It is 1941.

After the inconclusive battle that was Operation Sealion, Germany has turned its attentions to the East, initiating Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.

In the West, just 226 German fighters, primarily those of JG2 and JG26, are left to defend against the constant threat of RAF bomber and fighter attacks. The RAF Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, Sholto Douglas, initiates Operation Circus - large scale bomber raids deep into France and Holland, with the intent of drawing the Luftwaffe into combat and reducing their ability to defend against RAF bomber command's planned incursions into Germany.

The Circuses and Rhubarbs mission pack

Chapter one available for download now as self installing file:

3 missions:

Flight of the Intruder
Operation Circus mission 1
A Knight Falls

Download the self installer here: https://www.box.com/s/27f8ede06b87c314652e

15 painstakingly populated airfields: Wissant, Peuplinge, Audembert, Marquise West, Caffiers, Hermelingen, Campagne Les Guines, Coquelles, Calais Marck, St Omer Wizernes, St Omer Arques, St Omer Claimarais / RAF Lympne, RAF North Weald

3 newly populated locations: Calais and Dunkirk Ports, Cassel

Ground targets include the above airfields, road traffic, port infrastructure. As usual, the mission can be fought from the point of view of every flyable unit, by using the CUSTOM button to choose your flight. Both grounds starts and air starts catered for.

This chapter comprises around 20 flyable sorties.

***********************

FROM THE CREATOR OF THE OPERATION SEALION MISSION PACKS

Not tried Operation Sealion yet?

Read player comments at the Cliff of Dover official forum: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=30948

mxmadman
Well I'm about 8 or 9 missions into the Luftwaffe campaign and its fantastic! Honestly more fun than the one that comes with the game. Very well done and it is much appreciated.

Pitti Pitti
Really really awesome!
I have just finished 11 Luftwaffe missions and I can't get enough.

The Operation Sealion 1 mission packs

Full 28 mission RAF and Luftwaffe pack:

Sealion RAF Point of View: http://www.box.com/s/5d8236170f3da466a4fb
Sealion LW Point of View: http://www.box.com/s/55339e8c4d9fcaa73623

For those who have just joined us, a small intro to the Sealion Mission Packs...





Read the PDF here http://www.box.com/s/zgjue1vczq9vlqufyhcq

All my CoD missions (more than 50) are available at www.bobgamehub.blogspot.com

The Operation Sealion mission pack missions are minutely based on the notes from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst wargame conducted in 1974 to simulate a September 1940 invasion by Germany. In this exercise, each side (played by British and German officers respectively) was based in a command room, and the actual moves plotted on a scale model of SE England constructed at the School of Infantry. The panel of umpires included Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland, Admiral Friedrich Ruge, Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, Rear Admiral Edward Gueritz, General Heinz Trettner and Major General Glyn Gilbert. The main problems the Germans face are that a) the Luftwaffe has not yet won air supremacy; b) the possible invasion dates are constrained by the weather and tides (for a high water attack) and c) it has taken until late September to assemble the necessary shipping.

Each mission in the BoB Game Hub Sealion mission pack is designed with multiple flyable aircraft available to players flying either RAF or Luftwaffe. Wherever practical, mission design includes both ground starts and airstarts. Mission design takes an 'open battlefield' approach - the player will be given an objective, but once airborne, you have full freedom of operation to either prosecute the assigned target, or attack other targets of opportunity.

As an example, in mission 1, flyables include Blenheim IV and Hurricane for RAF, Bf109E4 and Bf110C for Luftwaffe, while RAF targets include German ships and barges at sea, German harbour facilities, and Luftwaffe standing patrols, while Luftwaffe targets include attacking RAF bombers and fighters. Later in the conflict, targets will include land forces, encampments, fuel and supply depots, bridges, armour and convoys.

Designed with a self install program to run from within the CoD Single Missions menu, each mission can therefore be played from several perspectives, with the player fully able to customise the missions (piloted aircraft, number of allies, number of enemies etc) to suit themselves.

The mission pack is designed to be flown from 2 points of view: either RAF or Luftwaffe, you choose!

I have aimed for nothing less than 'epic' with these missions. Enjoy!

Heiny


Actual in-game mission track

Wow! Sounds awesome, can't wait to get my hands on this!

Looks really good.


Wheels

Sealion minus 1, September 21: In accordance with Goering’s historical directive of Sept 16, the Luftwaffe has once again intensified attacks on RAF airfields and aircraft industry targets. In the morning, the Brooklands Hawker factory was hit by Ju88s. More hit and run raids are expected throughout the day. From France come coded reports from French agents that German transport ships are beginning to move out of Calais, Le Havre and Dunkerque. If correct, these reports could either indicate an invasion fleet is beginning preparations to sail, or equally that the fleet is being disbanded. Better intelligence is urgently needed.



HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V8CX8N19p8

Hi Folks!

Further update on the Operation Sealion mission set…

Unlike most single missions where the player is directed ‘in this aircraft, go there, and do this’, each mission file in the Sealion set comprises several independently created sorties with different flyable aircraft and objectives, within the one mission file.

As an example of what you can expect, the ‘Day 1: Sept 21 a.m.’ mission file features flyable sorties by both RAF and LW aircraft – with a variety of airstart and ground starts, and includes the following sorties:

- Recon escort with RAF 111 Squadron Hurricanes
- Recon flight with RAF 212 PR (Photo Recon) Squadron Blenheim
- Defensive Combat air patrol with 64 Squadron Spitfires
- Offensive Combat air patrol with 64 Squadron Spitfires
- Defensive Combat air patrols with LW LG2 Bf109s or ZG76 Bf110s
- Offensive strike mission with ErPro 210 Bf109E4Bs

To the extent possible within CoD these mission files are intended to give the player the feeling of participating in a wider conflict, with targets and goals for each sortie very much dependent on each other and tied to the storyline of the Sealion invasion.

All of these individual missions are fully customisable – the player can choose the sortie they will fly in, the aircraft type, and number of aircraft in each unit. The missions have been designed with fewer aircraft/objects in each flight/squadron to allow several unique sorties in each mission file without overloading CPU/GPUs; but aircraft numbers can easily be scaled up or down by the player as they wish. For example you can zero some of the units in the sortie you are not flying, if you want to reduce the CPU/GPU load, or make the sortie easier. Conversely, you can increase the number of opponents to make it harder (PC specs allowing!).

As usual with BoB Game Hub missions, the files are delivered with a self installer/uninstaller for easy installation. Missions draw heavily on historical events, coupled with the report of the 1974 Sandhurst military academy Sealion wargame. The first download will include 2 mission files:

Day, September 21, morning: briefing as above. Video shows just a selection of possible sorties.

Day 1, September 21 evening: Briefing - Night-time bombing raids on London are expected to continue, with heavy raids detected building over France at 7 pm. Luftflotte 2 has been specially tasked with providing air cover for shipping movements along the French coast between Le Havre and Calais. The RAF has been ordered to increase its efforts to attack German ships and materiel in France, Belgium and Norway which could be used to support a potential invasion. A special warning has been issued regarding Kriegsmarine AAA defences at French ports after the loss of recon flights earlier in the day to heavy AAA fire.

Sorry for the time it is taking to build these, but with each mission comprising several possible sorties with multiple but integrated briefings, objectives and flyables, I need to fine tune each sortie individually… I hope your patience is rewarded!

Thanks for your work. Very interesting.

For info - the 1974 Sandhurst wargame concluded with the invasion failing due to the inability of Germany to resupply. This result may have reflected an over-representation of naval commanders on the wargame adjudication panel, which decided British naval power was the decisive element in thwarting the simulated invasion. An alternate scenario with greater recognition of Luftwaffe air transport capabilities, could build on the fact that the German forces in that wargame captured two airfields (Lympne, Hawkinge) which should have allowed an airbridge to France to be created using Ju52s and DFS230s, via which men, fuel and light armour could have been ferried to reinforce German divisions.

The reason I mention it is that this mission pack will have two 'end-games', one in which the invasion is thwarted due to naval intervention, and one in which air resupply enables the invasion force to be resupplied via Lympne, Hawkinge and finally Manston, ie one in which the invasion fails, and one in which it doesn't.

H

I would have to agree with the naval assessment, we saw how well the airlift worked in Stalingrad! The RN so outgunned the Kreigsmarine, it would have been a slaughter, even with the LW support.

Missions for "Sealion Day Minus One" avail now!

This self installer includes two mission files:

- Sealion minus One, afternoon
- Sealion minus One, evening

Flyable aircraft in both missions: Spitfire 1a, Bf109E4, Bf109E4b, Blenheim, Hurricane, Bf110C4. Individually crafted sorties with separate targets and mission objectives have been designed for every flyable aircraft.

Download here:

http://www.box.com/s/l2i89mrua0qy4lxibv0s

Nice stuff Heinkel , without your missions ..( is anyone else making any ? ) there would not be a lot going on offline Awesome stuff man.

HeinKill, looking forward to the mission this weekend!

@ Ajay, Spitgirl (I laugh everytime... ) is looking kinda pasty and creepy in the screenshot on your CoD page. Is that what I have to look forward to???

I didn't know that that 1974 wargame was based on a situation where the LW did not gain air superiority. Given that I consider the whole wargame pointless, nobody with at least some basic intelligence between his ears would have gone ahead with a risky operation like Seelöwe if the main striking element (the Luftwaffe) couldn't operate just as they pleased. That's just like the wargame the Japanese held before Midway - pointless as they bent the rules so that the desired result was achieved. Or like the german wargame before Barbarossa - wishful thinking glossed over any problems.

Well, we are talking bout Hitler and Goering here! While they had relatively decent judgement early in the war, no one could accuse them of having basic intelligence later on! lol

(Well, maybe for Hitler, there's a common theme from some sources that indicate he was bright, but very shielded from the realities that were occurring later in the war).

Hitler was a compulsive gambler but only on dry land. Anything that involved water wasn't to his liking at all.

Besides there's a political component here. An operation like that, involving insane risks, may have sparked open rebellion within the german Army. Remember there were advanced plans to remove Hitler from power as early as 1938 and not by relatively low-level staff officers, either. A gamble like that might have prodded men like Halder into action to prevent a disaster. And Hitler knew that - which is why he began to erode the traditional chain of command to install himself as the one and only authority for the german armed forces.

Wow, this thread and posts have been notched up a level. Good stuff!

Just throwing in my bit that one must remember the two highest ranking Nazis were junkies, and I'm not talking a little spliff every-now-and-then And not just Hitler and Goring, most of those in power were screwed up in one way or another. Living by the sword I suppose... The success of the initial campaigns (annexes, Poland, BoF) and German public opinion, also largely silenced the early usurpers to power.

If seriously interested in this topic, and I find this era a pivotal point in history, there is a terrific book written by Peter Flemming in 1957 entitled (just guess) "Operation Sea Lion: The projected invasion of England in 1940 - An account of the German preparations and the British countermeasures". It is so well researched with archival docs, interviews (written within recent memory of those who were involved), etc. that it could/may have been a PhD dissertation. Well worth looking it up.

EDIT: The above book is not to be confused with his later work, "Operation Sea Lion (Grand Strategy)", which I have not read and just discovered is available in paperback. May be easier to find...

Depends on your POV

+1

I have used the Flemming book as background for writing the plot and knowing which army units may have been involved on both sides. You can actually get it free in epub format from internetarchive.org.

Would Sealion have proceeded if the Luftwaffe didn't have air superiority? One camp says obviously not, since it didn't. Another says it was only ever a bluff anyway. But the wargame in 74 wanted to test if it could have succeeded anyway, and the interesting thing, I think, was that the German army did get 330,000 men ashore, despite lacking air superiority, and it was not lack of air superiority, but naval inferiority, which was decisive after that because British naval forces made resupply impossible.

To the point of rebellion at home, imagine how strengthened Hitler's position would have been if he had fought England to an armistice through Sealion. Total capitulation by Britain wouldn't have been necessary, just a cessation of hostilities. Another victory under his belt and he could have drawn down forces in the west to throw everything at Russia... It may have been a different and darker world we live in today...

H

OK, agreed, but what is the big pink vertical thing to the centre-left of your screenshot?

Dude! Now I'll never be able to look around the cockpit again without thinking this... Seriously just killed 1 plane for me, haha!

About the history, as I understand, AH wasn't a junkie yet at this time of the war? I thought most of that came after Barbarossa went sour, and AH started putting long nights in, he got his personal doctor to give him speedball injections. Goering always took morphine, at least, since WWI injury. He was never a brilliant strategist it seems, so not sure how much of that can be attributed to the pain meds, and how much of it should be placed on Goering simply being the wrong man for the job, just there due to his early support of AH.

Remember for years, the German public adored these men, they seemed to be quite able to function quite well, and our history does have a tendency to try to demonize them any ways possible. I think they probably weren't as bad of junkies early on, as t.v. makes them out to be.

Really interesting passage in the Fleming Sealion book that I just came across, which shows just how conflicted AH was about the whole invasion...the language in his directive on the operation in Czech said, "It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future", and on Poland "The aim then will be to destroy Polish military strength", on France "The German attack is to be launched in such a way that it can lead to the annihilation of the French army," whereas with Britain it is very guarded and much softer, "Since England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows no signs of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England and, if necessary, to carry it out".

The Fuhrer directives themselves are very interesting reading for milhist types...it isn't easy to find them collected in one place on the net, but this site has the originals, described in a US postwar intel document...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35919416/Fuehr...9-1941-USA-1948

AAR and screenies from the Sealion Mission Pack, missions 3 & 4. (Missions 3,4 are in testing, for release next week). All screenshots taken from in game flyable sorties within the two Day 2 'single mission' files.

22 September 1940: Operation Sealion, S-Tag, Dawn (flyables 111 Sq Hurricanes, 64 Sq Spitfires, 212 Sq Blenheims, LG2 Bf109E4s, ZG76 Bf110C46s)

The first wave of a planned 330,000 men hit the English beaches at dawn. 4 divisions of Army Group A land between Folkestone and Rottingdean (near Brighton), XIII Army Corps under General Der Panzertruppe Von Vietinghoff gannant Scheel, 17th and 35th infantry division together with VII Army Corps under Generaloberst von Schobert, 1st Mountain Division and 7th Infantry Division. In addition 7th Paratroop Div land at Lympne to take the airfield.

Further West the 9th Army made shore between Bexhill and Eastbourne. 2 Divisions of the XXXVIII Army Corps under General von Mannstein, 26th and 34th Infantry Divisions, and from the VII Army Corp under General Heitz, the 6th Mountain Division, 8th and 28th Infantry Divisions.

Opposing them on the British GHQ stop line are the rebuilt forces of the VII Corps (1st Armoured Div, 1st Canadian and elements of 2nd Canadian Div, elements of New Zealand Army Corp Inf Div and the recently arrived Australian 9th infantry division diverted from Africa), Strategic Reserve centred on Surrey and North Hampshire, and the XII Corps (1st London Div, 45 Inf Div, 29 Inf Brigade, 1st Tank Brigade) based in Kent and West Sussex.

At first light, Blenheims make a run on a beach-head a Folkestone


Ju88s sweep across the battlefield to hit British reserves in the rear




German 7th Paratroop division attacks poorly prepared defences at Lympne as 111 Squadron scrambles to get their machines away





Gunners on German car ferries cover the beach as the armour unloads under fire from British defences





LG2 109s and 64 Sq Spitfires in a deadly dance



22 September 194, S-tag, afternoon: West of Folkestone (flyables, as above, plus Bf109E4bs and Bf110C7s of Erpro 210)

German troops of the 17th and 35th infantry divisions supported by the 8th Panzer division have established a beach-head west of Folkestone and are driving through the town of Hythe for the Port. Their objective is the bridge over the Canal. The land battle is taking place house by house, street by street, as British mobile reserves throughout Kent are mobilised. A second invasion fleet has been spotted leaving ports in Norway. Large numbers of German fighters and bombers are sweeping the coast, and attacking naval forces in the Channel.

64 Sq Spitfire scramble from Hawkinge in their third sortie of the day


British forces are caught on the bridge at Hythe as German troops, with motorcyle borne MGs in the vanguard, race to take the crossing


British light armour reinforcements, on the move to strengthen the GHQ stop line, while British anti-tank guns lie in wait in the grass outside Hythe



Anarchy on the beachhead west of Folkestone as Blenheims strike and freighters collide



Erpro 210 moves in to hit British land and sea forces around Hythe




German armour and troop carriers advance on the village, as the concealed British anti tank guns hit back




Erpro 210 strikes British positions along the canal



While in the air, the defenders and attackers tangle

Continued . . .

British armoured forces reach the front line and engage the Panzer force in the village





But are beaten back, and the village and bridge are taken




While at sea, Erpro 210 despatches a British destroyer which has penetrated the mine cordon





So starts the invasion of Britian...

Hi all

Have had many downloads of the missions so far and have now had a request from one simmer to reduce the number of objects, in this case ships, to make the missions more playable on low-mid range machines.

I'm more than happy to do this once the full mission set is complete (ie go back and create an object 'lite' version of all missions), or I can do it earlier if there is a strong request to include fewer objects, so pls speak up.

The missions fly well on my machine (20-30 fps in combat), generally because, I think, they take place over the channel coast with fewer buildings. I do admit though that I loaded the first couple of missions with ship objects to really convey the impression of an invasion fleet, and it would be easy enough to ratchet that down, to help with FPS, but at the cost of some immersion.

Heiny

I was actually going to ask you to ratchet it up

@ Bandy , well ole spitgirl was very colourful the night before and into the early hours , may explain her lack of colour after a hard night and then having to put up with my flying , man, it even scares me

I just wanted to drop by and thank you for your mission building HeinKill. I've been having a lot of fun with them since I discovered your site. Keep up the great work mate, its very much appreciated.

Hello Heinkill, first off thank you for the hard work and missions.

I tried to fly the first mission (escort photorecon Blenheim), but it was too much for my modest system right from the start. Also, not sure what happened, but the Blenheim ended up flying near the harbor and crashing into the town. I did not see any flak bursts and had kept my eye on my escort duty.

I know my aging system is borderline. I keep it going as much as possible with FXAA etc., so will try to enjoy simple missions in the meanwhile.

Thx for the feedback, I think i will go back and do a 'lite' version with fewer objects when the series is complete. I will also compile into two campaigns...one lw and one raf. But for now I am focused on getting the full series of missions out the door.

H

Ps aaa from warships will also take the blenheim down if it strays into their path. The default waypoints don't take it harms way, but if it is engaged it may stumble into aaa. You wont see it as flak because it is small calibre, but deadly to the soft skinned Blennies. The German minelayers are unrealistically deadly aaa platforms, and can even take down fighters that get too close.

HK, you can tweak the AI settings for the Minensuchboot. I was finding it overly accurate when 1 of them took out my entire flight of 4 in a single pass. I generally set them to Rookie/Average. I haven't figured out what the Ship Fire Rate does, any number I set it too still fires about the same.

Missions 3-5 available now!

http://www.box.com/s/vagzc0uivt3hyppsb46z

Dozens of flyables, each with their own individual objectives and targets. Escort, fighter cover, naval attack, ground attack, ground start, air start, scramble, airfield attack, armour support, naval support...Luftwaffe and RAF flyable.

22 September Operation Sealion Mission3: S-Tag, Dawn, Folkestone



The first wave of a planned 330,000 men hit the English beaches at dawn. 4 divisions of Army Group A land between Folkestone and Rottingdean (near Brighton), XIII Army Corps under General Der Panzertruppe Von Vietinghoff gannant Scheel, 17th and 35th infantry division together with VII Army Corps under Generaloberst von Schobert, 1st Mountain Division and 7th Infantry Division. In addition 7th Paratroop Div land at Lympne to take the airfield.

Further West the 9th Army made shore between Bexhill and Eastbourne. 2 Divisions of the XXXVIII Army Corps under General von Mannstein, 26th and 34th Infantry Divisions, and from the VII Army Corp under General Heitz, the 6th Mountain Division, 8th and 28th Infantry Divisions.

Opposing them on the British GHQ stop line are the rebuilt forces of the VII Corps (1st Armoured Div, 1st Canadian and elements of 2nd Canadian Div, elements of New Zealand Army Corp Inf Div) Strategic Reserve centred on Surrey and North Hampshire, and the XII Corps (1st London Div, 45 Inf Div, 29 Inf Brigade, 1st Tank Brigade) based in Kent and West Sussex


Mission 4 22 September afternoon: West of Folkestone



German troops of the 17th and 35th infantry divisions supported by the 8th Panzer division have established a beach-head west of Folkestone and are driving through the town of Hythe towards the Port. Their objective is the bridge over the Canal at Hythe. The land battle is taking place house by house, street by street, as British reserves throughout Kent are mobilised. A second invasion fleet has been spotted leaving ports in Norway. Large numbers of German fighters and bombers are sweeping the coast, and attacking naval forces in the Channel.

Mission 5 22 September evening: Margate



Throughout the night of 22 September and the next day, Kriegsmarine Minensuchboot have been mining the shipping lanes at either end of the Channel to prevent the Royal Navy from entering the Channel to attack the invasion fleet. The British Home fleet, with its cruisers and battleships, is the primary threat, and is currently steaming south past the Thames Estuary. Luftwaffe FW200 aircraft have also been mining ports such as Dover to prevent shipping there from sallying forth. The British 11th Destroyer Flotilla, comprising HMS Vimy, HMS Walker, HMS Warwick, HMS Whirlwind and HMS Winchelsea has steamed ahead of the main fleet to engage the Kriegsmarine mine layers. RAF 11 and 10 Group squadrons are heavily engaged further west between Folkestone and Brighton assisting with the invasion defence. Luftwaffe fighter units are providing cover for the German ground forces, while the Erpro 210 experimental ground attack unit is harrying British merchant and naval shipping up and down the coast. At 1330 hours a British hospital ship made a desperate escape from Folkestone harbour and is now steaming for the Thames Estuary.

Preview mission 6: Sept 23, S-tag +1, morning

Folkestone falls

During the night, British forces retreated from Folkestone Port, and Lympne airfield. Large numbers of civilians remain trapped behind enemy lines due to the speed and surprise of the attack. German ships are now able to unload directly to the docks at Folkestone and an air bridge has been established at Lympne to ferry Luftwaffe aircraft and supplies to this new Luftwaffe base in England. British reconnaissance indicates further German forces massing at Cherbourg and British land forces have been diverted to the South-West to counter this anticipated second landing. The German XXXI army corps is en-route to Lympne, while British long range artillery targets the airfield. Overnight, the Blitz on London continued unabated.

Default player aircraft: Hurricane scramble from Hawkinge. Other flyables, Bf109e3, Bf110C7, He111, Spitfire 1a, Blenheim.

In the hills overlooking Folkestone, AT guns dig in and wait







At the captured port, an invading army pours ashore



The 8th Panzer breaks out of Folkestone and begins a push on Hawkinge.





But the British line holds...as long as they can hold the ridge.





111 Squadron scrambles from Manston, while Blenheims of 212 and Spits of 64 squadron close on Folkestone







The newly arrived LG2 lifts off from their new base at Lympne





While JG26 escorts an air train of fuel and ammo laden He111s bringing in vital supplies





Erpro 210 wheels above the British lines, striking with fury







While the Blenheims drops their noses for the port - their targets, the massive heavy cranes



And they miss...the AAA driving them wide



In the sky above, fighters wheel











While the wounded stagger home

Nice AAR Heinkill.


Wheels

HeinKill, thank you very much for your missions! I announced them on sukhoi.ru 2 weeks ago to allow more people using them. http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=73910

As you can see there is a link in my sig leading to Offline Campaigns depository at Airwarfare.com. I have the same link in my sig at 1C forums for a long time already. I have no connection with Airwarfare.com other than this link but I think it is very useful if newcomers that can not enjoy the stock campaign can find good user-made campaigns and missions in one place.

Do you plan to upload your campaigns and missions to that site? It provides free storage space for these purposes. Authors from sukhoi.ru and 1C forums upload their missions there. When people are complaining at various forums that they have no campaign to fly offline it will be much easier to give them just one link than several links to different sources.

Hi Ato

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes I always upload my mission packs to Airwarfare - they are in the Single Missions section. I agree it is the best 'one stop shop' for CoD content! At the moment I have uploaded to Airwarfare

- 8 historical missions
- 16 'tournament' missions and
- Missions 1-5 of the Sealion series

My missions are also collected on my BoB Gamehub blog. I noticed a blip in traffic from sukhoi.ru so thanks for that

I am having a little trouble finalising the latest Sealion mission. I want British artillery to shell Folkestone Harbour (using Howitzers) but am not sure how to set their target... hopefully not impossible!

S!

I did not realise they were all separate missions. I posted a link to airwarfare mission section at sukhoi's SeaLion thread.
Maybe it is worth merging them into campaigns as soon as all missions are ready?

BTW check out this dynamic engine addin by Octocat http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=73973
The thread is in Russian but the addin is in English. He says it can be used be campaign creators to create historic campaigns based on his "Prototype" test campaign included in the package. A campaign consists of 3 files: missions template, roads template, missions database edited via settings menu. Thus you can create it using FMB only, no scripting knowledge required. If you like it, you can contact Octocat on details how to create campaigns using it. He speaks English well.

@all
The engine can be used for flying, not only for campaigns creation. It is not finalised yet though.

Thanks for the pointer to the campaign creator...that could be very useful.

Yes the 'development path' for the Sealion missions is this:

- Create individual single missions, with multiple flyables, keeping the main units in each mission consistent (for RAF it is 64 Sq Spitfires, 111 Sq Hurricanes, and 212 Sq Blenheims. For LW it is Erpro 210 Bf110s and 109E4Bs, LG2 and JG26 Bf109s E3s and E4s). There will be about 15 missions in total.

The beauty of the individual mission structure is that each individual mission can actually comprise multiple 'mini missions' depending on which aircraft the player chooses to fly, each with their own briefings and objectives.

- Compile these into 4 individual Sealion 'squadron point of view' campaigns: first Erpro210, then 64 Sq, 111 Sq and finally 212 Sq.

That's the plan anyway!

I have a couple of questions I hope you can answer HK. I'm looking for something to create machine gun nests, but I can't actually find any solo mg's (Brit or German). Also, how do you get ground units to follow each other? It doesn't seem there is a follow or escort option like aircraft have.

Well, you are good at finding the gaps in the FMB! Unfortunately...

Answer below with the caveat that many things seem possible with scripts and I am not a scripter...

The only MGs I have found in the FMB are vehicle mounted eg motorcycle, halftrack, bren carrier. No MG or tripod team (so goes without saying, no mortar teams either).

I have not found a follow or escort option for vehicles. You can set groups of the same type of unit (eg tanks, trucks) of up to about 8 in a group, which form a passable convoy or attack group, but if you want to mix up unit types eg motorcycles escorting trucks, the only way I have found, is to set up two groups with identical paths and waypoint timing. It is useful to include 'timeouts' of eg a minute at key waypoints to allow the groups to rendezvous because eg a tank group will often take alternate paths around a building or obstacle, which slows them down relative to the motorcycle group.

But that said, scripts seem to be able to achieve things that are not possible in the FMB menus (such as spawns) so perhaps a script exists?

Ok, that's kind of what I had found, but was hoping you might have figured out the work arounds... You're missions are probably the most detailed I've seen posted. Trying to send groups (2 MG motorcycles escorting 3 of the big black cars) from several km away is giving me all kinds of stoppages and errors (and half the time they ram each other).

Also, how do you find the camera angles for ground units? I'm having to cycle through several thousand objects (including things like oil cans/sandbags, etc) to try to find the ones I want. Half the time, scrolling through that many camera objects causes a launcher crash.

Yeah, cycling through objects is a pain. You can map commands in the command menu to cycle through just vehicles, or ships or aircraft which makes it a little easier. Doesn't help you if you are trying to find a particular artillery piece tho! Those are the same as crates and craters so you have to cycle through every damn box and tent to find them. So here is my workaround (you can see it in the video actually) when i plant a gun emplacement (i save them as grouped objects) I include a vehicle. Then I cycle through the vehicles to find the gun or other static object. You could of course do this with cameras but I figure a) if you are going to place something it may as well be an object that adds to the landscape, and b) cameras are by default set to ten metres so always have to be adjusted, whereas vehicles are set at ground level which is better for vids.

But maybe someone else has better advice!

Thanks, I never thought about that. I have to look at the camera controls, forgot they had those options! 1 airfield alone has probably 1500 objects now, I was killing myself trying to find individual cars, heh.

Finally got some time to start your Seelowe missions, and have to say, fun so far! I ran the first mission twice, just to see different outcomes. I love the tactics of the high group of Spitfires, drawing us away from Calais and the all-important recon. Second time around I had more discipline and found the Blennie.

I did find something odd though, the 2 Minensuchboots are firing at the barges in Calais, I think you either have a neutral or a red barge or two in there. They managed to sink 2, and were still trained and firing into the harbor at the 15minute mark when I RTB'd. I scanned the area hard, and no enemy aircraft in area, shots were definitely at the inner point just inside the breakwaters.

I originally thought the Minensuchboots were Reds, but they also shot down a Spitfire, lol.

You have a designers eye for detail! I wanted more things to be going boom in Calais. Give the player the feeling the war is going on before they get there, and as they leave. Tried hiding a few big guns out of sight in France and get them to shell Calais but there was no way to set a target. So I changed a couple of barges to Red and let the MBoats do the work. At 1000m trying to keep the Blennie alive you arent supposed to notice!

Anyway, here is Mission 6:

MISSION NOW AVAILABLE HERE: http://www.box.com/s/z3h6b4gs5tycr771j37z
MORE MISSIONS at BOBGAMEHUB or AIRWARFARE

HD video: http://youtu.be/OPSiFp-SYwU http://youtu.be/OPSiFp-SYwU

Sealion mission 6. Mission can be played from 7 separate points of view:

- Erpro 210 Bf110 (attack on British troop positions at Killingwood ridge south of Hawkinge)
- LG2 Bf109e4 scramble from Lympne
- JG26 Bf109e4 air train escort
- He111 air train supply mission Lympne
- 64 Sq Spitfire escort for attack on Folkestone harbour
- 212 Sq Blenheim attack on Folkestone harbour
- 111 Sq Hurricane scramble from Hawkinge

So it is actually seven missions in 1.

For this mission I have built and populated Folkestone harbour using period photographs of the port as my source. There is also considerable land warfare action underway during the mission, with 8th Panzer division tanks and truck mounted Pak 38s trying to take the ridge at Killingwood, while British troops try to hold the line and British artillery targets shipping in the harbour.

I have kept the actual number of ships and objects in the mission to the minimum necessary to keep 20-30 fps on my medium spec machine. My own observations are that the biggest killer of FPS when you are combining land, sea and air ops like this is actually not really the objects/trees/grass etc, though obviously these have to be managed, it is smoke from burning objects. Light up a few freighters and you can take a real FPS hit trying to fly over smoking wrecks.

Cheers

H

Haha, after the Blennie went down, I was searching for more targets... The splashes in the water told me there was fighting there, and I saw a barge explode. Naturally, I went after the offending bomber, and to my surprise nothing! So I flew back over the Minensuchboots, wondering if they were actually the offenders, when (at about 25m) I saw their guns pointed in to the harbor, and cordite smoke. Then I wondered if they were some sort of RN boats, but they weren't firing on me.

Now that I understand what the reasoning was, I'll proceed without thinking they were unintentional map errors

AAR: Operation Sealion, mission 2
Pilot: Klaus von Osterode (maybe I finally picked a new name? see how I like it for a couple of days, haha)
Date: 21 Sept, 1940 17:00

This morning's flight was exhausting, 3 sorties in 1 day, but such are the demands of war! After celebrating my 2 victories this morning, I was so inebriated, I can't even remember my 2nd flight, or briefing or taking off for this mission! Luckily, there's nothing like the call of enemy formations to sober a pilot up! We approached Calais from the E, gaining altitude for our intercept over Dunkirk before heading to the rendezvous. Our flight had been reduced to 4 operational machines, as the rest were under repair from the day's work.

We climbed to 2500m, and set sights for Calais, deciding to approach slightly to the north of the departing invasion fleet. We reached the fleet without incident, but the low sun to our 2o'clock was going to make target acquisition difficult. We heard calls over the radio directing us to enemy bombers approaching Calais low and slightly inland. Setting for a shallow dive, we circled to approach them out of the sun. Still not having sighted them, we stumbled upon a dogfight in progress, Spitfires attacking our 110 brethren!

I ordered my formation to fan out, to engage and allow the 110s to find the bombers. I quickly found a Spitfire turning to come back on one of the 110s, slightly lower than me, and settled on this being my first target. A quick glance at my Schwarm told me we were free of interference and could engage with impunity. The Spitfire was closing the gap, but I was not in range yet, so I pushed the nose down to gain more speed. Just as he crossed into my sights, but still at least 150m out, I saw the smoke from his wings, indicating he had gained a firing solution on the 110. I watched the 110 pull hard to the right, and knew I could cut the Spitfire's circle if he stayed saddled up. Mere seconds later, I pulled the triggers on the MGs, and watched, satisfied, as smoke began to stream from the Spitfire's engine.

Of course, my esteemed wingman Hans decided at this point, he would finish the Spitfire, and fired over my canopy at the stricken Tommy! I think there will be some discipline necessary tonight in the Chateau we have taken as our new home. I think spending the night locked in the coat closet will do just nicely for Hans, regardless of who his family is! Determined not to let him steal my victory, I performed a barrel roll, to give me energy to pull lead on the hard-turning Spitfire. Now I had the distance perfect, the Spitfire filled my reticule, and I pulled enough lead for him to disappear beneath my nose. This was just where I calculated I needed to fire, so I opened up with my MG-FF/Ms and released the stick so I could see the results. The Spitfire was hanging by a thread, chunks of his nose and wing were missing, fires spreading behind into the cockpit. I crossed my fingers that the pilot would jump, but fear of being in front of two 109s obviously had him rattled. He attempted to pull around to the left, unwilling to let me continue to shoot at him, as I already had the solution if he kept turning right. He rolled all the way over, seeking more speed, but forgot he was quite as low as the dogfight had brought us. I watched as my poor opponent crashed into the roadway, just W of Calais. I'll remember to send the ground teams to the site for souvenirs.

I quickly glanced around to check for new targets, and to make sure I wasn't being targeted by any enemy aircraft. Fortunately, it seemed we had worked ourselves away from the main fray, so we pushed our engines hard trying to gain altitude and return to the fight. Again, I found another Spitfire, diving over the airfield at Coquelles. I pushed my nose down, as I would easily be able to gain position on this Tommy. I saw why the Spitfire was diving, he had one of the 109s on the run! I hoped it wasn't one from my unit, as in the confusion of the previous fight, I had lost everyone but Hans. I saw the Spitfire belch cordite smoke from his wings, and felt a turn in my stomach as the 109 immediately spewed oil and smoke. I believe the pilot must have been killed, as there was no attempt to pull up, and he dove straight into the ground.

Now feeling furious, I pushed my Daimler-Benz engine as hard as it would go, and could hear the whine of the engine as it approached 2600 revolutions, and the groaning of the airframe as my speed exceeded 650kph. I anticipated where the Spitfire would pull up to regain altitude, and sure enough, Tommy did not see me coming out of the sun, screaming hard for him. Exactly where I thought he'd be, but I had miscalculated, and he crossed my sights maybe 40m from me! No matter, I fired off both my MG's and my cannons, and watched as beautiful explosions ripped through the Spitfire. I think my cannons fired wide, as large holes appeared in his wing roots, missing the fuselage and vital components therein. The Spitfire jerked, as now the pilot felt Death closing on him. I climbed steeply, trying to bleed some of my speed, and keep position for another pass. It was hard keeping an eye on the Spitfire, even with his smoke, the setting sun played havok with shadows and glare across my canopy. But just as my Messerschmidt bled enough speed for me to turn hard, I regained visual contact with him.

This time, I pulled onto his low 6 o'clock, figuring my opponent would be too busy watching his gauges and checking his plane to notice me slipping in for the attack. I regained speed as I dove down and behind him. Tommy obviously had enough, as he turned his plane to the NW, trying to find his route home. This was not to be. With my throttle cut, I glided slowly underneath him, stalking him like a wolf. I waited until the range had closed, but I still had speed and energy from my dive. I pulled up, planning an intersect course that would bring his vulnerable engine in my sights. No noise now, as my engine was idling, so Tommy never had a chance. I fired my cannons, and everything seemed in slow motion, as I watched the smoke trails slowly extend into the fragile cowling of the Spitfire, and slowly explosions ripped from the nose to the tail. Fires burst out from everywhere. I flew straight up and over the now dying Spitfire, rolling over to keep my eyes on him. This pilot was luckier than the last, I saw him throw his canopy back, kick the side door open, and jump out. Fortunately, his plane crashed into the water, but he landed on the soft sand just next to the cliffs.

Now I circled around, gaining altitude again, searching for more targets. I saw several planes further to the SW, and higher than me. These looked bigger than the single engined fighters, so I decided to engage, even though by now, my cannons were low on ammunition. It took me several minutes to gain altitude and close the distance. I could tell they were twin engined, but whether they were Blenheims or Me-110s, I could not yet say. I climbed to about 500m over them, we were now at 2500m. As I settled in pursuit, and closed up, I could tell these 4 planes were our 110s, obviously settling for home after hopefully engaging the attacking bombers. I flew through their formation at high speed, wagging my wings in salute, and to tell them their coast was clear. A quick wave from one of the gunners to me, a salute, and I was off.

I flew over the invasion fleet, now about 1/3 of the way through the channel. I came in low, to show the soldiers we were watching, protecting them, and wishing them luck. About 10 minutes of escorting the barges, freighters, and destroyers, I hoped our rag-tag fleet would not come under fire again. About this time, Hans reported he was low on fuel (how was that possible? We both had full tanks, and had barely flown 25-30 minutes!) so we returned to Calais-Marck. I did a low pass, waggling my wings twice to show my 2 kills this flight, and was swarmed by the ground crew and other pilots upon my return.

There will be no party however tonight, as tomorrow the troops should be on the beaches, and there looks to be a full day ahead of us!



I hope you guys don't mind the long AAR. I want HK to know people are enjoying his missions, and will continue to post AARs for this campaign, assuming I don't get my pilot killed.


A lot of action happening in the harbor again, never saw the enemy bombers, but got plenty of action from the fighters. I bumped the numbers up to reflect operating procudures, German fighters in pairs or 4s, Spitfire group was 6, hurri's were 4, blennies 3 each, but never saw them. Excellent map, I'll have to go into the FMB and see how you are arranging the fighter/bomber cover, as the fighters are doing their job (although with painful losses) of keeping us away from the bombers. Great work HK!

~S!

Nice 1 Cheezo! I suggest you break it out into a thread of its own - it deserves its own life!

But to keep you in the mood for flying, here is a preview of the upcoming Mission 7: The Tank Park...

(Flyables: Bf109E4, Bf110, Tiger Moth, Spitfire. Missions: FW200 escort, Luftwaffe ground attack Hawkinge, RAF CAP, Tiger Moth recon.)

S-tag +1, 23 September, afternoon, "the Tank Park"

So far the Luftwaffe has flown 1200 fighter, and 800 bomber sorties. The British response has been concerted and desperate, even using jury rigged Tiger Moth aircraft to drop light bombs. Luftwaffe fighters are still hampered by having to fly most missions from bases on the European mainland, while the captured Lympne airfield is under constant attack and short on fuel and ammunition. So far the Luftwaffe has lost 165 of 732 fighters, and 168 of 724 bombers. The British have lost 237 aircraft out of 1048 (167 fighters and 70 bombers). The first British counterattacks by 42nd Division have halted the German 34th Division in its drive on Hastings. Meanwhile, the Australian AIF (diverted while en route to Egypt) is engaged with German forces trying to take the port of Newhaven. New Zealand troops preparing a counterattack on Folkestone were surprised by an attack in their rear by the German 22nd Airlanding Division. Cautious after losses in Norway to air attack, and early losses in the Channel, Britain is keeping its Home Fleet Battleships and Carriers out of range of the Luftwaffe, but squadrons of destroyers and cruisers have successfully engaged German shipping, causing heavy losses in the Channel, while armed motor boats are inflicting significant losses closer inshore.

At the captured Lympne airfield, the Luftwaffe continues to ferry men, fuel and ammunition in to the newly landed Luftwaffe fighters and fighter bombers.





The RAF harries them all the way...







On Killingwood Ridge, British troops hold fast against wave after wave of German attacks





While British artillery pounds the distant invasion beach head





Overhead, Bomber Command Wellingtons close for a strike on Lympne. "The enemy reports that he has captured Lympne," thunders Churchill in an address to troops on the GHQ Stopline, "I say to him, Sir, by the end of the day, you will be sitting atop a blazing ruin!"









British scouts radio in a report of German armour massing in Kiln Woods, East of Lympne



High flying recon finds nothing. In desperation, the call goes out for volunteers for a suicide mission. The objective...approach the woods at treetop level, find the German tank park, if it exists, and get home with the location. All available combat aircraft are already committed, so the task falls to 2 instructors from the No 5 Elementary Flying Training School in their Tiger Moths. They use Lympne as the landmark to start their recon, watching as the bombs of the Wellingtons lay waste to the airfield.





Approaching the woods, the sky erupts with flak, and one of the machines is swatted from the sky



It only makes the surviving pilot more determined. He swings around for a low level pass, hugging the treeline...In the distance, the funeral pyre of his comrade marks the spot where he guesses the tanks must be...





At the last minute he pulls back on the stick and swoops over a clearing...there they are!



He dives away and turns for Hawkinge, only five minutes away.



But it is under attack from Bf110s as he arrives.



He must get down with his information. Ignoring the strafing 110s, he slams his Tiggie into the turf.







As the 110 pulls away, he dashes for the nearest trench.



The Tommy next to him smiles, "You should have stayed up there mate, it aint much fun down 'ere"

The Tiger Moth pilot grimaces, "Oh, this is nothing old chap. I just passed about a hundred Panzers in the woods west of here, and they all had their snouts pointed in this direction."

Gorgeous shots, looking forward to it. I'll start a new AAR thread, so as not to clutter yours with a wall-of-text! LOL

Hardly clutter!

I got an unexpected bit of free time tonight, so here are missions 6-8 in one download:

Missions 6-8 (Invasion Day 3) available here:

http://www.box.com/s/g94sjjo8imjvm19ndu55

Mission 6: S-tag+1, Sept 23 morning - Folkestone falls; the 8th Panzer pushes on Killingwood Ridge

Mission 7: S-tag +1, Sept 23 afternoon - The Tank Park; Luftwaffe transports make daring supply runs while British recon spots a German breakout

Mission 8: S-tag +1, Sept 23 evening - Night Blind; A desperate RAF night strike to try to blunt the German spearhead

I will collect all 8 missions into one package as soon as I can...in the meantime the first post in this thread is the place to go for all Sealion missions

Thats funny...in my younger days i dated a girl like that..VERY briefly!!

Thanks for keeping up the work on this, HeinKill. About to load some of these up now!

Just flew Seeloewe 1 in the 109 E4 . . . just beautiful. I can only hope that you enjoyed making these missions as much as I am flying them!

Thanks! I certainly am... love being able to do the whole 'combined air land ops' thing with the FMB. I have to admit when the early dev announcements came out, and they were talking about how the tank models had 100 unique damage points in the model, with independent suspension and gun recoil modelled, I thought "WHY!? Why don't you use that time and energy just finishing the darn aircraft?"

But now, I'm hooked. I love watching the missions play out from the ground too.

Anyway, here is an example of what mission 8 "Night Blind" offers:

On with the story...(apologies in advance that some of the screens are quite dark, but it is a night mission!)

S-tag +1, 23 September 1300

At 1300 the British High Command convened at Chequers for a briefing on the invasion situation. It quickly became clear that GHQ Stop Line was holding at Bexhill and Eastbourne, and that an expected landing by German forces at Southend was a feint to draw British forces north. However the main German push was developing in the Folkestone area, aided by the capture of both Lympne, and Folkestone, and there was a significant risk the British lines would collapse. If this happened, the Fighter Command airfield at Hawkinge and the city of Canterbury would lie open. German forces could then isolate Kent, the SW of England, and quickly secure the port of Dover and Manston airfield to provide a reliable supply line between the European mainland and Britain. The first part of the conference had been spent debating the wisdom, and necessity, of committing the heavy ships of the British Home Fleet to disrupt German resupply shipping, without first having secured air superiority over the Channel.

"With German fighter bombers flying out of our own damned airfields, we would be sending our capital ships to their certain doom!" argued Admiral Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord. Pound was still smarting from the loss of nearly a dozen destroyers and the Cruiser Curlew from air attack during the Dunkirk evacuation and the crippling damage delivered to other heavy ships such as the Cruisers Gloucester in July and the Liverpool in October. While his intelligence officers told him the risk of losses to German AP bombs was low, bitter experience had taught him otherwise. Nonetheless, he was ordered by Churchill to commit the Home Fleet to the disruption of German resupply lines in the Channel.

The British PM then turned his attention to the air war. He pored over the situation map, then jabbed the butt of his cigar down on Lympne. But his first question was not to the Air Chief Marshall, it was to the Chief of the General Staff, Marshall John Dill, "Hmmm...General...how do you rate your chances of taking back Lympne?"

Dill hesitated, "Less than spectacular, Prime Minister," he traced his finger along the line of hills and wooded country from Folkestone to Hythe, "We are barely holding the German main thrust along this line. To pull any of my forces out for an attack on Lympne could weaken the line irrevocably."

Churchill considered this, then waved at a unit marker behind the line, "What is this unit?"

Dill peered, "That is a small mobile reserve unit Prime Minister, a detachment of the 1st Tank - a handful of Valentines and motorised troop transports. It is, in fact, our only armoured reserve along that section of the line," he warned.

"Send it against Lympne," Churchill decided. "We have one chance to unseat the Luftwaffe from British soil and it is now. If you do not succeed," he turned to the Air Marshall, Charles Portal, "...if you do not succeed John, then Charles, I want Bomber Command to reduce Lympne to a blackened and fallow field by morning light." Both men nodded gravely.

Churchill returned to the map, squinting at a large red counter placed over Kiln Wood, where Tiger Moth pilots had reported German Armour was being marshalled in Brigade strength. "Hmmm...the main thrust appears to be developing here. Gentlemen, if this be Herr Hitler's Armoured Fist, then I would dearly love to rap his knuckles tonight." His eyes glinted, "Let us turn our minds to how."


S-tag +1, 23 September 1930

As darkness closed at 1930 hours, volunteers from the British 3rd Commando Battalion finished placing incendiary charges around the German armour encampment at Kiln Wood, checked their watches and their weapons, and chose their targets. They knew very few of them would survive the next half hour. At 1933 hours, they detonated their explosives, and opened fire on German positions within the clearing.





Above them, circling and waiting for the incendiaries to signal the start of the operation, newly commissioned cannon armed Beaufighter night fighters of 25 Squadron banked for their attack run, then swooped on Kiln Wood leaving mayhem and destruction in their wake.




Circling protectively, Spitfires of 64 Squadron watched both the fight on the ground, and skies above. At 19:45 hours precisely, Wellingtons of bomber command began their ingress, using the spreading fires in the German encampment to guide their run.







To the West, a detachment of the British 1st Tank Battalion, barely company sized, raced toward the German defences at Lympne. 2 miles short of the field, a German 88mm gun thundered and the British column scattered in panic.





The 64 Sq spitfires now turned their attention to Lympne, strafing parked aircraft to try to sow confusion among the defenders, the boom of tank cannons in the west now mingling with the wail of air raid sirens.





Sitting at readiness on the field at Lympne, Bf110s of ZG76 rolled quickly into the sky, and were soon set upon by the 64 Sq Spitfires.





Underestimating the sting of the Bf110s rear gun, one of the Spitfires took several rounds in his engine, and with his machine overheating decided his only option was to bail.





His arms flailing, he tried in vain to open his parachute. The sea swallowed him with barely a splash.





The Valentines had quickly flanked the German 88 cannon and silenced it, but not before most of the troop transports had been lost. Under fire from light arms, the tank commander decided to press on - at the very least, they could bring a halt to night time operations at the German airfield.



Two more Valentines became burning coffins as the group breached the German lines. Flying past the shocked German defences at speed, the remaining 3 Valentines burst onto the airfield at Lympne and opened fire on parked aircraft, fuel and ammunition stores.



German light AT guns were swung urgently 180 degrees to face the unexpected threat, and their rounds hammered against the hulls of the British tanks.




The first few rounds failed to stop the Valentines. They kept firing, turning Heinkels and Fockers into blazing wrecks.



But one by one, the British tanks fell to the AT guns, until the last finally ground to a halt, took a fatal broadside from the German guns...



and submitted.

The time was 20:03. Lympne airfield remained in German hands. The German armour spearhead at Kiln Wood had sustained heavy losses, but Germany now had 10 Divisions ashore.

At Bomber Command HQ, Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse received the simple but chilling message he had been dreading, "Proceed night attack on Lympne. Operations to continue until Luftwaffe presence at Lympne eliminated."

HeinKill, question about mission 3 of S Tag. The Germans don't have a route to return to their airbase in France . . . well, the first squadron of Bf-109s that I chose did not. My question is this - if there is no waypoint route leading back to France, will it matter which airbase I choose to land at? Sometimes I really enjoy coming back for a landing (especially after a great mission).

Hi

It wont matter which you land at, and I also choose to land back in France flying Luftwaffe. There is no formal success criteria in these missions unless the flight is assigned an escort, or a specific ground target. Other wise the success criteria is simple - a) are you alive and b) did you get any victories?

Why do some flights not have takeoff and landing waypoints? I want a variety of airstarts and groundstarts in each mission. The airstarts are usually intended to get you into the action early, but if I give them a landing waypoint, due to the porked COD AI they will often just head for home instead of hanging around to fight!

Thanks HeinKill, that explains it.

If you are into historical accuracy, I have chosen LG2 and Erpro 210 for these missions because Both were based at Calais in Sept 1940 which is easy to find just by visual navigation. Erpro 210 was at Calais Marck while LG2 was at Calais. In later missions during the invasion proper, the Luftwaffe captures a field in Britain you will use.

8 Feb update. Missions 9-11 are complete, just need packaging.

For this, day 3 of the Sealion invasion, I have populated Dover with shipping, guns and vehicles, and created two new 'fronts' - one between Folkestone and Dover along the Dover road as German forces push on the port, and another north of Folkestone at Selstead, where retreating British forces are making a stand to try to halt the German advance on Canterbury.

Highlight of mission 9: LW: scramble from Hawkinge under fire / RAF: train attack
Highlight of mission 10: LW and RAF: support or repel large scale bombing raids on Manston and Hawkinge
Highlight of mission 11: LW: Bridge attack / RAF: Attack on vital German 2nd echelon resupply convoy

Here is the preview of Mission 9

Indeed! Meanwhile, the battle rages . . .

Seelowe 9: Sept 24 morning, S-tag +2

After devastating engagements with the British Home Fleet overnight, Kriegsmarine Admiral Raeder has demanded more air support over the Channel to minimise shipping losses. But most LW air support continues to be used for escort of resupply aircraft and ground attack. The Kriegsmarine put to sea with 3 destroyers and 17 E-boats, but was successfully engaged by British destroyers and cruisers, losing all 3 destroyers and 7 E-boats. 1 British destroyer and 1 cruiser were sunk by U-boats, and one U-boat was lost in a surface engagement. Germany now has 10 Divisions ashore at Folkestone and Newhaven, but many are incomplete and awaiting arrival of their second echelons. Sailing conditions are deteriorating as poor weather moves over France. Lympne airfield was abandoned by first light due to intensive British bombing, but German armour forced the New Zealand Division to fall back from Folkestone and Hawkinge Fighter Command airfield, with 35% casualties, while the German 34th Division has broken through British lines and is driving on Dover. The German 22nd Division has broken out of Folkestone and started its push on Canterbury, with British forces trying to regroup around Selstead. British RDF masts on the Isle of Wight, Folkestone coast and Dover have been knocked out by Stuka attacks - less effective mobile units are filling the gaps.

0730 GST. At Selstead, the retreating NZ Division digs in to make its stand. In woods and fields...





In camps hastily erected and patrolled...





They nervously wait for the enemy they know is rushing toward them...

Scouts of the German 22nd Division meet them and engage



While heavier armour of General Ferdinand Schaal's 10th Panzer grinds toward the new front line





Further south, along the Folkestone to Dover road, the 8th Panzer begins its advance





Precious supplies following close behind



Overhead, Blenheim light bombers, volunteers all, make for the newly captured and heavily reinforced Hawkinge Airfield, now bristling with German and captured British light and heavy AAA.



At Hawkinge, the weary pilots of LG2 respond to the alarm, and prepare to lift into the air. The previous night they had abandoned Lympne under a hail of bombs and returned to Calais. At dawn they were ordered back to the battlefield, to Hawkinge, and yet another day in the menacing shadow of the RAF.



The triple-A starts its heavy barking as they lift off.



The whistle of bombs frighteningly clear even over the throb of their straining engines. The British dithering over the attack on Lympne the day before now replaced with a cold resolve to disloge the Luftwaffe from wherever it may perch.









Back at the Folkestone-Dover road, Erpro 210 banks toward the front, now marked by the hulls of burning tanks and shattered guns.



They close on British AT emplacements flanking the road into Dover...the precariously thin line of brown uniforms that is all that stands between the Wehrmacht and the biggest port along the South Eastern coastline. Their bombs fall...



Shattering life, limbs, and minds...







But not resolve. British AAA answers back...



And rushing down from Croydon, Hurricanes of 111 Squadron arrive just in time to chase the marauders off









Pushing their mighty Daimler Benz engines to the limit, the 109s of LG2 reel in the Blenheims and fall on them like hawks on sparrows.







And to the East, Spitfires from 64 Squadron at Manston approach. Their orders...support the defence of Dover, engage enemy ground forces on the Folkestone Dover road and help the ground troops halt their advance - at any cost!

The Spitfires scream across the harbour, as the troops in their trenches cheer...



Then they swoop inland, guns blazing

(Continued)

One Spitfire breaks away, and spots a telltale plume of smoke on the railway tracks along the base of the Cliffs near Folkestone. A captured German troop train! Headed east toward Dover and the front.



The young pilot drops his nose and pours a stream of lead toward the engine



But the behemoth chugs onward, completely unmoved. He counts the carriages as he flashes past...seven, eight, nine...





He hauls his machine around for another pass, the train hidden in an alley of poplars, visible only by the steam from its engine



He closes again...lower...lower...his finger only reaching for the firing button at the last possible minute this time





While at Selstead, the German advance grinds to a halt, stymied by a Kiwi refusal to admit defeat.







On the train line near Folkestone, the Spitfire pilot watches his bullets march harmlessly alongside the tracks and the troop train powers on...



He pulls his machine up and banks desperately as the cliffs flash before him





He turns one more time. And as he drops his Spitfire toward the alley of trees once again, he does the arithmatic in his head.



9 carriages.

100 men in each.

Nearly a thousand German troops, headed for Dover.

One Spitfire.

5,000 lbs. 8 Brownings. 48 Gallons of fuel.

One pilot.



One life to give.

He touches his fingers to his forehead, making a sign of the cross. And drops his Spitfire down into the alley of poplars.



He thumbs the gun button and his Brownings hammer







He keeps his finger on the button, even as he closes his eyes











It is 0815 on S-tag +2

Can't wait, looking great as always! Love the details in the camps, they look very real (although I would have thought only the RAF targetted the Red Cross, always with the excuse "Ze Germans are using them as cover!")

Neato

OK Missions 9 to 11 are up!

http://www.box.com/s/1irh61pbq5en4r9a63j8

For those who have just joined us, a small resume...



Missions 9 to 11 offer the following scenarios and player flyable sorties:

Mission 9: Hawkinge falls. German troops break out of Folkestone toward Dover and Canterbury.
Mission 10: Heavy fighting at Selstead and Dover, major raids on Hawkinge (by RAF) and Manston (by LW)
Mission 11: Second echelon of German troops en route in channel convoy. German troops break through Selstead and reach Kingston on the outskirts of Canterbury. German paratroops land near Manston and attack toward the airfield.

Sorties available:
Bf109e4: escort, scramble and cap missions
Bf109e4b: close air support
Bf110C7: close air support
Spitfire Ia/IIa: scramble, intercept, combat patrol, convoy patrol, close air support
Hurricane IIa: scramble, intercept, escort, close air support
Blenheim IV: ground attack, shipping attack
Heinkel: airfield attack

Missions 6 to 8 here: http://www.box.com/s/g94sjjo8imjvm19ndu55

Missions 1 to 5 here: http://www.box.com/s/vagzc0uivt3hyppsb46z

Screenies from the latest missions:

LG2 intercepts Blenheim raid on Hawkinge







Over Dover, 111 Squadron Hurricanes mix with Erpro 210 Zerstorers attacking British positions









LG2 Bf109s scramble out of Hawkinge



The second wave of German reinforcements tries to force the Channel





10th Panzer approaches Kingston on the river Stour, and its vital bridges





Oblivious to death approaching from above









Taken by surprise, British Territorials at Manston face off against Kampfgruppe Brauer, dropped by Glider near the airfield






64 Squadron Spitfires and Bomber Command Wellingtons approach the German convoy





And are set upon by LG2s 109s









As the fighters tangle, the bombers close, heavily mauled by naval AAA









Steamers sink, as a 64 Squadron Spitfire ploughs into the waves

The sacrifice of that Spittie pilot going head to head with the locomotive was very poignant, thanks.

Actually that was a sacrifice borne of necessity. It is, as it should be, damn near impossible to stop a train with a few lucky hits from a brace of .303s. I thought about putting Beaufighters in this mission so they could hammer it with 20mm cannons - but they aren't player flyable - or Blennies, but I don't want to overuse these as most players don't fly them.

So I thought, why not give the player a dilemma. If they are lucky and can get enough rounds on target to slow or stop the train, great, but if not, what will they do? Just turn back to base and let the khaki wallas worry about it? Or make the ultimate sacrifice?

H

Missions 12-14, S-tag +3, are now up.

http://www.box.com/s/79qsxei5k0bzc0e4jyyx

Instead of the usual screenies or vid, I thought I'd post the mission briefings for these missions to give people an idea of just how many different player flyable sorties and land based conflicts are built into these three mission files. If you were to fly every individual sortie in just these three mission files, it adds up to 16 sorties. With an average of 5 different player flyables in every mission, the mission set to date includes around 70 flyable sorties, each with its own individual briefings, primary and secondary targets, and accompanying challenges. It is a much more varied and intense player experience than is possible in an offline scripted campaign following a single point of view.

Seelowe 12: Sept 25 morning, S-tag +3

In yesterday's fighting the RAF lost 97 more fighters leaving only 440. The SE England airfields of 11 Group, Bomber and Coastal Command were cratered ruins, and once more the threat of collapse, which had receded in early September, was looming. The Luftwaffe had lost another 71 fighters and 142 bombers. Few of the final 2nd wave German reinforcements made it through the British naval and air blockade of Folkestone. Despite stubborn resistance by the 1st and 2nd Canadian divisions overnight, the German XXXXI Army Corps, with the 10th Panzer as its spearhead, captured intact one of the two bridges over the River Stour at Kingston, and troops are pouring across. However, in the early morning, the British VII Corp committed its 1st Armoured strategic reserve, comprising Valentine and Cruiser tanks, on the left flank of the German salient. The German supply line to Kingston is stretched tight, and the British mean to cut its throat. They have been met by the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment, comprising mounted troops, flak battalion and a Stug batterie.

RAF Spits
Our engineers at Kingston were killed trying to mine the southern bridge, and now the enemy has crossed to the Western bank of the Stour and has flanked our defences. Bomber Command has been given the job of destroying both bridges. 64 Sq is down to its last 4 machines. You will fly a combat air patrol over Kingston in advance of the raid, and engage any Luftwaffe fighters in the area. Volunteers from the 1st and 2nd Canadian Division are holding their positions on the ground, and will do so throughout the bomber attack. Pray for them.

RAF Hurris
Our engineers at Kingston were killed trying to mine the southern bridge, and now the enemy has crossed to the Western bank of the Stour and has flanked our defences. Bomber Command has been given the job of destroying both bridges. 111 Squadron will escort the bombers. Volunteers from the 1st and 2nd Canadian Division are holding their positions, and will do so throughout your attack. Pray for them.

Luftwaffe Hawkinge
Flying for Erpro 210 you will take off from Hawkinge and fly N-NW to Elham. An enemy column of tanks and vehicles is headed East toward Selstead where a surprise British armoured attack has been met by Leibstandarte SS Stugs. Our tanks have the upper hand but the arrival of the extra enemy force could tip the balance. When you have destroyed the column, you are free to engage targets of opportunity, both land and air.

Luftwaffe Kingston
Our troops have captured a crossing at Kingston. Fighting is still intense but it is vital we get as many men and machines across as possible today, with the gates of Canterbury wide open! Patrol the airspace over Kingston to deter any enemy aircraft. You are free to engage targets of opportunity on the ground, particularly gun emplacements, but your priority is air defence.

Luftwaffe Elham
Flying for LG2 you will proceed N-NE to Elham. An enemy column of tanks and vehicles is headed East toward Selstead where a surprise British armoured attack has been met by Leibstandarte SS Stugs. Our tanks have the upper hand but the arrival of enemy aircraft could tip the balance. Keep the airspace clear.


Seelow 13: Sept 25 early afternoon, S-tag +3

The German supply situation is critical. Despite three days of fighting the only port which has been captured is Folkestone, which can only support 150 tonnes an hour of supplies at full capacity. The actual rate of offloading is currently 90 tonnes, due to constant air and artillery bombardment. Transport Fleet C, transporting critical infantry, panzer, staff and corps troops and supplies was intercepted and fewer than 20% of the ships made it to port. Of the two destroyer flotillas from Cherbourg and four torpedo boat flotillas available to escort the convoys at on S-tag minus 1, only 4 destroyers and one torpedo boat flotilla remain. The decoy action of the morning however was successful in luring away heavy ships from the British Home Fleet, and the light cruisers Emden, Nurnberg, and Koln have now turned back toward Norwegian ports to evade British pursuit. Transport Fleet E is now approaching the Dover coast. It is transporting the first echelons of the 6th Mountain Division, 8th and 28th infantry, a company from Panzer Battalion D and staff and corp troops of the VIII and X army corps, plus vital fuel and ammunition. If it does not dock and unload successfully at Folkestone, the invasion cannot be sustained.

RAF Manston defend
Scramble! RDF is showing a large German convoy approaching Dover, with strong air cover including both fighters and fighter bombers. Ships of the Royal Navy 18th Destroyer Flotilla are approaching the convoy from the north and may already be engaged. It is critical 64 and 54 Squadrons provide cover against bomber or dive bomber attack for this destroyer flotilla. Our bombers and the navy boys will take care of the convoy - your job is to protect our ships.

RAF Attack
RDF is showing a large German convoy approaching Dover, with strong air cover including both fighters and fighter bombers. Ships of the Royal Navy 18th Destroyer Flotilla are approaching the convoy from the north and may already be engaged. It is critical that we drive away the heavy fighter escort that is covering the convoy, so that our bombers can get through. Over the next three hours we will be throwing everything we have available at this convoy, and Jerry will do his utmost to protect it. If we send it to the bottom today, we just might turn the tide on the whole invasion.

RAF bomb
RDF is showing a large German convoy approaching Dover, with strong air cover including both fighters and fighter bombers. Ships of the Royal Navy 18th Destroyer Flotilla are approaching the convoy from the north and may already be engaged. It is critical that we hit it, and hit it hard. Over the next three hours we will be throwing everything we have available at this convoy, and Jerry will do his utmost to protect it. If we send it to the bottom today, we just might turn the tide on the whole invasion.

Luftwaffe Hawkinge cover
Our supply situation is desperate and the prospect of further bad weather means our convoys must cross during broad daylight. A large supply convoy is currently off the coast of Dover and will inevitably come under air or naval attack. It is transporting the first echelons of the 6th Mountain Division, 8th and 28th infantry, a company from Panzer Battalion D and staff and corp troops of the VIII and X army corps, plus vital fuel and ammunition. Fly immediately to Dover and patrol above the convoy. It must get through! Our bombers have been assigned to attack any British naval shipping sighted in the area. These ships may also be heavily escorted but you are NOT to leave this convoy unprotected in order to engage aircraft which do not directly threaten the convoy! Is that understood?

Luftwaffe Erpro Dover
Our supply situation is desperate and the prospect of further bad weather means our convoys must cross during broad daylight. A large supply convoy is currently off the coast of Dover and will inevitably come under air or naval attack. It is transporting the first echelons of the 6th Mountain Division, 8th and 28th infantry, a company from Panzer Battalion D and staff and corp troops of the VIII and X army corps, plus vital fuel and ammunition. Fly immediately to Dover and patrol above the convoy. Your primary objective is to protect the convoy against air attack but If you identify a threat from British naval forces approaching from the north, you will attack with cannons and bombs and then return to convoy protection duty. The convoy must get through!

LW bomber
Our supply situation is desperate and the prospect of further bad weather means our convoys must cross during broad daylight. A large supply convoy is currently off the coast of Dover and will inevitably come under air or naval attack. It is transporting the first echelons of the 6th Mountain Division, 8th and 28th infantry, a company from Panzer Battalion D and staff and corp troops of the VIII and X army corps, plus vital fuel and ammunition. Fly immediately to Dover and patrol above the convoy. Your primary objective is to protect the convoy against attack from British naval forces which our Freya radar indicates may be approaching from the north. Your Ju88 is armed with armour piercing bombs. Send any Royal Navy ships to the bottom!

Seelowe 14: Sept 25 late afternoon, S-tag +3

Following concerted British air and sea attack throughout the afternoon, 87% of shipping in Transport Fleet E was lost, along with 3 destroyers and 15 torpedo boats. In the air, the RAF has so far lost 23 aircraft today, to 13 Luftwaffe. The British armoured thrust at Selstead was successful, and the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler has been cut off from Folkestone and is making a fighting withdrawal north toward Denton, pursued by the British 1st Armoured and elements of the NZ Division. Meanwhile, the 1st and 2nd Canadian succeeded in re-establishing control over the River Stour crossings at Kingston and is reinforcing for an early morning counter-attack against the 10th Panzer and troops of the Germany XXXXI Army Corps. An estimated 30,000 German troops are now caught in this pocket. The German VII Army Corps and 8th Panzer has succeeded in penetrating to the streets of Dover, and fighting is taking place from house to house, within sight of the Port. In the West, the 7th Flieger Division has withdrawn to Hythe township and is digging in. In the East intense fighting continues near Manston, with Kampfgruppe Bauer reporting their light mortars are within range of the airfield. A Fuhrer Conference has been convened for 0500 Sept 26 to review the situation. 80,000 men are now ashore in England, with supplies to last two to three days at best.


RAF Manston
The airfield is under direct attack from German troops! Get your machine in the air! Strafe enemy troops and vehicles once airborne, and land at Ramsgate when you are out of ammunition. Well, what are you waiting for? GET ONE UP!!

RAF Recon
The OSS has reported German troops massing just outside Denton. They have so far identified elements of the German XXXXI and XIII Army Corps. We need a more exact count of enemy troops and tanks at Denton. You will take your Tiger Moth aircraft in and attempt to photograph the German encampment. You can expect heavy AAA in the area, don't hang about. Get in, evaluate the situation, and get out. You will land at Canterbury to make your report.

RAF strafe
The 1st Armoured has Jerry on the run! Our tanks are pursuing German armoured columns north on the road between Folkestone and Denton. Try to stall their retreat and allow our armour to catch up, by strafing the German columns. Your secondary objective is to identify and attack any German positions in or around the town of Denton. The OSS has reported a convoy of German wounded in ambulances and trucks is heading south from the fighting at Kingston, toward Denton also. You are not to attack any medical vehicles, so make sure you have good visual recognition before commencing your attack.

Luftwaffe Hawkinge
Those peacocks in the SS have been given a shower and a shave by the Tommies and our troops at Selstead and Kingston have now been cut off from Folkestone. A major push is planned for tomorrow to break their encirclement, but for tonight they have been ordered to dig in at Denton, about 5 minutes flying north of Hawkinge. Cover their retreat and patrol the area over Denton.

Luftwaffe Erpro Manston
The paratroops of Kampfgruppe Bauer have reported they are close to capturing Manston! If we can secure Manston airfield we will have two Luftwaffe bases on British soil and total control of the skies over Kent. The Bf109s of JG26 and troops from Kampfgruppe Mendle are already preparing to fly into Manston as soon as it has been secured. You will fly immediately to Manston. Your primary objective is to destroy any enemy AAA or anti tank emplacements you can identify. Your secondary objective is to attack enemy aircraft on the ground, or in the air.

I've just had a run in Mission 14. The action at Manston as i was trying to take off was marvelous. It really was a joy to fly. Thanks again HeinKill...you really are doing a great job here. I've flown them all several times over in several different roles ... brilliant

Thanks for the kind words. They make it worthwhile. That mission took about two hours to write, create and populate, then about five hours to fine tune, with two land battles to coordinate, a convoy of ambulances that wouldn't follow waypoints and 5 flyable sorties...

But I've topped a thousand downloads of the various CoD mission packs now, so it's good to hear from people who are enjoying them...

H

A little taste of what the missions of Day 5 of Operation Sealion will bring...

September 26, S-tag +4, 1230 hrs GMT

Elements of the 10th Panzer and Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler have fought their way out of the Denton Pocket. Rather than retreating South toward the main German force at Folkestone, they have taken British forces by surprise and escaped north toward Canterbury. The 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions were in the process of reinforcing their southern front, and German armour was able to drive through a gap in British lines at Gorsely Wood. Panzer IIs and IIIs of the 10th Panzer and Stugs of the Leibstandarte SSAH, backed by motorised troops of the XXXXI Army Corps, have radioed to Berlin that they have captured the Canterbury train station and are pushing on the center of the city. They are however, totally cut off from German supply lines. In an act of bluff and bravado, Adolf Hitler broadcasts to the British people, "Germany wants peace with Britain," he thunders, "But your leaders have brought war to the very streets of English villages and cities, and the German flag now flies from the spires of Canterbury Cathedral. London is next! The nations of Britain and Germany are not natural enemies. I call on Britain to surrender and avoid an inevitable and terrible fate!" After a conference with Churchill, Dowding orders all remaining 11 Group squadrons withdrawn north to preserve them for the defence of London. Churchill convenes an emergency session of the War Cabinet.

Erpro 210 over Canterbury




Chieftains and AT guns at the train station are overwhelmed




64 Squadron fights back



10th Panzer closes on the city center

How do you have your graphics set up? Your screenshots always seem to have much more "depth" than mine do. Everything of mine is in sharp focus, is there a setting to fix this to look more like yours.

It's funny you say that. The other day I was taking screenshots for my ongoing AAR of the Sealion campaign.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3492251/5.html

I was thinking myself, how cool it is that in the ground shots, the foreground is blurred, while the mid and far objects are in focus. See the grass/weeds here:



But I don't use any special settings, this is stock CoD. Some of the photos I give a simple edge blur in post production, but for example the one above was not one of those.

H

Missions 15-17 now available for download. These missions feature ongoing land warfare, large scale air conflicts, and Canterbury populated with Cathedral, vehicles and trains.

http://www.box.com/s/er8cx7x66d06ei7hy3h8

September 26, S-tag +4, 1230 hrs GMT

Elements of the 10th Panzer and Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler have fought their way out of the Denton Pocket. Rather than retreating South toward the main German force at Folkestone, they have taken British forces by surprise and escaped north toward Canterbury. The 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions were in the process of reinforcing their southern front, and German armour was able to drive through a gap in British lines at Gorsely Wood. Panzer IIs and IIIs of the 10th Panzer and Stugs of the Leibstandarte SSAH, backed by motorised troops of the XXXXI Army Corps, have radioed to Berlin that they have captured the Canterbury train station and are pushing on the center of the city. They are however, totally cut off from German supply lines. In an act of bluff and bravado, Adolf Hitler broadcasts to the British people, "Germany wants peace with Britain," he thunders, "But your leaders have brought war to the high streets of English villages and cities, and the German flag now flies from the spires of Canterbury Cathedral! London is next! The nations of Britain and Germany are not natural enemies. I call on Britain to surrender and avoid an inevitable and terrible fate!" After a conference with Churchill, Dowding orders all remaining 11 Group squadrons withdrawn north to preserve them for the defence of London. Churchill convenes an emergency session of the War Cabinet.

Mission 15: Breakout from the Denton pocket. German armour, expected to try to fight south and rejoin the main German force at Folkestone, pushes north on Canterbury instead. Missions feature CAP, ground attack and the first raids by Corpo Aero Italiano during the invasion.



Mission 16: German tanks reach the center of Canterbury and the Cathedral. The largest air battle of the invasion to date takes place. Germany throws all available units, including Italian fighters, into the effort to protect the forces attacking Canterbury. The depleted RAF responds with all available 11 Group units while inadequate British forces try to hold back the German armour.



Mission 17: German armour captures the Canterbury train station, and troops dig in for the night beside the River Stour. The Royal Navy begins direct naval bombardment of Folkestone. Flyable sorties include RAF recon and CAP, while Luftwaffe sorties include CAP, shipping attack and a dramatic escape from behind the lines, by captured Tiger Moth.

Ahh, wasn't thinking of post-production editing, as I'm a complete PS neophyte. I especially love #1, #2, #6, & #7 from the Sept 26 description. I thought your game looked like that, I'd go buy a 7970 (or whatever that newest card is) in SLI if I could get the game to look like that, haha.

A little AAR from the mission pack...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmuDi2F60-8

Eeeh, heinkill, you do know that there is a emergency release lever for the canopy, the red one, in the cockpit of the 109, don't you?
And you also know that there is a emergency release lever for the gear, working with gravity, and this pump is to get fuel pressure without running engine?

What? And take all the fun out of crash landing?! It's my favourite part of every mission!

H

Heinkill, nobody will take your beloved crash landings away, it's just more variety to decide to release the canopy
and get squashed when the plane lands on its back, or keep the canopy and see the fuel pooling below you, waiting for a spark while you are trapped inside.
And with the gear, on even ground you have a good chance to stay upright, or if you descen too fast that it breaks at the impact and
takes enough energy that the plane doesn't explode.
Decisions, decisions.

Thanks! I actually managed to fly one of the missions (#14) without getting shot down, blown up, or crashing on landing...quite proud of myself. Here is the AAR, for posterity (though yes, I do realise I don't have a screenie of me landing. You'll have to trust that even I can land a Tiger Moth...)

Seelowe 14: Sept 25 late afternoon, S-tag +3

Following concerted British air and sea attack throughout the afternoon, 87% of shipping in Transport Fleet E was lost, along with 3 destroyers and 15 torpedo boats. In the air, the RAF has so far lost 23 aircraft today, to 13 Luftwaffe. The British armoured thrust at Elham was successful, and the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler has been cut off from Folkestone and is making a fighting withdrawal north toward Denton, pursued by the British 1st Armoured and elements of the NZ Division. Meanwhile, the 1st and 2nd Canadian succeeded in re-establishing control over the River Stour crossings at Kingston and is reinforcing for an early morning counter-attack against the 10th Panzer and troops of the Germany XXXXI Army Corps regrouping at Denton. The German VII Army Corps and 8th Panzer has succeeded in penetrating to the streets of Dover, and fighting is taking place from house to house, within sight of the Port. In the West, the 7th Flieger Division has withdrawn to Hythe township and is digging in. In the East intense fighting continues near Manston, with Kampfgruppe Bauer reporting their light mortars are within range of the airfield.

Major Hereward de Havilland, chief test pilot for de Havilland aircraft company, was at home with his wife and two children when the telephone rang on September 22 1940. His wife had noted he had been distant during the meal - she assumed because he was worried about the latest tests on the de Havilland Mosquito prototype. She was wrong.

The male voice at the other end did not identify himself. "Major de Havilland?", he asked.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Banquet lights," was all the voice said, before the line was disconnected.

It may have been a short message, but he had been waiting for it, and it was one de Havilland had been dreading. He walked back in to where the family was having their tea. His wife knew, without asking, that he had been called back.

He had kissed her on the forehead, pinched the cheeks of his two toddlers, and then gone to the hall cupboard and taken out his attaché case. He had driven immediately to the de Havilland aerodrome at Hatfield where frantic activity was already underway, with engineers fitting each of the six Tiger Moth training aircraft of the 1st Elementary Flying Training School with bomb racks holding 8 x 20lb anti-personnel bombs.

de Havilland had opened his locker, and taken out a parachute, flying suit, service gas mask, tin helmet and gas cape. The gas mask, helmet and cape were tied into the student's seat of the Tiger Moth, together with a service pistol, in case he was brought down behind the lines. He had reflected on this - behind the lines, in Kent! German troops had landed overnight, and now the Western front had come to Britain. The thought made his blood run hotter.

But operation Banquet Lights had been a suicide operation, as he'd expected. Of the six Tiger Moths that took off from Hatfield, weighed down with the small ineffectual bombs, only five had made it to the invasion beach head, and only one had made it back to Hatfield.

Now it was 25 September. Could it really only have been 3 days? His short lived career as a combat pilot had been curtailed, but he still had a choice - return to Hatfield to continue work with his brother on the new Mosquito aircraft, or fly recon missions for the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. He knew his temperament could not cope with test flying the next generation of fighter, when war, real war, was being waged just a hundred miles away. So each day, five times a day, he had taken one of the company's Tiger Moths up, with a photographer in the student's seat, and flown out to find and fix the advancing German lines.

Each day the front line got depressingly further from Folkestone, closer to Canterbury. Yesterday Panzers had advanced as far north as Kingston on the Lesser Stour, and Elham in the West. But they had been thrown back from Kingston by the 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions, after being carpet bombed by Bomber Command Wellingtons and strafed by the new cannon armed Beaufighters. In the West, the Stugs and truck mounted flak batterie of the Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler were routed by Valentine and Cruiser tanks of the British 1st Armoured Reserve.

Churchill had held his armoured counter attack until he saw the enemy commit himself on Canterbury. He knew he had only one roll of the dice with the precious few tanks of the British VII Corps, but they had prevailed, and cut the throat of the German salient. The enemy was now bottled up at Denton - elements of the 10th Panzer retreating south from Kingston, while the German XXXXI Corps and Leibstandarte SS were pushed north.

de Havilland had been told that upward of 30,000 enemy troops were being bottled up at Denton, but where precisely? It would be his job to find out.

In the hills north of Selstead, guns of the Royal Artillery 58th Medium Regt., veterans of France, are readied for a night time bombardment of German positions at Denton, as soon as they are identified.



de Havilland decides to start his search at Kingston, the scene of the previous day's hard fought battle for the vital bridges over the Lesser Stour river.




He would follow the main Canterbury road south from Kingston, through Denton, toward Hawkinge. There should be German forces heading south from Kingston, and others advancing north away from Elham, converging on Denton. Maybe their positions would give him a clue as to where the main body of the German forces was lurking. In the distance he could see smoke pyres - perhaps indicating burning vehicles...



In the sky above, 111 Squadron flies a protective combat patrol, their job to deter any interest in the low flying and defenceless Tiggie.



They soon have their work cut out for them as LG2 109s out of Hawkinge begin to object to their presence. They do their job, keeping the 109s busy, but it does not go well.











The wounded 111 Sq Hurricanes fight back gamely, but the more experienced pilots of LG2 have their measure









No matter, it is just enough to keep the sky clear for de Havilland.

5 miles out of Kingston, he sees a line of Panzer IIs heading cross country. They try to pull under cover, but are too slow.







He marks their direction and position.



Looking in their direction of travel he sees a small fire on a hilltop outside Denton. Too small to be seen from altitude...but could it be a visual marker for scattered German troops to home on?



Squinting between the spars of his wings, he thinks he can make out tents, or camo netting.



He turns the Tiger Moth toward the hill. Within minutes his suspicions are confirmed as angry flak begins to erupt in front of him.





He doesn't dare overfly it, but gives his photographer a nice beam shot. The hillside is swarming with Boche!







A large portion of the trapped German XXXXI army seems to be digging in on the hill overlooking Denton.





He scurries for cover, flak from 88s and lighter 30mm chasing him all the way.





As he dodges and weaves, his observer points at the ground. There below...a lone Stug pushing through a field. Perhaps a remnant of the fleeing Leibstandarte SS.



It hides in the shadow of some trees, invisible to high flying recon, but not to his Tiggie...





Then his observer punches the air with both fists, pointing ahead. Hot on the heels of the Stug, surrounded by the shattered hulks of German flak trucks, they can see Cruiser tanks of the 1st armoured, ploughing north, up the road toward Denton.







It occurs to him that this one road tells the whole tale of the German advance so far. On the first day they took Folkestone. Then broke through the GHQ stop line, and captured Hawkinge. From there, this road led them directly north, to Kingston, the furthest point of their advance, 12.9 miles from Folkestone - where the 1st and 2nd Canadian finally threw them back. Meanwhile they tried to widen their front to the West, before the Cruisers and Valentines of the 1st Armoured gave them a bloody nose. They were only 12 miles from their target of Canterbury but now they were trapped on this road, the Canadian Divisions pushing them southward...the 1st Armoured pushing them north.

To a hilltop in Denton.

He leaves the Cruisers to their pursuit.



As he turns back toward Hatfield, he hears flapping and banging outside his cockpit, and notices the fabric on his right wing is starting to come away, as small rips caused by the flak start to tear open in his slipstream. The flak had passed right through the lightweight construction of the Tiger Moth without exploding, which was a blessing. But it had been an uncomfortable few minutes!



Luckily the Gipsy Major engine keeps singing its two note song without complaint.

"I'll have to tell Geoffrey about this one", de Havilland thinks quietly to himself. Geoffrey his brother, the man who designed the Tiger Moth. The man who was no doubt, right now, pouring over drawings of his beloved Mosquito.

Tell him wood and fabric is all well and good for surviving a good flakking, but what his Mosquito really wants is speed

***

It is the end of day 4 of the Sealion invasion. 90,000 German troops are ashore, and Germany holds the port of Folkestone, and Hawkinge fighter command field, but has been held out of Dover, and the paratroop attack on Manston has not yet succeeded in taking that airfield. The supply situation is critical, with no further prospect of resupply due to the dominance of the Royal Navy in the Channel. A Fuhrer Conference has been convened for 0500 Sept 26 to review the situation.



Now encircled, 30,000 troops of the XXXXI Army Corps, and including remnants of the 10th Panzer and Leibstandarte SS, are digging in at Denton. With de Havilland's report to guide them, it is just a matter of time before they will hear the banshee roar of British long range artillery.



(This AAR is from the mission set 12-14, available here: http://www.box.com/s/79qsxei5k0bzc0e4jyyx . In this mission the player flyables include the LG2 109s, 64Sq Spits out of Manston, Erpro 210 109s on patrol over Dover, 111Sq Hurricanes patrolling Denton, and of course, the Tiger Moth. And trust me, the German encampment is not as easy to find as it may seem - as mission designer I knew where to look and it took me a while! Darned rolling hills all look the same!)

Exciting stuff!

Still some fun yet to come... I just discovered how to create spawns in mission! Yes, I am a slow learner...but a happy one!

Very cool.


Wheels

A little progress update. I have decided the next installment will complete the mission pack. Missions 18-24 (Sept 27 to 30) have been completed, and I am fine tuning the various sorties in each mission. Should be finished in a week. The last 7 missions will be released as a pack, and then I will compile the entire 24 mission pack into a single download.

By rough calculation the 24 mission files in the mission pack feature 120 flyable sorties.

I can't tell you if it ends well, or ends poorly for Britain, can only say I hope the ending retains a little surprise...

Have just plucked out an element from one of the last missions in the pack, which is actually the mission/sortie I found hardest of all the missions.

It was inspired by the efforts in 1940 to develop night fighter tactics using the completely unsuited Hurricane Mk Is and IIs. To quote Leo McKistry in his book "Hurricane"...

In practice the plane proved woefully inadequate (for night fighting) during the long winter of 1940-41. Hurricane squadrons flying at night rarely even saw a bomber, never mind intercepted one... Without any navigational aids, no airborne interception radar, the Hurricane pilots could do nothing more than grope in the dark.

"On a pitch black night, when there was no moon, it was virtually impossible to expect any form of contact at all." Douglas Bader, leader of 242 Squadron, said, "Your best hope was to look for the burst of AAA and search somewhere ahead of it, because it was always behind the bombers. But really, none of us saw anything except fires, and gun flashes below."

This didn't stop the pilots from going up.

So I created a night fighter mission, sending the RAF up and into the sky over Canterbury. The sky is actually full of German aircraft but only once in ten missions did I manage to find them!

And as if flying around in the dark isn't hard enough, try a) finding your airfield again and b) landing on the blinking field with only some pale white and red lights to guide you!

I've left these screenies virtually untouched to give the impression that, well, its DARK up there...


One of the briefings. The RAF pilot can either go up as wingman and follow his flight leader, or take off solo.


Red and white marker lights have been placed on the airfield to help landing. In reality these were hooded so that they were not visible from altitude (the system was called Jakobs Ladder) but in CoD they are visible from all angles.


The best way to find enemy bombers, as Bader remarked, is to look for heavy AAA bursts.



You are almost right upon the bombers before you can see them, and they usually open fire before you do.


Canterbury burns. Very disheartening to see the flashes of bombs bursting, knowing the bombers are up there somewhere but you can't find the blighters!

Anyway, just a taster. Next steps in the mission pack development

- Release final installment, missions 18-24 (this week)
- Compile full package as one download (next week)
- Create 'alternate ending' package so that both fans of LW and fans of RAF will have the ending they are looking for (March)
- Use the missions to compile the first of 4 'single squadron point of view' campaigns: probably RAF 64 Squadron (Spitfires). April or May probably. I am open to alternate campaigns, because it can be easily done from the POV of 111 Sq Hurricanes, LG2 Bf109s, or Erpro 210 109s and 110s. So feel free to post if you would for example rather have a LW campaign.

Cheers,

H

These missions look incredibly cool! I'm new to COD, so I haven't even completed the in-game campaigns yet (although quite disappointed with the first one until I found a bird sitting on my lap in the spit :P) but you can bet I'm gonna try these missions. I can only imagine the incredible amount of work that's gone into them. My hat's off to you Heinkill.

Thx, and welcome to the forums! Yes the RAF campaign is a joke...but the LW campaign is ok. You can find a walkthrough for both on my website to help you decide which campaign missions to fly and which to skip. There are some good user msde campaigns out there now...go to Airwarfare.com to find them.

Cheers,

H

Anyone know a good source for the text of Churchill's war speeches? I need to get the style right for his final speech...

H

Hi Heinkill,

I have a book containing the greater part of Churchill's war time speeches (His Finest Hours, The War Speeches of Winston Churchill ISBN 978 1 84724 201 3). If you let me know what you want I'll try and scan it for you. I won't be online until tomorrow night now.

RedToo.

Here you go mate, give this a try.

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill

Looking forward to flying more of your work. :-)

I can attest to that! - Had a lot of trouble in my night/dawn mission... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPtJ9-Esbto

Heinkill, your work is monumental! - I really salute you for this huge counter-factual what-if campaign. Superb work. And great that you are getting into mission design: far too few people are... Mainly because the developers have been very negligent in their documentation work...

Great site Naz. Much easier than scanning and OCR-ing! Thanks for the link.

RedToo.

Thanks all! And especially for that link Naz, and the offer Red. I have what I need now.

The reason things have been a little quiet is that I have decided there should be two, equally believable endings to this campaign. That has taken a fair bit of writing, and then mission scripting/testing.

But the good news is I am nearly there, and the full 35 mission (150 sortie) pack, with dual endings, will be available 'soon'.

Cheers for hanging in there!

H

My pleasure gentlemen, glad the link is of some help.

Its a shame today's politicians so rarely have the gift to produce inspirational speeches as Churchill did.

Anyway, Keep up the good work HeinKill, cant wait to download and fly the complete set. (...and dare I say it, your next project(s))

BoB Game Hub
Operation Sealion Mission Packs for Cliffs of Dover

Welcome to the Operation Sealion Mission Packs for Cliffs of Dover!

There are two packs, one created from an RAF victory perspective, and one from a Luftwaffe victory perspective. However every mission in the BoB Game Hub Sealion mission packs is designed with multiple flyable aircraft available to players flying either RAF or Luftwaffe. Wherever practical, mission design includes both ground starts and airstarts. Mission design takes an 'open battlefield' approach - the player will be given an objective, but once airborne, you have full freedom of operation to either prosecute the assigned target, or attack other targets of opportunity.

These missions are minutely based on the notes from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst wargame conducted in 1974 to simulate a September 1940 invasion by Germany. In this exercise, each side (played by British and German officers respectively) was based in a command room, and the actual moves plotted on a scale model of SE England constructed at the School of Infantry. The panel of umpires included Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland, Admiral Friedrich Ruge, Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, Rear Admiral Edward Gueritz, General Heinz Trettner and Major General Glyn Gilbert. The main problems the Germans face are that a) the Luftwaffe has not yet won air supremacy; b) the possible invasion dates and resupply are constrained by the weather and tides (for a high water attack) and c) it has taken until late September to assemble the necessary shipping.


The combat takes place on a narrow front, on land, sea and in the air.

I have aimed for nothing less than 'epic' with these mission packs, and hope they leave you with a feeling of reliving an alternate version of history.

Enjoy!

HEINKILL

DOWNLOAD HERE:

Sealion RAF Point of View: http://www.box.com/s/5d8236170f3da466a4fb
Sealion LW Point of View: http://www.box.com/s/55339e8c4d9fcaa73623

Note: files were updated 8 April to ensure they appear in date order in the CoD menus (earlier versions dont). If you would like this refinement, suggest you uninstall, download the new version and reinstall. Sorry for this inconvenience.

www.bobgamehub.blogspot.com

PS There have already been more than 3,000 downloads of the earlier releases of the partly completed Sealion missions (thanks all!). The full pack adds another 10 missions, and alternate endings!

FAQ and further guidance.


Q. I ran the install program but the missions don’t appear in my Single Missions menu in the game!
A. The install program can automatically install all the required files into your Single Missions folder and menu. When prompted, you should browse to your default Cliffs of Dover folder, usually 1CSoftClub>IL2SturmovikCLiffsofDover. If you do not choose a folder, the files will be placed into your My Documents folder for you to install manually. To manually install these missions, simply copy all files into your CoD Single Missions folder, usually 1CSoftClub> IL2SturmovikCliffsofDover> missions> Single.

Q. What is the difference between the RAF mission pack and the LW mission pack?
A. From about S-tag (Sealion Day) +8, events diverge between the two mission packs – the two mission packs have different endings! The RAF pack follows events from the RAF perspective and the default flyable aircraft are usually RAF aircraft. The Luftwaffe pack is put together with the default flyables as Luftwaffe.
Of course, because these are single missions, the player can fly any flyable aircraft, on either side, from the CUSTOM menu.
EVERY player flyable aircraft in these missions has its own mission briefings and objectives.

Q. What types of missions are featured?
A. Here is a list of the types of missions available in the mission pack, for both sides:

- Combat air patrol ('routine' patrol, frie jagd)
- Ground attack (strafing, dive and level bombing; bridges, trains, gun emplacements, ports, vehicles, troop encampments, airfields)
- Shipping attack (dive bombing, level bombing, strafing, merchant and naval)
- Bomber intercept
- Bomber or supply aircraft escort
- Recon
- Scrambles under air and/or ground attack
- Night flying
- Specials (no spoilers here: there are several missions with unique storylines/objectives...)

Q. I want to fly for the Luftwaffe but the default aircraft seems to be RAF (or vice versa). Can I change the default?
A. Yes! The reason this pack has been created as single missions, rather than a campaign, is so that you can more easily customize to your heart’s desire, no matter whether you install the RAF victory or LW victory versions. On the mission briefing page, click the CUSTOM button. Then see below for what you can customize.



Q. I want to change the default aicraft eg fly a Spitfire rather than a Hurricane / an Emil rather than a Bf110. Can I?
A. Yes! If the aircraft is player flyable, simply click CUSTOM (see above) at the briefing screen then click on the picture of the pilot for the aircraft you want to fly. You can change this aircraft to whatever flyable aircraft you want by clicking the picture of the aircraft. (A. below). Check the briefing to see what mission this aircraft is assigned. (B. below).



Q. I want to change other mission parameters like time, weather or realism
A: To change time of day or weather, enter new values at D. To change loadout click the ‘default(stock)’ or custom loadout indicated in A. To change realism values, click C.

Q. How can I see what the mission or target is for every aircraft in the mission? This will help me decide which one I want to fly.
A. Check the mission and targets assigned to each flight at B. When you are airborne, use the map and enable waypoint icons to see which route you are assigned to patrol. You do not have to follow the assigned route, but the missions are scripted for aircraft/players to follow the waypoints as ordered, which was RAF and LW airforce doctrine at the time unless fighters were assigned a ‘free hunt’.

Q. I want more aircraft in the missions, or, my PC can’t cope with the number of aircraft in this mission!
A. You can increase the number of aircraft in each flight in the drop down box next to the pilot (see A.). This may degrade PC performance. You can decrease the number of aircraft in each flight (or zero it completely) the same way to increase PC performance. It is suggested you start by decreasing ALLIED aircraft to preserve the focus of the integrity of the sortie you are flying yourself.

Q. I am having trouble finding the mission target, or mission waypoints
A. These missions are built on the ‘open battlefields’ concept, to try to simulate what a battle on such a narrow front would be like. There are multiple aircraft in the battle area for each mission, each with their own primary and secondary targets. And there is a separate war taking place on the ground, and on sea. If you are having trouble locating your target, you have several options:
- turn on waypoints and icons and view the in game map
- run the mission on autopilot and let the autopilot guide you to the target
- fly as a wingman and just follow the squadron leader (just go to external view, cycle through the aircraft to the wingman aircraft in your formation, and press ALT-F1 to fly that aircraft)
- identify enemy ground targets and attack those (eg, beat up an enemy airfield.)
Ground targets such as trains, guns, vehicles or stationary aircraft, as in real life, are hard to find and hit. If it helps, fly ground attack missions as wingman, and follow your leader in! (You can set your aircraft to fly as wingman in the Full Mission Builder).

Q. My flight appears to have no landing waypoint… where do I land?
A. Some flights, especially player flights, are not assigned landing waypoints, to ensure they stay in the battle area. It is up to you as the pilot to judge when and where to land, but here is a list of the main home airfields, at various stages of the campaign.
Lehrgeschwader 2: Calais/Lympne/Hawkinge
Erpro 210: Calais Marck/Lympne/Hawkinge
111 Sq: Hawkinge/Croydon
64 Sq: Manston

Q. My flight is out of action / has run out of targets/ I have run out of fuel and ammunition, but I can see other aircraft are engaged on the battlefield. Can I jump into the cockpit of those aircraft and keep fighting?
A. Yes. One of the great features of CoD is that you can jump into the cockpit of any player flyable aircraft on the map as long as this is enabled in REALISM menu. Just cycle through external views of aircraft to the aircraft you want to fly, and hit ALT-F1

Q. I prefer campaigns, rather than single missions. Why don’t you compose these missions into a campaign?
A. I will. When the full mission set is complete, it will be scripted into 4 Sealion scripted campaigns, each with its own unique squadron point of view. As you can probably guess, the campaigns will be:
RAF 64 Squadron: Spitfire campaign
RAF 111 Squadron: Hurricane campaign
LW LG2: Bf 109e4 campaign
LW Erpro 210: Bf110C7/Bf109e4B campaign

Of course there is nothing to stop you compiling these missions into a campaign yourself - if you do, please share!

Q. I like random elements in missions, like randomly spawning enemies and event triggers. Why don’t you incorporate those?
A. Because they require scripting, which requires coding abilities, which I don’t have. I have to work within the limits of what the full mission builder basic functionality allows sorry. But I have compensated this by building a world of such detail on the ground and in the air that I hope the missions remain interesting anyway. Each mission can be played from several points of view, and because of the large number of sorties and targets in each mission, they never play exactly the same way twice.

Q. I have found an error or fault in one of your missions, can you fix it?
A. If I can, I will! Just post details of the problem in a comment on www.bobgamehub.blogspot.com or leave me a message here on the SimHQ CoD forums, or Airwarfare forums. I can usually fix and upload a new version of a mission within a few days if there is an error.

Q. These were OK! Do you have any more?
A. Ah yes. You'll be wanting the BoB Game Hub Cliffs of Dover Mission Megapack! More than 60 missions in total. Only available from my blog:

www.bobgamehub.blogspot.com

Enjoy...

Bew-di-ful!

Downloaded

Thanks again Heinkill, gonna love it I'm sure.

In-game screenies

All key landmarks, targets and installations have been rebuilt and populated with appropriate objects. Ports, cities, and airfields on both sides of the Channel.

Calais with invasion barges. The calm before the storm.


British reserve encampments placed north of Killingwood Ridge, and at Denton, and dozens of other locations



Invasion beach-head at Folkestone




Folkestone teems with activity as German supplies are unloaded




Bridges on the lesser River Stour


An AT crew concealed in the grass, waits for the Leibstandarte SS to approach


A troop train ferries soldiers and equipment from Folkeston to the Dover front





Each mission features several player flyable sorties, each with its own individual mission targets and briefings


The invasion fleet sails, as an attacking Blenheim is brought down



While the air war is waged above, the land war rages below






And the sea war will be decisive: can the Royal Navy prevent Germany from resupplying its troops? Or can German troops hold on long enough to force negotiations?






Featured Luftwaffe units include LG2 Bf109E4s and Erpro 210 (E4Bs and Bf110C7s)



Featured RAF squadrons include 64 Squadron Spitfires, 212 Squadron Blenheims and 111 Squadron Hurricanes.




A little preview of the action...

Erpro 210 provides support to German troops trying to take Hawkinge




Lympne station under attack, and LG2 takes off from the newly captured Hawkinge field



Rushed into service a month early, cannon armed Beaufighters hunt by night



and by day


German troops dig in at Denton, their vehicles under camouflage netting



Tiger Moths are used for recon to try to locate them



Bomber Command Wellingtons are sent in



An air convoy of FW200s tries to air drop supplies to German troops



64 Squadron at Manston takes off under fire from Kampfgruppe Bauer

While heavily escorted Heinkels rain bombs from above






Tanks of the 8th Panzer approach Dover, with support from Erpro 210




111 Squadron patrols over the front lines at Kingston, while Blenheims tangle with LG2



A captured German Tiger Moth circles above Panzers digging in beside Canterbury Cathedral and railway station



Corpo Aero Italiano enters the fray


While in desperation at Elham, even obsolete Gladiators are thrown at the enemy






Until finally, after eight days of fighting and with the front lines just 60 miles from London, Churchill gives order to Bomber Command to carpet bomb Canterbury and 'to destroy utterly, the will of German troops there to resist' - and thereby seals the outcome of the invasion.







But in whose favour?

Top work

couple of points for anyone trying to make these into a campaign:-
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=30017
might be useful?

the missions/briefing files will need to be renamed to something without 'special characters' (umlauts) as they won't work in campaign mode- the campaign engine doesn't seem to be able to read these characters and throws errors

WOW! Fantastic job!

Will you make it available also at airwarfare.com in offline campaigns section?

(It is easier to have just one link in a sig. lol)

Yes I sure will. I find it worth posting both here, and on Airwarfare. Of the 3,000 downloads of my mission sets so far, about 2/3rds have come through SimHQ and about 1/3 through Airwarfare.

BTW I have already received a question: "How could Germany have possibly succeeded in the invasion of England, with the RAF contesting the skies, and the Royal Navy controlling the sea lanes?"

This is the eternal question, debated by many more erudite than myself. But in playing through these missions, I discovered how, and the answer is not solely military, it is human/political.

See the 'Germany wins' timeline in full here:

WARNING; Campaign PLOT SPOILERS!!!

Germany victory timeline
http://www.box.com/s/29366504e1c566be6b55

Hi Heinkill,

Found this post over on Pprune - thought it may be of interest

Thanks a lot HeinKill!

All I need now is some time to fly... If anyone finds some unused sparetime lying around, collecting dust, send it to me please

Thx V! Yes that was the source I used to create the basic storyline for the series. As you can see though it is rather vague between the 24th and 28th so I had to get the Cox book to fill in the blanks.

I then had to make a choice. In the Sandhurst exercise the 9th Army landed at Rye and the 16th at Folkestone. The 9th didn't hit any of its objectives, but to include Rye in the battlefield would have greatly increased the area of the front and made it harder to both model, and script. I wanted a narrow front to condense the action so the player would not find it hard to get into the action. It also made it easier to model the ground war. So there I deviated from the Sandhurst script a little and kept all the focus on the 16th Army landings, and a battlefield stretching just from Folkestone to Ramsgate along the coast, and north to Canterbury inland.

The other area I deviated was to consider both the military environment, and the political. Sandhurst unrealistically just ran a military wargame with no consideration for the socio-political impact that a German landing would have, especially given that within the War Cabinet of the time you had a couple of British bulldogs (Churchill, Atlee), but on the other hand you had two members with less convincing track records, in Chamberlain and Halifax. Chamberlain was the appeaser who had acquiesced to German takeovers in Austria and the Sudetenland, while Halifax had proposed negotiation with Axis powers during the Battle of France, to let them have France if they left British interests alone.

There was also the wildcard of the former King Edward, arguably also sympathetic to Germany, but I'll say no more on that as it is the subject of a 'special' mission in the mission pack

So I asked myself as I was moving toward the last days of the Sandhurst timeline:

- what political impact would the landings have had? would the war cabinet have stayed united, or divided?
- what social impact would it have had with refugees fleeing Kent and streaming into London? And what pressure would this have added to the political environment?
- the British public had enormous confidence in Churchill following the Battle of Britain, but could a serious military miscalculation by him, resulting the deaths of tens of thousands of British civilians shake that confidence?
- what would happen if a sizable German force had penetrated as far inland within the first week, as Allied forces did at Normandy? This would put them within 30-60 miles of London. Even if they ran out of supplies and dug in, it could take weeks to dislodge them. The panic in London could have been politically explosive.

Anyway I added these thoughts to the scenario building and came up with alternate endings to the campaign, one which more or less follows the Sandhurst outcome, and one which...doesn't.

H

I would respecftully submit that British would not have suffered any serious political consequences from an invasion unless/until things started going really bad (i.e. Germans no kidding marching through London). As long as the landing was more or less contained in SE England, I think it would have acted as a catalyst for greater British effort, not less.

I agree it would probably have to have been as drastic as that - though if Canterbury fell, just 60 miles from London...

I was put in mind of the Japanese attacks on Darwin in Australia, before the battles of Midway and Coral Sea put paid to fears of an invasion. We Australians like to think of ourselves as do or die types, but after the second bombing of Darwin...

"RAAF wing commander Sturt Griffith summoned his senior administrative officer, Squadron Leader Swan, and gave a verbal order that all airmen were to move half a mile down the main road and then half a mile inland. At this vague rendezvous point ... arrangements would be made to feed them. The order led to utter chaos. In being passed by word of mouth from one section to another, sometimes with officers present and sometimes not, it became garbled to the extent it was unrecognisable against the original. In its ultimate form it was interpreted, especially by those desiring such an interpretation, of an impending order for immediate and general evacuation of the area. Highly exaggerated rumours of an impending Japanese invasion had already reached the base from the town and spread quickly among those wanting to believe them. In the absence of restraint, men gathered their belongings" and abandoned their stations."

More than half the city of Darwin fled south.

I do still wonder whether Brits might have been similarly panicked by the news of Panzers in Canterbury...

I've managed some time to enjoy Spitfire flights in Missions 18 and 19 since the full set was released..fantastic work again HeinKill!

Nice to see lots of positive comments across the other forums for your work as well mate, well done.

Thanks...

And a preview of my next project, currently in research...

RHUBARBS and CIRCUSES

The codename Circus was given to operations of British Royal Air Force (RAF) during 1941 where bombers, heavily escorted by fighters, were sent over continental Europe to bring enemy fighters into combat. These were usually formations of 20 to 30 bombers escorted by several squadrons of escort fighters in the belief that formations of this size could not be ignored by the German Luftwaffe.

There were other codenames for similar missions.

Ramrod - Similar to Circus, but with intention of destroying a target.
Ranger - Large-formation intrusion over enemy territory with aim of wearing down enemy fighter force.
Roadstead - Low-level attack on coastal shipping.
Rhubarb - Small-scale freelance fighter sorties against ground targets of opportunity

Intended originally to keep pressure on Germany after the Battle of Britain, and later to draw important resources away from the Eastern front, the operations were incredibly costly to the RAF, which lost fighters and bombers at a rate of 2-4 for every German aircraft destroyed.

I'm going to put together a set of historically accurate missions based on records of actual Circus, Ramrod, Rhubarb and Roadstead missions. It will feature the squadrons of RAF 11 Group, including Baders famous 'Tangmere Wing' which bore the brunt of the RAF attack, and JG26 and JG2 which were the primary Luftwaffe units engaged.

The missions will all take place off the coast of, or over the CoD France map, so I'll be populating a lot of French airfields, targets and landmarks for this one.

Below are a couple of examples of typical 'Circus' operations, from both sides:

RAF - Mission: Circus 81

Date: 19th August 1941

Unit: No. 403 Squadron R.C.A.F.

Type: Supermarine Spitfire IIb(The Bristol Air Raid Warden - name of aircraft)

Serial. R7260

Code: R

Location: In sea off Dover, England

Pilot: Pilot Officer N. R. D. Dick Picked up safe.

REASON FOR LOSS:

Extract from form F. Pilots personal Combat Report.

I was yellow 4, 403 (Canadian) Squadron, on Circus 81. When at 26,000 ft. North of St. Omer I sighted 15/20 e/a (enemy aircraft) heading N/W below at 15,000 ft. and Squadron Commander ordered us to attack. Whilst diving I saw an Me.109F attacking Yellow 3 from behind and fired a 2-second burst at 400 yards range, but missed and e/a took evasive action by half rolling to port. I was flying then at 24,000 ft. in a northern direction and made a sharp right hand climbing turn and pulled up. I then saw 3 Me. 109Fís in line abreast above flying east at 26,000 ft. I fired a 7-second burst from 250 yards range at centre one and black thick smoke poured from its belly.

I saw tracers strike cockpit and fuselage, a further 2-second burst was then given at 75 yards range and e/a blew up and spun down vertically in flames.

The other two e/a then dived away towards the south. I was then alone and could see none of our aircraft and was about to turn for home when I sighted 6 Me. 109's in sun 2,000 ft. above me at 24,000 ft. flying N/W in loose formation. I made for cloud cover and when making coast near Gravelines I saw a Spitfire at 1,000 ft. above me at approx: 18,000 ft. being attacked from rear quarter starboard side by one Me.109F.

I pulled my nose up and fired a 4-second burst into his belly at 150 yds. range. Shortly after, black smoke and flames came from his belly and he was last seen diving to starboard with flames coming from his belly. I then saw another e/a below at 15,000 ft. and used up the rest of my ammunition with a 2-second burst at 350 yards range, but did not see result, although I think I hit his tail.

During this time I was attacked on port and starboard side by 2 e/a. My starboard wing tip was struck by 3-cannon shell and broke off. The port wing was also hit by cannon. On making a left hand turn I found a cannon shell had struck base of control column, rendering my right aileron useless and being unable to straighten out I used heavy right rudder to pull her up

PO N.R.D. Dick No.403 Sqdn

Pilot Officer Dick in the cockpit of his Spitfire

When at, 6,000 ft, I see-sawed for cloud cover and was again attacked from astern the radiator panel was hit and also my reflector sight and the cockpit filled with white smoke. I yanked emergency cockpit cover, which blew off. On my port side I saw another Me.l09F l,000 yards away about to attack. I went down in a slow left hand dive and lost 3,000 ft. As I recovered from dive, I saw e/a turn for France. I levelled out and found engine failing, so I used hand pump and injected fuel to keep going. When 2,500 ft. over Channel I found myself losing control and on sighting Cliffs of Dover I realized I could not make land, and jettisoned my helmet.

From 2500 - 2000 ft. I called Mayday on button D and at 1800 ft, baled out clear from port side of a/c [aircraft]. My parachute opened easily.

Whilst floating down I inflated my Mae West. on the way down I lost one flying boot and my revolver. As my feet touched the water, I tried to release parachute, but I missed hitting the release.I was dragged 3/4 feet below the surface and then managed to release myself.

I pulled the Dinghy towards me and partially inflated it by giving it one full turn, then being exhausted I hung on to dinghy and when on top of a high wave I saw 6/7 Spitfires orbitting above me and also Rescue Boat approaching, which reached me about 10 minutes later.

(Sgd) N.R.D. Dick P/O
"B" Flight,
403 Can. Sqn.
From: "Fighter Command Losses" - Norman Franks.

LUFTWAFFE

During July 1941, the RAF reported that they lost 75 bombers and 120 fighters in daylight missions over the "Channel". According to German reports, JG 2 and JG 26 lost 77 fighters on the "Channel front" during the period 22 June - 31 October 1941.

July 2nd, 1941. This day JG 26 "Schlageter" spotted probably Polish fighters from 308th "City of Krakow" Squadron under command of Cpt. Marian Pisarek (details from Polish side on Pisarek's page!). Polish pilots claimed 5 destroyed "Messers'", but Germans from JG 26 lost at least 2 Bf 109s. One of them, piloted by Oberleutnant Martin Rysavy (8 kills) of 2./JG 26, was reportedly shot down by "friendly Flak". Rysavy was killed. But probably 308th Squadron can add him to score board.

Adolf Galland , The JG26 Geschwaderkommodore, took off, despite wounds he had received when he was shot down on 21 June, and despite the fact that he had received orders that forbade him to take part in air combat since he was decorated with the Swords to the Knight´s Cross with Oak Leaves. He led the whole JG 26 in an attack against the formation of Blenheims and escort fighters - probably of 308th Squadron... Galland shot down one "Blenheim" (it was not confirmed, because he didn´t see the crash). As he was involved in a whirling dogfight with one "Spitfire", another "Spitfire" attacked his Bf 109 from behind.

The cockpit hub of Galland´s plane was hit by a 20 mm shell. But the armor plate which Galland´s mechanic Unteroffizier Meyer coincidentally had mounted on the Kommodore´s aircraft that same morning, saved Galland´s life. Adolf Galland managed to escape and landed at base, where he was hospitalized again - for the second time in twelve days. As a reward, he paid Uffz. Meyer 100 Mark.

"So viel war mein Kopf wert (so much was my head worth)...", Galland ironically commented later.

Preferences needed pls!

1000+ downloads as of today. Plan is to turn the single missions into a coherent campaign with a single squadron focus. Either Lehrgeschwader 2, Erpro 210, 64 sq RAF or 111 Sq RAF.

The downloads are running about 6:4 in favour of LW download, so does that mean people would prefer to see a LW campaign, and if so which?

LG2 would be mostly air to air combat while Erpro 210 would have a ground support focus.

H

Thx to 'Planespotter' at banana forums for spotting this.

In the RAF mission set the default aircraft should always be RAF (duh). However in missions 19-23 the LW aircraft is default. The player of course can choose to fly any of the RAF sorties through the CUSTOM feature, but he shouldn't have to. I intended it to always default to an RAF aircraft in the RAF pack and LW aircraft in the LW pack.

I have now fixed this, so if it annoys you, you can just download and rerun in the install file and it will overwrite so that the default aircraft are appropriate as intended.

LW pack does not appear to be effected, so you wouldn't need to reinstall the LW pack.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

H

Congrats! - That is very impressive.

It is mid 1941.

After the inconclusive battle that was Operation Sealion, Germany has turned its attentions to the East, initiating Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.

In the West, just 226 German fighters, primarily those of JG2 and JG26, are left to defend against the constant threat of RAF bomber and fighter attacks. The RAF Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, Sholto Douglas, initiates Operation Circus - large scale bomber raids deep into France and Holland, with the intent of drawing the Luftwaffe into combat and reducing their ability to defend against RAF bomber command's planned incursions into Germany.

The Circuses and Rhubarbs mission pack

Download and try mission 1 here: https://www.box.com/s/dfd6aff55cd440227bca

Mission 1 features

8 flyable sorties: Spitfire I, Spitfire II, Bf 109E3, Bf109E4, Blenheim.





14 painstakingly populated Luftwaffe airfields: Wissant, Peuplinge, Audembert, Marquise West, Caffiers, Hermelingen, Campagne Les Guines, Coquelles, Calais Marck, St Omer Wizernes, St Omer Arques, St Omer Claimarais and RAF Lympne




3 newly populated locations: Calais and Dunkerque Ports, Cassel

Ground targets include the above airfields, road traffic, port infrastructure. As usual, the mission can be fought from the point of view of every flyable unit, by using the CUSTOM button to choose your flight.

This preview mission is minutely based on historical records for Circus 44, in which RAF 452 and 64 Squadrons escorting Blenheims, were met by JG2 and JG26 over Cassel.

Gorgeous airfields! Do you mind if I borrow some of your details on the ground into maps I'm making? I especially love the tent-city in the bottom screenshot.

I dont think anyone can copyright object groups. 1c made the objects, all we are doing is putting them on a map... No permission needed.

In fact, sightseeing (either in FMB, or in a lazy 109) welcome. Each airfield has its own character. I plan to populate the whole France map in advance of the new patch. If it does deliver on the FPS promise, most players should be able to manage a few more objects on their maps...

H

Thanks HK,

While I know there's no legal copyright to your work, it's still better to ask than just start using! ~S! I had a peek inside the new mission, wow, that's a lot of work both sides of the Channel, very impressed!

Thx. I tend to measure the work put into a mission not by hours but by whether my wife complains I'm ignoring her...

This was a two complaint mission.

LOL!! It's why I only have time for map-making on weekends now!

Just played through twice, and got destroyed both times. Had to reduce the cloud settings, they were perfect height for maximum interference with intercepting those damn UFO IIa's. Seems even when I'm iced up, and gauges gone, the AI still knows where I'm at to shred me to bits. I have to remember to turn Outside Views on, and record a track, those buggers surely see through clouds just like the old game.

I think only 2 109s made it home first mission with original settings. I believe LW score was 1 Spit and 1 Blennie.

Tides of war my friend, tides of war! If it is any comfort here is the combat report from my last test flight on that mission. I learned the odds can easily go in both directions, which is obviously the balance you look for in making missions...



As you can see, the RAF UFOs got brought down by the M.I.B. in this one! (And my 109 was the only one we bagged.)

In cricketing parlance, the RAF took a pasting!

H

(And PS I deliberately put the clouds at the same height as the mission because that is what the actual mission report stated - 452 Sq got jumped and completely turned around in the clouds, and ended up all heading home on their own.