Official Free Historical Campaign "Wind of Fury"

[BlackSix]

Wind of Fury

It is dedicated to the No. 486 (New Zealand) Squadron RAF that flew Tempest Mk.V fighters and will picture the unfolding of the air battle in the skies of North-Western Europe since October 1st, 1944, till January 1st, 1945. In general, Wind of Fury campaign will make you familiar with nearly the entire range of the real combat missions flown by Tempest pilots during the second half of 1944, briefly including the Battle of the Bulge, and will end with the Bodenplatte strike on the allied airfields.

Timeframe: October 1st, 1944 - January 1st, 1945
Unit: No. 486 (NZ) Squadron RAF
Available aircraft: Tempest Mk.V
Duration: 10 missions
Average playtime: 5 hours

This free campaign requires IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Bodenplatte. 

  

Historical Background
The failure of Operation Market Garden, which aimed to circumvent the northern end of the Siegfried Line, forced the Allied High Command to reorder their priorities. After the unsuccessful offensive in Arnhem was aborted, supplying Allied troops through the port of Antwerp – which was blocked by the German 15th Army’s defensive dispositions at the western Scheldt estuary and in the neighbouring area –  became the primary objective.

While General Omar Bradley's US 12th Army Group was battling the enemy on the western German border, the First Canadian Army in the 21st Army Group under Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery was ordered to clear the enemy from the western Scheldt estuary and capture the South Beveland peninsula and Walcheren Island. The British Second Army was to pursue the offensive between Turnhout and s-Hertogenbosch to destroy a lodgment located south of the Meuse and occupied by troops of the German First Parachute Army. The air support for the 21st Army Group was provided by aircraft of the 2nd Tactical Air Force.

  

After the V-1 launch sites in Northern France were seized and destroyed and the threat of rocket attacks against England was eliminated, it was agreed to reassign five Tempest squadrons from the Air Defence of Great Britain to the Continent. Nos. 3, 56, and 486 Squadrons of No. 150 Wing RAF were ordered to relocate to Grimbergen Airfield (B-60) in Belgium on September 28 and replace Nos. 19, 65, and 122 Squadrons of No. 122 Wing RAF, which were equipped with P-51B Mustangs. In addition to that, on September 29, Nos. 80 and 274 Squadrons arrived at Deurne Airfield (B-70), temporarily joining the Spitfires from No. 125 Wing RAF.