Ground battles!

[Javito1986 14]

Well consider me blown away. I've had OFF a year and haven't seen this before.

 

Attacking German ground positions at Ypres on August 10, 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele. Except this time they weren't dug into their trenches safely, hell no! They were out on the ground advancing on British trenches on the other side of No Man's Land, and they had freaking tanks backing them up and emplaced MG positions. Artillery blowing up everywhere, it was wild. I got scared for our British infantry and had our SE5s hang around much longer than they should have, bombing and strafing as much as humanly possible to force them back. Felt like something straight out of The Blue Max. I took the camera down to their level and watched our SE5s roaring in from the German soldier POV... gosh it's loud down there! Gunfire and explosions galore. So glad I'm not in the infantry.

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

And from what we've seen so far from the P4 screenshots...we may well see a lot more in the future!

[Olham 164]

Screenshots would have been nice!

Yep, I also only discovered the detail of the ground attacks after almost two years of flying, and I was stunned.

 

PS: Screenshots would have been really nice!

[Hellshade 110]

I would love to see that! Did you notice at the time if there was a big frame rate or performance hit while looking at the battles? Just curious if such a thing could be implemented more often perhaps.

 

Hellshade

[Olham 164]

Hellshade, just pick the time of the Battle of the Somme, or Paschendaele, and then fly low over the front lines.

It didn't hit my framerates negative in any way.

[Hellshade 110]

Hellshade, just pick the time of the Battle of the Somme, or Paschendaele, and then fly low over the front lines.

It didn't hit my framerates negative in any way.

 

Do you have any recommendations for squadrons on both sides?

 

Hellshade

[Olham 164]

Battle of Passchendaele 31 July - 6 November 1917

 

http://en.wikipedia....f_Passchendaele

 

German side: Jasta 4, Jasta 6, Jasta 10, Jasta 11 - or: JG 1, based west - southwest of Courtai.

Edited March 31, 2011 by Olham

[Javito1986 14]

I'll be sure to have FRAPS loaded up next time I do ground attack at Ypres. Honestly I wasn't expecting to see anything like that, figured it would be a routine ground attack mission so once I saw what was actually happening down there I was too busy. The Germans were pretty close to our trench lines, they'd actually advanced quite far and I was concerned they'd overrun our defenses there. So I swooped in and sent the whole squadron into action, and didn't think to take screenshots until later.

 

It helps to turn labels on. I was using Olham's ViewUI file (http://combatace.com/topic/62903-smaller-tac-softer-label-colours/page__p__480590__hl__viewui+olham__fromsearch__1?do=findComment&comment=480590) to keep them unobtrusive. So then I saw "German troops attacking", "German A7V Tank", etc and when I zoomed in, sure enough they were out in the open in the middle of a storm of artillery and MG fire. I suppose they were mounting a counterattack. Artillery was blasting everywhere, it was dangerous for our SE5s to get down so low.

 

Once we dropped our 500lbers we had to get down real low to strafe those troops. I shot up a whole line of them. Couldn't get those tanks but them's the breaks.

 

Feel bad for the PBI that has to live down in that hell day in day out. Really brings home the advantage of flying home to a cush aerodrome some miles off the Line and sleeping in a cozy officer's lodging with hot food, warm showers, and clean sheets.

 

 

 

 

 

[tranquillo 10]

I took the camera down to their level and watched our SE5s roaring in from the German soldier POV... gosh it's loud down there! Gunfire and explosions galore. So glad I'm not in the infantry.

 

 

Didn't know you could do that. Mind telling me how?

[Javito1986 14]

My mistake! I thought the OFF Manager said 500lb but now that I double checked it says 25lb. Oh my, I don't know how I've been misreading that all this time.

[Lewie 7]

My mistake! I thought the OFF Manager said 500lb but now that I double checked it says 25lb. Oh my, I don't know how I've been misreading that all this time.

 

Yeah I think an SE5a would have a bit of trouble taking off with 500 lbs of additional weight. Most of the front line fighters of that period, that were equipped with bombs either had Coopers or 20~25 pounders.

[Olham 164]

Didn't know you could do that. Mind telling me how?

You can switch the TAC on, pause the sim, and then change targets to "Ground objects" or "Vehicles".

Now you mark a ground target and go through the views with F4, until you get to the view of that target

towards you. That way, you can see your fighters/bombers approaching, when you release "pause".

Will be hard to fly though. But it's very good for paused screenshots.

 

You can now press "next target" again and again, and so switch through all the views from those

ground objects towards you.

Edited March 31, 2011 by Olham

[Javito1986 14]

You can switch the TAC on, pause the sim, and then change targets to "Ground objects" or "Vehicles".

Now you mark a ground target and go through the views with F4, until you get to the view of that target

towards you. That way, you can see your fighters/bombers approaching, when you release "pause".

Will be hard to fly though. But it's very good for paused screenshots.

 

You can now press "next target" again and again, and so switch through all the views from those

ground objects towards you.

 

 

 

This. Works best as you fly away after a strafing run, you can really see a lot down there as your SE5 flies by.

[Hellshade 110]

Indeed there are mass battles that take place. I saw tanks and infantry advancing on both sides along with artillery, vehicles, MG nests and of course trenches filled with troops. Not to mention the huge bombardments going on. Great show!

 

 

 

[Olham 164]

"Bleech!!! Vere iss my Werkmeister! Feldwebel Zimmermann! Did you hand my Albatros out to der Crumpet?!?!"

 

Isn't that great? That after two years, we can still discover such things?!

[Hellshade 110]

What is that vehicle that is to the immediate left of my left gunsight? Is that a tank? What kind?

 

Hellshade

[Javito1986 14]

There's really not much of a framerate dip either. It's not like the infantry are exactingly modeled or anything, bounding for cover and providing overwatch and the like! I did get some fps hits just from being down so low near all the artillery fire and explosions, at times my entire screen was filled with ground smoke. I would really like to be able to hang around and see how those battles play out after a while but those MGs can just as easily be turned on you and one hit to the fuel tank is all she wrote. It'd be interesting to have to land in the middle of that.

 

I once forced down a DFW and he made a crash landing in the middle of an area being targeted by artillery. Last i saw he disappeared into the smoke being kicked up by the 'splosions. Wish i'd hung around to see what became of him but the DIII fighters that had been escorting him were being most distasteful.

 

What is that vehicle that is to the immediate left of my left gunsight? Is that a tank? What kind?

 

Hellshade

 

 

 

Looks like a tank. The kind I'm not sure of. It should tell if you if you turn on labels. When i was over Passchendaele the German A67 tanks were clearly designated.

[shredward 12]

What is that vehicle that is to the immediate left of my left gunsight? Is that a tank? What kind?

 

Hellshade

 

 

Bulldog? Corgi? s**tzu?

hmmmm

[Olham 164]

That could be the British Mark IV tank, Hellshade. Here is a model:

[Lewie 7]

Typically the Mark IV looked like this..

 

 

Although there were two different subtypes called "males' with two 1and 1/2 pounder cannons in the side turrets, or the "females" which generally were for scouting and had Vickers .303's in place of the cannons. They were really slow, no more than maybe 4 mph tops, and quite a few of them got mired hopelessly in the mud of the front.

 

The French had a couple of the smaller, "Whippet" types and a larger boxy one with a fixed 75 mm MLE cannon.

[Hellshade 110]

awesome! Thanks guys.

 

This sim is as much an encyclopedia of WWI as it as a combat flight simulator.

 

Hellshade

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Has anyone seen a cavalry charge yet? They're in the folder so I am sure they are in the sim. I've made use of them building one of the missions for the Senussi Campaign.

 

.

[Lewie 7]

Cavalry? Are you certain they were still being used in 1917?

 

Olham posted an image of the Whippet light tank which was faster but not as heavily armored or weaponed as the Mark IV..

 

 

 

[Lewie 7]

OK here's the Renault FT17 which is similar to the whippet..

 

 

Since Passchendael was in the British sector i doubt any Renault's were used during the battle.

 

And the larger and less flexible St Chamond..

 

Edited April 1, 2011 by Lewie

[shredward 12]

Cavalry? Are you certain they were still being used in 1917?

 

 

 

93 years ago yesterday, Lt Gordon Flowerdew led the charge of 'C' Squadron, Lord Strathcona's Horse, into the German lines at Moreuil Wood, and into immortality. Almost all of them, horses and men, were lost, but they prevented a German breakthrough to Amiens.

http://blog.dutyandvalour.com/?p=580

Edited April 1, 2011 by shredward