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La Spezia project finally completed!

More Po bridges in the Emilia-Romagna region

Attached three more bridges over the Po river in the Emilia-Romagna region of the Po Valley.

In this area the Po river is the borderline between the two Northern Italian regions of Emilia-Romagna (south bank), Lombardia (north-western bank) and Veneto (north-eastern bank).

Cremona lays a few miles East of Piacenza, the western bridge serves both road and RR while the eastern is a road bridge only. I am not entirely sure the eastern bridge was there during WWII because nowadays the A21 highway (Brescia-Piacenza-Torino) runs over it and no highways were built in Italy before WWII. The road is present in EurW beta texture set and I covered it with a bridge anyway. If it turns out it was not there in the 1940's, we'll get rid of it.
Cremona's main bridge (the western one) was destroyed by an Allied raid in early 1945. Cremona is well known worldwide among the classic music fans because the famous 1600's-1700's violin-maker families of Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari, above all, were all from Cremona.
Nowadays Cremona is still regarded among the top classic music cities of Italy, its luthiery and music school are the best countrywide, for us is also a synonim for a centuries-old tradition of top cuisine candies, pastry and ice cream....yum!!! ;)

Further East you will find the Casalmaggiore bridge, which connected the provinces of Parma and Cremona since the early 1800's. It was built by the Duchess of Parma and Piacenza, Napoleon's Austrian wife Mary-Louise, and blown up by an Allied raid in late 1944.

Cremona and Casalmaggiore destroyed bridges were replaced by barge bridges (an object sorely missing in CFS2.....) by the advancing Allies in the spring of 1945 and completely rebuilt before 1950.

Enjoy!
KH :ernae:
 
kdriver said:
Thanks very much Stef - a lovely job. The Reggiane factory blew up really well.

Cheers, :icon29:

Kevin
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind comments, Kevin!

One of these days I will continue with the British airfields, too. I did not dismiss the project, it's only on hold, even more now that Sander is back with his new CFS2autocoast tool, promising an updated European scenery.

I also hope on updates from Achim to adapt his airfields to Rhumba's mesh, as he did on some of his older sceneries already.

Needless to say, but everytime CFS2 basic scenery and mesh are updated, all custom scenery work needs to be reviewed and updated as well.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:
 
Reply...

Stefano,

Damn! I knew there was a thread I forgot to respond to last night...I got the chance to test this as well, flying from the mountains down to the Po River delta. The Reggiane factory is beautifully modeled, (in fact I learned a few lessons on buildings you used that really make it work) and I also enjoyed the different variants of bridges you placed over the river, they are exquisitely done.

I've been down in the Dodecanese for the last few days, so news kinda travels slowly. :icon_lol:
 
kelticheart said:
Thank you for the kind comments, Kevin!

One of these days I will continue with the British airfields, too. I did not dismiss the project, it's only on hold, even more now that Sander is back with his new CFS2autocoast tool, promising an updated European scenery.

I also hope on updates from Achim to adapt his airfields to Rhumba's mesh, as he did on some of his older sceneries already.

Needless to say, but everytime CFS2 basic scenery and mesh are updated, all custom scenery work needs to be reviewed and updated as well.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:
Click to expand...

Hi Stef,

There's no hurry with that project. I keep looking out for aerial photos and maps of WW2 airfields. Recently I found an excellent map of Corsica showing the locations and layouts of all the airfields on the island.

Keep up the good work.

Kevin
 
Corsica WWII recce pictures?

kdriver said:
Hi Stef,

There's no hurry with that project. I keep looking out for aerial photos and maps of WW2 airfields. Recently I found an excellent map of Corsica showing the locations and layouts of all the airfields on the island.

Keep up the good work.

Kevin
Click to expand...

Hey, wow: this valuable info about Corsica should be forwarded to Achim on the double! He keeps updating his sceneries, sooner or later he will need good Corsica data as well.

Whenever you stumble on good WWII airport aerial photos, please, forward to me the links via PM, even drawings of any kind will be great to have, as long as there's a guarantee they are historical. I am building a recce photo library to use as a info resource anytime I tackle an airport. Thank you!

Sander just pointed me to a nice British website above. Unfortunately, it shows only parts of Milano and Northern Lombardia, but there are a couple of marshalling yards and a train station near Milano that I could use in the future. Now I am looking for Po Valley recce photos of the bridges crossing the Po river during WWII. I want to make a compete scenery for CFS2 from the beginning of the Po in the Alps to its delta in the Adriatic sea. Bridges were vital tactical targets and Rami will make good use of them!

To Rami:

No worries, mate! This is a slowgoing project, even if we'll have to modify all sceneries to the new ETO world that will be developed by Sander & all who volunteered, I will post to this thread everything I did to keep everybody updated.
I completed Piacenza, but there's a huge problem with the mesh. With Rhumba's mesh installed, it sits on a plateau instead of being levelled with the rest of the Po Valley, it doesn't look too real. Besides, the takeoff direction should be reversed since normally it's done in a East to West direction, heading towards the Nure river to the left of the Google Satellite picture attached below.
This answers to safety reasons, because the other way around would force aircrafts to fly at low altitude during critical takeoffs over the densely populated area of the nearby town of Carpaneto Piacentino, while in the other direction there are only open fields.

Can you see the WWII aircraft dispersal areas still visible nowadays? Achim placed them in his Piacenza scenery beautifully.

Cheers!
KH:ernae:
 
Here's the map of Corsica (Achim already has it). It's a restricted US government publication from the war. I hope I'm not under threat of extradition to the US and have to seek political asylum in Equador or Russia.
 
We are both in the same boat....

kdriver said:
Here's the map of Corsica (Achim already has it). It's a restricted US government publication from the war. I hope I'm not under threat of extradition to the US and have to seek political asylum in Equador or Russia.
Click to expand...

Eheheheheh........:d

likewise, I hope I am not going to be arrested for spying with a satellite over a NATO airbase still on the line of duty......:icon_eek:

I really wonder how Google satellite pics can agree with security measures of military installations worldwide. Particularly since, after September 11th, if I were caught taking pictures of landing/taking off Italian Air Force Tornadoes in San Damiano airbase, which lays less than 24 km away from my house, I would be facing criminal charges.
This took us back to the cold war period, when in the mid-1960's my dad had a very nice binocular confiscated there because we were watching I.A.F. F-84 Thunderstreaks taking off. Sadly, the binocular was mine, a birthday present that was never returned.

There was a "happy" period for us aviation buffs, after the fall of Berlin Wall, when anyone could go over at San Damiano and enjoy taking pictures of Tornadoes landing and taking off with full afterburner on. I took pictures of visiting Turkish Air Force F-16s and Luftwaffe's Tornadoes operating from there during the Balkan crisis of the mid-1990s.

Impossible now! :crybaby:

Thank you for the map!
KH :ernae:
 
kelticheart said:
...
I really wonder how Google satellite pics can agree with security measures of military installations worldwide. ....:ernae:
Click to expand...

Well, don't believe everything you see on the Internet. If they can blur license plates and faces, manipulating terrain is not very difficult.
 
...and now Piacenza!

Sander said:
Well, don't believe everything you see on the Internet. If they can blur license plates and faces, manipulating terrain is not very difficult.
Click to expand...

You're right, Sander. At least they provide some guidelines for us to dress up CFS2. On the other hand, I can assure you the S.Damiano sat picture above IT'S the real thing, since I started visting it since I was 10 years old, I know very well how it looks and the picture matches the real thing.

To everybody:

Please, find attached below GSL and layout files of my interpretation of Achim's Piacenza-S.Damiano airport, Italy scenery. I used Google sat pictures to create the entry gate to the airport, still there today, rebuilt with modern buildings in the early 1960's.
The fuel storage area is a small building cluster, NorthEast of the airport, on province road #39 (S.P.= strada provinciale). Away from the airport for obvious air raid damage prevention, it's still in use nowadays. I tried reproducing it with the available library objects in the same location.

Of course, WWII infrastructures were a lot sparser than today, you will notice I considerably reduced the number of hangars Achim placed in his original work. As per Achim's instructions, the refuelling area of the airport lays in front of the fuel drums I placed near the camo net emplacement, right below the right end of the runway.
Windsocks are oriented the way takeoff/landing runs are performed in real life.

I'll be away all of next week, as my company closes down for the Midsummer Fest week. I'll be back on Monday, August 19th.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:
 
Tobob - La Spezia.zip

163214196226344870.jpg

A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category CFS 2 Scenery Add-Ons

Description: This is Tobob’s La Spezia scenery, with contributions from Rami, Dombral, and kelticheart. This package is for CFS2, and will be used for the upcoming DamBusters campaign. Tobob has graciously donated his coastlines and land class to the project, allowing for me to build GSL scenery, with the help of kelticheart and Dombral which approximates the historical setting of La Spezia, Italy in 1943 for the attack by British Lancaster bombers during their return to England from Blida aerodrome as part of "Operation Bellicose" the night of 23/24 June, 1943.

The attack by the British Royal Air Force on LaSpezia during their return trip to England from Blida aerodrome in Algeria was the first documented case during the war of what became known as 'shuttle bombing.' This was part of "Operation Bellicose," occurring the night of June 20th / 21st and June 23rd / 24th, 1943. During their leg down to Africa, they struck aircraft assembly plants at Friedrichshafen, Germany before continuing to Algeria.

During the return trip, British Lancasters struck La Spezia, an important Italian Naval base, as they lumbered back toward their bases in England. Their attack on La Spezia was considered a major success; they damaged oil storage facilities as well as armament stores.

Later in 1943, the American Army Air Force would use a similar strategy during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, as some of the force struck the latter target and continued south to land at Bonê, Algeria. Later in 1944, the USAAF did this again with a larger-scale effort called "Operation Frantic," which was a coordinated effort with the 15th Air Force out of Italy in addition to the 8th Air Force out of England. The Royal Air Force also did this late in 1944 when they sent bombers to Yagodnik in the Soviet Union to attack the Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord which was too far for Lancasters based in Scotland.

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Tobob - La Spezia.zip
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.
 
Reply...

Good afternoon,

I decided while I was doing the Mediterranean ports overhaul to get this done and push it out the door. Thanks to Dombral and Kelticheart for their contributions and suggestions on this! :very_drunk:
 
Thanks All

Hi Guys,

This looks really good.:applause:

Thanks for all of your efforts.

I should check out my MTO operation to see if my textures are similar.

All the best for 2015.

Cheers,

Stuart
 
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