Which Era Of Aircraft Can Intercept A US WWII Bomber Raid Most Efficiently? | DCS 

Maybe nex time use a10s they are not fighter jets, but they have loads of weapons, and are good at low speed manouvres

From a ww2 radar operator herself being interviewed. They picked up the bombers as soon as they took off from French bases anywhere near the coast. Then watched the bombers form up before they started across the Channel.

I really love this series. Kortana really does good work.

Kortana fan here, she has the best voice you guys . . . great mission, ya`ll keep getting better and better. "really tho" I`m a fan of you all.

Cap - love these scenarios where you're testing out different gens of technology against a common scenario. But the deliberate aerial collisions ("Fox 4"s) take away a lot from the experience for me. Everyone's different, but it'd be great to see a scenario where the pilots get a bonus for surviving, or a penalty for colliding. I know it happens sometimes by accident, but there were so many midairs in this battle, and it really messed with the totals. Plus it's dramatic seeing people trying to survive all that fire, and then suddenly turns silly when they commit suicide :)

I absolutely love this kind of video that GR does where different eras of technology are tested against each other.

As somebody trying (and struggling) to learn the Bf-109, Fly's takeoff roll at 4:18-4:32 was smooooooooooth. As a suggestion for a repeat experiment to see if the Gen 2/3 jets can do this even more efficiently - try a formation of all MiG-21's armed with 4x R-3R's. You get a very cheap, Mach 2 capable interceptor armed with a cheap missile, plus very fast startup from cold & dark and outstanding climbing ability. With IFF capability and using Fox 1's only, you can avoid the friendly fire incidents to keep airframe losses minimal. Its fast enough that RTB'ing and re-arming with another 4x R-3R's should be do-able, and the 23mm cannon is good enough for at least another 1-2 bombers in a gun attack. I'll bet you guys can knock down the entire formation with a lot less than $113 million expended.

Cap, thank you for taking the MIG 15 out and showing the cannon shots. It was amazing how the added punch of the cannon was effective but cost in limited ammo stores. Thank you GRs! God Bless!!

Oh, gonna go with Gen 2 with lots of bulllets!!!!

Boys(and girl), I have to tell you just how much I enjoy EACH of your fantastic contributions to these missions. On this little praise I have to point out our fearless and hysterical leader. Your skills and your hysterical commentary really make this enjoyable to watch, day after rewarding day. Also an unsung hero, who is clutch in tough moments and always the voice od calm and reason….Matrix. It is a pleasure to watch you fly sir, truly! Thank you all. You make my days!

It looks like you started to come around to this way of thinking with the 6 AIM-9Xs instead of -120s, but if you wanted to be less expensive, consider putting 6x 9M, 2x AIM-7 Sparrows and 4x -120Bs on the Hornet. They'll be just as effective but much less expensive, and you wouldn't have to reduce the number of missiles carried.

for an allied WWII inceptor my bet would be the F8F Bearcat, 2200hp and 4 20mm cannons. there's also the F2G super corsair, it had even more grunt with the 3000hp+ wasp major, but only had 4 .50 cals so lacked the punch for this kind of mission.

I love the name "Leadnose Diesel Fighter" We have to keep using that one, even when the official F4 Phantom comes out.

Yay! Candair Sabres = Best Sabres! Great choice for the gen1 interceptors, though didn't perform quite as well as I had expected. It seems they were just TOO fast. Fun fact: In the 1971 India/Pakistan war, Pakistani Canadair sabres absolutely cleaned house on the IAF, racking up a 6-1 kill ratio.

The last gen of F86 had the so called "all flying tail" that did wonders for avoiding compressibility.

Another great video! Great job.

I'm not sure where it would fit exactly, but I thought I would see a Messerschmitt ME262 tossed into the fray, for historical airplane geek purposes. Interestingly, Germany discovered researching B17 wrecks that it took "at least" 20 rounds hitting a B17 to bring them down (wiki).

"If you attack from the back, go for the rear." -Cap

The Canadian markings. A Canadair Sabre. 19:52 Possibly an Orenda engine, which is relatively powerful.

Just found this and it's an excellent combination of silliness and science. Very enjoyable

I’d love to see the CF-100 Canuck in this, especially in limited visibility situations. It was all weather as compared to the MIGs and Sabres which were day fighters.

Another great mission from Grim Reapers/Kortana! Keep em coming and while 92.7% more Kortana is nice, there's room there for MORE! Plus, Kortana as a Skydiver herself can probably tell us how fast you get as you plummet!

I always love it when Cap gets a friendly fire up his tailpipe... The sheer disappointment in his voice every time... And he holds a grudge too... LOL

Aww. I need, physically NEED, 93% more of the Silken-Voiced Assassin.

Great video.

Look at all them beautiful B 17s!.....Ohhhh Yurrrr!

I am enjoying this series very much.

Mig 15 is kind of an international fighter when you think of it. Like Fly said....FW had a similar design then the Russians managed to steal or buy the design of an early Rolls Royce engine and added the 37mm gun from Lend Lease P-39/63 Aira/King Cobras. Also during WW2 Germans got a bit of lead time just like the British did by being able to see the bombers circling over bases to group up before heading out. Maybe add that little warning time into another video for this? Also even with the advent of the chin turret Germans found a head on to be best attack as it could kill or incapacitated the pilots.

that first bomb hit scene was epic 😀 shame we didnt get to see damps 20mms on the B17s

Interesting indeed!

Not knowing DCS, but knowing WW2 aircraft, is there a Tempset or Typhoon model in the game? Would be superb interceptors and give the Dora a run for it's money

DCS should do something about the defensive gunnery in these bomber formations. IRL they supported each other. Every gunner in each aircraft had his arc of fire to monitor. At the moment the main defensive gunnery comes from the rear only. No waist guns. No ball turret that I can see. No defense at all when you attack head on. A bit weak really.

When the game Warbirds first came out circa '97 or '98 some teams filled the airfields with B17s on the ground to act as air defense. It worked so well and caused so much angst it sparked flame wars between both sides of players and the devs in a flame 3 way

Somehow science fiction has made me believe that interceptors are very fast and nimble because they are very small. Actual interceptors are fast because they have massive engines over everything else.

I would love to see you use ground attack rockets like Zuni. The Germans used unguided rockets to great effect when they could get in position. Gen 2, 3, 4 aircraft would have no problems getting good firing solutions. Rockets angled slightly up through the back of the formation so they fall back through the formation further on. Fun would be had by all. And they would not go chasing other fighters.

cool video

I wonder how the P38 Lightning would do vs the other warbirds?

In the Huey I typically take one squad of each on every flight. In the Gazelle I usually take Recon now, originally I would take SOF but found the Recon to be more useful in most use cases.

You are the most brave of DCS ..

Kortana is everyone’s favorite, no one can keep up 😂

Quoting from Len Deighton's "Bomber" (an amazing book, BTW): "Each of those engines required the manufacturing capacity of forty simple car engines. The man-hours spent constructing each four-motor aeroplane would have built almost a mile of Autobahn. The radar and radio equipment alone equalled a million radio sets. The total of hard aluminium amounted to 5,000 tons, or about eleven million saucepans. In cash, at 1943 prices with profits pared to a minimum, each Lancaster cost £42,000. Crew-training averaged out at £10,000 each at that time more than enough to send the entire crew to Oxford or Cambridge for three years. Add another £13,000 for bombs, fuel, servicing and ground-crew training at bargain prices and each bomber was a public investment of £120,000." A Spitfire or Mustang cost some £10,000 in 1944, or £370k these days. Methinks those costs for the warbirds are a bit suspicious. Are they inflation adjusted? Also, maybe you can factor the crew training costs in there somewhere? Training the pilot would've cost easily as much as the plane (some 10,000 WW2 pounds each). I see a good few pilots wouldn't have survived the warbird mission.

Not going for head on passes was a huge missed opportunity. Hitting the cockpit in head on passes was the most successful tactic used by the luftwaffe.

The dynamic I love here, is with Gen 2-3, and 4, the required communication levels increase significantly (for obvious anti-FF reasons) - pretty neat, but in reality, I think it would have been the inverse due to the limited data-link/status systems of the Warbirds.

4:22 reminds me of keystone cops bobbing and weaving up and down cracked me up

I wonder how a pair or two of S-24s would do when fired into the formation

12:50 _"Sh*t, my prop stopped working."_ _"Umm ... You'll need that, bub."_ 😄😆😅😂🤣 20:30 GENERATIONS: I actually like to think the MiG-15s and F-86s are the first of the 2nd gen jet fighters, including the MiG-17 and FJ-3/4. First-gen were straight-wing (excepting the Me-262). WINCHESTER: That was probably a problem with the MiG-15, as it only held enough cannon rounds for roughly 10 seconds of continuous fire. The F-15 held enough .50cal for 20-30 sec of continuous fire. 31:30 _"Technically, we've killed less..."_ True, but more mission kills, I think. 55:30 (Kortana) _"We did better with Gen 2/3 than with Gen 4."_ I think the people living in Caen would *STRONGLY* disagree!

I wish you could do this but with b-29s and a slightly higher altitude Fun video today I like it

the main issue with the second generation is it's ability to get to hight and rapid Winchester. I am really curious as to how a saber mk.6 would perform this with its additional 2500lbs of thrust. would that additional thrust allow for more RTB with more sorties which in turn brings more munitions into the fight? just a thought.

The B-17 has enough documented crew lives saved from durability to make the argument that it's the toughest war plane in history. Truly a flying fortress!

Why do you get so much speed and zoom past the bombers when attacking from behind? You then have to turn around and waste a ton of energy. Wouldn't it be better to take your shots and then pull up to bleed off speed and convert it into altitude, letting you dive down again for more shots and repeat? Another thing is that you wait too long before shooting. Guns have a really long range and anything with 20mm+ cannons isn't dependent on the projectile velocity for damage.

Is the 262 considered both a warbird and a Gen1? I would have loved to seen it in this vid somewhere.

More!

Could that algorithm be tweeked to for example count bullet or cannon strikes on targets? And misses? Could make for some interesting competitions...

My three favorite Brits are? In order. CAP. Russell brand. Austin Powers

You guys should try it again with B-29's and B-52's.

Love these 60's jets for some reason, Sabre next. Like Johnny Quest.

You mentioned it so..... F-16 vs F-86???

I wonder how the A-10 would fare. It’s not the fastest, but it load out and the gun should make quick work of the bombers. It’s maneuverability should also help with the fighters.

The Aim-9E is a rear aspect missile so don't expect it to lock at prop like B-17 head on

Thesis: falling leaf maneuver will avoid and avert a barrage of missiles.

2nd gen fighter radars didn't even have pulse doppler, so they were only good for tracking high altitude bombers

Realistically speaking, I would wager the bomber crews would have dumped their bombs and scattered. Historically, there was one raid where 37 German jets went up against a formation of 1,221 bombers and 632 escort fighters. The 262s destroyed twelve bombers against the loss of three aircraft. Given the numbers you have here, the bombers would be very hard pressed to be considered combat effective. In later stages of the war, after that attack, it was reasoned that the massed defense didn't work as well with smaller raids, and pilots were trained to dump everything they had, and scatter, only to reform at a predetermined point. The reasoning being that while they did lose their overall massed defense, the jets (which were known to be small in number) would have a harder time picking targets.

Now do this with B52s!

33:00 gun pods with the f4's?

Seeing this reminds me of the "Snafu" podcast.

11:57 Why did those two bombers decide to kill themselves? That’s a verified W word moment.

And you can adjust your gunsight to the single target type.

Watching cap forget that p factor exists in single engine pistons and not push in right rudder made me giggle a little bit

Crazy question but have you ever considered turning the formula on it's head? Run an equivalent value of interceptors vs the threat, ie: 500 million dollars of warbirds, gen 1, gen 2/3 and gen 4 vs whatever the threat is.

a P-38L should out-perform a Fw-190 for bomber interception. No idea if DCS has them available though. About 5000ft/min climb too.

You can't hit a friggin bomber with a cannon!!!???

WW2 carpet bombing - when collateral damage is an added bonus.

The F-80 just missed WW2 however saw combat in Korea!

Sure seemed like in the first engagement the bombers were extremely crappy shots. So few of you attacking and with all those tail gunners it seems you should have been damaged a lot more. 12.7mm rounds vs. 7.92mm in the JU-88’s from the last engagement. Seemed like you suffered more at the hands of the JU-88’s.

Maybe 1st wave everyone have unguided rockets ... full wave salvo... then return and take off in pairs with guided missiles

It's too bad the P-38J wasn't available to participate in this test. The mix of heavy MG and cannon rounds would have been devastating!

Please can someone teach Cap to shoot a gun hehe … love you really honest!

A lot of gen2 carried packs of unguided rockets as well.probably coz .5cal andn20mmn not ennough

Cap, Could you sexy humans do a recreation of the 1969 US Navy EC-121 Shootdown by a North Korean Mig-21? Pretty crazy little-known event that easily could of been the end of North Korea. Keep up the wonderful videos, Ive probably watched 90% of your entire library at this point.

Gloster Meteor was in WW2 and Korea aswell

Hello, valued Reapers!!!

True first generation jets should be Gloster Meteor, Messerschmitt 262 Schwalbe, Heinkel 162 Salamander, Arado 234 Blitz, De Havilland Vampire. Shame there isn't the B24 Liberator in game.

Questions with the up-front caveat that I am unfamiliar with the extent of what is modeled/available in DCS: Were the SUU-16 / SUU-23/A 20mm gun pods or rocket pods on the Phantoms considered for your Gen 2/3 scenario? My thought was that the low speed and size of the B-17 combined with the excess of payload budget for the F-4 and cost-effectiveness of 20mm/dumbfire rockets in this scenario would potentially offset the air-to-air accuracy issues historically associated with those weapon systems. Also, was the F-8 Crusader considered for the Gen 2/3 scenario?

How about repelling/supporting naval invasions of different generations?

Yes!!...This is so cool let's go ⛳

Dive down on the bombers. Don't come around behind them! Get a few thousand feet above the formation, then pick one plane and dive down and kill it. you don't present them much a target and kinetically, you have the advantage slicing through their formations.

How would the cost look if the cost of bomb damage was included for a total cost?

Just wondering if the ki-84 is modeled in DCS as it would in theory preform well in this type of scenario. Feel free to correct me. Cheers love the series.

Cortana sounds hot

(small British girl voice) Look mummy... there's an aero plane up in the sky... Every time I hear a warbird engine, this comes to mind

Question, would a SAM network be capable of shooting down a ww2 bomber force and if so would it be more efficient than fighters?

For gen 2/3 what about the F4 variant that had 3 external 20mm cannon pods?

Wouldbe nice to have period correct RAF anf USAAF /USAF,ligery for all the jets.

When you figure cost of mission, inflation isn't calculated I'm guessing?

How about best bombers, gen1, gen2, etc against fixed and moving targets! Land and sea!

Regarding gen2/3 fighters: mow much M61 pods cam Phantom carry in DCS?

You should do this but with SAM sites

With the MACH 1 capable fighters, a Mach 1+ run should shake them up pretty bad

4:38 What are those name tags and numbers for? It has the names of other WW2 aircraft, presumably some information for how to intercept them. But what does the numbers mean?

Is the RAF Lightning in the game? It would make a great gen 3 cepter for bombers