At Launois east road

Major Gefa, French army: " Launois was pretty blocked from east with 15 panzers pounding defencive allied positions. After 2 failed attempts to establish a def Atg position I decided a long drive from Chilly to cut off the storm of panzers out of eastern fb. Evaded succesfully ea cover and reached east road from north after 14 mins drive. Walked another 1km and found a perfect spot facing SSW with ideal concealment. An unsuspected Stug III B was the first victim to my atg."
Started Dec 18, 2009 in a SA Mle 1937 from Chilly. Ended with 12 kills and 0 captures.

The battle of Namur

Oberfeldwebl Johnnyza, reported from the battle of Namur: " After setting off from the FB with KGW, the Panzer colomn set up NE overlooking the NE Army base to interdict moving supplys. Within 3 minutes i had lost both tracks, my commander, driver, 4th and engine dead. Managing to protect 3 MSP's and infantry for over 50 minutes, i had been sapped, grenaded and shelled heavily, but yet still held out to support more infantry advance to get the East CP. Called it a night when all my ammo had drained out and no mobile spawns we're near.
Props to everyone at Namur who had a good fight S!"
Started Dec 16, 2009 in a PzKpfw IV D from Andenne. Ended with 8 kills and 0 captures.

Making a stand at Lier

Colour Sergeant Lowe reported: " Leaving the Barracks I recieved a fleshwound, and turning South, spotted a sniper high in the church tower. Setting my sights to 300m, I hit him with my second shot.
Moving out of the Army Base through the East murder hole, I spotted an Axis soldier, who recieved a bullet from my rifle to his chest.
Heading South, I managed to creep up upon two riflemen in the top of the red brick building to the SE of the Army Base, and despatched both with rifle shots.
Moving across the road to the South, I approached a house and set myself up at a window. Spotting a lone Axis soldier coming out of a sidestreet I shot him, and moved quickly towards the City CP. Finding it empty I began to cap the CP when I spotted an Axis soldier looking directly at me.
Dropping to the ground, the CPs cap bar disappeared as I moved too far from the radio. Leaving the CP by the South door, I ran across the road and into the Church, looking for my would-be assailant.
Climbing the church tower, I found him laying at the top, looking directly over our Army Base. I finished him with my combat knife, and sighted my rifle at an MG34 that had been set up in the red brick building in which I had already killed two Axis soldiers.

I hit the machinegunner with my second bullet and left the church, heading for the houses that flanked the Southern part of the East-West road. There I pciked off several more Axis soldiers before leaving for the South-Western Control Point (Leir-Antwerp). Just as we had captured the CP, my soldier recieved another wound and the fellow infantryman inside the CP was shot by an Axis soldier with an MP40. I dispatched him with my rifle, shooting him in the gut.
Feeling that my mission had been completed, removing those sniping into the base & recapturing a CP, I returned to base."
Started Dec 01, 2009 in a French Rifleman from Lier. Ended with 10 kills and 0 captures.

AHC calls for a retreat

MrToad reported from the frontlines: " At 12:30 Eastern, The AHC in charge desides with a new brilliant strategy. Pull away from EVERY front line town so that Axis can only softcap, but the Axis wouldn't be able to place a Hard AO first, so the game would stop."

Despite some eyebrows beeing raised on both sides and allied soldiers trying to convince the allied commander that the strategy would not work the frontline was left undefended and while british and french brigades rushed westwards, away from the enemy, the Wehrmacht kept in contact pursuing the fleeing units. With the taking of Solesmes and the Zeelands the AHC had lost some strong areas that would be hard to regain. Read the thread AHC Town Giveaway Program ( 1 2 )

Magjam: " There is such an unbalance at the moment that towns are being steamrolled at a ridiculous rate. This does not mean HC should "give up" and come up with silly gamey tactics."

Dropping in to say hi Mr. Stuart

This is a great video by MalarckeyITA from the REI squad. Watch how they drive an opel up to a stuart, deploy MS and sapp him, just meters away. AFK? No way, check out the video and try to figure out what the Commander of the Stuart is thinking.

Meanwhile at the bridge of La Fere

The bombing of Sechault

David06photo reported from a bombing run over the allied held town of Sechault: " I did som low-level bombing of the allied-controlled town of Sechault. Despite the town being 20km from an axis airfield, the allies had achieved total air dominance so it was difficult to avoid the horde of enemy fighters."

Still problems with brigades, chat and spawning in

The maintenance today did not fix the problems some are experiencing. For days and weeks players have tried fiddling with the settings to make it into the game and there is still no official word from CRS apart that it is the players connection that is the problem. So there's still more people reading the Community support section (24) then the Barracks (13) which is not common (48 in OT reading about KFS1 post on Motormouths love for droids).
To logg into the game is no problem, you choose your persona and then wait on the Order of the battle to appear, so far so good althou it takes a while longer then it usually does. Then to choose a brigade doesn't work with a righ-click on the map so you have to highlight the brigade on the order of battle and then click Brigade HQ, it doesn't work either. If you reboot the game a couple of times you can about 1/10 of the times make it into the Brigade HQ and choose a mission, the same problem with the missions as the brigade selection occurs and if you are really lucky you can spawn in only to experience that chat doesn't work and that after a while you lose your connection to chat and after a while CTD.
So judging by the forums and the lack of players in-game we eagerly await an official respons from CRS on what's up. In the meanwhile other MMO's are up and running with no problems to connect to at all.

About the CTDs and missions pending

For some the massive outbreak of mission pendings and crash to desktops started a couple of weeks ago and some over a month ago. Yours truly experienced problems with the connection to CRS's game server three weeks ago, starting with the "mission pending" bug, followed by the occasional crash to desktop and Bloo commented in the Barracks that it was the players connection, not CRS that was at fault. The problem is that no other of the MMO's experienced the problems and when you run 2 accounts on the same computer, one could get the problems and the other working just fine. With no official statement other then it was a clientsided problem (the customers fault) the chat in-game and the forums have been cluttered with questions on what is going on and why they can't play.

Bloo, Director of Playnet Customer Support: " These two are connection related. Connecting to the game is actually connecting to several 'servers' or host processes. When you see those, one of those connections is having a problem. This is the same thing when you see the locked personas - one of the servers has lost connection with your persona.
These are issues we continually work to improve but they don't effect everyone and there are many intermediary points of potential complications on the route between our game servers and your desktop.
We always try to address many issues with each patch."
Topic changed: why do I CTHL all the time ? ( 1 2 3 )

Yours truly (Svedala) spent hours on brigade selection screen yesterday trying to get in, once in with primary server, there was no chat and it ended in a CTD. Today we at least got some word that someone will look into it., KFS1 will look into it.

Motormouth, Playnet Community & Public Relations: " KFS1 has been notified is looking into this to see if it's anything that he can address. I'm going to close this thread now. Thanks for your input, everyone!"
Connection to Host Lost, over and over. ( 1 2

Just in: GAME SERVER MAINTENANCE TUESDAY, NOV.24 10:30AM CST!

By the knife

Gefreiter Vosges45, Das Heer, reported: " I mobile spawned north of St Hubert and started to work my way south. The area was crawling with infantry and within minutes I bagged one I saw run into a hedgerow; rifled from about 10 foot away while he was paying no attention to the area he'd just ran into. I'd even tossed two grenades at him on approach and he didn't think they were meant for him I guess.
I settled down and decided to wait for anything coming into my area to kill.
The second was a guy I saw running across the north road and gave chase two. He went into one of those tree areas with the berms around them. As I was setting up for the shot he turned and noticed me. I fired and missed, he returned fire and missed also. I dropped to the ground and slew to the right and lost sight of him. I went around a tree and he fired at me again from about 5 feet away and missed. I dropped again and lost him. I hid in a bush and watched him walk right by me, took careful aim and... nothing, I'd fired my last round and never reloaded. I came out of the bushes just as he turned and dropped to the ground. He'd fired again and missed me as I dropped.
This time he dropped too and took aim at me. I kept slewing left, fumbling for my knife and managed to throw two smoke grenades. I finally got the knife selected and did a lil sprint/hop on top of him and ended it. Wild.
The third was again running across a field in the open and I fired, missing. He dropped, waiting then turned and ran right towards me. I fired with him about 10 feet away.
A few minutes later I moved to a new position and arrived too late to watch a 232 get sapped. I missed the sapper and moved to cover another nearby 232. While I was watching his back I was killed by a LMG from a distance. All in all a good mission, very enjoyable."
Started Nov 18, 2009 in a German Sapper from Champlon. Ended with 3 kills and 0 captures.

Zeebeee works on new ideas for the GUI

Zebbeee have made suggestions to improve the architecture of the user interface and some basics gameplay modifications for v 1.32 (1.31 is soon in beta).
Read his thread New suggested Graphical User Interface Unvealed
Features presented here are either ideas gathered/selected from community discussions or designed by myself . These try to take into consideration developers’ long-term vision for the gameplay , while exploiting existing code parts as much as possible or using similar approaches. I leave pictures free of copyrights but please don't forget to mention where it comes from. This study only focused on a few menus to introduce the new architecture logics : the side HQ screen , the platoon HQ, and the brigade HQ, which are the main screens used to find action and deploy.

New mission categories, mercenaries, platoon and squad missions.
Missions no longer have a fixed origin
Platoon can no longer be joined once it left ready room
MSPs are tied to brigade instead of missions

Zeebeee wants you to help him out with suggestion and comments so head over to his blog now!
Check out the full work on the official blog now !

The fall of Jodoigne

On November the 14th, the battle of Jodoigne commenced. With the german troops overrunned in minutes and french troops well prepared, turned the town into a graveyard. While allied fighter and bomber pilots constantly strafed and bombed the arriving german troops, preventing them from setting up a sucessfull defence and fresh french troops arriving to keep up the pressure on the depots, a column of tanks headed towards the town from northwest sealin the deal.

Pile of bodies marking the fall

Several times the german defenders managed to repell the onslaught and liberate the depots but soon theyfound themselves locked down in the barracks and bunker at the Armybase surrounded by enemy tanks. The floors of the baracks were soon full of dead german soldiers as the tanks started to close in on the doors. The whole battle was one of the most intense infantry battles in a long time with no more then a few squares within the depots and baracks as a safe starting point. Most who fought there will remember the adren

Major Wdwm1, eager to hasten the fall of the last
defenders blocking a door in the Armybase.

Top ten most kills in a sortie

1.	Capt Winstor	FR Army	Char	76 kills	Nov 08 0117
2.	Lt Col Gagamel	DE Army	Pz IIIf	64 kills	Nov 02 1758
3.	Capt Sss14	UK Army	Matilda	63 kills	Nov 06 1706
4.	Capt Tempest	DE Army	Pz 38t	58 kills	Nov 02 1810
5.	Capt Soulmine	FR Army	H39	50 kills	Nov 02 1708
6.	Lt Col Manni88	DE Army	Pz IIIf	46 kills	Nov 03 1305
7.	Maj Guns	DE Army	Pz IV D	45 kills	Nov 02 2319
8.	Sgt Maj Mrwinkie	UK Army	Matilda	44 kills	Nov 07 2300
9.	Lt Doctor13	UK Army	Matilda	44 kills	Nov 06 1712
10.	Capt Jck2	UK Army	Matilda	44 kills	Nov 02 2127

Combat air patrol

Major Mjdixon1 reports:

Aircraft: Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Ia "Z-K-L"
Mission Type: Combat Air Patrol
Airfield: Maubeuge Aerodrome, France
Date: 5th of November 1939

I Took off from Maubeuge Aerodrome in the late morning to conduct a combat air patrol between Brussels and Antwerp - both having been subject to axis probing attacks throughout the day. Leveling off at angels 10 I headed north east and arrived at Brussels a short time later, at which point I began a standard patrol patern, lasting some 5 minutes, after which I noted a Junkers Ju-87 Stuka below my starboard Wing at an altitude of what I aproximate to be between angels 03 and angels 05.
Believing that the enemy Stuka was preparing to dive upon our ground forces - and in keeping with my specific orders of conducting a combat air patrol - I dove upon the German machine with zest, scoring multiple hits on his rear and wing root area as he began to dive upon Evere Airfield on the outskirts of Brussels, it is at this point that the Jerry machine came under anti-aircraft fire from the Airfield defence Batteries, subsequently losing its port wing during its and crashing to the ground aflame.

I am unclear at present as to the cause of the enemy aircraft's destruction, being either a result of damage sustained from my attack or being due to the fire from the ground defences.

Having regained altitude after my attack on the enemy Stuka I was then vectored by control towards Bergen op Zoom to assist a Royal Navy destroyer squadron, which had found itself under attack by enemy aircraft whilst trying to conduct a naval blockade of the town.
Upon reaching the Oosterschelde estuary I noted the British Destroyers below me and identified another Junkers Ju-87 Stuka attempting to attack the blockading ships, as such I dove upon the enemy craft, resulting in a number of slashing attacks at low altitude until the Hun was eventualy downed by my machinegun fire on the outskirts of town.

Leveling off at angels 05 over the estuary, I considered my ammunition usage in the previous two engagements and decided it best to return to base due to my being low on ammunition - it was at this point however that I identified a flight of two Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4s above me at between angels 10 and angels 15 to the south east, presumably the late escort flight of the previously engaged Stuka - or otherwise a fighter intercept called by the Stuka for assistance shortly before it's demise.
Being at a clear disadvantage in numbers, altitude and ammunition, I decided the best course of action would be to dive to wave height and attempt to escape west towards the Allied airfield at Vlissingen.

I was however unable to dive away from the enemy before they were able to identify me, resulting in them both diving to attack me, as such I was forced to break a number of times during my escape to throw off the enemy aim, I also aggressively countered a number of dives by turning on the enemy and expending my remaining 60 - 80 rounds of ammunition.
Having defended myself against a number of attacks I had managed to disuade one of the enemy Pilots from continuing his course of action, leaving me with one remaining Jerry 109, who was finaly persuaded to turn for home upon encountering stiff anti-aircraft defences around Vlissingen Harbour, as such I was clear to land at Vlissingen Airfield and finish my flight with no damage to my own Aircraft.
Started Nov 05, 2009 in a Spitfire Mk I from Maubeuge. Ended with 1 kill and 0 captures.

Nov 05 18:43

Operational Sortie 01: Combat ...

Maj Mjdixon1 (UK/AF)

Intermission: 122 men strong paradrop

[AHC] Allied paradrop on October 29th 2009. 122 british paratrooper drops on a german held town.
French Country CinC Nobipure, 333rd British Knights: " I was on the lower transport and I landed IN the CP doorway, ran in and cometus was already humping the crate...lol. Died trying to defend SAB but took 3-4 with me! That was an epic para assault to be certain !S!"

Ce, 23rd Armour:" Was cool. We had 3 planes...As my plane was droppin,1 dropped right under us and the other to SAB. Looked great,but got late screenies. EXCELENT job all involved..Big drop."

Video by Cpwright


Read the whole thread in Allied discussions.

War over! Allies win at Ratinger!

(FTF) When the 1st Armour Brigade and Special Air Service from the 1st Infantry Division, BEF along with 101 r Escadron de Reconnaissance, FAF moved into the captured town of Ratinger after a long hard fight with the remains of 2. Panzerdivision, Allied vitory was declared.
Heavy fighting continued in Essen and Duisburg as the last Kampfgruppes of 2. and 4. Panzerdivisions called for a last stand.
Commander in Chief of the Allies GreatOne took a few seconds from his work with finishing his moves around Ratinger:
FTF: " So how does it feel, finishing your term with a win?"
GreatOne: " Not bad I suppose. No, it feels awesome now that I get to retire and enjoy myself once again. I'd like to thank all the players for a great campaign!"

Allies hold 93% of the terrain

As the battle for Milsbeek reached it's peak, deep inside Germany, reports reached the soldiers that the british and french forces now holds 93% of the battlefield of the western Europe.

91st Sturmbattalion on patrol

Feldwebel Acegacek, 91st Sturmbattalion: " Two FW190's lift from Theux Airfield in Verviers to patrol the sector between Havelenge and Wellin. Both Sgt Maj Acegacek and Sgt Maj Signasty started Boom and Zooming enemy planes over Havelenge. Soon after enemy aircraft presence disappeared and we took a few minutes to cool engines and get altitude. While flying over Havelenge, we came across a 109 pilot fighting with a Spitfire and show up as insurance for the 109 pilot, Capt Hopper57. The Spitfire came crashing down shortly after a chase that took us to Andenne, where the Spitfire's life ended. We took the time to gain altitude and speed before coming back to Havelenge. When we got back, three more bogey's came up. A Hurricane IIb and two Spitfire V's came into range. A 3v3 dogfight ensued but the Luftwaffe pilots had a speed and altitude advantage. Sgt Maj Acegacek took out the first spitfire and he went flaming to the ground. Shortly after the second Spitfire came crashing down thanks to Capt Hopper57 . With only the Hurricane pilot remaining on the deck, all three of us start toying with him before Sgt Maj Signasty ended is torment. Three RAF planes went down in less than five minutes due to superior German tactics and teamwork.After staying above Havelenge and Ciney for 30 minutes, we head to Wellin to secure the area. Shortly after arrival, enemy aircraft presence deceased. The 190's now, after a long sortie, had to work their way back to Betrix for fuel. On the way, Sgt Maj Acegacek got word of a Hawk 87-b3 harrasing ground troops outside Sedan. Making a solo flight to Sedan, the Hawk was sighted quickly due to his non stop strafing of ground targets. With both speed and altitude advantage, the FW190 toyed with the Hawk pilot, who was hugging his beloved AAA at Sedan. Shortly after the Hawk left his AAA protection, the 190 pounced and set the Hawk on fire. It was time to return to base after cannon ammo and fuel nearing empty.All three pilots returned to base with little to no damage.!S to all three pilots of the 91st Luftwaffe Squadron. Feldwebel Acegacek-3 Kills, RTB, Feldwebel Signasty-1 Kill, RTB, HAuptmann Hopper57-2 Kills, RTB."
Started Oct 19, 2009 in a Fw 190A4 from Verviers. Ended with 3 kills and 0 captures.
AAR Logbook Sortie

The taking of a forward base

Oberfeldwebel Khitan: " Tonight we were on an op to blow up a forward base that was being used to support an attack on one of our towns. We worked as a tight unit, all orders coming directly from the on-side commander. We had three sappers and a 50mm AT gun, just barely enough to do the job. I was manning the AT gun, and it got a little hairy. The gun was hidden in some tall bushes, and several tanks came very close to me, one was as close as 15 meters as it passed me driving down the road. In all cases I was ordered to let the tank pass. If they knew we were there we would have blown the mission.We waited for night to fall, then moved into position. The sappers approached the target while I maneuvered to have a good shot on their base.As they started to lay charges an enemy soldier appeared, and killed one of our team. He had already spend his explosives, so we were still good to go. All we needed was four more charges to blow the base. One of the team got a bead on the enemy soldier and took him out. Suddenly it was a race of time. A tank appeared in the base. But it was too late. Our commander was laying that last four charges on the base, and it blew sky high.Victory was ours :)"
AAR Sortie AAR

Meanwhile southeast of Chimay

Recruit Ocidean, RAF reports from the skies: " Took off from Cambrai AF and started my ascent to approx 2500m high. On my way to my target (Chimay SAB veh spawn) I encountered a 109 at around 3500m up. Diving on me I climbed while spinning my hurricane, the 09 let off a short burst that sailed below me. the 09 however did not climb back up but circled to the right, with my slightly higher elevation i decided to try turn into the 09. it worked and soon I was on his 6 as both of us did a descending spiral. I was however about 300-500m behind him, that with the fact both of us where turning to our best ability made me hesitant on using my 360 cannon rounds as I thought it a waist(I did manage to shoot off 16 cannon rounds when i was in a more favourable position in the downward spiral). eventually I lost sight of the 09 below me somewhere. I looked to my sides, above me, my 6 and slewed my plane to look below me. I could find him, I concluded that he probably despawned. So I started to climb and head yet again towards my target. After about a minute I checked the map and noticed a Yellow square on me so i looked around, on checking my right side of my 6 (5+3) I saw a gray 09 about 50m away flying parallel (slightly to the right) with me. I almost panicked but noticed he wasn?t exactly going for me, so I pulled right and up on the stick and saw him do the same in sync. He then passed overhead and into the front of me till he was about 100m ahead of me and waived his plane left and right (I must admit I was tempted to shoot at him for some points towards my rank). We then flew our separate ways. me to chimay and him SE'ish. finally coming to my target at about 2000m (and seeing 1 09's on the deck and one grey @ 1000m). I turned my plane upside down and pulled back on the stick till I was at a decent degrees, dropping my bombs at around 600-800m and just managing to pull out of the dive while blacked out. Once I recovered I checked around me and tried latching onto the 09's 6 as we passed each other (the grey was a 09 which was still above me). We passed each other again only this time getting in a short burst each, not sure if mine hit but I heard a few pings on my hurr. I turned in to the 09 and ended up on his 6, but he was further than 1k out so I decided to look for the other 09. failing to find him until I had a burst on me that injured my pilot. fighting to control the plane to try ditch on the ground, his second burst took off my left wing. I spun out and crashed.
Anyway good fight solo, maybe next time ill be a little more trigger happy."
Started Oct 08, 2009 in a Hurricane MkIIc from Cambrai. Ended with 1 kill and 0 captures.
AAR Sortie Service

Tanking teamwork works

Lieutenant Firefly7 reports: " I spawned a sherman M4 from the Ronse-Brakel Fb, and proceeded to roll towards the town of Brakel (Allied defense then Axis capped after battle. I figured there would still be some leftover enemy tanks that were heading towards our FB after their victory, but as i got closer, the terrain got interesting and i realized this would be a really fun place for a tank battle.

Then i get a PM from Plectii, who was another sherm in the area. We were both laying low for a while, and he kept relaying me info about anything coming out of the town or anything that was around us, as i did for him. After an opel or two, and killing a couple ei, he reported a panzer was closing in on us. A stuart had gone up the hill that i was underneath, as i figured it would be a good ambush point. After a little bit, I started getting pounded by something to my right. I never saw what it was until it stopped firing, as neither of us could kill each other for 20 seconds of firing. I finally recognized it as a pz4g, and it despawned. After a while of changing positions, i killed a stug that plectii had reported, and was engaged with it. Throughout this sortie we were both letting each other know what the hell was going on, and he saved my life a few times, reporting a sapper in the area :)

After a while, plectii reported a tiger, and eventually we realized that we had been fairly well exposed. A sapper and the tiger eventually got plectii, and i almost got killed by a sapper after i saw him over a small ridge close near me. After killing a couple opels, i was finally caught off guard shooting one of the opels and got sapped out of my mind, by Tootalll, who caught me at the exact right moment for him hehe :)

It was really fun though, working as a team with even one other player, so i hope to do this more with squadies and people who happen to be in the area in the future :)"
Started Oct 06, 2009 in a Sherman M4a2 from Ronse. Ended with 8 kills and 0 captures.
AAR Sortie Service

Breaking out at Oudenaarde

Oberfeldwebel Bodies reported from the frontline: " The cheeky French had set up a precamp on the East side of Oudenaarde. I snook out of town up the bushes, French SMGs were nearly tripping over me. I held fire. Made it to the Hill top and there was a neat line of 3inch M5 ATGS and a Bofors pulverising our AB. Decided nades were the best way to deal with them. Energy up, I rushed out, dropping nades at the feet of them one by one. Luckily the bofors was looking skyward as I dumped one on him too. Not looking back I made it to a bushline and what do you know - 3 more M5s appear. I dump the remainder of my nades on them and gun the last two. Can't remember killing a SMG but a hidden Bofors, gunned by Poobin, smote me good.
They got the town in the end - had lots more stuff in place."
Started Sep 29, 2009 in a German SMG from Oudenaarde. Ended with 8 kills and 0 captures.
AAR Sortie Logbook

Mortars pound Rozoy

Leutnant Uwke reports: " After exiting the Opel, I began to mark distances and landmarks and proceeded to a safe location to begin my assault. After locating a position about 450m SE of the AB, a few rifleman dropped off more rounds so I could begin my attack. Starting with some smoke to assist my ammo suppliers, I began to drop HE rounds into and around the base. Shortly after I was depleted on my HE so I located a rifle and began a standard attack. After completion of my assault when I was severely wounded I tallied the following; A big thank you to the one who pulled me from the battlefield to I could fight again."

Riflemen: 3 Killed, 1 Wounded
SMG: 3 Killed
LMG: 1 Wounded
3" ATG: 1 Killed, 1 Damaged
Bofors: 2 Killed, 1 Damaged
Panhard: 1 Damaged
S35: 1 Damaged

AAR CSR Logbook

Beta 1.31 includes ragdoll and weather

Beta 1.31 Read more!

Northern Whirlwind reports in

From the CSR records here.
Origin: Evere Airfield, Brussels, Belgium
Target: Rhenania-Ossag Oil Refinery, Dusseldorf, Germany
Started Aug 11, 2009 in a DB7 from Brussels. Ended with 0 kills and 0 captures.

"Northern Whirlwind" took part in a small unescorted high altitude single bomber raid to bomb the newly repaired Rhenania-Ossag Oil Refinery in the city of Dusseldorf, Germany.
No enemy aircraft were encountered en-route to the target, light anti-aircraft fire was encountered over the target area.
The bomb run was made in the day with medium cloud over the target, BDA reports that the factory took light damage during the attack and will require further sorties.
The squadron returned to Evere Airfield and landed, no casualties.

M. J. Dixon, Pilot - "Northern Whirlwind"

--
Colour Sergeant Mjdixon1
Aug 11, 2009
Mission 12: Sortie AAR Previous missions: Logbook

Oberstleutnant Dinker wins top trucker trophy

Campaign 53 ended with an Axis victory, the british and french down to a handful of cities on the western coast of France and with the british islands intact, the Axis kept trying for Deal to gain a foothold but could not manage it. The last Junker for England ended up with no wings over the shores of deal while half the load of fallschirmsjagers managed to capture townhall but nothing more. At the and of the day thou OKA could see that their forces managed an overwhelming victory and preperations for the next campaign are underway during the following two days vacation on the shores of the english channel. Read the official announcement.

One of the cornerstones of the campaign is always the trucker. This campaign Oberstleutnant Dinker, 3rd Panzergruppe, 2. Panzerdivision managed 515 sorties with 140 returned to base and a staggering 5855 minutes on mission, placing him #9 of the total time spent on the battlefield (1590 sorties). He used countless SdKfz 7 and opels to ferry troops and equiptment to the front and for that, we salute him and all who spent time providing this service to the troops!

In total Campaign 53 saw 1,427,293 sorties, 801,844 kills and 32,108 captures.
Read more from Campaign 53 in this article and look at the campaign record here.

Report from a paratrooper

Brigadier Gen. Bluekill:

I was commanding paratrooper operations in the south,hoping to cause some pain to the axis forces and draw some forces away.Thanks to Sircuddles for his scary yet successful drops,we had taken Roye behind enemy lines,and where now working on bouthir *or whatever the town is* im hoiding in bouthier on the church watching for enemy paras,and i hear a opel!So the opel drives into the church,and i run down and shoot the driver three times,then throw a grenade at it.It turns out a EI was riding the opel,and he jumped out right onto my grenade.After that odd experiance,i go back to the church atching for enemy paratroopers,and got back to commanding the assaults.(btw,thanks to Jeremy,my 2nd in command for that battle,and sircuddles for flying those paratroopers,haha for stating the obvious every to seconds,and finally for pilbrow for dieing even when there was no enemies around,everytime.
Started Jul 23, 2009 in a British Airborne Rifle from Amiens. Ended with 2 kills and 0 captures.
AAR Sortie Logbook

The fight for St. Truiden

Unterleutnant Devilmutt reported from the battle of St. Truiden: " The call came out for sappers on the St.Truiden - Hasselt FB as Hasselt was under allied attack. I reported for duty to find only 3 sappers in the supply. I'm sorry that I do not recall the squad leader's name at the time of this report. The leader and I went for the inf bunker and got 8 charges on it. A third squaddie hit the veh and took it down. I did not understand at the time why the fb was still up. As we were returning to the opel for supplies we came under Allied infantry fire. My squad leader and other member were killed.

I laid low for awhile killing one infantryman that came close to me. I was out of charges and a Panhard destroyed our opel. I thought what do I do...stay and harras ATG's and Laffy's leaving the FB? A new squaddie Pariah2x pm'ed me asking if the fb was clear. He was a sniper, as I told him of the situation he went above and beyond driving an opel into the enemy FB to supply me. I got a charge on the inf and came under enemy infantry fire. As I took cover pariah2x was killed. I made a break for the supply stockpile as Pentamon informed me that it had to be destroyed via pm. Pentamon, this is a guy who does not know me and goes out of his way to give me the 411 on the situation, Salute to you sir.
While under fire I was able to get 2 charges on the stockpile and my last charge on the Vehicle Tent. Boom went the Allied FB. As a closing present I took down one of the Allied machine gunners before I RTB'd."
AAR Sortie Logbook

More from the battle over at Nachrichten Blitz

PzKpfw IIIf claims 116 kills

Oberstleutnant Loonie left the forward base of Chaumont-Rethel 19:05 june 30th 2009 in order to defend the approach to Chaumont and Wehrmachts build-up of offensivee actions against the french held town of Rethel. During the mission that lasted two hours and ten minutes, Loonie and his crew managed to take out 116 enemy targets. At the and of the mission the young Oberstleutnant returned to base in his PzKpfw IIIf and claimed 113 infantry, 2 laffly and one atg kills.
Sortie Persona

Heinkel 111 as a divebomber

How to: Divebomb in He111 by Bierbaer

Paras to Köln

(AHC - June 20th) Paras to Köln by Man1AC0: " Darkvex mission, over 100 paras, two c47, about 5 scorts, we found some resistance before getting one of the last cities, at june 20, both transports (bundy and oneupu2) arrive to kolhn successfully,.. the guys flying on bundy plane drop west side kolhn about 8 or nine ,... the rest (as u see on video) got shoot down by aaa.. Nice mission ,,.. some cps capped.. GO ALLIES!!!"



And so ended Campaign 52 with Allied victory! Read the victory Announcement!

Boom... headshot

Sgt Tharival , reported from the front: C.O. Bluekill surveyed the town through his bino's and nodded slowly, "There it is. The CP we need to capture." He pointed towards the north and I could clearly see the German flag waving in the breeze. "How many do we have with us, sir?" I asked quietly. Blue looked back at me with camoflauge paint distorting his facial features, then back towards the objective. "As far as I know, command only sent a small team of raiders to do this mission. In pairs, we'll attack the German's and capture the strategic points on the map."
He nodded towards the CP, "We'll be hitting this one." "Ready when you are, sir." I said quietly, looking around the trees and brush. Blue smiled and racked the slide back on his SMG. The reassuring 'chink' of a round being chambered was all that needed to be said between us to move forward. The building grew large in our sights and we stopped, taking position only a stones throw away from it. Blue listened intently, his eyes squinted and from experience I knew that he was sensing that something was wrong. He signaled me to deploy my LMG and he'd flank the building to see if anybody was inside.
Blue ran quietly into the street, circled the building and approached carefully. I watched him methodically scan his surroundings and then he froze. The look of an animal who had been spotted spread across his face and he shouldered his SMG. Silence, quiet.
"POP POP POP!" "BLAM!"
Read the whole After Action Report over at Combat Stats & Records.
Started Jun 08, 2009 in a French LMG from Boom. Ended with 2 kills and 1 capture.

12 minute dogfight

12 minute spitfire dogfight by Panzerkanone44. Bf109G vs Spitfire over St. Niklaas.


Panzerkanone44: " This is my first video (well, almost) from WWIIOL. I'm in a Bf109G-6 and encounter an enemy plane. The entire dogfight lasts more than 12 minutes."

Battleground demographics

Alexa is a Company that provides information on users visiting websites. They rank Battleground.com the 145,552th website regarding traffic with a 0.00061% Percent of global Internet users who visit battlegroundeurope.com (not to bad considering From the Front recieves 0.00001%) and twitter.com (ranked #1) 1.508% (that's 1/100). So how about the demographics? Who checks out the website? Does it reflect the customer base? Well look for yourself and form your own opinion (Battleground Europe does have a customer/visitor base of 55+ but thoser are not taken into account by Alexa - Sorry Doc ;)

Panhard gymnastics

Panhard Flips Over People( TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME) by ShelledyJ

The capture

Corporal Tharival reports from the battlefield: " As soon as my boots hit the deck I was off at a dead run towards the enemy held town of Achel. Along with about 6 other men, I ran to a nearby enemy held building in time to hear the angry bursts of SMG's, Rifles, and LMG's. The shots were frightening compared to the relative peaceful day we were having, but I never became lax in a firefight. My body immediately pressed against a wall and the other men did the same as we rounded the first corner and then the next...bodies lay everywhere, friendly and enemy. Nobody was left, they had all shot each other down. Quickly, without words, we realized we needed to defend the building from a counterattack. Capturing this building would lead to other captures and increase the morale of our troops. As we defended enemy troops ran inside, only to be cut down by our accurate fire. Now supported by our tanks from outside, no infantry could enter without being ripped apart by heavy machine guns. The enemy attack slowed to a stop and we remained to capture the bunker as well. Tanks supported by infantry, I learned, is a beautiful sight indeed."

AAR Sortie

David versus the Goliaths

Flieger David06, Luftwaffe reported from the war up in the skies:

Apr 21 16:12 Gilze Airfield
Flying CAS low over Roosdaal. Luftwaffe fighters were keeping EA preoccupied. Used below-rear gunner to spot targets. Dropped 1-2 bombs at a time. Ground situation was very confusing; buildings made bombing armor even more difficult. Unsuccessfully bombed a Char and S35, bombed two other green contacts; Those must have been the Pans. Sustained a hit from an ET cannon; No significant damage.
Heinkel 111 from Gilze. Ended with 4 kills.

Apr 21 16:01 Gilze Airfield
Flying CAS low over Roosdaal. Dropped some bombs on west CP. There was an ET west outside of town firing at my plane. Was hit, but no serious damage. After another bombing run, rolled my He111 too low, and hit a tree.
Heinkel 111 from Gilze. Ended with 1 kill.

Apr 21 16:41 Gilze Airfield
CAS over Roosendaal with He111. Flying low over town; made it to target fine, but Luftwaffe support was lacking and AA was also inadequate. Tried to bomb north CP several times, every time there was a fighter diving in. Our AA guns at the AA were really disappointing. Once again, allied fighters have the luxury of being low and slow over target; and that is what matters in this game.
Heinkel 111 from Gilze. Ended with 0 kills.

Apr 21 16:55 Gilze Airfield
Was BARCAP'ing the airfield south of Roosendaal, missed two bounces primarily because I'll still used to the fw190, and compression was a serious issue diving from 3k on to a plane. Saw "bigwoody" down low with a hawk and another EA; I tangled a bit there scoring a cannon hit on one hawk, when I saw a spitfire 500m below returning from target. 300m off, wasted much cannon but scored hits and white smoke-trail; He made it to enemy AAA, and I broke off west. D520 dived on me, I evaded once, twice, and continued east. D520 stll on my long six, was running for home when I lost connection exactly as I received a few plinks.
Bf109E4 from Gilze. Ended with 2 kills.

Persona

Reb400 memorial

Last week, the 101st lost a member of our squad. Reb400 passed away. He was a great squad mate, always fun to talk to, always willing to help out. He had a deep southern twang to his voice, unmistakable when he logged into teamspeak. He had been in a lot of pain the last year and he wasn't able to play as much. Reb loved the game, loved to fly, loved to tank, and loved to play aside his squad mates. The 101st has lost a great squad mate and the game has lost a great player.

We'll miss you Reb,
S!
The 101st Airborne

Shad0w64, 101st airborne XO: " Gordon "Reb400" Buster was a beloved member of the 101st airborne squad. To many of us he was more than just a teammate, he was a friend. His always helpful attitude and deep southern drawl will be remembered by us all. We Salute you reb. Rest in peace. S!"



Visit the thread dedicated to Gordon Buster.

Read more

Beeing a part of the largest paradrop

Kamiman, Stellvertrender Kommandeur des 2. Panzerdivision, XVIII Armeekorps: " Joint operation on Longuyon between Windhund, 250H, 1775th, KGW, Lagus and Tons of blue tags.We had 4 JU with about 40 players each and 6-7 escorts per JU. 30 110C4B bombed city before we dropped.EVERYONE ELSE!!! post your pics too, this was EPIC!!! We took the town and routed the brigade to training lol. I can only imagine the yell of OMG OMG PARAS in town.Special thanks to LW HC and STG_77 for flying fighter escort."

Screenshot by Cougtl, 1775th

Private Oam47, Luftwaffe, reported from the huge paradrop: " I almost missed the plane. One of the last out. Dropped with 5-6 or so other people (of over 150) W of the Army base. Quickly ran up to the gate and along with two tanks proceeded to rack up kills. Eventualy a Laffly drove up and blew up in the gate to stop our fire. After it was destroyed completly I died from the lined up enemies."
Started Apr 05, 2009 in a German Airborne Rifle from Wiltz. Ended with 6 kills and 0 captures.

AAR Sortie Forum

Skom attacks from the skies

Major Somuee, FAF took the trusty old Char B1 Bis tank for an staggering 11mph ride, leaving the Hallschlag Armybase in an orderly fashion in order to suppor the Allies effort in the area when Hauptmann Skom, Luftwaffe came screaming down from the sun in his Bf110C4/B, althou Skom did not make it back to the offiziers messhall at Kornelimunster Airfield, Soumee along with a laffly and a bofors suffered a KIA as well.

Sortie AAR

The Battle of Albert

Hauptman Sabot1 reported from the battle: " An epic battle unfolded for the city of Albert. Members of the 3rd panzer organized and led the assault on the town. A mass of armor positioned itself in a crecent around the town effectively limiting external ground reinforcements, and inflicting heavy losses on those who tried. The town quickly fell except for the final Depot. A raging battle ensued as assaults and counter assaults tore through the remnents of the town. Allied air power flexed its muscle to attempt and break the siege, but the attackers would not give up. After 1 1/2 hours, the final allied presence was finally removed.Creative interdiction of allied reinforcements and disrupting assaults on allied FB positions bought the time to needed for the assaulting forces to achieve this victory."

AAR Sortie Started Feb 17, 2009 in a PzKpfw IVg from Bapaume. Ended with 8 kills and 0 captures.

Infantry shoots down aircrafts

Colour Sergeant Harcourt reported from Doullens: " Here is proof positive of my (unlikely) claim that I did in fact shoot down a 109 with the French SMG. Ha!"

AAR Sortie Started Feb 17, 2009 in a French SMG from Doullens. Ended with 1 kill and 0 captures.

Lieutenant Mailman2 reported from the battlefield outside Bouchoir: " The Spit was flying low over our FB. Since we didn't have AA guns up yet he was strafing the deck. I fired my rifle at him several times and got the pilot with a lucky skilled shot."

AAR Sortie Started Feb 17, 2009 in a German Rifleman from Bouchoir. Ended with 2 kills and 0 captures.

Peronne defenders awarded

Commander Oneupu2, BEF announced: " I have two awards thatI have been granted permission from AHC to offer. Firstly, Desaix for destoying all the FBs that I asked him to do. He acted as the PB should when requested for help and carried out each duty with perfection. Three active FBs in total. I award you the FB Destroying Ribbon.

Secondly, for Mifsud01. This guy defending the CPs in Peronne when I called for defensive shield to go up when most others ran past the CPs leaving them vulnerable. He stayed there until after the battle was over and even when I, myself logged off. He is rewarded for his defensive duties and duties to the Allied defense. I award you the Axis Denied Knight Cross. Wear them with pride guys and for all those out there, High Command is watching your every move and you will be duly awarded. Oneupu2 out !"

Peronne Defence Awards

How not to be seen

How not to be seen by Chakblit

To a fallen community member

Hotfink: " I just heard about Summala the other day. I loved flying with him as LW. He was a great Pilot and I am gonna miss him alot. I have one really fond memmory of summala. One day out of boredome we got on the training server and was doing a little practice and was playing around. we decided to play some chicken under bridges for fun. We rammed eachother multiple times and he kept winning and not exploding and not taking any damage whatsover. He was chattin on TS claiming that he was the "Master" .
I am really gonna miss him 1st as a friend 2nd as a Commrad 3rd as a Great Pilot.
S! Summala one day I will play wwiiol with you again my friend. Might be a few years but keep that spirit I will obey the "Master"
I encourage all to come. I will miss summala alot."

Forum thread

Light machinegun vs. Spitfire

Hauptmann Lurchy reported: " The sky was chock full of Allied air so a guy could not stick his head out of the ab to check the Allied spwn cap south end. I grabbed an LMG and made a mad dash for the w exit, jumping in a bush berm just in term as a tank near the entrance was bombed immediately after I ran. After a very conservative look around, barely popping my head above the berm, I confirmed no ei immediate danger so I set up for the ea. One after another after another came in on us, all from different angles and heights. They were beating the crud out of the ab. But every once in a while some ea pilot would do me the pleasure of strafing from just the right angle and just the right height. On one of those occasions, I saw him coming in lead him a little, lined him up, and fired away walking along as he came closer. Thank you Mr. Spitfire Vb, I have never had a verified EA kill with infantry before, and the sound of the crash in the fb told me I had just taken you out."

AAR Sortie

A lonely feldjager

Major Tempered reported: " So i decided to hang at Val for a few and we ended up having to try to knock off a few ei from taking down fb-I patiently ran into the Southern forest to try and take out the ums's which i had taken 1 out, Then saw a few of our tanks getting ambushed by atg's that seemed to spawn out of the woodwork! seriously! frigging ridiculous!Ended up spotting one and ran to it, then saw another and ran to it and so on and so on! So for about 87 minutes i was running around helping our convoy "being the scout" and taking out all the atg's with in a good distance and calling all contacts! by that time there must have been at least 10+ PZ's on my tail waiting for me to give the word to head into Reims !so i proceeded to run down that hill gunning down atg's while i was tripping over my boots and reloading the 15 bullets i had left and decided to capture the spawn in the South end!By the time i had left we had about 6+ PZ's rolling through the city and many boots running out of the CP!"

AAR Sortie