BEST OF BRITISH, 29 August 1955

[This scenario is converted from the Desert Falcons scenario "The First Skirmish" by J D Webster.
I would like to express my thanks to JD for his permission to convert his original work for this scenario.]

Briefing: Arab and Israeli jets fought for the first time in August of 1955, when IAF Meteors attacked a flight of intruding Egyptian Vampires over the Negev Desert. Having missed out on action in WWII, this clash was the combat debut of the Vampire.

Map: Blue Sky
Aircraft: Israeli:Four Meteor F.8
Egyptian:Four Vampire FB.5

Set Up: Set up the Egyptians in 2926, 2725, 3125 and 3324. All are facing E at altitude 15.0, wings level, and speed 8.0. Set up the Israelis in 2314, 2312, 1914, and 1713. All face NE, wings level, at speed 9.0. The lead pair are at altitude 17.0, the rear pair at 18.0.

Game Length: 30 turns

Rules of Engagement:
1. Surprise: The Egyptians have not spotted the Israelis at game start. At the start of each turn (including turn 1), roll a die. On a die roll less than or equal to the turn number, the Israelis are spotted and the Egyptians can move normally that turn. Otherwise they must fly straight and level without adjusting throttle or jettisoning any loads, unless fired upon in which case they can move normally on the following turn, or unless one of the Meteors enters any of the three front arcs of any of the Vampires, in which case they are automatically spotted.
2. Pilot Quality: The Egyptian pilots are, in order, Regular, Green, Regular, Green. The first three Israelis are Regulars, the fourth is Green.
3. Loads: Each Vampire is loaded with a fuel tank under each wing. For each Vampire that jettisons its tanks, the Israeli player receives 1/2 VP.

Debriefing: The Vampires were surprised and scattered. Several were damaged and one was shot down in the ensuing melee, with no loss to the Israelis. Two days later, a larger clash between these two elderly marques resulted in the loss of a further two Vampires, although this time some damage was inflicted on the Meteors in return.

Modified ADCs:

The Meteor:

The Meteor went through some major changes in between engaging Buzz-bombs over the fields of Kent in 1944, and engaging its younger sibling over the Negev Desert in 1955. Its powerplant was the major change, output from each engine jumping from 1700lb to 3500lb, with a consequent increase in performance to the point Mach number rather than engine power became the limiting factor on its speed. The other significant change was that its wings were clipped, shortening wingspan by nearly 6 feet, increasing rate of roll but at a cost of increasing both landing and take-off speeds.

Due to the compressibility limit being routinely reached, a great deal of research was done into reducing the effects of compressibility on the Meteor, most of which centered around the design of the engine nacelles, raising its limiting maximum Mach number to 0.84 (the same as the Me163). The vertical fin was also redesigned, solving the snaking problem at high speeds. To reflect this, the effects of compressibility on the Meteor F.8 are delayed by 0.5FP (e.g. they occur at 12.5 instead of 12.0 at VL), and not at all at speeds up to and including its maximum level speed (which was still just shy of 600 mph up to 10,000 feet).

Mike Traynor provided me with a Postscript file (which was created by John Carr and modified by Chris Perleberg) for an ADC, based on my suggested changes to Mitch Schwartz's original Mk.I ADC, and which I modified to reflect the complete information at my disposal, and then converted (using Ghostscript) to an Acrobat PDF file. I have removed my list of modifications from this site and provide this instead for those of you who find it hard to remember changes and modifications to ADCs in the "heat of battle".

The Vampire:

Unlike the Meteor, the Vampire underwent very little change between its introduction to service in 1945 and its combat debut of 1955. Its powerplant and performance remained the same, the only significant change being to the wings, which were strengthened to accomodate a heavy ground-attack load (hence the FB designation). They were also clipped slightly, although not enough to affect performance in game terms. For the purpose of this combat, Mitch Schwartz's Vampire Mk I ADC can be used unchanged. Note that the Vampire was not (according to my sources) ejector seat equipped!

Designer's Notes: I was trying to find some references on the early Arab-Israeli clashes to do such a Vampire-Meteor scenario, but without luck. I had almost given up when I remembered Desert Falcons and sure enough, the first scenario was perfect for conversion, and JD kindly gave me permission to convert it. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to play both versions and compare their feel!

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Version History:
1.0 Original Version
1.1 Added Meteor F.8 ADC
1.2 Removed list of modifications to Mk I ADC.
1.3 Edited grammar. Fixed link to Vampire ADC.