How does ground support work?

[Dinglir]

When watching a ground attack progress in high report detail (level seven) you get a series of messages on how the initial air combat is going, prior to the actual ground battle. A few questions on that.

1) What is the difference between "XX breaks off attack" and "XX turns back"?
2) What does the number of * signal in messages like "***Yak-1 is destroyed"?
3) What is the difference bewteen CAP and Escort in the report detail window?

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Dinglir
3) What is the difference bewteen CAP and Escort in the report detail window?

In the absence of anyone answering I am giving my best answer/guess.

Escort are the fighters dedicated to protecting the bombers/recon etc and so will fly with them whether or not there are any enemy fighters. CAP are the interceptors who fly only when there are enemy planes to intercept - it is an automatic only mission. If on the side of the air mission initiator this of course could mean you have more than the just the original fighters dedicated for the mission as escorts.

What I "think" this means is that
i) CAP fighters can come from different air HQs
ii) Escort is the safe option, but CAP is probably more efficient (analogous to direct assignment or leaving it to HQs when it comes to SUs)
iii) CAP fighters come at a different phase in the battle resolution - whether this is before the enemy has had a chance to shoot at other aircraft or not before being intercepted to be determined

[thedoctorking]

And the "breaks off attack" thing, I think, refers to the bombers. I have often noticed that if bombers are intercepted, sometimes there are few or no casualties to the target units, suggesting that bombers have broken off their attack. It probably has to do with the bomber unit morale, maybe the morale level of their air commander, size of the intercepting force maybe? This is a good reason to have at least some interceptors over your forces even if you are getting beaten in the air pretty regularly.