Interdiction of trade routes using airpower

[Aprezto]

Hi;

Is this a thing?

Can I set naval bombers (and thinking on this, air defence with my naval bombers) over sea provinces to interdict passing convoys?

And if yes, if I am on the receiving end of this interdiction, can I, or the AI, re-route the convoy route if an alternative route exists?

And if so, is there any penalty to the distance from resource base to destination port for convoys? IOW, as UK, is there any benefit from getting sand from Egypt via the Med as opposed to via the trip around Africa?

 

[Damiani]

You could in HOI3 so I assume that it is possible in HOI4. I don't think we have a DD on air missions yet. As for rerouting convoys, I don't think so, although it will most likely be possible to change the staring port of the trade route.

 

[Axe99]

We've been told in previous posts that we while we can't manually set convoy routes, we can manually set sea zones the convoy won't go through - so block out the Med, for example, for British convoys from Asia (for the obvious no-brainer). In previous HoIs, I think (not 100% sure) you needed more ships for a longer route, which was a reasonable enough penalty they could easily re-use.

 

[LordOfWar16]

I am pretty sure that it works. I dont know why it shouldnt be possible for land based aircraft to do this aswell. The germans used the land-based Fw-200 bomber quiet effectively due to its really long range against enemy merchant ships for example, which allowed it to operate out of allied fighter range.

The aircraft was used for maritime patrols and reconnaissance, searching for Allied convoys and warships that could be reported for targeting by U-boats. The Fw 200 could also carry a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) bomb load or naval mines to use against shipping, and it was claimed that from June 1940 to February 1941, they sank 331,122 tonnes (365,000 tons) of shipping despite a rather crude bombsight. The attacks were carried out at extremely low altitude in order to "bracket" the target ship with three bombs; this almost guaranteed a hit. Winston Churchill called the Fw 200 the "Scourge of the Atlantic" during the Battle of the Atlantic due to its contribution to the heavy Allied shipping losses.

That basicly led the british to use CAM (Catapult Aircraft Merchant Ships), which used hurricane fighters, as an stop-gap messure untill sufficent escort carriers became availabel.

Yes we can block of some routes for our convois, but that of course will take more of them for sure, as said by Axe99 above, so it is always an question if it is worth it to take the longer route or not, or if you can even affort it and have enough convois availabel. Longer routes also mean that its harder for you to protect them from enemy submarines, for example and might leave some blindspots.