Beaufort Air Show (Part 2)

  I actually wanted to post this earlier, but got distracted by several things. Anyway in addition to all the military aircraft at the show, they also had some marine ground equipment. Such as this new version of the jeep.

They also had some marine artillery, including a 120mm mortar and one the new M777 155mm howitzers.

The marines also had a number of small arms on hand.

The marine vehicles on site included this LAV-25, an MRAP, and AAVP7.

One vehicle I found particularly interesting was this HMMWV mounted mobile control tower.

Finally there lots of vintage and civilian aircraft. Including these UH-1 and AH-1 helicopters

While I missed the Blue Angles, I did catch this civilian team.

An Air Force O-2A spotter plane from Vietnam.

A restored Beechcraft C-45 transport.

An OV-10 Bronco converted for civilian use.

Two of the vintage aircraft that I saw flying were this restored F-4U Corsair...

 ...and this restored B-25 Mitchell bomber.

Beufort Air Show 2015 (Part 1)

Last weekend they had the annual MCAS Beaufort Air Show. So Sunday I went across the river to South Carolina, to see the aircraft.

Being a Marine Corps air station, most of the aircraft were those used by the Marines. First lets go over the Marine helicopters

A CH-46 Sea Knight.

Here we have the AH-1Z Super Cobra.

The MV-22 Osprey, the replacement for the CH-46 Sea Knight.

Here we have the MV-22 in flight.

Finally were have the big MH-58 Super Sea Stallion.

Then there were the various Marine Corps jets, the highlight of which was the new F-35B Lighting II.

The next two photos were of the F-35 showing off it's VTOL capabilities by hovering and turning in mid-air.

There were also the older Marine Corps jets. Including the AV-8B, EA-6B, and F/A-18s.

Here we have 3 of the Marine jets making a fly by.

There were a couple of Air Force aircraft, including a pair of F-16C fighters, a C-17 Globe Master,...

And this old warhorse.

There were also some Army helicopters from nearby Hunter Army Air Field. These included a OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, an AH-64B Apache, and a UH-60.

Finally here are some of the remaining large aircraft including a P-3 Orion and C-130.

 

There was also a some ground equipment and vintage aircraft. I be going over those in the next post.

Megablitz: Operation Arctic Fox (Part 3)

DAY 3

The soviets started the day with an air raid against my panzer battalion. I deployed all my fighters in an attempt to finally destroy the Soviet Air assets.

We fail to destroy the bombers, but did shot down the last of his fighters. If the bombers returned they would be without air cover.

 Slight error in the last report, in that the 196th Division didn't destroy the T-28 until the beginning of day 3 with the help of the Luftwaffe.

After the last of the forces at Kayralla was dealt with a vehicle bridge was built and the race to reach Allakuritti began. The SS Moved up the main road, but had to deal with all of the road blocks placed by the Russians.

While looking impressive, the 11th Regiment (the three battalions behind the lead infantry battalions) was a shell of it's former-self, with each battalion having only 1 SP each.

Meanwhile the 196th, moved up with the two regiments it had on hand. (It's other infantry regiment was still waiting it's turn to cross the river.

The 196th didn't have to deal with any road blocks but were still hindered by their lack of mobility.

 Meanwhile the remaining units of the 1st Tank Division, 4 tank battalions and the division artillery, had fallen back to form a final defense at the Tuntsa river.

In the back you can see the 42nd Rifle Corps commander trying to set off the charges left by the engineers.

Finally just as our forces reached the Russians, the HQ succeeded in detonating the bridge. Then my phone alarm went off, warning me that it was time for the bane of many wargamers, the infamous JOB. So having to go to work, I decided to call it. I felt that the game had ended in a draw as while we didn't capture the last objective in time, there was little to stop us from crossing the river. The Germans certainly did better in this game than they did in the real battle.

What we could have done differently

Germans: I felt I should have used the He111s against Salla right off the bat. The medium bombers spent most of the game in the rear as the Soviets really didn't spend too much time near any good targets. The ones that did were engaged with my troops and I didn't want to risk hitting my own troops.

Russians: I still felt that Christian should have concentrated the 122nd RD at Salla. If both the other two rifle regiments had been at the town he may have taken out several of the weaker SS battalions, costing me valuable mobile units. I also think he could have been a bit more aggressive with 1st TD, particularly against the slow moving foot infantry.

Overall I felt the game was a big success. If I would do anything differently scenario was I would have given the Finns a higher troops rating as they suffered way more casualties than they should have. (Loosing an entire infantry regiment, with another reduced to 3 SP!). I also might have stopped Christian from making all those demo rolls with his HQ unit. While an engineer unit might be able to try multiple times, a regular unit wouldn't know how to fix the problem.