"SIze of a fighter squadron or flight?" Topic

With the success of Platoon Forward I am doing something very similar for my air combat games. The ideal number of pilots to control seems to be between 6-12. Less and, depending on your plane, you can loose them rapidly, more and it bogs down.
I had thought a typical squadron had 15-18 pilots but am reading " An Ace of the Eighth" by Fortier and he lists his flight contained 7 pilots with the squadron containing 30. I realize this is USAAC in 1943. Have read several great books by german pilots but they never mention the number of people in their squadron. Anyone have any leads or can suggest some answers? Was there a typical number? Did it vary greatly by coutry?

Thanks for any help!

Joe

I can help for the Pacific:

U.S. Navy:

Dec 1941 – June 1942, 18 planes.
June 1942 – July 1944, 36 planes.
July 1944 – November 1944, 54 planes.
November 1944 – August 1945, 36 planes.
USMC – 12 planes.

Flights (divisions) were six planes each until July 1942. After June, 1942, divisions were reduced (unofficially) to four planes to take advantage of the Thach Weave maneuver. Each division had 2-3 sections, each with two planes.

In 1942, missions tended to be CAP, intercept, and escort. By 1943, ground attack became increasingly common. By 1944, fighters were being paired with an SB2C dive bomer to conduct scouting missions as well.

Japanese Navy:

Carrier based: 18 plane squadron (Daitai)
Land-based: 27 planes

Each squadron had 2-3 nine-plane Chutai or divisions. Each Chutai was divided into 3 Shotai, or sections. Each Shotai had three planes. Later in the war, some squadrons experimented with American style pairs instead of three plane sections.

Early in the war, escort and attack missions would be common. CAP and interception were less common in 1942, but became increasingly common as the war progressed. The Japanese viewed fighters as offensive weapons and sought to use them as such.

The info above comes from John Lundstrom's books on USN fighters, Clark Reynolds' "The Fast Carriers," and various tactical manuals and air operations memorandums. Shout if you need more information about anything.

Mike

It varied a lot.

Early war, a flight was three airplanes. Luftwaffe fighters took to operating in two-plane sections and four-plane divisions as early as the Spanish Civil War, and this spread to most other air forces by the end of WWII. Bombers still operated in flights of three.

Pre-WWII, a squadron in most air forces was nine planes, three flights of three, with one or two spare planes and pilots. Some strong air forces had twelve planes in a squadron. Operations could quickly attrition a squadron down to just a few planes if replacements were lacking. Late war, some US squadrons built up extra divisions and flew 16 or 20 planes on a mission. Very late, some USAF squadrons doubled their strength and flew as two twelve-plane half-squadrons.

I'm sure Mike is correct above about carrier squadrons.

Thanks for the help guys. So pre war a generic squadron had between 9-14 pilots; sounds like I was close. Maybe it was only the resource heavy US that had plenty of spares.
In the US navy 36 plane squadron, how many pilots?
In the Japanese 18 and 27 plane squadrons how many pilots assigned? I realize losses/dieseas will occur but my game will factor that in.

There is plenty written about tactical formations; I am interested in the number of pilots assigned to those formations. I don't have any of Lundtrom's books, might need to get some.

Thanks again!

Joe

Flights are frequently referred to as consisting of 4 planes.

Vics are threes, but people probably use the term fairly loosely, especially before four-plane flights were common.

RAF squadrons ran about 9 – 12 aircraft in the air during the Battle of Britain, but there were usually spares assigned to the unit as well, to make up for those shot down, or needing service. About 18 – 20 on the official rosters, if I recall correctly.

Mid to late war, German and Allied units seemed to field about 12 – 16 plane units within a squadron. The Germans called these Staffeln (plural of Staffel, which is one 12 plane unit).

hmmmm…

Mileage varies (a LOT) between air forces for fighters, bombers tend to be more consistent.

German fighter staffel usually field about 9-12 aircraft, flying in fours. Spare pilots, especially later in the war, are at a premium…

Soviet Eskadrilya start the GPW with about 20 aircraft, flying in 3s, and rapidly shrink down to around 12, flying in threes and then fours… pilots are never in short supply.

RAF/ USAAF tend to have both more planes and more spare pilots than the LW… typically around 16-18 planes on strength, with around 12 serviceable… again, they have more pilots than planes.

IJAAF/ IJN suffer the same issue as the LW – they take too long to train their replacements, so tend to have spare planes, not spare pilots…

For USN and IJN there generally were no spare pilots…36 planes, 36 pilots, etc. A squadron might have an extra pilot and airplane or two, if they were lucky. Obviously, numbers dwindled once a unit went into combat. I highly recommend Lundstrom's books. I can also send you my thesis if you'd like to bore yourself with this stuff further.

Mike

For a bit more obscure, Dutch were usually 16 in 4 flights of 4; they were way ahead of most countries in adopting the 4 plane flight.

Also bear in mind that bomber squadrons in some air forces were much smaller than fighter squadrons, especially for US forces.

Thanks. So it sounds like except for the USAAC and RAF no air forces had many spare pilots or planes. Other than Lundstrom's books, any sources for the PILOT numbers on this?
Like Platoon Forward, Squadron Forward focuses on the interactions of men, your tactical rules will take care of the planes.

Thanks again for everyones help

Joe

For that kind of thing you might need to look at squadron war diaries. They would list the number of aircraft and pilots available.

Mike

Thanks again.

Joe

One notable exception – that may not interest you unless you are looking at the night bombing campaign – is that RAF Bomber Command squadrons grew to very large sizes indeed in the latter half of the war: rather than form new squadrons, the decision was taken to increase their establishment when possible. Result was that by late 44 / early 45, some had as many as 30 four-engined heavies on establishment.

Of course, BC aircraft were not constrained by flight formation and tactical command issues – at the risk of being overly simplistic, each crew flies and bombs as part of a mass stream. All Harris is interested in is getting the maximum number of aircraft in the air each night, and the limiting factor is making best use of your squadron servicing resources, etc.

It did mean that a Wing Commander driving a four engined squadron (say 30 x 7 man crews) had a massively greater man management task than a Squadron Leader driving a fighter squadron (say 24 pilots with 18 aircraft), especially when you consider the maintenance personnel needed: 120 Merlins, just counting those on the airframes.

DB,

That is interesting. I had a eureka moment today and figured out a way to take Squadron Forward and make it a game for a bomber campaign as well. Will have to test it and all but I think it will work nicely. Bomber Forward.
Thanks

Joe