Dej

Ah yes, Polygon Wood also sometimes known as Racetrack Wood. Blasted to stumps and mud by all the fighting that took place in and across it... The wood was cleared by Commonwealth troops at the end of October 1914, given up on 3 May 1915, taken again at the end of September 1917 by Australian troops, evacuated in the Battles of the Lys, and finally retaken by the 9th (Scottish) Division on 28 September 1918. Not much left of the 'wood' after all that, except for 'The Butte', a mound in the centre of the forest, where now stands the 5th Australian Division Memorial. All back to peaceful leafy green NOW [EDIT]Had to correct the mis-spelling of 'Australian'. Seemed disrespectful otherwise.[/EDIT]

Ganz ausgezeichhnet gemacht, als immer! Good to see Paul back, he's such a decent fellow. Just one point because it IS at the start... 'A week of the worst winter weather Leutnant Ritter von Blum could remember ever seeing in the Alsace had just past'?

Thank you Jim for that informative answer. Nearly every time you post here I learn something. No one's observed yet that it's damn ugly too.

Hmmm... were the French using parachutes in 1918? Just to give you the choice... according to the above book referenced in my post, WM, the white band on the upper wing covered the whole front half from the leading edge to just back of the arms of the crosses. The centralised white band - as you and your box art represent on the upper wing - was the lower wing variant. The turtle deck is shown as black, too, not lozenge and the wheel discs plain black.

Very like Ltn. Walter Blume, Jasta 9. If that 'P' were only a 'B' instead... courtesy of Franks and VanWyngarden's 'Fokker D.VII Aces of World War 1 Part 2'

Someone have a diagreement with Archibald? Looks fabulous.

I'd missed Flyby's post on the VFW. The middle ribbon stripe is definitely gold and allowing for wear on the edges the other colours correspond, so I hazard that is the answer. I've found no other that matches after a whole evening's interesting, enlightening and very informative browsing... thanks for that Jarhead. :-)

Bien fait, mon Capitaine! Half of the answer peut-etre. According to the website The Great War Document Archive the Verdun Medal was issued by the town itself, meaning anyone who fought in what might be considered the defence of the town is eligible. Hence as le Capitaine says, many American soldiers qualified. Now, as Jarhead's great uncle was wounded I wonder if the other ribbon might be some variant of the 'Insigne du Blessé Militaire'? Someone better equipped than I to browse the Web in French might be able to rule this out.

French WW1 medals can sometimes be seen with a bi-colour or tri-colour stripe, e.g. Croix de Guerre + Medaille Militaire - showing on one ribbon that the wearer was in receipt of both. Perhaps this is a sort of 'placeholder' for a similar situation, that was never properly completed. I can't say what the attached ribbon is though, nor explain how your great uncle came to have a Verdun medal. Lou's the medal expert around these here parts so hopefully he has an answer.

Flight Magazine is available online in PDF format but it's a little frustrating to find stuff. Derek Riley over at the CCI website has posted a full PDF format index of that interesting publication for the years 1909 - 1919. Should make it easier to find... stuff. The CCI website is HERE scroll down to Useful Stuff at bottom left and click on Research Tools. And if you feel like joining CCI for the modest sum of £25.00 it's well every penny, believe me. The four 70+ page journals they publish each year are packed with interesting articles and at their annual general meetings and weekend seminars you can hobnob with the likes of Norman Franks, Mike O'Connor, Paolo Varriale and Peter Hart among others.

A warm welcome Eric, I'm very glad you've found that OFF has re-inspired you in your research. It has had the same effect on me. I had studied WW1 aviation avidly as a 9 - 14 year old (prompted by the Biggles books) but then it lay dormant for decades until I came across OFF P2. Since then I have re-entered the amateur historian worl with a passion. I too fly less than I read but I'm eternally grateful for the attention that has gone into this great sim and for what it has brought me back to.

!YO eerga I

Indeed, AFC pin-up material. Mind you, so are the sheep (and for we Welshmen too, alledgedly) And I've tried 'standing on one leg into the wind', old chap, but I keep getting me foot caught on the firing lever of the Vickers. Put half a dozen round through the Skipper's tailplanes yesterday... he wasn't happy!

There's Zeppelins in the preview movie, Home Defence may be in from the... er... OFF, so to speak.

Errr... well that one's not news, I've been playing OFF with one trouser leg rolled up, this past year, just in case. [EDIT] Yeah, and you know OFF2 will have cows, right? That's to attract the alien abductors, that is. And they'll know where you live 'cos Olham's got you all plotted, see! [/EDIT]

I'm always browsing second-hand bookshops, military or otherwise, wild horses can't drag me past one! PM me your limit on paperback and hardback Olham and if I find a copy I'll pick you one up. Alternatively, The Book Depository appear to have a PDF version for £9.00 if you just want to read it... although on that score your local lending library would get you an international loan copy for less. Don't forget your local library, as I've remarked before. My local librarians have even stopped commenting on my requests these days, I just get a raised eyebrow occasionally... some Italian titles are rather wordy!

Unbelievable! I've had ROF on my machine for a year or so, bought a fair bit of content too. I played it from time to time, it had its good points but never gave me the immersion of OFF. But I was glad to have two WW1 flight sims of quality and therefore supportive of both. But what was ROF is shortly to be just empty disk space. That comment of Jason's necessitates its removal from my machine.

Any of my fellow Brits watch the TV adaptation of Sebastian Faulks seminal novel of WW1? What did you think? My tu'penorth... good but not nearly good enough. Suffered badly by truncation; dropped the contextually important 'modern day' sections; didn't close in a way that made you understand how much the war had changed Stephen and the characters didn't ave time to develop properly. Good points... the opening day of the Somme offensive was re-created well given the limited focus and brought a lump to my throat, especially when they realised the wire wasn't cut and when the roll call was read out; NML looked authentic; Jack Firebrace was casted well; horrible wounds (hardly a good point per se - but it certainly added a dose of visceral emphesis which was needed.)

And a long way from MS Flight Simulator in black, cyan, magenta and white! I remember when I thought Falcon AT was the best I could ever hope for! The codebase is probably sophisticated enough by now. Don't see why you couldn't, but I'm probably missing something. If not... OFF 3 perhaps! I'll stump up towards the licence.

And hence those memory-hooking scenes of WW1, namely Passchendaele. Yet the weather wasn't all bad, September was hot, I recall reading. Nevertheless, duckboards across a sea of sucking mud in which stand the vestiges of once-proud trees, and into which men and horses fell irredeemably to their deaths, is one of the mind-seared images of the whole conflict. Near enough a 'racial memory' for my generation.

Hi redpiano,first let me add to the welcome to OFF. Claim confirmations do take a while (days) to come through. As to filling in the form, there have been several debates on what guarantees a confirmation an I, like lots of other players, tend towards the verbose, a) because it seems to work and b) because adds to the one thing that OFF delivers way in excess of ROF, i.e. immersion. Here's a couple of examples: 13/;8/;1917 ;8h;29 ;Flanders ;Droglandt ;Patrol Friendly Front Lines ; Flying: Sopwith Triplane (Twin Guns). On this day claims: ;1 ;Alb DV . ;4000 ft. 2 Miles ESE of Merville, encountered three Hun Albatri. HA had black tails, green and purple wings. Pursued one machine with McAulley. Fired approximately 150 rounds, HA seen to spin and crash. . Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Fred Wilson Status : Confirmed ; 13/;8/;1917 ;12h;51 ;Flanders ;Droglandt ;Railyard Attack ; Flying: Sopwith Triplane (Twin Guns). On this day claims: ;1 ;Alb DV . ;1320 Hours. 1 mile east of La Gorgue. Having descended from briefed altitude to assist friendly squadron - unnecessarily - observed lone Albatros breaking away north east. Pursued and fired approx. 150 rounds. HA entered flat spin and crashed in woods. HA decorated in red and blue, with 'lozenge' wings. Witnessed by: Ian McAulley Phil Theobald Status : Confirmed ; If you look in the CampaignData\Pilots\PilotnClaims.txt file (where 'n' is the sequence number of your pilot) you'll see a number at the end of your claim text. This is an approximate percentage chance of confirmation. Experiment with different levels of information in your claims until the numbers are consistently over 80 and you'll kget a feel for what 'works'.

There you have one of the subtler reasons why OFFers prefer OFF to any other flight sim.... The Devs. Their love for the subject and the desire to immerse the player is such that it's not a case of 'this sim will look jaw-dropping gorgeous and run like silk off a polished shovel for the elite bleeding-edge few'... but 'we want as near the maximum experience for as near a maximum of players'. It ain't about the eye-candy it's about the overall feeling. With love you get a masterpiece, with money you get a product.

There never were...

Assuming you haven't seen it already... LINK

A reflection on this particular point of view: The scene still worked for me, even though it did not align fully with the novel. I personally find it very believable that an educated man - who had viewed the war as an exercise in futility and degradation; who had been trapped underground and close to death for days at the very end when he thought he might have made it through; who had grown close to very few and had had them all taken from him by the War - should collapse sobbing on the shoulder of the German officer who told him it was finally over. I think I might have done the same in such a situation.