Olham

The losses especially on the British side were terribly high, due to much shorter training time. The French suffered less losses, and the Germans the least, as far as I know. But yes, the toll of blood, youth and intelligence was a terrible waste. And yes, regarded from that angle, it can be sobering to try to fly through the whole war in OFF. I never managed to survive even only one year so far. So flying OFF for me is a deep bow in the face of the deeds and the bravery of these young pilots.

Thank you, von Paulus, wasn't sure.

I don't really like ground attacks, but this one with Jasta 21 was great fun! My boys attacked some Renault trucks on a bridge, whilst I blew up some tents, boxes, barrels and trucks nearby. Ritter von Schleich, Emil Thuy, Karl Thom and Rudolf Matthaei attacked some gun position not far from us. Only negative point was: me and my flight had attacked the wrong target - didn't get any credit. But hey, that can happen, when you fly without TAC - it was fun anyway!

Just tried the 4 different settings for Smoothvision HD in ATI Control Center: Box, Narrow Tent, Wide Tent and Edge Detect But either my 4870 doesn't support that yet, or it doesn't seem to make any difference. What do you guys say?

The best idea I can offer: grow up and get yourself P3 - and fight like a man! It is so much more challenging, and the price is more than acceptable now.

Exactly the same trade everywhere on the planet it seems, Lou! Translate it, change the items to "Sigurd-Hefte", "Nappos" and "Auto-Quartet", and it would be a German memory...

"Vott??? Yoda? Vy is zere nossink about any Yoda in der Intelligence reportz?!?!?" Muszt I do everyssink myselff?!?!?"

Thanks for the link, Hasse Wind. checked through some Bf 109 wreckage pictures, and I have goose skin now.

You don't even have to dig, Lou - here is a site you may already know. Some of the stuff lies openly there. http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/artefacts.html

Great story, Lou! Wonderful - bringing up childhood memories. I think, with WW1 there is so much well documented and known; it is still so fresh - I don't think you couldn't take a gun with you, if you found one. But I wouldn't really dig for items. What I will do some day, is to make a bicycle/train trip to Roucourt and other former German airfields. Just for the feelings this would arise. Many villages haven't changed at all.

P 47 HVAR rockets?!?!? Kind of Time Tunnel, eyh?

Tch! Rockets!

Sometimes you see things like that in German Ebay - but I know too little about the details of the original parts, and I don't have the money to buy them anyway. Here are two examples; one at least is already over: http://cgi.ebay.de/9891-Alte-Fliegerhaube-1-WK-/370419793656?pt=Militaria http://cgi.ebay.de/WK-Fliegerhaube-Leder-/250685597883?pt=Militaria There were also 3x WW2 Fliegerhaube from German Jagdflieger. If I was a rich man...

Taxidermist was a stupid idea - if you have a museum near, you should ask the conservators there how they would treat such items, Lou. They may know tricks, or special treatment stuff that is safe to use.

Lou, perhaps you ask a taxidermist, what to do best with the leather and fur? It always touches a string inside me, to find or see such things, that are part of history already.

Nothing wrong with using what is already there, nbryant. The skinners of OFF have given us literally thousands of skins. When I mark all skin files, my computer tells me at the bottom, that they are 3.792 skins. If I now take off some 22 own skins, the skinners have given us about: 3.770 skins ! So I always search for craft or parts of them, which I can cut out, change the way I want to, and stick them together again. In such a big fund, you will always find the right parts. Carry on!

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury. Well printing money for Monopoly seems pretty much the same as printing money for states. There is always printed more than has been really earned by true labour, and still it's never enough for all to live on the Schloßallee / Boardwalk.

From all that I have read about Rise of Flight, it doesn't seem to have a good and immersive "Campaign" - for me a most important point. "Over Flanders fields" has that to an extent, which is just great. If you want to fly a longer campaign; if you want to develop a good pilot and fly him as long as possible - maybe even through the whole war - it must be OFF!

(House of Parliament-style:) "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!" I had overlooked Jasta 8, and Jasta 11 getting the overhauled version Fokker D.VIII for the last two weeks. I have added them above.

Yes, I've seen them and think we should regard him as an "aknowledged skinner".

Some appetizers....

An "honorary associate Englishman" - I regard that as a compliment! Cheers, boys!

Could you have been rammed by another craft? The E.III is probably one of the most challenging fighters to begin with - it is difficult to fight in such underpowered craft; you need to know very weel, how to use and regain energy. I would never recommend to any newbies, to start in such early craft. The Halberstadt is the first really good to fly German fighter; the Albatros D.I - D.II is wonderfull with it's stability and immense firepower. Think about it, when the E.III starts to annoy you.

Well, here is my positive list about the English (and this is a compliment from a German): 1. they know to brew some very good beers, ales and bitters 2. they know how to write, record and perform some excellent rock and pop songs/records 3. they seem to have invented humour, and they spread it in all varieties 4. they have one of the nicest countries, with some of the nicest places on the whole planet 5. they are quite easy to be with, cause they don't mind that you're crazy - they are anyway 6. they have built the most beautiful fighter of WW2 - the Supermarine Spitfire 7. and they can cook (but they hardly ever show it to strangers - I was lucky sometimes)

Hmmm - unfortunately, they don't seem to accept PayPal. I just discovered this title: JEW WITH THE BLUE MAX, THE, Nowarra, Heinz, John W. Caler, 1967, fine, card cover, biography of Wilhelm Frankl, a Jew and member of Jasta 4, who was awared the Pour le Merite, photos, 32 pgs. $17.50 Should be interesting! Well, I know the title now, and will search on. Here is another great list of books on WW1 aviation: http://www.raindesert.com/great_war/bibliography.html