shredward

Standard loadout for the RFC was one tracer to three ball rounds. Individual pilots sometimes asked their armourers for other mixes, but 1 and 3 was the norm. We must be careful to distinguish between ammunition types - tracer was very different to incendiary, and then of course there was Buckingham, Pomeroy, Brock, and various AP rounds. If you want to explore the legal framework, niceties, and practice of their use, you could start here: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/other-ww...ary-ammo-2.html Cheers, shredward

Now THAT was a trip down memory lane. We stand on the shoulders of giants. shredward

Hi Guys, Tracer was first used before WW1 but suffered from the fact that as the phosphor burnt away the bullet became lighter and the trajectory departed from that of the normal rounds that it was mixed with. The "Woolwich Flaming Bullet" was introduced in 1914 but proved to be useless! The Ministry of Munitions developed a bullet known as the "Sparklet" (it was made in a soda syphon factory and Sparklet was a brand name of the inserts used in the syphons). The correct name for this tracer bullet was the SPK Mk VII-T. The SPK Mk VII-T, issued to the RFC in July 1916, contained a mixture of 1 part magnesium to 8 parts barium peroxide which gave a "clear bright light which can be clearly observed". The SPK Mk VII-G was an update on the T introduced in 1917. The magnesium burns with a clear bright white light - the barium leaves a smoking trail . Most RFC pilot literature describes tracer as white smoking trails. The above of course was the Allied effort. The Central Powers developed their own variants and the "LS" was in use by late 1916. LS stood for Leuchtspur - luminous tracing ammunition. An armour piercing tracer was introduced in early 1917, known as the PL - Panzer Leuchtspur. British tests showed this round to be almost as effective as a standard armour piercing round. With thanks to Mike Westrop and Harry Woodman - Early Aircraft Armament Cheers, shredward

from the History Channel: April 1, 1918 Birth of the RAF On April 1, 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF) is formed as an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RAF took its place beside the Royal Navy and the British Army as a separate military service with its own ministry. In April 1911, eight years after the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first-ever flight of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft, an air battalion of the British Army's Royal Engineers was formed at Larkhill in Wiltshire. The battalion consisted of aircraft, airship, balloon and man-carrying kite companies. In December 1911, the Royal Navy formed the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch, Kent. The following May, both were absorbed into the newly created Royal Flying Corps, which established a new flying school at Upavon, Wiltshire, and formed new airplane squadrons. In July 1914 the specialized requirements of the Navy led to the creation of RNAS. Barely more than a month later, on August 4, Britain declared war on Germany and entered World War I. At the time, the RFC had 84 aircraft, while the RNAS had 71 aircraft and seven airships. Later that month, four RFC squadrons were deployed to France to support the British Expeditionary Force. During the next two years, Germany took the lead in aerial warfare with technologies like the Zeppelin airship and the synchronised machine gun. England's towns and cities subsequently endured many bombing raids which spread fear among the populace and loss of production in the factories. Repeated German air raids led British military planners to push for the creation of a separate air ministry, which would carry out strategic bombing against Germany. On April 1, 1918, as a result of these efforts, the RAF was formed, along with a female branch of the service, the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF). By the war's end in November 1918, the RAF had dropped 5,500 tons of bombs and claimed 2,953 enemy aircraft destroyed, gaining clear air superiority along the Western Front and contributing to the Allied victory over Germany and the other Central Powers. It had also become the largest air force in the world at the time, with some 300,000 officers and airmen—plus 25,000 members of the WRAF—and more than 22,000 aircraft. Happy Birthday!!!

I'm gobsmacked!!!

Hi Willy, There can be problems if your addresses don't match up - billing address, mailing address, email address, PayPal etc. Seems like everything has to be linear, or the Avangate protocol balks. It can make you crazy trying to straighten it out, but you will eventually. If that was any help... shred

Well, I'm a diehard Naval Ten guy, so you know they got the good stuff! Cheers, shredward

Thanks Kamikaze, Well spotted. We are looking into it. Cheers, shredward

I love some of the models they've got - chateaux for the chaps to live in, cathedrals for landmarks, ships of the Grand and High Seas Fleets - they've got some fun stuff going there! Cheers, shredward

Thanks Moritz! I'm scratching my head over this one. Thanks for noting it! We'll try and puzzle it out. Cheers, shredward

Correct your aim, or speak to your ground crew

from Paul F. Wilson March 30, 1918 The Charge at Moreuil Wood Gordon Muriel Flowerdew served as an Lieutenant (Acting Captain) in "C" Squadron, Lord Strathcona's Horse, Canadian Cavalry Brigade. Born in Billingford, Norfolk, England, he emigrated to Canada in 1903 and settled in as a rancher in British Columbia where he joined the British Columbia Horse, a militia cavalry unit. When the war broke out he transferred to Lord Strathcona's Horse. Flowerdew was awarded his VC for action at the Bois de Moreuil (a.k.a. Moreuil Wood), southeast of Amiens, France, March 30, 1918, during the “Kaiserschlact,” the final, last-ditch series of major German offensives designed to break the Allied lines in Flanders, Picardy, and the Artois, and divide the French and British armies. A gap developed between the British 20th Division to the north and French forces to the south – the Bois de Moreuil was right in the middle of the gap, and Flowerdew’s unit was one of those assigned to take it and hold it. From his citation: "For most conspicuous bravery and dash when in command of a squadron detailed for special service of a very important nature. On reaching the first objective, Lt. Flowerdew saw two lines of the enemy, each about sixty strong, with machine guns in the centre and flanks, one line being about two hundred yards behind the other. Realising the critical nature of the operation and how much depended upon it, Lt. Flowerdew ordered a troop under Lt. Harvey, V.C. to dismount and carry out a special movement [to outflank the Germans still in the Wood] while he led the remaining three troops to the charge. The squadron (less one troop) passed over both lines, killing many of the enemy with the sword; and wheeling about galloped at them again. Although the squadron had then lost about 70 per cent of its numbers, killed and wounded, from rifle and machine gun fire directed on it from the front and both flanks, the enemy broke and retired. The survivors of the squadron then established themselves in a position where they were joined, after much hand-to-hand fighting, by Lt. Harvey's party. Lt. Flowerdew was dangerously wounded through both thighs during the operation, but continued to cheer on his men. There can be no doubt that this officer's great valour was the prime factor in the capture of the position." The action was one of very few during World War I where cavalry took an active part in successful operations. He died of wounds the next day at the 41st Casualty Clearing Station, Bois de Moreuil.

from the History Channel: March 30, 1918 Moreuil Wood On March 30, 1918, British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the German offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies. After launching the first stage of a major spring offensive on March 21, 1918--masterminded by Erich Ludendorff, chief of the German general staff--the German army swiftly pushed through the British 5th Army along the Somme, crossing the river on March 24. Their attacks were less successful to the north, however, around the crucially important Vimy Ridge, where Britain's 3rd Army successfully held its positions. Determined to push on toward Paris, Ludendorff threw his troops against the town of Amiens. To Ludendorff's distress, although they came within 11 miles of the city, the Germans had great difficulty capturing Amiens and its railway junction, which the British and French were told to hold at all costs. Lacking sufficient cavalry, the Germans also had problems delivering artillery and supplies to their front-line troops; those troops also received no relief, and were expected to sustain the momentum of the attack all on their own. By the morning of March 30, the Germans had occupied Moreuil Wood, some 20 kilometers south of Amiens. On that day, an Allied force including British and Canadian cavalry and air brigades confronted the Germans head-on. By the end of the day, the Allies had managed to halt the German advance at Moreuil Wood, despite suffering heavy casualties. The events at Moreuil Wood broke the momentum of the German attacks. While the operation had technically been successful, resulting in a gain of almost 40 miles of territory and inflicting heavy losses on the Allies; 177,739 British troops died or were taken prisoner during the battle, at a daily rate of 11,000 men, while the French lost nearly 80,000; German troops had also lost over a quarter of a million men to injury or death. The casualties included Ludendorff’s own stepson, a German pilot shot down over the battlefield during the attacks. Ludendorff called off the attacks on April 5; the next stage of the offensive would begin just four days later. By early April 1918, both the Allies and the Central Powers had entered a crucial period of reckoning. A major German victory on the Western Front would mean the end of the war, in their favor. As British Prime Minister David Lloyd George told the leaders of the British Dominions in a speech on March 31: “The last man may count.” The Allies, at least, could count on fresh infusions from the United States, which increased its troops in France to more than 300,000 by the end of that month. For their part, the Germans were prepared to wager everything they had on this spring offensive—the last they would undertake in World War I.

Great Stuff! I sure hope it comes to the widescreen here. I like to think of myself as a student of history, and I could give a rat's ass whether this film is historically accurate. Those flying sequences are brilliant - they give you the pure adrenalin rush of whirling through the cloud canyons and columns of fire that were the mass dogfights of the Great War. And though we strive for complete historical accuracy in Over Flanders Fields, I hope that we also convey some of the flavour and the sizzle of what it was like to fly and fight in those first winged chariots of fire. Cheers, shredward

Hubris. If he hadn't painted that aiming mark on his centre-section, he might still be alive. Rest in Pieces.

We do have , in my extremely biased opinion, an amazing Great War flight sim. But, we are six friends, not a corporation with staff and budgets and marketing and all that other stuff. So, it is available online, cause it's easy, and we would rather devote our time and energy to doing what we are good at - building Over Flanders Fields. Cheers, shredward

All of them. Cheers, shredward

There are about 3200 skins in the current version. I haven't counted, but I would guess that about one tenth of them are unit skins. The rest are all individual aces. Cheers, shredward

Royal Engineers. Wartime necessity whot!

Xavier Jouve has just done his AceKill list for OFF, should be available soon! Cheers, shredward

from the History Channel: March 26, 1917 First Battle of Gaza The first of three battles fought in the Allied attempt to defeat Turkish forces in and around the Palestinian city of Gaza takes place on this day in 1917. By January 1917, the Allies had managed to force the Turkish army completely out of the Sinai Peninsula in northeastern Egypt, leaving British forces in the region, commanded by Sir Archibald Murray, free to consider a move into Palestine. To do so, however, they would first have to confront a string of strong Turkish positions atop a series of ridges running west to east between the towns of Gaza and Beersheba and blocking the only viable passage into the heart of Palestine. These Turkish forces, commanded by the German general Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein, numbered some 18,000 troops; Murray planned to send twice that many British soldiers against them under the command of his subordinate, Sir Charles Dobell. On the morning of March 26, 1917, Dobell and his men advanced on the ridges under the cover of dense fog; they were able to successfully cut off the east and southeast of Gaza and deploy troops to prevent the Turks from sending reinforcements or supplies to the town. The 53rd Infantry Division, at the center of the advance, received considerable assistance from a cavalry force commanded by Sir Philip Chetwode. However, near the end of that day, with a victory in Gaza in sight, Dobel and Chetwode decided to call off the attack. The decision, attributed to the failing light and mounting casualties among the infantry troops, was nonetheless controversial—other officers believed the Turks had been on the verge of capitulating. Though the infantry resumed their attacks the next morning, the overnight delay had given Kressenstein time to reinforce the permanent garrison at Gaza with 4,000 new troops. After confronting a renewed Turkish counterattack, aided significantly by German reconnaissance aircraft from above, Dobell was forced to call off the attack. His forces suffered 4,000 casualties during the First Battle of Gaza, compared with only 2,400 on the Turkish side. A second assault on Gaza, launched the following April 17, was similarly unsuccessful. It was not until that autumn that British forces, under the new regional command of Sir Edmund Allenby, were able to conquer the town and turn to the next challenge: securing Palestine's capital city, Jerusalem, which fell into Allied hands on December 9, 1917.

from the History Channel: March 24, 1918 German Forces Cross the Somme On March 24, 1918, German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. Operation “Michael,” engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment. The brunt of the attack that followed was directed at the British 5th Army, commanded by General Sir Hubert Gough, stationed along the Somme River in northwestern France. This section was the most poorly defended of any spot on the British lines, due to the fact that it had been held by the French until only a few weeks before and its defensive positions were not yet fully fortified. Panic spread up and down the British lines of command, intensified by communications failures between Gough and his subordinates in the field, and German gains increased over the subsequent days of battle. On March 23, Crown Prince Rupprecht, on the German side of the line, remarked that “The progress of our offensive is so quick, that one cannot follow it with a pen.” The next day, German troops stormed across the Somme, having previously captured its bridges before French troops could destroy them. Despite having resolved to concentrate on weaker points of the enemy lines, Ludendorff continued to throw his armies against the crucial villages of Amiens (a railway junction) and Arras—which the British and French were instructed to hold at all costs—hoping to break through and push on towards Paris. By that time, German troops were exhausted, and transportation and supply lines had begun to break down in the cold and bad weather. Meanwhile, Allied forces had recovered from the initial disadvantage and had begun to gain the upper hand, halting the Germans at Moreuil Wood on March 30. On April 5, Ludendorff called off Operation “Michael.” It had yielded nearly 40 miles of territory, the greatest gains for either side on the Western Front since 1914. He would launch four more offensive pushes over the course of the spring and summer, throwing all of the German army’s resources into this last, desperate attempt to win the war.

from the History Channel: March 23, 1918 Paris Shelled At 7:20 in the morning on March 23, 1918, an explosion in the Place de la Republique in Paris announces the first attack of a new German gun. The Pariskanone, or Paris gun, as it came to be known, was manufactured by Krupps; it was 210mm, with a 118-foot-long barrel, which could fire a shell the impressive distance of some 130,000 feet, or 25 miles, into the air. Three of them fired on Paris that day from a gun site at CrÉpy-en-Laonnaise, 74 miles away. The gun sent Paris, a city that had withstood all earlier attempts at its destruction, including scattered bombings, reeling. At first, the Paris Defense Service assumed the city was being bombed, but soon they determined that it was actually being hit by artillery fire, a heretofore unimagined situation. By the end of the day, the shelling had killed 16 people and wounded 29 more. It would continue throughout the German offensive of that year in four separate phases between March 23 and August 9, 1918, inflicting a total of somewhere under 260 Parisian casualties. This low total was due to the fact that the residents of Paris learned to avoid gathering in large groups during shellings, limiting the number of those killed and wounded by the shells and diminishing the initially terrifying impact of the weapon. Almost all information about the Pariskanone, one of the most sophisticated weapons to emerge out of World War I, disappeared after the war ended. Later, the Nazis tried without success to reproduce the gun from the few pictures and diagrams that remained. Copies were deployed in 1940 against Britain across the English Channel, but failed to cause any significant damage.

Welcome back PD! Hope you like the new Mess - I know that you will find it a much happier place. Very glad to see you, Ted

Xavier Jouve has very kindly written a new list of names for French pilots - coming soon to a screen near you. Cheers, shredward