Olham

Thanks for the book-tip, Rickity - sounds very interesting!

Thank you for your work, HPW. What does the above mean - is it strengthening the engine? Cause, I have noticed, that the Albatros engine is still getting demolished on almost every attack on two-seaters, even though I am usually only receiving 2-3 rounds. But the engine is always getting hit, and very often destroyed. I read, that the fighter pilots went pretty close in their attacks on two-seats, but I didn't read that their engines got destroyed anywhere near as often, doing that. Rear guns are already set to "less accurate" in "Workshops". So I guess the engine-damage hit box was still too large.

That's correct; there was a TV series, Creaghorn - here it is: But as Shiloh said, that was the typical "no-good-for-anything-else-but combat-pilot" sort of series.

It looks like a new version - couldn't detect old scenes. But you're right, they often warm up old stews. Why did they not make a film about the "Black Sheep" around "Pappy" Boyington?

Thank you very much, Lou !

The title of your thread is the lesson you have (hopefully) learnt, Javito! When you are travelling so low already, and enemy aircraft come diving down on you, it might be better not to dive - you give up more alt., and they will still be faster, cause they were in their dive already - but to perform a tight turn. That should make them overshoot, with not much time to get keep you in their gun sights. Good you could get out of that - otherwise your wife might have assumed from the noises from your room, that you had decided to modify the house by tearing down some walls?

They had very good glasses, Wayfarer; often good quality scissor scopes. I've seen a photo of Manfred von Richthofen looking through one. With these they could determine the distance of incoming aircraft, and the type of craft. They knew very well, where which type of two-seater was based. So the danger was very big, that they might know, where the two-seaters had to return to after their mission. And even if they might not be able to follow and chase the two-seats, they might cut their way off, when they had to return. So, the more devious ways could perhaps save you.

From what I read, they created the flight path so, that they followed roads or rivers until they reached a landmark, which they used as a wayoint, from where they could follow another road or river or landmark. British fighter patrols seemed to fly a bit by taste. I don't think they really followed a flight path, but rather patrolled a certain area, which they knew the landmarks of. So they always knew, where they were. And if they got lost in a fight, they headed back westerly, until they found a known landmark again. They often flew devious ways, because they could hope to gain an element of surprise, when they followed a German flight from the east - the direction the Germans would expect them from least. For two-seaters, that must have been different; they often had fixed mission targets. But they did not approach them straight, when they didn't want the enemy to guess, where they were heading. Otherwise a call from the front line to a Jasta further inland could startle up the enemy too easily. So they used slightly devious ways to blur their intentions; like flying east to a certain landmark, and then south from there to the target. And if you return on a different way, the enemy cannot lurk behind you for your return. But here the two-seat-experts may have more to add.

Update 30 July 2011 - 13:46 h Berlin summer time (= GMT + 2) smilingmonkey, Australia, has moved to the countryside The maps are in post 1 of this thread No one had noticed, that the whole Africa map had been missing for quite some time. I only noticed it now, and it is back now.

Yeah, that's very British understatement, indeed! A bit sticky...

"Zatt iss der late Revenge - ze Dsherrmans vill vin ze Warr! Mmuahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!!"

That was a profound explanation of the British humour being used as a shield, as a sort of comfort, or as a remedy, Flyby. Thanks a lot! Yes, every nation may have their different ways to deal with things. The Germans usually "shield" themselves with rules, regulations or traditions - well, maybe not the younger ones anymore. The Japanese use extreme politeness and correct form of behaviour, and smiles, where they should be angry. There was a kind of research recently, which showed, that the Germans are regarded in many countries as too openly direct in talks, whilst the Austrians were covering things up more in polite or creamy half-truths or set phrases, and the British did often seem to say something different than they really meant or felt. While the British and the Austrians regarded the German behaviour as brusque, too head-on and almost intrusive, the interviewed Germans found the Austrians to be liars or at least twisty often; and the British to be indifferent and careless. We had this funny behaviour-thing some time ago here already. It still makes me wonder - seems that despite much more travelling and even the internet, the various nations have still kept their own characters and identities. Which I think is great, as long as we can still understand each other. Cheers to that between two nations, which both can brew some good beers!

...with a triple "Salute!" to our WW1 History Professor Shredward!

Here I post one of my claims - it is how I usually write them, more or less. The red part is, what I actually filled in; the rest is getting added by the OFF Manager, when it saves the claim. Note: all semicolons are getting added by OFF Manager - they are used internally as program marks. You should NEVER USE SEMICOLONS in the text you write. When you are not sure about the exact aircraft type you shot down, select "single seat" or "two-seater". 26/;6/;1917 ;10h;28 ;Flanders ;Proville ;Balloon Busting ; Flying: Albatros DV (Uprated). On this day claims: ;1 ;Nieuport 17 lewis . ;Our mission target was the enemy balloon base 692 southwest of Cambrai. Arriving near the spotter, we got under attack by many British Nieuport 17 Lewis. I chased one craft with blue capital letters "C" on fuselage and top wing. Although he tried to escape in the clouds, I hit him with some good bursts. He went down badly smoking at 10:55 h north of the enemy field at Lieramont. . Witnessed by: Ernst Roesner, Eduard Herzberg, Emil Langenfeld, Josef Dirks, Georg-Josef Kemper Status : Confirmed ;

I did not mean to say, that SPR was a great war film - personally I preferred "Band of Brothers"; but then I wasn't there to see, how correct everything was or not. I have only pointed at two bits of the film SPR - the landing at the beach, which I think showed such horror most realistic of all films made about this so far (and I didn't say: showed it perfectly as it really was); and the interaction between the Tiger commander and the shielding infantry men around the tank. I didn't mention this to get into a debate about detailed military operations - I just found that some films - like the short "go and shoot me a tank" bit above, does not do the men justice. May be a lack of humour - I confess, I don't have that sort of it.

Seems you had your "baptism of fire" today, ulti? I know what you mean about sweaty hands etc. There should be a warning on the package "Not for people with heart diseases!" When you have sent your wingmen down to attack ground targets, and then find yourself in trouble with other fighters, you could press "H" for "Help!" repeatedly. At least your direct wingman should now break off his attack; maybe the whole flight would come for help. I had a great fight with two SPADs yesterday, flying an Albatros D.Va. With the almost invisible tracers provided by Creaghorn, I used most of my ammo on one SPAD (they die hard!), and hit the other quite a bit. But then it was used up, and the SPAD began chasing me. Now I pressed "H", and within a minute, he had the other 4 Albatros chasing him - they shot him to pieces.

Maybe some people are like the French racing car driver in "Grand Prix". When an interviewer asks him, if he doesn't feel any fear, when he thinks about all the possible accidents and injuries, that might happen in a race, he asnwers her: "I think I just have no phantasy. If I had the phantasy to imagine these things, I couldn't drive a racing car." When I read about how sick the smell of a battle scene can make you, I knew that I had seen nothing yet.

Maybe you're right, Mike, and it's just the British humorous way to deal with such situations. To me, the invasion scene at the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan", and the very well made European part of "Band of Brothers", gave me a glimpse of how it could have been. All war films before didn't show much of how it is to be terribly wounded, or dying. It's just that I wonder if kids, who have never seen real war, and watch the old films, might come to the conclusion, war was a great kind of holiday camp with adventures?

Well, Mike, I see it different - this is rather one of those "posed films" which don't pay respect to the guys who fought there. If it would have been so easy-peasy - "Stop your cooking and go out and shoot me a tank:" - then the whole war would have been over in a year. Those paratroopers in the Oosterbeek pocket stood against German paras and tanks. If there were big tanks, it would have been SS. You couldn't do childsplay with the SS or the Paras - they were well trained, very tough soldiers with very good equipment. That Oosterbeek pocket scenario must have been part of what was later told in "One Bridge Too Many". Those paratroopers held a bridge head with very few men, and for quite some time, before they received any help. Many of them surely felt dispair some of the time; they were afraid to be let alone; they went through many hours like that; and in the end - cause they resisted the enemy AND their own fears and dispair - they won the battle. But that was never as easy as the above scene. Killing a tank (which was always shielded by many soldiers with MPs, handgranades etc.), was surely a task, that could make you sh*t in your pants. Nothing you would quickly finish between two cups of tea. Sorry, Mike - this isn't meant at all offensive - but such films make a joke of those real tough achievements those men had to make in those rough days.

I think it does, ulti - I'm not quite sure though, cause I most often shoot down more than one E/A, but I mostly claim only one, to keep it more realistic. So I can hardly tell, if the forced landing counted. But I think to remember cases, when it did. I like the Brisfit picture for the special lighting and athmosphere.

BeastyBoy, 5 percent acceptance is definitely too little. You may not know this: you must never use any semicolons in your claim form! It works as a stop sign in the programming text, and the claim will never be read beyond the semicolon. Stop using them, and you should get far more confirmations. For example, in the above text you wrote "don;t" with a semicolon instead "don't" - if you do that in a claim, it is wasted. Now, I wish you much better success for the future.

Fighting tanks in films is often shown wrong, or gives at least a wrong impression. German tanks would not have moved into a dangerous zone without Panzergrenadiere around them. The tank crew has no good overview, and would be easy to kill by soldiers with bazookas, if they were not shielded by soldiers. You see that quite well in "Saving Private Ryan", how the tank commander would not only lead his own crew, but also the Panzergrenadiere around the tank.

Just found this photo here in the website "Flieger-Album": http://flieger-album...s_id=view&s=187 About the city arms of Würzburg under the cockpit, Rainer Anton comments on that blog: Kommentar : 4 von raineranton erstellt am : 26.02.2011 23:20 "Walter Böning hatte keinen Bezug zu Würzburg. Es handelt sich bei dem Flugzeug aber um die Ex-Maschine von Böning. Böning gab die Maschine dann an Karl Hopf weiter, welcher gebürtig aus Würzburg stammte. Hopf bemalte die Maschine zusätzlich mit dem Stadtwappen seiner Heimatstadt." "Walter Boening had no connection to Wuerzburg. But this was the ex-aircraft of Boening. Boening passed the craft on to Karl Hopf, who was born in Wuerzburg. Hopf painted the additional city arms of his hometown on the craft." I had read somewhere, that it was not clear, if this was Böning's Albatros. The "Flieger-Album" blog seems to have cleared that. It is a great website anyway - go there and check it out, chaps.

Thanks for the link, Shiloh! Now I can watch it, too.

There is even footage filmed in Oosterbeek on YouTube, Mike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rup0Hu72wqw Operation Market Garden - In the Oosterbeek Pocket http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrpgbTaSXQ&feature=related