Luftwaffe disappears...

[SpaceViking]

I've always wondered if a strategic bombing focus by the US in the 40s is worth the effort. In a recent game where I was playing Italy I found out that maybe yes it is.

So, I wasn't paying close attention to what was happening other than noting there were a lot, and I mean a LOT, of US and UK planes flying against Germany in France (and I assume Benelux and Germany itself). Occasionally they would venture into northern Italy and so I gradually built up interceptors on scramble missions, lots of AA, and lots of radar. Germany had ground units spread out all over France, like almost every province, for some reason. Maybe to help with AA? Not sure.

Anyway, the German AI stopped doing much later in the 40s so I saved and loaded the game as them only to find a few things.

1) There was no Luftwaffe. Not a single plane anywhere.
2) They were on general mobilization and had run out of manpower.
3) The only thing on their build queue was a nuclear plant.

So, what missions were the US and UK airforce doing to destroy Germany like this? It had to be more than the actual Strategic Bombing mission. Does Crater Runway actually damage planes on the ground maybe? Maybe air superiority? I've seen where my air units lose strength and die on the ground, too, but never figured out exactly what was happening.

I just loaded a few save games as German in 1944 and it looks like they ran out of manpower (during general mobilization) sometime in April 1944 at which point the Luftwaffe was still pretty strong and they hadn't quite finished off the Soviets. Looking at the UK they were mostly doing air superiority missions and the US had a big strategic bomber presence but most of the really massive US air force was off doing nothing helpful in the US proper.

 

[Eugenioso]

The Luft usually stops being a serious threat the moment germany runs out of oil, which is usually by the end of '41. Also, assuming no intervention, US/UK AI will gather a titanic airfleet and will be able to harass german movements in france quite efficiently.

Also, the german AI sets up units scattered in France to combat partisan activity.

Third, strat bombers are not worth it.

 

[SpaceViking]

But what actually kills the planes?

(they had oil BTW having taken over the middle east and the Soviet oils fields around Baku)

 

[Lord Rommel]

Air units can be killed by:
Battle casualties
Running out of supplies and manpower (attrition factors)
and non-guarded air fields captured by an enemy (enemy units or partisan units).

There is (unfortunately) no runway bombing with damage effect.

 

[Altruist]

But what actually kills the planes?

(they had oil BTW having taken over the middle east and the Soviet oils fields around Baku)

Have you had the chance to look into any other saves?

While I agree that strat bombers aren't the best investment, those strat bombers are nevertheless quite sturdy. So what could had happened: If several things happen together like many strat bombers showing up over France, the Luftwaffe tries to battle them, their planes taking quite severe damage while doing so and with manpower having been been depleted without an option to reinforce those planes leading to them actually getting completly destroyed over time.
The other alternative would be, what Lord Rommel hinted at, when the US conquere/liberate France and taking over the airfields destroying the planes stationed there. The AI quite often fails to rebase planes in time... and if they have no fuel they even couldn't be rebased.
It is, though, quite astonishing that Germany lost every single plane may it be TAC, CAS or interceptors. I would had imagined that at least in Germany itself there would be still some around.

 

[SpaceViking]

If I remember I will see about loading a game as Germany and letting it run a couple months to see if I can spot what was happening.

I know I have had similar things happen to me where I transfer some planes and they never do anything (I thought because their ORG never recovers due maybe to airbase level being low) and when I check back they are partly destroyed.

 

[Altruist]

I know I have had similar things happen to me where I transfer some planes and they never do anything (I thought because their ORG never recovers due maybe to airbase level being low) and when I check back they are partly destroyed.

Low org doesn't stop a plane from moving or rebasing. As far as I know only lack of fuel makes planes completly immobile.

 

[Dinglehoff]

Looks like the AI sometimes has problems with pulling its air out of threatened air bases.

With the huge sizes of the UK and US airforces, the small German air units probably got themselves blown out in mismatches and ground down.
In my Germany game; the western allied air has been focused on bombing troops mostly though sometimes they hit IC. Once they got enough planes together, they could do some damage to IC if they focused on it. Either I'd have to let them, or have to spend IC rebuilding my intercepter and fighter units from this savage combat.

I can see how they'd be useful for the range and damage they can do once the enemy fighters are dealt with, but the damage they can do should have some changes. Destroying resource generators and IC in province tiles is good, but damaging national stockpiles of resources like oil or supplies would also be very useful.