Gepard

Take the good old European Air War or Battle of Britain II.

Nice bird for Battle of Britain.

As far as i know there are no red side campaigns for my Formosa terrain available.

same reason, why east-german aircrafts had no No. 13 too.

 

13 is a"bad luck" number....

Not really correct. East german tactical numbers were 3 digit, also never a chance to get the No.13.

Never No.13. You will no russian plane find with a tactical number 13.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897.

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

*****************************************************************************

Francis P. Church’s editorial, “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” was an immediate sensation, and went on to became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in the The New York Sun in 1897, almost a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the paper went out of business.

I think some people still today have problems to distinguish nazi and german. Still today they believe German = Nazi and in some areas of the world (GB, but also South America) some people greeting a german with "Heil", what i feel is a shame.

It is true, that a lot of germans were Nazis. But it is also true, that a lot of germans were no Nazis. And there were a lot of germans that were enemies of the Nazis and fought against them. The first victims of the Nazis were not the jewish people as all world seems to think, it were german unionists, social democrats, communists etc. with one word german Antifascists who were killed and imprisoned in concentration camps.

Nazis were a movement all around the world from the early 20th. You could have find them in whole western europe. There were british Nazis too (the father of the todays Formula 1 boss was the british Nazi leader). There were Nazis in the USA. (The famous Charles Lindberg was one of them.) And so on. Nazis were and are no german problem alone.

If you say the Me-109 is a Nazi plane so it is not true. The pilot was a Nazi or not. It has nothing to do with the plane.

In my family history i find 2 relatives who had flown in the Luftwaffe. One was a recon pilot and was shot down near Charkow. The other was a Me-410 pilot in the Reichluftverteidigung (air defence) and survived the war. Non of the two men was a Nazi. In contrary. Before 1933 they were member of the social democratic and liberal combat organisation "Reichsbanner" who fought to defend the german democracy. (Liberal is to see in european context, not in the typical american thinking liberal = left). And there were a lot of germans who fought in the Luftwaffe with the same personal background.

I had the chance to speak with the former Me-410 pilot a lot of times. And one time i asked him, why he has flow combat planes for Hitler. His answer was, that he not has flown for the Nazis, but for the german people. His motivation to fight was the wish to protect the german civilists against british and american bombing raids. He has seen the burning towns, the fire storm and the dead women and children. To protect is a good reason to fight. So i see this.

Very nice bird. Made a quick and dirty Su-20 mod for the egyptians and flew some combat sorties over the Suez canal. I love it.

The question is who is the "bad guy"? I think on all side of the frontline the soldiers think, that they are the good guys and the others are the bad ones.

DRV = Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Its the question for what do you need the plane. Of course the F-18 is the more glamorous bird. Its faster, higer developed, more modern etc. But at the moment the Warthog is much more usefull. In Afghanistan or Iraq the A-10 is the needed plane. The man on he ground needs the support from the air and in CAS the slower but heavy armoured A-10 superior to the fast Hornet.

I have the strong feeling, that in the moment the money to develope new planes went in the wrong direction. F-22, F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab Gripen, Su-27 and MiG-29 derivates are all nice, very nice and excellent birds, but nearly useless in the afghan mountainsite or the iraqi cities. What our air forces now realy need are successors of the A-10 or Su-25 Sturmoviks.

Russian language is not easy to learn. I had it 7 years in the school and my biggest success by using this language was to find a toilett in Moscow.

The UB is only a trainer. No real radar. Not good for combat.

But the MiG-29M2 strike plane double seater would be a very welcome addition.

The crisis affects me. I feel it very strongly in my small enterprise. The people fall in a typical german behavior called "Angstsparen" (fear savings would be the word by word translation) The people dont spent the money, but hold it back for worser times. And so i sell much less than in the years before.

Its interessting how a simple question can cause such a strange discussion. When i started this threat i had only the intention to know wheter other guys act similar like me and my 7 years old son or wheter they act different. No more and no less.

There was no thinking about nationalism, patriotism or whatever someone want to read into my question.

I would prefer if you concentrate on the original question. If you want to discuss nationalism, patriotism or other subjects, then open your own threat and dont hijack this one.

Good idea to have a place for terrain makers.

Will we hope that.

A russian movie that never found its way into german cinemas is now out on DVD.

Its a Afghanistan story. I think its worth to have a look on it.

All groundobjects (AAA, Ships etc) have gunner positions were you can adjust the "know how" of the gunners.

Storm, East Germany was full of prepared Autobahn runways.

Not only in WOV. You find it also in FE, WOE, WOI etc.

The Su-39 is great! Nice bird. Very nice bird. Very very nice bird. The only things i have changed so far is to improve the armour and to give the bird a different name. Thunderbolt II sound like A-10. I have choosen "Buran", the russian word for "Blizzard".

Storm, the picture of the MiG-31BM with attached KH-58 missile is a "Türke" as we say in german language. The MiG guys have simply hang the missile on the plane. But hanging the missile on a hardpoint and firing a missiles are two completly different things. In the 90th the russians did such maskirovkas a couple of times on various air shows with various typs of combat planes.

The story with the ARM armed MiG-25 is, as far as i know, the invention of the developers of the game "Harpoon" which was popular in the early 90th. It had a nice data base and a lot of people thought they could believe all what they found in it. But in reality i have never seen a ARM armed MiG-25. But in the game it was great.

If i set them as "Transport" they will follow the normal streets as they are defined in the movement.ini. But i would not like to trade the Lorry (truck) convoys against railway trains. I love it to shoot on trucks.

My idea was to create a new category of groundobjects called "Train". But how i can make it, that in armed recon missions the "train" is choosen as target in the same way as the "Transport"? Is there somewhere a hiden switch?

Dedicated SEAD airplanes like the Tornado ECR the WP countries does not had. The SEAD job was done by all fighter bombers. In the first time primary by the Su-7. In the FLIEGERREVUE EXTRA No.22 an article about soviet nukes in Germany descriped the soviet way to destroy western HAWK complexes by using tactical nukes. This was in the 70th. With the new generation of fighterbombers Su-17, 22, 24 a new generation highly precise air to ground missiles were introduced. The Cha-25 family (KH-25, X-25) had different seekerheads. TV, Laser, radar guided and Anti Radar. This missiles were widely used and proved lethal in Afghanistan war. Only the Anti Radar missiles could not used in this war theater, but on life fire training sites it was found as good. The Cha-25 family was used for short (to medium) range attacks. For longer range the Cha-58 (Kh-58) was used. While the Cha-25 worked autonom, the Cha-58 need a additionaly sensorpack on the plane. The Su-22 which carried this missile looked thatswhy a little bit "pregnant".

The MiG-23BN were simple dumb iron droppers. For SEAD they had only UB-32 pods or cluster bombs. The Cha-23 missile was only crap.

The MiG-27 was able to use laser guided missiles and so it was a better SEAD plane han the 23BN, but not as good as the Su-17 or Su-22.

SEAD versions of MiG-25 and MiG-31 have never seen active service. I think it were only rumours than real facts that this birds exist.