[WarInEur] air craft attrition

[SGMINFO at aol.com]

In a message dated 31/08/2008 00:37:23 Atlantic Daylight Time,  
baseballnut570 at hotmail.com writes:

What I proposed was that the comoputer keep a running tally of How  many AP 
are used on certain types of "no casualty" missions and then inflict  
casualties at the end of the weekly turn.  Air Ground and unopposed AIr  superiority 
(i.e Excess AP on AIr superiority) are subject to losses at a  somewhat high 
rate than Transfers and unassigned AP so that the more vigourous  the Air war is 
pursued the more AP are lost to  accidents. 


_http://books.google.com/books?id=hMFA8FJ1KXMC&pg=PA277&lpg=PA277&dq=Luftwaffe
+traing+casualties&source=web&ots=-Gd5FdDv8h&sig=eKO67ziiBO-8PA4zFgTItwyKrlI&h
l=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA283,M1_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=hMFA8FJ1KXMC&pg=PA277&lpg=PA277&dq=Luftwaffe+traing+casualties&sour
ce=web&ots=-Gd5FdDv8h&sig=eKO67ziiBO-8PA4zFgTItwyKrlI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_resul
t&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA283,M1) 
 
Pages 282 -283 illustrate these problems- non combattant casualties.
 
 
Many forget that almost uniquely amoungst the combat arms in ww2  the  air 
branch had  the problem of depending on the individual for  the continuing 
safety of the weapons system.
 
The 'vehicle' was a product very similar to 1930 motor vehicle technology,  
with all the questions that this raises about reliability.
A moment's innattention can, and does, kill you in the air.
If not specifically trained, and extensively, simply flying into cloud will  
kill the inexperienced. I think the studies reflect it takes only 90 seconds 
in  cloud before complete loss of control.
You can be presented at any time with a supreme test of airmanship that  
decides whether you can live.
 
Simply landing an aircraft, is a skilled and taxing task, and getting  it 
wrong has all too predictable consequences, yet you are asked to do this  at the 
end of a flight, often when tired, or with unknown damage.
 
So, at all times during a flight the pilot has to concentrate, and  hard.  
unlike the solder, who can seek cover, go to ground, and 'relax'  perhaps even 
catching 'forty winks' and sharpen up, from the moment the wheels  leave the 
ground he is working continuously to defeat the effects of  gravity.
 
And then you are over unfriendly territory, where any need to land is fatal  
to your mission...
and anyone you see probably is shooting at you...
 
 
Now add to this, learning all the things you need to know....
 
An interesting comparison to try as a mental exercise (not a fair one, but  
gives a flavour). You are learning to drive a car...
 
There is no traffic,
 
but...
 
the car does not have any brakes,
you cannot travel at any speed under 60mph
you cannot stop anywhere except where you started from.
you have no headlights, so driving in the dark or fog is fatal. 
you don't even have any windscreen wipers!
 
...and...
 
 
Running out of fuel will ruin your day!
 
 
 
Accident loss rates can be, and were, in sloppy regimes, as bad as  
casualties on operations.
 
 
Running an airforce is an EXTREMELY expensive business.
 
The modern 1930's airforce was an experimental weapons system...
 
in terms of utility to the war effort it seems marginal, but promises  so 
much, it cannot be passed up as an opportunity. 
 
In other words most major powers banked a great deal of their war effort on  
these machines, largely on the strength of theorey. And that debate about it 
all  ws never far from the backs of their minds.
 
Rather akin to the debates pm nuclear weapons...
 
 
-|steve|-



   
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