Give me some "holy sh... did that just happen" ideas

[Feuerfalke]

Well, considering the initial wish:

This is what I always felt was important for SP-experience:

It's an absolute immersion killer, if you can be sure you're alone in the sky, maybe one other friendly squad and 1-4 enemy squads, maybe, but groundtargets only at your base and in your targetarea.
In games like Falcon, however, you have a feeling of being part of an actual war going on. There are numerous other plans and groups acting together, bombing targets, capping, etc. Also the enemy territory is never empty. You see convoys heading for the front, ships on the sea, and literally hundreds of units fighting on the ground along the fence-line.
It makes a huge difference, e.g. when just flying from Germany to England staring at the sea below and actually seeing or even reporting shipping and watch other units attack those. Maybe even submarines or speedboats nearby.
On the british side, what about squadrons being on alert. When your group runs into trouble, you can call for assistance.

In SilentHunter this also combines with being witness of important battles or operations. That's also definitely great for immersion.

As part of that, the most thrilling and intense moments I had, were when going into combat, taking of or enroute to the fence-line and you see other planes returning, smoking, engines out, attempting belly-landings, etc.
Also damages to groundunits, equipment and buildings staying that way over missions.