יום ד' 17 דצמבר, משימת ים התיכון, נפגשים ב-TS בשעה 22:00

This mission is vital for safe arrival of our ships to the Malta sector
Almost all of our forces are concentrated on protecting the convoy


The yellow lines represent our ships heading toward the sector exit points
convoy in the middle and two lone merchantmen top and bottom
I wanted to send the ships in a straight line to the exit points and get them off the map quickly
but if they reach it beofre mission end they'll simply stop and sit there like Sitting Ducks
Therefore, I've zigzagged them around

The red lines are the courses of our covering naval force
Make note as we don't want them attacked by mistake

The blue blobs are the last known position of enemy ships
They will all be chasing the convoy but the cruiser is an especially dangerous threat

This is our Order of Battle

Group 1

Squadron 126 Flt. 1 Se.1 - 4x Hurricane MkII Trop
CAP south and west of the convoy plus protection of lone merchant

Squadron 273 Flt.2 Se. 3 - 3x Beaufighter
Seek out and sink destroyers, then CAP south of the convoy

Group 2

Squadron 249 Flt. 1 Se. 2 - 4x Spitfire MkVc
CAP north and east of the convoy plus protection of lone merchant

Squadron 54 Flt. 1 Se.2 - 3x A-20 Boston
Attack and sink enemy cruiser; provide extra CAP north of convoy

Group 3

Squadron 177 Flt.1 Se.1 - 3x A-20 Boston
Sweep area between Crete and Lybia free of enemy shipping. Provide extra CAP for convoy if possible

Squadron 266 Flt. 1 Se. 1 - 1x Tomahawk MkII
Provide CAP for lone tanker

The two Malta fighter squads can decide whether one of them should delay takeoff
in order to provide better 'round-the-clock' cover over the convoy

Enemy aircraft coming from the south will take longer to arrive
Try and avoid combat with enemy fighters wherever possible
we MUST prevent the bombers from sinking our ships

Bombers should not attack enemy Patrol Boats
These are no real threat to our ships, unless en masse, and are mainly of recce value to the enemy
Mark their positions but concentrate your attacks on destroyers and better


SQUAD ALLOCATION - provisional

242Sqn to take Group 1
102nd to take Group 2
IAF to take Group 3

All dependent on the number of pilots, of course

Best of luck to all
:cheers:

Hopefully you can see this map - I can't as my router settings have gone screwy

Edit: Don't worry about the squad plane allocation too much; it's likely to be somehthing different come the day