WIF Air Unit Commentary

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:50 pm

Steve,

Here's a sample of the work I'm doing on the commentary for the air units . I'm maybe 20% of the way through the 550+ units so it seemd a good idea to get your feedback about the direction of this work.

Shannon V. OKeets · Post by **Shannon V. OKeets** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:25 am

ORIGINAL: Greyshaft

Steve,

Here's a sample of the work I'm doing on the commentary for the air units . I'm maybe 20% of the way through the 550+ units so it seemd a good idea to get your feedback about the direction of this work.

This looks excellent. I had to reformat it in order to be able to read it so we should agree on a different format for transmitting it.

Of course, you must realize that I know nothing about this topic so you could have made it all up and I wouldn't know the difference.

You should build a list of sources that we can credit and refer players to for more information if they so desire.

Thanks for all the fine work.

Steve

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:34 am

My work is being done in an excel spreadsheet but I couldn't upload that so I pasted it into a text file for your review. Next time I'll just mail you the spreadsheet.

I'm saving a list of primary sources for crediting however much of the information appears on so many web sites that it is impossible to determine where or when I first learned it. Some of the info (eg Westland Whirlwind) I just wrote from my own knowledge and double-checked on the web later.

Neilster · Post by **Neilster** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:38 am

There's a lot of hard work gone into that. I just had a quick look through some.

One thing that caught my eye; the Beaufighter was nicknamed "Whispering Death" due to the quietness of it's sleeve-valve radials.

Cheers, Neilster

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:41 am

ORIGINAL: Neilster
One thing that caught my eye; the Beaufighter was nicknamed "Whispering Death" due to the quietness of it's sleeve-valve radials.

Thanks. I intend to post the completed doc for public review, correction & suggestion.

Cheesehead · Post by **Cheesehead** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:46 pm

Looks great! Are you going to do the same for tanks, ships, artillery, etc?

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:39 pm

ORIGINAL: Cheesehead
Looks great! Are you going to do the same for tanks, ships, artillery, etc?

Ships definitely, but I have no problem if someone else wants to take on that work. This is a team effort.

Froonp · Post by **Froonp** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:14 am

Ships definitely, but I have no problem if someone else wants to take on that work. This is a team effort.

For ships, what needs to be done is to tell for each ship from which class it is. At least, this is the information I would like to know about ship.
Example on the top of my head. CV Enterprise : Hornet Class Heavy Carrier (not sure it is right).
Date when it was put to sea too, and circumstances where it sunk.
Also, battles in which it took part.

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:30 am

ORIGINAL: Froonp

Ships definitely, but I have no problem if someone else wants to take on that work. This is a team effort.
For ships, what needs to be done is to tell for each ship from which class it is. At least, this is the information I would like to know about ship.
Example on the top of my head. CV Enterprise : Hornet Class Heavy Carrier (not sure it is right).
Date when it was put to sea too, and circumstances where it sunk.
Also, battles in which it took part.

Agreed, plus at least one "bet you didn't know this" fact e.g. all Essex class carriers had a permanent 4 degree list because the designers forgot to allow for the weight of the island!

Froonp · Post by **Froonp** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:22 pm

Agreed, plus at least one "bet you didn't know this" fact e.g. all Essex class carriers had a permanent 4 degree list because the designers forgot to allow for the weight of the island!

Is this really true ???
I didn't knew this [:D]

Shannon V. OKeets · Post by **Shannon V. OKeets** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:18 pm

Greyshaft,

If you could provide a short list of sources for this type of information, perhaps someone will offer to contribute to fleshing out the historical details on land and naval units?

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:46 pm

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Greyshaft,

If you could provide a short list of sources for this type of information, perhaps someone will offer to contribute to fleshing out the historical details on land and naval units?

T'aint no secret. All I'm doing is going to Google and typing in:

"aircraft"
"WWII"
plus the name of the aircraft eg "Bf-109"

then I stand back from the avalanche of info that comes pouring out. Each plane takes maybe half an hour of assembling the information I want and compacting it into an appropriate paragraph but given that there's over 500 different air units in WiF it will keep me busy for a while yet. I'm keeping track of the sources I use but I'll probably boil the credits down to the top dozen web sites like :

http://www.raf.mod.uk
http://users.belgacom.net/aircraft/
www.comandosupremo.com
(etc)

I'd be mighty happy if someone else stepped up to the plate to handle the land and naval units <hey!!! where did all the wannabe beta-testers go???>

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:55 pm

ORIGINAL: Froonp

Agreed, plus at least one "bet you didn't know this" fact e.g. all Essex class carriers had a permanent 4 degree list because the designers forgot to allow for the weight of the island!
Is this really true ???
I didn't knew this [:D]

It's one of those 'long forgotten' facts that hangs around in the back of my mind. Whether its true or not is another question[:D]
The person who writes the naval histories can check it out.

mlees · Post by **mlees** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:58 pm

Hmmm. As far as Naval warships, (the named ones, like the HMS Hood) are you looking for a commentary on each named ship? There are hundreds of ships in the game.

Wow.

I guess that could take a couple days...

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:04 pm

ORIGINAL: mlees
Hmmm. As far as Naval warships, (the named ones, like the HMS Hood) are you looking for a commentary on each named ship? There are hundreds of ships in the game...

Yes, just like the commentary I'm doing for the air units. Here's a couple of the air units I've done...

The Bristol Blenheim Mark.IV (known as the Bolingbroke in Canada) featured upgraded 905hp engines and doubled the single 7.9 machine gun in the Mark.I's dorsal turret. The nose was lengthened to provide a position for a bombardier but this created visibility problems for the pilot during takeoff and landing so the characteristic asymmetrical nose with its lower port side was fitted to the production versions. The Blenheim Mark.IV could reach 475kph but it proved too fragile to survive on the battlefield as demonstrated by RAF 82 squadron which lost eleven out of twelve aircraft in a single raid in May 1940 over Namur and then suffered the same loss ratio a second time when attacking Aalborg airfield in Denmark in August 1940.

Conceived in 1944 as a replacement for the de Havilland Mosquito, the English Electric Canberra was a bomber designed and built by a company whose only previous experience in aviation was building Halifax bombers under licence. Although the contract was signed in May 1945 the prototype did not fly until May 1949. Canberra Bombers served under many flags and even fought on both sides in the 1967 Indo-Pakistani war. In November 2005 Canberra bombers were still on active duty as Tactical Reconnaissance aircraft with No. 39 (1 PRU) Squadron of the RAF and in recent years have seen service in Rwanda, Zaire, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

I've done over 100 of these... only 450 to go [:D]

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 7:57 am

I have realised that I have been working from an inaccurate list of aircraft. Its my fault, since Steve had provided me with a list of air units very early on and I had mistakenly assumed that it was the same as the list on the spreadsheet I was using. Twas not to be... there are significant differences [:(]

Anyway, I have swallowed my pride and eliminated the erroneous aircraft. There are 1,243 Air Counters in total and about 30% are duplicates eg multiple B-29 bombers. I have 298 descriptions remaining to be written.

Todays aircraft is the Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport:
"First flying in March 1942, the Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport was the military derivative of the Douglas DC-4 airliner. With a tricycle undercarriage and four 1,450hp engines, the C-54 signified the end of the 1930’s era of twin-engined, tail dragging transport aircraft. A C-54 (the “Sacred Cow”) was used to carry President Roosevelt to the Tehran and Casablanca conferences."

Froonp · Post by **Froonp** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 9:08 am

Good.
I would be interested in knowing if the spreadsheet you are talking about is the one I maintain on my website, and if there is any problem with it.
Best Regards

Greyshaft · Post by **Greyshaft** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 10:40 am

'Fraid so...

However your spreadsheet tries to cover all the ADG games. I'm not sure where Steve got his list but since thatis the definitive MWiF list then thats the path I must follow.

Froonp · Post by **Froonp** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 1:30 pm

OK.
This was what I suspected.
So, if it is the spreadsheet I'm maintaining, you need to know that you can filter it down so that you have no more the AiF & PatiF planes.
The List of Steve comes directly from what is in the game right now.

Shannon V. OKeets · Post by **Shannon V. OKeets** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 2:31 pm

ORIGINAL: Froonp

OK.
This was what I suspected.
So, if it is the spreadsheet I'm maintaining, you need to know that you can filter it down so that you have no more the AiF & PatiF planes.
The List of Steve comes directly from what is in the game right now.

Can we please refer to it as the unit list from MWIF or MWIF air units? The "List of Steve" sounds as if I walk like a drunken sailor, or is some obscure reference to an ancient jousting tournament.[;)]