Gents,

It is 20th November 1917 and Major Meehan VC is now on 200 and something.

Downloaded the latest upgrade #10005 and the only difference noted thus far is that the balloons get winched down as you approach. That didn't save them yesterday though. Got one at almost ground level after the second pass. Singed moustache.

Folks,

Dux:

November?? Hmmmm. Darn homemade liquor.... I've lost 3 whole months this time.

Congratulations are in order. AGAIN! I smell another gong coming your way. Speaking of awards, once during WW2 when the Allies were moving ever closer to Germany and the fighting was at its hottest; the German High Command was handing out iron crosses by the fistfuls in order to inspire their soldiers to fight on. A large bag of these German gongs was accidentally dropped from a plane over our lines and picked up by American troops.

No lesser light than British Major David Niven (the Hollywood actor) was in the area at the time as head of a special commando force called "Phantom". Where he acquired it is not known but a noted war correspondent pal of Niven's awarded him one of those crosses for valor. I am not sure what he had done to deserve that particular honor or if he wore it along with his many other gongs. The Brit actor was well known for being one of the acting community's best raconteurs so it did provide Niven with another interesting story to tell after the war. He never spoke much of his actual wartime activities, always making light of them.

Two things were sure though; he was a graduate of Sandhurst and the first Brit star who left Hollywood and went home to fight for England. Unlike some Hollywood types who eventually signed up but never saw combat and soon took leave as "essential" to the war effort; Niven was the first to do his bit and stayed the course through the entire war. Many, including the great movie tycoon Sam Goldwyn thought that was heroic enough. By the end of hostilities David Niven had risen to the rank of Lt. Colonel.

OK, JRT why mention all that you may ask? It's a bit of movie trivia to be sure but worth remembering when we see one of Niven's films like "The Guns of Naverone" or "The Bishop's Wife" which has justifiably (IMHO) become a holiday classic and a film David was very proud of.

I mentioned resolution the other day. I had been using 1020 x 768 and noted that the poll on page one of our forum no longer even includes that archaic setting. Afraid I'll be struck off for having sub standard equipment....wait Dux, I see a gleam in your bloodshot eyes. So before you type one derogatory word; I meant my COMPUTER equipment is sub standard. I've been experimenting since then. At the moment I am viewing this screen with a monitor res of 1280 x 768 and it is not too small or postage stamp sized and stuck up in a corner. The highest this old steam powered monitor can manage is just 1280 x 1024 and I don't like the looks of that much.

Anyhow I searched the obscure corners of the Internet and found a little free program (called SMSwitch)that is easy to install and set up that allows me to more easily change the monitor res from the system tray and set up favorite res values and even test them in advance. It saves your default res so it is easy to get back to that after a new res fails to satisfy.

Occasionally your desktop can get into disarray so it is a good idea to have a program that will save icon positions and restore them to your previous orientation. There are several of these available free online. I use one called Iconoid.

We're having several days of rain this week which is a welcome break from the 90s F. We are nearing the peak of hurricane season. Last year you may recall a small cat 1 storm nearly blew us away and put the power off for several days. My wife was very sick back then and that was rough on her. Do not get me wrong; I do not wish storm damage or loss of treasure or life on the folks down there still suffering from Catrina. However let us hope that the changing Nina pattern will keep the monster storms in the Gulf where they can eventually drop their moisture inland over the Midwest where it looks like another dust bowl is brewing.

Our Canadian pal C51 writes that he and his wife are away from Toronto this week visiting Ottawa for a few days taking in an aviation museum and even taking a ride in a vintage Stearman. It must be nice is all I can say. Maybe he'll send me a pix and allow me to post it after his return? I wonder how long it will take to get the Cheshire cat-like grin off his ruddy face after all that? It makes me smile just thinking of all the fun he's having.

Gents,

JRT,

I am waiting for an unstocked PC monitor to arrive for pick-up although it may be necessary to order elsewhere. It is one of those which offer pre-set TV channels. You can pre-pay for things and find that they have been superceded by a new model with new style, new spec and new price - probably a much higher one than you wanted to pay initially. I don't get caught with that one any more.

Just heard this gem on a wildlife programme...

"There are 1,5000,000 species living in the oceans of the world and most of them have not been discovered yet."

Folks,
Dux:

No doubt everything will look 100% better on that new monitor. I'll send you a recent photo of me to see if that is true. HINT: If I resemble George Clooney you got a real good deal mate.

The rain has stopped temporarily. I've been out running errands in the SAAB with the top down. Instead of a cool drive it was beastly hot and humid when the sun came out. The cumulus clouds scudding about on the horizon reminded me of some seen in BoB.

That's a lot of species old man. I wonder who counted them? Perhaps it was James Cameron when he was down in the Trench? There are those who swear there are real mermen down there. According to a program on TV (and you know that, just as you can the Internet, you can trust anything on TV) they are being terrorized and killed by US naval sonar. It was an interesting program that purported to show video and other proof of the existence of these shy, gilled, fish-tailed, man-like creatures. They are supposed to swim with the great whales in the deep oceans.

We're getting ready to set up a wireless network in the house. The router should arrive along with at least one highly trained and eager technician to set it up this Friday. The ISP insisted on this but, honestly, how hard can it be to set up a wireless network with just 2 computers and two tablets?

JRT,

If you come over as George Clooney you will be getting fan mail from Derbyshire.

And I will be getting sympathy.

Don't know if you chaps are privvy to the gen that comes out of the 777 department of Wing HQ but 1.027 but just came back from Wing and rumour has it that the beastly Bosche have devised some fiendish plot whereby their jolly sausages will now get winched down the moment our lads approach them. The PBI must have captured one of these winches in a recent advance too as I heard a Major in the Balloon Corps saynig that ours all have this new equipment too.

Of course no balloon wallah can be trusted to shoot a straight line in a month of Sundays but I'll be heading East for a look myself as soon as the weather clears. (Forecast, 156 Mb with a chance of update until morning tea time)

I'm off have the fitters rig up some tin long-johns before I head out.

Gents,

JB,

I can fully confirm (as above) that the hasty retrieval of their precious balloons has been the subject of a special priority order from the Kaiser's High Command. The shortage of hydrogen has become so acute that the French letters patent for the Montgolfier hot-air contraption have been purloined by Imperial German agents and any time now our gallant chaps at the Front can expect droves of gaily painted spheres to ascend over the Beaumont Hamel sector.

Do not be misled by any such display of seemingly non-belligerent aerial finery. Just shoot the buggers down.

Folks,

Dux:

Somewhat indisputable proof that viewing my photo at a lower than optimal res. does not do me justice is now or soon will be spinning in your ivy covered mailbox.

LOL. Montgolfier you say? A veritable lighter than air flying circus. There is quite a lot of hot air on the enemy side for sure. The spiky hat crowd is a resourceful bunch so I'm not surprised they have found a way to put it to use. As for that explosive hydrogen; we have a reasonable non flammable replacement in great supply here. We call it Helium (because that is its name) and I'd bet my entire rusty bottle cap collection that the Kaiser would love to buy some. Come to think on it his voice sounds a bit like he's had some already. When this bloody war is over and we are buddies once more (as it is after all wars; making one wonder why bother in the first place.) maybe we should sell them some Helium for their airships before some terrible accident occurs and people get hurt....

Hauling down those sausages when dangerous specks appear in the sky is a good idea even if the observer reaches the ground long minutes before the gasbag does; and even sooner than that if his chute doesn't open. You will recall that previously we discussed that the reason so many pilots found, to their great discomfort, that Archie could be deadly accurate when defending balloons was due to the fact that because balloons were tethered to the ground and the length of the cable was known, the sleeping Boche or relaxing Allied gunners already had an attacker zeroed in before he ate his breakfast.

Folks,

I just noticed there is a BoB mission editor listed for download. Any chance it will work with my old WOV version 2.09? A BoB mission editor had been on many wish lists for years. Last time I remember anything about it I believe it was beta and unstable on some systems.

Dux:

I find that a res of 1152x864 works rather well with IL2-1946. Curiously 1280 x 768 is not offered as an option in BoB. 1280 x 960 is but I do not like that setting. Besides, anything above 1152 x 864 just gets changed by BoB to 800x600 before the game goes into 3D and SHUDDER that looks awful. Yes the desktop is set to whatever I am attempting and "Use Desktop res" is ON. This old system just cannot cope I guess.

Folks,

Ahhh. I remember now the mission editor was iffy and buggy as I recall and you used it at your own risk. Maybe one day...

I don't have any screenies of BoB but I do have a couple from IL2-1946 setup for a BoB mission. It is as close as I can come to it using a Spit 5. We intercepted a small flight of He111s and their escort of 109s as they crossed the coast. The other lads took on the 109s while my wingman and I boldly went after the bombers. One bomber went down after a good squirt. We caught another silhouetted against cloud and dived upon it. It lost a wing and went straight in. The rest continued on toward the target which was our airfield.

Here are two screen shots of the fate of the third bomber. I caught up to it and got it smoking then I lost it in cloud. It dropped out of cloud and quickly lost speed and altitude. I followed along as the pilot tried to shake me and allow his gunner to convince me to go home. He tried to do that when I got too close. Before I knew it the rear gunner peppered me with bullets. I climbed and came down on the hapless fellow ending his fire and causing both engines to begin belching blacker smoke. The bomber headed for the grass but I managed to catch him again with a hail of .303s sending him to his doom.