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Join the 325th Fighter Group 'The Checkertail Clan' one of the top Fighter Groups of the U.S.A. in WW2

The campaign starts with Operation TORCH in November 1942 - the invasion of North Africa. Flying with the 33rd FG you will see your first combat and help them become the most experienced unit in North Africa. In January you will join the new 325th FG to help make them combat ready, and fly and fight through Tunisia, Sicily, and into the skies of Italy in your trusty P40 Warhawk.

One word sums up this campaign - VARIETY ! from your first mission, taking off from a small escort carrier in a P40 you will never be bored - dogfight with 109s, 190s, 202s, 110s, attack every type of Axis bomber and transport, bomb and strafe convoys, airfields, ships, and Tiger tanks! Fly Bob Hope around in a B25, Buzz a poorly performing P38 unit's base in a captured 109 to scare the S**t out of them!

'Checkertails Across The Med' is my first campaign to use the modded version of IL2 to take advantage of the superb fantastic huge Med map ( image below) by RedFox.

visit All Aircraft Arcade for all you Mod needs!

HOW THE CHECKERTAIL DESIGN ORIGINATED ON THE AIRCRAFT FLOWN BY THE 325TH FIGHTER GROUP

By Colonel Robert Baseler -  leader of the 325th FG

At the time, the 325th FIGHTER GROUP was stationed at Montesquieu, Algeria. The headquarters of the Northwest African Air Force issued a request for all Fighter and Bomber Groups, under its command, to come up with a distinctive identification painted on their aircraft. This way, the Bomber crews would know, on site, which Fighter outfit was escorting them, and conversely, the Fighter Jockeys would know which Bomber Group they were escorting.
I had always been an admirer of Werner Voss, the famous German WWI Fighter Ace, who was also known as the "Checkerboard Ace", because of the wide Checkerboard he had painted around the fuselage of his Fokker DR1 Triplane, a short distance behind the cockpit.
I thought such a distinctive identification would look good on the tail section of our P-40Fs, so we started working on the color scheme. John Watkins worked with me and our first attempt consisted of black and white checks, which at a distance looked all red. We then tried red and white checks, which under the same circumstances, also looked all red.
Finally, we tried black and yellow and they were painted on so that they were ninety degrees to the leading edges of the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces. (The checks were 12" square on the P-40s and P-47s, and 10" square on the P-51s.) Needless to say, you could see that Checkerboard tail almost as far away as you could see the entire aircraft.
Colonel Austin, our Group Commander, really like the Checkertail design and gave us the go ahead to get it approved. Accordingly, we drew a large scale facsimile of a P-40F tail section, on a big sheet of paper, and painted on the black and yellow checks. It really looked sharp. Major General Carl Spaatz was the Commander of the Northwest African Air Force and John Watkins had known him for years, so John volunteered to take the Checkertail design to Constantine, Algeria, and personally show it to the General.
The rest is history. The General liked the design and John came home with the written approval to use it.

Bigwing.net and IL2 historical campaigns - by Stiboo - no affiliation with Ubisoft, Maddox Games, or 1C - this page last updated 26/01/2011