He 177 Stalingradtyp

[Konigstiger88]

When assigned to flak-suppression sorties in the area of Stalingrad during the winter of 1942, Luftwaffe forward maintenance units modified a small number of He 177A-3s, fitting a 50 mm Bordkanone BK 5 cannon with the 21-round magazine within the aircraft's undernose Bola gondola, with the long barrel protruding well forward, beyond the glazed "fishbowl" nose. This variant was unofficially dubbed the Stalingradtyp.

A more experimental version (He 177 A-3/R5), was fitted with a 75mm Bordkanone BK 7.5 cannon. Only a small number of He 177 A-3/R5 models were built from scratch as the autoloading 75 mm Bordkanone BK 7,5 in the Bola location with its 12-round magazine, caused structural problems due to the weapon's recoil. This meant that the Stalingradtyp did not see combat use outside of the original BK 5-armed improvised handful.

Now, my idea is if a unit is made of this you could give it a range of 1, allowing it to attack enemy units (flak units especially), representing its suppression ability. To compensate for its greater range the Stalingradtyp would have lower damage stats than the normal He 177. This would make it useful in suppressing AA units but not unbalancing. Any thoughts?

[guille1434]

I think it is not possible to give air units a range of more than 0 hexes when firing to land targets. I wanted to do the same for the Hs-129 with 7,5 cm gun in order to allow that unit to fire its heavy gun from outside the range of the tanks AA machine guns (not receiving damage from tanks defensive fire) but I couldn´t find a way to implement it.

If someone else has a new/better idea I would be very happy to know about it!

[Konigstiger88]

Your right, I just tried it and it doesn't work. That's unfortunate.