Air mission conundrum for Bf.110

[Michael Miller]

The [4.44c] GERMAN AIRCRAFT CHARACTERISTICS CHART shows two (or three since there are split Maneuver ratings day/night) lines of ratings for the Bf. 110. The other full line represents a recon or light bomber mission loadout. Oddly though, despite showing a Bomb load rating of 5, the only Mission Capability shown is Recon. Suspicious, I double checked the original paper chart, which shows the same.

This begs the question: Why have a bomb rating if you cannot fly bombing missions? The rule (34.24) states that aircraft flying a recon mission are not allowed to bomb. It seems to me that the Bf. 110 should be allowed to fly Land Support Bomb missions (chart symbol "!"), though this is a rather expensive proposition for such a small load. Due to the short range it should only be allowed to bomb Malta from bases in Sicily, or not at all. 

This is obviously not an immediate issue, just another thing I noted while doing some spreadsheet work.

[ATD]

"not an immediate issue". LOL - I wonder if we will ever see the Germans!

Good catch and your proposal seems fair enough. Only other thing we could do is to check the actual historical aircraft capabilities.