This is the hundred-forty-fifth in a series of posts on the Vietnam War. Go back to the previous post in the series or return to the master post.
Days before voting was held for the 1968 presidential election, for better or for worse, Johnson called a halt to the Rolling Thunder campaign. As I have been working my way through, via games, the various factors that interlinked the War in Vietnam with the 1968 presidential election, I thought I ought to take on one more Rolling Thunder mission for good measure. As you must be aware, my ability to execute bombing missions is worse, even, then my performance with fighter planes. I figure this is a good way to challenge myself as well as to acknowledge history.
The last North Vietnam bombing mission modeled in IL-2 BAT is from vern’s Nam War series; the second of his scenarios for the A-7 Corsair II. It’s far from the last of the Rolling Thunder missions, from a historical perspective. This scenario is modeled after a July 20th, 1968 attack, not even the “latest” scenario I’ve played, much less the last1 scenario created to take place before America’s election.
I had a very difficult time at first. While this might sound like par for the course to you, this was a bit surprising to me given that in my first time out with the A-7, I described the aircraft as being much more controllable than its peers. By contrast, in today’s scenario, I had several crashes on takeoff and then a tremendous fight trying to keep my bird in proper trim. The problems seemed to subside with each retry, so I have to assume the errors were all on my end. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’ve gained a handle on what I am doing wrong. Based on prior experience, I’m thinking maybe an interaction between the auto-leveling function and the manual trim settings is giving me fits, but can’t say for sure.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/thunder1.jpg?w=1024)
Even after I got control of my aircraft my ability to deliver my bombs on the target didn’t go so well. I took this as an opportunity to try to understand the A-7’s radar and inertial navigation systems and how the feedback functions on the screen. I’ve commented on this before – the player receives information through text artifacts on the main screen. See the yellow “>,” above, for an example. A little trial and error suggests to me that this particular indicator means that I should steer to the right to align with my target. There is also a bracketed count-down, giving me minutes and then seconds until target – an easy-to-understand display. Far more inscrutable is the “- – -” that pops up. Does it mean that my alignment is good or is it trying to tell me I have a problem with my altitude?
Assuming I can get myself in the right place, the navigation system will tell me when to let go of my bombs (see below screenshot). I consider it progress, of sorts, that my miss was consistent with the feedback – or at least consistent with the way that I interpreted it. It told me to turn to the right, I failed to adequately do so, and my payload missed its target just a bit to the left.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/thunder2.jpg?w=1024)
It would really help a lot if I had some written documentation on these features. I actually made some progress towards identifying the pre-BAT mod that may have introduced this feature into the game. Well, sort of. I found a Command & Control 1966 Mod from 4S_Vega (circa 2012). His work seems to build on another mod, presumably earlier still and whose name I did not identify. Many of these older mods are discussed on various and sundry IL-2 modding sites, most of which require the creation of a user account to even view the discussion. I didn’t feel in the mood to set up log-ins willy-nilly in the hope that one of these half-a-dozen or more discussion boards, maybe, explains what I am looking at. If anybody reading this has an idea as to where to find documentation on this feature, feel free to post a link in the comments.
So… a few runs through this scenario have left me feeling, while not quite competent, at least not totally out of my depth. Am I on my way to being able to successfully conduct a bombing mission in the A-7? If “success” doesn’t include executing a carrier landing, then just maybe I’m getting close. Fortunately for my purposes, the end of Rolling Thunder doesn’t mean an end to A-7 missions. There are more to be had in this series. I will add, though, that the next one in vern’s series isn’t until 1971. I wonder how long it will be until I get around to playing it?
Return to the master post for more Vietnam War articles. Moving forward, I look at a well-designed base-defense scenario for Steel Panthers. Well designed, that is, except for the time it takes for a turn to run.
- I don’t claim to have compiled a definitive list of IL-2 scenarios. I refer only to my “battles” timeline, where the final mission of 1968 asks the player to fly a Huey. I’ve decided I’m having enough trouble with the bombers so taking on the controls of a helicopter would seem to be too much for me. Plus, taken within the context of this post, we know that Rolling Thunder didn’t involve sending Huey’s to attack Hanoi. ↩︎