The Himmelbett Zone - Kammhuber Line

[Shessi]

Hi Folks,
For those who like flying in the GW3/WWII ETO and at night.

Just uploaded the finished Himmelbett Zone or Kammhuber Line. A dense set of searchlights for FS2004 reaching from the Danish border down to northern France.

Inludes moving and static searchlights. Blue master and 'slave' searchlights. Going on and off from dusk to dawn and set to show at normal scenery levels.

Cheers Shessi

[Willy]

Cool :d

[phantomx1]

Where can it be found?

[Ferry_vO]

Thanks Shessi, will have to try this for sure!

The Kammhuber line was an impressive array of bunkers and lights, connecting several airfields from Denmark to France. I was fortunate enough to visit one of the last remaining bunkers last year, the 'Diogenes' bunker near former Fliegerhorst Deelen. Inside there used to be a big glass plate (9 by 12 meters!) with a map on it, on which female Luftwaffe employees projected the allied bomber formations and German fighters, while on the opposite site others directed the fighters and the lights towards their targets.

[Lionheart]

Dang...!


Very impressive work man!


:ernae: :ernae:


Bill

[robert41]

Thanks Shessi. Will work well in GW3.

[westjet]

Shessi thank you so much. Must have been pure panic to get lite up during a mission.Ever think of doing something like this for Japan or Britain? Once again :ernae:

[Shessi]

Glad you like and can use it! :d

Westjet,
Have you got my previous installation of 'City fires and Searchlights'? they cover a few towns/cities in GB and Germany.

Yes, I will be covering Europe e.g. Leipzig, Hamburg, Coventry, Bristol etc and am willing to do other stuff if people want it. So PM me with your requests.

The other issue here is I hope I'm not upsetting anyone or belittling what happened in these cities, which is certainly not my intention. I am only too well aware of the controversial issues of Goering's Blitz or Harris's 'area bombing' and the results.

Cheers Shessi

[robert41]

Hey Shessi, I have your searchlights-fires package. Makes me nervous when flying at night over parts of Europe. Never know if someone is going to start shooting at me. Looking forward to your future releases. One thing I would like to see, if it is possible to turn off the building and road lights? Thanks again.

[westjet]

Shessi i didnt know about City Fires and Searchlights but i have it now and it makes things even better.Great to hear more is in the works.As for requests you seem to have a good handle on it and i wouldn't feel right asking if its something i could do myself. Can searchlight locations be changed with BGL comp using one of your examples or is there more to it?
Thanks for thinking outside the box.

[Shessi]

Hey Shessi, I have your searchlights-fires package. Makes me nervous when flying at night over parts of Europe. Never know if someone is going to start shooting at me. Looking forward to your future releases. One thing I would like to see, if it is possible to turn off the building and road lights? Thanks again.

Hi R41,
That's a good question! Now if you use GW3, it does reduce the standard lighting of FS2004, so there's a start...

What I did with my install for this was to removed all the lm tex files i.e gr02a_lm.bmp. These are basically the lit versions of the daytime texs and include the lit windows in buildings, illuminated building fronts, street lights, headlights etc etc. Now this does affect slightly the daytime texs and the lm texs are used to blend in depending on time of day, but I think it is a small price to pay. BUT it does have the desired effect of no ground lights from anywhere and does replicate flying around as it must have been with no light references at all.
It's quite eerie, but you do get used to it and it's a good challenge to navigate like this and feels much more realistic.

Even so and with changing and modding the environment map (envmap.bmp)I can't seem to get rid of a slight illumination of the underside of the ac at all times, doen't really spoilt it and near the searchlights looks just about right!

PM if you want any help or have any ideas etc etc.

Westjet,
No problem, fill your boots. Yes you could that, just PM me with what you need.

Cheers Shessi

[robert41]

Thanks Shessi, I'll remove all those lm files and see what GW looks like.

[Ferry_vO]

Just thought I'd post some photo's and info I have from a visit I made last year to the area around former fliegerhorst Deelen.

The main part of the tour, which is organised by the Deelen Research Group, consists of a visit to the Diogenes bunker which still exists today. It is now in use as an auxillary depot for the national archive.
The bunker is 60x40x16 meters, with wall up to 3 meters thick. Even though the allies must have known of it's existance it was never bombed during WW2. During operation Market Garden the Germans left the place, but only after they set off two bombs in the main central hall.
This hall was cleaned up after WW2, but it is not open to the public.

Three of this bunkers were built in Europe during WW2; the one in Deelen, one in Groves in Denmark and one in Metz in France. The last one no longer exists, while the one in Denmark is on military grounds and is not accessible for the general public. Each bunker served as a control point for the Kammhuber linie.

Here's a general overview of the area north from Arnhem in Google earth; the Fligerhorst was much larger than the current Deelen AB is.



1: The blocked out area is Deelen AB as it is in use today. One can still see the typical 'A' shape of the three runways, typical of German WW2 fields.
2: The Glider field 'Terlet'.
3: Here is a farm that is housed inside several German hangars.
4: Just right of the '4' is the location of the Diogenes bunker; this was just outside of the Fliegerhorst.
5: In the woods here are several German parking area's for their fighters.
6: The location of the small Deelen museum, located in a former German building.

The Diogenes bunker in close up; clearly visible today but it was camouflaged during the war:



Here we see the farm; three hangars, one larger for a Do-217 or Bf-110 and two smaller ones for 109's.



A close up look of #5: the road used to be a former taxiway.

[Ferry_vO]

Some photo's of the Diogenes bunker:

The street side of the bunker:



The office side; the walls here are a lot thinner than the walls around the control room!:



The rear side:



The old entrance as seen from the outside. The airvent is now in the position wher ethe door used to be. There's one on the other side too. Visible battledamage on this side of the bunker.:



The entrance on the inside, the steps lead down into the bunker. Just how thick the walls are can clearly be seen here :



The generator room; this was destroyed by the Germans too when they left, the locals stripped it further after the war:



Underneath a new layer of paint there are still the original German markings, some of which have been uncovered:



'No smoking during a fire alarm':

[Ferry_vO]

The staff and personell of the Diogenes bunker lived in several houses in the general area. Even though these looked like local houses they were built like bunkers, with thick walls. Most still exist today. The large 'Heidekamp' wit hseveral buildings is still on military grounds and can only be visited with a tour group otherwise you could be aressted for trespassing. Some other buildings are located in other area's and locals still live there.





The former German HQ on the 'Heidekamp':



These blinds look like they are part of a farm house, but they are made of metal and weigh about 150 pounds each.



The house and garage of the first commander of the NJG.1 and 'father of the nachtjagd' Wolfgang Falck:

[Ferry_vO]

This farm house used to be the shed where the German parked the locomotive that brought bombs and ammunition from Arnhem to the Fliegerhorst. The train tracks are gone today.



This is one of the two small hangars on the farm. It looks just like a local farm house and it's quite far away from the base; an intersting form of camo! There is an enormous wooden structure over the doors so they can slide all the way open to let an aircraft in. This hangar was built for smaller single engined aircraft.



Inside you can still see the original marking for fire extinguishers etc., and of course this 'Rauchen verboten' (Smoking prohibited):



This is the bigger hangar, used for the bigger aircraft used in the 'nachtjagd' like the Do-217, He-219 and Bf-110:



The Deelen museum, housed in another German building, which was used as an officer's mess by the Dutch airforce after the war :

[robert41]

Some great pics and history. Thanks for the look back.