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    CA-WW1 - No Parachute
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Bringing Arthur Gould Lee's classic WW1 book to life with Wings Over Flanders Fields!   The man and the book 'Thursday, January 3rd. Ferrie has been killed. He led his patrol out this afternoon, had a scrap, came back leading the others, then as they were flying along quite normally in formation, his right wing suddenly folded back, then the other, and the wreck plunged vertically down. A bullet must have gone through the main spar during the fight.    The others went after him and steered close to him in vertical dives. They could see him, struggling to get clear of his harness, then half standing up. They said it was horrible to watch him trying to decide whether to jump. He didn't, and the machine and he were smashed to nothingness.    I can't believe it. Little Ferrie, with his cheerful grin, one of the finest chaps in the squadron. God, imagine his last moments, seeing the ground rushing up at him, knowing he was a dead man, unable to move, unable to do anything but wait for it. A parachute could have saved him...'   So wrote Arthur Gould Lee in 'No Parachute'. Lee learns to fly in the late summer of 1916 in the Maurice Farman 'Shorthorn', having been commissioned into the Sherwood Forresters. He misses being shipped to Gallipoli due to a motorcycle accident, then has his (third!) application to transfer to the Royal Flying Corps accepted. He then flies the Avro 504 and BE2 with 66 Squadron, still in England. Lacking proper instruction, he crashes an Avro after an engine failure. His injuries delay his posting to an operational squadron in France until May 1917, enabling him to gain more flying hours, including eighteen on the Sopwith Pup he will fly for most of his spell at the front.   His posting is to No.46 Squadron at la Gorgue, which has just transitioned to the Pup from the obsolescent two-seater Nieuport 12. He flies through the summer and into the autumn, fighting many battles against the formidable Albatros V-strutters, with which the Pup can compete only at higher altitudes, outgunned with what Lee describes as 'our pop-pop-pop gun' against the German's twin Spandaus, which by contrast he describes as making a sound like calico being ripped.   During November, the squadron is finally re-equipped with the Sopwith Camel. Although the pilots are looking forward to flying their offensive patrols with an aircraft that will enable them to meet the Albatros on more equal terms, they are instead diverted to 'ground strafing' duties for the Battle of Cambrai, making very dangerous low level gun and bomb attacks on German troops and positions in and near the front lines. Lee is shot down three times in nine days. In January 1918, with the rank of captain and the appointment of flight commander, he's posted home for a well-earned rest. After a period as an instructor, he joins a squadron equipping with the sopwith Salamander - a ground-attack version of the Snipe - but the war ends before he is deployed to France. Looking at his logbook at the conclusion of his combat service, he finds he's done 386 hours solo, 260 of them in France, including 222 over the Lines; he's made 118 patrols and ground-attack flights, had 56 air combats, and claims 5 victories and another 6 shared.   Lee's book 'No Parachute' was published in 1968, but was written at the time, comprising extracts from the many he wrote to his wife, supplemented by some diary extracts. It's a veritable treasure-trove of accounts of air fights, ground attacks and squadron life (including the lyrics of many classic RFC songs) with many snippets of information about aircraft performance and markings of the sort that enthusiasts in particular love to see. Lee rose to senior rank in the RAF after the war and profited from his experience to add to the book appendices criticising the dominance of the Royal Aircraft Factory in aircraft supply, the RFC's persistence with deep patrols and standing patrols, and of course the failure to peffect and supply parachutes to aircrew. It's certainly my favourite WW1 aviation memoir. Lee followed it up with an equally good sequel, 'Open Cockpit', which covers his whole wartime career. Both are highly recommended.   The mission This was originally planned to be a mission flying the Sopwith Pup in mid-1917. But that year was getting a bit crowded and to better illustrate the development of fighing aircraft, I decided instead to fly the Camel later in the year, and to finish this series of reports as planned with Rudolph Stark's 'Wings of War', but flying the famous Fokker D VII rather than the Pfalz D III. I enlisted in 'Forty Six' as Lt Richard Lee, starting in late november 1917, by which time WOFF has us entirely equipped with Camels.       Here's the briefing for the first mission. We've been summoned to the front to deal with some reported aerial intruders. I'm leading 'B' flight with four Camels, whose pilots included Arthur Gould Lee himself. The second flight ('A' Flight, shown in the panel on the right below) includes Ferrie, the pilot whose sad and dramatic death is described in the excerpt from the book quouted at the start of this mission report.     Air defence systems being rudemintary in WW1, I knew there was every prospect that the Huns reported over the front might well be gone by the time we got there, and so it was to prove. We started optimistically enough, roaring off the grass from our aerodrome at Filescamp Farm. I had chosen the skin for Victor Yeates, author of the famous 'Winged Victory', although I'm not sure he served with 'Forty Six' at this point in the war     I turned for the target area, disregarding the planned dog-leg route so as to arrive faster; if this throws off 'A' flight, well, there were only two of them and that was a chance I was prepared to take. My own flight soon caught me up. I opened the throttle and began climbing hard to the south-east.         I didn't trust the briefed mission height of under 4,000 feet and climbed to nearer nine thousand, reluctant to be jumped from above by marauding V-strutters and thinking that if the enemy were indeed low down, I would be able to pick them up from the whitish British anti-aircraft bursts they were more than likely to attract. So much for that plan! When I arrived over the trenches, dodging warily around the large clouds hanging in the sky, there was a lot of shelling going on down on the ground, but not a soul to be seen in the air, apart from our good selves.     Up and down the front we flew, getting intermittently Archied for our troubles. But of the Hun fliers, we saw not a sign, high or low. It began to look like we would have to make our own entertainment.     ...to be continued!

    CA-WW1 - Winged Warfare
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Recreating the career of Canada's most famous ace in Wings Over Flanders Fields!    The man and the book  'I dived at him from the side, firing as I came...I pulled my machine out of its dive just in time to pass about 5 feet over the enemy. I could see the observer evidently had been hit and had stopped firing. Otherwise the Hun machine seemed perfectly all right. But just after I passed I looked back over my shoulder and saw it burst into flames. A second later it fell a burning mass, leaving a long trail of smoke behind as it disappeared through the clouds. I thought for a moment of the fate of the wounded observer and the hooded pilot into whose faces I had just been looking - but it was fair hunting, and I flew away with great contentment in my heart.'   So wrote William Avery Bishop in his book 'Winged Warfare', written while on duty with the British military mission to Washingron DC after home leave in Canada in late 1917. He was describing the first machine he shot down in flames, on 20 April 1917.   Billy Bishop arrived in France in 1915 as an officer in a Canadian mounted unit but, frustrated with '...the particular brand of mud that infests a cavalry camp', he applied for the Royal Flying Corps and was trained as an observer. He spent four months 'on ops' in France in that role, from early 1916 with No. 21 Squadron, operating the RE7, a multi-purpose biplane whose speciality seems to have been daylight bombing. Recovering from a knee injury in a crash-landing, he was able to learn to fly and after a short period flying the BE2c on Home Defence duties, he returned to France in March 1917, posted to No. 60 Squadron flying Nieuport Scouts in the fighter role.     The squadron converted to the much-superior SE5 over the summer and Bishop flew on until the autumn, mixing conventional patrols with 'lone wolf' missions and steadily increasing his score. After his leave and service in the USA, he returned briefly to the front as CO of No.85 Squadron and before being posted home again, raised his total of victory claims to 72, including five on his last patrol, another solo effort.  Nowadays, Bishop's record is a source of controversy, due mainly to the to high number of claims that were accepted without witness confirmation. In particular, in June 1917, still flying the Nieuport, Bishop staged a solo dawn raid on a German fighter airfield, claiming to have shot down three aircraft attempting to take off. Controversially, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for this attack, despite the fact that the VC was generally never awarded unless the act of valour was confirmed by witnesses. The belief in many quarters - including some of his comrades and contemporaries - seems to be that Bishop's squadron commander actively promoted his protégé who also had some influential friends in English high society; and as his fame mounted, his value as a national hero fed a tendency to unquestioning acceptance on the one hand and exaggeration on the other. However, whatever the truth, Bishop was undoubtedly a very brave man, having more than once pushed to get to the front when he could have lived out a safer existence on other, less dangerous duties.   As for 'Winged Warfare' , it covers the whole of his combat career and is full of many accounts of the operations and air fights in which Bishop and his comrades participated. It's very much a product of its wartime origins, often extolling the courage and virtues of his own side while disdaining the enemy for trickery or implied cowardice. His openly-expressed preference for shooting down enemies in flames - because the sight made the victory certain - is also rather distasteful, particularly to modern readers. However, he does credit the Germans with ability and courage when he recognises it - for example, when a single enemy two-seater skillfully repells an attack by an entire flight of Nieuports. And as a forceful and vivid account of the career of one of the most famous of World War One's aces, 'Winged Warfare' deserves a place on any enthusiasts bookshelf. I would strongly recommend reading it in conjunction with Alex Revell's history 'No. 60 Sqn RFC/RAF', published by Osprey, which adds much valuable and interesting detail, in covering the fascinating story of one of the most successful British fighter squadrons, including the period when Bishop served with the unit. Bishop's memoir itself is available online here.   The air war in spring 1917 Bishop arrived at the front just before the Battle of Arras and 'Bloody April', when the damage wrought upon the RFC by the German Jastas and their sleek Albatros scouts reached its peak. The arrival of better aircraft in subsequent months - not least the SE5 that replaced 60's Nieuports, but also the Camel and the RE8 - meant that better times lay ahead for the British. The leader of the RFC in France, General Hugh 'Boom' Trenchard, knew perfectly well that the inability of the British to supply aircraft which would close the gap with the German Albatrosses meant that a high price would be paid, but his job was to support the Army whose lot was no better, and he did not shrink from asking his aircrew to risk all in support of the troops for the offensive at Arras. For the Germans, this was the hey-day of pilots like the von Richthofen brothers, Wolf, Voss and Schaefer, who racked up many kills, cutting a swathe through the under-powered and poorly-armed BE's and the obsolete 'pusher' fighters like the DH2 and FE8. In the Nieuport Scout, 60 Squadron were flying one of the few planes that, though under-armed, could even hope to compete with the best of the German fighters. Even so, the squadron suffered heavily during 'Bloody April', according to Alex Revell losing eighteen pilots during the month- a loss rate of 100%!   The mission For this 'Winged Warfare' themed mission, I could have chosen the summer of 1917 or spring 1918, flying the SE5/SE5a. But I've always particularly enjoyed flying the Nieuport scouts in First Eagles, coping well with the Huns (except when outnumbered!) and I was keen to fly the sleek little French machine in WOFF; not least as most of the book features Bishop's experiences flying this type. So 'Bloody April' it was!   Naturally, 60 Squadron is included in the WOFF order of battle for this period. Here's the squadron's 'enlistment screen' for April 1917, which shows us correctly based at Filescamp farm. Note that the  squadron roster includes historical aces from the time, although at 1 April, Billy Bishop had yet to score, and neither he, nor 'Grid' Caldwell nor 'Moley' Molesworth had yet made Major (the rank generally held by the squadron leader, alone).     Although I neglected to save a screenie of the mission briefing, it was a patrol up to the Lines, to the north-east. I'm leading one flight - just the two of us! - but the rest of the squadron is along for the ride, flying 'top cover'. I wondered if me and 'Jock' Scott are providing the bait on this mission! Here's the loadout screen for my little two-plane flight; this provides the facility to select flight formation, though that's hardly worthwhile on this trip, as there's just the two of us!     And here we are, lined up on the grass at Filescamp. If I recall right, the aircraft next to me is the machine of 'Moley' Molesworth, no less, who's leading the second flight.     I let most of the others take off first, intending to formate on the other flight rather than go hareing off on my own with my own solitary flight-mate. Once airborne, I throttled back to allow Scott to catch up. Soon he was tucked in, to my right rear. The weather was fair, with quite a lot of low cloud but bright and dry. A good day for an air fight!     I orbited above and behind the other flight, then followed them as they climbed up along our route to the north-east and the Lines near the town of Lens. About half-way there, they veered off to the left. As far as I was concerned, this wasn't in the plan. If they had been distracted by some enemies, I didn't see them and there was no sign of friendly AA fire. Perhaps they had decided to orbit to gain height, before getting any closer to the Lines. Impatient with trying to guess the un-guessable, I decided, sod it, I'll carry on and trust them to find their way to the patrol zone later. So on we went, up towards 9,000 feet, leaving most of the scattered cloud below us.     Soon, we were over the shelled area, which was getting a fairly regular pasting from artillery fire, although the start of our offensive was still several days away. It wasn't long before the anti-aircraft gunners were also in action; the first black bursts of Archie appeared around us, exploding with a 'crump' that I could hear above the buzzing of my le Rhone rotary engine.     On the ground ahead of us lay a large town, which I took to be Lens. Much of the place was a wasteland, devastated by shellfire, with only its eastern margins looking to be relatively intact.     At this point, happening to look around, back towards my flight-mate, I saw a rather strange thing. One moment Scott was in formation to my right rear, then he swung suddenly off to the left. For a second I watched him, thinking perhaps that he had decided to go off hunting on his own, and looking in his direction of travel, to see where the Hun might be.     Seeing none, the penny dropped and I broke hard right, after Scott. The Hun was obviously behind us. One look confirmed I was right.     ...to be continued!

    Desert Storm - Mission 08 - Mirages
    beachav8r
    By beachav8r,


    Our next series of missions takes a look at one of the lesser appreciated airframes of the Gulf War – the Dassault Mirage F1. The French Air Force sent F1C and F1CR to participate in Operation Daguet while the Kuwaiti Air Force flew their F1CK from bases in Saudi Arabia. Since Iraq also fielded Mirage F1s, the Coalition F1s were held in reserve until complete air superiority was achieved to prevent misidentification and possible blue on blue incidents.

    * A reminder that these missions are just general representations and are not historically accurate with respects to bases, missions, and loadouts. *

    The French F1CR was well suited to its reconnaissance role and I believe later in the war they also performed direct bombing attacks. They were also apparently paired up and utilized as pathfinders for the Buccaneers since they had better avionics and navigation capabilities. For our mission today, we will perform a recon flight to assess the strength and disposition of an Iraqi fortified area on the border of Kuwait and Iraq…



    Heading off with wing tanks and the center mounted reconnaissance pod…





    Dropping to low level over the Gulf on approach to the Kuwaiti coastline…



    Elsewhere the Kuwaiti Tornados are gearing up for a mission…



    That’s not a MiG-29 shooting a missile, that’s a MiG-29 that just dodged a Sidewinder!



    A-7 Corsairs getting shot off the carrier will add to the mix…



    Soon we are abeam Kuwait getting ready to turn westbound toward the target area…





    As we make the turn, we turn our ECM pods on…



    We have a massive screen of Coalition aircraft to our north acting as barrier to any enemy fighters that might be working their way south…



    We stray a bit north of the inbound course line in order to keep some distance from some mobile SA-8 sites that appear on the map…



    Nearing the target area we pop up to a few thousand feet and snap our photos…



    As soon as we cross the target we drop back down to about two hundred feet for the quick egress to the south, chased out of the area by a couple SAM launches from the compound we overflew…



    Back at base safely with the recon photos in hand…





    We hand off our intel to the Kuwaiti pilots who are eager to hit back at the Iraqi forces…





    Since the F1 is a bit outclassed on the battlefield, it is a good idea to slow down a bit and let the bulk of Coalition aircraft push out ahead to clear out the airspace…



    Our Kuwaiti fighters reenter their homeland…





    A few miles out they spot the target from mid altitude and dive down to low altitude to deliver the high drag bombs…







    The party gets started as the base defenses kick into gear and start launching SAMs…



    Pickle!



    A great example of my poor interval setting (I forgot to set it!) versus my wingman who has a better spread on his stick of bombs delivered from a slightly higher altitude…



    His bombs hit just before mine – he gets good hits while my cluster of bombs goes long and hits just outside the perimeter fence…







    As we peel off to the south the smoke rises from the Iraqi compound…



    Not content to let us get away unmolested, the SA-8 opens up on us…



    My wingman pays the price for lingering at too high an altitude. Safety is found below 200’ or at much higher altitudes. Medium altitudes are suicide…



    Two went out – only one returns…



    In a nod to the fact that not all of the air war was uncontested, there were a few brave Iraqi Air Force pilots that flew into impossible odds on impossible missions. Iraq also fielded their own F1 Mirages but many fled to Iran after the onset of hostilities and a few more were shot down. A fairly bold strike was attempted by the Iraqi Air Force on January 24 when a pair of F1s and two MiG-23s were sent on a mission to strike the major Saudi oil refinery at Abqaiq . AWACS vectored a pair of Saudi F-15s toward the incoming strikers and the MiGs turned tail and ran while the F1s tried to press on. One of the Saudi F-15s quickly dispatched both of the F1s, effectively ending Iraq’s offensive air operations for the duration of the war.

    An Iraqi F1 takes off for a strike against Saudi oil facilities near Dhahran…







    I flew this mission multiple times and found it was near impossible to work south into Saudi airspace without being detected and promptly hunted and executed. Even getting into the air from some of the Iraqi airspace can result in fairly quick action. Here we’ve just taken off and intercepted an F-18 strike coming toward our base…







    The Coalition F-15Cs are impossible to defeat or evade. I assume this is fairly true to form since Coalition air dominance was pretty complete throughout the war.



    If you are patient, and can wait for the bulk of the air activity to calm down, you can pick your way south. Here we try an extremely low attack profile from over the Gulf…



    Soon the oil complex on the coast comes into view through the HUD…



    Without a CCIP HUD display, it is a bit of guesswork to release the Beluga CBU cannisters…



    I get lucky with my guesswork and the CBU bomblets rip across the complex…





    We break hard to the east and hope the Coalition air defenses are late to the switch…



    While escaping to the north you had better be careful to avoid the Coalition fleet in the middle of the Gulf…





    Things don’t end well..



    Flying the Iraqi side of the Operation Desert Storm campaign is pretty brutal. I don’t care what side of the conflict you are on – if you take up arms and fight for your country, that takes courage and even though the Iraqi Air Force never had a chance, there were still some moments of extreme bravery shown. The Mirage F1 saw some interesting action in the Gulf War on both sides.

    BeachAV8R

     

    CA-WW1 - The Red Battle-flier
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Recreating the Red Baron's early career in Wings Over Flanders Fields!

     
    The man and the book 
    'When he had come down to about three hundred feet he tried to escape by flying in a zig-zag course... That was my most favorable moment. I followed him at an altitude of from two hundred and fifty feet to one hundred and fifty feet, firing all the time. The Englishman could not help falling. But the jamming of my gun nearly robbed me of my success. My opponent fell, shot through the head, one hundred and fifty feet behind our line. His machine gun was dug out of the ground and it ornaments the entrance of my dwelling.'
     
    Such is the description in 'Der Rote Kampfflieger' of the end of the famous air fight on 23 November 1916, in which Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen brought down the DH-2 flown by foremost Royal Flying Corps ace Major Lanoe Hawker VC. Their dogfight heralded the start of a long period of German technical superiority in the skies over the Western front, culminating in 'Bloody April' the following year, when the RFC was made to pay a high price for its support of the Army in the Battle of Arras.
     
    Manfred von Richthofen, the renowned Red Baron - probably the most famous fighter pilot, then and always - personified that superiority and 'Der Rote Kampflieger' is his wartime account of those days long ago.
     
    Well, sort of. According to William E. Burrows,* the book was mostly written during von Richthofen's extended leave after 'Bloody April', at his East Prusssian home, with the help of a female stenographer. Sent in sections to the Air Ministry for editing and censorship, The Red Battle-flier was essentially a propaganda effort for public consumption. How much is in his own words, or how accurately it conveys his own thoughts and feelings, is debatable. Burrows says von Richthofen's family '...insisted privately that Manfred's writing had been re-worked and made into the diary of a killer' and that Jasta 11's Hans Georg von der Osten '...says emphatically that Richthofen did not write any of the finished product, but he has no idea who did.' Compared to similar works by Billy Bishop and James McCudden, the book is certainly lacking in technical detail. However, it's still a fascinating and oft-cited picture, painted at the time, of the career of one of the world's greatest fighter pilots.
     
    * 'Richthofen - a true history of the Red Baron' by William E Burrows
     
    The book starts with early days in military academies and, once the war begins, cavalry service on eastern and western fronts. There, frustrated at the immobility of trench warfare, von Richthofen applies for the air service and flies as an observer on both fronts. He develops a taste for air combat and inspired by the successes of early aces Boelcke and Immelman, trains as a pilot. His big break comes in the late summer of 1916 when he is chosen by Boelcke as a founder-member of the newly formed Jagdstaffel 2. Operating the deadly new Albatros D I and D II fighters under the keen eyes of master tactician Boelcke, the new fighter squadron is soon reversing the tide of British air superiority, despite the death of their leader in a mid-air collision in late October.
     

     
    Von Richthofen scores steadily, his victories including Lanoe Hawker. In January 1917, he's posted to command Jasta 11, flying the V-strutted Albatros D III, although he reverts to an older Halberstadt for a time, while lower wing failures on the new aircraft are sorted out. By this time awarded the 'Blue Max' - the Order Pour le Mérite - his own Albatros is soon painted in the Baron's trademark red. Under his leadership, Jasta 11 builds up a first-class combat record and soon has a bevy of aces.
     

     Jasta 11 - in cockpit: Manfred von Richthofen; standing, left to right: Allmenroeder, Hintsch, Festner, Schaefer, Wolff, Simon, Brauneck; sitting, left to right: Essler, Lothar von Richthofen, Krefft.
     
    The story continues through 'Bloody April' and on to early July 1917, when von Richthofen is shot in the head, temporarily paralysed and blinded, in a fight with FE2s of No. 20 Squadron. Spinning down, thinking 'this is the way it looks just before death' he recovers just enough to make a forced landing, before clambering out of his red-nosed and red-tailed Albatros D V (seen below after the event) and collapsing into a thorn bush. 'I had quite a respectable hole in my head', his account of the fight ends, 'My thick Richthofen head once again proved itself. The skull had not been penetrated.'
     
     
     
    There were apparently plans to update the book to cover von Richthofen's subsequent career but his death in action in April 1918 left such possibilities in limbo until after the war. I'd recommend the 1933 edition, which includes some of von Richthofen's letters home, a little material he apparently wrote for a second edition, and post-war contributions by brothers Lothar and Bolko. While the preface to a 1918 English wartime translation (available online here) described it as giving '...the general impression of the writing of a gentleman prepared for publication by a hack journalist', 'Der Rote Kampfflieger' can't help but convey something of the essence of the experiences and feelings of the great fighter pilot.
     
     
    The air war in autumn 1916
    Flying for the German side in the last few months of 1916, as the Battle of the Somme ran its course, is surely one of the classic scenarios for a simulated WW1 fighter pilot career. The best French or British fighters - the Nieuport scouts, the DH-2 'pusher' and later the superb Sopwith Pup - can turn tighter. But flying the Albatros D II, you can mostly out-run, out-climb and out-dive your opponents; and you have two machine guns to their one. As for your natural prey, the two-seater 'working aeroplanes', these were vulnerable enough to the indifferent Fokker monoplanes of 1915-16; compared to the much-superior Albatros, one can really speak of predator and prey. And it was at this time that Oswald Boelcke established and taught systematically the basic principles of air combat and squadron tactics, setting the pattern for years to come. 'Der Rote Kampfflieger' vividly conveys the excitement of  'Boelcke's Cubs' as they take to the skies and cut a swathe through the ranks of the RFC and it's an experience I was looking forward to re-creating in Wings Over Flanders Fields.
     
    The mission
    Sure enough, Jagdstaffel 2 is in the WOFF order of battle for the Luftstreitkrafte and I opted to begin a career at the start of October 1916, by which time the Halberstadt has disappeared from the WOFF squadron line-up and we are fully equipped with the sleek, twin-gunned Albatros. Here's the enlistment screen, showing we are correctly based at Lagnicourt. Note that the squadron's roster not only includes our real-life Commanding Officer, the famous Oswald Boelcke, but the man who was his most famous pupil, Manfred von Richthofen himself.
     

     
    And here's the briefing for our mission. It's a defensive patrol, up to and behind our own lines, fully in keeping with our defensive strategy, whereby we let the enemy come to us! Having de-selected 'Always lead' for this campaign in the WOFF 'Workshop', I'm pleased to find that today, I'll be flying in the flight - 'Schwarm zwei' - led my the great man himself, the illustrious Boelcke! There are four of us in the flight, with another six pilots providing 'top cover'. Woe betide the Tommies today!
     

     
    And here we are, lined up on the grass at Lagnicourt. I'm in the middle of the line, in the Albatros with the darker, reddish finish and a white hoop painted on the nose, aft of the spinner. This is the 'skin' for the machine flown by Manfred von Richthofen himself, which I had taken the liberty of selecting for my own plane during the briefing phase. This was the period when the Germans had adopted camouflaged finishes, but before it became fashionable for units or individuals to paint their aircraft with prominent or brightly-coloured markings.
     

     
    Taking off promptly so as not to be left behind, I sped off with the others and (using the labels to confirm the plane of my leader) slotted into position on the right of our vee formation. Boelcke is second from the left; you can perhaps just make out the black and white quartered wheel hubs on his otherwise factory-finish Albatros.
     

     
    Soon, we were climbing steadily, flying a loose orbit just to the north of our airfield, presumably to gain a respectable altitude before turning for the run south and up to the German reserve trenches. Above and behind us, our comrades kept watch and my confidence soared, buoyed up by the impressive spectacle of this pahlanx of German hunting machines sweeping the skies for the enemy!
     


     
    ...to be continued!

    WOFF wins CA Awards!
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Wings Over Flanders Fields wins two CombatAce Awards!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rp4K6xsDQeo         Narration: Aurora Price
    Music: Matt Milne Video: Hellshade
    Shadowing Mod: AnKor
    Cloud Mod: Arisfuser
    News Team: 33Lima, Adger, Hellshade
    Video Editor: Andre "Skyviper" Ford   Game Play Review: Wings Over Flanders Fields
        Check out the multi-part reviews here:
    Part One
    Part Two Part Three Part Four   'WOFF' is a utter and total transformation of Combat Flight Simulator 3 into a beautiful, unique WW1 simulator!   See the brand new AI fight or escape in true WWI maneuvers and behavior!  

    Wings Over Flanders Fields - the CombatAce Review, part 4
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Wings Over Flanders Fields - the CombatAce Review, part 4   The View from Hellshade's Cockpit   Wings Over Flanders Fields (WOFF) goes against the grain in almost every respect. Where the video game industry is fast moving away from simulations and towards MOBAs, MMOs and FPS, WOFF embraces being a sim wholeheartedly. Within the tiny niche of the gaming market that sims now occupy, WOFF isn't even one of the most popular types of sim settings, such as ARMA III's full modern combat settings or even the ever-popular World War II. WOFF is a World War I air combat simulator. It's probably one of the smallest niches within the already small niche of sims. On top of that, while the rest of the market focuses on multiplayer aspects of their games and sometimes throws in a single player experience as an after-thought, WOFF is unashamedly designed to be an immersive single player experience. No multiplayer component at all. One has to wonder why any developer in their right mind would choose to invest so much time and energy into a game that would seem to appeal to such a tiny segment of the market.   The answer becomes apparent the longer that you fly in the world of WOFF. It's passion. OBD Software, the developers of Wings Over Flanders Fields, have a genuine and seemingly never ending passion for WWI history and have made every effort possible to turn that passion into details that bring the world of WOFF alive. While it's just about impossible to cover every aspect of WOFF that is new and improved over previous versions, LIMA has done an excellent job of hitting many of the high points. I couldn't have done nearly as good a job as he has and I'm not going to try. I just wanted to highlight some of the aspects of WOFF that I feel make this sim worth investing your time into.   Developer support OBD Software offered the previous version of WOFF, Over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell, excellent support.  With WOFF, they have continued their history of excellence in support after the sale in numerous ways. First, they have pushed out 21 updates to the sim in about 3 months. It wasn't all just about the bug fixes though. Many of the updates included NEW FEATURES that were implemented due to player feedback. Things such as optional visual feedback that your pilot had been shot through bloody goggles and Dot based labels that let you see aircraft too far in the distance to be properly drawn out by the sim. They also corrected Flight Model issues when they found the Morane L Saulner was flying too fast. No sim is ever going to be perfect in everyone's eyes. There will always be a new feature someone wants or a change to the way things work in the game. WOFF, like every other sim out there, will never be all things to all people, but the outstanding developer support and attention to detail means that you can be sure the sim is never forgotten or abandoned. OBDs passion for World War I history doesn't stop with shipping the best possible product that they can. If they think they have the ability to make it better, they do. It's a feature you won't see listed on the box, but to me it's one of the best aspects of the sim.    Community experience Hop onto the Wings Over Flanders Fields forums and you're going to find a bunch of virtual WWI pilots who have nearly as much passion for history as the developers themselves. And they are helpful, too. Perhaps because WOFF isn't a multiplayer game that pits people against one another, there's very little in the way of ego clashes on the forums. Yes, there are Flight Model debates but the majority of posts are about the experiences that players have had while flying in the sim. People take the time to create "letters to home" and post After Action Reports to help bring the experience more to life. WOFF can very easily become almost as much a role-playing experience as it is a flight simulator experience. They also share combat tactics and trade war stories about how they managed to survive...or not. Technical problems are handled not just by the Devs but usually by a number of community members who enjoy helping others get the most out of WOFF.  Again, you won't see the Forum Community listed on the box as a Feature of WOFF, but make no mistake, it's one of the very best experiences of the sim and not to be missed.      Modding community For such a relatively newly released sim, WOFF already has had some very enjoyable and useful mods created for it by its growing fan base. ArisFuser is a renowned modder from other games and has created a stunning Cloud Mod for WOFF that really is quite impressive. There is a Pilot Backup Utility Mod by RJW that keeps your pilot "safe" and restorable in the event something bad happens to your hard drive or install. Given how attached people get to their pilots in WOFF, this is almost a Must Have utility. Bletchley's Mission Types mod offers a variety of different kinds of missions to fly above and beyond what's already included in the dynamic campaign. RAF_Louvert has created an excellent Verdun Region Map to print out and help you fly, while 77_Scouts News Mod (v2.0) adds to the in-game immersion with a greater variety of historically accurate news stories for you to read between missions. There's even a JSGME WOFF Mod Builder Kit that helps users make JSGME friendly mods that are easier for everyone to install and use. Not to be left out is the mod from AnKor. It is the D3D9 Self Shadowing Mod, which not only adds some incredible self shadowing effects to WOFF, it also "magically" adds frames per second to many of the users' experience, making the sim fly smoother than ever. It really does need to be seen to be believed and it adds an incredible new level of immersion to the sim. All of this in just a few short months since release. Considering how "against the grain" WOFF is, in terms of the audience that it appeals to, it's clear that many of the users are just as passionate about getting the most out of WOFF as the developers are about putting great things into it.     The AI As one of the lucky few who got the chance to fly Wings Over Flanders Fields before it was officially released, I have to repeat what I said when I first flew it. The AI alone is worth the price of admission. It's not a bunch of fixes to the scripts of the previous version of AI in OFF. It's completely re-written from the ground up to have the AI pilots take into account an entire range of factors and then actually make a weighted decision about what to do next. No random "dice rolls" telling them what to do. Just a few of the things the AI takes into account is how much ammo they have left, how much fuel, the state of their plane (is it damaged, etc), how far behind enemy lines or their own lines are they, do they have an altitude advantage or disadvantage, what is their skill level (Novice, Veteran or Ace), the morale level of their squadron (poor, normal, elite, etc) and so much more. No longer does every fight end up being "A Fight to the Death". The AI wants to complete its mission, but more importantly they all want to make it home alive too, which is much more realistic. If things start going bad for them, they look for a way to exit the combat and head home if possible. They don't usually give up altitude without a good reason. If the fight does make it down to the deck, they know how to fight effectively there too. Yes, you will run into rookies who freeze and make dumb mistakes when the shooting starts. You will also run into highly skilled pilots who use their plane's abilities to best effect. After all of these months flying WOFF, each encounter is still different. I can't just look at an enemy plane and say "Okay, when I attack he's going to do this, then this and then that." I literally don't know how he will respond, and that keeps every combat air patrol mission exciting. I don't know who I'm going to meet or how they will respond. It's a big war up there in Wings Over Flanders Fields and you'll find rookies and aces alike. But unless they are an Ace with a distinctively painted aircraft, you really won't know who's who until the shooting starts.    Time The last thing that I want to talk about is something that the people who fly WOFF regularly are already keenly aware of. Getting the most out of WOFF requires an investment of your time. The planes are not easy to master. They all have different flight models and the conditions around you can change in a hurry. If you are planning on going out and "winning the war" Call of Duty style as a one man destroyer of air forces, be prepared to start a lot of new pilot careers. It's just not easy. It takes time and patience to truly master what WOFF has to offer. In fact most of the regulars on the Community Forums for WOFF will tell you that they are only good at just a few of the huge stable of planes that WOFF ships with. Making it a year in WOFF is a real feat to be proud of. As an Allied pilot during Bloody April in 1917, surviving for even two weeks can be a major challenge, especially if you don't "cheat" and use any of the visual aids like labels to see other planes far off in the distance. WOFF has a Quick Combat mode to just have the fun of instant dogfights in, but the real glory and power of WOFF is in its huge, dynamic, single player campaign. Take the time to learn the planes and fly the missions. It won't be long before you start to wonder how anyone survived the real air war of 1915 - 1918. Many of them didn't.     In closing... From my cockpit, given the huge number of planes that can be flown right out of the box, the massive time frame of the war in which to fly them in, the incredibly large number of squadrons to choose from and the variety of dogfights from a "thinking", non-scripted AI that really does fight to survive, Wings Over Flanders Fields offers an amazing amount of "bang for the buck". I expect that I will be flying it for many years to come, especially if the Developers keep adding expansions like the recently released "Fokker Scourge"  (rumor has it that Gothas are on the way!). All in all, for anyone that loves World War I air combat and history, Wings Over Flanders Fields is tremendous value, potentially costing mere fractions of a cent per hour for you to enjoy its rich, detailed and dynamic world.      When you find yourself flying along on a patrol in your umpteenth hour in WOFF, trying desperately to keep your pilot alive yet still searching for that next kill even as you struggle to complete your mission, that's when it will probably hit you like it has me. This is where developers who are insanely passionate about their sim truly pays off. The depth of immersion is hard to describe. It just has to be experienced and that's exactly what Wings Over Flanders Fields is for anyone who loves WWI aircraft: an experience not to be missed.   My personal rating for Wings Over Flanders Fields is:  5 - Must Buy     The View from Adger's Cockpit   Modders and more modders I just wanted to mention that the OBD developers actively encourage 3rd party mods. AnKor's self shadowing mod is highly recommended (and it's going to be implemented into WOFF in the near future). Sweetfx works well. Arisfuser's HD Cloud Mod is also excellent; then there's Bletchley's Mission Mod and 77 Scout's News Mod. I think that the modders should get some recognition somewhere!   Patches and skins We've also (so far) had 21 patches: improvements made, FMs changed etc. The Official Aircraft Skin Pack  # 1 available here - it REALLY adds to the atmosphere in WOFF (especially the German Jasta squadrons). To be flying with some of the war's aces, all with there own individual aircraft skins, is just breathtaking. Arto "Paarma" Karttunen,Terry "Makai" Kerby, Mike "Sandbagger" Norris and last but not least James "OVS" Romano deserve massive credit for the incredible skin work.   Performance I've been running WOFF on a Phenom 2 955 processor o/c to 3.5 GHz, 1 GB 5770 ATI GPU, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, on workshop settings 5,3,3,5,5 and getting more than adequate frame rates (with sweetfx and Ankor's mod).   In closing... I love the new medals and awards. The AI has had a massive overhaul since OFF and HITR. I love waiting on the field to see if my flight returns and lands! Matt Milne's music is brilliant. The graphics are phenomenal and what the Devs have done on the CFS3 engine is incredible.Take an early dawn patrol in the Alsace region...breathtaking!   The interface is cleaner, Workshop and key bindings screens are smarter and easier to navigate. WOFF also seems less prone to CTDs compared to OFF (I've had 2 in over 100+ hrs of flying). Looking back, in comparison I'd rate OFF Phase 3, 7.5/10, OFF Phase 3 and HITR, 8.5/10. I've also flown Knights of the Sky, FE1 & RoF and WOFF batters them all into submission. It's not just the greatest sim I've flown...it's probably my greatest game I've ever played, a mindblowing piece of work   My personal rating for Wings Over Flanders Fields is:  5 - Must Buy     The view from Dagger's cockpit   Getting started  I am a WW1 nut, and will try any flight sim that has this type of flight in it. I cut my teeth for this era flying Red Baron 3-D and became hooked. There have been several titles released that fit this era, but most fell well short, BUT there were a few that made it.  After setting it up and getting some seat time, Wings over Flanders Fields seems to be one of those that do a great job at filling the void left by RB3D. I found installing this sim was easy, just a few clicks and I was ready to go.  Nothing but the usual, So time to set everything and make it the sim I want. This was very easy. There were many options to choose from, and even dynamic weather, we’ll get into that more later, to options for careers and more goodies. I double checked my stick commands, and made some notes for commands and was on my way.     Quick missions and on the campaign trail  Launched the game, and decided before anything, to take a quick mission. This is a fun way to start. The scenery was pretty good all things considered, and the planes themselves were a lot of fun. The enemy AI were set to be easy to get my kills, so they weren’t very good, but they did try to evade and engage me some. I flew around some, checked my controls and looked around to see where I was. I decided I was ready to become a WW1 flying ace! So I jumped into a campaign.   There are many choices in the campaign; again I like this. I started and was flying a recon mission. I did noticed the control seemed sluggish in the early planes. I wasn’t sure if this was intended, or just my stick,. But I liked it. I am no expert on flight models but they seemed pretty good. I did notice I could set the trim on my aircraft, which I doubt any WW1 flyers could do. I also liked the fact the German AA didn’t start as soon as I was in the air, and while it was there and I had to be careful the gunners weren’t exactly expert shots. Landings were fairly easy after some practice, but without care you’ll end up on your nose, or worse.     The Verdict Here’s my take on the game, so far: not complete as I want to do a better review after completing a campaign. First I tried it on several different machines, and got decent frame rates with the settings tinkered with on all of them. So you won’t have to run out and buy a huge gaming machine to have fun and see the detail in the sim. The graphics are decent, better than RB3D even with the Promised Land mod, but not quite as good as some of the newer games. I didn’t expect it to be, using an older game engine, but was surprised by the detail I did have. I also liked the fact I could set the weather and amount of detail I wanted to help with frame rates on lower end systems.   From the user point of view, it is a great sim to learn WW1 flight sims on. There are many options the user can set to customize the game to their machine. There are a few things I noticed, but nothing that can’t be fixed. Over all I give this sim a big thumbs up. Simmers don’t have to have a top of the line machine to run it and get a great gaming experience, and if offers many planes that are extras in other games. Also I like the fact it is a WW1 sim, did I mention I am a sucker for anything WW1 and this one will be on my system for a long time!   This is one of those "Have to have it, right now" sims.  On my gaming system it looks beautiful, and takes an older sim to a new level. This will bring a tear to the eyes of us older Red Baron players. The cool thing is nothing more to buy, you don't have to pay for planes you really want, and getting to see the front from the air is pretty cool! The only thing missing is the caster oil in your nose, the wind in your face, and the feel of your scarf flapping in the wind behind you.   It's great. I give it a:  5 - Must Buy       This concludes the CombatAce review of Wings Over Flanders Fields!   All screenshots in part 4 are courtesy of Hellshade's Screenshot mod.  

Portal by DevFuse · Based on IP.Board Portal by IPS


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