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// localized campaign name and description
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&name="Invasion Watch"

&description="Fly the Bf-109 G-6 as reconnaissance pilot of 4.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 123 in the month before D-Day.<br><br>Mission design: Juri_JS<br>Aircraft: Bf-109 G-6 (late)<br>Map: Normandy<br>Number of missions: 6<br><br><u>Remarks</u><br><li>A mission is complete when the player returns to his home airfield.</li><li>Do not hide the entire HUD (H key) when flying missions. Doing so will disable the messages you receive during flight and also the camera icon.</li><li>There are no waypoints in the missions, but you can use autopilot for take-off and landing.</li><li>Keep an eye on your fuel consumption during longer missions and use your engines maximum performance only in emergency situations.</li><li>The campaign contains two types of reconnaissance missions, photographic and visual. In photo recon missions you have to overfly your target at the correct altitude. When you're over the marked target area press the left Windows key and 1 key (LWin+1) to activate the camera. The camera will only work correctly when your pitch and roll are less than 15 degree. When clicking on the camera icon a photo of the target area will be taken.<br>In visual recon missions you have to look for enemy ships. Once you've spotted a target, you have to correctly identify its type, position, course and tonnage. This is done by aproaching to within 2,5 km, then your pilot will automatically record the necessary information.</li><br><br><u>Historical background</u><br>In contrast to widely held beliefs, the Luftwaffe wasn't blind to the Allies invasion preparations. In April and May 1944 most important channel ports were photographed from the air and the main embarkation points of the invasion fleet were correctly identified. The problem was, that the Luftwaffe couldn't achieve a constant monitoring of these ports, that would have allowed a better assessment of the Allies preparations and the exact date of the invasion. Moreover, unclarity remained about the location of the invasion. While the Kriegsmarine correctly identified the Seine Bay as the most likely area, the Wehrmacht insisted that the landings would probably take place in the Pas-de-Calais region.<br>Because of strong fighter defence, multi-engined aircraft were no longer able to operate over Britain during daylight, so reconnaissance missions were flown by Staffeln of Aufklärungsgruppe 123 and Nahauklärungsgruppe 13 using camera equipped versions of the Bf-109 and also a few Fw-190s. Mission types included both photo reconnaissance of enemy ports as well as visual reconnaissance, to monitor the movement of allied ships in the Channel. Bad weather and the RAF's strong defence made reconnaissance missions difficult. Nonetheless losses to enemy action were surprisingly low, mostly thanks to the fact that aircraft operated within range of German ground based radar and could be warned of approaching enemy fighters.<br><br><u>4.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 123</u><br>Despite the fact that Aufklärungsgruppe 123 was a long-range reconnaissance unit, it's 4th Staffel was equipped with the Bf-109 after its formation in late 1942. Later it also received a small number of Fw-190s. The unit's camera equipped aircraft flew reconnaissance missions over southern England, where slower two-engined aircraft had increasing difficulties to operate, because of the strong British air defence. Since late February 1944 the base of 4.(F)/123 was at Bernay, 50 km southeast Le Havre. During this time the Staffel was lead by Hauptmann Heinz Feilmayer. It was part of Luftflotte 3 commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle.<br><br><u>Your aircraft</u><br>Your plane in the campaign is the Bf-109 G-6/U3 sub-variant, that is mostly identical to the Bf-109 G-8 dedicated reconnaissance version. It's equipped with either two RB 12,5/7×9 or RB 32/7×9 cameras in the fuselage for taking stereoscopic aerial photos. Some aircraft also have a Robot II camera in the wing root. Armament is identical to the fighter version of the Bf-109 G-6. Your aircraft is equipped with the MW 50 water-methanol mixture injection system that will give you an extra boost. Carefully read the description in your aircrafts specification section to use the MW 50 correctly. Your aircraft is also equipped with the Erla canopy for better visibility and with a radio direction finder that will help you to find back to your home airfield."