the epicenter of events until the end of the active combat phase in June 1943. The corps included the 265th and 278th Fighter Air Divisions (IAD) that were utilizing the latest modifications of Yak-1b and Yak-7b fighters. A small number of Yak-9s were also supplied to the air corps in May.

The 3rd IAK fighters: Yak-1b, Yak-7b and Yak-9: 

  

The nomad life of the 43rd IAP
Colonel Lisin's 278th IAD included the 15th, 43rd, and 274th Fighter Air Regiments (IAP), stationed on the Novotitarovskaya and Novovelichkovskaya airfields north of Krasnodar. These fields were over 70 km away from the front line, which significantly limited the amount of time the Yaks spent in the area of operations. In early May, the 278th IAD regiments received an order to relocate closer to the front, to the Slavyanskaya and Krasnoarmeyskaya airfields.

At this moment the relatively calm life of the 43rd IAP has ended and our story started. The regiment moved to Krasnoarmeyskaya on May 6th, Slavyanskaya on May 8th, and then back to Krasnoarmeyskaya the next day. On May 16th Luftwaffe attacked the airfield, and the regiment moved back to Novotitarovskaya.

On May 27th, after the beginning of the offensive in the Kievskoye-Moldavanskoye sector, the 43rd IAP moved to the forward airfield Abinskaya. After surviving another airfield strike and losing nearly all machines in the endless air skirmishes the regiment returned to Novotitarovskaya on June 9th and on June 16th it was pulled from the front. 

  

  

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[Kubert]

I've just finished second walkthrough (or flythrough?) of this campaign while shooting down 27 enemies, exactly as the first time.  Unfortunately I died once this time, underestimated Stuka's rear gunner. But, it was in the last mission, so let's not call it death...rather that, I found a secret ending.  Except this minor inconvenience and few small caliber bullet holes here and there, I was damaged only once, in mission 5. Not saying it was easy...eyes were needed everywhere because of those sneaky BFs.

Spoiler

On the old forum I reported that Krasnoarmenskaya has wrong callsign. I re-checked again, and yes, first six missions has the same callsign, Pine, as Slavyanskaya while it should be Ash. Not a big problem though...perfect campaign. 

[BlackSix]

12 hours ago, Kubert said:

On the old forum I reported that Krasnoarmenskaya has wrong callsign. I re-checked again, and yes, first six missions has the same callsign, Pine, as Slavyanskaya while it should be Ash. Not a big problem though...perfect campaign. 

I remember your bug report on the old forum very well, thank you very much! I haven't had a chance to make any fixes for that campaign yet.

[Kubert]

I didn't mean to push you, just wanted to be more specific. I believe, in my old report I wrote "in some missions". Which is very unclear...  It is not game breaking issue, so makes sense that it's not a high priority fix.

[BlackSix]

There's still some work to be done, and I'll get to it. I found the cause of the call sign issues: Krasnoarmeyskaya had two airfields with opposite takeoff and landing directions, and the airfield with the correct call sign was disabled, while the current one had an error because it was copied from Slavyanskaya.

[Kubert]

Interesting "behind the scenes" info. 👀 

[BlackSix]

Update 7.001 brought several fixes to this campaign (huge thanks to @Kubert for your bug reports).

I've made some minor weather changes to some missions, fixed some incorrect airfield callsigns, and tried to improve performance in a couple of missions (at the cost of reducing the number of aircraft in the air at any one time).