Schlachtgeschwader 2 (SG 2) "Immelmann"

Welcome pilots to the thread of SG 2 "Immelmann", the first Skjaldborg War Thunder Wing!

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At the present time this thread is aimed at those interested in being part of an organized Wing in War Thunder, specifically one focussed on meeting up every few weeks and, in a way, 're-enacting' the flights of SG 2; down to the tactics, planes and style of the real thing. We will primarily be flying the Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka" (all variants) and the Focke Wulf 190 (ground attack variants). Please note, however, that this will not be a hardcore roleplaying thing, nor will the commitments involved be cast in iron and taken super-seriously. The goal is to have a group of people who enjoy flying Stukas and Focke Wulfs meeting up every now and again to fly together as a co-ordinated wing working together somewhat loosely in the style of the real thing, most probably in the Realistic (ex. Historical) game-mode although if people want we could dip our toes in the waters of Simulator (ex. Full Real) battles. It is also my hope that this teamwork will create friendships and a team ethos that will encourage people to play together outside of our organized sorties as well. Lastly, but most importantly, I would like this to be an opportunity to have fun!

This will be a sort of test-bed for the idea of a Skjaldborg War Thunder wing structure. I know a few people are interested already in this maiden flight, as it were, but this thread is 'making it official' and opening it up to the Skjaldborg generally. If it goes well, it might be possible to expand to flying other groups from different countries, including but not limited to Battle of Britain-era RAF Squadrons of brave Spitfire and Hurricane pilots, Pacific War-era U.S. Army Air Forces and Navy wings in their feared Thunderbolts and Hellcats, rival Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service sentai with their formidable Zeroes and Soviet Air Forces regiments flying their nimble yet powerful Yaks and LaGGs.

~~~HISTORY~~~

A section on the history of SG 2 "Immelmann" and its origins.

From the very start of World War 2, dedicated divebomber wings were a distinct part of the German Luftwaffe's organizational structure. Divebombers were used instead of normal bombers when targets needed to be destroyed quickly and efficiently, when groups of heavy bombers were too vulnerable, wasteful or imprecise to be of effective use, or when nothing else was available. From 1939-1943, the infamous Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka" (from Sturzkampfflugzeug, meaning "Dive Bomber") flew missions in the Low Countries, Poland, Norway, France, Britain, in the Mediterranean and African campaigns, and all across the Eastern Front, with varying degrees of success. Arguably Stukas had their greatest successes on the Eastern Front when Luftwaffe air dominance was present; divebombers attacked bases, supply convoys, AAA emplacements and Soviet Navy elements with great success. A certain Hans-Ulrich Rudel is credited with dropping one of the two enormous 2000lbs bombs which sank the Soviet battleship "Marat", for instance, in a daring raid on the ship while it was in the harbour for repairs and under heavy flak defence.




Above: A sample of the infamous "Jericho Trumpet" wing-mounted siren which was distinctive to the Stuka and well-known as a psychological weapon.

With the turning around of the conflict on the Eastern Front in 1943, Stukas began to prove less effective as the Luftwaffe started losing air superiority. In addition, Soviet tanks were uparmoured so they were not so vulnerable from near-misses from Stuka-delivered bombs. As it became obvious that divebombing attacks on tanks were no longer resource-efficient, and divebombing attacks as a whole could no longer be guaranteed air cover from fighter escorts, the Luftwaffe began looking into other solutions. In this time, the old Sturzkampfgeschwader (dive bomber wings) and Schlachtgeschwader (ground attack wings) were reshuffled, and thus was born our wing, Schlachtgeschwader 2 "Immelmann".

In addition to the phasing of the Focke Wulf 190 into previously wholly Stuka-equipped units, the other major change was the introduction of Stuka variants designed for attacking tanks, the G-1 and G-2 (though most "G-1"s were not designated as such, simply as D-3s with the 3.7cm bordkannone installed on the wings). The use of this cannon was originally the suggestion of decorated Stuka ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel, and proved to be devastatingly effective against Soviet tanks; in the hands of experienced pilots, Stukas armed as such were able to make low-level passes on armoured units, tearing them open by attacking their vulnerable side, top and rear armour.



SG 2 continued to operate until the very end of the war.

~~~ORGANIZATION~~~

(please note this information is subject to change)

As War Thunder is currently restricted to 4-man groups for playing purposes, we will have to depart somewhat from reality in our organization. A Geschwader was typically organized like this:



The smallest unit of organization, the Staffel, typically consisted of around 8-20 planes with pilots. Ground crew and staff were part of the Stabstaffel attached to a Gruppe.

For our purposes, we will organize into Staffel but each Staffel could contain multiple 4-man groups, which I am going to call Flights. There, that simplifies things.

Temporary Organizational Chart:

Staffel 1-

Flight 1 (GMT-based):

1. GK Deathwatch
2. Flieger Killbox (FW190 Primary)
3. Flieger Flessar
4. Flieger Manco

Flight 2 (US-based):

1. Flieger Tuonela
2. Flieger Skwisgaar
3. Flieger Gihzmo
4.

Flight 3 (GMT-based):

1. Flieger Naemorian
2. Flieger Wargtass (FW190 Primary)
3. Flieger Crave
4. Flieger Bluescuba

Flight 4 (US-based):

1. Flieger Sheogoraath
2. Flieger Dihm
3. Flieger Varg
4. Flieger MostlyHarmless

Reserves:

Signature link, for if you wish to use our Geschwader signature (at the top of this post) in your forum sig: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97011696/SG2Immelmannsig.png
How to combine your existing sig with the SG 2 one: http://theskjaldborg.com/index.php?...ader-2-sg-2-immelmann.7019/page-5#post-148194

~~~NOTABLE ACES OF SG 2~~~

(I encourage you to check these guys out as inspiration!)

Hans-Ulrich Rudel

Awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds

Confirmed eliminated 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, 70 landing craft, nine aircraft, 4 armoured trains, several bridges, a destroyer, two cruisers, and the Soviet Battleship Marat.

August Lambert

Awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Confirmed 247 Soviet aircraft shot down.

(feel free to suggest more if you feel any other notable pilots from SG 2 are worth including here).

~~~CLOSING REMARKS~~~

I think that covers everything, but please feel free to express your interest and/or ask any questions you may have in this thread. I would appreciate it if even if you are not interested in this wing specifically (although why that might be is beyond me, I mean, Stukas and Focke Wulfs, come on ), but do support the idea of wings in the Skjaldborg as I described them above, could sound off about it in the comments and make your voice heard, especially if you have an idea for a particular squadron/group/whatever national equivalent.

Geschwaderkommodore Deathwatch, signing off~

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~Thanks to Val for the quote image ^ much obliged!

 

Good one DW i may jump in and join you for this

 

Interesting concept! I may have to work on leveling my Germans.

 

I'd be down to play, depending on the time and day you pick I may or may not be able to do so. I'd like to play the 190s but haven't level there yet, currently researching my first one.

 

Excellent.

The first Stuka, the Ju 87 B-2, is only Tier 1, so it shouldn't take long.

I will try and sort out an appropriate time for us all to play, EU and NA; failing that I'm sure we can split up the different timezones and do flyouts at different times. I can lead both due to my quirky student hours. ^^


I will start sorting people into the Staffel proper soon; PMs will be sent out on an individual basis to confirm. Decided to use the conversation feature instead. Handy!

 

Looks like a good time. I am up for it, the best Stuka I have is the Ju-87G-1.

 

I've got the B-2 and the R-2, looks like I'll be working on Germans along with my Americans!

Will we basically try to restrict ourselves to Ju-87s and FW190s only? What about if those planes get shot down in a match and we still have others (Bf190 etc)?

 

For our sorties as a group we will be playing the Realistic mode where no respawns are permitted, so that won't be a problem.

Yes, we'll be sticking with the Stukas and the Focke Wulfs, since those are the planes SG 2 used. There is still quite a wide variety of planes to choose from though! There are the normal Stuka divebomber variants (B-2, R-2, D-3, D-5), the anti-tank variants with the 3.7cm cannons under the wings (G-1, G-2, though I strongly recommend solely using the G-2 due to its double ammo), and all sorts of Focke Wulfs with a lot of armament options, though I think we will be sticking with the short-nose A variants... I'm unsure if any Doras were fielded with SG 2 though I will check to be sure.

I am planning on making an exception for the Hs 129 if people want to fly that. It is entirely conceivable that had circumstances been slightly different, it would have been given to SG 2 as well as or instead of SG 1, who had a Staffel flying them. Rudel himself flew alongside them a few times. So I'm not averse to a bit of bending history in the interest of fun.

 

Ah, didn't catch the Realistic part. Fair enough! Something else to work on.

 

I've done some research and yes, the D variants of the Focke Wulf were indeed flown by SG 2. Rudel himself allegedly flew the D-9. So those are open to all pilots if they wish to fly them (though I'd like everyone to have some experience in a Stuka as well if they didn't already, this is also about trying new things after all ).

 

This sounds fun, im up for this now that i have a working mic again. I have all stukas and all fw's apart from a-8 and d9 and d12. Will be flying the "Panzerknacker" (Hs-129) too if its allowed.

 

See

So yes, you will be able to fly it.

Glad to have you aboard! I'll add you to the Staffel right away.

 

Are we planning on doing this on a certain day/time of the week?

 

Alright, I'll put you on a separate reserve list; throw a PM my way when you want moving into the Staffel. Doesn't really mean much; I'll keep you in the loop regarding flyout times and you're still more than welcome to show up to them, just for organization's sake.

I'm going to wait out the rest of this week to see if we have any more applicants and then hopefully our first flyout can be next Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll discuss an exact time this Friday or Saturday via the forum conversation system and we can all decide on when is best for as many of us as possible.

Just as a heads-up so nobody is disappointed if the worst happens; I am still reliant on using my dad's PC while I'm in Portugal, so if he decides to be... difficult (he often does) I may have to postpone the first meeting another week so I can get back to my own uni room and use my PC. I will do my best though!

 

Oh snap! Good initiative, this is exactly what I have been hoping for. Better start greasing up my FW, Stukas and Knackers.

 

I've started a conversation regarding our first sortie time; please check your inboxes.

EDIT: Alright! So, it looks like we have a definite time for the first sortie.

Unfortunately for the moment we're going to have to split up people on GMT time (or similar) and people in US timezones. This will mean the following:

The first session will be aimed at the GMT people. It will take place at:

6pm GMT on Tuesday the 7th of January

The second session will be aimed at people in US timezones. It will take place on:

Monday the 13th of January

A time for the 13th Jan. flyout will be discussed closer to the date.

Note that we will probably be moving practices to weekends in the near future after the first few sorties to ease time zone synchronization and because well, I know people are working weekdays and it's less stressful to show up to something of an evening on a weekend.

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For the first session we will be practicing a bit of flying in groups and we can dabble a bit in formation flying if people feel comfortable with that though I don't want it to become a priority. We will also practice some communications relevant to our mission and of course some individual divebombing practice. We'll be leaving tankhunting (in G-variant Stukas and Hs 129s) for future practices but if we have some time at the end of these first ones I see no reason we can't try that out if people want to.

To that end, I have written a guide to divebombing in a Stuka in War Thunder. This is, as far as I can gather, the closest to what real Stuka pilots were taught to do and what we will be doing on our sorties when accurate divebombing is called for. Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdbbx7xsie3gf41/Stuka divebombing procedure

EDIT: Tutorial thread with video now here: http://theskjaldborg.com/index.php?threads/ju-87-stuka-dive-attack-tutorial.7105/

I would appreciate it if everyone could read through it and familiarize themselves with the procedure. Don't worry if it sounds a bit much; it's a lot simpler than it sounds and comes easily with practice, though it is hard to master. I am also going to attempt to record a test video demonstrating the entire maneuver for you which if you're so inclined may be easier to digest. This is the only thing I will ask of you to learn as a group on any semi-serious level if only for the sake of keeping within the SG 2 'spirit'; practically everything else will be largely up to you and how you want to fly.

Thanks!

PS: I'm going to reshuffle the Flights within the Staffel to reflect time zones because I'm a neat freak like that. In practice it doesn't mean anything since everyone in the Staffel is more than welcome to show up to any session, GMT or US times, but it's a little easier to organize that way.

 

We need to get a really good mix of Stukas and FWs if we are going to survive in RB/HB. How many of us have FWs of the A-F variants? I have them all.