[Fearfactor]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the best way to ease the flak menace
is to have enemy aircraft in your very near proximity. So my Stukas
always have Bf109F2 escorts that engage over the target area with at
least several sqds of enemy fighters.
-auto

That is not the best way to ease the flak menace, the best way is to eliminate it entirely. My objective is to totally suppress both flak and ack-ack. Hard to do if you can't see the flak. Nothing better than to attack an airfield and get all the anti-aircraft knocked out. Then you can attack eveything else at your leisure with no more worries at all. The escorts usually keep the enemy fighters busy so that is no problem either.

I know what you mean about having a lot of friendlies over the AAA, but that is not good enough for me. In that case a lot of your AI squad mates get killed as do some or all of your escorts. I have been playing for years and I say the only answer is to knock out all AAA of both types, period.