Developer blog #352: career and F.E.2b development update news, La-5 series flight model notes

[PatrickAWlson]

8 hours ago, sgt_fresh said:

Hearing from an insider economist astounding..! WW1 money = shiney new things? Oh that is so FTC ? Let us not forget how CoD was abandoned for a new project called BoS. There is nothing wrong with expansion expectations. Constructive conversation... ah some fresh air at last.

 

I was going to respond.  Saw your most recent comment and decided that there is no value.  I will let others waste their time and energy if they feel up to it.

[Lusekofte]

5 minutes ago, sgt_fresh said:

"where to begin"? Don't. Revisionist history only favors those who have agendas. We are talking about expansions for the IL2 Great Battles or more importantly Where are they? If Oliver Twist asked for more soup. You no doubt would answer "You only think you are hungry"?

I care nothing for your opinion. You are allowed to have them. I only corrected your previous false facts. 

[alessio1976]

Great work and great historic plane. It would be fantastic if there was also  an italian ww1 map!!

Edited November 14, 2023 by alessio1976

[LukeFF]

Guys, enough of the back-and-forth, please.

[Trooper117]

Ah, the ebb and flow, the back and forth of life... it's all very natural.

Except on here of course.

[Koziolek]

4 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Guys, enough of the back-and-forth, please.

C'mon Luke so what do you want us to do? The other 32 page thread is already going around in circles. Do you really expect us to wait patently for the Spring? ?

[ST_Catchov]

7 hours ago, alessio1976 said:

Great work and great historic plane. It would be fantastic if there was also  an italian ww1 map!!

 

Ah the Fe2b. Of course, yes, she is an iconic aircraft. Like a woman, she is beautiful but deadly, no? 

 

I'm looking forward to the WW1 Italian map as part of the 'new project'. You know, like Korea, mountains and water and stuff but with cooler planes.

[IckyATLAS]

It is good to see the effort done on the La5 series and the previous models to have them all up to date. 

It would be fantastic if you could do the same on the ships and have some "humans" added manning the guns to the ships prior to Normandy where you did it right.

I do not want to be picky but if you could add an option to have or not (just a small box to tick ?) a group of soldiers in the landing crafts that would also be awesome.

Anyway thanks for your efforts and I welcome the next ..8 update !

[plepew]

Very excited to see the Fee!!  I have to recommend a wonderful book I recently read by Arch Whitehouse called "The Fledgling" about his time as a Fee gunner/observer.  Arch is a gifted writer (he published over two dozen books after the war) and his memoir is quite different than the stiff-upper-lip style of many other WW1 airmen's memoirs.  Arch managed to get himself reassigned from the Northamtonshire Yeomanry to the Flying Corps with the expectation of being trained as a pilot.  He soon discovered, to his dismay, that his skills as a machine gunner were more in demand and he soon found himself in the front seat of a Fee on a familiarization flight:  

 

"The gunner aboard the Fee had two .303-claibur Lewis guns. The first was mounted on a short length of gas pipe and pivoted on the floor of his shallow cockpit.  This weapon could be fired through an arc of about 180 degrees. The second Lewis gun was bracketed on a crude telescopic mounting set between the pilot and the gunner.  It could be brought into action against an enemy plane attacking from high and the rear. It could, if you pushed the mounting up as far as it would go and then climbed up and stood with your insteps on the upper edge of the plywood nacelle.  Captain Clement was calmly explaining all this, while I was considering an immediate departure and wondering how I could renew old associations with the Yeomanry...."You can sit on the floor until we get up near the balloon line. After that, I want you to stand up, move about, and familiarize yourself with the gun mountings.  You can scotch up on the spare-parts locker or better still, on the edge of the nacelle." He actually said that. He expected me to stand up in that three-ply canoe when we got into the air!   After that I never had much respect for the much publicized courage of the Wright brothers.  After all, they lie down in their lower wing.  They didn't have to stand up! The side of this aerial footbath barely reached my kneecaps, and there was no safety belt. "(pp. 98-99)

 

A few pages later, he describes his first combat mission:

 

"We flew wingtip to wingtip and I experienced none of the poetic reactions so many others have recorded.  This was a frightening, wide-awake nightmare. I sucked in my breath and waited for the Fee marked "Q" to slither into us. While contemplating such a finality, I noticed that Q's observer was sitting up on the edge of his nacelle. Just sitting there with no more concern than one might exhibit while sitting on a porch rail - a very low porch rail.  The bloke must be crazy or contemplating suicide.  I looked around at the others and by Henry!  They were all sitting on the edges of their nacelles!  Risking another glance at Mr. Brooks [the pilot], I saw that he was jerking his head back sharply, obviously ordering me to get up off my rump and take some interest in the proceedings.  My arms were stiff and my fingers frozen to crooked hooks, but I crawled up and scotched one trembling buttock on the supply locker and for security anchored my arm around the gun mounting and tried a sickly grin on Mr. Brooks." (pp 107-108)

 

Arch soon overcame his initial fears of flying and learned to love the Fee.  He said that they never felt the Fee was inferior to the later Albatros and Fokker designs.  They always felt confident they could hold their own.   They later transitioned to Brisfits and he eventually got his wish of becoming a pilot, but by then the war was over.     

 

 

[MAJ_stug41]

Wonderful excerpts!

[EAF19_Marsh]

Great stuff!

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

2 hours ago, plepew said:

Arch Whitehouse called "The Fledgling

I would read it but unfortunately I can't see if there is digital version.

[Varibraun]

23 minutes ago, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

I would read it but unfortunately I can't see if there is digital version.

 

Yeah - I also read almost everything digital these days.  However, so many of these older books have never been digitalized that I will occasionally still buy the "real thing," especially when they get high praise from folks here.  I just found this one in a used hardback on Amazon for $18 and felt it would probably be worth it.  So, thank you @plepew for the recommendation.   

[Gambit21]

55 minutes ago, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

I would read it but unfortunately I can't see if there is digital version.

Can’t stand digital books.

[Lusekofte]

Thanks for the tip. Bough the last on Amazon

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

23 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

Can’t stand digital books.

For me the most important is the content not format. Amazon Kindle is ok, I like quick delivery as the norm from electric purchase and the world wide delivery

[sevenless]

6 minutes ago, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

For me the most important is the content not format. Amazon Kindle is ok, I like quick delivery as the norm from electric purchase and the world wide delivery

 

Exactly. Kindle makes it easy to travel with 1.200 books in your library. Try that with physical books ?

[Gambit21]

11 minutes ago, sevenless said:

 

Exactly. Kindle makes it easy to travel with 1.200 books in your library. Try that with physical books ?

Typically 1 or 2 is enough for me on a trip.  The Kindle is a neat thing - I just prefer a BOOK.

[Noisemaker]

31 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

Typically 1 or 2 is enough for me on a trip.  The Kindle is a neat thing - I just prefer a BOOK.

You also want Korea, or PTO for the next installment, so your taste is, how shall we call it... questionable? 

[Gambit21]

3 minutes ago, Noisemaker said:

You also want Korea, or PTO for the next installment, so your taste is, how shall we call it... questionable? 

Pffft…if you think I want Korea then you didn’t read properly this digital format ironically enough.  

[Noisemaker]

28 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

Pffft…if you think I want Korea then you didn’t read properly this digital format ironically enough.  

Perhaps, I didn't, perhaps, I didn't.  The PTO poor taste still stands, however. 

[Trooper117]

Just found the book and ordered it... £9.50, hardback, 1965 edition, over 300 pages... cheap as chips, very happy

[EAF19_Marsh]

2 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

Can’t stand digital books.

I have come around to them. I can now read with 20 mins of spare time between work.

 

But nothing beats a proper hardback (oooh, Matron! etc), especially A4 with pics, maps etc.

[ST_Catchov]

7 hours ago, plepew said:

He said that they never felt the Fee was inferior to the later Albatros and Fokker designs.  They always felt confident they could hold their own.

 

I'm drooling again just thinking about her release. Or it could be old age. Wasn't it a Fee gunner that parted Richthofen's hair leading to numerous operations and nasty headaches ultimately resulting in his mental decline and death!

[Gambit21]

2 hours ago, Noisemaker said:

Perhaps, I didn't, perhaps, I didn't.  The PTO poor taste still stands, however. 

 

Let's discuss it one day over coffee or a beer.

 

Or tea...I don't drink beer much lol...but one or two year.

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

6 hours ago, Varibraun said:

 

Yeah - I also read almost everything digital these days.  However, so many of these older books have never been digitalized that I will occasionally still buy the "real thing," especially when they get high praise from folks here.  I just found this one in a used hardback on Amazon for $18 and felt it would probably be worth it.  So, thank you @plepew for the recommendation.   

I found that one digitalized at

https://archive.org/details/fledgling00whit

and there are more books from this Author.

His books list

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by 1PL-Husar-1Esk

[plepew]

@1PL-Husar-1Esk Great find!!  I'm looking forward to taking in some of his other titles.   While I love paging through a physical book, the instant availability of ebooks is hard to beat!

 

also @clouddancer I will look for your father's title.  

[EAF19_Marsh]

12 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

 

I'm drooling again just thinking about her release. Or it could be old age. Wasn't it a Fee gunner that parted Richthofen's hair leading to numerous operations and nasty headaches ultimately resulting in his mental decline and death!

One alsi downed Immelman.

[Lusekofte]

14 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

 

I'm drooling again just thinking about her release. Or it could be old age. Wasn't it a Fee gunner that parted Richthofen's hair leading to numerous operations and nasty headaches ultimately resulting in his mental decline and death!

I do not know about that. 
But in an article in Flypast it was mentioned that Fee was a so-called instant respect when it came out among German aviators. 
But in general fighterpilots always had respect for gunners. They was looked at as a real threat 

[LukeFF]

19 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

Wasn't it a Fee gunner that parted Richthofen's hair leading to numerous operations and nasty headaches ultimately resulting in his mental decline and death!

 

There seems to be uncertainty about whether he was actually hit by a Fee gunner or by friendly fire from another Albatros behind him. In any case, yeah, he was done for for quite some time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/105495267@N06/11149103423/
 

Quote

Manfred von Richthofen is wounded in the head by a lucky shot from an FE2d on 6th July 1917. Although this combat has been painted many times before, the author of the Osprey book for which it was commissioned, Jim Miller, wanted me to do it again to show the crucial second Fe2d that must have fired the shot that hit MvR. Jim has worked out from the angle of the wound that MvR couldn’t have been hit by the Fee he was attacking or by an Albatros from behind, so this is the most likely scenario.

 

 

[JFM]

13 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

There seems to be uncertainty about whether he was actually hit by a Fee gunner or by friendly fire from another Albatros behind him. In any case, yeah, he was done for for quite some time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/105495267@N06/11149103423/
 

 

 

Indeed. My research demonstrates conclusively he was not shot by Cunnell/Woodbridge. 

[LukeFF]

Just now, JFM said:

Indeed. My research demonstrates conclusively he was not shot by Cunnell/Woodbridge. 

 

Thought it was you! ?

[ST_Catchov]

11 hours ago, EAF19_Marsh said:

One alsi downed Immelman.

 

I thought he shot his prop off, tearing his crate apart, due to a malfunctioning or incorrectly aligned gun sync. Or ack ack got him or ..... the fog of war?

 

At least we all know for sure the cause of Boelcke's untimely demise. 

[EAF19_Marsh]

11 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

 

I thought he shot his prop off, tearing his crate apart, due to a malfunctioning or incorrectly aligned gun sync. Or ack ack got him or ..... the fog of war?

 

At least we all know for sure the cause of Boelcke's untimely demise. 

 

There seems a debate as to what happened. He was attacking an FE at the time and the crew report is that they go him, but it does not seem certain.

 

Biggles was very successful in it, IIRC. He and his gunner accounted for several DR.1s

[senseispcc]

Always great news, And never forget the revolutionary way to adapt the old (but still perfect) pieces to the new standards.  In a game the  world shall always be a game butt it teend to perfection without asking for the imposible in Hardwre, thenk you team. 

[Blitzen]

Peter Jackson's Wingnut Wings made a beautiful kit of the Fee too!

[Gambit21]

8 minutes ago, Blitzen said:

Peter Jackson's Wingnut Wings made a beautiful kit of the Fee too!

 

Wow...I had no clue. That's beautiful!

 

[Blitzen]

2 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

Wow...I had no clue. That's beautiful!

 

Slightly OT-Well to tell the truth he had one just sitting there waiting to be measured for the 1/32nd scale model !

 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Blitzen

[Trooper117]

Just received my copy of ''The Fledgling'' by Arch Whitehouse... will start reading it today!

 

[EAF19_Marsh]

Just a small request, but would it be possible to have an option to remove gunner and guns, so you can just fly it around like a Farman trainer?