Wags live stream of Cold War map on now

Stream began 2025-04-13T18:16:00Z

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That map will be fantastic in CW correct aircraft, but also begs medium fidelity armor on both sides. Not complaining, but imagine combat arms, commanding a tank platoon, while working with air assets.

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They have to get combined arms working in vr ā€¦but even in pancake it is something that we have to try
tank GIF

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Iā€™m really, really hoping this will be something in the dynamic campaign.

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Do many of the DCS have night lighting? I saw some Cold War night videos and the towns are lit up like peacetime. And there are balloon races/events during a war?

Iā€™m rivet counting, map-style. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I want to say that that was being discussed in the 2.9 thread, as it relates to the power grid.

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I could be remembering wrong, but I think at least the original Normandy respected the mission date as to whether towns were lit at night or not?

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Thatā€™s still the case. The map is completely dark during the time of WWII

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Only 99 Luftballonsā€¦

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Wonder if the hot air balloons and the air racing pylons are removable

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On a slightlly off tangent ramble ā€¦how effective were the barrage balloons from ww2 ā€¦I canā€™t imagine they were of much use over a city, where high level bombing would be used ā€¦and as for targets like airfields where low level ground attack would be good ā€¦the balloons would be as dangerous to your own aircraft as the enemy.

Good question. They kept using them so Iā€™m they must have at least ā€˜thoughtā€™ they were effectiveā€¦ But I guess it is how you define and measure that. Simply diverting attacking aircraft or slowing down their attack runs or reducing accuracy might be all that is needed to be considered effective?

For example, minefields are primarily placed to slow and/or channel enemy forces. A ā€˜properā€™ minefield is even fenced off with ā€œDanger Minesā€ signs all around it. So a minefield that successfully forces the enemy into your chosen ā€˜killing groundā€™ is very effective even if it didnā€™t directly cause any casualties.

But even the enemy does try to breach it it will definitely slow them down and a ā€˜properā€™ minefield is also always covered by fire, so they have artillery and machine guns to deal with in addition to the minesā€¦

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Did the axis forces use their versions or anything similar ā€¦ I donā€™t ever recall seeing any in German footage or Japanese

I think the main point would be to see what was the doctrine of using barrage balloons.

As you noticed around cities or airfields would be pointless at best or detrimental at worst -
So from the relative article in Wikipedia :

" In 1938, the British Balloon Command was established to protect cities and key targets such as industrial areas, ports, and harbors. Balloons were intended to defend against dive bombers flying at heights up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), forcing them to fly higher and into the range of concentrated anti-aircraft fire: anti-aircraft guns could not traverse fast enough to attack aircraft flying at low altitude and high speed. By the middle of 1940, there were 1,400 balloons, a third over the London area."

So it wasnā€™t against all sorts of bombers- but a specific segment, that caused more trouble, the very accurate dive bombers.

But also later as they say here

ā€œBalloons proved to be of little use against the German high-level bombers with which the dive-bombers were replaced, but continued to be manufactured nonetheless until there were almost 3,000 in 1944. They proved to be effective against the V-1 flying bomb, which usually flew at 2,000 feet (600 m) or lower but had wire-cutters on its wings to counter balloons. 231 V-1s are officially claimed to have been destroyed by balloons.ā€

and again
" The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a Very Low Altitude barrage balloon battalion of the United States Army, participated in the June 1944 Normandy landings, raising barrage balloons on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. They remained stationed at Normandy until October 1944.[5][6][7]"

In January 1945, during Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm raids on the Palembang oil refineries, the British aircrews were surprised by the massive use of barrage balloons in the Japanese defences. These were spherical and smaller than the British type. One Grumman Avenger was destroyed, and its crew killed, from striking a balloon cable.[8]"

And also

" Target identification
On the road to Aachen in west Germany in 1944, the British 2nd Tactical Air Force floated barrage balloons along the American First Army sector front line (a.k.a. ā€œbomb lineā€) to designate the location of friendly troops during the air assault preceding the advance of ground forces, which took Aachen on October 21, 1944. Conversely, during the First Army advance past Aachen to nearby DĆ¼ren, barrage balloons were floated eastward to mark the location of enemy troops to be bombed.[12]"

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The last part of my post above regards exactly that

very interesting read ā€¦it was just one of those things i always took for granted whenever seeing foottage from the blitz, and never really thought much aboutā€¦

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I have to say that Iā€™m quite hyped for this release. Not only through the countless YouTube videos, but for the fact that I lived in the southwestern part of Germany for many years, and all of these places are supposed to be included. Looking forward to start from Ramstein in my F-4 and do a ā€˜canyonā€™ run over the middle Rhine valley from Bringen to Koblenz :smiley:

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That sounds like huge fun TeTeT. Youā€™ve got a wingie if you need one.

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I think we should do a German tour night when its released, get some locals to show us the sights :smile:

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I might have to go find a Franziskaner Hefeweizen for that.

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