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[GoodGuy]

You might want to check this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er76AFUR7VQ

It contains some original footage of KG Peiper, and some dub in the beginning. The video was created by 2 guys, not sure where they are from, the narrator's accent sounds dutch or flamish at least, although their names sound German. hehe

Anyway, at 1:10 in the video you can see a high-speed part with cam footage from 2007, where you can see the first 11 km of Peiper's route (from Losheim to Honsfeld) through their eyes, or, if you will, through his eyes [;)]. These streets are paved today (sure [:)]), but Peiper used exactly the same route, back then.

[06 Maestro]

Nice film clip-thanks Good Guy.

That is not a very big road. It must have been a mess moving supplies forward-and getting convoys back to the rear.

[Arjuna]

Hey that trip was just like the one I experienced last October, right down to the breakneck speed. Though in my case that was due to Richard's driving. He really is a Fromula 1 driver! [;)]

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: 06 Maestro

It must have been a mess moving supplies forward-and getting convoys back to the rear.

Well, there were a few famous major traffic jams on both sides, where the authority of a general was needed to untangle the mess. Model himself went to some crossroads and untangled the traffic jam for a while, after subordinated officers told him they couldn't get the vital units up front. A similar thing happened behind the St. Vith sector, where a US general tried to untangle the mess created by retreating units and badly needed armored/AA units that tried to get to St. Vith.

These narrow streets made for some surreal events: There was some road sector in the Ardennes where the German columns (which were rushing forward) mixed with retreating US units, on the very same street, with noone firing a single shot, as the Germans wanted to push forward quickly, and the US units wanted to get back to their lines alive.

There are some accounts in the literature reporting about this incident. IIRC, the German units ignored the US units halfway (maybe unless they had somewhat heavier equipment, if any).

There is another report about 4 or 5 US troops trying to get back to their lines, they stopped their jeep as they lost orientation, then the crew wondered about some noise that came from the other side of a little hill. One guy (with just a rifle) moved up the hill to check it out and saw an "endless" line of German armored units racing along the road, manned with young soldiers - where he got told the German Army would just consist of old farts and kids by now, let alone that they would have this amount of armored units at their disposal. The column stopped for a second, being surprised that a single US trooper was standing on the ridge. But noone fired, the Germans just laughed at the stunned trooper and hit the pedal again. [:D]

[tukker]

the narrator's accent sounds dutch or flamish

It's not Dutch or Flemish, but sounds Scandinavian to me.

Pieter

[JudgeDredd]

Nice find Good Guy...I enjoyed that.

You could just imagine what it must've been like in a Tiger II doing that journey...only 11Km and so many places to be halted!

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

Hey that trip was just like the one I experienced last October, right down to the breakneck speed. Though in my case that was due to Richard's driving. He really is a Fromula 1 driver! [;)]

heh - that was the exact route we took Dave. He even missed the right turn at Merlscheid just like I did. Remember though we stopped and visited the 394th I&R "Longest Winter" foxholes above Lanzarath, then Bucholz Station, and the water trough in Honsfeld.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

You could just imagine what it must've been like in a Tiger II doing that journey...only 11Km and so many places to be halted!

Well, for the most part, at the early stage, there were "just" a few 57mm AT-guns "barking" at the Panzer (btw "Panzer" = singular + plural in German , "Panzers" was made up by Americans) here and there, holding up the German column a few times, usually for just a few mins until they got knocked out, though [:D], according to what I've read. There's a famous thing tho, where riflemen manned a lone 57mm gun to fire at spearheading tanks, creating a major holdup of some 5 hrs, not sure if they belonged to Peiper's KG, though.
Oh and Peiper put the Tiger IIs supporting his KG at the rear - initially, as he didn't want them to slow down his column.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: simovitch

heh - that was the exact route we took Dave.

So where's your footage? [;)] Video or it didn't happen ! [;)]

[Arjuna]

Well Richard has compiled a wonderful video from our entire tour of the Bulge battlefields. He has even put this to music. We need to check on the rights issue re the music. But we do hope to release it with the Game.

[JudgeDredd]

Talking of this game and it's contents reminds me of a book I read - The Bitter Woods. I didn't actually like it and gave up maybe half way through (or poss a bit more)...the style of writing...there was just something not quite right. I couldn't get into it...I was finding it difficult to understand exactly what was happening where. I can't remember whether it was lack of detail in the maps, or whether there were too many "quotes" from troops (I'm not a fan of books that rely heavily on quotes...for my own reasons).
 
But I am excited about this game and may well dig it out of my loft again.

[JudgeDredd]

Oh and Dave.................COME ON!! [:D]

[Arjuna]

We are...We are!
 
I have spent the last week ( no Easter break here ) sorting out the remaining AI fixes to the formation movement and scheduling code. Yesterday and today have been a continual cycle of auto-testing and debugging. It's looking good right now. I'm waiting on Panther Paul to fix a bug that mistakenly keeps duplicating the estab images used in the game. Once I have that we will be putting out a new build. The Panther Prowlers ( aka beta bunnies ) have been given a deadline and one or two scenarios each to thoroughly test. We're getting close.[:)]

[Grestok]

Good news ! I'm ready...

[BigDuke66]

Nice to hear.

How many scenarios will there be?

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

Well Richard has compiled a wonderful video from our entire tour of the Bulge battlefields. He has even put this to music. We need to check on the rights issue re the music. But we do hope to release it with the Game.

I tried uploading it to You Tube last night but it goes over the time limit. My video is 23 minutes long (and a lot was edited from the master).

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: BigDuke66

Nice to hear.

How many scenarios will there be?

26 + at least 1 tutorial. see this post

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: simovitch

I tried uploading it to You Tube last night but it goes over the time limit. My video is 23 minutes long (and a lot was edited from the master).

Well, you could split it in 3 parts with around 7 mins each (the max time limit on youtube should be around 10 mins), if you've got some spare time.

[BigDuke66]

What about one of the DDL providers like Rapidshare?
Not sure how good the original quality is but most stuff on youtube looks very bad, can imaging that your file is like that so leaving it in the best possible quality and uploading it somewhere sounds better to me.
You could also use filesharing software like emule or torrent that works over most browser.

[Greup]

ORIGINAL: tukker

the narrator's accent sounds dutch or flamish

It's not Dutch or Flemish, but sounds Scandinavian to me.

Pieter

As a side-node:

They authors are definitely swedes:
1. They couldn't pronounce either German, nor French names correctly nor speak English without a typical Swedish accent.
2. It said "Martin & Björn Productions" and "Björn" is spelled with a Swedish "ö" whereas Danes or Noweigans use the character 'ø' for the same sound. Norweigans would have spoken even more exotic English IMHO.


Interesting movie though.