Post by JG26_Scannon on Dec 2, 2012 14:18:16 GMT -5
I know this is many months after the fact, but, I must still offer congratulations to all regarding the Fall Gelb campaign. In looking back what is most astounding is…we made it to the end. And “we” being the collective bunch of flight simmer/war junkie zealots on both the axis and allied sides that were willing to engage in a virtual combat reenactment of huge proportions with untested parameters. We started out with a scenario based on as authentic a footing as could be derived thanks to Badgers attention to detail and then journeyed back in time aboard the great SEOW time machine. For the campaign there was a start date, and an end date, with some loosely defined goals. We reenacted a war without a clue as to how it would actually play out and as such that was one of the key elements that made it entirely engaging. We knew how the actual historical battles transpired but as things progressed it was clear, this was our war and our situation where we dictated how it would be taken in generally good compliance with the campaign guidelines. There was always the specter of not knowing if strategies would actually work, not knowing if plans could be executed as thought out, not knowing if troops would live or die. It was the ebb and flow of troops and materials across the entire spectrum that brings it to life over simply flying a few coops strung together. Virtual lives actually hung in the balance…. And I actually cared about what happened to the guys in the air and on the ground.
Even though logistically there always hurdles with things like time zones and also the question of would the mission file get too big to handle etc etc the system performed so admirably that I hope we have raised the bar of SEOW prominence to Guiness Book proportions. Attempting another such endeavor should hopefully be met with relative assuredness. While it was a risk vs reward scenario not at any time do I recall there being any question as to whether to continue the campaign or not, minor issues perhaps but nothing earth shattering, sure people come and go over a year and 3 months but everyones lifestyle notwithstanding the core of extreme campaigners involved were captivated to the end and that was the reward. It was ikey who brought it to light in a conversation around mission #140 or so when the topic of discussion was “are we going to make it, are we going to win”… he said “Well mate yer at mission a hundred an fawty… you’ve already won…everyones won” . It was apparent that winning or losing didn’t matter and that having fun and good competition did.
Now that I have had time to disconnect myself from the campaign for a few months and de-stress, retune (after being released from my Heinz Guderian counterpart) I can truly say without reservation this has been the most satisfying war game experience I have been involved in bar none. Countless other flight sim campaigns I have participated in of both coop and MD style simply cannot compare to the level of detail brought forth with SEOW. This and coupled with it being a pleasure to fly along with and against some of the best and most competitive pilots out there so hats off to everyone who participated. From mission #1 to mission #172 this has been a learning experience. I’m sure there is still a great deal more to learn as well as we did not have functioning railways or ships, so we still have a ways to go but at least we are 50% there on the total SEOW curve. Even the pre-campaign festivities proceeded without a hitch, with the most enjoyable part for me being that the discussions of what is incorporated as available aircraft and ground resources were complete without much squabbling thanks to the level headedness on both sides. I’ve seen other campaigns take months and months to simply close the planeset negotiations due to some people with somewhat paranoid issues regarding DM and FM and aircraft not being exactly as their interpretation of history deemed.
I personally started campaign life as a simple grunt… loading and moving gun tractor columns to build up supply and forces for Army Group Center, slogging equipment out of Koln Ostheim westward through the maze of roadways leading to Liege Bierset and the west. A humble beginning as a truckdriver traversing roadway intersections, towns, cities, etc keeping units fueled and in contact with C&C. The occasional wrong turn and its painstaking steps to correction led me to seek out the seasoned expertise of Luny Von Manstein as he seemed to effortlessly guide units across the map. Badger Von Brautschich had been increasingly reminding me that if my troops didn’t get moving both Luny Von Manstein and Emil von Bock would be at the coast drinking brews and wolfing down schnitzel before Guderian ever reached Brussels. At that time I didn’t know jack about what it meant to engage units in battle and admittedly these were only digital warriors… but warriors nonetheless. I spent my hours and hours of careful planning to slog them across the map and I wasn’t about to just throw them into battle to see what happened… the offensive marched towards Brussels… sung to the tune of “The ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah….” and they came en masse. And at 0500 hours of May 19th, 1940, it was time to move on Brussels-Avere airfield, force enemy air cover further towards the coast and then take Brussels, which all started in Mission #97.
At daybreak the charge was led by Panzer IIFs of 1/6th Panzer Div 3, 1 and 3,3 and Panzer I MGs of 1/6th Panzer 4,2 which were all donated by von Manstein’s Southern Army in exchange for later spoils of war. Pumas of 1/XIX Panzer Corps Heinz Guderian 1, 1 also rolled followed by mobile flak units of 4/1st Panzergrenadier 4,1 and 2,3 and Panzer 38t’s of 4/3rd Panzer 3,3. Units rolled in from 10 km. While these units were enroute the crack artillery team of 4/4th Artillery Regiment 4,1 unleashed its (3) 150mm Howitzers to soften up the perimeter. With deadly accuracy, the 150mm devils struck infrastructure and knocked out a 152mm Howitzer within minutes. An 8.8 cm Mortar team which had moved in range under cover of darkness scored an early hit taking out a 75mm cannon of 2/27e Div Inf Co 4,4. The 152mm ML-20s of 4/1st AA Reg 4,4 answered back taking out a 8.8cm PaK-43 of 2/XIX Heinz Guderian 1,4 that had moved into position during the night and was exchanging fire taking out a ZIS-5 Radio Truck. 150mm Howis of 4/4th Arti Reg 4,1 scored more infrastructure hits, which appeared as balls of huge orange explosions in the airfield proper. At this time Scannon and Nuke were flying D0-17’s loaded with bombs skirting the deck looking for units to hit as the Axis ground boys rolled forward. The first tank encounter became visible… the Panzer I MGs of 1/6th Panzer 4,2 had encountered defensive fire from 37mm AAA. Panzer IIFs of 1/6th Panzer Div 3, 1 and 3,3 as did mobile flak units of 4/1st Panzergrenadier 4,1 and 2,3 and Panzer 38t’s of 4/3rd Panzer 3,3 and proceeded to run the gauntlet along the roadway that paralled the main runway of Brussels Avere, shooting up the place. The plan was to loop the units in from the northeast and then egress to southeast in a loop. The 38t’s made the complete circuit and egressed but the brave men of the 1/6th Panzer Div Platoon 3 Co 1 ran straight into 5 40mm Bofors camped out on the Northeast section of Brussels. They fought down to the last few men but wih misfortune playing a part they had run out of fuel (or waypoints as it were) and the remaining men had to abandon their tanks and flee on foot back to friendly territory but not after sending a clear message… Guderian was coming.
The airbase was eventually overwhelmed and through full efforts of air and ground and 10 more sorties (one virtual day) the city of Brussels fell as well. Guderian issued the following communique upon capturing the city…..
……I would like to extend my own congratulations to the axis group for the capture of Brussels made possible by the continued support of the air assault, recon, ground and supply planning of all parties involved. Brussels at first glance appeared to be impenetrable due to the amount of concentrated defensive artillery and infantry, but breaking it down piece by piece, bomb by bomb, bullet by bullet and move by move, weakened the allied defenses to the point of capitulation, and with it launches us into the next great chapter of the Battle of France.
The initial strike of May 18, 1940 0500 hours will long be remembered as the assault that kicked the door in led by the Panzer IIF's of the 1/6th Panzer Division Co. 3, Plat. 3 with the long range artilliery support of the 4/4th Artillery Regiment Co. 4, Plat. 1.
Heinz Guderian would also request that II/JG77Hawk_5 be recommended for a medal of honor befitting exemplary effort for flying the next 8 sorties and compiling 40 critical ground kills and 4 enemy aircraft shot down leading into the next critical assault of May 19, 1940 0500 hours.
Meritorious war badges shall also be bestowed upon the digital warriors of the 4/4th Artillery Regiment Co. 4, Plat. 1, for having compiled 100+ critical hits on artillery, infantry and infrastructure.
This unit also awaits further orders for its next conquest.
Good job everyone, it was accomplished with some very exemplary teamwork...
Generaloberst Heinz Guderian
The rest is history as many other conquests ensued and to recount all of them in my memoirs is too laborious but I do agree about cobbling together all of the mission files at least for historical sake and perhaps releasing a mission pack of key battles. There were many that were incredible, some big (Rotterdam, Lille, etc) and some small (Ypenburg airfield which was captured, lost, and then captured again, and the capture of Ostende and its factory, etc). The toughest conquest of all was surely Rotterdam… and the remarkably tough defenses that were built up around the city simply wore out 3 field commanders and it wasn’t until Von Manstein was reassigned with the impossible task of taking the city did the axis persevere.
Our eye was on Dunkirk…. Could that be captured simultaneously with the fall of Lille and take place before the campaign timed out…..an unanswered question… and sometimes the intrigue is better left unanswered…
By the end of the campaign the axis machine was rolling… Do-17 Recon flights keeping intel pegged at 100%, Ju-52’s leaflet dropping morale to critically low levels that enabled ground units to move within attack distance while staying out of triggering range, Stukas effectively ground pounding and hitting critical bunker guns and artillery targets, Ju-88 and He-111 high alt level bombing taking its toll on ground infrastructure, ground pounding with Bf-110s with brutal effect, Bf-109s fighter sweeping, escorting and recon, gun tractor columns slogging materials forward, infantry paradrops, and the artillery battles that saw hundreds of units destroyed on both sides were truly amazing.
I had the opportunity to walk another air commander (whom I had flown with in the past through Forgotten Battles) through the mission planner and stats pages (a sort of “open house” if you will) just to show him the breadth and depth possible with SEOW. He was astounded with all of these various strategies that were being simultaneously implemented and the quantity of units pieces that were in play at any given time was astounding as well. I can only hope I opened some eyes with that and perhaps we will have more squads participating in the next adventure and we can increase our pilot totals.
But most importantly, and aside from all of the glorious tales of battle I would extend a hearty hip hip to the allied side, #1 for accepting a daunting task of defending France against insurmountable resources as was intended to mimic the actual war. It is a very tough thing to walk into a losing battle and attempting to find solace in the fact that the front line is moving across the map and territory is being given up but the will to “fight on comrades as we can still win” held to the end. Taking that on for a few missions is all well and good…. but there were 172 missions here…. Over a year and a few months total time….someday I will return that favor. The Reds mostly composed of 1/JaVa embraced that challenge and toughed it right to the end…. and was it ever close… there were only approx. 10 missions left to run and through a possible 182 missions axis was able to close out in mission 172 and that is what you call coming right down to the wire…..
Once again my apologies for being so tardy with my reply to all of the recounts noted above….. thank you all for embracing the campaign and seeing it through to its conclusion. Lets see what the future has in store with HSFX6
Even though logistically there always hurdles with things like time zones and also the question of would the mission file get too big to handle etc etc the system performed so admirably that I hope we have raised the bar of SEOW prominence to Guiness Book proportions. Attempting another such endeavor should hopefully be met with relative assuredness. While it was a risk vs reward scenario not at any time do I recall there being any question as to whether to continue the campaign or not, minor issues perhaps but nothing earth shattering, sure people come and go over a year and 3 months but everyones lifestyle notwithstanding the core of extreme campaigners involved were captivated to the end and that was the reward. It was ikey who brought it to light in a conversation around mission #140 or so when the topic of discussion was “are we going to make it, are we going to win”… he said “Well mate yer at mission a hundred an fawty… you’ve already won…everyones won” . It was apparent that winning or losing didn’t matter and that having fun and good competition did.
Now that I have had time to disconnect myself from the campaign for a few months and de-stress, retune (after being released from my Heinz Guderian counterpart) I can truly say without reservation this has been the most satisfying war game experience I have been involved in bar none. Countless other flight sim campaigns I have participated in of both coop and MD style simply cannot compare to the level of detail brought forth with SEOW. This and coupled with it being a pleasure to fly along with and against some of the best and most competitive pilots out there so hats off to everyone who participated. From mission #1 to mission #172 this has been a learning experience. I’m sure there is still a great deal more to learn as well as we did not have functioning railways or ships, so we still have a ways to go but at least we are 50% there on the total SEOW curve. Even the pre-campaign festivities proceeded without a hitch, with the most enjoyable part for me being that the discussions of what is incorporated as available aircraft and ground resources were complete without much squabbling thanks to the level headedness on both sides. I’ve seen other campaigns take months and months to simply close the planeset negotiations due to some people with somewhat paranoid issues regarding DM and FM and aircraft not being exactly as their interpretation of history deemed.
I personally started campaign life as a simple grunt… loading and moving gun tractor columns to build up supply and forces for Army Group Center, slogging equipment out of Koln Ostheim westward through the maze of roadways leading to Liege Bierset and the west. A humble beginning as a truckdriver traversing roadway intersections, towns, cities, etc keeping units fueled and in contact with C&C. The occasional wrong turn and its painstaking steps to correction led me to seek out the seasoned expertise of Luny Von Manstein as he seemed to effortlessly guide units across the map. Badger Von Brautschich had been increasingly reminding me that if my troops didn’t get moving both Luny Von Manstein and Emil von Bock would be at the coast drinking brews and wolfing down schnitzel before Guderian ever reached Brussels. At that time I didn’t know jack about what it meant to engage units in battle and admittedly these were only digital warriors… but warriors nonetheless. I spent my hours and hours of careful planning to slog them across the map and I wasn’t about to just throw them into battle to see what happened… the offensive marched towards Brussels… sung to the tune of “The ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah….” and they came en masse. And at 0500 hours of May 19th, 1940, it was time to move on Brussels-Avere airfield, force enemy air cover further towards the coast and then take Brussels, which all started in Mission #97.
At daybreak the charge was led by Panzer IIFs of 1/6th Panzer Div 3, 1 and 3,3 and Panzer I MGs of 1/6th Panzer 4,2 which were all donated by von Manstein’s Southern Army in exchange for later spoils of war. Pumas of 1/XIX Panzer Corps Heinz Guderian 1, 1 also rolled followed by mobile flak units of 4/1st Panzergrenadier 4,1 and 2,3 and Panzer 38t’s of 4/3rd Panzer 3,3. Units rolled in from 10 km. While these units were enroute the crack artillery team of 4/4th Artillery Regiment 4,1 unleashed its (3) 150mm Howitzers to soften up the perimeter. With deadly accuracy, the 150mm devils struck infrastructure and knocked out a 152mm Howitzer within minutes. An 8.8 cm Mortar team which had moved in range under cover of darkness scored an early hit taking out a 75mm cannon of 2/27e Div Inf Co 4,4. The 152mm ML-20s of 4/1st AA Reg 4,4 answered back taking out a 8.8cm PaK-43 of 2/XIX Heinz Guderian 1,4 that had moved into position during the night and was exchanging fire taking out a ZIS-5 Radio Truck. 150mm Howis of 4/4th Arti Reg 4,1 scored more infrastructure hits, which appeared as balls of huge orange explosions in the airfield proper. At this time Scannon and Nuke were flying D0-17’s loaded with bombs skirting the deck looking for units to hit as the Axis ground boys rolled forward. The first tank encounter became visible… the Panzer I MGs of 1/6th Panzer 4,2 had encountered defensive fire from 37mm AAA. Panzer IIFs of 1/6th Panzer Div 3, 1 and 3,3 as did mobile flak units of 4/1st Panzergrenadier 4,1 and 2,3 and Panzer 38t’s of 4/3rd Panzer 3,3 and proceeded to run the gauntlet along the roadway that paralled the main runway of Brussels Avere, shooting up the place. The plan was to loop the units in from the northeast and then egress to southeast in a loop. The 38t’s made the complete circuit and egressed but the brave men of the 1/6th Panzer Div Platoon 3 Co 1 ran straight into 5 40mm Bofors camped out on the Northeast section of Brussels. They fought down to the last few men but wih misfortune playing a part they had run out of fuel (or waypoints as it were) and the remaining men had to abandon their tanks and flee on foot back to friendly territory but not after sending a clear message… Guderian was coming.
The airbase was eventually overwhelmed and through full efforts of air and ground and 10 more sorties (one virtual day) the city of Brussels fell as well. Guderian issued the following communique upon capturing the city…..
……I would like to extend my own congratulations to the axis group for the capture of Brussels made possible by the continued support of the air assault, recon, ground and supply planning of all parties involved. Brussels at first glance appeared to be impenetrable due to the amount of concentrated defensive artillery and infantry, but breaking it down piece by piece, bomb by bomb, bullet by bullet and move by move, weakened the allied defenses to the point of capitulation, and with it launches us into the next great chapter of the Battle of France.
The initial strike of May 18, 1940 0500 hours will long be remembered as the assault that kicked the door in led by the Panzer IIF's of the 1/6th Panzer Division Co. 3, Plat. 3 with the long range artilliery support of the 4/4th Artillery Regiment Co. 4, Plat. 1.
Heinz Guderian would also request that II/JG77Hawk_5 be recommended for a medal of honor befitting exemplary effort for flying the next 8 sorties and compiling 40 critical ground kills and 4 enemy aircraft shot down leading into the next critical assault of May 19, 1940 0500 hours.
Meritorious war badges shall also be bestowed upon the digital warriors of the 4/4th Artillery Regiment Co. 4, Plat. 1, for having compiled 100+ critical hits on artillery, infantry and infrastructure.
This unit also awaits further orders for its next conquest.
Good job everyone, it was accomplished with some very exemplary teamwork...
Generaloberst Heinz Guderian
The rest is history as many other conquests ensued and to recount all of them in my memoirs is too laborious but I do agree about cobbling together all of the mission files at least for historical sake and perhaps releasing a mission pack of key battles. There were many that were incredible, some big (Rotterdam, Lille, etc) and some small (Ypenburg airfield which was captured, lost, and then captured again, and the capture of Ostende and its factory, etc). The toughest conquest of all was surely Rotterdam… and the remarkably tough defenses that were built up around the city simply wore out 3 field commanders and it wasn’t until Von Manstein was reassigned with the impossible task of taking the city did the axis persevere.
Our eye was on Dunkirk…. Could that be captured simultaneously with the fall of Lille and take place before the campaign timed out…..an unanswered question… and sometimes the intrigue is better left unanswered…
By the end of the campaign the axis machine was rolling… Do-17 Recon flights keeping intel pegged at 100%, Ju-52’s leaflet dropping morale to critically low levels that enabled ground units to move within attack distance while staying out of triggering range, Stukas effectively ground pounding and hitting critical bunker guns and artillery targets, Ju-88 and He-111 high alt level bombing taking its toll on ground infrastructure, ground pounding with Bf-110s with brutal effect, Bf-109s fighter sweeping, escorting and recon, gun tractor columns slogging materials forward, infantry paradrops, and the artillery battles that saw hundreds of units destroyed on both sides were truly amazing.
I had the opportunity to walk another air commander (whom I had flown with in the past through Forgotten Battles) through the mission planner and stats pages (a sort of “open house” if you will) just to show him the breadth and depth possible with SEOW. He was astounded with all of these various strategies that were being simultaneously implemented and the quantity of units pieces that were in play at any given time was astounding as well. I can only hope I opened some eyes with that and perhaps we will have more squads participating in the next adventure and we can increase our pilot totals.
But most importantly, and aside from all of the glorious tales of battle I would extend a hearty hip hip to the allied side, #1 for accepting a daunting task of defending France against insurmountable resources as was intended to mimic the actual war. It is a very tough thing to walk into a losing battle and attempting to find solace in the fact that the front line is moving across the map and territory is being given up but the will to “fight on comrades as we can still win” held to the end. Taking that on for a few missions is all well and good…. but there were 172 missions here…. Over a year and a few months total time….someday I will return that favor. The Reds mostly composed of 1/JaVa embraced that challenge and toughed it right to the end…. and was it ever close… there were only approx. 10 missions left to run and through a possible 182 missions axis was able to close out in mission 172 and that is what you call coming right down to the wire…..
Once again my apologies for being so tardy with my reply to all of the recounts noted above….. thank you all for embracing the campaign and seeing it through to its conclusion. Lets see what the future has in store with HSFX6