
1943 SOLOMONS CAMPAIGN    
======================

A campaign made for Pacific Tide, the new Solomons theater for European Air War.  

The 1943 Solomons Campaign replaces the 1944 Campaign with one starting in March 
of 1943, as Guadalcanal is left by the Japanese forces and secured for the Allies.
The campaign ends in the spring of 1944.

The aim of this campaign is to simulate the air war in the Solomon Islands between
American, RNZAF and Japanese air forces and tries to represent the Allied offensive
climbing up the Solomons island chain, ending with the isolation and abandonment
of Rabaul, the main Japanese naval base in the theater.

In a normal campaign you fly a mission every 4 days, if you choose a long 
campaign be prepared to fly a mission every 2 days for a total of > 100 sorties.

All American, RNZAF and Japanese units mainly fly armed sweep, escort and intercept missions,
that are more or less equal in number. The farther time progresses in the Japanese campaign,
the more intercept missions will be flown.
A few bombing missions may also be present, especially for the Americans. For reasons
unknown you will not be asked to fly interdiction missions. This is the reason why there
aren't any flyable bomber squadrons in the campaign : no interdiction and maybe a few
bombing missions. You will all agree that it isn't much fun to fly continuous fighter
sweeps in a Dauntless or Kate.

Squadrons available for the 1943 Solomons Campaign:

	- Japanese              Aircraft       	Upgrade 	

	1st Sentai		Ki-43-II 
	68th Sentai		Ki-61-Ib 
	201st Kokutai           A6M5        	 
	204th Kokutai           A6M3 		A6M5           
	251st Kokutai           A6M5 	        		100% intercept
	253rd Kokutai           A6M3 		A6M5         
	582nd Kokutai           A6M5 	          		50% intercept 50% escort	
	
	- American

	VMF-124	                F4U-1             
	VMF-213                 F4U-1            
	VF-33			F6F-3
	VMF-214			F4U-1
	VMO-251			F4F-4		F4U-1
	44th FS			US P-40E	P-38J
	68th FS                 P-39Q            
	70th FS                 P-39Q		P-38J            
	339th FS		P-38F		P-38J

	- RNZAF

	No. 14 Squadron		NZ P-40E 	NZ P-40N & NZ F4U-1A
	No. 15 Squadron		NZ P-40E        NZ P-40N & NZ F4U-1A
	No. 16 Squadron		NZ P-40N	NZ F4U-1A  
	

Other computer controlled planes appearing in this campaign :

Japanese : B5N2 Kate, D3A2 Val, G4M2 Betty, Ki-21-IIb Sally, Ki-46-II Dinah.

American : SBD-3 Dauntless, TBF-1 Avenger, B-25J Mitchell, B-24D Liberator.

RNZAF : Ventura GR.Mk V.

When you play this campaign DO NOT select Limited Supply or you may not have bombs to carry.
I would like to quote Charles Gunst on this : "Did you join up to be a fighter pilot or 
a supply clerk anyway?" :)

Remarks :

* The Oscar is flyable in the 1st Sentai, but will not appear as computer controlled
  aircraft in the campaign.
* A tour of duty is allways 14 months even if your campaign late in 1943.
* In the RNZAF campaign also US bombers appear for escort missions.
* USAAF 44th FS advances only to Vila, if it advances to farther fields (Barokoma, Torokina)
  incurable crashes to desktop occur. The same goes for RNZAF No. 14 Squadron if it advances
  farther than the Russel islands and so it doesn't.
* I know it isn't historically correct because the Ki-46 Dinah was a unloaded reconaissance
  plane, but I gave it a single 50 kg 'daisy cutter' bomb as loadout. This is because you
  will have to escort it and it looks very silly if they arrive decimated on target without
  having anything to drop. You know a single 50 kg bomb won't do a lot of damage.

Thanks to :

* Stanley99 for writing the RNZAF Squadron descriptions.
* Jim Oxley for providing me with splendid Japanese unit descriptions.
* Dominique Legrand for his utility so that I was able to make the campaign's frontline.
* Jeroen Van Soest for his EAW Aircraft Edit 1.08 utility that I used for switching planes
  between slots.
* Charles Gunst for ECA Panel that provided me with all the flight models of the aircraft
  that appear in this campaign and for his EAW Edit notes that learned me how to make campaigns.
* Wolf257 and SDaly for giving us this terrific new Solomons map. 


Dirk 'Emil' Schoorens
emil@pandora.be
26 April 2001