Fuchszwei
An Alternative History Scenario for FoxTwo! Scenario By Felix
The Battle
“Achtung, enemy fighters coming out of the sun! They’re moving fast for Russkies!”
The two Messerschmitt Bf750 swept-wing jet fighters quickly pulled up, they arced around in a tight curve in an attempt to lose the incoming Russian fighters and get back on top of them, to turn the surprise. Normally with their jet engined fighters they had a huge speed and turning advantage over the piston-engined fighters of the Red Airforce; though to call these terrorist partisans an airforce was going a bit far. The tactic normally worked, but not this time...
“Gott in Himmel! Hans, I think those Russkies are flying jets!”
“Jets, are you sure?”
“Ja”
This meant that the accursed Americans had finally overcome their isolationist and anti-Communist stance to supply the Russians with arms and equipment. Hans thought, this was a challenge, and wondered if any American “advisers” were flying with the Russians, now that certainly would be a challenge, but he would win, for fatherland. He flicked the switch which armed his twin 30mm cannons, time to chew some Russians.
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The Introduction
In 1992, Hutchinson published a book, which became a bestseller; entitled Fatherland, by Robert Harris in which we see a very different 1964. In this world, that almost existed, but never was, we see a Berlin that Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, planned to build, - the hub of a victorious Third Reich extending from the Rhine to the Urals.
In Ragnarok #9 (the journal of the SFSFW), Steve Blease wrote an interesting article, Deutschland Uber Alles, on gaming within this alternate history. He showed that there were various ideas, taken from the book, that could be used to create interesting and challenging games. He concentrated mainly on ground forces (as described within the book). In this article I shall be describing a scenario based on ideas from the book that has two German jets fighting two American-built Russian fighters.
The Aircraft
The majority of post-war jet fighters built by the victorious powere were based on German experimental swept-wing designs; these included the Societ Mig-15 and the American F-86 Sabre. It can therefore be assumed that considering a German victory in the Second World War, German aviation would continue to experiment, progress and eventually result in new aircraft. Most experimental German aircraft were designed to defeat the large bombing raids by the RAF and USAF, therefore, if the Germans were winning the war, would it not be expected that designs would follow different tactical and strategic decisions. Couldn’t we probably see more interceptors and ground attack aircraft. Surely the USA, using carriers would buzz German airspace (as the Soviet Union often did against NATO countries). There’s another idea, what about a post-war German carrier, hmm... going off on a tangent, but there’s room for new ideas.
The Scenario
It is 1954, and the war in the east and degenerated into a low intensity guerrilla struggle. There is a continual trickle of casualties home, no real victories on either side and undercurrent of discontent brewing in the home front. The Germans regularly fly patrols, to maintain their air superiority, keep the Red Airforce on the ground, and shoot up any Red Army ground forces that are in the area. Most missions are uneventful, though on the odd occasion, an aircraft is shot down, and a search and rescue mission (using helicopters) is mounted to rescue the pilot. Atrocities by both sides, means that German pilots do try and avoid been captured. The Russians don’t normally use aircraft (as they keep getting shot down, and the airfields keep getting bombed), however following a change of heart in Congress and the Whitehouse in Washington, more US weapons are getting through in the fight against the Germans. One of the newest additions to their inventory is the F-86 Sabre, based on captured German aircraft and blueprints - at least one German Messerschmitt Bf750 had accidentally landed at a Russian airfield; it was boxed up and sent to the USA. Two Russian Sabres are flying a patrol, firstly to test the aircraft, secondly to test German air defences. They are met by a patrol of two German Messerschmitt Bf750s.
The Germans
The Germans are flying Messerschmitt Bf750, a swept-wing jet fighter armed with two 30mm cannons. The prototype flew in 1948, and entered service with two squadrons in 1950. It has proved itself on the Eastern Front; taking out Russian Ilyushin Il-2s that attempted to attack German ground forces; or American-built Republic P-47s.
The Russians
The Russians are flying American built F-86 Sabres. In our world, the Sabre prototype flew in 1947, with eventual production totalled 9,502 aircraft. It proved itself in the Korean War, knocking out of the sky Chinese Mig-15s.
The Rules
I used the FoxTwo! rules written by David Manley, which are a detailed set of modern aircraft rules, these rules are ideal for re-creating modern air conflicts, and in this case, ideal for creating alternative modern air conflicts.
The Models
As stated above you can use models of the Mig-15 and the F-86 Sabre, painted in German colours and markings (and would look different to what most people would expect. As for camouflage, West German Sabres were painted in a variation of a scheme that was carried on Me 109s during World War II; therefore I would guess that you could use World War II camouflage schemes quite easily. One company (whose names escapes me, it could be Skywarriors) do produce 1/200th (or are they 1/300th) experimental German aircraft, that would be ideal for use in this scenario and other scenarios based in this era. Various other manufacturers produce post-war aircraft in these micro-scales which can be converted for use in this scenario. Though it requires a lot more room, Dragon produce a range of experimental German aircraft in 1/72nd scale. Also , if you can find them is another range of experimental German aircraft, made by a Turkish company, PM Models, which includes the Focke-Wulf FW Ta-183 “Hückebein” which is a dead ringer for the Sabre and would be great as the Messerschmitt Bf750 - but it’s 1/72nd, so just a tadge too large for FoxTwo! They also make a Focke-Wulf FW Ta-154, which bears a striking resemblance to the Mosquito; and a Ho-229A-1 “Hortan” which is a flying wing... For the Russians, PM Models produce the Yak-15, which is a jet-engined YAK-3, which could be used instead of the F-86 Sabre. So what models did I use, well to be honest, I used some models already in my collection, but am hoping to game further battles in the Fatherland universe, so I ought to go out and buy some...
The Future
Of course, I have based my scenario in the mid-1950s, but there is nothing to stop you extrapolating the Fatherland alternate history to the time of the book, 1964, and beyond...
The Alternative
In another alternate history novel, No Return by John Bowen, he follows a similar premise to Harris, with Germany winning World War Two. The Japanese never bombed Pearl Harbour, and the USA remained neutral. Germany did not invade Russia in 1941, concentrating on the British. The British finally capitulated in 1942. In 1943, the Germans took the Russian half of Poland, and in 1944 “liberated” the Baltic States and Finland. Moving into the Soviet Union, he left Greater Russia alone (not wanting to go the same way as Napoleon). The only “free” countries left in Europe were Ireland and Switzerland. However, now in the 1990s war breaks out in the Middle East, Iraq invades Kuwait (sound familiar) and the Third Reich and the USA are drawn into conflict. Iraq is supplied with German weaponry and Kuwait and Saudia Arabia have American equipment, war quickly escalates...
In a future article I may look at a possible 1980s/90s era; with modern Third Reich aircraft fighting US aircraft, such as the F16 Falcon or the F14 Tomcat, could be fun...
| Aircraft Data Table | |||||||||
|
Type
|
Min Speed
|
Max Speed
|
Max Alt
|
Turn No
|
DEF
|
ECM
|
RADAR
|
GUN
|
SIZE
|
| F86 |
6
|
24
|
70
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
-
|
4
|
S
|
| Me-750 |
6
|
28
|
65
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
-
|
5
|
S
|