Raining Death
V1 Rockets
Historical Notes:
The Germans began developing reaction-propulsion for
eventual military use soon after WWI because the Treaty of Versailles forbade
Germany to develop certain classes of standard engines. This proved fortuitous to the Germans,
giving them a head start in the development of jet aircraft.
The
V1 rocket carried a 3/4 ton warhead, and was capable of flying at up to 400
mph, although they rarely achieved their top speed. It could operate at up to 10,000 ft, but was more often sighted
at 2000 to 3000. Navigation was
controlled with the use of three gyros (one master to maintain a straight
course, and two secondary to dampen oscillations) and a magnetic compass. The rocket was designed to run out of fuel
and fall from the sky when it reached its target.
A
copy of the V1 was actually produced with the warhead removed and space created
in the fuselage to accommodate a pilot.
The test pilot chosen for the mission was a woman by the name of Hanna
Reich. Hence one of the first jet
pilots of all time was actually a woman.
Unfortunately she was severely injured in one of the flights.
It
is possible that had the Germans still had V1s in great number at the time of
the Normandy invasion, the war would have turned out quite differently.
Design Notes:
The mission contains three
files:
. Raining Death Readme
. V1_Cinema (Cinema file)
. V1attack (Mission file)
To run the mission first
copy all of these files to your mission directory (ex. c:\Program Files\Jane’s
Combat Simulations\WWII Fighters\Data\Missions) then start WWII Fighters, go to
the single mission section, scroll down to “Custom missions”. Then simply select V1attack from the menu.
This mission deviates from reality in several points. First and foremost V1 rockets were actually
very inaccurate. Only about one in four
ever reached its target. I felt it
would be more exciting if the rockets used in the mission were more accurate,
thereby increasing the tension. Also by
this period in the war, there were very few V1s left. RAF and USAF planes were very diligent at taking out the
launching sites whenever they were constructed. For the purpose of the mission, the Germans were able to
stockpile large quantities of V1s away from the front. These would have been the perfect weapons to
start the offensive with, as the bad weather would not hinder their flight, and
would only assist in their avoidance of detection.
I found the only way to make the survival of your
airbases, as a requirement of success was to make the survival of the squadrons
of bombers at each base as the requirement instead. This effectively means the base by extension. I’d like to find a way to make the survival
of a building or vehicle a requirement of success.
The mission is designed to be random and scalable. There are several fighter squadrons that are activated by the "Random" trigger. You can change the difficulty of the mission by changing the percentage of likelihood for each trigger in the mission editor. The Triggers that control the Random aircraft are:
Trigger 9
Trigger 10
Trigger 14
Trigger 15
Trigger 19
Trigger 20
You can edit them either in
the mission builder, or in a text editor by changing the number after the
random function. By doing this you can
make the mission more or less difficult on average. Of course there will always be times when the odds are right, and
you are free of almost all enemy presence, and then there will be times when
you are swamped by wave after wave of enemy fighters. I think that is part of the fun.
If you wait at the base
until you receive clearance then you will be treated to some interesting views.
*
Since the last release of this mission I’ve changed the names of the pilots
from the standard “Wing 2” etc. to regular first names. This I feel adds a more dramatic and urgent
sense to the mission. You will also
receive individualized messages after each of your wingmen are shot down. Again the purpose was to add more off a
sense of loss to your mission when you lose a wingman. To add further to this, I recommend opening
the V1attack.mis file in a text editor and changing the names of the pilots to
your own name, and the names of your friends.
The section you change will look like this:
.Entity
.TypeName SPITFIRE
.TagIdentifier 1441
.IsPlayer
.PlaneWayPoints 2
.Callsign Eirik
.MPCallsign Leader
.FuelPercent 100.000000
.Skill ACE
.PositionX 113120.00
.PositionY 135.73
.PositionZ 117890.00
.Yaw -90.00247
.Pitch 13.27650
.Roll 0.00000
.Speed 0.000
.Side = Allied
.WeaponLoadOut SPIT_AUX_FUEL
.EndEntity
You would then change the call sign from Eirik, to your own
name. If you change the names for your
wingmen then you will also want to change the names in the Trigger messages as
well.
*Other
fixes include the addition of more aircraft, both friendly and enemy, triggered
by random triggers. This allows a more
dynamic enviornment. The mission
should play differently every time.
Tactics: (These are just my ideas. If you want to figure your own best way, then please don't read this section, or at least don't pay attention to it.)
Speed is of the essence when trying to take out
V1s. Fly head on towards the V1, but
about 3000 ft higher (usually 5000 to 6000 ft is sufficient). When you approach to within 3000 ft of the
V1 invert and dive into the same path as the V1. This should give you a distinct speed advantage. If you find that you are going to pass the
rocket, then trade some of your forward speed for altitude. This will allow you to regain the speed
again once the rocket passes you.
Try to conserve ammo. Usually a few shots is all that is necessary to send a V1 off
target. They have no pilot, so they
won't try to evade you, or even recover after being damaged. Wait until you are right on top of it, or
you will certainly run out of ammo.
If you notice your wingman is
targeting the same rocket, then leave it, and find a new one. There are plenty to go around. Try to avoid getting caught up in a drawn
out dogfight with enemy fighters. Your
primary mission is to take out the V1s.
Once the fighters show up that responsibility will be almost entirely
yours. Your wingmen will almost
certainly be drawn into a fight.
One tactic that the British
pilots would try during WW2, was to fly up beside the aircraft, and then nudge
it with their wing. Apparently if they
could nudge it hard enough, then the rocket would spin out of control into the
ground. I haven’t quite managed to do
this yet. If you succeed please let me
know.
This
mission took me about 16 hours to make and finally get working right. I hope you enjoy it. Please email me any suggestions or comments
you have. I’m especially interested in
hearing from people who have found other ways to do things. I try to drop by Combat-net pretty often. If
you see me, please say hello.
Eirik
Ballangrud (Ivarb)
Links for more information on the aircraft involved: I used all of these in preparation of this mission.
http://www.zenza.se/vw/v_main.html
http://www.valourandhorror.com/DB/PHOTO/home.htm
http://www.accessweb.com/users/mconstab/v1.htm
http://www18.pair.com/tvam/html/itd/itkb4.htm
http://www.airspacemag.com/ASM/Web/Special/Ethell/pirep2.html
http://www.spitfiresociety.demon.co.uk/mypages/intro.htm
http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/spitfire/