LW Airfields in France 1940

Pat Pattle

Pat Pattle

SOH-CM-2024
Pics are works in progress. Layouts based on information kindly supplied by JV Masset of Anciens Aérodromes: http://www.anciens-aerodromes.com/
Any more info gratefuly received!

Most airfields in Northern France in 1940 were grass fields with little or no infastructure although they were developed continuosly throughout the war.

Abbeville Spring '40 (by the end of the year it had been enlarged across the road and work started on concrete runways and fighter dispersals etc.

Abbeville_034.jpg


Wissant:

BoBLW_025.jpg


Generic layout (Audembert)

BoBLW_026.jpg
 
I was just reading in one of the Osprey books that one of the JG "airfields" in 1940 was nothing but a cornfield. The first Bf 109 to land on it did it blind, with the prop wind-milling the cobs. They only later rolled the crop flat.

So it sounds like you are bang-on!
 
Clive these are great, it would be nice if you could include a scenedb.cfg file so these could be installed with MW's scenedb when you upload them.
 
Well done sir!

It's too bad that grass airfields aren't simulated as realistically as they could be. They worked very well for the lighter aircraft of the early years, adding an operational dimension that is lost in campaign play. Certainly the Ju-87 operated on them quite happily, just as they did in the Soviet Union under similarly difficult conditions.

Just another reminder of a world long since gone. (Sigh)

Thanks again for putting in the effort. They look great!

:france:
 
They all look great, Clive!

Love the way their blended in with the surrounding ground. Yeah, I'd like to find info on a later version of Abbeville myself.
 
John Weal (1996) "Bf 109 D/E Aces 1939-41" Osprey Aerospace. p. 69.

. By this time [mid-late July 1940] other Jagdgruppen were slowly beginning to congregate along the Channel coast after their months sojourn in the Homeland. Such was the leisurely nature of the build-up that very little had been done in preparation for their arrival other than to allocate each of them some handy, open --and relatively flat-- space in which to set up shop. At Desvres, Hauptmann Kienitz's III./JG 3 thus found themselves operating from local football pitches, and III.JG 54, under H. Ultsch ... took up residence in a sheep pasture so deeply rutted with animal tracks that take-offs and landings were at first regarded as more hazardous than the sorties...
. Another Jagdgruppe had to harvest an entire wheatfield before they could commence operations. No such niceties for a Luftflotte 3 pilot who recalls being ordered after one early mission to land blind in a huge area of standing wheat some 1.5 metres high. Gingerly he did so, his prop scything a narrow swathe through the crop. When the stalks and dust had settled the rest of his schwarm followed exactly in his wheel tracks. It was impossible for them to take off again, so that evening the wheat was simply rolled flat, not cut. Next day the remainder of the Gruppe arrived and Beaumont-le-Roger -- one of JG 2's major bases for the next four years -- was ready for business!"
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OK, so it wasn't corn, but try to model that! :icon_lol:
 
hi Clive, very well done indeed! It´s a pity that some nice bob missions from Wulf can´t be imported into ETO so to enjoy these new (old!) grass and classic strips or landstraecke ( as the "Jagdflieger" would have said)....
 
mongoose said:
I don't have any problem flying his (new) BoB missions in ETO.
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hi moongoose, I mean the full Wulfmann pack of 80 plus missions: have they been "translated" into ETO or you simply imported them over from cfs3 into ETO?
I never attempted but sure, if you confirm me is something possible, then I will not have this beautiful landstrips to fly off!


Clive a question for you: talking about these "old" missions: is it possible to edit them in order to have some of your new airfields showing up? or, due to the different global layer, it´s an impossible thing to do?
 
Thanks Bandy! useful stuff. I'll have to look out that book. I'm, currently re-reading Paul Ritchys 'Fighter Pilot' which has simlilar descriptions. Because of the lack of hard evidence, descriptive texts such as these are great to get a 'feel' of what these places were like.

Clive a question for you: talking about these "old" missions: is it possible to edit them in order to have some of your new airfields showing up? or, due to the different global layer, it´s an impossible thing to do?
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If your'e talking about Wulfmanns nissions he has already altered them for the ETO global layer.:) do you have his latest mission set?
 
unfortunately not! I went to that forum which loverboy mentioned and asked directly tp wulfmann where to download them ( in a septembre thread he himself was speaking about a complete set of about 250 missions, amazing!) but got no answer until now.
you mean these airstrips could be placed instead of the stock ETO ones altering the xpd files of the LW (or whatever...) missions calling of them?
 
gianlucabagatti said:
hi moongoose, I mean the full Wulfmann pack of 80 plus missions: have they been "translated" into ETO or you simply imported them over from cfs3 into ETO?
I never attempted but sure, if you confirm me is something possible, then I will not have this beautiful landstrips to fly off!


Clive a question for you: talking about these "old" missions: is it possible to edit them in order to have some of your new airfields showing up? or, due to the different global layer, it´s an impossible thing to do?
Click to expand...


I have a different install for ETO BoB but there is no reason why you should not install the new Wulf BoB missions (found at http://battleofbritain.myfastforum.org/forum2.php whre I note you have posted before) directly into a regular ETO install. Follow the instructions carefully!!

To set up a separate install see my upload at http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.php?lloc=downloads&loc=downloads&page=info&FileID=13405
 
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