Odessa and Leningrad Module

[Hakman]

Ok, thanks for all the info! 

 

[Nickkyboy99]

They plan to release all aircraft listed in the module, both maps, and one pilot career timeframe for each aircraft by the end of winter. By the end of summer 2026, the Odessa module should be fully completed (which includes four careers).

Regarding additional aircraft, nothing has been announced yet, but I believe they said they’ll make an announcement sometime this month(?)

[AndreiTomescu]

2 hours ago, sandmarken said:

I don't know how the Romanians managed to do so well against P-38s that one time with the  IAR80 , but probably not because of its performance!

1. Luck: they took off by chanse, for another mission (bomber intercept), before the USAAF showed up, thus being much higher

2. Training: Dan Vizanty, their group leader, who flew with them all the time, did a great job in training to work together, despite lacking radio

3. IAR "performance": very good turner

4. encounter settings: the clash took place at below 200 m (Lightnings posed for ground attack) in a very, very tight space, about 2 square km.

Half of the ro losses (2) were caused by crash between themselves, or by crash with Lightning (1)

5. Awarness: the IARs saw the Lightnings first, and being in a favourable position

6. Psihological settings: the romanians were aware of huge technological inferiority, the Americans were overconfident (still they insisted there were Fw-190,despite there were none in Romania) and saw the ro pilots as "barbarian monkeys" .

7. Motivation: the romanians were defending their own airfield, and were hugely upset by the Americans heavy bombing, because they regarded them as "friends", as not so warm feelings toward the germans after Stalingrad.

Also the Lightning pilots were known for (documented facts):

- shooting bailed out pilots

- aiming for canopy

- strifing civilians, even peasants working on the field

So the will to attack "Indians with 2 feathers", as the Lightnings were named, was high.

In conclusion, they were lucky......:) 

Edited December 7 by AndreiTomescu

[Hakman]

2 hours ago, Nickkyboy99 said:

Regarding additional aircraft, nothing has been announced yet, but I believe they said they’ll make an announcement sometime this month(?)

thank you for all the info! 

2 hours ago, Nickkyboy99 said:

By the end of summer 2026, the Odessa module should be fully completed 

talking about the Odessa map, do we know when the Early Acces for it will be avaliable to players to play on?

[Calos_01]

38 minutes ago, Hakman said:

talking about the Odessa map, do we know when the Early Acces for it will be avaliable to players to play on?

It´s already available, you can play quick missions on the Odesa map. Career mode is still to be done.

[AndreiTomescu]

41 minutes ago, Hakman said:

talking about the Odessa map, do we know when the Early Acces for it will be avaliable to players to play on?

it is up and running for quite some time, providing the Odessa map, some new planes, and a few free scripted campaigns already released, with a handful of free and paid scripted campaigns in the making. At least it's available for purchase on the 1C Games website (direct sale). Dunno about Steam, i don't use it.

[AndreiTomescu]

what i'm trying to underline is that there's quite some content for Odessa map, besides quick missions/EMG, and will be more soon.

[sevenless]

4 hours ago, Hakman said:

In addition, do we know what planes from this graphic from old forum on Karelia map discussions be added?

Not officially from 1CGS, but "half" officially by LLv44_Kanttori of the finish map team. I guess 1CGS will announce the exact planes either by 12/25 shortly before x-mas or early in 2026.  Here:

Karelia map discussion - Page 3 - Scripted Campaigns - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum

[kraut1]

@Hakman

They are already working on the Fiat / see old forum:

 

And they have at least found a modeler for the Buffalo:

Edited December 7 by kraut1

[Hakman]

3 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

it is up and running for quite some time, providing the Odessa map

I checked that, Im sorry, I meant the leningrad map 😞

although thanks for answering!

[86Cheese]

18 hours ago, BlackSix said:

 

2) After the rapid northward breakthrough of German panzer divisions in the first days of the offensive, around July 8, all Soviet air regiments abandoned the airfields on the map, leaving only the Luftwaffe with a career. This doesn't suit us.

This does make sense, I can understand that. Even some single missions would be cool, I've always been disappointed that these battles are so well re-created in the TC campaigns and we never really got the opportunity to see it from the air. If I had time, I would just learn the mission editor myself and take a crack at it. 

 

18 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

By the way, there were no Yak-3 at Prokhorovka.

You are correct, I've seen it stated numerous times the yak 3 was introduced at Kursk so I looked into it a bit further.

Turns out there is maybe a single dubious source for that info that no one can seem to produce and it ended up being quoted over the years in other sources with no real information. But yeah, the timeline doesn't line up at all. 

 

With all that being said, I'd love to see a Yak 9/T campaign for Prokhorovka. 🙃

[LukeFF]

11 hours ago, 86Cheese said:

Turns out there is maybe a single dubious source for that info that no one can seem to produce and it ended up being quoted over the years in other sources with no real information. But yeah, the timeline doesn't line up at all. 

As Oleg Maddox once said, close that book and never open it again. 😄

The Yak-3 is definitely a summer 1944 plane. 

[Aapje]

4 hours ago, 86Cheese said:

Turns out there is maybe a single dubious source for that info that no one can seem to produce and it ended up being quoted over the years in other sources with no real information. But yeah, the timeline doesn't line up at all.

Ah yes, the classic: One 'expert' makes something up or misinterprets a source and a ton of other books simply quote it as true, never doing any research of their own.

[BlitzPig_EL]

Indeed, many of the myths about Imperial Japanese aircraft came down through history this same way.

[BrotKasting]

Verstehe nicht, weshalb mein Post, den ich auf Deutsch verfasst habe, hier ins Englische übertragen wurde. Was soll das??? Sind Posts auf Deutsch unerwünscht oder was? Mit Russischen Beiträgen habt ihr schließlich auch kein Problem!!!

 

Exactly, if the Yak-3 production aircraft weren't delivered to operational units until spring/summer 1944, they couldn't possibly have appeared in the skies over Prokhorovka a year earlier. Unless, of course, time travel is possible. So, you don't have to believe every bit of nonsense you read (not just in books).

Edited December 10 by BrotKasting

[LukeFF]

On 12/7/2025 at 5:29 AM, sandmarken said:

No, because who can survive three years in the IAR80? 😅

It surprised me how well it can do against planes like I-16s and early LaGG-3s. But when the 1942 Soviet crafts show up, the manual prop pitch is the least of its problems.

I don't know how the Romanians managed to do so well against P-38s that one time with the  IAR80 , but probably not because of its performance!

I sometimes wonder that as well. By the fall of 1944, it was really bad, and in at least one unit history I read, the pilots refused to fly because Bf 109s were carving up their IAR-80s with ease.

[sandmarken]

1 hour ago, LukeFF said:

and in at least one unit history I read, the pilots refused to fly because Bf 109s were carving up their IAR-80s with ease.

Pretty sure @AndreiTomescu will elaborate on this story 😄

[Jaegermeister]

On 12/6/2025 at 5:28 AM, sandmarken said:

For early Odessa, the Il-16 seems to have been the main aircraft for the Soviets. They also used the MiG-3 (but probably an earlier version than ours).

In Odessa, 1941 the Black Sea Fleet sent in I-153s, and 69 IAP had some as well. They were supplemented with IL2s and Yak-1s just before the withdrawal. The Mig-3s appear to have been involved early during the Barbarossa invasion and either damaged on the airfields or pulled out before August. I have not seen any reports of the Mig 3s involved in the air battles over Odessa during the Siege.

Edited December 11 by Jaegermeister
Yak-1s, not 1Bs

[AndreiTomescu]

Well.....i'm saying this only because I've been challenged! 😁 (and thank you for that).

A few facts:

- In the fall of '44 Romania changed sides , allied with the....Allies, but it was under Soviet occupation (they said liberation, well, semantics) 

- the war goal now, since Basarabia was lost forever and even the identity of the Romanian state was in the hands of Stalin, was to liberate Transylvania, forced by Hitler to be given to Hortyst Hungary.

- this task was to be done under the strict orders and in conjunction with the Red Army, but the fighting was done exclusively by "cleansed" (epurated) Romanian army. As an idea, from the start of the western campaign to its end, deep in Moravia and Bohemia, aprox 550.000 soldiers were send. 168.000 died or MIA.

- the romanian airforce was made of the few and worned out birds remaining, those that the new Soviet allied didn't confiscate. So, the IAR was totally inadequate, but the Soviets ordered to attack, and that had to be done with what was left, since fresh equipment came from URSS only after the proclamation of the Popular Romanian Republic (communist state, that was).

- the opposition? Well, Hungarian and German Gf 109 G. Not pretty matched.

Now, the truth, as i belive it:

- the IARs were used mostly for propaganda pictures. And ground attack missions.

It wasn't viable to show how we liberate Transylvania, along with the new Big Brother, using.....German Messerschmits !! 

- the remaining Bf-109 Gs, even including some E7s, fought the real aerial battles, along with Yaks, Migs. Amd sometimes got shot down by those, by mistake. Old habits die hard.

- the aprox 150 (!!!) G2 and G4 s, laying unassemble at the Brașov factory were destroyed at soviet high command orders, thus never used.

NOW: the LukeFF's story:

There were 4 remains of fighter groups, just pieces of them, and the high command wanted to scrap the remaining Bf-109 and all go with the IAR, combined in a newly formed Regiment, by Soviet standards.

The pilots still flying 109 refused and eventually were sent to the front on the 109s, but without publicity.

So, yes, they refused to CHANGE the 109 with the IAR. Those already on the IAR, went on ......

[Kubert]

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

They were supplemented with IL2s and Yak-1Bs just before the withdrawal.

Probably just Yak-1s. Yak-1b has bubble canopy. 

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

I have not seen any reports of the Mig 3s involved in the air battles over Odessa during the Siege.

I've read Pokryshkyn's book. He described fighting on MiG-3 since first days of the war in Odessa region. 55.IAP from airfield Majaki.

[sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

In Odessa, 1941 the Black Sea Fleet sent in I-153s, and 69 IAP had some as well. They were supplemented with IL2s and Yak-1Bs just before the withdrawal.

Yak-1bs in 1941? 😄 

 

There was a good thread in the old forum speculating about Odessa (long before it was announced), and it had some sources for MiG-3s being present in some numbers from the start of Barbarossa.  That was ofc before the siege so maybe withdrawn or destroyed before. 

If I remember correctly, the sources we used for the Romanian Hurricane campaign showed only Il-16s and I-153s encounters, (Actually, I think the pilots reported fighting American-made planes at one point; it was really I-153s.) 

Edited December 8 by sandmarken

[LukeFF]

Yes, we plan to have a naval regiment equipped with a mix of Yak-1s, I-153s, and I-16s. 

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, sandmarken said:

Yak-1bs in 1941? 😄 

1 hour ago, Kubert said:

Probably just Yak-1s. Yak-1b has bubble canopy. 

I've read Pokryshkyn's book. He described fighting on MiG-3 since first days of the war in Odessa region. 55.IAP from airfield Majaki.

There was a good thread in the old forum speculating about Odessa (long before it was announced), and it had some sources for MiG-3s being present in some numbers from the start of Barbarossa.  That was ofc before the siege so maybe withdrawn or destroyed before. 

If I remember correctly, the sources we used for the Romanian Hurricane campaign showed only Il-16s and I-153s encounters, (Actually, I think the pilots reported fighting American-made planes at one point; it was really I-153s.) 

You are correct, Yak-1, not 1-B

1 hour ago, sandmarken said:

Yak-1bs in 1941? 😄 

 

There was a good thread in the old forum speculating about Odessa (long before it was announced), and it had some sources for MiG-3s being present in some numbers from the start of Barbarossa.  That was ofc before the siege so maybe withdrawn or destroyed before. 

If I remember correctly, the sources we used for the Romanian Hurricane campaign showed only Il-16s and I-153s encounters, (Actually, I think the pilots reported fighting American-made planes at one point; it was really I-153s.) 

By the time the Yaks arrived, the Bf-109s had been withdrawn and replaced with IAR-80s due to a shortage of aircraft. I believe Hurricanes were sent to the front towards the end of the Siege, but I would have to check the documents. Right now I have only translated up until the end of September. 

Edited December 8 by Jaegermeister

[86Cheese]

14 hours ago, LukeFF said:

As Oleg Maddox once said, close that book and never open it again. 😄

The Yak-3 is definitely a summer 1944 plane. 

 

10 hours ago, Aapje said:

Ah yes, the classic: One 'expert' makes something up or misinterprets a source and a ton of other books simply quote it as true, never doing any research of their own.

 

7 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Indeed, many of the myths about Imperial Japanese aircraft came down through history this same way.

Pretty much, yep.

 

For those interested, the story, according to the Ww2aircraft forums, goes like this. A Russian source makes the claim in an unnamed book in the 60's or 70's that a prototype yak was introduced at kursk and had such an impact the German got scared and were warned not to engage yak with no visible radiators. This source is then either correctly cited as the yak 3 or mistranslated, or there was a typo, something, into English. Later on the story spreads from there being cited on numerous other occasions until the soviet archives were made available for researchers in the late 90's and became obvious that there definitely weren't any yak 3s over kursk, prototype or other wise. There was actually a pretty lengthy discussion about it over there in the early 2000s. The consensus was that it must have been yak 9s and the Germans being warned about missing radiators is probably a myth anyway, but definitely didn't happen before 1944 if it ever actually did.

[sandmarken]

9 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

You are correct, Yak-1, not 1-B

By the time the Yaks arrived, the Bf-109s had been withdrawn and replaced with IAR-80s due to a shortage of aircraft. I believe Hurricanes were sent to the front towards the end of the Siege, but I would have to check the documents. Right now I have only translated up until the end of September. 

I was sure i had seen something about the romanian 109s fighting yak-1s. 

You are probably right about the Hurricanes as Andrei also told me about this. I did not find any proof of it, but since the He111 was a main bomber in the area and the hurricanes had bomber escorts missions, there coud be a situation where hurricanes escorted he111s. A weird thought given their rivalry during Battle of Brittain. 

One plane i found no source for being used around Odessa was the LaGG-3. I first found it weird because why woud it be developed then, but i remembed that we also get Leningrad and it was probably used there 😁