Donald Featherstone’s Air War Games Wargaming Aerial Warfare 1914-1975 Revised Edition Edited by John Curry This book was first published in 1966 as Air War Games by Stanley and Paul. This edition 2015 Copyright © 2015 John Curry and Donald Featherstone Sturmstaffel: Defending the Reich is copyright of Tim Gow; Rolling Thunder is copyright Ian Drury, and On a Wing and Prayer is copyright John Armatys. All three sets of rules are reproduced with permission. With thanks to all three of these people who kindly contributed to this new edition. The right of John Curry and Donald Featherstone to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the authors in writing. More than 30 books are currently in the History of Wargaming Project Army Wargames: Staff College Exercises 1870-1980. Charlie Wesencraft’s Practical Wargaming Charlie Wesencraft’s With Pike and Musket Donald Featherstone’s Lost Tales Donald Featherstone’s War Games Donald Featherstone’s Skirmish Wargaming Donald Featherstone’s Naval Wargames Donald Featherstone’s Advanced Wargames Donald Featherstone’s Wargaming Campaigns Donald Featherstone’s Solo Wargaming Paddy Griffith’s Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun Sprawling Wargames: Multi-player wargaming by Paddy Griffith Verdy’s ‘Free Kriegspiel’ including the Victorian Army’s 1896 War Game Tony Bath’s Ancient Wargaming Phil Dunn’s Sea Battles Joseph Morschauser’s How to Play War Games in Miniature And many others See The History of Wargaming Project for other publications. Cover photo taken by Tim Gow Table of Contents Foreword to Revised Edition Preface Introduction 1: The Model Aircraft 2: Methods of Using Model Aircraft in War Games 3: Pre-1914: the Balloons and the Early Aircraft 4: World War I 5: World War II 6: Model Aircraft in Land War Games 7: Aircraft at Sea 8: Fletcher Pratt: Naval and Air War Games Genius 9: Air War Gaming Based on Fletcher Pratt Principles 10: Air War Games by the Experts 11: Helicopters in War Games 12: A Strategical/Tactical Air War Game without Models 13: Weather in Air War Games 14: Battle of Britain Fighter Tactics 15: Commercial Air War Games 16: Sturmstaffel: Defending the Reich 1944 17: Rolling Thunder: Air combat over South-East Asia 18: On a Wing and Prayer - Bomber Command in the Battle for the Ruhr, July 1943 19: Research: Books and Other Aids 20: Last-minute Thoughts! Foreword to Revised Edition Air Wargaming, like naval wargaming, is a niche within the wider hobby of wargaming. It can be broken down into three main periods; World War I, World War II and the jet age. However, there are also more exotic games, such as science fiction involving futuristic aircraft supporting battle-mechs or airships in an alternative Victorian England. The reason why air wargames have not gained a wider following within the hobby is not clear. Air wargames are cheap; all that is needed is a blue cloth and a handful of models. They can be made very visually appealing, such as colourful World War I aircraft flying high above a representation of the squalor of the trenches below. There are plenty of well- presented commercial rule books in print and a good selection of boardgames. The latter extend tactical air games and explore the use of airpower on a strategic level or in support of naval operations. Donald Featherstone’s view on the popularity of air wargames is that the genre has not yet seen the right set of rules and the right personalities. In air wargaming, there has been [1] [2] no equivalent of Fletcher Pratt or Fred T. Jane who popularised naval wargaming; there has been no Games Workshop that made fantasy and science fiction wargaming a part of youth culture and no Wargames Research Group that launched ancient wargaming as the most popular part of hobby. Perhaps the paradigm shifting set of rules which will make air wargaming a part of every wargaming club meeting are already in existence; perhaps they are not and the hobby is still awaiting them. The original book on air wargaming by Donald Featherstone was popular and encouraged many wargamers to try their hand at writing their own air wargaming rules. Airfix models on cardboard tubes roamed across many a wargamer’s kitchen floor in close fought air battles. Since the first edition, there have been many changes in air wargaming, so the opportunity has been taken to supplement the material of the original. This edition contains the following revisions to the original book: Chapter 1: The Model Aircraft now has an introduction to some of the models and scales available to the modern wargamer. Chapter 15: Commercial Air War Games. There have been a large number of boardgames dealing with war in the air. This chapter includes some of the classics. Chapter 16: Sturmstaffel: Defending the Reich Against The Terror Bombers. This game is a good example of how straightforward rules can make a short, but entertaining air battle, particularly suitable for a wargaming show or to fill a gap at the end of a day’s wargaming. The game is also suitable for a solo player to launch into the skies with a wing of fighters and try to stop the enemy air armada. Chapter 17: Rolling Thunder: Air Combat over South-East Asia is a fine example of a cross between a boardgame and a miniatures game. The rules are straightforward, but are a simulation of the air war over Vietnam and the surrounding air space. Chapter 18: On a Wing and Prayer: Bomber Command in the Battle for the Ruhr July 1943 is a solo game about the experience of Bomber Command during the critical battles in which the war fighting capacity of the German Reich was being crippled. Chapter 19: The research section has been updated with a select bibliography to help initially guide the reader who wants to explore the subject further. A number of wargamers following the History of Wargaming Project have asked about this particular book being reprinted. It is hoped that the delay in its publication will balanced by the new material to the original classic. John Curry Editor of the History of Wargaming Project Preface Having written a book on wargaming with model soldiers and another on fighting naval battles with model ships, it appears only logical to complete the trilogy by doing one on fighting wargames with model aircraft. With all its accompanying problems of space and how to make model aeroplanes stay up in the air, this book has probably been the hardest of the three to write. Practical experiments indicate that the methods described will work and give very satisfactory games. There are almost certainly fewer people conducting air wargames than those on land or sea. This is rather anomalous, because the world is full of devotees of model aircraft who painstakingly make models that fly under radio control, with their own minute motors or by rubber strands. What do all these aeronautical fans do in the winter-time? Perhaps the long dark evenings might be satisfyingly filled by fighting indoor wargames with model aircraft. I would like to acknowledge with the deepest gratitude all the invaluable help and information given me by those wargamers who are mentioned by name in this book. It is platitudinous but absolutely true to say that I could not have written it without their advice. All of them are far more experienced than I in this field, but they do not have the time to write a book about it! It is with some temerity that I say how satisfying it is to write the first book ever written on this specific subject - I hope the reader finds it equally satisfying! DONALD F. FEATHERSTONE Introduction There are a great many men and boys, aged from ten to one hundred, plus some of the [3] more intelligent girls, who fight wargames with model soldiers. They assemble them in armies, complete with cavalry and guns, and then throw them against each other in bloody combat on table-top terrains built up with hills, villages, woods, roads and rivers. The rules they use to govern these affrays are many and varied, and in a strange way reflect the personality of their compiler. So popular has this pastime become in recent years, after [4] being given the benefit of pioneer patronage by writers Robert Louis Stevenson and H. [5] G. Wells, that the latter’s early book on the subject has now been joined by at least two more, plus regular magazines devoted to the subject. A smaller number of enthusiasts, with the smell of the sea in their nostrils, devote much time and brain-power to fighting battles with model ships, or even fighting them without actually using the ships, in a most complex and diverse international postal naval wargame. Because of the vast distances involved in sea battles, combined with the undoubted intricacies arising from the offensive and defensive powers of the ships themselves, the rules for these games are far from easy to compile and the games are complex in their conception and execution. For those reasons, naval wargames are played by fewer people than play wargames with model soldiers. Lagging along in the rear are those devotees of wargames with model aircraft; few in number and working in neglected insularity, they provide a paradox that could be claimed to be symbolic of this day and age.