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CFS Campaign: Operation Dragoon
FREEWARE February 2000
by Steve Baugh
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OVERVIEW

A CFS campaign which puts you in VOF-1, a U.S. Navy observation fighter squadron fighting in the invasion of Southern France in August 1944: Operation Dragoon (Anvil). The missions involve takeoff and landing on an aircraft carrier in a Hellcat fighter. All required elements included. By Steve Baugh.

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INTRODUCTION

In August of 1944, an Allied landing force composed of British, Free French, and American forces landed in Southern France near Toulon in order to relieve pressure on Allied forces which had landed in Normandy two months earler. The operation was originally code-named, Operation Anvil, but because a reluctant Churchill had only grudgingly given his consent to the project, he said he had been "dragooned" into it. Because of this, the code-name was semi-officially changed to "Operation Dragoon."

The land-based side of the operation has been fully reported in: Breuer, William B., _Operation Dragoon: The Allied Invasion of the South of France_ (1987). However, what is not reported is that the invasion was supported by two aircraft carrier groups which included the Casablanca class escort carriers: USS Tulagi (CVE-72) and USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) as well as a number of British escort carriers which flew Wildcats, Hellcats, and Seafires. (The bombardment groups included British, French, U.S., and even Greek ships; e.g., HHMS Themistocles.)

The campaign I have developed here is roughly based on historical facts with some necessary compromises. Here are the realistic elements: (1) The USS Tulagi carried VOF-1, an "Observation Fighter" squadron with F6F-5 Hellcat fighters which had been trained particularly to observe for naval gunfire. In the operation itself, the battleships and cruisers preferred to use their own observation planes for this task, releasing the Hellcats of VOF-1 for other duties. The Hellcats were very effective in destroying enemy railyards, truck convoys, and gun emplacements. In addition, they fought off enemy fighters and flew escort for U.S. Army Air Force bombers sent from Italy in support of the invasion. These are the kinds of missions are represented in this campaign.

But there were some necessary, glaring compromises I had to (reluctantly) make in this campaign. First, the missions are not set in Mediterranean at all, but in the Atlantic coast near Nantes (actually Saint Nazaire I think--the CFS map seems to be incorrect!). This was because the Riviera area of France is not included in the CFS scenery. Hence, all action takes place in the "Nantes" area of the CFS scenery. (I did once make a couple of port calls to Toulon in a WWII-era U.S. Navy ship, by the way.)

A second big compromise has to do with the technical side of CFS scenery. If you place an aircraft carrier within the scenery boundaries, you cannot land on it without blowing up, no matter how softly you land. The make-do solution I came up with was to place the aircraft carrier itself just outside the CFS scenary area in the Atlantic Ocean. In the non-CFS waters there, the carrier acts normally. I'm afraid you see the "seam" of two different colored waters nearby, but perhaps we can imagine that this is caused by deep-water shelving or something!

[NOTE: When Bill Potvin of the wonderful CFS Operations site (www.cfsops.com) heard of this scenery problem, he very selflessly provided a fix. Unfortunately, the fix requires changing CFS's whole way of dealing with scenery and crashes, so I felt like most users would not want to make this change just to run one campaign. My apologies to Bill for not using it, but sincere appreciation for his valiant attempt! Typical of this guy who has provided so many great, free add-ons to CFS.]

Well, there are other things about the campaign to complain about. The aircraft has no moving parts [What are you doing outside looking for moving gear anyway, wing-walking?! Get back in there and fly the dang thing!], and the paint job is old. But it flies with the stability and guts of the real Hellcat. And you can land this thing on a dime with the hook down. Landing on the aircraft carrier is really quite easy. [OK, it's Dan Geis' Essex class carrier, not a Casablanca class "jeep" carrier--another compromise!] HOWEVER, I think it's fun to fly a USN fighter against the German aircraft, and it was really done in WWII to boot. I also like carrier flying, and each mission ends with you lined up in the pattern for landing on the birdfarm. (See my "Carrier Ops" document at www.SurClaro and elsewhere for instructions on carrier landings with WWII aircraft.)

So, please ignore the weaknesses of this campaign. It is, after all, just for fun!

SPECIAL NOTE: With all the missions EXCEPT #1 and #8, you can press "X" ONCE (ONLY!) at the start of the mission to "warp" to the assembly area. If you press "X" more than once (despite the annoying screen message to press "x"), you will end the mission unaccomplished. With missions #1 and #8, do not press "X" at all, since the action takes place near the carrier. These missions were designed for people who like to actually fly a little! Tune your RDF (=ADF) to 972 to tune in the location of the carrier.


Installation instructions are included with each included component. Please read them carefully. And I've included below some notes found on the internet about the USS Tulagi and USS Augusta for further info.

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INCLUDED FILES

*Aircraft.zip -- Two versions of the F6F-5 Hellcat aircraft. One you will fly and the other is an AI version for your squadron mates.

*erklibr.zip -- Ernie Kennedy's CFS exploding versions of Dan Geis' USN ships. Please install using Ernie's instructions. Some of the missions use the battleship from this library. Thanks to Ernie and Dan for their work here.

*CVE72.zip -- This is the USS Tulagi aircraft carrier and its escorts and a file which will allow you to access this aircraft carrier from the Airport pull down menu. A photo of the real USS Tulagi is included.

*campaign.zip -- This contains the campaign missions and campaign file. Simply unzip into your [c:\CFS]\campaigns folder to use.

*map.zip -- A map (Dragoon.bmp) showing the position of the USS Tulagi, Nantes, and surrounding airfields for your reference.

NOTE: This software is FREEWARE. Many parts of it were designed by or created with freeware from other dedicated hobbyists. No part of this archive may be used for commercial purposes.

Watch your six!

Steve Baugh
FREEFLIGHT Design Shop


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USS Tulagi CVE-72
(VOF-1/VC-92 Sqd)

FROM:
http://metalab.unc.edu/hyperwar/USN/ships/dafs/CVE/cve72.html
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
Naval History Division • Washington

Tulagi (CVE-72) was laid down on 7 June 1943 at Vancouver, Wash., by the Kaiser Co., Inc., as Fortazela Bay (ACV-72); and redesignated CVE-72 on 15 July 1943. However, her name was corrected to read Fortaleza Bay on 19 October 1943, and the ship was renamed Tulagi on 6 November 1943; launched on 15 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. James Duke Barner and commissioned on 21 December 1943, Capt. Joseph Campbell Cronin in command. . . .

After arriving at Norfolk on 17 June 1944, Tulagi got underway late in June for Quonset Point, R.I. where she embarked personnel, planes, and equipment. On the last day of the month, she departed Narragansett Bay with Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin on board as Commander, Task Group 27.7, and steamed eastward conducting squadron and battery training en route to Oran, Algeria. Tulagi visited Malta on 26 July and then spent the following weeks conducting exercises which included a dress rehearsal out of African and Italian ports for the coming Operation "Dragoon," the invasion of southern France.

On D-day, Tulagi steamed in formation 45 miles off the invasion beach; and, at 0546, she launched her first flight of Hellcats. In the next week, aircraft from Tulagi flew a total of 68 missions and 276 sorties, inflicting considerable damage on the enemy. Weather was generally good as carrier-based planes conducted spotting missions and made strikes at various targets ashore, including gun emplacements and railway facilities. On 21 August, Tulagi's last day in support of Operation "Dragoon," German forces were in retreat before the Allied thrust. Tulagi's fliers conducted a devastating attack along the line of march of a German convoy which snarled the roads for miles around Remouline and crowned her achievements of the day by downing three German Ju-52s.

(Tulagi went on to participate in the invasion of Lingayen Gult and Okinawa where she faced kamikaze and sub attacks. Tulagi received four battle stars for World War II service.)

See also Dept. of the Navy, Naval Historical Center:
http://www.history.navy.mil/index.html

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On USS Augusta (CA-31):
OPERATION DRAGOON (a/k/a "ANVIL")

Book: Operation Dragoon : The Allied Invasion of the South of France by Breuer, William B., 1987

On 14 August, the heavy cruiser departed the Golfe de Valinco at 1030 for Ile du Levant, southern France and the beginning of operation "Dragoon". Augusta arrived at 2155 at the staging area, joining the "Sitka" Assault Group. On the morning of 15 August, Augusta trained her main battery against targets on Port Cros Island, and fired nine rounds. At 1125 she sent six 8-inch rounds into enemy troops counterattacking on Cape Negre, and ceased fire only when endangering friendly troops. The heavy cruiser took a German strong point, an old fort on Port Cros Island, under fire at 1512 and hurled 92 rounds against it. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal came on board at 2023 for an official visit with Admiral Davidson.

The next day, Augusta patrolled the "Sitka" Assault Area and Secretary Forrestal left her at 0850. The heavy cruiser fired 63 more rounds at the fort on Port Cros Island to soften it up. On 17 August, she patrolled with Omaha (CL-4) and poured 138 rounds from her 8-inch battery into the island fort, which surrendered that day.

An enemy sortie from Toulon which was unknown and unsuspected to the Augusta resulted in her appearing in the periscope cross-hairs of U-230. The U-230(a type VIIc) reportedly was the last German submarine in the Mediterranean to put to sea. Lt. Eberbach, her young C.O. with a scratch crew of sailors picked up on the beach , moved out of the harbor on at 21:00 August 17 hoping to get a crack at the invasion fleet. After hanging about the Mandrier Peninsula for two days he spotted Augusta and tailed her all day on the 20th. He claims to have penetrated her destroyer screen and was just about to fire four torpedoes when the cruiser, completely unaware of his presence, was braketed by a salvo from a shore battery and high-tailed out, completely spoiling his aim. That night U-230 ran aground, was abandoned and blown up in position 43.07N, 20.38W.

The following day, General Chidlaw left the ship to establish his headquarters on shore, and Augusta turned her fire on the remaining coastal defense batteries. She departed on 19 August for a reconnaissance-in-force of St. Mandrier Island off Toulon, France, where the battery known as "Big Willie" was located, bombarding shore installations, and returning to the "Sitka" Assault Area the same day. The Golfe Hotel, Hyeres, France, was nearly leveled by 114 rounds from Augusta on 20 August. Toulon and Marseilles surrendered eight days later. On 29 August, a landing party drawn from the marine detachments from Augusta and Philadelphia went ashore on the islands of Ratonneau and Chateau d'If in the harbor of Marseilles and accepted the surrender of German forces on those islands, taking 730 prisoners.

In support of "Dragoon," Augusta had fired over 700 rounds of 8-inch projectiles, and had materially aided invading Allied forces. She steamed to the Gulf of San Tropez, France, on 30 August, where Admiral Davidson shifted his flag to Philadelphia (CL-41) and Augusta was detached from TF 86.