The RFC and the Senussi Campaign, Egypt

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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It is December of 1915 in Egypt's Western Desert, and a brace of BE2c’s belonging to 14 Squadron’s “Half Flight”, have arrived at Matruh, landing on the beach there and causing quite a stir. As a base of operation is hastily assembled the two craft are immediately put to task with recce flights to determine the wherabouts of Senussi forces, ranging the 4” guns of the HMS Clematis, (which is stationed just off the coast north of Mersa), onto said forces, and harassing the enemy when prudent to do so. On December 11 they begin assisting ground forces in what becomes known as "The Affair at the Wadi Senab", and which proves to be a pivotal battle, ultimately leading to the enemy being pushed back to the Haggag Es Sollum and into Turkish-held Libya, thus securing northern Egypt for His Majesty for the duration. The following photos show ‘A’ Squadron of the 1st Composite Australian Light Horse Regiment and a pair of Royal Navy armoured cars, being closely watched over by Capt. Moore, (pilot) and Major Ross, (observer), as all proceed SW into the desert to engage Senussi troops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have just begun building a series of missions to emulate the RFC's involvement in the Western Desert camapign of 1915-16, utilizing the MAW expansion pack in combination with OFF. I will post new photos and info as work progresses. This will prove to be an interesting series as it involves such excitement as cavalry charges, naval bombardment, and chasing opposing forces deep into the desert, all whilest battling the elements with very minimal resources. Good times...good times...

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Looks extremely interesting, Lou. Can't wait to hear more battle reports.

[themightysrc 5]

Loving your work Lou - reminds me I have to load up the MAW stuff that you kindly put me onto last week.

 

Keep on posting chuck, that looks brilliant.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Ta mates, I appreciate the encouragement. By the by, if you'd like a bit of historical flavour written in the day, here's an article pertaining to the subject at hand, which I ran across a while ago.

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Nice one Lou...I must dig out my MAW disk and have a go

[carrick58 23]

RAF Louvert, U are just too cool.

[themightysrc 5]

Incidentally, issue 4 of Aviation Classics - as mentioned here earlier in the week - has articles on both RFC Egypt and Palestine campaigns. If you're interested in this niche period within a niche period (and that's not being perjorative in any way at all), I'd recommend reading Wings over the Desert by Desmond Seward. His father flew in Palestine and it's an interesting read.

[themightysrc 5]

Lou (and anyone else in fact),

 

How do you get more than one iteration of CFS3 on your PC?

 

When I pop in disk 1 of the set, it offers to let me either play or uninstall CFS3. Is there a way round this. I've tried exploring the CD and clicking on install.exe but it simply then offers me the choice to play or uninstall...

 

I'll also post this on General Help.

 

Cheers,

Si

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Si, it's very simple. Just go into your "Microsoft Games" folder and change the name of your "Combat Flight Simulator 3" folder. I have mine labelleb "CFS3 Original", "OFF BHaH", "CFS3 MAW", and "OFF MAW". When you change the name of that folder your install disc won't recognize it and so it can be reinstalled again and again. However, when you play any of the sims they will each still be able to locate the disc in your drive and initiate. Also, you can have a launch icon for each version on your desktop by creating a shortcut to each, dragging it onto the desktop, and renaming it to match that version. Just remember to manually pick the appropriate path to the various versions when installing updates and/or add-ons. Easy Peasy.

 

Also, two other excellent bits of reading regarding the Mesopotamia Campaigns are,: "In The Clouds Above Bagdad", by Air Commander John Edward Tennant; and the War diary of 2nd Lt. Harold Warnica Price which you can find in the collection, "A Rattle of Pebbles", by Brereton Greenhous.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[themightysrc 5]

Lou,

 

Ta - I've had the same advice from Winston elsewhere - should really have sussed that out myself, but anyway.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Cheers,

Si

[cptroyce 0]

Lou- Getr those missions going!!!..I can't wait to fly them in my MawOff set. If I can help in any "non technical" (read grunt work) let me know.

 

Here's my DH2 pilot sightseeing the pyramids after a night of RnR in Cairo!

 

Regards,

Royce

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Thanks for the offer Royce, and there is something I could use a hand with. I'm having a senior moment and for the life of me cannot remember what items need to be set in a misson file in order to get the CFS3 ships to fire on shore/ground installations. If you, or anyone else FTM, could sort out that info for me it would be much appreciated. Now then, as to that DH2 flitting about the Pyramids, you must have had that kite sent over especially for you Sir as there were very few in the theatre. RHIP, eh what.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[cptroyce 0]

Lou-

 

>> ..need to be set in a misson file in order to get the CFS3 ships to fire on shore/ground installations<<

 

Sorry Lou, don't know anything about that.

 

>> Now then, as to that DH2 flitting about the Pyramids, you must have had that kite sent over especially for you Sir as there were very few in the theatre. RHIP, eh what <<

 

Yes..took a special model..Colonels own I susupect..best for sightseeing

 

Royce

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Good Morning All,

 

Got home late yesterday evening and had some time to plug away at my project. I did sort out, (again), how to have ships fire on ground targets, and then turned my attentions to creating what will become the first mission of the campaign. I decided the best way to creat the initial Zeitgeist for the entire affair might be to have you bring your kite into the theatre via a carrier launch under the cover of darkness, (to avoid those elusive Hun submarines that seem to continually patrol the Mediterranean). With your BE2c backed up to the aft edge of the deck you can get her in the air before you hit ocean, (a thrilling start to a campaign). It is then about a 25 mile jaunt across open seas in the light of a crescent moon as you navigate your way due south to an air strip at Alexandria. I gave it a go, and after sorting out my initial compass heading I flew "by the stars" and found my mark. It really built some first rate atmosphere and did serve to pull me right into the whole affair. Here are a few screenshots to illustrate the point, (BTW, in MAW the water is animated and the waves look quite good as they roll along beneath you).

 

 

Taking to the night sky from the HMS Ark Royal, (being secretly despatched from Imbros just for this mission).

 

 

 

Making the turn south and taking a last look back before my journey across open sea.

 

 

 

Dropping down over Alexandria in the early morning hours of late November.

 

 

I'll keep you folks posted as work continues.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[themightysrc 5]

"creating what will become the first mission of the campaign"

 

Hi Lou,

 

You've got me thinking.

 

Assuming enough people have MAW installed, would it be feasible to run it as an MP campaign, if the MadMatt installer were modified to ensure that it scooped up and copied all relevant OFF files to the MAW directories? Failing that, I'm sure that it would make a very exotic limited duration variation on the now famous Krauts vs Krumpets offline campaign?

 

Just a thought or two...

 

Cheers,

Si

[cptroyce 0]

Lou- That looks terrific! Can't wait for this camapaign to be released.

 

As an FYI, I was PMing someone on how to set up the OFF/MAW set-up and noticed that I had several WW1 MAW missions in my mission folder.

Some I don't recall from whence or from who they came, but I do remember making simple WW1 MAW missions myself with the MAW editor; and then merely changing the a/c in the mission file. It was quite simple as I recall( It had to be if I could do it :>) )

 

Anyway if you want I could email you these mission files and you could determine if there is anything there you'd like to use and/or "flesh out"?

 

If so PM me with your Email and I'll shoot them over to you.

 

Regards,

Royce

[Guest British_eh]

Hi there,

 

Very nice stuff RAF _L,

 

 

Sitting_Duck has built a few missions and would be the one to ask. I seem to forget more than I know......but, from what I remember, it would help to have an enemy ship at the beach otherwise I don't believe they will fire at shoreline stuff.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Brtiish_eh

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Good Morning All,

 

Just a quick pop in to update you on my progress before heading out the door to help me dear old mum with a day's worth of chores. I had to create an "Oasis" facility to use in this campaign as there are none to be found out in the far reaches of the MAW deserts, (and at least two of the missions historically involve an oasis). So, by using items already available in the sim, repainting a set of runway signal tiles, and by creating a new "Bedouin" tent through the tweaking of an existing Allied tent file, I have now got a proper oasis to work with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost makes a chap want to run over and take a dip in that cool, inviting sapphire blue water, eh what?

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[jlan5031 0]

I guess there's no way for a newcomer to download MAW any longer?

[Burning Beard 14]

I guess there's no way for a newcomer to download MAW any longer?

 

Here ya go

 

Beard

[Burning Beard 14]

I guess there's no way for a newcomer to download MAW any longer?

http://www.sim-outho...ead.php?t=34077

 

Maybe you can get Lou to post the install instructions again to get all the planes working

 

Here ya go

 

Beard

Edited June 20, 2010 by Burning Beard

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Why yes I can. Here is the outline I recently sent to Si to get him up and running with this:

 

 

Alrighty then, grap yourself a fresh cuppa' and here we go.

 

Now that you have a fresh CFS3 install with the MAW package that is up and running and the config set where it works best for your rig, make a copy of the entire MAW install, (inside your "Microsoft Games" folder), so you can switch back to it later if you wish. Next, make the following changes in what will become your OFF MAW install:

 

"aircraft" folder: copy and paste all the QC1 and Sqd plane folders in the OFF "aircraft" folder into the matching MAW folder. After this you can delete all the individual MAW plane folders with the exception of DR_MC200_Vosilla, (for whatever reason MAW will not launch properly if you delete this plane folder).

 

"shared" folder inside the "aircraft" folder: copy and paste all the files in the OFF "shared" folder into the matching MAW folder, allowing any files that ask to overwrite.

 

"sounds" folder: copy and paste all the files in OFF "sounds" folder into matching MAW folder, allowing any files that ask to overwrite, and then delete all the .gvp files.

 

Inside the "effects" folder: copy and paste all the files in OFF "flak" folder and "fxtextures" folder into matching MAW folders, allowing any files that ask to overwrite.

 

"pylons" folder: Replace with the OFF folder.

 

"guns" folder: Replace with the OFF folder.

 

"weapons" folder: copy and paste all the files in OFF "weapons" folder into matching MAW folder, allowing any files that ask to overwrite.

 

"buildings" folder: copy and paste a_hangarl1, a_hangarl2, a_hangarl3, a_hangars1, a_hangars2, a_hangars3, g_hangarl1, g_hangarl2, g_hangarl3, g_hangars1, g_hangars2, g_hangars3, in OFF folder into matching MAW folder, allowing the files to overwrite.

 

"vehicles" folder: copy and paste all the files in OFF "vehicles" folder into matching MAW folder, allowing any files that ask to overwrite.

 

In the main CFS3 MAW folder replace the following files with those in the main CFS3 OFF folder: "effects", "gundll" (all 3 files), "gunticket", "sounds", and "weapons".

 

One note to remember, all the OFF aircraft files are tagged for either the United States or Germany so you will only see the plane choices in those countries' plane lists when flying quick combat or quick missions, unless you go in and switch the country tags.

 

I am still swapping in vehicles, buildings, and such as I run across them to try and have more accurate Great War surroundings, and I am also rebuilding a few facilities as well as tweaking the global layer.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[cptroyce 0]

Lou- Those screenshots are absolutely terrific!!!!

 

 

Royce

[jlan5031 0]

Beard,

Thank you for your reply. I tried for over a week to find a source and failed. I'm glad it was there somewhere.

[Burning Beard 14]

Just follow Lou's instructions and you will be up and running in no time.

 

Beard