It's the late morning of 5th February 1916 and my 'B' Flight is carrying out the order that's come down from Wing for No.2 Squadron to bomb enemy frontline positions north of Lens.
We're putting up five BEs, each with four little Cooper bombs. 'A' Flight is putting up a solitary Bristol Scout to provide distant cover.
One thing I especially like about WoFF is how the sense of 'being there' is enhanced by the subtle fogging with distance, which really brings out beautifully the gentle undulations in the landscape.
See what I mean?
I've modified my flight plan so that as usual, we'll be gaining height over Bethune. The first step is up to around five thousand.
Time to level off for a bit as the others still haven't quite caught up.
Here they come - two on my left rear...
...and two on the right, all bucking and swaying realistically.
So up we go again, now just north of Bethune.
Down below, the little town looks as peaceful as ever, seemingly untroubled by the war being fought on its doorstep.
By about four thousand, we're level with the clouds, which are back in force after several clear days.
They'll cover our approach, and we can always descend below them if they're over the target when we arrive. Climbing again, I settle onto the leg that will take us over the Lines, before turning slightly right for the bomb run. Won't be long, now!
The others are straggling a bit as I make the gentle right turn that will take us over the target - enemy positions just behind the Hun front lines.
I settle onto what I hope is the direction of the target, hoping the clouds won't block our view...
...and throttling back so the others can close up. Fortunately, so far there's neither Fokkers nor Archie to bother us.
Suddenly, just when I'm over a clear target area and about to bomb, our formation breaks up, with BEs sliding off in different directions. Are we under attack? It seems not, but I hear the whistle of bombs as one of the boys lets fly. Spooked, I do the same, though I'm almost certain that my bombs will overshoot.
I don't see any explosions on the ground and orbit, while trying to recall the others. At this point, Archie joins the party. Bit of a shambles, this show's become.
Two other BEs soon rejoin and I lead them back towards our side of the Lines.
We slowly pull clear of the Acrhie. But then I notice a fresh outbreak astern. This will be my two stragglers, I'm thinking, so I start to orbit again, so they can catch us up.
At this stage, I've no great hopes for a successful mission - I'll settle for bringing all my boys safely back home!
...but the latter seems to lose track of waypoints and wants me to turn back before reaching the target. So I rely on the map for navigation.
33Lima one thing, when you say you are having trouble with the TAC waypoints.
That means you did not nail the waypoint correctly, so it's still there. It is still telling you to go there. So if you have gone past a waypoint or ignored it intentionally etc, do advance to next waypoint (Shift+W usually) the TAC will be correct and will then show you the next waypoint.
Thanks for the tip Pov; tho I'm fairly sure that - while it's not apparent in the sequence suggested by the screenshots - when I reached (or passed) the WP before the one for the target, the route marker line suddenly switched, not to the target waypoint or the 'initial point' that I had reached or passed, but back to the waypoint on the way home, about ten miles to the west. It was at this time that the formation broke up for some reason, possibly the AI assuming I had relinquished leadership, tho the basis for such an assumption was unclear to me.
If this happens again, I'll pay more attention and if the source of the error isn't between the keyboard and the seat, take screenshots at the time it happens.
Eventually, and much to my relief, all four BEs are soon back in formation with me...
...and I lead us all back to Hesdigneul.
The journey home is uneventful, though my observer, stout chap that he is, isn't taking any chances with being caught napping, even well over our side of the Lines. Which is how I'd want it to be.
There we are - home and dry.
I overfly our aerodrome and give the signal to land. The formation breaks up as the others comply.
I fly a half-circuit and come in to a safe landing, ahead of the rest of the flight.
The debriefing indicates that all four BEs dropped their bombs, though only two - not including my crew - are claiming hits. It could have been worse!
Campaigns in two seaters - the 'working aeroplanes' whose work was actually the raison d'etre of whole the air effort - were rather lackluster in WW1 sims - until now. Recon Wars is a whole new ball game and entirely deserves to be labelled as an expansion. I'm hooked!
Thanks for the tip Pov; tho I'm fairly sure that - while it's not apparent in the sequence suggested by the screenshots - when I reached (or passed) the WP before the one for the target, the route marker line suddenly switched, not to the target waypoint or the 'initial point' that I had reached or passed, but back to the waypoint on the way home, about ten miles to the west. It was at this time that the formation broke up for some reason, possibly the AI assuming I had relinquished leadership, tho the basis for such an assumption was unclear to me.
If this happens again, I'll pay more attention and if the source of the error isn't between the keyboard and the seat, take screenshots at the time it happens.
Yes that can be it if you are leading and make a steep turn or appear to veer too far or too quickly - they think you are broken off and a new leader forms. Also sometimes you can accidentally issue a split command.
Lieutenant Harry Bellingham 5 RFC flying out of Abeele Aug 1915.
Photo recon of enemy troops, no enemy encountered and a unsuccessful mission (3 blurred 1 overexposed, and 1 wrong location ) and...im having an absolute blast flying recons etc. Bloody fantastic job lads.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Glad you are enjoying Adger, Your 3rd photo was in the right place at least, just unlucky it was blurred.
Some lovely crisp images here from you all.
Cheers Pol, what you and Winder have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable, every update gets better and better..my map reading and recon needs too improve somewhat, I need binoculars instead of glasses
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Lieutenant Harry Bellingham 5 RFC flying out of Abeele Aug 1915.
Another recon mission this time with Sargeant Peter Cutting and his Obs to photograph Troop movements...
There's a bit of cloud up i hope it won't hamper our mission
Archie opens up on us and i struggle to maintain my height and keep my wings level. But manage to get my camera working..
Both make it home unscathed and fingers crossed that the photographs taken will be of some use.
Mission a success, 2 of the photos were good enough..time for a good stiff drink in the mess
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
That's the ticket well done. Now we just need a few more 1000 photos.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Quick link to an actual pilot's experiences in a Corps squadron in 1918, log and diary plus lots of extra information on how it was done back then https://gregswar.com/
Quick link to an actual pilot's experiences in a Corps squadron in 1918, log and diary plus lots of extra information on how it was done back then https://gregswar.com/
B.
Thanks for the link, B! I will use this to update my Historical Weather mod for 1918!
Going through the log and diary, it's interesting to see how often the word "dud" appears. The word is used to describe not only the weather, but also an engine that is misbehaving or a mission that fails or does not go as planned. Another thing I noticed is that contrary to the idea that aircraft such as the Be2 never went up in bad weather, is how often pilots attempted to go up, at least in rain and clouds (never in high winds, however). Frequently, he mentions missions that were taken in "dud" weather. Often times, these are short missions that only last for 10 minutes or so, before he gives up and returns to base. Some, however, are completed even though the weather is not very good. In other cases, his log or diary simply states, "Dud. Did not fly."
In short, sometimes he flew in marginal weather, at other times he did not.
Nice find!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
Good stuff, that ties in with using Bad weather effects Operations to ON (which is default), and Bad Weather Cancels Missions turn to OFF (default) or change to Optional (then you can choose to try to fly or not as he did.
A word of caution, though, if you are using my OCM and decide to turn "Bad Weather Cancels Missions" to Off or to Optional and you try to fly the mission anyway: the weather is likely to be really nasty!
If you aren't using the OCM, the weather will probably be somewhat more tolerable, but no guarantees!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”