Hi Freebird,
>Something vital to be sure. Perhaps a string of invasion barges with a Panzer division aboard, heading for the UK coast. If the bombers don't get through it will be a major disaster
Hm, the bad thing is that the Luftwaffe pilots will be aware of this too, so resistance might be even stiffer than I feared ...
>Consider the twins to be Beau's, not Blenhiems. There are only a dozen P-40's and perhaps 18 Beau's. The enemy has pehaps 20 Me109's and 16 x Me110's.
OK, that's a fairly potent force. I'd send in a small force of Hampdens escorted by the P-40s as first wave at medium altitude, and then the Wellingtons covered by the Beaufighters as second wave at a higher altitude. The first wave will be met by well-organized forces, so the faster bombers escorted by the more manoeuvrable and faster fighters will go in first, giving them a better chance to survival especially after the second wave arrives as the enemy probably will lose interest in a chase after the first wave has dropped its bombs.
The Beaufighters can survive attacks by Luftwaffe fighters for a while (until they get pushed down to sea level), and they will be able to tie up a good part of the defenders, taking the pressure off the bombers. The P-40s of the first wave will hopefully be able to climb back to altitude after disengaging from the target to support the withdrawal of the second wave.
We're still going to suffer bad losses as the Luftwaffe fighters outnumber and outperform us, but at least with the new order it's not the charge of the light brigade anymore
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)