what is the deal with flak defense at Trapani?

[antoniusb]

Apparently, this port on the west coast of Sicily was the second most well-protected air target of the war after Ploesti. Fifteen of 150 LB's lost flying an interdict mission at 20K feet? Even with the entire Italian fleet sitting there with their AA guns firing away there is no way they are scoring those kind of kill rates. Yet that is what happened on day one of turn one. And 14 of 150 on the second day for good measure. All this while those big juicy targets in West Germany with all kinds of flak defenses are lucky to score more than a couple of kills against the 8th AF flying SB missions at even lower altitude.

[Helpless]

Do you have a save before air execution?

[antoniusb]

I sent the save game over. I just ran it now and this time Palermo was hit (though I believe it was outside my attack area perimeter) and suffered 24 LB flak losses flying at 20K feet on an interdiction mission. Note that the staging base for the attack says "Dover" though not only was that not selected by me but would certainly have placed the bombers based in North Africa (staging out of Dover) out of range for an attack in Sicily.