Version 2.

04

Game
Manual

CONTENTS
Developer’s Notes 5

Release 2.04 Highlights 6

Chapter One 11
OVERVIEW 11
INSTALLATION 12
GETTING STARTED 14

Chapter Two 16
THE IN-GAME GUI MENUS
AND CONTROLLER SETUP 16

GAME MENUS:
THE MAIN MENU 17
OPTIONS in Detail 24
GFX 24
MORE GFX 27
CONTROLS 30
Retro’s Controller/GUI FAQ 32
SOUND 39
SIM 40
FLIGHT 41
GAME 45
MISSION 47
VIEWS 49
FIELD OF VIEW 51
GAME –Advanced 54

Chapter Three 61
THE BDG.TXT FILE – additional game adjustments

Chapter Four 83
INSTANT ACTION MISSIONS 83

Chapter Five 94
Ch. 5 Section A - BATTLE of BRITAIN CAMPAIGN 94
CAMPAIGN SCREEN 94

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SCREEN CONTROL ICONS 95

LUFTWAFFE CAMPAIGN TUTORIAL 100

Part 1 Using Directives 102
Part 2 Following Raids from Campaign Map 105
Part 3 Authorizing and Editing Raids 110
Part 4 Flying 114
Part 5 Reviews 115

RAF CAMPAIGN TUTORIAL 117

Ch. 5 Section B – WILDMAN’S CAMPAIGN TUTORIALS 131

Section I RAF Fighter Campaign Tactics 131
Section II RAF Route Manipulation 149
Section III “Single Squadron” Campaign 156

Chapter Six 161

FLYING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN AIRCRAFT

COCKPIT SCREENSHOTS, TAKEOFF / LANDING

CHECKLISTS, RECOMMENDED SPEEDS 180
FLYING AND COMBAT MANOEUVRES 191

Chapter Seven 216

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN REMEMBERED

Chapter Eight 224

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CREDITS 224
VERSION 2.04 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 229

Appendix A - Cockpits 232

Appendix B – Key Cards 237

Appendix C - Auto Gen function in BDG.txt 239

Appendix D - BDG Coder Manoeuvre Testing Codes 244

Manual Layout
Chapter One contains an overview, followed by full installation
instructions and a Quick Start list that will get you off the ground and

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flying in the minimum amount of time.

Chapter Two describes the function of the in-game GUI Menus, details
the Replay facility within the game and Controller set up. Included are
full descriptions of the various Options configuration screens.

Chapter Three provides a detailed explanation of the BDG.txt file, an

important component of the user-adjustable game options. Collectively,
the in-game GUI menus and the BDG.txt file allow you to set all of your
preferences for the game.

Chapter Four lists the available missions in the Instant Action section of
the game. These are individual scenarios that put you in a variety of flying
and combat situations. The layout of the Instant Action screens is
described in full.

Chapter Five details the game's Campaign system. Section A covers the
general functionality of the campaign, and tutorials for the Campaign from
the perspective of a Luftwaffe Commander and a RAF Commander,
respectively. Section B contains Wildman’s tutorials on RAF Fighter
Campaign Tactics, Route Manipulation and The “Single Squadron”
Campaign.

Chapter Six is a large chapter dealing with flying and the aircraft
available to fly in Battle of Britain II. Section 1 lists the available aircraft
controls in the simulation. Section 2 shows cockpit layouts that can be
manipulated in 'interactive cockpit' mode. Section 3 focuses on engines
and propellers. Section 4 shows how to start your engines, taxi and take-
off. Section 5 concentrates on solo and formation flying. Section 6 deals
with combat manoeuvres. And, finally, Section 7 provides technical
summaries of the major aircraft in the game.

Chapter Seven, The Battle of Britain Remembered, is a historical

perspective of the battle by author Dilip Sarkar.

Chapter Eight notes the game credits, acknowledgements, and technical

support details.

Developer’s Notes
Back in the year 2000, Rowan Software created a game called
“Rowan’s Battle of Britain”. A dedicated online freeware group
called the Battle of Britain Development Group (BDG) further
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improved the original core game. Battle of Britain II “Wings of
Victory” 2.04 is the result of BDG and Shockwave Productions,
continuing to improve and build upon the great foundation laid out
by the original developers. Rowan Software may no longer exist,
but their legacy still remains. In some ways their light is now
shining brighter than ever.

Today, Battle of Britain II is everything the original was and more.

Never have we played a flight simulation with such in-game
atmosphere and delivered it on top of one of the most ambitious,
historical re-creation of a living, strategic theater. The world is
vast, yet detailed down to a single building or ammo shack. The
action is real and with consequences as you watch events unfold on
a grand scale. You may be just flying back from a huge battle, and
just by chance stumble upon a friendly flight going out on a
mission, or perhaps an unknown enemy en-route to complete their
mission. The enemy makes tactical decisions like, “it is worth
attacking them at this point, or should we carry on?” Weather
effects the ability for planes to be spotted from the air and from the
ground.

If you just want to jump in and have fun playing all sorts of
missions, fly INSTANT ACTION missions. These missions play
out differently all the time. In fact, some favorites are the DIVE
BOMBING and LOW LEVEL BOMBING missions. You are also
free to do whatever you wish too. For example, you can fly the
TURKEY SHOOT mission and decide to spend your time strafing
the airfield below.

Whatever you do, it is our truest hope you have fun with our game.
All we hope is you, our customer, experience some of the magic
we’ve been experiencing and excitement we’ve had while we’ve
been making Battle of Britain II “Wings of Victory.”
Release 2.04 highlights:
FIXES
1. BF110 engine performance problem.
2. After burner speed up problem for Bombers.
3. Landing gear down problem, on Low Level Attack Mission.

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4. Player engine sound stopping
5. Fixed CTD on Campaign photo
6. Fighter bailout changes to increase bailouts. Note:
BOB_FIGHTERFIX=ON in BDG.txt
7. AI smoothing and fixing strange/odd manoeuvres. Added transition
manoeuvre to SimpleACM and ManualACM processes.
8. BF110 engine going out of sync when going to Manual-AutoPilot-
Manual.
9. Strengthened mid-air collision between player and AI A/C so it is much
more difficult for the player to fly back to base.
10. Death Warp/Speed up fixed.
11. After player bail out, players A/C now heads to the ground rather that
looking like it was on autopilot.
12. Prevented AI A/C from doing vertical manoeuvres when energy level
is low and the AI A/C cannot do the manoeuvre properly.
13. Add an option based on a random number for a fighter/Ju87 to blowup
when it has significant engine damage (by user request to have A/C blow
up sometimes). Note: BOB_FIGHTERFIX=ON in Bdg.txt.
14. The Ju87 was added to the fighters and with significant engine damage
they will blowup, crash, or bailout. The bailout will only occur if the A/C
canopy has not been damaged. If the canopy is damaged the A/C will
crash and you hear a Texas death yell. Note: BOB_FIGHTERFIX=ON in
BDG.txt.
15. Changed the RAF player’s A/C to display MPH on the info line by
user request.
16. Deleted Rolling fireball effect from A/C explosions.
17. Fixed the Novice JU87 takeoff problem (crashed or tipped over)
18. Fixed Novice Wheel Rolling problem (except tail wheel)
19. Converted to MPH from Knots for imperial units in Spit and Hurri
gauge
20. Fixed Airspeed Cal for both Spit and Hurri
21. Boost Gauge in both Hurri and Spit to work more correctly
22. Fixed a second CTD when using Photo in Campaign
23. Add RenderD3D9.cpp CTD prevention code.
24. Fixed CTD in JimCol.cpp that occurred mostly in Replay
25. Fixed the 1-on-1 “Engage” problem
26. Fixed Fileman CTD (note may not be the last one)
27. Fixed “lost device” CTD (I called the rerun CTD)
28. Fixed the jittery and un-natural movements for both the DISENGAGE
and the SCREWYOUGUYSIAMGOINGHOME SimpleACM
manoeuvres.
29. Blue Six developed changes for the ACM file to permit easier landing
for the 109 (not sure if included or used change required)
30. For the BGG.txt parameter SMOOTHEN_FRAMERATE_MODE,

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fixed the NONE vs. LIMITED bug so they are different now (NONE is
wide open FPS and LIMITED is a hard limit of about 32 FPS).
31. Fixed a buffet sound bug if you fail to get your gear up before you
reach 140mph on take-off. You will then get the gear buffet noise as you
should, but then once the gear is up the buffet sound does not go away. It
should go way once the gear is fully retracted assuming it's still fully
functional and not damaged. .
32. Fixed the A/C sitting on the ground at a stop but having a pogo stick
effect (small bounce up and down). The pogo effect could be seen if you
reduce the gear bounce in the ACM file.
33. Reduced collision detection on trees to allow closer over-flights w/o
causing a collision.

NEW FEATURES
(A New feature for our Kids/Novice users is Novice AI, Novice Bullets,
Novice AI Speed control, and Novice larger targets that are used with
Novice FM). These features are all individually selectable in the BDG.txt
and should allow our kids/grandkids to better enjoy BobII at a Novice/Jr
level.

(* Means feature is user changeable via the bdg.txt)

New AI features:
1. Novice_Stronger_Bullets. The bullets are about 20% stronger for those
who want to get on with it (like when I test) and so our Kids/Novice users
can shoot down the AI easier and have more fun until seasoned. *
2. Novice_AI_Airspeed_Fraction. This will control the AI speed as a
fraction of 100% (like set to .75 for a 25% speed reduction). You can then
slow down the AI for our Kids/Novice users to better enjoy BOBII until
seasoned. *
3. Novice_Target_Size. This increase the AI target size for the
Kids/Novice users so they can get easier kills. *
4. Novice_AI. This give the Kids/Novice user a less aggressive but
hopefully challenging subset of the AI Manoeuvres so they can better
enjoy BobII, it will be easier, and they can have more fun until seasoned. *

5. Collision_Avoidance. Added collision avoidance for player (only) to

prevent most collisions with AI A/C. Very fast collisions (especially head-
on) may still occur as AI A/C may skid in making very quick manoeuvre
and not get out of the way. *
6. Warp/Jump analysis/debug (Jump_Test_Tool_Percent_X)*
7. Manoeuvre_Testing (Manoeuvre_Testing). This will permit the coder to
get data for debug analysis concerning AI and FM issues/problems. *
8. New aircraft explosions to simulate the occasional occurrence of an

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exploding fuel tank or detonating bombs
9. New damaged aircraft / engine behavior
..........a. Lighter engine damage. The bomber leaves formation and heads
home. Keep hitting his engine to increase damage.
..........b. Heaver engine damage - then the crew bails, bomber blows up, or
crashes (crew killed by smoke - equal chance here).

NEW VISUAL / SOUND / DAMAGE EFFECTS

(recommend OPTIONS / MORE GFX / PARTICLE DENSITY = HIGH)
1. New tracer and tracer smoke effects for .303 and German 20mm cannon
(bomber defensive guns currently use same tracer effect as the .303 - if we
want different colors, let me know specifically the colors we should use)
2. AAA and Flak guns now have new effects flash and gun smoke effects
(AAA have tracer smoke too)
3. New fire and smoke effects (3 stages) implemented on the He111 and
Ju88 (will be further improved after an additional code change due soon)
4. New fuel burst effect used for ground-based fuel tanks including
ground-based aircraft when strafed
5. Large, black towering smoke for ammo dump explosions (should be
FPS friendly too)
6. Smoking / burning debris for critical hits on large ground targets
7. All vehicles can now be damaged and destroyed
8. Enhanced battlefield damage dynamic smoke, fire, and charged ground
effects
9. New bullet hitting brick buildings effect
10. New aircraft explosion effects (works with the new mid-air fuel tank /
bomb detonation explosions)
11. 5 New player aircraft bullet-hit sounds and adjusted sound when other
targets are hit with guns
12. Flak explosion sounds improved quality with a 33% increase in sound
travel
13. New aircraft and battlefield gun sounds
14. People run from populated ground objects when attacked

NEW ARTWORK / CONTENT

1. Cures the flying cliffs on the Isle of Wight (HH)
2. Mapping the Pas de Calais region of France (DB, Heini, HH, especially
PV!)
3. The Cerne Abbas giant and Maiden castle in Dorset (HH)
4. Removes animals from all Fighter Command airfields (HH)
5. Harbour to Folkestone (PV)
6. Removes flashes of sea in several places (HH)
7. Raise FPS slightly and improve looks at Tangmere, Kenley and Biggin
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Hill (HH)
8. Puts Stonehenge in its proper place (HH, PV)
9. Improved the North of England, with some of Derbyshire mapped (HH)
10. Stop roads going over woods at several places near Kenley airfield
(HH)
11. Northern France. New SRTM height data added from Coquelles to just
South of Boulogne (PV)
12. Rebuilt Dover. Area around Dover was corrupted, so tile could not be
worked on (PV)
13. East Kent. New SRTM height data added (HH)
14. Corrected RDF stations locations and changed CHL to be CHL
stations, and CH to be CH stations (HH)
15. Kenley Hangers rotated correctly (HH)
16. Layout of CH stations modified to be more historically accurate (HH)
17. Objects added for Boulogne harbour (HH)
18. 18. Improved water textures (fresnel) and settings
Artwork / Content credits: HH: Hurricane Hicken, PV: Pete Vincent, DB:
Don E. Brooke, Heini von Seppel

MISC
1. Engine more resistant to background application processes (ALT-TAB
work)
2. New selectable weather, water, and sky*
3. Thanks to Ken, added new ACM file to improve the control of the slats
4. BF109_Slats_Open_Close_Sounds. It controls the simulated sound of
the 109 slats opening and closing*
5. Flight Modeling tweaks to various aircraft.

THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

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10
 CHAPTER 1
OVERVIEW

he Battle of Britain started on July 10th, 1940. It was the beginning

of a campaign by the German Luftwaffe to destroy the defensive
capabilities of British Fighter Command. The ultimate aim was a sea-
based invasion of southern England in an operation codenamed
SEALION. It was recognized that air supremacy was vital if that operation
was to succeed. Although there were expectations in Germany for a quick
victory, the air campaign lasted for well over two months. The battle went
through a series of phases, which culminated in a major air battle over
London and southern England on September 15, 1940. That event is still
celebrated in Britain as 'Battle of Britain' day. Two days later German
plans for Operation Sealion were abandoned.

Battle of Britain II – Wings of Victory will completely immerse the player

into the combat experiences of a WWII fighter pilot as well as a fighter
wing commander. As the commander on either side you will have a
strategic overview of the conflict using authentic campaign maps. Using
these maps and your own cunning, you can make the key decisions
throughout the entire campaign. Some of the Luftwaffe's 1,000 aircraft
raids are reproduced, affording a unique insight into what it might have
been like flying against or with, such numbers of aircraft.

In 'Campaign' Mode the player can select one of four starting points to
enter the air war. The campaign begins with attacks on British coastal
shipping by the Luftwaffe, who then move on to attacking radar
installations, coastal facilities and airfields. This is followed by
concentrated attacks against the RAF’s major airfields and aircraft
factories, which lead on to the final showdown during the 'Blitz' of
London in September 1940.

The specially designed INSTANT ACTION missions take the player from
'Basic Training', which involves starting the engine and learning to take
off from a grass strip, to the more advanced areas of formation flying and
dog-fighting. A number of historic missions are based on actual
engagements, and these culminate in a massive simulation of the final raid
of the war on September 15th 1940 - Battle of Britain Day.

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 Installation
A. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

To install Battle of Britain II, please make sure that you follow the
instructions below.

1. Insert the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. If the game proceeds to
autorun then go to step three.

2. Click on the START button on the Windows taskbar and select RUN,
followed by BROWSE. Select your CD-ROM drive after clicking on
the down arrow to the left of the LOOK IN box. Double click on the
file named SETUP.EXE followed by OK.

3. A welcome message will be presented. Click on the NEXT button to

continue and follow the installation instructions.

B. UNINSTALLING BATTLE OF BRITAIN II

If you wish to remove Battle of Britain II from your system we suggest

that you do PANEL to bring up the Windows control panel. Double click
on ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS to bring up the add/remove programs
properties box. Look for Battle of Britain II under the installed software
list and select the ADD/REMOVE button. Follow the on-screen
instructions.

OPTIONS SETTINGS AND YOUR PC’s

CAPABILITIES:

Generally speaking, PC-based flight simulation games can be very

demanding on a PC system’s capabilities – often to a greater degree than
other game genres like “first person shooters”. PC flight games
generally play best on systems with a strong CPU, lots of fast system
RAM, a good video card with a bare minimum 64MB (strongly
recommend 128MB or higher) of memory, a fast hard drive, etc.

Because there is a great variation in the “power” of one PC over another,

there is no single set of variables that are intended to work well across the
board for all PCs. It is important for the player to understand the
specifications and capabilities of his/her PC and set the game options

12
(discussed in Chapter 2) accordingly.

Although Battle of Britain II, Wings of Victory is based on a core

developed in the late 1990s and released initially in 2000, the game’s code
was written with a view towards the future - anticipating the continued
advances in PC capabilities. With a powerful, modern PC that is capable
of running the game at the higher “eye candy” settings, the visual quality
and game play can be stunning and far greater than what was possible at
the time of the original game release.

It is strongly recommended that you ensure that all of your

PC’s device drivers are fully updated to the latest available versions and
you are using DirectX 9.0c or higher. Disabling anti-virus, anti-spyware
and any non-essential background programs often also improves
performance, especially on older, less capable systems.

The user should understand when selecting the various options that there
is generally a trade-off between enjoying maximum “eye-candy” and
smooth game play and high frames per second.
.
There are many tips and tweaks and “how to” guides available on the
Internet that one can do to their PC that often can result in gains in
performance.

Visit the Shockwave forums at:

http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=17 .

for many community suggested tips. Other flight sim forums often also
contain general tips for improving a PCs performance that are “universal”
and apply to almost any game.

DISCLAIMER: The game producers and developers do not specifically

endorse or recommend any such system changes and modifications. If the
user does make such changes they do so at their own risk. You should not
make changes to your PC system if you do not have a full understanding
of what you are doing.

13
 Getting Started
QUICKSTART
1. Install and load the game as referred to in the installation section
above.

2. You will be presented with the Main Menu of the game, which
allows you access to every area of the simulation. The Main Menu is
described in detail in Chapter Two.

3. Select OPTIONS from the main menu. The OPTIONS screens allow
you to configure a wide range of details that relate to your display,
sound and control capabilities. Select the Controller option - the third
from the left at the top of the screen.

4. Ensure that you have selected an appropriate input device. We

strongly recommend that you use a joystick with this simulation.

5. Select Continue at the top right corner of the OPTIONS screen to

return to the Main Menu.

6. Select the Instant Action option at the top of the main menu. This
option allows you to fly in one of twenty-eight pre-designed
missions. The default first scenario is a Basic Training mission
involving your plane taking off. Using the radio buttons you can
change your aircraft and airfield. If this scenario is too simple for
you, by all means choose something more advanced. You may,
however, find the Historic raid on September 15th 1940 a bit too
much at this stage!

7. Click on the Fly option at the bottom of your screen, and once you
have noted which squadron you have been assigned to, select Fly
once more in order to load the simulation.

8. Assuming that you have chosen the Basic Training Take-off scenario,
you will be on a runway ready for take-off. Release your left and
right wheel brakes using your “,” and “.” keys (comma and period),
set throttle to 100% (hit the 0 key or set your joystick throttle to full)
and as your Spitfire picks up speed gently pull back on your joystick.
You may find it more comforting initially to use the Outside View,
which provides a third person view of your aircraft (hit the “F6” key
or use the 4th button on your joystick). Control is now in your hands!

14
09. If you wish to pause the game while in flight, press P. For more
information on how your aircraft is performing during a flight, press
I. Your Altitude, Heading, and Wind speed will be displayed in the
lower left corner of your screen. Use the joystick to control your
aircraft’s attitude and direction when flying. Pull the joystick back
and the nose of the aircraft will rise and you will start to climb. Push
the joystick forward and the nose will drop and the aircraft will begin
to dive. Moving the stick to the left or right causes the aircraft to roll
in that direction. To turn, gently move the joystick left or right to roll
the aircraft into a bank and then ease the stick back to the center.
Extreme or sudden movement of the stick can cause the aircraft to
stall or spin. If you do not have a throttle enabled on your joystick
use the number keys to control the engine power settings (“1” key for
idle, “0” key for maximum). See Chapter Six for more details on
flying.

10. Once you have mastered the basic controls, you can end an Instant
Action mission at any time by selecting the key combination “Alt”
and “X” keys. A combat report will be displayed at the end of the
mission, which will summarize what happened during the mission.
Select BACK to return to the Instant Action mission selection screen.

15
 CHAPTER 2
THE IN-GAME GUI MENUS AND
CONTROLLER SET UP

he first section of this chapter deals with the contents and

function of the Main Menu and the various “sub menus ” within it. These
collectively are referred to as the “In-Game GUI” (Graphical User
Interface) menus. Not only does it describe each available option in
general terms, but also it provides the key information for the Load Game
and Replay facilities. There is a detailed description of the available
OPTIONS screens, which allow you to configure the game to suit the
specifications of your PC, including your sound card and game controllers.
Section two deals with the Simulation configuration screens. The final
section is a “How To” on setting up your controller/joystick.

IMPORTANT: In addition to the “in-game GUI” menu items

described in this Chapter 2, there are many user-adjustable options that
can be altered via the BDG.TXT file. The BDG.txt file is described in
detail in Chapter 3.

It is strongly recommended that the player fully read BOTH Chapters 2

and 3 to take full advantage of the game’s features.

Collectively, between the in-game GUI menu items and via changes to the
BDG.txt, the player can configure Battle of Britain II to their desired level
of detail, authenticity and complexity. This allows a great deal of
flexibility for the player to configure the game to best suit the capabilities
of their PC’s individual specifications.

It is important for the user to understand that some, but not all of the items
in the in-game GUI menus and the BDG.TXT items may overlap and vice
versa. Before making any changes to the BDG.txt file, we STRONGLY
suggest you make a backup copy of the file (i.e. copy and paste the file in
the same folder and then rename it “OLD_BDG.txt). In this way you can
revert back to “default” settings if .you wish. In a worst case, the file can
be safely deleted and it will be re-generated with default settings.

Chapter 3 describes the user-configurable BDG.TXT items and what

16
changes to them will do.

If you have not done so already, please take a moment to read the section
“OPTIONS SETTINGS AND YOUR PC’s CAPABILITIES” on page 12
of this manual before continuing.

THE MAIN MENU

The available Main Menu options are laid out as follows:

• Instant Action
• Campaigns
• Load Game
• Replay
• Options
• Credits
• Quit
• Contact Us

INSTANT ACTION
The Instant Action option takes you to the Instant Action selection screen,

17
where you can set up on of the twenty-eight single missions available
within the game. These are limited, pre-designed scenarios which vary
from simple tasks such as take-off and landing through formation flying
and dogfighting, to taking part in one of six historical missions based on
their major engagements during the Battle of Britain. As is the case
throughout the simulation you can choose to take part on either side. The
Instant Action section is described in greater detail in Chapter Three.

CAMPAIGNS
The Campaigns option lets you play on either side during the Battle of
Britain. You can take the role of the commander where you will have at
your disposal all of the RAF or Luftwaffe resources that were available at
the time. The campaign can either be played straight through from its
beginning in July 1940 until the climax on September 15th, or can be
started at the beginning of any one of the four 'phases' of the battle.
Chapter Four details the campaigns and provides a tutorial for both the
RAF and Luftwaffe sides. The campaigns themselves have an extensive
help facility that describes the function of every option available to the
player.

18
LOAD GAME

The load game facility allows you to load in a Campaign game that you
have previously saved. You are only offered the option to save your game
during the Campaign section of Battle of Britain II. The Instant Action
missions cannot be saved.

From within the Load Game screen, first select RAF or Luftwaffe at the
bottom of the page (RAF is already selected). Then select the saved game
of your choice from the list, and then click on Load at the bottom of the
screen to restart your campaign at the point where it was saved. If you
wish to return to the Main Menu without loading a saved game then select
the Back option at the bottom of the screen.

Campaign games can be saved in three ways:

1. Use the ‘filing’ icon to open the filing dialogue with both "load" and
"save" tabs, then either select a game to overwrite from the list, or
enter a new name. Then click the SAVE icon.
2. After clicking the close icon to exit you will be offered a chance to
save the current game. The process is then effectively the same.
3. The game "Auto Save" is generated every time you enter the frag
screen on the way to flying a mission. The "Auto Save" entry in the
list of saved games will always be in the situation just prior to the last
time you entered the campaign mode

19
REPLAY

The replay feature allows you to access footage that you have taken while
flying.

RECORDING
There are several ways to record footage. The simplest is to set the Gun
Camera option in the Sim Config/Views screen to On. This will record the
mission from start to end. Setting this option to Trigger will record when the
player shoots or drops a bomb.

The recording will stop shortly after the player has stopped firing, and for
one minute after a bomb has been dropped. The player can also toggle the
gun camera on/off by using the “C” key. Both this and the recording on
trigger will concatenate recorded pieces during the same mission together
into a single replay file for that mission. It is possible to throw away all
current footage and begin again by pressing the “X” key.

SAVING
In Instant Action missions, when the mission has ended the player returns to
the Debrief screen. There is a replay option here, which allows the player to
save and/or view the footage from the mission he has just flown. To save the
footage, select an existing file to overwrite, or type a new name in under
current file and click on Save. You will need to delete the name of the

20
existing file, before you enter a new name for your current recording. To
view the recent mission, click on View.

During the Campaign, click on the replay icon on the main toolbar on the
map screen. This will give the player the option of saving and viewing
footage in. the same way as for Instant Action missions.

REPLAYING
To replay footage that you have recorded, either select the replay option
from the Main Menu, or use the replay icon on the map toolbar in the
campaign section of the game. If you choose replay from the Main Menu, the
replay screen is displayed. On the replay screen, you should select the
desired footage. A list of previously saved replay files will be displayed, to
view one, click on the name so it is displayed in current file and click on
View.

The simulation 3D system is then loaded, and a set of 12 icons and a running
bar are displayed at the top of the screen. When a recording is being
replayed, a line moves along the running bar to indicate the current position
relative to the start and stop positions. The two other lines on the running bar
are for Start Marker and End Marker. The default position for these markers
is at the start and end of the running bar. These markers allow you to select
significant footage.

Starting from the left icon, the functionality is as follows:

The icons can be selected using the keyboard number row (1 for the first
icon, 2 for the second icon etc. up to -and = for set beginning and end
21
marker) or the mouse pointer (so long as the interactive cockpit has the
mouse allocated to it in the controller preferences). In addition to the controls
provided by the icons, most of the usual view keys are available using the
function keys. Currently, no cockpit views are available, because they are
not part of the recording. Neither will you be able to hear the sound of your
own engine nor any radio messages that were received during the mission.
These may be added in a future upgrade.

If you would rather not see the function icons during your replay, an add-on
is available whereby these are removed from the screen. You will still see,
however, the start, end and progress markers in the top left-hand corner of
your screen. You can continue to use the keyboard number row to control
your replay.

FRAPS

Many Battle of Britain 2 community users have reported excellent screen

video and audio capture results with a program called FRAPS. FRAPS
allows full video and sound capture of any 3-d game and also includes a
screenshot and FPS benchmarking utility. FRAPS with only the screenshot
and FPS utility are freeware, however in order to have the video capture
function one must purchase the full version of FRAPS. More information on
FRAPS can be found here: www.fraps.com

DISCLAIMER: The producers and distributors of Battle of Britain 2 have

no affiliation whatsoever with FRAPS.

22
OPTIONS
The OPTIONS screen in the Main Menu gives you access to various menus.
These can be used to select your preferences for the display, controller, and
sound preferences. The selections you make will be determined, to some
extent, by your PC hardware. Once you have made your choice of
preferences they are saved when you exit the game. A full description of the
OPTIONS screens is presented in the next section of this chapter.

The Sim options give access to the four screens of the simulation
configuration menus. These can be used to select your preferences for the
choice of flight models, views and mission tactics within the game.
Generally, your level of experience will determine your choice of preference
settings. Your preferences are saved when you exit the game, and also saved
as part of a campaign save game.

CREDITS
Select the credits option on the Main Menu to view the team that put Battle
of Britain II together. Select your left mouse button at any stage to return to
the Main Menu.

QUIT
The quit option leaves the Battle of Britain II and takes you back to
Windows.

CONTACT US
Select the Contact Us option to open up your default web browser and
connect to the Battle of Britain II web site. You will already need to be
connected via your Internet Service Provider if you are to connect
successfully. The web site contains information regarding the latest news on
the game. See also www.shockwaveproductions.com

23
OPTIONS IN DETAIL
The PC menus have four main pages that relate to the preferences
associated with your PC setup. You can move from page to page using the
five active areas at the top left of the screen:
• GFX (graphics)
• More GFX
• Controls
• Sound

TECH NOTE:
If you find that you are no longer able to play the game and are unable to
change the options to a safe set the configuration file can be deleted. The
file is \Battle of Britain II\SAVEGAME\SETTINGS.CFG.

GFX
The GFX menu contains the following options:

Display Driver
This combo-box holds the 3D drivers on your PC that Battle of Britain II
has detected. The displayed driver is the one that is currently selected.

24
Use Windows Desktop Resolution (recommended)
On some systems, BoB II works better if the resolution is the same as that
for your desktop. This is achieved by switching this setting to ON. This
will set both the 3d Resolution and the Campaign Resolution to that of the
windows default desktop. When this setting is selected, those two options
will no longer be available.

3D Resolution
These are the range of resolutions that your current display driver can use
to display the 3D simulation section of the game. BoB II expects a 4:3
aspect ratio resolution, otherwise round objects, such as the spinning prop,
could look like an ellipse instead of a circle. Older analogue monitors
usually have a range of available resolutions. However, on the latest
LCD/TFT flat monitors many will have a “native resolution” (often
1280x1024), which is the “optimal” resolution for that particular monitor.
The monitor can often display other resolutions other than its “native
resolution” but doing so will often not fill the entire screen or the monitor
will “stretch” the image to fill the screen (which may result in a distorted
image).

If 1280X1024 is your LCD/TFT monitor’s native resolution, then you

would be advised to change the 3D Resolution to 1280x960 and set the
Windows Desktop Resolution option to OFF.

Campaign Resolution
These are the range of resolutions that your current display driver can use
to display the Map in the Campaign section of the game.

Gamma Level
Every 3D video card and monitor setup produces a different brightness
and contrast output. The Gamma Level option allows you to set the
monitor output to a level of your taste without altering your standard
monitor settings. Choose lower options to darken the image or higher
options to brighten it.

Ground Shading
This controls the shading of light on the ground. Light shading takes
processor time; so if that is a concern, then turn it off.

Item Shading
Item shading can be turned ON, Off or Reflections. On/Off controls the
light shading on aircraft and other moving objects. With Reflections

25
selected, the in-cockpit canopy and instrument glass will have reflections,
which fade out depending on the angle to the sun.

Mirror
If turned On then a cockpit mirror will be drawn if present in that aircraft
model.

Water Detail
Using this option, you may vary the quality of the Sea graphics. If the
frame rates on your system are struggling, you will need to set this to Low.
Refer also to Chapter 4 of this manual where via the BDG text file you can
change the colour of the sea to suit your preference.

NOTE: Older 3D cards that do not have built in DX9 support, such as
Nvidia 4000Ti series, can not render the high detail ocean, and will see
only a black (Nvidia) or white (ATI) space instead, so you must therefore
use LOW water detail.

Weather Detail – LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH

With weather effects at LOW and MEDIUM there are either sunny skies
or a simple cloud base – there will be NO “poor” or “inclement” weather.

If Weather detail is set to HIGH individual clouds will be displayed and

there will be Poor and Inclement weather - depending on the individual
mission weather parameters. These weather conditions and clouds are
realistic, but have a SIGNIFICANT impact on the frame rate on slower
machines. Set this option to LOW if your frame rates are too slow.

In the Instant Action and Campaign settings (NOT in this Weather Detail
section), there are several available descriptions of weather - described
below:

SUNNY = A clear, cloudless sky – perfect flying weather.

FAIR = sunny skies with very light, high level clouds that are neither thick
or dense – not nearly enough to attempt to “hide” in.

POOR = Overcast skies with thicker, denser, patchy nimbus clouds that
are lower to the ground, in addition to the higher cumulus clouds. One
can fly into the thickest of these clouds and no longer be visible to friend
or enemy. The base of the thicker nimbus clouds is at about 3,000 feet
altitude.

26
INCLEMENT= very overcast, rainy skies with even thicker and denser
clouds and fog. The bases of the thicker nimbus clouds are also at about
3,000 feet altitude.

One can further tweak the cloud settings in the BDG.txt – see Chapter 3 of
this manual.

MORE GFX

The More GFX page menus contains the following options:

Filtering
This option displays a choice of the following: None, Bi-Linear, Tri-
Linear, All, Anisotropic 2X-16X.
These filtering settings increase the quality of image-mapping. The "all"
setting enables multi-textured dithering effects and may not be supported
by all cards. Any of the various Anisotropic-filtering levels will include
the multi-textured dithering effects. Anisotropic 16X gives the best visual
quality, especially with the terrain as it is drawn out. The higher the level
of Anisotropic Filtering applied, the clearer the textures will appear, but
the greater the strain on your graphics card in filtering the image to
produce the clearer representation of textures. Also, at very high levels of
AF the clarity of distant textures may be unrealistically high.

27
NOTE: If your graphics card supports it, you may also wish to adjust
Anti-aliasing within your graphics card’s driver settings (not via in in-
game GUI or the BDG.txt). The higher the level of Antialiasing applied
(usually in steps of 2x, 4x, 6x and 8x), the progressively smoother the
image, but the greater the strain on your graphics card in recalculating the
image to produce these smoother images.

Also, the higher the level of Anti Aliasing the greater the blurriness you
may notice, and the graphics may in fact become too "cartoon smooth" in
appearance.

Smoke Effects
This option toggles smoke special effects and early morning fog banks.

Texture Quality
Texture quality has a considerable effect on the displayed frame-rate for
slower machines but improves the quality of certain aspects of the 3D,
especially the cockpit view.

Routes
The display of small roads, rivers and rail lines can be turned on or off
with this option.

A/C Shadows
When this option is turned on then aircraft shadows are visible on the
ground.

Item Shadows
This option toggles the visibility of ground shadows for objects other than
aircraft.

Horizon Distance
With LOW Horizon enabled, the ground detail does not extend as far into
the distance, but the frame-rate is improved. MEDIUM displays a little
farther into the horizon. HIGH draws the horizon distance at the farthest
setting with less haze or fog but at the greatest penalty on FPS. High will
not be available by default if your video card cannot run with a z-buffer of
greater than 16 bits. This feature may require a color depth of 24 to 32 bits
depending on the graphics card and adapter.

28
Object Quality (previously called Terrain Mesh)
Ranges from Minimum to Maximum. The lower the level of detail the
closer one must be for an object to be drawn at a high level of detail.
Selecting the lower ranges will result in higher frames per second. You
will still get high quality objects but they will not be drawn until you are
closer to them. The higher levels will draw objects at high detail levels
from a greater view distance. The higher levels require a stronger video
card.

G Effects
With the effects of G (gravity) turned on, then it is possible for you - the
pilot - to blackout and red out, depending on the manoeuvres you make.

Injury Effects
This toggles the display of injury effects if the pilot is hit.

White Outs
The white out option toggles the display of sun glare on and off.

Ground Object Density

The settings available are Minimum, Medium, High and Full. The higher
the setting the more objects will be capable of display but the greater will
be the effect on your fps. It is also possible to reduce the load on your
system by deleting non-required objects from your ObjectAdds folder
using, e.g. Notepad.

Note: If you have Town and Forest Raises turned on, then you should set
this to Minimum. This will leave the original ground objects, which
existed before those included in the ObjectAdds folder were added. If you
want to include as many of the new ground objects as you can, then you
should turn Raises off.

Particle Density
Adjusts the level of smoke and special effects from explosions and
detonations. The settings available are Low, Medium, High and Full. The
higher the setting, the more spectacular the effects, such as explosions -
but also the lower the fps.

Higher levels will mean more spectacular effects and explosions but again,
at a trade off of frames per second on slower machines.

29
CONTROLS

At the end of this section is a very useful “FAQ” put together by Retro,
which includes detailed photos of various operations step by step.

The Controls page offers EXPRESS and CUSTOM options. For most
people with a single joystick, EXPRESS should set things up so you can
fly. If you wish to further customize your keystrokes, buttons, or sliders,
or if you will be using multiple controllers (i.e., a joystick and separate
throttles or rudder pedals) select CUSTOM.

CUSTOM:
Clicking on the In-Game Axis brings up the following options:
• Deadzone
Most of the options below have independent dead zone settings. The
dead zone is the region at the center of the stick where no control
input is provided to the aircraft. The player can choose to set the
deadzone to Small, Medium or Large depending on the quality of the
hardware being used. Generally speaking, for a joystick that centers
well, and produces a signal that is steady and with little noise, a small
deadzone is appropriate. However, if, when the joystick is released, it
does not zero exactly or the signal continues to vary, this can be
compensated for by selecting a larger deadzone. You will need to
find the best arrangement by trial and error.

30
• Saturation (default – NONE)
Reduces the maximum throw of an axis. If set to large, moving the
axis 3/4ths to the extreme position is read by the game as a full
movement.

• Reverse
Simply reverses the axis.
• Filtering (default MEDIUM)
Smoothes out joystick movements by eliminating spikes

Use For FF If you have a 'force feedback' joystick then you can tick this
box. If your controller is not force feedback enabled then this feature will
be grayed out.

You can also disable or select force feedback levels for each of the
following effects:

Gunfire -transmits vibrations caused by the guns on your aircraft.

Buffet - transmits vibration caused by buffeting if you are near the stall
condition, close to an explosion, or close to the speed of sound (unlikely).
Aerodynamic - causes stiffening of the controls at high speed.
Airframe - transmits vibrations transmitted through the airframe from the
ground - i.e. when you are taking off or landing (or crashing!).

Rudder This provides control of your rudder, which yaws the aircraft in
flight, or steers the rear wheel when taxiing.

Throttle The throttle provides control for selecting the desired engine
power. When this combo is set to keyboard, the row of numbers on the
main keyboard can be used to select the throttle level in 10% increments
There is a second box for the Bf110, which has two throttle levers, one for
each engine. When this second combo is set to keyboard, the two throttles
can be controlled either together or individually. In flight, pressing E will
cycle through the available engine to control - both together, port engine
only or starboard only.

Prop Pitch The propeller pitch controls the angle of the propeller blades.
This can be used manually, just like the gearbox in a car, to maintain the
correct engine speed. Or the computer can control it automatically. When
this combo is set to keyboard, SHIFT+9 gives maximum prop pitch –

31
COARSE (and therefore lower rpm) whilst SHIFT+0 gives minimum prop
pitch – FINE (and higher rpm). SHIFT in combination with the -and +
keys will increase and decrease (respectively) the propeller pitch by
smaller increments (having the opposite effect on the rpm).

RETRO’s Controller/GUI FAQ:

• I want to quickly configure the one controller I have,

and be done with it:

You want to use the Express mode. Just go into the controller options,
select your joystick and that is. Exit the page by clicking one of the
buttons in the bar on top of the page, click "ok" when the game asks you if
the changes should be saved, and fly.

32
 • I want to setup BoBII so that it takes input from
multiple controllers:

In this case you need to use the "Custom" screen. Enter the controller
options, press "Custom" and you should be presented with a table
showing, in the first column, the available in-game axis, and in the second
column the associated "real" (physical) axis on your joystick(s). Should
look like this:

33
In case you own a Force Feedback stick, you will see the FFB options at
the bottom of the screen, provided you have FFB playback enabled as
follows:

Mapping in Game Axes:

IMPORTANT: When configuring multiple controllers you do not set up

each controller separately, you enter all the axes in the same screen. In
order to map a device to an in-game axis, you click on the second column
of the axis you want to map to, and then move the device you want to
map. IMPORTANT: At this step when selecting the axis you wish to
assign, you MUST move ONLY the desired axis on your stick! DO NOT
move your mouse or any other axis, as the game will recognize that as the
newly assigned axis!! The game should pick it up.

34
If you reconsider and do not want to map anything to that axis, or if the
game picked up the wrong axis, click the "Clear Axis" button. Should
look like this:

35
Finally, after the axes have been assigned, you can change their properties
by selecting the in-game axis (click on the first column in the table), the
associated axis details should pop up on the right side of the screen as
follows:

• I want to invert one of the in-game axes:

In the custom controller screen, mark the in-game axis you want to
change, then the axis properties should pop up to the right. Then just select
the deadzone. Click the "Reverse" button to change the direction.

36
 • I want to change the deadzone of one of the in-game axes:

In the custom controller screen, mark the in-game axis you want to
change, then the axis properties should pop up to the right. Then just select
the deadzone. Please note that throttle, prop pitch, FOV and zoom axes do
not feature a "deadzone" property.

• I want to un-map one of the in-game axes:

In the custom screen, mark the in-game axis that you want to free, and
then click the "Clear Axis" button. The button is in the middle bottom of
the screen, the following picture shows it:

37
 • Just what is "saturation" anyway?

Think of saturation as a "deadzone at the end of the axis range". For

example, the joystick may not be able to reach the minimum value that it
reports of the game, either because of some physical limit or because of
old potentiometers etc. So for example you could never reach the
theoretically possible minimum pitch because your joystick just cannot
reach this value. Saturation just makes the joystick report its maximum
(or minimum) value even if it has not yet physically reached it. Drawback
of bigger saturation zones is a “steeper” axis ascends, i.e. the stick will get
more sensitive.

• What is "filtering" supposed to do?

This property is primarily supposed to help with "spiking" on some

axes, caused by old potentiometers (something most joysticks
encounter when they get older). It's a low pass filter that averages
the joystick's input over multiple frames. The higher this is set, the
smoother the input will seem, the downside is that the input will
also get more sluggish. Generally, only use the higher filtering
values if you actually need them. You’ll know you need them if
you open your Windows Control Panel>>Game
Controllers>>Properties, and see the yellow circles jumping
around (“spiking”). If you don’t see the spiking, the planes will
respond much faster to control inputs with the filtering set to
LOW.

38
SOUND

The sound page contains the following options:

Sound Driver The sound driver box displays the currently selected driver,
along with other drivers available on your machine.

UI SFX Volume
This setting determines the volume of sound effects in the user interface.

Ambient SFX Vol

This setting controls the volume of the ambient sound effects in the non-
flying sections: e.g. office sounds in the 2D Map Room.

Radio Chatter Volume

This setting controls the volume of the radio chatter while flying and in
the 2D Map Room.

Engine Volume
Controls the volume of the engine noise.

SFX Quality
Allow you to set the quality of sound effects to low or high.

39
SIM

The Sim configuration menus have four main pages of preferences

associated with the setup of the simulation when you are flying. You can
move from page to page using the four active areas at the top left of the
screen:

• Flight
• Game
• Mission
• Views

There are also two options at the top right of the screen. PC takes you to
the PC Config screens, discussed in the section above. Continue either
takes you back to the Main Menu screen or back to the GFX to continue
your flight.

All of the configurations options are displayed within 'combo' boxes.

These can be manipulated either by selecting the down arrow on the right
hand side of the box (and then choosing from the list within the drop-
down menu that is displayed), or by clicking on the main part of the box
(and cycling through the available options one at a time).

40
FLIGHT

The Flight page of the Sim menu contain the following options:

Flight Options
Minimum, Low, Medium, High, Maximum, Custom
Setting this box will change all the options below to 5 pre-configured
difficulty levels. For instance, minimum uses the Novice flight model with
most of the options turned off, and maximum will set up the full flight
model with the options set up to give full realism. If you manually change
the options below, then the Flight Options box will show "custom".

Flight Option Minimum Low Medium High Maximum

Flight Model Novice Realistic Realistic Realistic Realistic
Engine Management Auto Auto Auto Auto Manual
Prop Pitch Control Auto Auto Auto Manual Manual
Power Boost On On Off Off Off
Wind Effects Off Off On On On
Wind Gusts Off Off Off On On
Airframe Stress Off Off Off Off On
Torque/Slip Streaming Off Off Off On On
109 Fuel Capacity Realistic Realistic Realistic Realistic Realistic

Items shown in italics cannot be changed within the selected Flight

Option.

41
After selection of a Flight Option, individual settings may be varied to suit
your preferences by changing Flight Option to Custom.

Flight Model
Realistic, Novice
There are two flight models available that can be used to control the way
in which the aircraft flies. The 'realistic' model allows the player to
experience all the flight characteristics of each aircraft such as the
stability, control responses, stall and spin characteristics. The 'novice'
version provides accurate performance modeling of the aircraft but keeps
it within the normal safe flying envelope. This second model allows the
player to fly a very stable version of the aircraft without worrying about
stalling or spinning.

In addition to selecting Flight and Flight Model (FM) options in the in-
game menu GUI as discussed above, there are now additional Flight
Model options, which can be adjusted via the BDG.txt file - see Chapter 3
of this manual.

IMPORTANT: See also Chapter 6 for important note on Flight Model

settings when alternating between Campaign and Instant Action Missions.

Engine Management
Manual, Auto
The game offers the player the chance to use many of the engine controls
present in the real aircraft. These include such things as Magnetos, Fuel
Cocks and Starter Buttons. This allows the player to take control of the
engine management, just like the pilot of a real aircraft. These controls
may only used with the 'interactive cockpit'. Due to the complexity
involved, no keyboard control is provided in this mode. This option is not
available if the novice flight model has been selected. If you wish to fly
the aircraft without worrying about the management of the engine, select
Auto and the computer will control the engine and fuel systems
automatically.

42
Prop Pitch Control
Manual, Auto
This allows the player either to control the propeller blade angle manually,
or to let the computer automatically control the propeller, based on the
engine speed and the throttle setting for the engine. The automatic system
will always attempt to provide the player with the most power appropriate
for most flight and combat conditions, but it will not necessarily allow
effective windmill braking or propeller feathering (see also Chapter Six -
Section Three).

Power Boost
This option allows the player to increase the power of the engine in order
to give an advantage during combat. If the power boost is Off, the power
produced by the engine will be realistic. When switched On, the engine
will produce approximately 50% extra power, which provides the player
with increased speed, and climb performance.

Wind Effects
The wind is modeled at all altitudes and it varies in direction and strength
on a day-to-day basis. The wind will affect the take-off, cruising, bombing
and approach of all the aircraft in the game. This option allows the wind to
be turned off completely.

Wind Gusts
If the wind effects are switched on, then random gusts are also modeled,
and their strength depends on the weather conditions each day. This option
allows the player to switch gusts on or off. Gusts will not occur if Wind
Effects are switched off.

Airframe Stress
The aircraft and their pilots are subjected to very large forces during
combat and aerobatics. Although the structure of the aircraft is very
strong, aircraft were known to break up in the air, especially when pulling
out of steep, high-speed dives when the aerodynamic forces on the wings
and tail section can be very great. The effects of these large forces are
modeled in the game and if the player puts too much stress on the aircraft
it may break up. These effects can be switched off and there will be no
danger of the player damaging the aircraft as a result of very high G
manoeuvres.

Torque/Slipstreaming
The effects of the propeller, such as the torque reaction in the fuselage, the

43
effects of the rotating slipstream on the tail surfaces and the gyroscopic
effects of the large diameter propeller are all modeled in the game. These
affect the handling of the aircraft both on the ground and in the air, but can
be difficult for an inexperienced pilot. This option allows the player to
ignore all of these effects and consider only the thrust produced by the
propeller in the flight model.

109 Fuel Capacity

Realistic, High
The Messerschmitt Bf109 has an internal fuel tank with a capacity of 400
liters. This limited the range of the aircraft, restricting it to only 20
minutes flying time over British soil before it had to turn home. This had
significant tactical implications for fighters escorting bombers to targets in
England and often meant that the fighters had to leave the bombers before
they had reached their targets. An external auxiliary fuel tank with a
capacity of a further 300 liters was provided for the Bf109. This was made
of molded plywood, and tended to leak significantly with a danger of
catching fire, making these tanks very unpopular with the pilots. In order
to model the increased range which could be achieved with the increased
fuel capacity, without the dangers of the plywood tank, the player can
choose to increase the effective capacity of the internal fuel tank (to 700
liters) by switching this option to High.

44
GAME

The Game page of the Sim menu contains the following options:

Weapons
Realistic, Unlimited
When the Unlimited weapons option is selected weapons will be
automatically reloaded when they are emptied. If the weapon selection is
set to Realistic, the setting still can be over-ridden in the 3D game by
using the reload cheat key command: Ctrl + R.

Vulnerable to Fire
When turned off enemy fire will not damage your aircraft.

Ground Collisions
When enabled, collision with the ground will damage or destroy your
aircraft.

Midair Collisions
When enabled, collision in midair with other objects will damage or
destroy your aircraft. This option also includes collisions with 3D ground
objects such as buildings and vehicles.

45
If you require more realism but do not wish to include collision with
ONLY friendly aircraft, then set this option to On but then you must
ALSO tick the No Friendly Collisions box within the Advance/Game
Option. See under the Adv. tab.

Accel Off
Tactical, Engage
This setting relates to the use of accelerated time during the game. When
the trigger is set to engage, your aircraft will drop back into real time only
when you are directly threatened and enemy aircraft can fire at you. If the
trigger is set to tactical, then real time is reset much earlier in the
encounter. This will give you time to engage the enemy at a tactical level
and allow you to gain height or manoeuvre, so that you may be able to
achieve tactical dominance.

Target Size
Altering this setting affects the apparent size of a target and thereby the
ease in hitting it. For more realism, select Low.

Autocanopy
The autocanopy function only applies to the player aircraft with automatic
canopy movements (Spitfire, Hurricane, JU87). The Messerschmitt
BF109 and BF110 have manual canopy. Autocanopy operates the
following way if set to ON:

1. When taking off the canopy is open.

2. When the gear comes up after takeoff the canopy closes (trigger
the gear coming up)
3. When landing and the landing gear comes down the canopy
opens (trigger the gear coming down)

The canopy will not operate during flight unless the player hits the
key command to open the canopy - “O” buy default. The player can
still operate the canopy during flight anytime he wishes even if
autocanopy is selected to ON by pressing the “O” key.

Aircraft Names
This option displays the call signs of friendly aircraft and the type of
enemy aircraft, below the aircraft. If you feel you need to use this facility
occasionally, then you are advised to set it to On. You may then toggle the
names display on and off during flight, using the T key. The toggle T key
will not function, if you have turned this setting to Off.

46
MISSION

The Mission page of the Sim menu contains the following options:

LW Skill Modifier
Minimum, Low, Medium, High, Maximum
This setting determines the skill level of the Luftwaffe in a campaign
setting. At medium, the true skills of the squadrons will be used. At
minimum and low settings the skills will be reduced, and at high and
maximum settings the skills will be increased. You .may wish to increase
the LW skill when you are playing LW commander, and reduce it if you
are playing the RAF commander.

RAF Skill Modifier

Minimum, Low, Medium, High, Maximum
This setting determines the skill level of the RAF Luftwaffe in a campaign
setting. At medium, the true skills of the squadrons will be used. At
minimum and low settings the skills will be reduced, and at high and
maximum settings the skills will be increased. You may wish to decrease
the RAF skill when you are playing LW commander, and increase it if you
are playing the RAF commander.

Luftwaffe Tactics
Historic, Optimum
The LW tactics can both follow history and take notice of the orders

47
passed down from Berlin, or they can follow a more optimal route. For
example, in the more optimal game plan, the one-month convoy phase will
be curtailed and the highly successful airfield phases will be extended.
This option primarily affects the RAF commander.

Luftwaffe Intell
Historic, Accurate
The LW were plagued with poor intelligence on the precise use of various
factories and airfields and had to run many reconnaissance missions to get
accurate damage assessments. When playing as a LW commander it is
useful to be able to get accurate information.

Map Plotting
This option primarily affects the RAF commander. When this option is on,
Map plotting will be represented historically, and flights that have been
temporarily lost on the radar screens will stop moving. When the option is
off, the map plotting will always be fully accurate.

Auto Vectoring
Auto vectoring determines how the aircraft in your Group will react
during combat when you are flying as the leader. When Auto Vectoring is
on, the other pilots will determine how they should react automatically.
When Auto Vectoring is off, you will be offered a range of sensible
choices. Selection should be made using either the number keys or the
mouse pointer. If a choice is not made within a few seconds then the
options are removed and the other pilots will make their own choices.

48
VIEWS

The Views page of the Sim menu contain the following options:

Restricted Views
When turned on the player is restricted to the cockpit view.

Peripheral Vision
When Peripheral Vision is on, you will notice RAF and Luftwaffe
identification symbols near the edges of the screen. These represent
aircraft that would be in the peripheral vision of a real pilot. The standard
setting presents a much smaller field of view than human vision, but this
standard may be varied using the BDG.txt file - refer to Chapter 3 of this
manual.

Auto External
When turned on, and when 'inside padlock cockpit' has been selected, the
view will automatically change according to the position of the target. If
the target is in front of the player, then the inside view is presented.

View Mode Select

Panning, Fixed Views
This controls how the number pad arrow keys respond. If panning is
switched on then pressing a key will produce a smooth pan. If fixed views
are switched on then key presses will jump straight to a new view. The

49
“NUMLOCK” key also toggles this selection in game. These controls
will be over-ridden by TrackIR if that device is being used.

Padlock When Visible

When this option is on, padlocking is only possible when the target is in
view. When off, the object has to be in visible range but not necessarily in
view, before it may be padlocked.

Info Line
Off, Flight info, View info
The 'info line', which is at the bottom of the screen when flying, can be in
one of three modes. Flight info mode gives flight-specific information
about your speed and altitude. View info mode tells you which views you
currently have enabled. If the info line is turned on then the last spoken
radio message will also be displayed for a few seconds.

Units
Imperial, Metric
The selection determines the units displayed during the game. For
instance, in imperial units speed is displayed in miles per hour, while in
metric units speed is displayed in kilometers per hour.

Gun Camera
Off, Trigger, On
The gun camera can either be off all the time, on when the trigger is
pressed, or on all the time. When Trigger is selected, the camera is not
switched off immediately the trigger is released. The amount of time that
the trigger is left on after releasing the trigger depends on the ordnance
selected. So, for example, the camera is left on longer after a bomb release
than when firing cannon/bullets. The X and C keys can over-ride this
option. This facility can be used to create a video of your complete
Mission. If this is a usual requirement, then On should be selected. If you
do select On, then sections of your mission can be excluded by using the
Gun Camera Toggle key C, e.g. if you just wish to record take-off, action
and landing. If you do turn it off, remember to turn it on again when you
want to continue recording!

Head Up Display
Virtual threat indicator and artificial horizon instruments are available to
help you to retain situation…al awareness during combat. These
instruments are designed to compensate for the fact that in a simulation
you do not get the same feedback during combat, as would a real pilot. A
real pilot has full peripheral vision and feels the effect of gravity. When

50
turned on, the Virtual Threat Indicator is displayed on the top left of your
screen. It shows an isometric perspective of a 360-degree circle of view.
Any threats are marked as vertical lines. They show the angle of the threat
relative to your aircraft and the relative importance of the threat (height of
line is proportional the size of threat). The artificial horizon is the same as
is found in most aircraft.

FIELD OF VIEW:

The above Field of View menu is accessed from the Adv. Tab. Most of
the FOV options are self-explanatory – they allow the user to configure
the FOV for various toggle options. The smaller the FOV, the more
“zoomed in” the view.

Small Field of View

Using SHIFT+F9 you can focus your cockpit view to this preset value.
This value is a slice of the normal cockpit view. Basically, the value you
enter, (the default is 25 degrees) is the degrees around the centerline of
your aircraft that your view is focused to. This view is extremely useful
for those pilots who do not use aircraft text labels in order to “zoom” their
eyesight and to make an aircraft identification.

51
Medium Field of View
Accessed using the SHIFT+F10 key, this is the same function as Small
Field of View, only it accesses a middle cockpit view. Consider this the
default cockpit view, especially if this value matches the Initial Field of
View.

Large Field of View

Accessed using SHIFT+F11 this has the same function as Small Field of
View only with as much of the cockpit displayed as possible. This view
can lead to problems if the number becomes too large. As the Large Field
of View value gets larger (default is 70 degrees) the program has to force
all the objects on to the screen. This may cause a “fisheye” view where
objects in the middle of the screen are larger than normal, and objects at
the edges of the screen are smaller. If this happens and you do not like the
Effect simply lower this value.

Small-Toggle and Large-Toggle Values

Use the Shift+F12 key to toggle between these field of view values.

Maximum and Minimum Field of Views

You can toggle between the two values you set here with SHIFT+F12. In
the 3D game, keys for zooming the FOV or zooming in/out are:
CTRL+ NUMPAD+ or CTRL+ NUMPAD- (zooms entire FOV in/out)
NUMPAD + or - (zoom of object in/out when in external view only –
overall FOV is unchanged)
SHIFT + NUMPAD+ or – (fast zoom of object in/out in external view
only – overall FOV is unchanged)

Initial Field of View

This is the cockpit field of view value you will see when you first enter the
cockpit.

Padlock the target at the centre of the screen

NOTE: In order to see the padlock diamond once an object has been
padlocked, press SHIFT+T. This only toggles the drawing of the diamond
on or off, not the actual padlocking of objects.

Padlocking the target in the middle of your screen has been implemented.
Its use is quite easy and is activated with the single keystroke of “S”. You
will see a red box outlining the padlock area; if the aircraft is in that box
then it will be padlocked when the S key is released. Use of this function
is not recommended if there is more that one aircraft in the outlined area.

52
If you pick up the wrong one, you will have to hit the ESC key to return to
the non-padlocked cockpit view and then hit the S key a second time.

In keeping with the variability of all options, the size and nature of the box
drawn while pressing the “S” key can be user defined – described below.

Padlock Center HDG and Padlock Center Pitch

NOTE: These options will only have an effect if Draw Padlock Centre
Box is selected in the advanced GAME GUI option menu.

The user can define the height and width of padlock box using “Padlock
Centre Hdg” and “Padlock Centre Pitch”.

The Padlock Centre Hdg (Heading) is a wedge that extends horizontally

from the centre of your current view. So if the value is ’10‘, there will be
a wedge of 20 degrees off your current heading in that the “Padlock
Centre” will work

The Padlock Centre Pitch is a wedge that extends vertically from the
centre of your current view. If that value is ’10‘, there will be a wedge
that extends 20 degrees from the plane your wings form, in the direction of
your lift line.

Combining these two values will create a “padlock” pyramid that extends
out from the centre of your current view. With the two variables you can
manipulate the size of that cone. For example, if you make the Padlock
Centre Pitch larger that the value of the heading, you will create a
rectangle that will pick up targets along the lift line as you are pulling into
them. To use this function in both the mouse and keyboard panning
modes, you must hit the Control+S keys. This will realign your view to the
forward view and you should no longer use the panning method you were
using before. Example: You want to go from mouse panning to keyboard
panning; hit Control+S. You will go to the forward view and
can now use the keyboard for panning and the padlock centre will work.
The PC_USING_KEYBOARD line in the bdg.txt file can be manually
changed to set a default for this value. If you are using TrackIR, you need
not do this as both mouse and keyboard input are neglected.

SEE APPENDIX B OF THIS MANUAL FOR KEY

COMMANDS

53
GAME

The Game page of the Advance Menu contains many options that are also
configurable using the BDG.txt file (see also Chapter 3).

Pan Speed Factor: Determines the panning-speed in the 3d world (this

includes the ‘photo’ screen in the campaign!) Default value is 1, so a value
of 2 would double the regular panning speed. It also affects the speed in
death views.

EPI Radius and EPI Y Radius: These two values change the size of the
Enemy Position Indicator. The default ratio of Radius to Y Radius is 5 to
1. The numbers are in pixels. NOTE: The default key command to show
or hide the EPI and the Artificial Horizon indicators is “H”.

Gun Convergence Yards: Permits you to set the distance where your
bullet streams will converge. Default distance is 250 yards.

Debug Output: This variable tells the program to send output to a file
used for debugging. Do not change it unless asked by a (cue drum roll)
BDG coder. This option can slow your game down tremendously if set to
other than zero.

54
Artificial Horizon Size: This setting determines the size of the Artificial
Horizon. Default value is 50 (pixels). NOTE: The default key command
to show or hide the Artificial Horizon and EPI indicators is “H”.

Friendly/Enemy Label and Infoline Text Colours

Click on the down arrow beside each box to obtain a selection of
colours to suit your requirements. If you wish to use a colour of
your own design, then select Custom. You will need to use the
bdg.txt file to insert your colour codes.

Track IR VE Z Axis Mode: Only visible if one has Track IR and has
launched it prior to launching BoBII. Options are: Z axis mode or FOV
mode. If using Track IR with Vector Expansion on it is recommended to
set this to Z axis mode.

Skip in-game Videos: The initial Battle of Britain video, Quick Mission
videos and Campaign videos are very interesting the first time you see
them. After that they can become a nuisance so prevent them running by
ticking this box.

No Engine Cut Out: Enable/Disables the engine cutout British fighters

experienced when they entered a negative G dive. NOTE: This feature
only works if the complex engine management is enabled in the FLIGHT
GUI menu screen.

No Stall Horn: Activating this checkbox disables the warning stall tone
that is played in Spitfires when flying with less than 25% engine power.

No Padlock Head Bob: If this is selected, there will be no head bobbing

while you are in padlock.

Head Bobbing: If this option is enabled, your “virtual” head will move in
response to the G-forces that you’re pulling with your aircraft. Your
screen will move with no panning inputs from you, this feature works
independently of the Blackout/Whiteout/Redout effects your pilot may
experience.

Draw Padlock Center Box: BoB II allows padlocking a target that is

within the padlock box. Hit and hold down the “S” key to draw the box.
A red box will be drawn on the center of the screen (if using TrackIR or
your hat switch to pan around the sky the padlock box will move around
on the screen at whatever direction you are looking). Whatever plane is
within the padlock box will be padlocked once you release the “S” key. It
55
is not recommended using this function if there is more that one aircraft in
the outlined area, if you pick up the wrong one, you will have to hit the
ESC key to break the padlocked target or hit, hold and then release the S
key repeatedly until the specific plane within the box that you want is
padlocked. See also Padlock Center hdg and Padlock Center Pitch in the
Field of View game GUI menu.

Track IR: Enables or disables the use of Track IR. This is only available
if you have Track IR and have launched it prior to launching BoB II.
TrackIR is a hardware device that picks up your physical head movements
and translates them into movements of your “virtual” head. For more
information visit www.naturalpoint.com

If you do not have one of these devices sitting on your monitor, you can
safely skip this (and the following) chapter.

BoB supports both normal “mouse emulation” and “native” mode of the
TrackIR device. It is however strongly recommended that you use the
“native” mode.

There are a few things you have to do to make the native TrackIR -
Interface work:

• Download and install version 1.4 (or later, you best use the most
recent version) of the TrackIR interface software (which can be
obtained from http://www.naturalpoint.com )
• Start the TrackIR interface each time before you start BoB.
• Enable the TrackIR Enhanced in the Motion window of
TrackIR.
• Enable TrackIR in the -> Advanced -> Game settings or in the
bdg.txt directly.

At first you will not see much difference between mouse emulation mode
and the native implementation using absolute coordinates. However, in
native mode, if you "bang” your head against the 6 o‘clock position and
move back, or when you leaving your place (to get some beer etc.) and
come back, you will not need to re-center the device.

If you play as pilot and use the native TrackIR mode, the mouse is unused
(but can of course be mapped to the “view pan” – you just won’t be able to
adjust the view while TrackIR is active). However it is NOT
recommended setting the interactive cockpit to the “unshifted” mouse, as

56
it will activate itself as soon as the mouse is moved even slightly, and
cannot be deactivated.

If you play as gunner, you have two separate inputs:

• TrackIR moves the view direction (the head).
• Either the joystick or the mouse moves the gun.

Even when playing with TrackIR, you can still "mark" things with the
padlock functions like “padlock centre”, “padlock enemy”, “padlock
friendly”, “padlock ground object” etc. If you have the target diamond
switched on, the padlocked object will be marked with this symbol. So, for
example, you could mark a plane that you think you damaged, but is not
emitting smoke. Even in the chaos of a big melee, the diamond will
always show you that aircraft.

You can either let padlock move your head - just like padlock does in all
non-TrackIR simulations - or you can move the head with TrackIR and
visually search for things. You can switch between these two possibilities
in the Advanced -> Game settings screen. See below.

One note for users of NaturalPoint 2.0 software: the software defaults to
“mouse emulation” mode and you must press F8 once to set it to
“enhanced mode” before starting BoBII.
Please note that the NaturalPoint software by default takes over the set Hot
Keys. To avoid conflict with BoBII keys, you should either deactivate
these keys in TrackIR or re-define them to one that is not used by BoBII.

TrackIR Vector Expansion

Versions 3 upwards of TIR can have the facility to look, not only from
side-to-side and up and down, but also to zoom or peer forward, e.g. look
ahead over the nose or alongside the fuselage through the open canopy.
This option must be ticked to enable this facility.

Padlock overrides TrackIR

This option governs whether or not Padlock will override your TrackIR
view-input. If it is not checked, you can still use the padlock keys to mark
objects with the targeting diamond, whilst you are free to pan around
using the TrackIR. Please note that many wingman commands require the
subject of the message to be marked by the targeting diamond
e.g. the Help command will make your wingmen attack your marked
target only.

57
Preload Standard: Enables program to load standard .bin files during
mission generation. This removes some of the stutters seen during action
when these files are loaded.

No Friendly Collisions
Ever been frustrated when you make that initial break into an enemy
formation and you collide with one of your wingman? Well until now the
only way to avoid this was to turn off mid-air collisions, resulting in less
realism. Now you can activate the no friendly collision, while leaving on
the main option for mid-air collisions. This will prevent your taking
damage from a friendly aircraft; yet still kill yourself when you impact
that Ju-88 at a combined speed of 700 knots. Please note that you are still
vulnerable to your wingmen’s` bullets!

Cont/Quit Quickmission/Campaign
With this enabled, when you land your aircraft after a mission within
Instant Action or the Campaign, a window will pop-up asking if you wish
to continue or quit. A checkmark here means the window will appear.
Leave it unchecked if you wish to continue automatically until you press
Alt+X.

Text Reminders
Enabling this option will display a message reminding you to perform
certain actions, e.g. to hit ALT+X after you die or to hit the break release
before take off, when flying Realistic.

Auto Preload: When you fly a quick mission for the first time, the
computer remembers what files it was required to load during the game
play and writes this information into a file. The next time you fly the
same mission, these files are preloaded. This reduces the “hiccup” or
stutter that occurs when the file would be loaded during your flight in 3D.
The whole process is totally automatic and currently only works with
quick missions. We recommend setting this to “ON”.

Fix Keyboard/Rudder: Fixes an error to allow the keyboard to fully

deflect the rudder to the same degree a joystick would be able to. If you
use rudder input from a joystick, rudder pedals, or twist grip, do not enable
this feature.

High Res Landscape: This option needs a good graphics card, preferably
with 128MB memory or more. It uses the highest available resolution
landscape textures.

58
Enable Auto Gen: Enabling this option will start the Auto Generation of
objects in the 3D world. NOTE: If this option is selected, ensure that the
“Town and Forest Raises ” option is disabled in the MORE GFX gui
menu.

Enable EPI: This toggle shows enemy position indicator (EPI) on the
upper left of the 3d world screen. This switch is independent of the in-
game show HUD key (“H” by default). With this you can disable the EPI,
but still have the attitude indicator showing in the upper right of the 3d
screen. Please note that you cannot display the EPI if the Head Up
Display on the Sim/Views screen is disabled.

59
This Page Intentionally Left Blank

60
 CHAPTER 3
The BDG.txt FILE
As stated previously, in addition to the various in-game GUI menu
options, there are many user-configurable options available via the
BDG.TXT file. To access the BDG.txt file, exit the game and use
Windows Explorer to navigate to the main BoB II folder where the game
is installed on your hard drive.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Make a backup copy of the BDG.txt file before making changes!!! Use
NOTEPAD to edit and make changes to the file. Even if you don’t make a
backup copy, you can safely delete this file and a new one will be created
with default values the next time you launch and then exit the game.

Some but not all of the BDG.txt items are duplicated in the various in-
game GUI menus.

Before adjusting any of the BDG.txt parameters, use Windows explorer,

navigate to the BoB II main folder and find the folder called BDG
ADVISOR. Run the executable BDGAdvisor which is a step-by-step walk
through of many (but not all) of the BDG items below. The BDGAdvisor
was put together by Retro. It is a very useful tool to understanding many
of these variables.

Not all BDG items have been fully understood or explained at the time
of this writing. Any BDG.txt items not explained previously in this
manual or below are either not fully understood or intended to be
manipulated by the development staff when testing and making changes
for future updates. If you are unsure of any item, leave it alone.

61
 BDG.TXT
Line item Explanations

Following are excerpts, in the order that they appear from the current
release version’s default BDG.TXT file. The user adjustable BDG line
items are in BOLD. Narrative in italics provides explanations for each
item, if known.

VERSION = 3
# BOB version
# BDG Release version

# Angles:

The following FOV items are related to Field of View. They are
essentially the same as the in-game Field of View menu GUI items. These
are expressed in terms of degrees.

FOV_SMALL = 25.000000
This changes your focus in the cockpit view to this preset value. This
value is a slice of the normal cockpit view. Basically, the value you enter,
(the default is 25 degrees) is the degrees around the centreline of your
aircraft that your view is focused to. This view is extremely useful for
those pilots who do not use aircraft text labels in order to “zoom” their
eyesight and to make an aircraft identification.

FOV_MEDIUM = 50.000000
FOV_LARGE = 80.000000
These are a similar function as FOV_SMALL only they change the
medium and large FOV views. FOV_LARGE displays as much of the
cockpit as possible (the current maximum for this is 110 degrees). This
view can lead to problems if the number becomes too large. As the value
gets larger the program has to force all the objects on to the screen. This
may cause a “fisheye” view where objects in the middle of the screen are
larger than normal, and objects at the edges of the screen are smaller. If
this happens and you do not like the effect, simply lower this value.

FOV_TOGGLE_SMALL = 35.000000
FOV_TOGGLE_LARGE = 70.000000
The assigned key will toggle to these values

62
FOV_INITIAL = 60.000000
This is the cockpit field of view value you will see when you first enter the
cockpit.

FOV_MINIMAL = 18.000000
FOV_MAXIMAL = 80.000000
The assigned key will toggle these values.

PC_HDG = 10.000000
This is a wedge that extends horizontally from the centre of your current
view. So if the value is ’10‘, there will be a wedge of 20 degrees off your
current heading in that the “Padlock Centre” will work See also Field of
View menu GUI section.

PC_PITCH = 10.000000
This is a wedge that extends vertically from the centre of your current
view. If that value is ’10‘, there will be a wedge that extends 20 degrees
from the plane your wings form, in the direction of your lift line. See also
Field of View menu GUI section.

# (floating point) numbers :

EPI_RADIUS = 50.000000
EPI_Y_RADIUS = 10.000000

These two values change the size of the Enemy Position Indicator. The
default ratio of Radius to Y Radius is 5 to 1. To keep the same default
orientation we suggest you keep to this ratio. The numbers are in pixels.

PAN_SPEED_FACTOR = 3.000000
Determines the panning-speed in the 3d world (this includes the ‘photo’
screen in the campaign!) Changing from 1 to 2 for example will double
the regular panning speed. If the pan view is too fast for you, reduce to 1.
This also affects the speed in death views.

ART_HORIZON_SIZE = 40.000000
This setting determines the size of the Artificial Horizon in pixels.

TRACKVIEWRANGE = 256
The decimal value governs the initial range of the outside (track) view.
Sadly we are not sure about the units of this value, so a bit fiddling is in
order.

LABELCOLOUR_FRIENDLY = 77aa77

63
LABELCOLOUR_ENEMY = aa7777
These govern the colour of the aircraft labels, their values are in RGB-hex
format, meaning that the first 2 characters set the red-component of the
colour (0 to 255), the next two characters govern the green part and the
last two the blue part.
The values above are the standard ones, blue for allies, green for enemies.
Leading zeroes may be omitted (0000ff is equal to ff). 000000 is black,
ffffff is white.
Range is set through the next 3 lines:
LABEL_FULL_ALPHA = 2000
LABEL_HALF_ALPHA = 6000
LABEL_ZERO_ALPHA = 8000

'Alpha' means the 'opacity' of the colour, if alpha is zero the colour is
effectively invisible. Full_Alpha is the maximum range till labels will be
drawn 'fully', in ranges between FULL_ALPHA and HALF_ALPHA the
alpha will decrease linear from 'full' to 'half' (i.e. 128), in ranges between
HALF_ALPHA and ZERO_ALPHA it will decrease linearly from 128 to 0;
Aircraft that are farther away than the ZERO_ALPHA range do not get
labels drawn at all. Units of those values are meters.

NOTE: For those unfamiliar with RGB-Hex colour format, use

the IN-GAME 3D menu under ADV/GAME (rather than these
BDG.txt values) to adjust these various colours.

PERIPHERAL_VISION_RANGE = 4000
Since no PC monitor as yet can truly replicate the very wide field of view
of the human eyes, another one of the situational awareness aids BoB II
implements are the ICONS that float on the edge of the screen, simulating
the pilot’s peripheral vision. Adjusting this value changes how your
“vision” can track aircraft out of the corner of your eye and is in meters.

MINIDUMPLOG_TYPE = 0
Use only if directed to by a BDG coder.

PERFORMANCE_TEST_MODE = 0 # 0 = no testing 1 = polyrate

testing 2 = fps testing
Use only if directed to by a BDG coder.

TRACKIR_Z_AXIS_MODE = 1
If one has TRACK IR, this changes from Z-axis mode to FOV mode. 1 =
z-axis mode, 0 = FOV mode.

64
RETICLE_SIZE_BIAS = 1.000000
Unknown. Use only if directed to by a BDG coder.

EYE_X_POS = 0.000000
EYE_Y_POS = 0.000000
EYE_Z_POS = 0.000000
Unknown. Changing these values do not seem to have any effect in the
present release. Use only if directed to by a BDG coder. In previous
release versions, it appears that these variables allowed for differing pilot
eye positions for each flyable aircraft. The feature does not affect any
zoom; all it does is to define the focal point for every one of your views.
There seems to be no discernable unit of measurement, so trial-and-error
will be required for the user to find the setting you want.

UI_REFRESH = 60.000000
Allows you to set the refresh rate of the monitor in Hertz.

HIRES_LANDSCAPE_OFFSET = 0.400000
Best left at 0.400000 which is the prime setting. Intended as a graphics
developer’s tool. For example if you change it to 1.400000, then you can
see exactly how all the mapped tiles are placed, because each tile will
have a sea colored border line. This is actually the underlying sea
showing.

DEBUG_STUTTER= 0
This variable tells the program to send output to a file used for debugging.
Do not change it unless asked by a (cue drum roll) BDG coder. This
option can slow your game down tremendously.

WK_LANDSCAPE_TEXTURES= 1
This option needs a good graphics card, preferably with 128MB memory
or more. Leave at 1 so that you do not get excessive stutter or fps
slowdown. The effect is most notably in cities and where you see jaggies,
for example at the border of the runway. Since things are sharper, you will
probably also see more “shimmering”. To reduce this, use anisotropic
filtering, this option can be enabled in the settings of your video card.

BOB_SCREENSHOT_MODE= 0
Set to 1 allows the user to make a 360-degree wrap around
screenshot.

65
SHADER2TWEAK= # give full path!
Use only if directed by a BDG coder.

CONVERGENCE = 250.
Permits you to set the distance where your bullet streams will converge.
Default distance is 250 yards. When you fire at a target from the distance
set as the convergence point, the maximum amount of damage will be
inflicted, as the majority of the bullets are all impacting in the same spot.

UDET_TEST_MODE = 0
This needs to be set to 1 if you want to be able to fly the Instant Action
mission “Checking the Udet Buoys”.

INFOLINE_COLOUR = ddcc0000
This value is again in hex format, but in contrast to the label-feature there
is a setting for text-alpha (text opacity). A typical setting may be ‘7f00ff00’
which means “display the text at half alpha (‘7f’ is ‘127’ in hex) green
(‘00ff00’ means “0 red, full green, 0 blue”)”. To toggle the infoline
background, set the variable “SHOW_INFOLINE_BACKGROUND” to
either “ON” or “OFF

NO_OF_HIRES_SCREENIE_TILES = 6 # per line/row, so a '4' leads

to 16 actual tiles, each as large as the screen.

OVERRIDE_FIRST_PROP_RPM_SWITCH = 200
Different prop rotation speeds use different textures for the in-game view
of the prop spinning, of which there are three textures. The switch
between one texture and the next is at a certain RPM. The value Rowan
originally used for the first switch was 500 for all planes. The value
entered here (200 by default) overrides the Rowan 500 value.

NOTE REGARDING THE FOLLOWING Weather (Sun and Sky)

PARAMETERS: Not all of the following have been fully tested and
explained as of this writing:

Weather_Dusk_Time_Sec= 71700
This is the dusk time in seconds. It translates to 7:55PM or 19.55. The
number is derived as follows: seconds (19*60*60+55*60) = 71700
Weather_Dawn_Time_Sec= 17100
This is the dawn time in seconds. It translates to 4:45AM or 04.55. The
number is derived as follows: seconds (4*60*60+45*60) =17100

66
The above time parameters can only be changed slightly, by about 30
minutes or so, as both are used later in the game software to calculate the
sun’s position.

Weather_CloudAlbedo= 1.000
Higher number adds more gray to the cloud bottoms. Darkens the sea
LIGHT color also. 2.000 is way too much.

Weather_SunGlow= 0.250
Determines brightness of glow around the sun. Higher = brighter. No
apparent effect on other sky settings.

Weather_SunFlare= 0.500
Determines the sun flare size. Higher = larger. No apparent effect on
other sky settings.

Weather_SkyLambda3= 2250000.0
Weather_SkyLambda2= 1604038.0
Weather_SkyLambda1= 1250000.0
These values affect the sky color. Some values can give a whiter horizon
while others will make the horizon bluer.

Weather_SunLambda3= 0.506
Weather_SunLambda2= 0.560
Weather_SunLambda1= 0.685
These change the color of the light the sun emits. This includes the glow
around the sun, the horizon (360 degrees), and 180 degrees from the sun.

SunLambda and Sky Lambda are RGB values.

1. Red
2. Green
3. Blue

All of these settings work in harmony together. You can make radical
changes in one area and make up for it in another.

Weather_Turbidity= 1.800
Effects the glow around the sun disk. Lower numbers darken it, higher
numbers brighten it. Too high and it brightens over the disc. Small effect
on sea highlighted reflections.

67
Weather_SkyExposure= -0.350
Determines sky and sunglow brightness. Lower (more negative) numbers
brighten both. Similar to underexposed or overexposed camera film.

Weather_SkyGamma= 3.000
Affects sky color. Higher numbers give lighter blues.

Weather_SunIntensity= 150.000
Affects the glow around the sun disk and the Sky Exposure. Higher
numbers, brighter.

Weather_MieG= -1.500
Heavy effect on the glow around the sun. Best left as –1.500

Weather_MMult= 0.0000013
Unkown. More experimentation needed. Best left as is.

Weather_RMult= 0.018
Unknown. More experimentation needed. Best left as is.

Weather_SunColor= 1.000
Determines sun color. The default setting is “white light” and is best left
as is.

NOTE REGARDING THE FOLLOWING CLOUD PARAMETERS:

Not all of the following have been fully tested and explained as of this
writing. Poor and Inclement weather are only available if weather has
been set to HIGH in the in-game GFX menu. Higher values will mean
fuller, thicker clouds but a corresponding hit on frame rates. The thick
nimbus cloud values seem to have a much larger impact on frames per
second than the higher-level cumulus clouds. As you experiment with
changes, compare the values from one weather setting to the next (i.e.
Fair clod cover compared to Poor Cloud cover).

Cloud_Fair_CloudCover= 140.000
Cloud_Fair_CloudDensity= 160.000
Cloud_Fair_CloudSliceHeight= 3048.000

Cloud_Poor_CloudCover= 160.000
Cloud_Poor_CloudDensity= 160.000
Cloud_Poor_CloudSliceHeight= 3048.000
Cloud_Poor_NimbusCover= 170.000

68
Cloud_Inclement_CloudCover= 220.000
Cloud_Inclement_CloudDensity= 254.000
Cloud_Inclement_CloudSliceHeight= 3048.000
Cloud_Inclement_NimbusCover= 200.000
Cloud_Inclement_RainStrength= 1.000
Cloud_Inclement_FogDensity= 1.000
Cloud_Inclement_FogEndMult= 0.400

NOTE regarding Cloud Slice Height values: These are “like a pancake
stacked on top of each other to build a cloud. The default is 3048
(FT_100 in the table below). Some users have reported better-looking
clouds at 1500 (FT_50). The degree of impact on FPS is not yet clear
with the cloud slice height.
FT_0 = 0, //DAW 02Apr96
FT_1 = 30, //DAW 02Apr96
FT_2 = 60, //DAW 02Apr96
FT_3 = 92, //MS 08May96
FT_5 = 150,
FT_6 = 183, //ARM 16Jun97
FT_10 = 305,
FT_20 = 609, //MS 07Apr96
FT_25 = 750, //DAW 02Apr96
FT_30 = 900, //DAW 02Apr96
FT_40 = 1219, //MS 08Apr96
FT_50 = 1500, //DAW 02Apr96
FT_60 = 1829, //MS 19Jan00
FT_63 = 1920, //MS 21Jan00
FT_65 = 1981, //MS 21Jan00
FT_70 = 2134,
FT_75 = 2286, //MS 11Apr96
FT_80 = 2438, //MS 07May96
FT_90 = 2743, //MS 25Jan00
FT_94 = 2865, //MS 07May96
FT_95 = 2895, //MS 07May96
FT_96 = 2926, //MS 07May96
FT_100 = 3048,
FT_105 = 3200, //MS 11Apr96
FT_110 = 3350, //MS 11Apr96
FT_120 = 3658, //MS 18Sep96

69
FT_130 = 3962, //MS 21Jan00
FT_140 = 4268, //MS 18Sep96
FT_145 = 4418, //MS 18Sep96
FT_150 = 4572, //MS 07May96

Jump_Test_Tool_Percent_X = 0.000
Jump_Test_Tool_Percent_Y = 0.000
Jump_Test_Tool_Percent_Z = 0.000
Do not adjust. These are for doing Jump/Warp analysis of the Artificial
Intelligence Aircraft. User should only change these at the request of a
BDG dev coder.

Novice_AI_Airspeed_Fraction = 0.000
Allows the user to adjust the speed of the AI aircraft as a percentage of
“stock” speed. Lowering the number, for example to 65.00 means that the
AI will now operate at 35% slower than the regular speed. This
parameter is useful for novice pilots or children who are just learning BoB
II and can be overwhelmed by the manoeuvreability and lethality of the
AI aircraft.

BULLET_LIFESPAN = 5.00
The duration in seconds that the game code will calculate and account for
the effect of bullets fired.

GEAR_IMPACT_THRESHOLD_1 = 0.1666
Unknown.

GEAR_IMPACT_THRESHOLD_2 = 0.3300
Unknown.

GEAR_ROLLING_SOUND = 1.0000
Unknown.

CPTVIEWPOINTTRAVELRATE = 20.000000
Unknown.

CPTVIEWPOINTTRAVELINC= 150
Unknown.

RAIN_FACTOR= 32
70
Affects amount of raindrops generated. Set to 0 removes the rain
completely.

Maneuvre_Testing= 0
Maneuvre_Testing1= 0
Maneuvre_Testing2= 0
DO NOT ADJUST. These are for gathering log data on AI
issues/problems/analysis by BDG coders. Appendix C of this manual lists
the BoBII developer programs where the data is collected. User should
only change these items at the request of a BDG dev coder.

OBJECT_DENSITY= 1
Also selectable in the in-game GUI under MORE GFX/Ground Object
Density. 1 is Minimum, 4 is Full. Determines how many ground objects
are used in game that were placed with the ObjectAdds method. Big
effect on frame rates, set high.

PARTICLE_DENSITY= 2
Also selectable in the in-game GUI under MORE GFX/Particle Density. 1
is Minimum, 4 is Full. Affects the look of smoke, fire, etc. Big effect on
frame rates, set high.

IN_CLOUD_EFFECT_POLY_COUNT= 50
Effect Unknown.

IN_CLOUD_EFFECT_POLY_SIZE= 100.0000
Effect Unknown.

IN_CLOUD_EFFECT_POLY_DOMAIN= 200.0000
Effect Unknown.

IN_CLOUD_EFFECT_DENSITY = 0.0000 1.0000

Effect Unknown.

# On/Off switches:

BDG_OUT_CACHING=OFF
Leave this OFF. Used for performance and other testing purposes.

TRACKIR=OFF

71
Toggles on or off the game’s use of the Track IR if installed. The user
must still separately launch the Track IR software prior to launching the
game irrespective of this setting.

NO_OUTSIDE_TRACKIR=OFF
If Track IR is installed, it will be disabled upon going to one of the
external airplane views. It will be re-enabled upon returning to the
cockpit view.

PADLOCK_OVERRIDES_TRACKIR=OFF
When set to ON, when an aircraft is padlocked the viewpoint will follow
the padlocked plane and override the Track IR. In most cases, the user
will leave this at OFF.

EXPERIMENTAL_DISALLOW_DYNAMIC_RENDERER=OFF
Effect Unknown.

ENEMY_POSITION_INDICATOR=OFF
Toggles on or off the enemy position indicator.

SMOOTHEN_FRAMERATE_MODE=SMOOTHEN
Options are “NONE””LIMITED” “LIMIT_AND_SMOOTHEN” or
“NONE”. When set to None, the game will attempt to play at maximum
FPS but may have stutter. Limited is a hard FPS limit of 32. Smoothen
may reduce overall FPS on average but will reduce the amount of stutters
and the player may in fact perceive that the game is smoother, even with a
slightly slower FPS.

USE_DUMMY_IF_TEXTURE_MISSES=ON
Leave ON. This forces the game to use a “blank” dummy texture if a
given texture fails to load in the graphics card memory. It reduces game
crashes in the event such texture loads fail.

NO_FRIENDLY_COLLISIONS=ON
Toggles on or off collisions with friendly aircraft.

DRAW_PADLOCK_CENTER_BOX=ON

72
Also selectable in-game GUI under the Adv. Game menu. Draws a red
box momentarily when pressing Padlock center-most object “S” key. If an
A/C is inside the box, it will be padlocked when the “S” key is released.
NOTE: You must have first also enabled the drawing of the padlock
diamond (SHIFT+T) to see it if an object has been padlocked.

WINAMP_FADES_OUT=ON
In previous BDG versions, WinAmp stopped playing when exiting the 3D
game. Setting this bdg.txt variable to “OFF” means WinAmp will continue
playing; you will however not be able to use the“WinAmp-control” key
presses.

INTRO_VIDEO=ON
Toggles on or off the intro videos to play.

FORCE_WINDOWED_MODE=OFF
Toggles the game to play in windowed mode.

NOTE REGARDING WATER COLOUR VARIABLES: The DARK

values are the “king” values. They have great influence on the water’s
colors seen in the game in all times of day and weather conditions. The
LIGHT values have little effect in all conditions except dusk. Best keep
them at close to 50,50,50 which is a medium gray color.

WATER_COLOUR_DARK_R = 55
WATER_COLOUR_DARK_G = 55
WATER_COLOUR_DARK_B = 55
WATER_COLOUR_LIGHT_R = 0
WATER_COLOUR_LIGHT_G = 0
WATER_COLOUR_LIGHT_B = 0

DELETE_MODELS_FOLDER_CONTENTS=OFF
Effect unknown.
OPTIMISE_OBJECTS_DURING_RUNTIME=ON
Effect unknown.
DRAW_MENU_ON_3D_SCREEN=ON
Effect unknown.
DISABLE_ALL_2D_ELEMENTS=OFF # not completely implemented
yet? Effect unknown.

ENGINE_ALWAYS_RUNNING=OFF
Toggles the engine running on or off

73
HEAD_BOBBING=ON
If this option is set to ON, your “virtual” head will move in response to
the G-forces that you’re pulling with your aircraft. Your screen will move
with no panning inputs from you, this feature works independently of the
Blackout/Whiteout/Redout effects your pilot may experience.

SHOW_INFOLINE_BACKGROUND=OFF
Toggles the infoline background.

ENABLE_AUTO_TEXTURE_RES=ON # Change to 'OFF' will affect

one session only, IOW BoB will write 'ON' back over it.

USE_PCX_OR_DDS=ON # Change to 'OFF' will affect one session only,

IOW BoB will write 'ON' back over it.

SKINNERS_MODE=OFF
Used for “on the fly texture editing. You can edit textures while the game
is running. Set to ON will force the windowed mode, and change the
following two bdg.txt line items below to ON.

CHECK_TEXTURES_ARE_AS_EXPECTED=OFF
Used for “on the fly” texture editing. Easier to just set
SKINNERS_MODE= ON - see above

AUTO_TEXTURE_CHANGE=OFF
Used for “on the fly” texture editing. Easier to just set
SKINNERS_MODE= ON – see above

USE_HIRES_LANDSCAPE_TILES=ON
Toggles ON or OFF hi resolution landscape tile textures. Set this to OFF
if your video graphics card has less than 64 MB or memory.

BOB_DISABLE_ENGINE_CUTOUT=OFF
Enable/Disables the engine cutout British fighters experienced
when they entered a negative G dive. This is because in the early
model Spitfires and Hurricanes gravity-fed carburetors were used
instead of fuel injected systems used by the German fighters. To
avoid the engine cut out, RAF fighters had to first roll inverted
before entering a dive. This feature only works if the complex
engine management is enabled in the in game GUI configuration
screen.

74
BOB_DISABLE_STALL_HORN=OFF
If set to ON the player will hear a stall warning horn if the engine is
operated at less than 25% power while flying the RAF aircraft.

BOB_BOMBERFIX=ON
This is an improvement over the original bomber behaviors when they are
attacked and damaged. When set to ON, the bombers will do the
following if the engine damage reaches a certain level. First, with the
lower damage the bomber will break formation and head for home or the
crew will bail out (rookie crew). If the engine damage increases, the crew
will bail out, the bomber will crash (crew overcome by toxic smoke) or the
bomber will explode – caused by a fuel fire or bullet hitting the detonator
cap on one of the bombs aboard the aircraft. LEAVE this setting ON.

NO_HEAD_BOBBING_WHILE_PADLOCK=OFF
When an aircraft or object is padlocked, the Head Bobbing is disabled if
this option is set to ON.

BOB_FIGHTERFIX=ON
Similar to the BOB_BOMBERFIX, this is an improvement to the original
fighter behavior when they are attacked and damaged. The fighters
(including the JU87 Stuka in this case), if and only if the engine damage
reaches a certain level, the fighter will crash (crew overcome with toxic
smoke), the crew will bail out (if and only if the canopy is not damaged),
or if the crew can not bail out due to canopy damage then it will crash, or
the fighter will explode.

BOB_PADLOCKFIX=OFF
In a previous version of BoB, a new padlock mode was added that
removed the strange “upside-down” view one got when diving after an
aircraft. Unfortunately, you may see a video stutter problem on rolling
your aircraft with this feature activated. To enable this feature, set to
ON.

CONTINUE_QUIT_BOX_CAMPAIGN=ON
Upon completing the mission requirements in an individual mission within
campaign, a pop-up window will appear asking if you want to continue or

75
quit the mission. Changing this to OFF will stop the pop-up window from
appearing once the mission requirement(s) have been achieved.

CONTINUE_QUIT_BOX_QUICK=OFF
Upon completing the mission requirements in an Instant Action mission, a
pop-up window will appear asking if you want to continue or quit the
mission. Changing this option to OFF will stop the pop-up window from
appearing once the mission requirement(s) have been achieved.

FIX_KEYBOARD_RUDDER=OFF
Fixes an error to allow the keyboard to fully deflect the rudder to the same
degree a joystick would be able to. If you use rudder input from a joystick,
rudder pedals, or twist grip, do not enable this feature.

DEBUG_ROLL=OFF
Effect unknown.

PRELOAD_STANDARD_FILES=ON
Enables program to load standard .bin files during mission generation.
This removes some of the stutters seen during action when these files are
loaded.

AUTOMATIC_PRELOAD=ON
When you fly a quick mission for the first time, the computer remembers
what files it was required to load during the game play and writes this
information into a file. The next time you fly the same mission, these files
are preloaded. This removes the “hiccup” or stutter that occurs when the
file would be loaded during your flight in 3D. The whole process is totally
automatic and currently only works with quick missions. We recommend
setting this to “ON”.

VIEW_TIME_FUDGE=OFF
Effect unknown.

DEBUG_RUDDER=OFF
Effect unknown.

SKIP_QUICKVIDEOS=OFF
Toggle ON or OFF Instant Action historical video clips

SKIP_VIDEOS=OFF
Toggle ON or OFF the historical video clips in the various campaign
menus.

76
SHORTENED_LABELS=OFF
Toggles on or off the full or an abbreviated aircraft label. This will only
work if aircraft names have been enabled in the in-game GUI menu.

HIDE_AMMO_COUNTER=ON
In real life, Spitfires and Hurricanes did not have an ammo counter.
Pilots had to estimate their remaining ammo based on how long they had
held down the trigger when firing. Starting with full magazines, it took
approximately 15 seconds to expend all the ammunition. Setting this to
ON displays your remaining ammo count in the Infoline.

ALWAYS_BEHIND_GUNSIGHT=ON
In “real life” the Messerschmitt BF-109 gun sight was off-centre from the
pilot’s seated position. This required the pilot to shift slightly to the right
in order to use the gun sight during a dogfight. By setting this feature to
ON pilot of the BF-109 will always be aligned behind the gun sight. If you
are a stickler for realism, change this to OFF.

BOB_SMOOTHER_DEADZONE=ON
Set ON creates a smoother transition from the centre point of the
deadzone to the maximum deflection point on your joystick. If you have no
deadzone on your control configuration then activating this feature may
have little impact. For those that do, this feature should make aircraft
movements smoother and easier to control.

Bullet_DragGravity=OFF
Toggles on or off the effect of gravity on bullets fired. Leaving this OFF
makes your fire more accurate but is less realistic.

Bullet_Dispersion=ON
Toggles bullet dispersion on or off. When set to ON, as in real life, bullets
will spread out the further away they travel from the barrel, making your
shots less accurate. When set to OFF, the bullets will travel like a laser
beam so you are more accurate but is less true to the real life behavior of
bullets. The dispersion is 4 meters at 400 yards (max) for fighters and 16
meters for hand operated guns (Max). The dispersion radius decreases as
the range to the target decreases at the same rate (100 meters = 1 meter,
200 meters = 2 meters, 300 meters = 3 meters).

No_Spinning_Death=OFF
Changing this to ON will eliminate the spinning outside pan view when
your virtual pilot is killed or crashes.

77
Novice_AI=OFF
The enemy AI aircraft in BoBII is very sophisticated and have many
potential manoeuvres at their disposal for defense and attack. They can
be a very challenging foe, in many cases as good or better than skilled
human opponents in some on-line combat flight sims. This BDG text
parameter is intended for novice pilots or children who may be
overwhelmed or discouraged by the skill of the enemy AI. When this item
is set to ON the user will have a little less aggressive but hopefully still
challenging subset of AI manoeuvres so they can better enjoy and learn
how to fight in BoBII.

Novice_Target_Size=OFF
Similar to the Novice AI setting, this is intended for novice or junior pilots.
Setting this to ON makes the hit box of the enemy AI larger and easier to
hit and destroy.

Novice_Stronger_Bullets=OFF
Again, this is one of several Novice parameters intended to make BoBII
easier for less experienced pilots or children. This feature when set to
ON, makes the player’s bullets about 20% stronger than normal.

Collision_Avoidance=OFF
When set to ON, enemy aircraft will attempt to avoid a collision with you.
In very high speed or abrupt course changes, even if this is set to ON, a
collision may still be unavoidable.

BF109_Slats_Open_Close_Sounds=ON
The BF109 had slats on the leading edge of the wing that would open
automatically under certain conditions when approaching a stall. The
slats were designed to delay the onset of the stall. When the slats opened
or closed, they often did so with a very loud audible “bang” – heard even
over the sound of the very loud engine. To rookie pilots this sound was
often loud enough to be confused with being hit by the bullets of an
attacking aircraft or AAA. Setting this to ON enables the slat open/close
sound if you are piloting the BF109.

Scott_PS_Log=OFF
Do Not Adjust. A dev tool used for testing.

REDUCE_SURFACE_DEFLECTION=ON

78
Early model Spitfires and Hurricanes used fabric covered control
surfaces. These tended to “balloon” and distort at very high speeds (such
as in a dive) and caused great difficulties with response and buffeting.
With this option set to ON the amount of deflection of the Aero Surfaces is
decreased as the speed of the aircraft increases. At normal and low
speeds the aircraft aero surfaces will deflect normally (but less than the
original BoB operation). Our hope and belief is that most users will find
BoBII much easier to fly with a smoother operation. At high speeds and
during high speed combat the user will have to work harder with the
joystick to get the same amount of Aero Surface deflection. At very high
speeds the Aero Surfaces will deflect only a small percent so high speed
dives are very dangerous.

START_FROM_PEN=OFF
Realistically, often when a pilot began a mission, he started from the pen
the aircraft was moved to after flight. These aircraft pens were designed
to support the aircraft and add to their survivability during an air raid.
Now you can start from this position instead of the open field. This
feature only works with the quick mission “Basic/Take-off”, and if you
choose an airfield with no aircraft pens you will start near hangers or
trees. It will also only work with the aircraft small enough to fit in pens
(not the ME110).

HIDE_POWER_INFO=ON
Toggles on or off the display of the engine power (throttle) expressed as a
percentage in the Infoline.

USE_NATIONAL_UNITS=ON
When set to ON, this displays information in the correct unit of measure as
used by either the RAF (imperial) or Germans (metric).

FADING_LABELS=ON
When set to ON, AI labels will fade away as they get farther and farther
away in the distance.

LOCK_GUNNER_VIEW_TO_GUN=ON
OUCH! Set to OFF, all Gunners are restricted to facing forward!! Also
with TRACKIR, allows you to look around without having to slew the MG
in the same direction.

79
OBJECT_PLACEMENT_MODE=OFF
Used only when placing ground objects using the ObjectAdds method.
Leave it OFF for gameplay.

NO_PILOT_IN_ROVING_CAM=OFF
This only affects the external view 3d model. You can make screenshots of
the A/C without the pilot figure being inside.

3D_MODELLER_MODE=OFF
Effect unknown.

TEXT_REMINDERS=ON
Set on will allow the text reminders to show in-game such as “Game
Paused”, “Continue, Quit?”

TRACKIR6DOF=OFF
If the player has the Track IR device with Vector Expansion enabled, set
this to ON in order to be able to use the Vector Expansion (6 degrees of
freedom of movement) capability.

CUSTOM_HEAD_POSITION=OFF
Unknown effect. Does not appear to function.

USE_DESKTOP_RESOLUTION=ON
Also selectable in-game GUI menu. Set on will force #d resolution to use
your desktop resolution. Previously was advised to set to on to reduce
crashes to desktop (CTDs). May no longer be needed after 2.04 patch.

INVERT_EXTERNAL_PAN=OFF
Set on will reverse joystick hat-switch panning in external view.

NO_FOV_RESET=OFF
Allows you to retain a custom Field of View set while in 3D rather than
the game automatically switching you back to the initial FOV setting when
coming off padlock. Very handy.

SELECT_QS_SQUADRONS=ON
Allows more choices in Instant Action missions when selecting aircraft.
Set OFF gives only one unit choice.

80
NOTE REGARDING AUTOGEN ITEMS:
See Appendix D for a detailed explanation of the Autogen implementation.

# AutoGen stuff (experimental):

ENABLE_AUTO_GEN=OFF
TEMP_AG_DIST=3000.000000

# AutoGen TreeLine stuff (experimental):

TEMP_AGTL_DIST=3000.000000

81
THIS PAGE INTENTONALLY LEFT BLANK

82
 CHAPTER 4
INSTANT ACTION MISSIONS

his chapter deals with the options that are available when you choose
Instant Action from the Main Menu. Instant Action allows you access to any
of the twenty-eight specially designed single missions in the game. It is the
easiest and quickest way in which to jump into an aircraft and fly.

In order to make the most out of the Instant Action missions you will first
need to make the appropriate adjustments using the in-game GUI OPTIONS
menus and if necessary the BDG.txt file. The default settings for the game
are often appropriate to the less experienced user, so if you are an
experienced flyer you may well wish to select more challenging preferences.
There are also other Novice settings that can be adjusted. These are
discussed in detail in Chapters Two and Three.

You may also wish to learn more about certain aspects of flying authentically
modeled World War Two aircraft. In that case you will find a great amount
of useful information in Chapter 6.

83
INSTANT ACTION

Choose the Instant Action option from the Main Menu and you will be
presented with the Instant Action screen. On this screen all of the details of
your Instant Action mission can be set up.

At the top of the screen there are two combo-boxes that allow you to choose
your Instant Action scenario. The upper box divides the scenarios up into six
basic types, while the lower box allows you to choose between all of the
missions available with that type of mission. The basic mission types are as
follows:

BASIC TRAINING
Five basic missions to ease you into the art of take-off, landing and circuit
training.

Take-Off - Practice engine start-up and take off.

Landing - Landing practice from final approach.

Circuits - Practice a circuit around an airfield and land.

Squadron Take-Off
Learn how to take off in squadron formation.
84
Squadron Landing
Learn the art of squadron landing, and communicating with your wingmen.

ADVANCED TRAINING
These five missions move you up to the more advanced art of complex flying
and landing problems.

Follow the Leader

Attempt to follow your squadron leader and see if he is able to lose you as he
tries to throw you off his tail.

Formation Flying
Maintain your position in formation while your leader puts you through a
series of course changes.

Checking The Udet Buoys

Patrol over English Channel Buoys

Free Flight
A free flight allowing you to familiarize yourself with the landscape near
your home airfield.

Landing - Engine Failure

With an engine that has stopped operating you must perform an emergency
glide landing.

Landing - Heavy Damage

Make an emergency landing with a heavily damaged aircraft.

DOGFIGHTING
Actual combat training with several different customizable dog-fighting
scenarios. Go on your own, or set up multiple aircraft engagements with
either side having the advantage.

Turkey Shoot
Shoot down a plane you are tracking from behind.

One on One
A straight fight against one determined opponent.

85
Random Advantage
A British squadron is vectored against a Luftwaffe fighter sweep. The
tactical advantage at the start is changed randomly.

RAF Advantage
The RAF squadron is positioned at the rear of a Luftwaffe fighter sweep with
the clear advantage.

LUF Advantage
The Luftwaffe fighter sweep is positioned behind an RAF squadron.

GROUND ATTACK
Get the practice you’ll need to fly for the Luftwaffe against the varied types
of ground targets that can be found in the Campaign.

Dive Bomb Attack

Luftwaffe bombers initiate a dive-bombing attack while their fighter escort
deals with RAF fighters scrambled in response.

Anti-Shipping
A Channel convoy is under attack from dive-bombers.

Low Level Attack German aircraft have approached a coastal target at low
level to avoid detection by radar and are now initiating an attack.

INTERCEPTIONS
When encountering enemy aircraft you’ll want to have plenty of practice
with the different techniques of interception. Particularly when it happens in
a dynamic campaign.

Lone Fighter vs. Lone Bomber

A fully laden bomber against single RAF fighter.

Front attack against Bombers

Two RAF squadrons positioned ahead of an enemy bomber force and escort.

Rear attack against Bombers

Two RAF squadrons positioned behind an enemy bomber force and escort.

86
Scattered Attackers, Scattered Escort
Two RAF squadrons are separated and up against two Luftwaffe fighter
squadrons defending an enemy bomber force.

HISTORIC
Eleven scenarios based on actual historic engagements that took place during
the Battle of Britain. These will provide the ultimate test of how much you
have learned in the previous training missions.

July 19th - End of the Defiant

The day before the Boulton-Paul Defiant was removed from service.

August 13th - Eagle Day

The start of a new phase of the Battle - attacks on Fighter Command
airfields.

August 12th - Raid on Portsmouth and Ventnor RDF station

August 15th – Raid on Short Bros. Aircraft Factory

August 15th - Black Thursday Morning

The morning of the largest surprise raids of the Battle of Britain.

August 15th - Black Thursday Afternoon

88 Dornier 17s on a massed raid over England.

August 18th – Airfield Attacks – Kenley

August 18th – Airfield Attacks – South Coast

September 9th - London

Heavy raids launched against South London.

September 15th - Battle of Britain Day

Two massive raids over London that sees the climax of the Battle of Britain.

September 25th – Raid on Filton – Bristol Aircraft factory

ADDITIONAL INFO
Underneath the Instant Action mission choice there are four radio buttons,

87
and each of them bring up further information about the selected scenario:

SCENARIO
Provides a textual description of the chosen mission.

PARAMETERS
The parameters radio button gives access to four boxes that allow you to edit
the basic parameters of the mission:

Target Area
Defines the type of area where the action takes place - for instance airfield,
docks etc. Sometimes you are not allowed to edit the location type, at other
times you are provided with a choice.

I.D.
Defines the specific location - for instance, the specific airfield etc.

Weather
Choose between clear, patchy cloud, low cloud and high cloud.

Time
Choose between dawn, morning, afternoon and dusk.

Name
Choose your call sign by selecting the name and editing.

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LUFTWAFFE AND RAF
Clicking the Luftwaffe or RAF radio button provides information on the
groups of aircraft from either side taking part in the mission. Each panel
listed shows details for a specific squadron / staffel unit. They are:

Duty / Target

Aircraft icon
The aircraft icon can be clicked and highlighted to specify which unit you
want to fly in. This icon is non-selectable if the aircraft type is a non-flyable,
such as the Defiant.

Aircraft type
This combo-box allows you to alter the aircraft that the unit will use. You are
limited to choosing another aircraft of the same type that can perform the
same duty. For example, if the unit initially has a Dornier Do17 assigned
then you can only change it to another medium bomber type (He111 or
Ju88). Sometimes a mission will force a specific aircraft type and no other
types are selectable.

Number of flights
You can change the number of flights within the unit. The total number of
aircraft is dependent on the type of aircraft. For example, Spitfires,
Hurricanes and Ju87s operate in flights of 3 aircraft, Me 109s operate in

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flights of 4 aircraft and all the medium bombers (He111, Do17 and Ju88)
operate in flights of 5. So two flights of Spitfires comprise six aircraft while
two flights of He111 total ten aircraft. Selecting 0 flights means that the unit
does not take part in the mission. Some mission will not allow units to be
disabled in this way, or restrict the option completely.

Altitude
You can set the initial altitude of the unit. Sometimes the field will be blank
and cannot be altered. This is because the unit is closely escorting a previous
unit (one that appears above it) and shares its altitude.

Skill
Sets the average overall skill of the pilots within the unit.

A NOTE ABOUT HISTORICAL MISSIONS:

These missions are large, consisting of many units attacking numerous
targets over a large area. As an example, take the ‘Aug 13th Eagle Day’.
When you change the details in the first unit panel of the Luftwaffe, you are
actually changing the details for each of the 3 Staffel units that make up 1
Gruppe. You are only able to fly in the lead staffel if you select the aircraft
icon.

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There are two choices at the bottom of the Instant Action screen:
BACK
Returns control to the main Menu.

FLY
Takes you to the so-called 'Frag' screen, where you are shown your unit,
aircraft, duty and call sign. If the settings are acceptable to you, then chose
FLY at the bottom of the screen. This will then take you into the Instant
Action mission itself. You may also choose to enter the Sim Config screens
for any last minute tuning, or to return to the Instant Action screen by
selecting Back.

The 'frag' screen is laid out as follows:

Unit
The list of the staffel or squadron units taking part in the mission.

Aircraft
The major aircraft comprising the units taking part in the mission.

Duty
The duty of the aircraft in the mission.

Callsign
The callsign of the leader of the unit.

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Below this list is a bank of pilot slots corresponding to the current
highlighted unit. This is automatically set to the unit you selected on the
Instant Action screen. The arrangement of the pilot slots shows the flight
formation that will be used in the air. Your player name should appear
automatically in the lead pilot slot. You can change your position within the
squadron / staffel by clicking another pilot slot. You can view other units by
clicking different unit lines at the top of the screen (if there are any).

If you lose track of your current pilot selection then hit the ‘Return to Player’
button. The unit containing your pilot will be selected and displayed.

THE END OF AN INSTANT ACTION MISSION

You may exit a mission at any point by pressing the Alt and X keys.
Once a mission is completed, you will be presented with an on-screen menu
containing the options 'Continue' and 'Stand down' (exit) with a key prompt
for each. Press the appropriate key to continue flying or exit the mission. The
menu will default to 'Continue' after a few seconds and will not appear again
- in this case, you must press the g and X keys when you are ready to exit.
A mission is deemed completed for a variety of reasons. For a take-off for
combat missions, either destroying all enemy aircraft or allowing any
remaining bandits to stray too far out of range will trigger completion.

Once you have completed an Instant Action mission, successfully or

otherwise, you will be presented with a full Combat Report.

The combat report details the mission you have just completed, particularly
location and casualty information. At the bottom of the report there are four
active areas:

Back
This returns the player to the
Instant Action screen.

Report
Displays the combat report.

Diary
Displays the combat diary, with
more details of the mission that
has just been performed
including the number of intercepts and the number of losses.

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Replay This allows the replay of any material recorded by the gun camera
during the mission. Click on replay to go to the replay file selection screen.
This allows you to name the most recently selected footage, or to choose a
file from the box of previously saved replays. Select Back to return to the
Instant Action screen. Select Save to save newly taken footage. And select
View to view saved footage - this takes you back into the 3d system and
provides you with a replay facility as detailed in section one of Chapter Two.

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 CHAPTER 5
SECTION A
CAMPAIGN
Every dialogue box displayed within the campaign section has an
associated help file that fully describes the function of the contents of the
dialogue box. The relevant help file can be accessed by clicking on the
question mark at the top right corner of any box. You have the option to
print out the help file at any time.

Campaign Screen
The campaign map, with a set of icons in the top right corner of the screen
and five toolbars, generally dominates the campaign screen:
• The time toolbar
• The main toolbar
• The map toolbar
• The scale toolbar
• The teletype toolbar

The layout of the toolbars and the function of some of the icons is slightly
different depending on whether the campaign is being played from the
side of the RAF or the Luftwaffe.
The Map
The campaign map is capable
of displaying
the entire area of the Battle of
Britain campaign, from
northern England to northern
France, based on original
Ordnance Survey data from the
period. The large-scale map
can be displayed at 4
major levels of magnification,
from 400 miles square down to
a 50-mile square area. At a
finer level of detail the map becomes a continuously scaleable down to
a scale of 2 miles square. The zoom level is easily adjustable, and the map
may be scrolled, either using the scroll bars at the right and bottom sides
of the map, or by clicking and dragging with the left mouse
button while the pointer is over the map portion of the screen.
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It is possible to change the map zoom by one of three methods:
1. by using the scale toolbar (see below)
2. by clicking with the right button while the mouse pointer is
over the map and choosing either the 'zoom in' or 'zoom out'
option.
3. rotating the wheel on a Microsoft Wheel Mouse (or similar)
while the mouse pointer is over the map. If the mouse wheel
zoom doesn't work initially, then try clicking on the map first.

Screen Control Icons

The fixed set of icons in the top right of the screen offer the
following functions:

• Quit
Return to the Main Menu.
• Toolbar Control
This gives access to the toolbar
dialogue box. This box allows the
player to select which of the five
toolbars will be displayed on the
screen at any one time
• Size
Toggle between full screen and maximized displays

Right Click
Right click while the mouse button is anywhere apart from the campaign
map on the campaign screen and a menu
system that duplicates the functionality of the
toolbars will open.

Context Sensitive Help

Every dialogue box that is displayed within the Battle of
Britain campaign has an associated help file. The help file
explains the function of every element and option within the dialogue
box. To access help left click on the question mark at the top right of
any dialogue box.

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Main Toolbar
The main toolbar consists of nine square notebook icons (eight in the case
of the Luftwaffe) at the bottom right of the screen. The name and function
of some of the icons varies slightly depending on whether you are playing
the campaign from an RAF or Luftwaffe command:

Luftwaffe RAF
Icons Icons
Aircraft Allocation
The aircraft allocation dialogue box shows where the
nation's current aircraft production is destined, and what is
required. There is a line of information for each type of aircraft
under production
Luftwaffe Resources or RAF Resources
The resources dialogue shows the location and strength of
each Geschwader or Squadron available to central command.
Geschwader Lists or Squadron Lists
The Geschwader and Squadron lists provide more detailed
information about strength and battle readiness of the
aircraft at your disposal.
Weather
The weather information box shows the day's weather
forecast for the southeast England.
Review
The review summary box shows all of the major
information about the campaign and the known state of
RAF and Luftwaffe resources.
Pilot Info
The pilot info icon brings up the pilot logbook
Target List or Asset List
The target/asset list details all of the major British assets in
the south of England.
Mission Folder
The mission folder lists all of the missions that have been
planned for the day. It shows all missions that have been
authorized and that have been flown and completed. All
missions are cleared from the folder at the end of each day.
Hostiles List (RAF only)
The hostiles list dialogue lists all the raids that have been
detected for the day. As soon as a raid is detected it is added
to the list, so it is in chronological order.

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Map Toolbar
The map toolbar consists of the seven telephone icons just below the map
view:
Luftwaffe RAF
Icons Icons
Thumbnail Map
Click on the thumbnail map icon to bring up the thumbnail.
The red rectangle indicates the area covered by the main
campaign map.
Zoom Level
The zoom level displays two user-definable levels of zoom
on the campaign map.
Zoom Toggle
Clicking on the Zoom Toggle icon toggles between the
two user definable zooms that are set in the Zoom Level
dialog.
Directives Toggle
The Directives Toggle Icon is used to toggle the
appearance of the directives dialogue box. If the telephone
icon is on the hook the directive dialogue box will not appear. The
directives dialogue, which by default appears at the start of each
time period, allows you to build up missions
automatically.
Map Filters
The Map Filters dialogue is used to control the icons and
lines that are drawn on the main campaign map.
Filing
Click on the filing icon to display the filing dialogue box,
which is used to save and load campaigns. You can save
or load a campaign at any stage of the game.
Replay
Allows you to replay footage from in-flight cameras that
has previously been recorded. See Chapter Two Section
One for further details.

97
Scale Toolbar
The units shown on the toolbar scale are either imperial or metric
depending on the selection under the units option in the Sirn
Config menu. If imperial units are selected then the scale is
displayed in nautical miles. Kilometres are used if metric units are
selected.

The scale is fully dockable so that you can move it around the map.
The scale can be forced to display horizontally or vertically. If the
scale is currently vertical, then click and hold on the top portion of
the scale above the origin and drag it to the desired location.

One method of altering

the map scale is to click
and hold with your left mouse button over the map toolbar. Select a
location at the bottom of the scale and move the mouse upwards to
decrease the map resolution. Select a location at the top of the scale
and move the mouse downwards to increase the map resolution.

Teletype Toolbar
The teletype toolbar is just below the map
on the left hand side of the screen. It
displays a
summary of the last three Messages received
by central command. The originating location
is on the left side of the message, followed by a
message on the right.

Click on a message to open the Message

dialogue and see the full body of the message.

Time Toolbar
The time toolbar is located at the bottom
left hand side of the screen.
The Teletype section of the Time
Toolbar shows the current date, time and acceleration rate of the
game. Click in the teletype area to display the clock. The control
icons below the teletype section determine the flow of the campaign:
• Game Speed Icon
This opens the Time Control dialogue box.

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 • Pause Icon
The pause icon pauses the game. To resume a paused game
you must click on the Play Icon or Accel Icon (described
below)
• Play Icon
The play icon plays the game in real time, where one game
second takes one real second (this is the default setting).
• Accel Icon
The game will run at the accelerated rate determined by the
settings in the Time Control dialogue. The accelerated time
can range from x0, when the game is paused, through xl,
which indicates that the game is running in real-time, to
x600.

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 Luftwaffe Campaign Tutorial

Command Briefing
• You are in command of Luftwaffe 2 and 3 in northern Europe.
In preparation for the forthcoming invasion of England, an
operation codenamed Sealion, you will engage RAF Fighter
Command and achieve air supremacy over the skies of south
east England.
• In early July 1940 you have 3 Geschwader, totalling about 300
aircraft under your command. Over the next few weeks this will
rise to 24 Geschwader. All told, you will have over 2000 aircraft
under your command. You are limited to scheduling missions
for a maximum of 90 staffeln at any one time.
• In pursuit of your campaign objectives, you will plan missions
on the map display.
• The full range of Mission Types can be designed. You can either
design a mission personally or just set the overall parameters
and let your staff complete the details by using 'directives'.

You are also cleared to fly missions in Messerschmitt 109, Messerschmitt

110 and Junkers 87D 'Stuka' aircraft. In addition you can act as gunner in
any of the three medium bombers: Junkers 88. Dornier 17 and Heinkel
111.

100
Overview and Luftwaffe Organisation
It is estimated that the RAF are left with about 50 fighter squadrons after
their losses in France earlier in the year. The British also have limited
production capacity. At this stage there is no firm intelligence on the
major aircraft production locations.
Most of the RAF’s fighter squadrons are assigned Hurricanes. Some
squadrons do have the more modern Spitfires. Both fighters are inferior to
our Me109, however the
Spitfire does seem to have the advantage over the Me110 You should
develop a strategy so that the RAF can be attacked in the air and on the
ground.
The Luftwaffe organisation bears no resemblance to that used by the RAF.
Two of the Luftwaffe's three Luftflotten are involved in the battle. The
headquarters of Luftflotte 2 is in Brussels, while Luftflotte 3 are
headquartered in Paris. Each Luftflotte consists of a number of
Geschwader. A Geschwader is a unit of about one hundred aircraft all of
the same type. Each Geschwader consists of up to 3 Gruppen and each
Gruppe is made up of up to three Staffeln. A complete fighter Staffel will
have three Schwarme of four aircraft each. Bombers normally fly in Kette
of threes in a Vic formation.
Our understanding of the state of British intelligence is as follows. The
RAF has built radio masts on the English coast. Their purpose is unclear,
however there is a strong likelihood that they form some sort of aircraft
detection system. The RAF seems able to intercept raids successfully.
However there has yet to be a significant test of their capabilities. It seems
likely that the RAF fighters are under some kind of Ground Control
System that relies on the information provided by the radio masts.
Experience shows that this is a difficult and inflexible method of operation
and so there is some merit in leaving the radio masts intact. This will mean
that the RAF will continue to attempt to use their system even when they
are overwhelmed by superior forces.

101
 Part 1
Using Directives
Overview
Each day is split into three time periods - morning, midday and afternoon.
You are given the chance to make major strategic decisions at the start of
each period. As the Luftwaffe Commander, you hold the initiative. The
RAF must react to the raids that you will be making over the south of
Britain. Once your own Luftwaffe raids have left the ground you cannot
issue any more direct orders to them. You can only watch the progress of
raids on the map and, if you wish, choose when to take a place in a
cockpit, to take a more active role.

So that the process of ordering raids is not too complex, a mission

directives dialogue box is displayed at the start of each time period.
Directives automatically generate missions based on a broad set of
instructions from you. Once you have configured the directives to reflect
your broad strategic plans, complex raids will be generated without
requiring much more interaction from you.
Setting Directives
From the main menu screen, choose the Campaign option, and request a
campaign as a Luftwaffe Commander during the Eagle Attack' phase of
the battle. As you first enter the campaign screen you will see the
directives dialogue box. The help screen for directives, accessed by
clicking on the question mark at the top of the dialogue box, is available
for all screens displayed during the campaign.

The time is 6:30 a.m. on the morning of August 12, 1940. A certain
number of aircraft are available to you,
representing an accurate reflection of
the resources available to Luftflotte 2
and 3 at this stage of the war. The
losses and damage sustained by your
aircraft during the campaign,
combined with the rate of Luftwaffe
aircraft production, will determine how
the number of available aircraft varies
as the days progress.
A gruppe can fly one mission per day You can reserve a percentage of
your gruppen for missions in a specific period. At this point, say we wish
to increase the number of gruppen available for raids in this first morning
period. Click the down arrow in the Bomber Allocation Mid-day box until

102
it is zeroed. Increase the allmation for the morning period so that it reads
60%, and set the Ju87 setting to 'maintain %'.
The section that dominates most of the directives dialogue is used for
aircraft allocation. It shows how many gruppen are being directed to attack
British targets of a certain type. Some default entries have already been
made at the start of this time period. Let's start afresh, by hitting the 'REST
ALL' button at the lower right of the screen in order to zero all aircraft
entries against targets. We wish to send our Ju87 Stukas to attack Radar
(RDF) targets. Find the aircraft allocation cell for Ju 87s and RDF targets.
Click the up arrow until 5 Stukas are assigned. 5 gruppen of Ju87 have
now been made available for missions against RDF targets. Note the way
in which Luftwaffe aircraft are organised - one gruppen generally
represents 36fighters, or between 27 and 45 bombers.
These vulnerable Ju87 dive-bombers will need some escort. Follow the
RDF row along to the Me109 column. Assign 5 gruppen of Mel09's by
clicking the up arrow five times. We want the Mel09's to escort the Stukas
closely Follow the RDF row along to the % Tied field and increase it to
100%. All escort fighters will now fly in close formation with the
bombers. It is worth pointing out that the % Free slot lets you specify how
much of the escorting force will be flying detached escort – this means
they will be flying the same route as the bombers but will be flying ahead,
behind or above them by some distance. If these two fields do not add up
to 100% then the difference is used for Return escort -these fighters will
meet up with the bombers as they return from the target area. (If you wish,
you may also determine how these escorts fly relative to the bombers by
altering the 'Attached Escort' section further above in the directives
dialog.)

Click on the Tick on the top right of

the box to confirm the campaign orders
that you have given. You are now shown
a list of proposed missions generated from
your directives. Targets have been
automatically chosen based on priority, and
gruppen assigned according to availability.
More Missions can still be added to this list
(and, of course, missions can be changed or deleted). Hit the cross at the
right of the proposed missions dialogue box to go back to the directives set
up.

Let's assign some of our twin-engined medium bombers to attack airfield

targets. On the airfield target row choose 4 He 111 bomber gruppen. Also,

103
assign 3 Me109 and 1 Me110 fighter gruppen as escort, on the same line.
We can make half of the fighters fly in close, attached, escort while the
rest are detached. In the % tied box set the allocation to 50%. The strafe
box should be ticked, which means that fighters will strafe the target if the
opportunity presents itself. On each row to the right of the bomber
allocation cells you will find the 'size per target' field. This determines
how many aircraft will form each separate mission. This in turn affects
how many raids will be launched. Since airfields are large area targets we
will send 2 gruppen to each target by setting the size field to 2 gruppen.
(RDF and convoy targets can often be dealt with using smaller sized
raids.) You will notice that the 'Missions' column - the number of raid
missions that are being proposed - has dropped from 4 to 2. Two raids will
be launched against airfields with these directives. The two Heinkel
bomber raids will be flying separately to different targets. We can force
them to fly together as one raid that will split as it nears the target area.
This is a useful tactic for confusing the British defence network. On the
airfield line, increase the 'Secondary' target field from 0 to 1. This means
there will be one additional target for each raid. Notice that the number of
missions has now dropped to 1. So, with these directives, a raid of 4 He
111 gruppen will be launched, and it will split in half near the target area
so that two separate airfield targets can be attacked. The automatically
chosen targets are likely to be geographically close since the '2nd' target
option is chosen. Click on the tick button at the top of the directives screen
to see the new set of proposed missions. The first raid has 120 bombers,
escorted by 144 fighters, involved in a raid on two separate targets. Click
on the tick at the top of the proposed missions box to confirm these
missions.

104
 Part 2
Following Raids from the
Campaign Map
Overview
You are now looking at the campaign map screen. Click on the pause
button near the bottom left hand side of the screen, so that we can take our
time to understand how everything is laid out. When time is progressing
normally you will see the markers representing your raids move across the
map. You will receive warnings when most vital events occur.
The campaign map screen is divided into a number of areas:

1. The campaign map, in the upper left, dominates the display –

showing southern Britain and northern France. The map is
scrollable (use the scroll bars; or click, hold and move with your
mouse) and scaleable (click and hold on the scale on the right
hand side, or use your mouse wheel, if you have one). Using
map filters you can determine how much information is
displayed on this screen. At this stage you will see that your
directives have already generated a lot of information!
2. The main toolbar is on the lower right of the screen.
It displays 8 'folder' icons (9 in the case of the RAF) that relate
to all of the relevant campaign specific information you can
display and the commands that you can make.

3. Above the main toolbar is the map toolbar The icons on the
map toolbar allow you to modify all aspects of your map display
There is also a game save facility under a 'Wind icon on the map
toolbar.
4. On the lower left of the display is the time toolbar, displaying
the campaign time and game play speed controls.
5. Above the time toolbar is the teletype area, where important
Command centre messages are displayed as they are received.
6. At the top right of the screen there are three overall display
controls. Including a quit icon that allows you to quit the
campaign and return to the main menu of the game.

The Map
105
In the area of northern France on the campaign map you will see a number
of tall boxes with yellow, red and blue horizontal bands. These 'tokens'
represent the raids that you have generated from the directives screen.
These P tokens were actually part of the RAF plotting system during the
war, and were used to keep track of known Luftwaffe raids. We have
adopted it for use by the Luftwaffe itself in this simulation, so that
Luftwaffe raids are always displayed in a consistent fashion, whichever
side you choose to play on.

The top, yellow bar shows the raid ID number, using ROO1 for the first
Luftwaffe raid of the day The red band shows the number of aircraft
involved in the raid. The bottom blue band shows the altitude of the group
in thousands of feet or metres (depending on the default system of units
chosen). A raid marker only shows the position of the aircraft forming the
head of the raid, which in a mixed mission would be the main bombers. It
does not show the escort aircraft, as they move from their airfields (often
different to the bomber airfields) to form up with the main raid. Later, we
will learn how to use a modern plotting system to track all aircraft in a raid

Managing Time and Warning Messages

Look at the time toolbar panel, showing the date and time, at the bottom
left of the screen. The two buttons on the right hand side of this toolbar set
the simulation to play either on 'normal' time (where one second of game
play is one campaign second), or 'accelerated' time (where one second of
game play is a larger number of campaign seconds). Click on the leftmost
'game speed' button to display the game speed 'control' box. This dialogue
allows the accelerated time button to be configured and also allows the
setting of preferences for when warning messages are displayed during a
mission.

106
The first bank of four options at the top of the
game speed control box configures the
accelerated speed for different campaign
situations. Note, for instance, that the default
'non-raid' speed is 300. This means that if you
run the game in 'accelerated' play, then for
every second you are watching the simulation
there will be five minutes of campaign time, so
long as you are in 'non raid' mode. The game
runs in 'raid' mode once any active Luftwaffe
raid is detected by British Radar or by the Observer Corps.
Configure the 'Normal rime' feature on the lower part of t h s box by
ticking the boxes for small and large engagements. This setting means that
accelerated time will be slowed down to normal time when any form of
engagement arises. Select the 'Fly' tag at the top of the box and ensure that
'offer take-over on event' tick boxes are selected under the 'All' column in
the engagement and ground attack rows. These settings determine when
during the campaign you will be offered a chance to fly. All tick boxes
should be de-selected if you simply wish to follow the entire campaign
from the perspective of the Commander. Close the dialogue by clicking
the tick in the top right corner.
Now, it's time to get the raids we have created under way. Hit the
accelerate button. You will see that time accelerates rapidly while the
elements involved in the raid takeoff and form up. Once a raid has formed
and is en route to England it will be picked up at some point by the British
Radar net and the game speed will drop to fifteen times normal speed.
The raid tokens, representing each raid, move along the route of the main
raid group and will eventually either be intercepted by the RAF or will
reach their target.
Understanding and Acting Upon Warning Messages
A warning dialogue will be displayed at the start
of any engagement, offering you the
opportunity to ‘takeover’. This means you can
get into a cockpit of an assigned aircraft in the engagement and fly this
part of the mission. We will do that later! At the moment - pause the
game by hitting the pause button on the time toolbar panel. Hit cancel
on the takeover dialogue to decline the chance to fly. You will see
your last 3 messages on the teletype screen below the map. Click on
the teletype and the full log will appear. Examine the most recent
transmissions carefully to understand what has been happening. Close
down the message box when you are completed.

107
The Mission Folder
You will find the mission folder icon within the main toolbar at the bottom
right of the campaign screen. Click on the icon to open the folder. The
mission folder shows a full breakdown of the five raids that were
generated from your initial directives.
Look at the first raid - R001. There are
three lines associated with this Heinkel
bombing raid. The first line shows the
information about the Heinkel bombers
carrying out the strike, including take off time, expected time over the
target POT) and the name of the target. The status field lets you know how
the raid is organised at this moment. For instance. 'farming' means that the
raid has yet to pull its separate elements together and set out to the target
area. ‘Target Area' means that the raid is within range of the target or
actually carrying out an attack. The RAF field shows you how many
British fighters are currently engaging the raid (if any) and the tally shows
the current number of kills against the RAF by the raid as a positive
number and the number of losses as a negative number.
The two lines below the level bomb description of the Heinkels shows the
information for the attached and detached Messerschmitt escort sorties
that protect the bombers. Use the scrollbars to view all of the elements of
the missions in progress. The buttons at the bottom of the mission folder
allow you to re-task and alter the routing of any raid, so long as it is not in
progress. We will approach those topics later on. Click on the tick box at
top-right of the dialogue when you are ready to proceed.
Note that you can also access the mission folder at any time by clicking on
any of the raid tokens on the campaign map. The mission folder will be
displayed with the appropriate raid marked in red.
Now, hit the accelerated time button and hit cancel on each
takeover warning message that appears. Watch the raids as they
move to the targets, attack and then turn back. You will see that
some new tokens appear on the campaign map during these raids. These
are RAF tokens, which signify individual RAF patrols, which will have
been launched in response to your raids. They are displayed with white
and blue bands. When your raids have landed the period will continue
until it ends and the directives dialogue will appear again for the midday
period. We previously reallocated all the aircraft from the midday period
to the morning, so we have no aircraft available at this time. This is not
quite as alarming as it sounds. While the RAF is given a break, it also
allows the Luftwaffe time to regroup and gain some rest. And we will take
a look at how to debrief the missions we sent out in the morning.

108
Summing Up After One Period of Raids
Hit the pause button and close the
directives box. Open the mission folder.
The raids from the morning period are still
listed. Note that
the status for
most of them will be set to 'complete', which
means that they have returned and landed.
Highlight the line for the first raid ROO1 Hit
the 'Gruppe' button (at the bottom right of the
box) to see details of the lead bomber gruppen
that made up this raid. The Gruppe dialogue is
split into three panels. Each panel contains
details about one gruppe Three gruppen make
up one Geschwader.
To see how the selected gruppe performed
during the raid, access the gruppe's mission
diary by clicking the 'Details' button at the
lower right of the geschwader box. In the
gruppe diary box, if you click on 'view
single', then you will get a very detailed
breakdown of the raid debriefing. All of the other gruppen involved in the
same raid can be accessed from this screen. Look at the target and result
field to see if the raid managed to reach the target and inflict any damage
on it. Also look at the Enemy Losses to see how many RAF fighters
intercepted the raid and how many of those fighters were knocked out by
the gruppe. Close down all gruppe and mission folder windows, and go
into accelerated time until the end of the mid-day period. Since no
Luftwaffe aircraft are set to fly there is no significant action at all during
this time. When the next time period (afternoon) starts, the directives box
is displayed once more. Pause the time button at this stage.

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 Part 3
Authorising and Editing Raids
The directives tool is very efficient for quickly setting up missions using
numbers and types of aircraft that you prefer. The targets that are
automatically assigned for each type of target are taken from a list ordered
by priority. Relative priority is determined by a number of things; for
instance the target's perceived value to the opposition - fighter command -
as well as the amount of damage already sustained by the target are
important.

For this reason, in this stage of the war for example, British airfields that
house bombers are less important to the Luftwaffe than airfields servicing
fighters. You may decide that targets might be best approached in an order
different to the one generated automatically by a directive set. In this
section we will learn how to authorise our own individual missions and
learn how to alter the details of those raids.
First, we should start with a clean slate. Click on the 'REST ALL' button
and click on the tick at the top right corner to dose the directives box with
no proposed missions. Go forward to close the proposed missions box. All
available aircraft are now ready for us to allocate manually
The Target List
Click on the target list button - which is
second from the right on the lower main
toolbar. The target list displays every
possible British target on a number of pages.
Each page has a list of targets for one distinct
target type according to the selection of the
'tab' at the top of the box. The list is ordered
by absolute priority to the Luftwaffe war
effort.
Find Gosport airfield and click on its entry in the box.
To get more information about this target click on the
'details' button at the
bottom of the dialogue
box. This opens a 'target
dossier' with the heading
Gosport AF. Click on
'centre' to centre the
airfield on your

110
campaign map and click on 'zoom' three or four times. Your map will be
centred on Gosport airfield. Targets appear as round icons on the map.
Different colour icons are displayed for different target types. Airfields are
green. If you cannot see any airfields being displayed on your map, find
and select the map filter icon on the map toolbar. Click on the 'airfields'
tick box, making sure that the box is checked before leaving the map filter
dialogue box. The exact location of the Gosport airfield should now be
identified on the campaign map by its icon. If a target suffers damage,
then a red outline is displayed around the icon. A red cross on the icon
means that the target is considered to be destroyed and non-operational.
Select any target icon on the campaign map to bring up its information
dossier.

Currently we have very little information in the dossier for this target. Its
status is unknown and we have no idea how much damage it has sustained
(we haven't flown a raid against it yet so it's safe to assume it is
undamaged). The available intelligence is restricted because we are
playing the campaign with the same handicaps as the Germans at that
time. There is an option on the Mission Page of the Sim Config menu for
Luftwaffe Intell (igence). It is possible to change this from 'Historic' to
'Accurate' and have constant up to date and accurate intelligence for all
the targets. This makes the campaign a lot easier when playing as the
Luftwaffe and very difficult when taking the role of the RAF commander.
For the moment, let's stay with the default 'Historic' setting.

The information in the dossier will be updated after you have raided the
target. This information comes from the Bomber crews who watch their
bombs fall on the target. You will find that their information is often
biased. From the bomber's viewpoint the damage can seem quite
spectacular but on the ground it is a different story. The bombs may be
hitting buildings or areas that have no real value, or the damage they cause
is quickly repaired. The damage report in the dossier quickly becomes out
of date. To get an accurate and up to date report you must periodically
dispatch reconnaissance aircraft to the target. Reconnaissance aircraft take
detailed photographs of the target (the photo option becomes available),
which are analysed by skilled intelligence officers. They will give a more
accurate assessment of the damage to a target. They will note any aircraft
types in residence at a field and update their classification of the field
correspondingly -Airfields that were part of Bomber or Coastal command
that played no real part in the battle were commonly mistaken for fighter
command stations. These mistakes can be recognised through the use of
reconnaissance. Such aircraft are mainly deployed against airfields and
radar sites. You can request a reconnaissance mission against a target by

111
clicking the 'Reconn' button on a target dossier or by using the automatic
feature on the directives dialog.
Authorising a Mission
Say we want to create a mission against Gosport Airfield as a target.
Select the 'authorise' button at the lower right of the target dossier. In turn,
the mission folder is now displayed. Scroll down to the latest mission to be
assigned, at the bottom of the mission list. A new raid will have been
added to the list, with Gosport AF as a target. It has been set up using a
standard mission profile. Let's
now take a closer look at how
this raid is put together.

Editing the Task

Select the first line of the new raid (it will have a bombing mission type)
and click on the 'task' button at the bottom of the mission folder. The task
dialogue is split into five separate
pages that afford you great flexibility
in altering the profile of this new raid.
The 'summary' page gives you an
overview of aircraft types and numbers
that have been assigned, and allows
you to make sweeping changes to
those broad parameters if you wish to.
Click on the 'bombers' tag to set up the major attack force. By default, one
staffel of bombers is assigned and on the bottom list you will see the name
of the assigned bomber unit. Click
on the 'next available' unit twice and
you will see the number of allocated
bombers increase from one staffeln
to two guppen. Automatically the
computer tries to assign gruppen
from the same Geschwader, but if it
cannot then the unit dialogue box
comes up and you can manually
select which gruppe you wish to choose.

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You can change a unit you have already added by clicking on the unit
name. The unit select dialogue will be displayed, and you may select a
new unit. You can also change the target for a unit by clicking the on the
target name. The easiest way to choose a new target is to select a target
icon on the main campaign map. Since the gruppen all make up the same
main raid, any new targets will be secondary ones, and the raid will split
up after it has formed. Close the task box and return to the mission folder.
Note that once a raid has taken off further task editing cannot be
performed.

Editing the Route

With the original raid leader unit highlighted in the mission folder, select
the 'route' button on the bottom of the box to
display all of the 'waypoints' on the route.
Waypoints are the significant map locations
where important mission events and
direction changes occur - ranging from take
off to the entry into the target area. It is possible, through this screen, to
insert new waypoints. The major waypoints cannot, however, be edited.
Full details of the meaning of waypoints are described in the help file in
the route dialogue box. If you look at the map screen you will see that the
route of your selected bomber group has been highlighted in white.
Waypoints are displayed as rings.

Map Filtering
It was mentioned earlier that raid tokens on the campaign map are a
representation of those used by the RAF during the Battle of Britain. We
have a modern alternative that allows you to see more detail - more detail
than would have been possible at the time.

Click the 'map filters' icon on the map toolbar, and select the 'aircraft' tab.
You will observe that 'authentic plots' are currently selected. Tick the
option for 'one icon per Gruppe'. A small icon will appear on the map for
every Luftwaffe staffeln that is in the air. You will need to zoom in very
close to distinguish the individual staffeln flying in gruppen formation.
Extra information about each icon is displayed as a hint when the mouse is
rested over it. You will see the possible complexity of a campaign map
with this level of detail.

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 Part 4
Flying
Now, click on the accelerate button. As
the campaign progresses you will
eventually be given a 'takeover' warning
message when the RAF intercepts one of
your missions or a ground attack has
started. Click on the 'fly' button. Control
will now move to the 'frag' screen, where
you can select your aircraft from the raid
that has been intercepted. It is also worth noting that it is possible to fly
any aircraft from any raid that is in your mission folder at any time.
Simply select the raid component of interest in the mission folder and
click on the 'frag' button on the lower left of the screen.

The frag screen displays every gruppe involved in the chosen raid.
Choose which unit you wish to join by selecting its name from the
list at the top left of the screen. The flight configuration of the unit
is graphically displayed on the lower part of the screen. You will
note that fighter gruppen are organised into three 'schwarmes' of
four aircraft. The name of each schwarme leader, and the call signs of
the other pilots, are identified. The actual formation of each schwarme is
displayed (according to the assigned configuration in the task dialog).
Bomber gruppen are generally formed from three ketten, comprising three
bombers each. To assign yourself to a particular aircraft, simply select one
from the list. You will note that your name replaces the name or call sign
of the pilot that was there. You may make last minute alterations to the
flying configuration of the simulation by selecting the 'Sim Config' option
at the bottom of the screen. See Chapter 2 Section 3 for more details. And,
of course, you can click 'Back' to return to the campaign. Select fly to get
into your cockpit! (If you have selected a Kampsgeshwader medium
bomber squadron, though, you will be sitting in the gunner's position
during the flight.)

When you enter the 3D you should get straight into the action. If you drift
away and are not under immediate threat then hit the TAB key to enter
four times normal acceleration. The auto pilot system will take over and
guide you to the area where you should be.

114
When you decide to stop flying, hit Alt 'X to return to the map and select
the time Pause button. All plots on the map will have moved since you
entered the 3d. At this point you could accelerate time again and choose to
fly in any other situations that arise, but for the moment let us review our
progress in the campaign.

Part 5
Reviews
Open the review dialogue by clicking the review icon on the main tool bar.
This dialogue shows you a breakdown of Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft
strengths and RAF target statistics (the same dialogue is available when
playing as the RAF but from the RAF’s viewpoint). The dialogue is
broken down into pages. The strength and aircraft pages let you see how
your crews are performing and show the current losses and replacements
of your aircraft. The targets page is very important as it shows you how
your attacks against target types are fairing. The claims page shows a
breakdown of kills against the RAF and the enemy page shows an
estimation of the current number of RAF fighters based on losses and
manufacturing intelligence. Be aware that any numbers relating to claims
against the RAE aircraft availability and manufacturing rates are estimates
and may vary wildly in accuracy!

115
Managing Resources
This is not so much of an issue for the Luftwaffe as their manufacturing
facilities are not under direct threat. However, it can become a problem if
your aircraft are shot down in large numbers. You have the following
dialogs accessed from the main tool bar to manage and view your
resources

• Aircraft Allocation
This shows the current manufacturing output and which units are the
next to be replenished.
• Luftwaffe Resources
Each page lists the number of aircraft in each Gruppe of each
Geschwader. If the number of aircraft in a Gruppe is bracketed then
that Gruppe is not available for duty in this period, either because it is
already flying or has flown a mission, or because it is resting due to
losses. This will have an impact on the number of raids generated by
directives.

• Geschwader list
This lists Gruppen in detail according to the options you have chosen,
for example listing by Geschwader type or Category.

Day End Review

Each 'day' ends at 22:OO hrs. The
day end review screen will appear
listing news items from each day.
The news will usually be general
assessments of progress so far and
updates on the proposed invasion
date.

116
 RAF Campaign Tutorial
Command Briefing
• You lead RAF Fighter Command charged with the duty of
defending the air space over the United Kingdom. Specifically
you must defend your country from the invasion force building
up on the continent of Europe You must ensure that Fighter
Command remains an effective force throughout the summer
until mid September 1940 when bad weather begins to eliminate
the risk of invasion.
• You have 53 fighter squadrons at your disposal: 34 have
Hurricanes and the rest are equipped with Spitfires. All told,
there are over 600 aircraft in your command. You are limited to
scheduling missions for a maximum of 32 squadrons at any one
time.
• In pursuit of your campaign objectives, you will respond to
threats as they appear on the map display. This map shows the
result of collating intelligence about enemy movements from
various sources including the RDF and ROC.
• It is possible to define both patrol and intercept missions. Patrols
can be redirected to threats when they are in the air. You can
either design a mission from scratch personally or just set the
overall parameters and let your staff complete the details using
'directives'. (In the following section we will generally call all
missions patrols, for brevity.)
• You are cleared to fly missions in Spitfire and Hurricane fighters

Overview and RAF Organisation

Your role as an RAF Commander is quite different from that of a
Luftwaffe Commander. The RAF is on the defensive. You must react to
incoming raids by scrambling fighters, yet always holding enough in
reserve so that you have cover when you most need it. Unlike the
Luftwaffe, the RAF plans few missions at the start of each time period
throughout the day, other than standing patrols over convoys or other
vulnerable assets. You'll scramble squadrons as and when you feel it
necessary throughout the day.

117
It is expected that during the course of summer 1940 the Luftwaffe will be
able to allocate up to 2000 aircraft to prepare for the invasion of England.
They have codenamed the operation 'Sea Lion'. Initially you can expect to
be confronted by Junkers 87D Stuka dive-bombers and the formidable
twin-engine Me110 fighter. Later in the campaign you will encounter
heavier bombers like the Dornier 17, Heinkel 111 and Junkers 88. The
single engine Me109 will act as escort to the bomber formations.

It is vital that you don't damage the integrity of Fighter Command by over
committing your forces. Obviously it makes sense to respond to threats
against Fighter Command assets. On the other hand, defence of other
assets should be limited to the minimum that is deemed to be politically
acceptable.

Fighter Command consists of four Groups: 10, 11, 12 and 13. Each group
is assigned a geographical area rather than a specific set of squadrons.
Squadrons can move from group to group to fulfil the objectives of Fighter
Command. Although a squadron can have more pilots and aircraft
assigned to it, a complete squadron in the air consists of twelve aircraft.
You have 53 fighter squadrons at your disposal: 34 Hurricane and the rest
are Spitfires. All told, there are over 600 aircraft in your command.

11 Group covers the southeast of England and so it is in the front line. 12

Group is in central England and 10 Group is to the southwest. Both these
groups are actively involved in the Battle. 13 Group is stationed in the
north of England. Squadrons in 13 Group do not take part in the Battle;
they use the time in the north to recuperate. 10, 11 and 12 Groups are
further divided into sectors, which are again based on a geographical area.
Each sector has its own control room at an airfield in the sector from
where ground controllers 'vector' RAF fighters to their intercepts.

Either Radio Direction Finding (RDF) methods or the Royal Observer

Corps (ROC) gathers most of the intelligence about enemy movements.
RDF methods are now universally referred to as RADAR. Fighter
Command had two coastal systems in operation during the Battle of
Britain. The Chain Home (CH) system was capable of detecting aircraft at
a distance of up to about 150 kilometres (90 miles), but this reduced by
about 30% for an aircraft at 15,000 ft. The Chain Home Low system was
developed to overcome this limitation. This type of radar had a range of
about 30 kilometres (20 miles) at low altitude. Neither system could be
used to track aircraft once they had passed by the system and flown inland.

118
The job of detecting aircraft over England fell to the Royal Observer
Corps. Groups of two or three people were stationed all over the south east
of England and they reported all aircraft movements to a central station.
This system worked remarkably well – however heavy cloud did have a
large effect on its effectiveness. All the information generated passed
through a filtering stage so that the information presented on the map was
consistent and as error free as possible. This is the information that you
will see presented on your campaign map.

RAF Directives
Note that to avoid repetition, many of the topics covered in the
Luftwaffe campaign in Section Three above are assumed when
discussing the RAF campaign. From the
main menu screen, choose the Campaign
option, and request a campaign as the RAF
Commander during the 'Eagle Attack' phase
of the battle. At the start of the morning
time period on August 12th 1940 you are
presented with a directives dialogue box.
You'll notice that it is substantially
different from the Luftwaffe directives
dialog. It is more concerned with defining
how missions will be launched later if the situation and need arises, rather
than specifying missions to launch immediately. The Luftwaffe will be
leaning towards raids into mainland England at the start of this 'Eagle
Attack' phase. Radar installations, coastal airfields and docks will be their
preferred targets.

Setting up Patrols
In the 11 Group Squadron section there is a Holes in Radar' setting. This
setting allows you to set aside a number of squadrons to patrol those areas
in the coastal radar net that are not covered. If all of the Radar sites are
working correctly then there are no holes in the coverage. One squadron
will cover each hole in the net. Hit the tick to confirm your directives. The
'Proposed Patrols' dialogue is displayed, showing the patrols that are
planned. Click on the tick box to get started.

119
RAF Response Markers
The battle is now under way. You will see your patrols represented on the
map as one token for each squadron. These are representations of the
tokens used by the RAF during the war. The top white bar shows the
number of aircraft in the patrol, and the blue bar at the bottom shows the
current altitude on thousands of feet or metres - depending on the default
units setting. The square lollipop' above the top of the token displays the
squadron number. There can be more than one lollipop above a p patrol, as
more squadrons are added. If you click on an RAF token the
mission folder will be displayed and the proposed route to be
taken by the patrol will be highlighted on the campaign map.
Around lollypop indicates that only part of a squadron has been
launched. The colour and number of lollipops correspond to the
call signs of the sections. If you wish to see more closely where a
squadron that has been scheduled for patrol is located, then highlight one
of the patrols listed in the mission folder and click on the 'squadron' button
at the lower right corner. The squadron details are displayed as part of the
airfield dialogue relating to where the squadron is located. Select the
'general' tab for the airfield at the top of the airfield dialog, and click on
the 'centre' button at the bottom. The airfield will now be centred on your
map display - and you can zoom in to see its precise location.

Authorising Scrambles
As the day progresses, the Radar net (assuming it has not been knocked
out) will detect a build-up of Luftwaffe
raids over France. Sometimes the raids
will be detected late as they cross the
channel into southern England. As soon on
as a raid is detected you will be asked
whether you wish to set up an intercept
patrol. Select the 'Ok' button, and a scramble response mission will be
automatically generated as soon as possible - usually within a few
minutes. The Task button will 1 do the same thing but opens the relevant
dialogue to edit the mission before it leaves the ground We will learn more
about this later.

There are also occasions when you will be asked if you wish to take over
control of aircraft in intercept situations. At this stage you should decline
the offer.

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Mission Folder
Open the mission folder on the main toolbar. Each line shows the details
of an RAF patrol mission. The order number is a unique identifier for
today's missions, starting with FOOl identifying the first RAF patrol of the
day. The squadron column displays the relevant squadron number and, in
brackets, the number of aircraft from that squadron involved in the
mission. The status field shows the current state of action of the squadron.
If the status shows 'At 30 mins', then the squadron is at a low state of
readiness, prepared for takeoff in thirty minutes. Some squadrons will be
'forming' after takeoff - in other words still manoeuvring into their patrol
configuration. If the objective is a place name, then the squadron's mission
will be to patrol that asset or area. If the objective is a four-character
identifier, then the objective is a Luftwaffe raid. In the case of a raid, its
currently known size and status are displayed along with the raid's target
and status if it has been confirmed. Luftwaffe raids have an H prefix, and
the three digit identifier gives the order
of Luftwaffe raids detected during that
hour of the day, for example, the third
raid detected after 7:00

Altering Mission Profiles

Missions that have yet to take off can be re-'tasked' by selecting the task
button at the lower part of the mission folder. Re-tasking allows you to
alter the numbers of aircraft in a mission, the squadrons they come from,
the location of the targets, as well as the fine details of fighter attack
methods. It's a very precise tool. As an example, in the task dialog, find a
squadron under either the Hurricane or
Spitfire tab that represents part of the unit
involved in the mission. Click on the name
of the target for that squadron, and you will
be offered to select a target on the main
campaign map. If you click on any British
asset or Luftwaffe raid displayed on the map it will become the new
chosen location for the highlighted patrol. Obviously the first type of
mission will be an area patrol and the second an Intercept against a raid.
Select the tick at the top of the task box to approve the new target. Once a
mission has taken off, however, it can only be 're-vectored', or ordered to
return to base 'RTB'. Re-vectoring a mission in flight allows you to alter
the target. The easiest way to do this is to select a new target on the
campaign map. A target can be any Luftwaffe raid. Patrols over radar will
be automatically vectored against any threats that come close to the radar
121
site. Patrols over other assets will only automatically vector to defend their
asset. As a player you may decide that it is quicker to re-vector a patrol to
a raid than it is to scramble an intercept from the ground.

Routes
You will find that the dialogs and controls relating to route management
are very similar to the Luftwaffe but there are some differences. A special
'estimated location' waypoint marker is displayed on the map route for
missions assigned to intercept an incoming raid. This shows the location
where the interception is expected to take place given the raid's current
course.

Tracking Raids
As the campaign progresses and more raids are launched you will be put
under increasing pressure. You must develop a strategic and tactical
picture based on the events developing before you. There are different
tools available to aid you in keeping track of the enemy raids:
1. Watch the map.
Always keep your eye on the
campaign map. Raid icons, once raids
are on the move, have large arrows
next to them showing the last reported
heading of the raid.
2. Use the intelligence teletype.
This provides the nerve centre for all intelligence information.
After a time, the campaign map can become cluttered with Raid
and RAF response markers. There's always the danger that as
Commander you will lose track of a raid or underestimate the
threat it poses.
3. Use the Hostiles List.
The hostiles list is a modern tool (unavailable in the 1940s) that
helps you keep track of all raids and responses. Open the
'hostiles list' dialogue by clicking either on
a raid token on the map or on the hostiles
list icon at the left of the main toolbar.
The hostiles table lists all of the Luftwaffe
raids that have been detected. Each line
shows the current information that has been gathered about the
raid. The columns at the end of each line display the number of
RAF aircraft currently flying out to intercept the raid, the
number currently in combat, the number returning to base and a
running tally of losses for each side. Obviously a major raid with

122
 no planned response is potentially a very serious threat. This list
is very useful as it lets us see an overview of all the raids and
therefore make sure that they all have adequate responses. Raids
that are inbound or in the target area pose more of a threat to
your assets than those that have dropped their bombs and are
going home. Click on a raid and you can automatically
'authorize' an appropriate response to the raid. The fine details of
the authorised response can be tuned in the mission folder,
which is why the mission folder is displayed once the 'authorize'
button is selected.

Debriefing Sorties
Once a squadron has returned to its home airfield, details of its sortie
become available. Highlight the squadron in the mission folder and select
the squadron button at the bottom right to display the squadron dialog.
Click on the 'details' button to display the squadron diary and full details
about the sortie just completed.

End of a Period
At the end of the morning period the directives dialogue will be displayed
for the midday session. Pause the game briefly, so that you can review the
outcome of the morning's action. Select
the 'review' icon on the main toolbar. The
review box contains all of the details
about your current air force strength. The
aircraft tab displays the numbers of
damaged and destroyed aircraft, and the
assets list will show the accumulated
damage to all major asset types. A glance
at the most recent teletype output will also help you to keep track of the
recent key events. You will need to use the information you have gained to
help plan your strategy for the next session. At the end of each day of the
campaign - after the third period of the day – there will be a summary of
important events and some video footage. Then it is on to the next day
Occasionally you will notice that you'll be offered to skip a particular
session because of foul weather.
Normally, you should do so. In bad weather it is unlikely that there will be
enemy action, and you need to conserve your resources and gain some
rest.

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Detecting and Intercepting Raids
It is possible for raids to slip through the radar net, avoid detection or
confuse controllers if:
• The radar picture is confused due to too many overlapping raids.
• A raid comes in at low level.
• The raid consists of few aircraft.
• Cloud cover obscures the raid from the Royal Observer Corp
who then have to rely on sound location equipment.
• The raid splits in the target area
• The raid uses a dogleg and does not reveal its intended target
until the last possible moment.

Managing RAF Resources

If you select the 'resource' icon in the main toolbar, you'll bring up the
RAF resources display box. This displays ALL of the aircraft available to
the RAF according to group - the major organising principle of RAF
fighter command. Each group is divided into a number of geographical
sectors, and you will see that the RAF resource list for each group is
divided by sector. Each sector's squadrons are controlled from one sector
control station, which is listed at the start of each row. If you look at the
map of England at lower levels of zoom you will notice that the map is
divided into the individual sectors, identified by a different sector letter.
These are the sectors referred to in the resources listing. You can also
identify the extent of the four major RAF groups, divided by solid black
lines at the lowest zoom level on the campaign map. During the battle, if
the buildings housing your sector operations are knocked out then all
airfields in that sector are affected until new operations can be established
at a new location.

124
The Importance of Squadron Readiness
There are various readiness states that a squadron can be at which
determine how quickly the squadron can get off the ground (if at all) once
they receive an order to scramble. The states are described below:
• Released:
The squadron has been released from duty for this period and is not
expected to fly. The pilots will be resting and recuperating. While
released, the squadron's morale will slowly increase, which will
increase the squadron's category after a while.
• At 30 mins:
The squadron is ready to be called on to fly during this period. It will
take 30 minutes to prep the aircraft when the order to scramble
comes. It is still quite stressful for the pilots waiting for the call to
arrive at any moment.
• At 5 mins:
The aircraft are fuelled, armed and lined up with the pilots nearby.
On the scramble order, it will take 5 mins for the pilots to get into the
cockpits, start their engines and get away.
• At 2 mins:
The pilots will be sat in their cockpits with the engines running. You
must be careful not to leave a squadron 'at 2 mins' for a great length
of time as it uses valuable fuel and will tire the pilots.

Changing the state of readiness can have a major impact on the

effectiveness of your fighters but you must ensure you do it in the right
circumstances. For example, squadrons based to the North of London,
which are tasked with protecting the capital, would be best kept at 30 mins
or even released if the Luftwafffe is busy attacking targets along the
Southern coast. Conversely, when London is being blitzed, those same
squadrons should be kept at '5 mins'. You can see the current readiness
state of a squadron by viewing the squadron page of an airfield dialog.
You can then request a new readiness state using the relevant control. The
change will take time, so moving from 'At 30 mins' to 'At 5 mins' will take
25 mins When you make the change it will say 'to 5 mins' to warn you of
the transition. Requests to squadrons that are 'released' will not take effect
until the next period.

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If you click on the sector control station you will
bring up the 'tote board' for that sector. This is an
authentic representation of the style of display used
by the RAF during this period. The lights show the
readiness of each squadron in that sector.
Managing Aircraft and Pilots
It is important to keep a watch on your squadrons. A
squadron that is continually asked to fly missions
without rest will suffer from low morale and fatigue.
The squadron category (A. B. C) gives you an insight
into the fighting ability of a squadron. When this reaches Category 'C' it is
definitely time to pull the squadron from combat to rest.

Use the Squadron List dialogue accessed from the main tool bar to view
the details of all your squadrons. The list of squadrons can be filtered
using the controls at the top of the dialog Click on a squadron line and
open its details dialog. At the top of the dialogue page you will see an
option for requested readiness that you can use to change the state and
below it a report of the current readiness. Setting the squadron readiness to
'released' means that the squadron is not expected to fly and
can take time out to relax. They will slowly recuperate.

The 'Rest if’: option at the top of RAF directives automates

this process. Squadrons are released from duty if their
category or number or aircraft drop below the level you specify. Each time
a pilot is lost he is replaced. But, you will notice that the overall average
skill and morale of the squadron will drop to represent the arrival of an
under-trained novice.
The morale of the squadron leader has a great impact on the remainder of
the squadron. While flying, the rest of the squadron are concentrating on
formation flying with the leader, so it is down to him to lead them into the
best position and spot the enemy.

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Transferring Squadrons
You will find the need to transfer squadrons to different airfields during
the course of the campaign. There are various reasons for doing this:
The current airfield may be too badly damaged to handle the squadron.
The squadron is fatigued and must be moved out of the combat area for
rest.

Naval types come under the Jurisdiction of Coastal command. Others are
Bomber command or training units only used by your fighters when
making emergency landings. The Luftwaffe acting on poor intelligence
will often attack your Naval and Bomber airfields. This is good and bad -
it means less attacks against fighter stations but the loss of other staff and
resources.
• Docks
An industrial and commercial target, docks are not repaired within the
time frame of the battle. You cannot simply hold your fighters back and let
the docks take a pounding. If too much damage is sustained then the
Prime Minister and his cabinet may well step in to order your replacement
as Commander.
• Convoys
The coastal transports were kept in operation in the early phase of the
Battle to show to Germany and the world that England stood defiant in the
face of the Luftwaffe. Towards the end of August it was accepted by those
in command that the battle for the Channel was lost. Ships were no longer
paraded up and down the south coast. The cost in lives of crewman and
pilots, and of aircraft and ships was high. As with Docks, if you neglect to
provide adequate cover for the convoys then your removal will be
requested by the Government.
• Radar
If Radar is knocked out then mobile units can be brought in to cover the
gap but they are not as efficient.
• Factories
The most important factories are those used to manufacture components
for fighter aircraft and those that actually assemble the finished fighters.
The number of fighters that can be assembled is restricted by the output
from the component factories. The vulnerability of these sites is
recognised early in the battle and preparations are made to disperse
production throughout workshops in the nearby areas.

Open the asset list and view the Factory page to see all your factories and
their production type. Find the Woolston Supermarine factory and open its
dossier by clicking it then the details button. The dossier will tell you the

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current weekly production capacity for that factory Damage to the factory
will diminish its output or stop it all together.

Other factories make components for or assemble bombers, which play no

part in the battle. Finally, there are Industrial factories that play no part in
aircraft production but are a vital part of nation's resources.

- There are not enough squadrons in a particular sector to deal

with concentrated raids against it.

- The current airfield is too far forward and the early warning
system is down, and hence it is in danger.

There are 2 main ways of transferring a squadron b y using the Directives

dialogue or the Airfield dialog.

• Directives:
The Front Line airfields option at the top of the dialogue allows you
pull your squadrons back or move them forward through 3 bands of
airfields: North London, South London and Coastal. The default is
'Coastal' airfields. If you change this to 'South London' then any
squadrons on coastal airfields will be pulled back and relocated at
available airfields in North and South London. South London is the
new front line. This is a dramatic and sweeping change so use it in
the right situations. For example, make South London the front line if
radar is out and Coastal airfields are getting hammered, or if London
is being raided. The transfers will take place at the end of the current
period, so during the period the squadrons will still be available for
duty.

• Airfields Dialog:
At the bottom of the squadron page of this dialogue are two combo
boxes. You can select a Group and then select an airfield within that
group to transfer to. You can only move to airfields that have space to
accommodate further squadrons. There are also restrictions when
trying to move squadrons out of Group 10 and 12, as the controllers
for those groups must have a minimum number of squadrons
available at all times. Any requested transfers will take effect by the
start of the next period. The squadron will still be available for duty
during the current period.

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Assets and Production
To get an overview of the state of your assets
open the asset list dialogue from the main tool
bar. This is similar to the Luftwaffe's target list.
• Airfields
The airfield type shows the command that the
airfield comes under. Fighter Command airfields
are the most important as these are used by your
RAF fighters.

The Ultimate Objective

Operation Sealion, the invasion of Britain, is planned for September
1940. The date is flexible based on the success of the Luftwaffe. If
Luftwaffe air superiority is not secured by September 15th then the
invasion will be postponed indefinitely.

German command requires that the RAF is diminished as a fighting force

and has insufficient fighters to counter the Luftwaffe over the Channel and
landing areas. If the Luftwaffe believes that they have accomplished this
then the invasion date may be brought forward.

You will be informed of these events in the End of Day news.

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 CH. 5 - SECTION B

Wildman’s Campaign
Tutorials
The following chapter is taken from the previous BDG version 98 manual.
It was written by Welsey “Wildman” Netcher. Many Thanks!

Section I RAF Fighter Campaign Tactics

The following sections are a look at how to use the 2D map to set and
layout your campaign moves to maximize your chances to thrash the Hun
above Britain’s blue skies. The following deals with the deployment of
basic tactical units – squadrons and flights.

Let’s keep it simple and straightforward. Interception generally moves

through the following phases:

i. Readiness
ii. Deployment
iii. Engagement

Let’s go through them one at a time.

i. Readiness

The single most important commodity you have in the campaign is not
airplanes or even pilots it is time. A good commander knows ahead of all
else how to manage time.
The more time that elapses between the first detection of a hostile plot and
your response getting airborne, the less chance you have of effective
interception.
The campaign models the RDF system available to you in 1940 pretty
accurately, therefore, use it to your best advantage.

The player must manage their squadrons and pilots. Poor quality
squadrons do a poor quality job. Use the readiness tools available to you

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and release squadrons whenever it is practical to do so, especially during
periods of poor weather. Release your hardest pressed units, as even a few
hours will improve their moral and condition. When you need them, they
will be at their best if given the opportunity to rest. Try setting minimum
“rest if” options in your “squadrons” menu or in the directives each time
period. The squadrons will then be rested automatically if they fall below
the minimums the player set.

Next, replace badly battered units, but do this with caution. As it was in
reality fresh, and hence, inexperienced units will suffer correspondingly
higher casualties in their first few combats. Use the directives menu to
set standing patrols only over convoys or other high priority targets,
otherwise do not use the programmed “responses” and cancel automatic
scrambling. If left to the computer the player may as well press the exit
button now.

At the beginning of each day set a minimum number of squadrons to “at 2

minutes” using the squadron readiness tab. Depending on what stage of
the campaign you are at, this should be a number that you are satisfied
constitutes your minimum response. Too few will weaken your response,
too many will tire your squadrons. Alternate the squadrons at 2 minutes
readiness throughout the day so that the task does not always fall on the
same units. Do not forget you will need both Spitfires and Hurricanes
where possible; the rest of the squadrons should be left at 5 minutes
readiness.

Responding to the raid requires time, so set the game non-raid speed at a
level you are comfortable with. You can do this in the “Game speed” tab
in the lower menu. Do not set it so high that events move so fast that you
cannot control them. On this menu you can also set favourite squadrons,
and take over options. The most important option is the take over “on
raid forming”. You must know as soon as a raid is detected and react
quickly. Set the time to pause on raid detection.

As time moves on during the day, try and anticipate events. If the weather
is fine and no serious raids have come your way in the first two periods, it
is likely that you will have busy tea-time. The AI plans its raids in 3
periods but raids may overlap.

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One option is to get patrols up early. Patrols are a gamble, they may be a
waste of time, but if you use common sense they may often be priceless.
Standing patrols over convoys and coastal patrols are of limited value but
are necessary, both to protect assets and keep your computerized senior
officers happy. Don’t overdo them or they reduce your ability to react
when serious threats do materialize. The above considerations fall into the
“readiness” category. Once a raid is detected your chance to affect the
battle due to management of squadron readiness is over.

ii. Deployment

Once a raid or series of raids is detected, we now move into the

“deployment” phase. The game should now automatically click into
“normal” time, or paused depending on the setting the player chooses.

The raid marker shows the information available to you about the raid
forming on the other side of the channel. Its raid number, strength, and
height are recorded here in that order. One important note that the raid’s
height is “at present”, and that this may well change. Historical raid
markers also only show the head of the raid, that is, the position of the
bombers. The fighters may or may not be present there, or at the height
indicated. Fighter information can be viewed, to do so you need to switch
the markers to “show individual gruppes or staffels” in the “map filters”
folder. Raid direction arrows may also be useful to you in determining
where to setup your patrol areas.

While the game is in normal speed, take a few moments to assess the
threat that this raid (or raids) represents, a lone recon aeroplane is easy to
deal with. If you want to intercept it, and you should, click on the raid and
then click “authorize” from the “hostiles” dialogue that is bought up. The
AI will usually assign a flight of 3 aircraft automatically from a suitable
airfield. Stopping recon aircraft when possible should be a high priority;
the Luftwaffe determines raid targets based on intel status to a large
degree.
Otherwise, study the information and gauge the threat accordingly. The
raid will initially show as “forming” and no target data may be available
yet. However, the relative position of the raid will give you an idea of the
general target area. For example, a raid forming over Normandy is not
likely to engage a target on the east coast. Nothing should be ruled out, but
common sense should give you at least a fair idea of where it is headed.

The size and composition of the raid is the main precursor. Composition
may show aircraft type and other information, such as if escorts are

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present or not. After gauging the degree of threat presented by the raid
and having decided to intercept it, the time to deploy against it is now. On
average, a raid will take between 15 and 30 minutes to form and reach
typical targets in Southeast England. A patrol will average (depending on
its readiness state) between 10 and 20 minutes to prepare, take off, and
reach 15000ft within its sector. The time for the players patrol to reach an
acceptable altitude is why time is so important. The time to decide the
tactical details of the interception is now, not when your aircraft join
combat. By then it is too late.

First, get your patrols up. The RAF Patrols section below has detailed
instructions on how to do this. After determining, or guessing, where the
raid is headed, place your patrols in a “holding” position close to the
anticipated path of the raid, but not on it. These can be targets airfields,
RDF stations, or preferably towns. Towns can be displayed by bringing
up town and village markers up on the map from the “map filters” folder.
The tactical positioning of your squadrons is important; too far forward
and they may not be able to respond to changes of direction by the raid,
too far back and they may not be able to intervene at the best moment. If
the patrols are too far apart they cannot support each other, too close and
they make a tempting target for the free escorts.

The key is not to think in terms of “horizontal lines”, but in terms of a

chessboard, or a quadrillage, now expand that into a 3D chessboard. Most
of the time aircraft travel in straight lines, but they are able to move more
or less infinitely within this huge 3D chessboard.

The total number of aircraft to put up depends on the resources you have
available, are prepared to commit, or the size of the raid. A large
interception force may not necessarily produce better results than a smaller
one, but will offer the enemy more targets. Generally, if you commit
forces in the ratio of 1:3, that is a safe balance between under and over
commitment. The overall quality of your force and your tactics will make
a much more telling effect than sheer numbers. The mix again depends on
what is available. You may already have committed forces to another raid
and be short of Hurricanes or Spitfires, but ideally you need a balance.
The Spitfires are superior performers to the Hurricanes, but the latter are
better bomber killers. The Spitfire is an Air Superiority Fighter and is best
suited to taking on the escorts.

134
Using paired squadrons is often the best policy, but beware that a large
time penalty in deployment is attached to their use. The RAF Patrols
section below describes the time penalty for paired squadron deployment.
The best use of paired squadrons is in anticipation where the time is
available. The time needed to deploy wings, 3 to 5 squadrons, is rarely
available.

The patrol height depends on the height of the raid; try not to let the
computer assign default altitudes (e.g. the one you assigned to the last
patrol). Height is the most important factor of a successful interception
and is one the player can and should control for every patrol.

Typically, bombers will come in at around 15000ft, but this is not always
the case. It is possible to have your intercepting fighters too high as well
as too low. This depends on the relative position of the escort. If you place
Hurricanes at 24000ft to intercept He111s at 15000ft and the escort is at
18000ft, your Hurricanes will become embroiled with the escorting
fighters before they can get at the bombers.

Spitfires generally need to be higher, 18 – 20000ft is a good compromise.

But beware, if there is a free escort assigned to “high escort” or “ceiling”,
they may get “bounced”. Assigning your Spits to a higher altitude to
counter this possibility may result in them missing the raid altogether.

If you have more than one Spitfire squadron up, try setting different
altitudes for them, for example at 18000 and 21000ft. This tactic will pay
a dividend later during the actual interception. As you place each patrol,
set the parameters under which you wish them to engage, set Hurricanes to
prefer “bomber” targets and Spitfires to “fighters”.

Set the tactics with caution, if you leave the default as “use Vics” your
squadrons will attempt to use the old Fighter Command “Fighting Area
Attacks” while remaining in tight vee formations. This is practically
suicide if defending fighters are around, and not far short of it if they
aren’t. Historically, the use of 3-plane Vics in very tight formation was in
use early in The Battle but was quickly discarded.

“Dive and Zoom” is best used from high altitude but is of limited
effectiveness on bombers because your fighters are spending so much time
going up and down they put minimal lead on the target. “Line abreast” or
“line astern” are extensions of the “Area Attacks” described above. These
tactics will produce bomber kills with the drawback of reduced ability to
respond to fighter interception. “Line astern”, however is useful in

135
breaking up bomber formations since the aircraft will follow each other in
rather than dissipate their attacks across a wide area. “Head on” tactics are
extremely useful against bombers, but only if you get your squadron into a
position from where such an attack is possible. If you fail to do this, the
interception that relies on this method alone will fail. “Individual” is the
most versatile method and about the only method that you can use against
fighters.

As you assign a squadron “at 2 mins”, bring another to 5 minute standby

to take its place. In this way, you maintain what all good commanders
keep, and that is a reserve to deal with the next threat.

Once you have ordered your patrols into position, place the game back
into accelerated mode at a moderate pace. The raid should have formed
and begun moving into your airspace. Within a very short period of time
events will have moved on to the point where it is not possible for you to
get further units into the air in time to have an influence on this raid.

Therefore, do not be tempted to waste assets if you find that the raid is
bigger than at first thought. Use whatever assets you can, standing patrols
in the vicinity or other assets allocated to another raid if necessary, but
bringing up more units to engage this raid is now pointless and wasteful.

The deployment period for this raid has now past, there is only time now
to engage the enemy. TALLY HO!

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PROCEDURES FOR CAMPAIGN TASKS

The procedures section is a guide, not on the strategy for deploying your
squadrons, but a “how-to” guide for making the campaign inputs you
want.

RAF Patrols

This tutorial is designed to give the basics of setting up a patrol over a

chosen destination. Patrols are a basic tool used to cover convoys early in
the campaign; they can also be used as rapid response combat air patrols,
or CAP, to respond to Luftwaffe raids. The one draw back to patrols is
they have a limited time on station, or flying, and then the squadron must
rest before going up again.

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Patrols with Directives
First, let us look at the DIRECTIVES screen that is shown at the
beginning of each time period. This screen lets you lay out broad orders
to your controllers. The screen has several vital areas that directly effect
which raids are intercepted, what is patrolled and by how many aircraft.
The use of this screen is one of two ways to set patrols:

Figure 1. Directives Screen

Section 1 deals specifically with 11 Groups squadron, as you remember 11

Group is in the southeast of the island and endures the most of the
fighting. Three options set patrols over different objectives. Holes in
radar send aircraft to fly patrol when the Luftwaffe knocks out part of the
radar coverage. Over convoys sets a constant patrol pattern over convoys
as they come up the channel and into the harbor, with replacement
squadrons scheduled to fly over the convoy as the previous squadron
returns to base, or RTBs. This provides coverage of the convoy 100% of
the time.

138
One word of warning, check to see how many convoys are in the area. If
you schedule six squadrons and there are three convoys, then all three
convoys will have coverage for as long as two squadrons are available,
roughly two hours total. The possibility of leaving the convoy unprotected
could then arise, remember allocate enough squadrons to cover all
convoys in the area.

Coastal is different and gives you an interesting patrol pattern. If you call
for six coastal patrols, you end up with six patrols at the same time flying
over radar stations that are still active. These patrols are spread up and
down the coast of merry ol’England. The one draw back to this is there
are no follow-up patrols scheduled; this is a one-shot deal per period.

Section 2 deals with the size of patrol the player is sending out. Squadron
or less implies that only one squadron, generally Hurricanes, will be
assigned to fly the patrol. Paired squadrons have two squadrons,
Hurricane and Spitfire, assigned to fly the patrol. The drawback to paired
squadrons is that it takes longer to assemble and fly to the patrol, (or
intercept). The squadrons takeoff, then form on each other, and then fly to
the patrol area. Squadron or less - the squadrons takeoff and immediately
fly to the assigned patrol area. Big Wing is an even larger formation that
suffers from the same inherent problem of assembling the squadrons into
the big wing before moving to the assigned patrol area. The advantage, of
course, is that once that formation is in the air and a raid is spotted the
player now has a powerful force to counter the raid.

139
Patrols set manually

The second method of initiating patrols is using a manual method. The

manual method allows the player to set specific target that receive patrols,
and are frequently used to have aircraft in the air ready to vector onto
incoming raids.

Setting the patrol starts with the player deciding on what the patrol is to
guard. I have chosen the Dover CH towers, (see the screen in Figure 2).
This screen is also the INTEL screen accessed from the mission folder.

Figure 2. Location Intel Screen

140
Assigning a patrol is as simple as clicking on the Patrol button in the
window, which brings up the screen in Figure 3, the Mission folder:

Figure 3. Mission Folder

The outlined line shows that patrol F001 is being flown by 32 Squadron
with 12 aircraft. The patrol is currently on the ground readying aircraft
and will fly to Dover CH for patrol. All of this can be modified without
starting another patrol order by clicking on the Task button, which shows
the screen in Figure 4, the task summary screen:

Figure 4. Task Summary

141
Patrol Modifications

The summary shows that currently one squadron of Hurricanes is going to

fly a patrol over Dover CH. This screen allows you to change the number
of aircraft assigned, but clicking on the 1 Squadron line. In effect, you are
making this patrol a Paired Squadron that was discussed earlier, with the
penalties of a paired squadron. You can also change the squadron
assigned, as shown above, from a Hurricane squadron to a Spitfire
squadron if desired. For this tutorial, I changed the number of squadrons
assigned to two. The player can then modify Hurricane orders by clicking
on the Hurricane tab outlined. This will bring up Figure 5, the tasked
Hurricane orders.

The Hurricane orders screen allows you to change three separate areas
concerning Hurricane deployment, use, and unit. Figure 5 shows the
preferred target of your assigned Hurricanes. I prefer to have the
Hurricanes go after the bombers, if possible. This does not override the
AI in defensive measures, although I cannot say with absolute certainty
that with Bombers chosen the AI won’t ignore fighters to concentrate on
the bombers. Another problem is Me-110, with their ability to carry
bombs, yet still be classed as a fighter. If the raid is all Me-110s this is not
an issue, but if there are Me-109s and Me-110s then the possibility of the
AI to become confused does exist.

Figure 4 Tasked Hurricane Order, preferred Target Options

142
Figure 6, shows the options for the Hurricane’s attack method. I have not
studied this extensively, except to know that Vic is not a formation to stay
with is possible. Each attack method has an advantage depending on
target type, the one problem with this kind of control; you may
inadvertently corner the AI into a bad decision with these options.

Figure 6. Tasked hurricane Order, Attack Method Options

143
Last, but by no means least is the ability to pick which Hurricane squadron
you want to fly the patrol, click on the names squadron, outlined in red
above. You will then see Figure 7, the Hurricane squadron list:

Figure 7. Hurricane Squadron List

Choosing a squadron is as simple as double-clicking on the squadron you

want to fly. One note of caution, this screen does not remove squadrons
who are currently unable to fly due to other restrictions. You can easily
assign this patrol to a squadron that just returned from a sortie and is
unable to fly for a period. A double-check of squadron status after leaving
the orders area is a good practice. The easiest way to do this is from the
Mission Folder screen, highlight the squadron assigned to the patrol and
hit the Squadron button in the lower right. You will see Figure 8, the
squadron readiness screen.

144
Figure 8. Squadron Readiness

This shows you the squadron is on the ground because the required line
does not say IN AIR. It shows 16 aircraft available and they are ready to
fly, from the status line.

All of these options, except squadron status, are duplicated under the
Spitfire tab. The one thing to remember is if you have only one squadron
assigned and it is a Hurricane squadron then the Spitfire screen will not
work. You can visit the screen, but none of the options, Attack Method,
Preferred Target, and Squadron will respond to mouse clicks.

145
As earlier stated, this tutorial increased the number of squadrons to two,
one Hurricane and one Spitfire. After all the changes were completed, the
new task summary screen looked like the one in Figure 9. The new task
summary shows that a squadron of Hurricanes and a squadron of Spitfires
will be flying patrol over Dover CH. One note, the campaign engine will
try and bring squadrons from the same airfield as the first choice, so if you
do not what both squadrons from Biggin Hill AF to patrol at the same
time, remember to go to the aircraft tab and change squadrons.

Figure 9. New Task Summary

146
After closing all the windows, you will then see Figure 10, the final
product. Squadrons 32 and 610 from Biggin Hill AF ready for an hour-
long patrol over Dover, now jolly good luck then!

Figure 10. Patrol Map on Screen

147
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148
Section II RAF Route Manipulation
This tutorial will build upon the knowledge we gained from initiating a
patrol, and move into manipulating the route that the campaign starts with.

First, I accomplished a patrol over Dover Chain Home station with a

patrol from 43 Hurricane squadron out of Tangmere AF. The route
information is displayed by opening the Mission Folder, highlighting the
43 Squadron line and clicking on Route. Figure 1 shows the procedure to
reach the waypoint screen shown on Figure 2.

Figure 1. Process to Reach Waypoint Screen

149
Figure 2. Route Waypoints

I have cut and pasted several images together to give all the information
available. The player can move the mouse cursor over each waypoint to
view the white labels designating what that waypoint is. The route screen
has three tabs; takeoff, main route, and landing, which I have placed in the
same picture for informational purposes.

Reviewing the information, we see that 43 squadron is taking off at 06:52

and will arrive at the initial point, or IP, 24 minutes later at 07:16. Last
tutorial I mentioned that when you have paired squadrons or big wings,
the aircraft had to takeoff and marshal before moving to the IP, which
lengthened the response time. The waypoint labeled Fighter Rendezvous
is the waypoint that those aircraft will circle until everyone assigned to
that task arrives. This is why larger aircraft formations take longer to
respond to a raid, they must all arrive at the waypoint and climb to
15,000ft before moving to intercept the raid.

Often the player will want a different time for his patrol, this allows you to
sit down and plan an entire day’s patrol. The player can assign four
squadrons to patrol Dover CH and by manipulating the Time on Target, or
ToT, for the IP of each patrol ensure four hours of continuous coverage.

150
There is one thing you can change at every waypoint and that is altitude,
the only place to change time is at the IP of the route, double clicking on
the circle that is Waypoint: initial point brings up the screen in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Waypoint Information

This screen, and the zoomed in map screen, give the player some valuable
information. First, for those players who use the ground to navigate from
takeoff to landing, you can see the IP is near an airfield for easy
identification. If the player navigates like this, waypoint can and should,
be moved to easily identifiable ground points.

Second, the IP screen shows a lot of information:

Alt, ft: Altitude in feet the waypoint is

ETA: Estimated time of arrival at the waypoint in
campaign time

151
 REL to ToT: Relative time to IP. If negative that means
the waypoint should be reached BEFORE
the IP
Fuel: Time remaining before the tank runs dry, I
can’t confirm but I assume it is at a cruise
setting for the throttle and not at 100%
throttle. Battle will reduce this time
Escort Fuel: Used for German bomber planning, gives
you a time for battle over the IP
Bearing: Compass direction from last waypoint, if
you use manual navigation

The Alt, ft and ETA both have red arrows in their box, signifying that they
can be changed. Figure 4 shows changes make to lower the altitude from
15,000ft to 14,000ft and change the IP arrival time to 08:00.

Figure 4. New IP Waypoint Information

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Notice how the fuel time went from 51 minutes to 52 minutes, this is due
to the fact that your not climbing to 15,000ft thereby saving your pilot
some gas. Of course, if you change the time you arrive on station, you
have to change the timing on the rest of the waypoints. Figure 5 shows
you the new takeoff time to meet the 08:00 patrol time.

Figure 5. New Takeoff Time

The takeoff time has moved from 06:52 to 07:35 to meet your new IP
requirements. The last item to change is the actual waypoint position
itself. If you look at Figure 2 you can see the patrol area is 2-3 miles long
in a north – south direction, not the most optimal direction to stop raids
from France. Moving the waypoints is as easy as left-clicking on the
waypoint and dragging it to its new location.

Words of warning, moving certain waypoints, most notably the IP, will
cause all waypoints to change. While seemingly a random choice of the
computer it is not. Moving the IP causes all other waypoints to be moved
in relation to the Waypoint: Estimated Location waypoint and the new IP

153
position. Think of it this way, when you move the IP, the target egress
point and the patrol area need to move to still patrol over the target the
player has selected.

To overcome this move the IP first and then move the rest of the
waypoints to the position desired. Figure 6 shows how I moved the patrol
area to a better position:

Figure 6. New Waypoint Positions

These are the basics for manipulating the route for a task. Remember that
this only changes the route for 43 Squadron. If you had a Spitfire
squadron joining them, the player would have to go to the mission folder,
highlight the Spitfire squadron and follow the same procedure. Otherwise,
your Spitfires will arrive 30 minutes before your Hurricanes will.

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155
Section III “Single Squadron” Campaign
This section will explain how to setup a quasi-single pilot campaign.
First, there are limitations to this method. The player is still responsible
for the overall success of the campaign, in other words, you still have to
either fill out the directives or assign missions yourself.

Basically, BoBII has the ability to tailor which missions receive an

interrupt asking the player if they want to fly. The default settings ask the
player if they want to fly at every intercept, scramble, etc; but not at every
take-off, ground attack, or landing.

Figure 1 shows how to access this from the main screen. You right-click
down in the menu area, if you right-click in the map all you will see are
Zoom in/Zoom out. After right-clicking, select Time and then Game
Speed.

Figure 7 Main Screen Steps and Result

156
The Accel tab give the player the ability to control what speed the
campaign is running at and what speed the campaign will jump to when
certain conditions are met. So if you would like to react immediately to a
raid forming, check the Raid Forming box and the campaign will move to
real time when a raid is spotted on radar. This will allow you more time to
set and modify your response.

Now to activate a “single-squadron” campaign you click on the Fly tab

and you will see Figure 8.

Figure 8 Game Speed Fly Tab

The check marks show the default settings for the dialog box popping up
asking you to fly. First, uncheck all the boxes in the All column, if any of
these are checked it will override any options you choose in the Favorite
column or Favorite Units boxes. There are many options you can follow

157
here; if the player wants to fly only Spitfires of any squadron just change
the Aircraft box to Spitfire.

To fly a single squadron only, just left-click on the Squadron box and
choose the squadron name you desire. Figure 9 shows the final result - of
choosing to fly the 610 Spitfire squadron from take-off of every mission.

Figure 9 Flying 610 Squadron Only

At first there will be no change in the campaign. You will see missions
generated and raids over France forming. You will be able to respond to
all of these events normally, the only difference? You will not see a pop-
up dialog window asking you if you would like to fly an intercept. When
the 610 Squadron is assigned a mission you will see 610 squadron on the
map shown in Figure 4.

158
Figure 10. Preparing to Fly – missing screen shot

Although 610 Squadron is on the campaign screen and the player has not
received a window asking to fly, DO NOT WORRY. What is happening
is that 610’s takeoff time has not arrived. If you looked at the squadron
status it will show Prepping to fly and that the campaign time has not
reached the takeoff time shown in the Route window.

When the takeoff time has been reached you will see the window in Figure
5.

Figure 11. Taking Over Dialog Box – missing screenshot

Just click on the “Fly” button and you will be sent to the cockpit awaiting
takeoff. You fly the mission, land and when you exit you will go back to
being Downing working a thankless job.

It’s not quite single-pilot as you still have the campaign to worry about,
but it’s pretty darn close.

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160
 CHAPTER 6
FLYING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
AIRCRAFT

his chapter begins with a description of the controls available while

flying the aircraft in this simulation. Section Two describes how to access
'interactive' cockpits in the simulation, where the player is directly
controlling the equipment in the cockpit of the flyable planes. .Section Three
gives an analysis of the engines and propellers on Second World War
fighters and bombers. Section Four contains detailed cockpit screenshots of
each of the flyable aircraft in the game and details how to start the aircraft's
engine, taxi down a runway and take off. Section Five follows various solo
flying and formation flying tips. Section Six deals with the various combat
manoeuvres that the player will need to learn to become a proficient pilot.
The final section provides technical specifications of the fighters and
bombers in the game.

THE AIRCRAFT CONTROLS

The five aircraft that can be flown in Battle of Britain II have very similar
controls, these being relatively simple compared with modern fighter
aircraft. The flight controls are used for directing the aircraft in the air or on
the ground whilst taxiing. The engine controls are used to set the power of
the engine and the pitch of the propeller blades. A further set of engine
controls is provided for engine starting and stopping. The more complex
engine controls can only be used with the 'interactive cockpit', and otherwise
will be controlled automatically if the Engine Management preference is set
to Auto. The Messerschmitt Bf110 has twin engines and so all of the engine
controls appear twice in the cockpit, one set for each engine.

All of these controls may be identified on the separate key-guide that

accompanies this package. Further points about the control setup on your PC
are made in Chapter Two Section Two (Controller).

161
FLIGHT CONTROLS
The aircraft in the game can be flown using just the keyboard, but it is
strongly recommended that a joystick be also used. Many of the controls can
also be operated using the interactive cockpit.

Elevator and Ailerons

These are used to pitch and roll the aircraft. The arrow keys can be used for
aileron and elevator control. However the use of a joystick is recommended.
Battle of Britain II uses the Windows joystick configuration and the
simulation can be played using the default options. To fine tune control input
go to the Controller page in Chapter Two Section Two.

Rudder
The rudder yaws the aircraft in flight, or steers the rear wheel when taxiing.
Crude rudder control is provided by the number pad ì and ; keys. Finer
control is available if you use dedicated rudder pedals or a twist joystick.
“K” and SHIFT+K increase and decrease the keyboard sensitivity,
respectively.

Flaps
Flaps can be set to slow the aircraft down ready for landing. Press the F key
to retract the flaps and the V key to extend them. The Spitfire has only two
settings for flaps (extended or retracted). All other aircraft have 4 stages
(retracted, 1/3, 2/3, full). Assuming you start with flaps retracted, you must
press V three times to reach full extension.

Undercarriage
The undercarriage can be retracted or extended during flight by pressing the
G key. Warning - attempting to extend the undercarriage at high speed may
cause the hydraulic or mechanical systems to fail.

Independent wheel brakes

The main wheels have individual brakes. These brakes, one on each wheel,
can be used for slowing the aircraft down once on the ground, and can also
be used individually to aid steering. The brakes should be used with care at
high speeds as severe braking can cause the aircraft to flip forward onto its
nose. The “,” key is the left wheel brake and the “.” key is the right wheel
brake.

NOTE ABOUT TRIM OPERATION:

If you have any trim controls assigned to levers or rotary controls on a
joystick or other input device, you must turn these to neutral physically
before pressing the trim reset keyboard command. Failure to do this will
162
cause the neutral point on the controllers used for trim to be reset to their
current position, and causing an imbalance in trim authority - ie you may not
get full trim input in one or more directions.

Elevator Trim
The trim allows the pilot to set the position of the elevator when the control
stick is released. This means he can set the trim to keep the aircraft level, for
his current speed and altitude, and then let go of the stick. This way, he does
not have to hold the control stick in one position for long periods just to keep
the aircraft flying straight and level.

The “End” key adjusts the trim upwards, while the “Home” key adjusts the
trim downwards. The trim can be reset to a neutral position pressing the
“Alt” and “End” keys at the same time.
Alternatively you can use joystick buttons [5], [7] and [10] respectively.

Rudder Trim
The rudder trim works in the same way as the elevator trim, but allows the
pilot to take his feet off the rudder pedals and continue in a straight line. It is
generally used to counteract the effects of the engine torque and slipstream
under different flight conditions, such as climbing, cruising and diving.
Some aircraft such as the Bf109 do not have rudder trimming and therefore
the pilot has to press one or other rudder pedal throughout the flight.
The “Delete” key adjusts the rudder trim to the left, while the “Page Down”
key adjusts the rudder trim to the right. The trim can be reset to a neutral
position pressing the “Alt” and “End” keys at the same time.

Dive Brakes
These can be extended on the Ju87 to produce extra drag on the wings and
maintain the correct speed during a dive-bombing attack. The “D” key will
toggle between extended and retracted dive brakes on the Ju87 only.

Emergency Undercarriage
Lowering can be attempted if the undercarriage cannot be extended using the
normal control. This could be due to a number of reasons. Bullets from
enemy aircraft or Anti-Aircraft guns may have damaged the undercarriage.
An attempt may have been made to lower the undercarriage at very high
speed. Or the engine may not be providing enough hydraulic pressure to
lower the wheels. The emergency lowering system typically consists of a
cylinder of compressed gas that can be released into the undercarriage
hydraulics system, and may be able to force the wheels down. The system
can only be used once. Pressing the “Ctrl” and “G” keys at the same time
releases the emergency cylinder.

163
Canopy
The canopy can be opened or closed during flight to allow the pilot to move
his head outside of the cockpit and look along the side of the long nose and
engine. The Bf109 and Bf110 have hinged rather than sliding canopies and
therefore trying to open the canopy will result in them being ripped off by
the flow of air past them.

ENGINE CONTROLS
Throttle
The throttle provides control for selecting the desired engine power. The
number keys give throttle control from 10% through to 100%. The “+” and
“-“ keys thereafter give fine control with changes in increments of 1%. The
Bf110 has two throttle levers, one for each engine. These can be controlled
either together or individually. Pressing “E” will cycle through the available
engine to control - both together, port engine only, starboard only.

Propeller Pitch
The propeller pitch control alters the angle of the propeller blades. It can be
used manually, just like the gearbox in a car to maintain the correct engine
speed, or controlled automatically by the computer. Decreasing the prop
pitch increases the RPM and vice versa. Pressing SHIFT+9 toggles
maximum Coarse Pitch (lower RPMs). “SHIFT+0 keys together toggle
maximum fine pitch (higher RPMs). Similarly, SHIFT and “-“ or SHIFT
and “+” keys together increases or decreases the pitch incrementally versus a
toggle.

Windmill Braking using FINE pitch angle: The propeller can act sort of
as a brake to slow the aircraft down to some degree. With the throttle set at
idle, and maximum fine pitch (SHIFT+0) the propeller’s angle creates higher
resistance against the onrushing air and thus will act as a brake and slow the
airplane down – windmill braking. Initially it may seem and sound that
speed is increasing because initially the RPMs will actually rise, but as the
airplane’s forward speed slows the RPMs will drop. This will only work if
adjustment of prop pitch control is set to “manual” in the FLIGHT GUI
menu.

Automatic Boost Control Cutout.

If the engine is run at full power for any length of time, the engine
temperature will rise and permanent damage will be caused to the engine. If
the temperature gets too high, there is a chance of the engine ceasing
completely. In some aircraft an automatic system limits the setting of the
throttle (to 90%) to prevent the engine overheating. Other aircraft have a gate
164
in the throttle quadrant, or a piece of wire that limits the movement of the
throttle lever. The pilot can override this system by using the Automatic
Boost Control Cutout, or pressing the “0” key to push the throttle fully
forwards (through the gate, or breaking the wire) and getting 100% power.

ADVANCED ENGINE CONTROLS

These controls are only available when the interactive cockpit is engaged.

Magneto
The magneto provides the electrical power to the spark plugs in each
cylinder of the engine. Each engine has two magneto circuits consisting of
the engine driven magneto connected to a set of sparkplugs. Should one
circuit fail to work, the second circuit will keep the engine running, although
at a little lower performance as there will only be one spark in the cylinder
rather than the normal two. Each circuit can be switched on or off
independently but both should be turned on for engine starting.

NOTE ABOUT MAGNETO OPERATION:

Where magnetos are switches (Spitfire, Hurricane & Ju87) you will find that
they cannot be operated independently. In order to activate the right hand
mag, you must switch on the left hand mag first. When shutting down, you
cannot turn the left hand mag off until the right hand mag is off.

With the Me109 & Me110, the magnetos must be slid into the correct
position by holding the left mouse button down over the interactive "hotspot"
and moving the mouse forward / up. To turn the magnetos off, do the same
but move the mouse down / backwards.

Fuel cock
The fuel cock is used to select the fuel tank from which fuel is delivered to
the engine.

Primer pump
The primer pump is used to squirt neat fuel directly into the cylinders of the
engine to enable the engine to be started from cold. A cold engine will
require about 3 strokes of the primer pump before attempting to start it.

NOTE ABOUT PRIMER PUMPS:

To operate the pumps, you must position the mouse pointer over the
interactive hotspot, then hold the left button down until the animated button /
lever has moved to it's extreme position, then release the mouse button to

165
release the pump. This needs to be repeated for each priming stroke required
prior to engine start.

Starter button
The starter button works differently depending on whether the aircraft is
British or German. The Spitfire and Hurricane use an electric starter motor,
just like a car, to rotate the engine up to speed. Pressing the starter button
until the engine fires, and then releasing operates this. The German aircraft
use an 'Inertia starter' which consists of a large flywheel that is rotated by
hand or by an electric motor. When the starter handle is pulled out, the motor
is used to accelerate the flywheel for approximately 10 seconds, until it has
enough energy to start the engine. Releasing the starter handle connects the
flywheel to the engine and the inertia it has from spinning is used to start the
engine rotating.

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING CHANGING THE GAME

FLIGHT MODEL SETTINGS – WHEN SWITCHING BETWEEN
CAMPAIGN and INSTANT ACTION:

One can set their FM preference from the Options>>> Flight screen.
However, users have at times been confused about possible changes in their
FM settings as they go back and forth between Campaign missions and
Instant Action missions. It is important to understand the following:

When you set up a Campaign, the Options will be as set at that time. If you
exit Campaign and change Flight model to Realistic, fly the mission and then
return to Campaign, the Flight model will still be as originally set i.e.
Novice. If you exit Campaign and attempt to fly an Instant Action op, your
Realistic settings will have changed back to the Novice of the Campaign.

Before you fly an IA, you can change the setting to Realistic in two ways;
1) On the Main screen, go to 'Options' and change the setting
2) On the “Frag screen” of the IA mission, go to 'Sim Config' and change the
setting (see screen shot on following page of “frag screen”)

BoB2 saves the settings at two occasions into different places;

1) When you quit the game
2) When you save the 'campaign'
When you quit BoB2, your last mission setting is saved. If your last mission
is an IA with Realistic setting, it is to be saved.

Campaign setting is saved as the campaign data, so if you load the saved

166
campaign, Novice setting is restored.
Once you create a Campaign, you are not “stuck” with the original FM
settings for the entire campaign. You can change the ongoing-campaign
settings during the missions. Using 'Sim Config' on the “Frag” screen, it is
possible at any time (see screenshot below):

167
THE MAJOR FLIGHT AND ENGINE CONTROLS

168
THE INTERACTIVE COCKPITS
The interactive cockpit allows the player to control various aircraft devices
and engine settings, such as those mentioned above under advanced engine
controls. It also gives you the experience of controlling an actual World War
Two aircraft in an authentic manner. The interactive cockpit will only work
if the Engine Management option is set to Manual in the flight preferences.

• To activate the interactive cockpit press the right mouse button. This
will bring up a white mouse pointer.

• To activate switches, place the pointer over the switch, and press the
left mouse button.

• To push a button, such as the starter motor button, place the pointer
on the button and hold down the left mouse button.

• Levers, such as the throttle lever or propeller pitch control, can be

moved by clicking the mouse on the handle of the lever and moving
the mouse up or down while holding down the mouse button.

• Wheels, such as the elevator and rudder trim wheels can be used in a
similar way. Hold down the mouse button and move the mouse left
and right or up and down as appropriate.

• The interactive features in the cockpit cannot be used while the game
is paused.

• In the Battle of Britain II there are five aircraft that you can fly, and
each one has its own interactive cockpit.

• Beginning on page 180 and also in Appendix A of this manual see

the cockpit layouts for each of these five aircraft (Spitfire, Hurricane,
Stuka, Messerschmitts Bf110 and Bf109).

169
ENGINES AND PROPELLERS
This section deals with the engines and propellers on the major aircraft in the
Battle of Britain II simulation.

THE ENGINES
Water-cooled 12 cylinder Vee Supercharged engines power all the 5 aircraft
available to fly in the game. The Spitfire and Hurricane are both fitted with a
Rolls-Royce Merlin II or Merlin III. These two models differ only in the
details of the propeller shaft, the former for use with a de Havilland 2 pitch
propeller, and the latter for use with the Rotol constant speed propeller. The
Messerschmitt Bf109 and Bf110 are both fitted with Daimler-Benz DB601A
engines and the Junkers Ju87 uses a Junkers Jumo 211A.

The details of these engines are as follows:

A normally aspirated engine, with no supercharger fitted, would produce

maximum power at sea level, but the available power would decrease with
increasing altitude due to the reduction in air density. A supercharger draws
more air into the cylinders and allows the engine to produce more power at
higher altitudes, but also reduces the power available at sea level as a certain
amount of energy is required to drive the supercharger.

170
 Altitude (ft)
Spitfire Engine Power

The Carburetor and Negative G

In the British engine, the fuel was delivered to the engine cylinders via a
gravity fed carburetor. In order to maintain a continuous supply of fuel to the
engine, it was necessary for the engine to be under conditions of positive G.
In other words, if the pilot of a Spitfire or Hurricane were to try to fly the
aircraft inverted, the carburetor would almost immediately cease to supply
fuel to the engine and power would be lost. The same thing would happen if
the pilot was flying straight and level and pushed forward rapidly on the
control stick in order to enter a dive. In this condition, the centrifugal force
due to the aircraft pitching downwards would lift the pilot out of his seat and
force his body up against the shoulder straps of his harness. Exactly the same
thing happens to the fuel in the tanks and in the carburetor, and the engine
will loose power for a few seconds, until positive G is restored.
This undesirable feature was not present on the German engines as they used
direct fuel injection to deliver the fuel to the cylinders rather than a
carburetor. This allowed the pilots of the Messerschmitt Bf109 to escape a
pursuing Spitfire by pushing forwards on the stick and entering a steep
German pilot to gain some distance from his attacker.

171
Throttle Settings and Engine Limitations
The recommended throttle settings and engine limitations for various flight
conditions are given below. The figures quoted are appropriate to the Rolls-
Royce Merlin engine, but the throttle settings are consistent for all the
flyable aircraft featured in the game.

Note: +6 lb/sq.in. combat boost is obtained by operating the boost control

cut-out.

Exceeding these limitations will lead to excessive use of fuel, and if

Manual Engine Management has been selected in the Flight preferences
(see Chapter Two Section Three), then the engine may overheat and
suffer permanent damage as a result. These limitations must be followed
to maintain a fully serviceable, undamaged engine. If an engine has been
damaged as a result of gunfire or overheating, then the pilot should be
more conservative when considering any continued or future combat.

172
THE PROPELLERS
During World War I, aircraft used fixed pitch wooden propellers. These were
easy to manufacture, as they contained no moving parts, but were only truly
efficient under one set of flying conditions. The propellers would typically
be designed with a blade angle that gave them the best efficiency in the
cruise condition. This made for good fuel economy and high speed when
cruising but meant that during take-off and climb, the propeller and engine
were not working at their optimum efficiency. In order to improve this
deficiency, propellers were developed in which the angle of the blades could
be changed in the air. This means that the pilot can set the propeller blades to
an angle suitable for take-off, thereby leaving the ground in as short a
distance as possible. Once in the air, he can reset the propeller blades to an
angle suitable for cruising. The following types of propellers were fitted to
the aircraft used in the Battle of Britain II. All early Spitfires and Hurricanes
were fitted with two-pitch propellers, but were later upgraded to use
constant-speed propellers. The two Messerschmitts had a variable pitch
propeller, and the Ju87 Stuka used a two-pitch propeller similar to that of the
early British fighters.

Two-Pitch Propellers (Early Spitfires and Hurricanes, and Ju87)

These propellers have two settings, Fine and Coarse. General speaking, the
fine pitch is used for engine starting, taxiing, taking off and landing. Once in
the air, leaving the propeller set to fine pitch would result in the engine speed
increasing above the allowable range. The pilot should therefore select the
coarse pitch, which allows the aircraft to climb, cruise and engage in combat,
while using the normal range of engine speeds. An additional feature of this
type of propeller is the ability to use effective windmill braking. This
involves throttling back the engine and selecting the fine pitch on the
propeller control. This will cause the propeller to spin around rapidly in the
airflow, and in turn drive the engine to high speeds. The allows the pilot to
use the engine braking effect of the large engines to produce large amounts
of drag on the propeller and slow the aircraft down.

Constant-Speed Propellers (Later Spitfires and Hurricanes)

This type of propeller will automatically adjust the pitch of the blades in
order to maintain the engine speed at a specified value via a small engine
mounted hydraulic pump. As the engine speed increases, so does the
pressure produced by the pump, and this pushed oil into the propeller where
it moves a cylinder and increases the angle of the propeller blades. At the
new increased pitch, the blades produce more thrust, but also more drag,
thereby putting more load on the engine and holding down the engine speed.
The pilot can select the desired engine speed between 1,800 rpm (for

173
maximum fuel efficiency) and 3,000 rpm (for maximum power). The engine
speed is generally independent of the throttle setting, but when the throttle is
opened, the propeller blades will always be set to the most efficient angle.
This results in significantly improved acceleration and climb rate compared
with a similar aircraft fitted with a fixed or two-pitch propeller.

Variable-Pitch Propellers (Messerschmitt Bf109 and Bf110)

This works in a very similar way to the two-pitch propeller but rather than
having just two possible positions, the blades can be set to a range of angles.
This allows the pilot to continuously adjust the propeller pitch to suit the
current flight speed. In addition, the propeller can be feathered. This means
that the blades can be turned to an angle of 90º in the event of an engine
failure. In this position they produce least drag and thereby improve the
gliding performance of the aircraft.

All of these propellers can be thought of as doing a similar job to the gearbox
in a car. A low gear is used for starting off, and can also be used to provide
effective engine braking, and a higher gear is selected as the vehicle
accelerates and engine speed exceeds the normal operating range.

Automatic Propeller Pitch Control

If the player does not wish to worry about the propeller pitch setting, the
computer can control the propeller setting automatically. The automated
system will always try to ensure that the propeller pitch is set such that the
player has the maximum possible thrust available from the engine. To enable
the automatic pitch control, the Prop Pitch Control flight preference in the
Sim Config menu should be set to Auto. This option can only be set when
Engine Management is set to Auto. See Chapter Two Section Three for
further details.

Novice Flight Model

When the novice flight model is being used, the propeller is not modeled
accurately. Therefore, the player has only the throttle to control and need not
worry about the propeller pitch setting.

174
Correct Propeller Pitch for Various Flight Conditions

175
STARTING THE ENGINE, TAXIING, AND
TAKEOFF –GENERAL CONCEPTS
ENGINE STARTING
The player can only carry out engine starting if the Engine Management
flight preference option in the Sim Config menu is set to Manual. If this is
not the case, then the engine will always be running at the start of a mission,
and will only stop if the fuel runs out or the engine becomes seriously
damaged.
The procedure for starting the engine is similar for all aircraft, but in the case
of the Bf110, the two engines have to be started separately. Starting the
engine requires the use of the interactive cockpit controls.
The full engine starting procedure for the Spitfire is as follows:

PRELIMINARIES
On entering the cockpit check the Undercarriage selector lever , Flaps, and
Contents of lower fuel tank.

STARTING THE ENGINE AND WARMING UP

176
Engine starting in other aircraft follows the same pattern but the inertia
starter in the German aircraft is operated in a different way to the starter
motor of the British aircraft. To energize the inertia starter, operate the starter
handle for approximately 10 seconds, and then release the handle. Setting of
fuel cocks, propeller pitch, priming and ignition is carried out in the same
way as described above.

TAKING OFF
The aircraft featured in the game all have a similar undercarriage layout.
This consists of two main wheels just ahead of the center of gravity (these
wheels are retractable on all but the Ju87) and a fixed small tail wheel below
the tail of the plane that allows the aircraft to be steered on the ground using
the rudder pedals. This layout means that the aircraft sits on the ground in a
nose-high attitude, typically 12º, and can seriously limit the forward
visibility of the pilot.

When taxiing, the pilot must weave the aircraft from left to right to allow
him to see ahead and ensure he is not going to taxi into anything. An
alternative available to pilots of the Spitfire, Hurricane and Ju87 is to slide
back the canopy and look over the side of the cockpit.

When taking off the pilot would normally raise the tail of the aircraft as soon
as possible, thus lowering the nose and allowing him much better forward
visibility. This also has the effect of lowering the drag of the aircraft, as it is
now pointing in the direction of travel, and therefore it will allow the aircraft
to accelerate more rapidly. Once take-off speed has been achieved, the pilot
would lower the tail, to increase the angle of attack of the wings, and
therefore increase the lift produced, and the aircraft will take-off. An
alternative method (if the pilot is pointing straight down the runway and
confident that there is nothing ahead of him) is to simply pull back on the
stick during acceleration, and hold the tail-wheel on the ground. This method
does not provide good forward visibility, but makes it easier for the pilot to
keep the aircraft pointing down the center of the runway.

177
The take-off procedure is as follows:
FINAL PREPARATION FOR TAKE-OFF

Note: The rudder trim, where available, should be left neutral if

propeller torque and slipstream have been disabled in the flight preferences.
Similarly, if the novice flight model is being used, both the elevator and
rudder trim should be left neutral.

178
This Page Intentionally Left Blank

179
COCKPIT SCREENSHOTS, TAKEOFF AND LANDING
CHECKLISTS AND RECOMMENDED SPEEDS

Spitfire 1a and 1b:

1 ) canopy: OPEN (O)

2 ) elevator & rudder trim: NEUTRAL (ALT+END). ELEVATOR TRIM
INDICATOR NEEDLE SHOULD BE HORIZONTAL.
3 ) flaps: UP, LEVER UP (F)
4 ) fuel cocks 1+2: ON (SWITCHES UP)
5 ) magnetos 1+2: ON (SWITCHES UP)
6 ) throttle: OPEN .TO 7%
7 ) prop pitch: LEVER FULL FOWARD
8 ) primer: BROWN BUTTON, PULL OUT AND RELEASE FOR EACH
STROKE AS REQUIRED (SEE CHART)
9 ) ignition: BLACK BUTTON ABOVE LEFT HAND FUEL COCK
LEVER. HOLD UNTIL ENGINE FIRES EVENLY (ENGINE PEAKS TO
APPROX 1900RPM AND REMAINS STEADY), THEN RELEASE.

180
SPITFIRE RECOMMENDED SPEEDS
Take-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80+ mph
Best climb speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180–200 mph
Cruise speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 mph
Max. speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 mph
Max. flap/gear extension speed* . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 mph
Landing approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 mph
Touchdown speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80-90 mph
Max. controllable dive speed** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 mph

181
Hurricane 1a and 1b:

1 ) canopy: OPEN (O)

2 ) elevator & rudder trim: NEUTRAL (ALT+END)
3 ) flaps: UP (F three times for fully retracted)
4 ) fuel cock: ON (MAIN TANK, SWITCH POINTS FORWARD)
5 ) magnetos 1+2: ON (SWITCHES UP)
6 ) throttle: OPEN TO 6%
7 ) prop pitch: LEVER FULL FOWARD
8 ) primer: BROWN BUTTON, PULL OUT AND RELEASE FOR EACH
STROKE AS REQUIRED (SEE CHART)
9 ) ignition: SILVER BUTTON. HOLD UNTIL ENGINE FIRES EVENLY
(ENGINE PEAKS TO APPROX 2000RPM AND REMAINS STEADY),
THEN RELEASE.

182
HURRICANE RECOMMENDED SPEEDS:
Take-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 mph
Best climb speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165–185 mph
Cruise speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 mph
Max. speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 mph
Max. flap/gear extension speed* . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 mph
Landing approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 mph
Touchdown speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80-90 mph
Max. controllable dive speed** . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 mph

183
Messerschmitt Bf109:

184
1 ) canopy: LEAVE CLOSED
2 ) elevator & aileron trim: NEUTRAL (ALT+END)
3 ) flaps: UP (F three times for fully retracted)
4 ) fuel cock: ON (YELLOW LEVER DOWN & FORWARD)
5 ) magnetos 1+2: ON (LEVER PUSHED UP)
6 ) throttle: OPEN TO 6%
7 ) prop pitch: FULL FINE, LEVER PUSHED UP (PITCH DIAL HANDS
READ HALF PAST SIX, AND PITCH CONTROL HANDLE NOT
VISIBLE)
8 ) primer: FRONT YELLOW BUTTON ON BOX, PUSH IN AND
RELEASE FOR EACH STROKE AS REQUIRED (SEE CHART)
9 ) ignition: MIDDLE T-BAR HANDLE ON LEFT SIDE OF COCKPIT.
HOLD UNTIL STARTER MOTOR GOES SILENT, THEN RELEASE.
INCREASE THROTTLE TO APPROX 15% TO ASSIST IN KEEPING
ENGINE TICKING OVER AT APPROX 1500RPM.

Bf109 RECOMMENDED SPEEDS

Take-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 mph
Best climb speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180–190 mph
Cruise speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 mph
Max. speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 mph
Max. flap/gear extension speed* . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 mph
Landing approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 mph
Touchdown speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 mph
Max. controllable dive speed** . . . . . . . . . . 380-400 mph

185
Messerschmitt Bf110

186
1 ) canopy: LEAVE CLOSED
2 ) elevator, aileron & rudder trim: NEUTRAL (ALT+END)
3 ) flaps: UP (F three times for fully retracted)
4 ) fuel cocks 1+2: ON (LEVER DOWN / PULLED BACKWARDS)
5 ) magnetos sets 1+2: ON (LEFT & RIGHT LEVERS PUSHED FULLY
FORWARD)
6 ) throttle: OPEN TO 6%
7 ) prop pitch: FULL FINE, BOTH LEVERS PUSHED UP (BOTH PITCH
DIALS HANDS READ HALF PAST SIX)
8 ) primer: LEVERS AT FRONT OF ENGINE CONTROLS BOX, PULL
BACKWARDS THEN RELEASE FOR EACH STROKE AS REQUIRED
(SEE CHART)
9 ) ignition: SWITCHES ON RIGHT SIDE OF COCKPIT. HOLD UNTIL
STARTER MOTOR GOES SILENT, THEN RELEASE. REPEAT FOR
BOTH ENGINES. YOU WILL NEED TO APPLY WHEEL BRAKES,
RUDDER AND ADJUST THROTTLE TO TRY AND KEEP THE
AIRCRAFT STATIONARY AND ASSIST THE ENGINES IN TICKING
OVER. ONCE BOTH STARTED, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO RUN
THE ENGINES AT IDLE (0% THROTTLE) AT 900RPM.

187
Bf110 RECOMMENDED SPEEDS:
Take-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 mph
Best climb speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180–190 mph
Cruise speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 mph
Max. speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 mph
Max. flap/gear extension speed* . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 mph
Landing approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 mph
Touchdown speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 mph
Max. controllable dive speed** . . . . . . . . . . 380-400 mph

188
Junkers JU87 Stuka:

1 ) canopy: OPEN (O)

2 ) elevator trim: NEUTRAL (ALT+END)
3 ) flaps: UP, LEVER FULL FORWARD (F three times for fully
retracted)
4 ) dive brakes: UP, LEVER FULL FORWARD (D)
5 ) fuel cocks 1+2: ON (UP FOR ON)
6 ) magnetos 1+2: ON (SWITCHES CURRENTLY POINT
DOWNWARDS FOR ON)
7 ) throttle: OPEN TO 7%
8 ) prop pitch: FULL FINE, LEVER FULL FOWARD
9 ) primer: WHITE BUTTON, PULL OUT AND RELEASE FOR
EACH STROKE AS REQUIRED (SEE CHART)
10 ) ignition: RED BUTTON. HOLD UNTIL STARTER MOTOR
GOES SILENT, THEN RELEASE. INCREASE THROTTLE TO
APPROX 15% TO ASSIST IN KEEPING ENGINE TICKING OVER
AT APPROX 1150RPM.

189
Ju87 Recommended Speeds
Take-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75-85 mph
Best climb speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 mph
Cruise speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 mph
Max. speed at 15,000 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 mph
Max. flap extension speed* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 mph
Landing approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 mph
Touchdown speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 mph
Max. controllable dive speed** . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 mph

CHART FOR PRIMER STROKES:

20degreesC = 3 strokes .
10degreesC = 4 strokes
0degreesC = 6 strokes

The preceding Cockpit Screenshots and Checklists are courtesy of CPS

Bomber

FLAPS, UNDERCARRIAGE AND CONTROL SURFACE NOTES:

* The flaps and undercarriage are activated by hydraulic jacks (or manually
in the case of the Bf109 flaps). When these devices are extended, they stick
out into the airflow where they will be subjected to strong aerodynamic
forces. If the airspeed is very high, then the forces upon the devices and the
hydraulic system become very large and can cause serious damage.
Therefore, a maximum speed is specified below which it is safe to extend the
flaps and gear without danger of damaging them. If they are deployed above
this speed, they will typically cause lots of buffeting, and can become stuck
in one position.

** A characteristic typical of all the aircraft featured was the

stiffening of controls at high speed. One cause of this problem was that the
control surfaces were covered with fabric rather than metal. This kept the
controls systems light in weight but at high speeds, such as in a steep dive,

190
the surfaces would tend to balloon outwards due to the airflow past them.
This resulted in the controls becoming very stiff, such that the pilot may have
insufficient strength to move the control stick and recover from the dive. In
this case, it is necessary to close the throttle and reduce the speed of the
aircraft before pulling back on the stick to raise the nose.
This problem was eventually remedied by replacing the fabric covered
control surfaces with metal covered ones giving significantly greater
manoeuvreability at high speeds, but this did not take place until 1941, after
the Battle of Britain.

FLYING

THE NOVICE FLIGHT MODE

The novice flight model is provided as a means of playing the game without
having to consider the dynamic behavior of the aircraft including the level of
stability and control effectiveness throughout the flight envelope. It also
allows the novice player to throw the aircraft around the sky without having
to worry about exceeding the limits of the aircraft or the consequences of
doing so.

The novice model uses the same data as the full flight model, which allows
the performance of the aircraft to be modeled to the same high level of
accuracy. The result of this is that the player can choose to fly using the
arcade flight model and still be able to fly in formation with other aircraft, or
enter combat with the same fighting capabilities as a player using the full
flight model. Since the novice model does not represent the dynamic
response of the novice, the control of the aircraft is considerably easier, due
to the more stable behavior of the aircraft, and due also to the fact that the
controls will only manoeuvre the aircraft within it’s safe limits. Therefore, in
a tight turn, the player can pull the control stick all the way back to get
maximum turn rate, but will never be able to stall the aircraft, or loose
control. The energy of the aircraft is modeled accurately so the aircraft will
still loose speed in a tight turn, or if the player tries to climb too steeply. If
too much speed is lost, the aircraft will not be able to continue flying in a
straight line so, just like in a real stall, the nose will drop until the speed
builds up again.

Customization of the Novice Flight model parameters can be done via

the in-game menu options and also via the BDG.txt file see Chapter 2 &
Chapter 3.

191
THE CROSS-OVER TURN

The RAF fighter formations were generally made up of vics of three aircraft
with a separation of approximately 2 wingspans between adjacent aircraft.
This requires very accurate flying and continuous concentration from the
pilots. When turning onto a new heading, the two wingmen must maintain
their position relative to their leader. This means that the aircraft on the
inside of the curve must turn more tightly than the lead aircraft, and likewise
the wingman on the outside must make a larger radius turn than his leader to
stay in position. As well as making turns of different radii, the two wingmen
must also adjust their speed so that they remain the correct distance behind
the leader. This requires the pilot of the inner aircraft to reduce the throttle
during the turn, and the pilot of the outer aircraft to increase the throttle as he
has a greater distance to travel.

The Luftwaffe fighters would fly in Schwarm made up of four aircraft with
adjacent aircraft being about 200 yards apart. If the pilots attempted to use
the same technique as used by the RAF for turning onto a new heading, then
the radius of the turn would be very large indeed and require the pilot on the
outside of the curve to open the throttle fully, while the inner pilot would
have to slowdown very rapidly, make a tight turn at low speed, and then
accelerate again rapidly to regain the original speed. In order to avoid these
problems, the Luftwaffe developed the crossover turn, as illustrated below.
This allowed the all the pilots in the Schwarm to maintain their original
throttle setting throughout the manoeuvre, but ended up with the positions in
the formation being reversed.

192
STALLING AND SPINNING
As the angle of attack of the wings (or tail surfaces) is increased, the
aerodynamic force produced due to the airflow will also increase. By pulling
back on the stick, the pilot will lower the tail of the aircraft and this will
increase the attitude of the aircraft relative to the airflow, thereby increasing
the angle of attack. Unfortunately, the lift produced by the wing cannot be
increased indefinitely by simply pulling back on the stick. As the angle is
increased, the airflow over the top of the wing is required to change direction
more rapidly to follow the curved surface. If the angle of attack exceeds the
stall angle, the air can no longer follow the surface smoothly, and the laminar
airflow breaks down to produce turbulent eddies over the wing. This
turbulence results in a loss of lift, increased drag on the wing and because the
eddies are irregular, the aerodynamic forces produced will be varying at a
fairly high frequency. This unsteadiness causes buffeting which is felt
through the structure of the aircraft as a shaking, and is a good warning that
the
wings are approaching a stall. A stall can happen at low speed in level flight
as the pilot pulls back on the stick to keep the nose of the aircraft from
falling, or in a tight turn when he is pulling back to achieve a high turn rate.

Fighter aircraft like the Spitfire are designed to be highly manoeuverable,

and therefore the pilot is provided with lots of elevator power. This means
that he can pitch the aircraft up or down quickly and enter a tight turn easily,
but he must also be careful not to pull too hard on the stick and stall the
wings. The Spitfire would enter a stall well before the control stick had been
pulled back to its limit.

When the wings are near or beyond the stall angle, the ailerons usually loose
their effectiveness, as they are no longer in smooth laminar airflow.
Sometimes lowering the aileron on one side of the aircraft can cause that
wing to stall earlier than the other and hence result in the aircraft rolling the
opposite way to expected. Therefore, the pilot must take care when using the
ailerons at low speed, such as during takeoff and landing, or in a tight turn.
193
If the aircraft enters a stall and the pilot holds the stick all the way back, the
speed will eventually become so low that the wings can no longer produce
enough lift to hold the weight of the aircraft in the air and the nose will drop
rapidly. If the pilot now centers the stick, the aircraft will dive and regain
speed such that the wings begin producing lift again and the pilot regains
control. If the aircraft is not completely straight when a stall occurs, one
wing may stall while the other continues to produce lots of lift. If this is the
case, the stalled wing will drop and the aircraft can rapidly enter a spin
during which the pilot have very little control. (The pilot can deliberately
enter a spin by applying full rudder just before the stall is reached.) The
nature of the spin will depend on the characteristics of the aircraft but in
general, altitude it lost very rapidly and if the spin in not corrected the
aircraft is likely to crash into the ground. During a spin, both wings are at
high angles of attack so the ailerons cannot be used to stop the aircraft
rotating. Similarly, the airflow over the tail surfaces is no longer smooth, and
therefore the elevators have little effectiveness. Attempting to raise the nose
of the aircraft by pulling back on the stick will only result in increasing the
stall and worsening the spin.

194
To recover from a spin, the control stick should be held central or pushed
forwards and full opposite rudder should be applied. This should be
maintained until the aircraft stops spinning and begins to build up speed in a
dive. Once the aircraft has accelerated to the normal flying speed, the pilot
will regain control and can raise the nose of the aircraft and continue flying.

The player can also use the Spin Recovery cheat to regain control of the
aircraft by holding down “Shift-S” until the aircraft stops rotating and the
controls regain their effectiveness.

195
Stalling Speeds

As the aircraft loses speed, the pilot must pull back on the stick to maintain
enough lift to keep the aircraft flying at the same altitude. If he attempts to
maintain altitude with the throttle closed, the aircraft will eventually slow
down so much that the wings cannot produce enough lift and the aircraft
stalls. The approximate speed at which this will occur is given below. These
speeds are correct for a normally loaded aircraft at sea level (i.e. indicated air
speed) with its undercarriage and flaps retracted.
Supermarine Spitfire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 m.p.h.
Hawker Hurricane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 m.p.h.
Messerschmitt Bf 109 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 m.p.h.
Messerschmitt Bf 110 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 m.p.h.
Junkers Ju 87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 m.p.h.

Stalling And Spinning Characteristics

Each type of aircraft will have its own specific stalling characteristics that
will depend on the shape of the wing cross-section and the weight and
geometry of the aircraft. The behavior of the aircraft will also be affected by
the extension of devices such as flaps and gears, and damage to the wings
and tail surfaces as well as the fuel load, the speed and the altitude.

Novice Model
If the Novice flight model is being used, there is no danger of the player
stalling or spinning the aircraft at all. Pulling all the way back on the control
stick will bring the wing almost to the stall limit but not beyond. If the
aircraft looses too much speed, the nose will drop and the speed must be
built up before level flight can be restored.

Spitfire
When the stall occurs, there is a violent shuddering throughout the aircraft
and there is also a tendency for the aircraft to flick over, particularly in a
high speed stall. Unless the control column is pushed forward rapidly, the
aircraft is likely to roll and a spin will result. The aircraft can enter a flat
spin, which may be irrecoverable and a number of Spitfires were lost in this
way. The loss of height involved in recovering from a spin may be large, and
the pilot should allow the aircraft to reach 150mph in the resultant dive
before starting to raise the nose.

196
Hurricane
At the stall, it is typical for one wing to drop sharply, often beyond the
vertical. This will occur with the flaps either up or down. Recovery from a
spin is normal but like the Spitfire, a large amount of height may be lost in
the process. A speed of 150 mph should be attained in the dive before the
pilot attempts to return to level flight.

Bf109
This aircraft is fitted with automatic leading edge slats that will open at about
20mph above the normal stalling speed. These help to keep the airflow over
the top surface of the wing smooth and laminar and delay the occurrence of
the stall. Without these slats, the aircraft would have to take-off and land at
higher speeds that requires a greater distance of runway and can lead to more
serious accidents. Although the fighter stalls at quite high speeds, this is
gentle, even under G, with no tendency to spin. The onset of the stall is
signaled by buffeting of the elevators typically followed by the gentle
dropping of the nose and left wing. The Bf109 would never enter a flat spin
and there was never any difficult in recovering from a spin.

Bf110
Like the Bf109, this aircraft is fitted with leading edge slats that will open
automatically as the airspeed reduces. Care should be taken when using only
one engine as this can lead to uneven airflow over the two wings, causing the
aircraft to swing and bank, and may cause uneven stalling of the wings
leading to a spin. This is particularly hazardous when the flaps are extended
and when making a single engine approach, with the stationary propeller
feathered, the flaps should not be lowered by more than 25 degrees.

Ju87
The Ju87 is a stable bomber rather than an agile fighter. For this reason it has
large tail surfaces giving it inherent stability and gentle stall characteristics.
During the development of the Ju87B from the Ju87A, the fin was enlarged
to compensate for the change in the engine fitted, and this had the effect of
making the aircraft almost spin-proof.

197
COMBAT MANOEUVRES
COMBAT PERFORMANCE COMPARED

Turn Performance at 16,000 ft

Both the British and German aircraft engines were fitted with superchargers,
giving them a maximum power output at about 15-16,000 ft. Combat would
typically start at this sort of altitude, but descend towards the ground as the
aircraft lost energy in turns. By using full throttle and pulling on the stick to
achieve a tight turn, with the aircraft at the stall limit, the four fighter aircraft
could maintain the rates of turn given below. These are theoretical results
and would allow the pilot to maintain this speed and turn rate without
loosing altitude, but in practice it is very difficult to do accurately.

198
Speed and Climb Performance at 16,000 ft
As well as using the turn rate of the aircraft to get onto the tail of the
opponent, the fighter pilots could also use manouevres involving rapid
climbing and diving. By climbing above the enemy aircraft, a pilot could
start an engagement with an energy advantage, which he could convert to
speed by diving down to the level of his opponent, and regain by climbing
away to safely following the attack. The climb performance and maximum
speed of the fighter aircraft at an altitude of 16,000ft are given below.

Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf109 Compared

Comparison flight-testing of a captured Messerschmitt Bf109 and a Spitfire
during the summer of 1940 carried out by the Royal Aircraft Establishment
at Farnborough proved the following results:
• In a shallow dive the two aircraft have the same speed.
• In a flat-out straight and level race the German proved very slightly
faster.
• In various rolls and turns, the Spitfire was decidedly more
manoeuvreable.
• Pulling out of a steep dive, the 109E had a most definite advantage. It
could pull up more sharply, and climb away a little faster.

199
As can be seen from the comparison above, the fighter aircraft had different
relative strengths and weaknesses in combat. The tactics and manoevres used
by a pilot would depend on the type of aircraft he was flying, allowing his to
exploit the aircraft’s strengths and avoid the weaknesses that could allow his
adversary to get an advantage in an engagement.

The main differences between the aircraft types with regard to their combat
performance are as follows.
• The British aircraft have a lower wing loading than their German
counterparts. The wing loading is the weight of the aircraft divided by
the wing area, and is typically expressed in pounds per square foot or in
kilograms per square meter.

• Generally, a lower wing loading allows the aircraft to pull more G, and
therefore turn more tightly. This can be seen in the diagram above
showing the relative turn performance of the 4 fighter aircraft.

• The German fighters have a higher thrust to weight ratio than the British
aircraft. The Bf109 is approximately 10% lighter than the Spitfire, but
has about 10% more engine power available. This results in a greater
climb rate, and also a higher ceiling.

• The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is fitted with a gravity-fed carburetor

while the Daimler-Benz engine using direct fuel injection. This allows
the German aircraft to experience negative G without loss of power, but
the engines in the British aircraft would be starved of fuel if the aircraft
does not maintain positive G during flight.

• The Bf110 and the Ju87 are both relatively heavy with less
manoeuvreability than the Spitfire, Hurricane and Bf109. They do,
however, have the advantage of a rear gunner giving them good all
round visibility and allowing the second crew member to return fire
when the aircraft is attacked from the rear. It should be noted that the
single rearward facing machine gun is no match for the eight Browning
0.303in guns of the Spitfire or Hurricane. The gunner being situated
towards the rear of the aircraft with little armor is highly vulnerable to
enemy fire.

200
SPITFIRE
Level Turning Fight
As illustrated above, the Spitfire had the best turning performance of the 4
fighters. This gave the Spitfire pilot an advantage in a level turning fight,
allowing him to turn more quickly than any German adversary, and thus get
into an attacking position on the tail of the enemy aircraft.

Split-S
As the Merlin engine must always have positive G to provide fuel to the
engine, the Spitfire cannot enter a dive simply by pushing forward sharply on
the stick. Doing this would result in negative G, which would cause the
engine to cut out for a few seconds. This momentary loss of power is
enough to allow a pursuing aircraft to gain ground, or an aircraft being
pursued to escape. The Spitfire pilot must therefore use a Split-S manoeuvre,
which involves rapidly rolling the aircraft into an inverted position and then
pulling back on the stick. This manoeuvre maintains a positive G force on
the aircraft throughout.

201
Climbing Turn
This was a defensive manoeuvre used by Spitfire pilots to take advantage of
the aircraft’s high turn rate. It was a steep climb with a spiraling turn during
which the pilot would hope to out-turn a pursuing aircraft. Obviously, the
aircraft speed will decrease rapidly during this manoeuvre so it cannot be
maintained for any significant length of time.

Split-S
Like the Spitfire, the Hurricane is powered by a Merlin engine with a gravity
fed carburetor. It must therefore use the Split-S manoeuvre in order to enter a
steep dive without loosing engine power.

202
Head-on Attack
This was a tactic employed by some Hurricane squadrons when attacking
order to launch an attack on the nose of the aircraft. The bombers often had
all the crew members concentrated in the front section of the aircraft but with
little defensive weaponry or armor against a head on attack. The fighter
pilots would therefore hope to shoot through the glass nose of the bomber
and kill or disable the pilot. As the fighters approach the bombers head on,
they have a closing speed of some 500mph. This leaves them very little time
to aim and shoot before having to bunt to avoid a collision. This attack
method was later abandoned following heavy losses to the fighter squadrons.

Dive and Zoom

As stated above, the Messerschmitt Bf109 has a high climb rate, but a lower
turn rate than the Spitfire or Hurricane. These properties mean that the
German fighter was more suited to combat in a vertical plane rather that a
horizontal turning fight. The German pilots would attempt to start an attack
from above the enemy and in the direction of the sun. From this position they
could dive into a formation of British fighters undetected, fire at the aircraft
in the rear of the formation, and climb back to safety using their superior
climb rate.

203
Up and Under
This was a technique used for attacking an aircraft from astern without being
spotted, and was favored by Adolf Galland, who made the majority of his
victories in this way. All the single seat fighters offered the pilot poor
visibility to the rear and below the tail, and had a significant blind spot,
which could be utilized by an aggressor. The attack started with a steep dive
from above and behind the enemy, to a position to the rear and slightly
below it. Here, the pilot of the enemy aircraft would not see the aggressor
approaching and the first he would know of the attack was when it was too
late. A right handed pilot with his left hand on the throttle and right hand on
the stick could see slightly more over his left shoulder than his right.
Therefore, this attack was best made from slightly to the right of the enemy
aircraft.

Steep Dive
The Messerschmitt was slightly faster in a dive than it’s British counterparts.
This allowed the German pilots to escape a pursuing fighter by pushing
forward on the stick and entering a steep dive. As well having the superior
diving speed, the Bf109 could withstand negative G without loosing engine
power. This meant that it could enter a dive by bunting, whereas a pursuing
British pilot would have to perform a split-S manoeuvre or loose engine
power for a few second, both of which allowed the German to increase the
distance between himself and his adversary.

204
BF110
Like the single engine Bf109, the Bf110 had a relatively large turning circle,
but good climbing and diving speed. Therefore this aircraft was also better
suited to combat in a vertical plane rather than a horizontal turning fight.

Stall Turn
The Bf110 was heavy and less manoeuvreable than the Spitfire, Hurricane
would use a stall turn. This was done by adopting a nose high attitude and
climbing until the aircraft speed dropped off and left the aircraft almost
hanging in the air and on the verge of a stall. At this point, the pilot would
apply full rudder in the direction he wished to turn, causing one wing to stall
and the aircraft to rotate rapidly as the nose drops. Once the aircraft was
pointing in the desired direction, the pilot would apply full opposite rudder to
stop the turn, and hold the nose down to pick up speed before resuming
normal flight. As one wing is being deliberately stalled, there is a risk of this
manoeuvre going wrong and the aircraft entering a spin.

Lufberry
When attacked by British fighters the Bf110s, lacking the high
manoeuvreability of their opponents, would sometimes form a defensive
circle, called a Lufberry. The circle was usually about a mile across and
often rather ragged in shape, but it allowed each aircraft to cover the tail of a
fellow pilot to prevent the British fighters from getting into a firing position.
This manoeuvre was also used by the Junkers Ju87 when threatened.

DIVE BOMBING PROCEDURE

The Ju87 was used for highly accurate dive bombing attacks of convoys of
ships as well as ground targets. The aircraft could carry a 1000 lb bomb on a
205
extending bomb crutch under the center of the fuselage. On releasing the
bomb in a steep dive, the crutch would swing forwards and downwards,
ensuring that the bomb was clear of the propeller disc at the point of release.
A typical dive bombing attack would start at about 10,000 - 15,000 ft above
the target, and involve a 80 degree dive through 8,000 feet reaching a speed
of 350 mph, almost straight down. The bomb would be released at about
2,300 ft (700 m) allowing the pilot to pull out of the dive, sometimes clearing
the ground by less than 100 m, and climb away from the target area.

In order to prevent excessive speeds in the dive, the Stuka is fitted with
under-wing dive brakes, which can be rotated to lie perpendicular to the
airflow. This results in a large amount of extra drag on the wings which,
along with the large fixed undercarriage, holds the speed of the aircraft back
to about 350 mph.

The Ju 87 cruises at about 160 mph. A window in the floor of the cockpit
allows the pilot to look down on the area below and ahead of his aircraft in
order to find the target and decide when to begin his attack. When he judges
he is over the target he pulls a lever to rotate the underwing dive brakes to
the maximum-drag position. This would cause a severe nose-up trim change,
so to compensate for it and hold the aircraft level the trim tab lowered
automatically beneath the elevator. The pilot would then enter an 80º dive by
either pushing forward on the stick, or rolling the aircraft onto its back, and
pulling on the stick.

During the dive, the inherent stability of the aircraft made it easy for the pilot
to place the gunsight on the target and hold it there. When the aircraft passes
below a pre-set altitude, typically 4,300 ft (1300 m) above the ground, a
warning horn would sound in the cockpit. The horn would cease a few
seconds later as the aircraft crossed the pre-set bomb release altitude,
typically 2,300 ft (700 m). This was the signal for the pilot to release the
bombs. Releasing the bomb would also return the elevator trimming tab to
the neutral position, and the nose up change of trim associated with the dive
brakes would cause the aircraft to that the aerodynamic loading on the
aircraft was not greater than 6G, however, the pilot could bypass this system
by pulling back hard on the stick and overriding the hydraulic limiting

206
system. Once the nose of the aircraft had risen above the horizon, the pilot
would retract the dive brakes, to the low drag position, open the throttle and
continue flying as normal.

The check list for preparing the Ju87 to enter a dive was as
follows:

Contact altimeter set to release altitude Throttle pulled right back Dive
brakes opened

207
TYPICAL DIVE BOMBING ATTACK

208
HAWKER HURRICANE

The Hawker Hurricane made its first flight in November 1935. It was
designed to be an easy aircraft to bring into production. The next year a
prototype was fitted with eight Browning machine guns and eventually the
guns were grouped in two quartets positioned to fire outside the propeller
disc.

In March 1939 the first batch of 600 Hurricanes were delivered, powered by
the Merlin III engine and with a three-bladed constant speed propeller. After
the 681st Hurricane was made, metal wings replaced the fabric-covered
wings in February 1940. The extra protection this armor provided (including
rear protection for the pilot) made up for its inferior performance compared
with the Messerschmitt. During the Battle of Britain two thirds of active
RAF fighters were Hurricanes.

SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE

The Spitfire was the end result of a project by Vickers' subsidiary

Supermarine Aviation to design an experimental high-speed single-seat
fighter. Service pilots reported that the prototype was "simple and easy to fly
209
and [had] no vices". It seemed to give an excellent compromise between
manoeuvreability and steadiness for shooting. Reginald J. Mitchell was the
chief designer of the Spitfire, he died of cancer on June 11, 1937 four years
after being diagnosed. Much of his work on the Spitfire was done while he
was ill with the disease.

The first production aircraft flew on May 14, 1938. The Spitfire was not an
easy aircraft to build, which was part of the reason for the easier constructed
Hurricane being found in greater strength at the start of the Battle of Britain.
The production difficulties with early Spitfires were shown by comparative
figures from mid 1940, when the rate was still averaging only 80 a month
compared with 236 a month for the Hurricane. In spite of this, Spitfires
inflicted more than half the total losses suffered by the Luftwaffe in the
assault on Britain – a statistic that underlines the Supermarine fighter’s
particular merit in air-to-air fighting.

MESSERSCHMITT BF109

Designed by Messerschmitt and Lusser, the Bf109 first flew in May 1935.
Some of its features, including poor taxiing view, aroused extreme
skepticism among conventionalists. It was a powerful aircraft - in November
1937 the Bf109 V13 raised the world airspeed record for land-based planes
to over 370 mph.

There was a single 400 liter internal fuel tank behind and below the pilots
seat. This gave only 20 minutes actual combat time over Britain with London
representing the effective limit of their tactical radius. 300 liter droptanks
were developed, produced from molded plywood – but they were found to
leak seriously after comparatively short exposure to the elements.

210
Most of the 1,172 aircraft lost by RAF Fighter Command during July-
October 1940 fell to the guns of the Messerschmitt single-seat fighters.

MESSERSCHMITT BF110

The Bf110 was designed to fulfill the concept of a strategic fighter, which
included performing the primary task of clearing a path for bombers in the
light of an enemy’s defensive fighter screen. The challenge was to make a
twin-engine long range fighter compete in combat terms with a short range
single seat fighter. In this sense the Bf110 was to fall short of the
expectations generated by the Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin. It was
sluggish by comparison with the manoeuvreability of the Hurricane and
Spitfire. The acceleration and speed of the Bf110 were insufficient to enable
its pilots to avoid combat when opposed by superior numbers of interceptors.

211
JUNKERS JU87

The Junkers dive bomber had an angular and rather ugly design, but it was
an extremely sturdy aircraft. It gave its pilot light controls and good flying
characteristics. Its crew members enjoyed good visibility and it was reputed
to be capable of hitting its target with an accuracy of less than 100 ft.

Once the Ju87 encountered determined opposition, such as was to be found

over the United Kingdom, its career dramatically entered its eclipse. By July
20, Luftflotten 2 and 3 had 316 Ju87s available for the assault on Britain.
The first Ju87 sorties in strength actually took place on August 8, suffering
severe losses despite Bf109Es providing top cover. The Stuka had been
revealed for what it was – an inadequately armed and highly vulnerable
warplane.
The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe had no recourse but to withdraw the Ju87
from the Cherbourg area to the Pas de Calais where it was to sit out the
closing phases of the Battle.

212
AIRCRAFT DATA AND PERFORMANCE

FIGHTERS

BOMBERS

213
OTHERS

214
This Page Intentionally Left Blank

215
 CHAPTER 7
BATTLE OF BRITAIN REMEMBERED

uring the 1930's, the British Air Ministry commissioned two new
monoplane fighters, the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, both of
which were in squadron service by 1938. These aircraft were very different
to the comparatively slow and delicate biplanes that the RAF’s pilots had
flown in the First World War. Fighter tactics were drawn up from theories
based upon fighters intercepting lone and unescorted bombers. This was
because Britain exceeded the range of German fighters, flying from German
bases, so fighter-to-fighter combat was considered to be of secondary
importance, not to mention unlikely. Thus in Britain, Fighter Command’s
pilots flew their monoplane fighters in tight ‘vics’ of three, practicing
carefully coordinated attacks against either lone or small numbers of enemy
bombers. Actual combat experience during the Spanish Civil War had
already taught the Germans that such tactics were already obsolete.

Hitler had secretly rebuilt his Luftwaffe with new aircraft of the latest
monoplane design, including both bombers and fighters. Taking the
Blitzkrieg formula into account, German fighter design included features
suitable for attacking both fighters and bombers. For example, the
Messerschmitt 109, like the Hurricane and Spitfire a fast, single-engine
fighter, was not only armed with two 7.9 mm machine-guns, but also two 20
mm cannon. Although the latter had a much slower rate of fire, the effects
were devastating. The 109’s engine was also fuel injected, meaning that it
was unaffected by gravity whilst in a diving attitude. By comparison, the
British fighters did not enjoy the benefits of cannon, but were instead armed
with eight .303 machine-guns. Also, no thought had been given in England
to fuel injection, the British fighters’ Rolls Royce Merlin engines relying on
the simple float carburetor system, this later giving the German fighter
superiority in the dive.

During the Spanish Civil War Germany developed a new formation known
as the Schwarm, this comprising four fighters spread out very loosely in a
stepped up line abreast similar to the fingers of an outstretched hand, there
being as much as 200 collision. When battle was joined the Schwarm would
split into the Rotte of two fighting pairs, leader and wingman. Indeed, this
remains the basic fighter formation even today. Germany also first used dive-

216
bombers in Spain, the much-feared Stukas, and medium bombers in support
of fast moving armor and infantry.

On May 10th, 1940, German forces attacked Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg

and France. In what came as a surprise attack, German armor poured through
the supposedly impassable Ardennes forest, effectively and immediately
outflanking the Maginot Line in the process. The Allies having been
collectively overwhelmed, they were finally evacuated from the beaches
around Dunkirk, the Royal Navy and ‘Little Ships’ rescuing some 330,000
Allied troops. Left behind, however, was all artillery, armor and much other
equipment. And the RAF component, the Advanced Air Striking Force, had
also suffered grievous losses. Sensibly, British Fighter Command had
retained its precious Spitfires for home defense, the more numerous
Hurricane squadrons having been sent to fight in the ill-fated French
campaign. Given that the First World War had raged for five years, the fact
that France had fallen in a matter of six weeks was completely stunning.

The opportunity to invade England had been an unexpected bonus for Hitler.
Although the RAF clearly faced problems across the English Channel, so too
did the Germans. Barges suitable to carry an invasion force across the
Channel had to be found, converted, and concentrated in and around Calais.
Despite the fact that the Luftwaffe had been designed to support fast moving
ground forces, however, it now found itself required to operate in a strategic
role. German bombers were of a medium capacity, so lacked the
performance and bomb carrying capacities of the later four-engine Allied
bombers. Also, excellent though the Me 109 was, it was intended for use not
as an offensive escort fighter but in a defensive role meaning that its range
was too limited, providing just 20 minutes flying time over London.
Nevertheless, the Germans had great advantages in experience and enjoyed
numerical superiority.

Thirteen German divisions, each some 19,000 strong, were moved to the
Channel coast as the vanguard of a landing force comprising 39 divisions.
Plans were made for the disembarkation of 125,000 men during the
invasion’s first three days. The German service chiefs agreed that Operation
Sealion (Sealion, the proposed sea borne invasion of England) would only be
feasible if the Luftwaffe defeated the RAF, achieving total aerial supremacy
prior to the fleet setting sail.
Britain did have one particular advantage: radar, or more correctly ‘Radio
Direction Finding’. The extra few minutes warning given by this new
detection system would make it possible for the defending fighters to

217
‘scramble’ (emergency take-off) and attain an appropriate height and
position favorable for interception. By the summer of 1940, the radar chain
around the British Isles comprised 22 ‘Chain Home’ stations and 30 ‘Chain
Home Low’ stations. Each was positioned to ensure, at least in theory, that
every aircraft approaching Britain from the east or south would be detected
by at least two stations. Radar therefore became the keystone of Air Defense,
with its network of RDF stations, Observer Corps posts and centers, sector
operations rooms, radio-telephony transmitters, landlines and ancillary
devices. Germany failed to fully understand its significance, which would be
a major factor during the Battle of Britain.

For the air defense of Great Britain, Fighter Command divided the British
Isles into four Group areas, each with its own commander and headquarters
but answerable to Fighter Command HQ (Bentley Priory). London and the
southeast was defended by No 11 Group, No 12 Group protected the
Midlands and the north, whilst Northern Ireland was the responsibility of 13
Group. No 10 Group, covering the West Country and South Wales, became
operational on July 8th, 1940, just in time for the Battle of Britain II.
Although each Group Commander had commitments to his own area, he was
also obliged to respond to calls for assistance from 11 Group, which would
clearly bear the brunt of the fighting. Each Group was then sub-divided into
Sectors, each with its own Sector Station, effectively a local HQ comprising
both an aerodrome and Sector Operations Room.

The ‘System’ worked as follows:

• The RDF station would detect an increase in enemy activity over the
French coast as a raid assembled.

• This information would be passed by landline to the underground Filter

Room at Fighter Command. There the information was sifted by filterers
and filter officers, displayed on a gridded map and passed by tellers
through closed speech circuits to both the adjacent Command
Operations Room and those of the appropriate Groups.

• After incoming aircraft had crossed the coast, the Observer Corps was
responsible for tracking their progress. Posts reporting to the Observer
Centers which were connected by landline to the Command Operations
Room. From the latter were issued orders to local civilian authorities
regarding when to sound warning sirens. Tactical control, however, was
delegated to the Groups and Sectors who issued orders directly to
stations, squadrons and the Gun Operations Room which tied antiaircraft
guns into the System.

218
• In each Group Operations Room, at least one Controller was always on
duty, looking down on a huge gridded map showing the Group area
colored plaques manipulated by WAAFs, armed with magnetized
wands. Facing the Controller across a table was a ‘totalisator’ (or 'tote')
which showed at a glance the location and readiness state of each
squadron.

• The Group Controller would decide upon the appropriate course of

action in respect of each and every threat, and give appropriate orders to
Sector HQ and Gun Operations Rooms.

• The Sector Controller would then either bring his squadrons to a state of
‘Readiness’, i.e. ready for immediate take-off, or send them into the air
as appropriate. Once the squadrons were airborne, he would provide
them with information and instruction until such time as the formation
leader sighted the enemy. By that time, the skill of the Sector Controller
should theoretically have favorably positioned the squadrons to attack.
When the formation leader cried ‘Tally Ho!’, the Controller knew that
battle was about to be joined, his part played.

219
Despite the fact that the main attack would obviously fall upon southern
England, not all RAF strength was concentrated in that area. Squadrons
were, in fact, dispersed across the country, meaning that not only was the
whole country protected but that fresh squadrons were available to be sent
south as reinforcements. By the same token, it was possible to withdraw
depleted squadrons north to rest and re-fit.
In July 1940, the opposing forces compared as follows:

RAF FIGHTER COMMAND

Spitfires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Hurricanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Defiants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Blenheims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Total: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900

LUFTWAFFE
Aircraft in Air Fleets 2, 3 & 5:-
Fighters:-
Me 109s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844
Me 110s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Bombers: -
Ju 87s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Do 17, Ju 88, He 111s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,330
Long Range Recce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Total: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 2,784

RAF Fighter Command was therefore outnumbered by nearly 3:1 in purely

numerical terms. Naturally, enjoying unparalleled success, the Germans were
confident. Working against them, however, were the facts that their
personnel were tired, having been flying constant operations since May 10th,
and their aircraft were in need of attention. Defying these men and machines
was not only Fighter Command, in fact, but also the English Channel, every
sortie over England dictating two sea crossings. German airman shot down
over England or perhaps even the Channel, were likely to become prisoners.
An Allied airman shot down could, conversely, even be back in the air later
that same day.

Officially, the Battle of Britain II is deemed to have begun on July 10th. As

the battle developed, distinctive phases, dictated by the attacker, would
become apparent. The first concerned enemy attacks against Channel bound
convoys. Fighter Command was therefore compelled to fly hundreds of
sorties per day to protect this vital merchant shipping.

220
This phase of the Battle of Britain II lasted until August 12th, by which time
30,000 out of nearly five million tons of shipping fell victim to enemy air
attacks between Land’s End and the Nore. Raids were also mounted by dive-
bombers against various Chain Home radar stations, including those at
Pevensey, Rye, Dover and Ventnor. Small and therefore difficult to hit, none
of these stations were put out of action for more than 24 hours, so Fighter
Command was never denied the advantages of radar. During this phase, the
Luftwaffe had lost 261 aircraft, Fighter Command 261.

On August 2nd, orders were issued to Luftflotten (Air Fleets) 2, 3 and 5 to

destroy Fighter Command. This new phase commenced on August 13th, and
concentrated on Fighter Command’s airfields in southern England. During
this phase, the Germans, flying from northern bases, attacked targets in
northern England. To their dismay, however, mistakenly believing RAF
fighters to be concentrated in southern England, they were met by Hurricanes
and Spitfires in force, due to clever deployment of squadrons. German losses
were heavy. Nevertheless, Fighter Command’s airfields in 11 Group had
taken a pounding and the situation was critical. Reichsmarschal Goering now
turned his attention to London and a new phase consequently began on
September 7th. Although this was bad news for Londoners, the unexpected
respite allowed Fighter Command to return its hard-hit aerodromes to ‘top
line’. During the ‘Battle of the Airfields’, the Luftwaffe lost 629 aircraft,
Fighter Command 385.

London was, the Germans had decided, the only target likely to force the
British to commit large numbers of fighters to defend. On that basis virtually
the entire The first in this series of attacks against London came on the
afternoon of Saturday, 7th September. Hundreds of bombs crashed down on
docklands east of Tower Bridge. As this latest fire of London later
illuminated the night sky, the raiders returned in wave after wave. The attack
concluded at 0430 a.m. the following day, by which time 1,800 Londoners
were dead.

On Sunday, September 15th, the Luftwaffe launched what became its last
attempt to gain a decision in daylight over London. Dawn on the great day
found most of southern England shrouded with mist, but as the sun climbed
higher this quickly evaporated. The fine weather therefore heralded a
predictable onslaught. Before 11 a.m., German reconnaissance aircraft had
probed the Straits of Dover and the East Coast of Kent. From first light
onwards, standing patrols of Spitfires and Hurricanes had been up over the
coast from Harwich to Land’s End. Each Sector Station kept one squadron at
Readiness. At 10.50 a.m., the British radar stations reported an enemy
formation assembling SE of Boulogne. Five minutes later all of 11 Group’s

221
squadrons were at Readiness.

At 11.33 a.m., an enemy formation crossed the coast between Dover and
Folkestone, being followed three minutes later by two further hostile plots
between Dover and South Foreland. The raiders’ targets were London’s gas
works and other industrial objectives. To parry this thrust, squadrons were
airborne, reinforced at midday by the five squadrons of 12 Group’s so-called
‘Duxford Big Wing’, led by Squadron Leader Bader. Such was the ferocity
of Fighter Command’s attack that the enemy apparently bombed at random
across southern England. Two bombs fell on Buckingham Palace. Hardly
had this first mass attack been dispersed, however, than the radar stations
reported further incoming raids. Between 2.10 and 2.34 p.m., eight or more
German formations crossed the English coast bound for London. Having lit
fires in Woolwich, Barking, Stepney, Stratford Gasworks, West Ham, Penge,
and at a petrol depot in West Ham, the Luftwaffe withdrew, constantly
harried by the defenders.

Next, 27 He 111s attacked Portland and were intercepted by just six

Spitfires, and six RAF fighter squadrons coupled with accurate anti-aircraft
fire frustrated an attack on the Supermarine factory near Southampton. This
thwarted raid marked an end to the fighting on what has since become
annually celebrated in Britain as ‘Battle of Britain Day’. Although Fighter
Command’s pilots claimed a total number of 185 enemy aircraft destroyed,
more recent research confirms the actual figure as 58. Nevertheless, Fighter
Command lost just 28 aircraft, and was able to sustain such losses for longer
still.

On Tuesday, September 17th, British Intelligence intercepted a German

signal ordering the dispersal of invasion facilities: Sealion had been
postponed indefinitely.

The Battle of Britain did not end, however, with the fires in London on
September 15th, although clearly that date represented a climax and it
provides an ending to this simulation. Attacks on London continued, during
daylight for a while longer yet, although by smaller formations. Successful
attacks were made on various targets connected with the British aircraft
industry, although on September 30th, KG55’s He 111s took a beating
during an ill-fated raid on the Westland Aircraft Factory at Yeovil in
Somerset. As a result, the He 111 was transferred to the night blitz, which
had already started against British cities and which continued right up until
May 1941.

222
Although Britain’s cities continued to suffer at night given that nocturnal
defenses remained in their infancy, it was recognized that RAF Fighter
Command had won the daylight battle lasting 16 weeks.

The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill paid tribute to RAF Fighter
Command:

“ The gratitude of every home in our island . . . goes out to the British
airmen, who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and
mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and
devotion. Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so
many to so few. ”

© Dilip Sarkar August 2000.

223
 CHAPTER 8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CREDITS
(alphabetical order)

Battle of Britain 2 “Wings of Victory”

Production
Gentile, Scott

Lead Programming
Kuss, Wolfram

Additional Programming
Dinnerman, Bob
Friembichler, Lukas
Buddye “Buddye1” Lavender
Preston, Eric
Rivers, Mike
Torrielli, Miro

Artists
Anderson, Jay
Covington, Darrin
Evenden, Ben
Evenden, Tim
Flanigan, Chris
Gentile, Scott
Haber, David
Hopkinson, David
Merino, Mario
Rodriques, Rafael
Rogalski, Robert
Rogers, Paul
Santos, Dani
Silva, Marcelo da

224
Stickley, Jeff
Vincent, Pete
Waglowski, Micha
Walters, Ed
White, Simon
Wholaver, Mike

Quality Control / Testers

The team
Bunn, James
Steve (BobC)

Special Thanks to:

Tim Gallagher
Foust, John

Very special thanks to:

Thank you to all of our friends and families that stuck by us and worked
hard to support us.

Rowan Software
The creators of original Rowan’s Battle of Britain released in 2000:

Game Design
Rod Hyde
Mark Shaw

Programming
Andrew McMaster
Craig Beeston
James Taylor (lead)
Jonathan Booth
Paul Dunscombe
Robert Slater
Rod Hyde

Artists
Amanda McCann
Andrew McCann (lead)
Chris Jones
Ian Hardy
Richard Jones
Toks Solarin

225
Quality Assurance
Chris Jones
Christopher Giggins
Edward Albert Wilson
John Murray (lead)
Mark Forbes
Nmlotey Nartey
Phillip Baldwin

Sound Effects & German Speech

Nick Schreger (MeatWater)

Sound Engineer
Detlef Piepke (Audioworx)

Manual
Battle of Britain History Dilip Sarkar

Aircraft Photography
John Siddle

Military Advisor
D. Curry (Flt. Sgnt.)

Executive Producer
Roger Cheung

Production
Anthony J. Bond Jr

Art Director
Phil Goldfinch

Beta Testers
Aurang M. Shah-Stone
Chris Bebensee
Dietger Pohl
Gian Vitzthum
James "Dusty" Rhodes
Ken Cook
Kurt Giesselman
Paul Stewart

226
Rainer Rainman Rohde
Steve Redfern
Victor Di Cosola
Thomas Launder
Todd M. Garner

Battle of Britain Development Group (BDG)

A talented freeware group who continued to develop Rowan’s Battle of
Britain for more than three years after its release. Battle of Britain 2
“Wings of Victory” development started with the excellent work of BDG.

Programming
AtariBaby
Buddye "Buddye1" Lavender
Carlos ”Pipo” Cuevas
KH "viper-" Zeller
Lukas “Retro” Friembichler
Miro "Jammer" Torrielli
Siegfried "El Fanto" Hempfer
Wolfram “Osram” Kuss

Artists
BobC
Jeffrey "Stickman" Stickley
John "Maususer" C. Maleski
Paul “Bader” Rogers
Chris “Redband” Flanigan
Simon "eko" Knott

Testers
Benny T Jorgersen
James “JamesB” Bunn
JRT
Old Dux
Stefan "SaimOn" Simon

Localization
Jammer, Osram, Retro
Jose Luis “luke97” Galvan

BDG Manual
Welsey “Wildman” Netcher

227
BDG Website
GT

Special Thanks
Chris “Not Enough Red” Jones
Dave “Rowan” Whiteside
Ken "KC23" Cook

People who worked on previous versions:

Captain Farrel Texture templates
Carlos 'PIPO' Cuevas Translate Manual to Spanish
Eko, Lobo_Mau 3d modelling
Jiri "hyper-" Fojtasek Coder
Julian “Codec” Onions Flight model, vehicle manager foundations
Mark "A.Fokker" Linnemann MP host
RSColonel_131st Original web site
Tailslide, Dragonflyer, Weasel75, Glop Coding and help with CVS
Ursus HiRes cockpits

228
Version 2.04 Acknowledgements:

Programming:
Wolfram “Osram” Kuss (lead)
Buddye “Buddye” Lavender
Eric Preston
Rivers, Mike

New Artwork/Content/Terrain Credits:

Hurricane Hicken - HH
Pete Vincent - PV
Donn E Brooke – DB
Heini von Seppel

ME Bf109 & ME Bf110 Flight Model and Slats FM improvements:

Ken “Blue Six”

Cockpit Gauges:
Stickman, Smokin256

Unused Texture File Analysis and Removal:

Stickman

Version 2.04 Manual:

This manual is a compilation from numerous sources without which it
would have been impossible to put together. This included extensive
material from several previous game version manuals (BGD V.98, BDG
V.99, The Battle of Britain II Wings of Victory manuals); contributions
from the community from the many informative posts at the Shockwave
BoBII forums, contributions from BDG members and the Devs and a
small amount of new material from Borton and SeaVee.

Version 2.04 Manual Compilers:

Richard “SeaVee” Hudson
Bryon “Borton” Horton

General Editing and answering our endless questions (sometimes more

than once) especially mysterious BDG.TXT items:
Scott, Buddye, Osram, Bader, Stickman, Smokin256, Pete “PV” Vincent

Controller FAQ - Retro

RAF Campaign Tactics and Walkthrough - Wildman

229
Keycards - Stickman
Cockpit Screenshots and Checklists – CPS Bomber

Version 2.04 Beta Testers:

Scott – Shockwave
Osram
Bader
Buddye
Stickman
Smokin256
borton
Ross Moorhouse
Lewis Bloomfield
spitfireace
Tako_Kichi
von Messerschmitt
-spud-
mudmarine
HurricaneHicken
PV
the Dutchman
602RAF Puff
motoadve
CPS Bomber
Rends
ICDP
Chivas
blackmme
piper
Huw “Greytop” Prosser
Jordi
musk
Pickled
Redband_151
heinkill
Vectracdx
Morgul
Fredrick
Seafireliv
StG2_Airway
isathe
SeaVee

230
TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Please visit:

http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/index.php

231
APPENDIX A: COCKPITS
SPITFIRE

232
HURRICANE

233
BF109

234
BF110

235
STUKA

236
APPENDIX B – Key Cards

237
These keycards are courtesy of Stickman. Larger file format versions
better suited for printing can also be downloaded along with blank
keycards here:

http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/bob/update/keycard
s.zip

238
APPENDIX C
AUTOGEN function of the BDG.txt

The Autogen system takes existing 3D objects (*.bin files) and sprinkles
them over the landscape. There are only two things you have to tell it:
What to sprinkle and where to sprinkle it. Lets start with the "what". BoB
has numbered all the 3D objects, and you will find the numbers in the file
shapenum.g (Shape Numbers, generated). Here are some snippets:

const ShapeNum VSCON = (ShapeNum) 1;

[...]
const ShapeNum A_HORNCH = (ShapeNum) 610;
[...]
const ShapeNum DO17 = (ShapeNum) 19;
[...]
const ShapeNum COTTG2 = (ShapeNum) 59;
const ShapeNum HAYSTK = (ShapeNum) 60;
const ShapeNum PARLMT = (ShapeNum) 61;
const ShapeNum TREE1 = (ShapeNum) 62;
const ShapeNum TREE2 = (ShapeNum) 63;

Ignore all the styrofoam that is in there , look only at the 3. column and
the last one. So, if you want to litter Do17 about, use the number 19, for a
COTTG2 (Cottage2) use 59, for trees 62 or 63. A_HORNCH is obviously
building type a at HornChurch. If you don't see what something means
(for ex. VSCON), you have to try.
I don't know what a VSCON is either, (some of) you have the advantage
of being native speakers. A special number is zero - it means don't
sprinkle anything here. Also, see the graphical bin file catalogue created
by Arch.

Have a look at the shapenum.g file (included with the bob.exe) now!

So, the remaining question is how to tell BoB where to sprinkle the
objects. Every AreaType has its own number:

AreaType:
AT_darkGrass=0,

239
AT_midGrass=1,
AT_lightGrass=2,
AT_garden=3,
AT_golfCourse=4,
AT_field1=5,
AT_field2=6,
AT_field3=7,
AT_field4=8,
AT_field5=9,
AT_spread1=10,
AT_spread2=11,
AT_spread3=12,
AT_spread4=13,
AT_spread5=14,
AT_woods=15,
AT_swamp=16,
AT_rough=17,
AT_roughGrass=18,
AT_patchyGrass=19,
AT_sea=20,
AT_stream=21,
AT_village=22,
AT_denseTown=23,
AT_sparseTown=24,
AT_denseCity=25,
AT_sparseCity=26,
AT_cityBase=27,
AT_sand=28,
AT_whiteChalk=29,
AT_airField=30,
AT_urbanBuildup=31,

The "template" for telling the AutoGen stuff what to do is:

TEMP_AG_SN[AreaType,HowOften]=ShapeNum

For example:

TEMP_AG_SN[5,0]=59

means, sprinkle in field1 ("5"), a few (0=few, 1= a bit, 2 =many 3= really

many) cottage2s ("59").

240
So, for each of the 32 AreaTypes you can have up to 4 different
objecttypes you place there. These lines go into the ascii file "bdg.txt"
inside the main-bob-directory. You can add them with notepad or any
other ascii editor.

In the variable name, TEMP is a reminder that this is temporary stuff, AG

= AutoGen, SN = Shape number.

The "0" objects are used for 1.5% of all objects, the "1" objects are used
for 4.6% of all objects, the "2" objects are used for 18.8% of all objects
and the "3" objects are used for 75% of all objects.

Note that the second number is in range 0-3, not 1-4 and the first in the
range 0-31.

The only other AutoGen variable currently is

TEMP_AG_DIST

which determines the distance between two adjacent objects. AFAIK, its
cm, good values are 2000 or heigher.

Keep in mind you can effectively have different densities by setting things
to zero.

When using AutoGen you should disable raises in the BoB settings.

Known issues:
If you fly high, you will get AutoGen whether you want or not.

Here is a bdg.txt snippet from maususer, that might be a good starting

point:

TEMP_AG_SN[0,2]=328
TEMP_AG_SN[1,0]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[2,0]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[3,0]=59
TEMP_AG_SN[4,0]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[5,2]=329
TEMP_AG_SN[6,2]=328
TEMP_AG_SN[7,0]=63
241
TEMP_AG_SN[8,0]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[9,0]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[10,0]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[11,0]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[12,0]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[13,2]=328
TEMP_AG_SN[14,0]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[15,3]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[16,0]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[17,2]=329
TEMP_AG_SN[18,0]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[19,2]=329
TEMP_AG_SN[22,3]=53
TEMP_AG_SN[23,3]=62
TEMP_AG_SN[24,3]=53
TEMP_AG_SN[25,1]=124
TEMP_AG_SN[26,1]=118
TEMP_AG_SN[27,1]=116
TEMP_AG_SN[28,0]=53
TEMP_AG_SN[29,1]=31
TEMP_AG_SN[30,0]=96
TEMP_AG_SN[31,3]=63
TEMP_AG_SN[31,2]=56
TEMP_AG_SN[31,1]=54
TEMP_AG_SN[31,0]=52

TEMP_AG_DIST=8000

242
Auto TreeLines:
===============

These are very similar, but "1 dimensional"

You give a distance like this

TEMP_AGTL_DIST=6000

Default is 3000. You choose the trees to set like this.

The LOD behaviour with these standard trees is not useful for Auto
Treelines.

TEMP_AGTL_SN[0]=62
TEMP_AGTL_SN[1]=63
TEMP_AGTL_SN[2]=62
TEMP_A.GTL_SN[3]=63

243
APPENDIX D
BDG_Values.Maneuvre Testing codes for Activating fprintf
.
(intended for BDG coder use only)

1.Collision Avoidance
2.Manual Transition Phase I
3.Spin Recovery
4.Too Low
5.Manual and Simple ACM
6. Simple ACM
7.Manual ACM
8.Mod Roll Rate
9.Mod Roll
10.Mod Fast Roll
11.Set Thrust
12.Mod AOA
13.Mod Pitch
14.Mod Vel Pitch
15.Mod Lift Limit
16.Mod Rudder
17.Simple Transition
18.Process Piston Engines
19.Complex Engine Process
20.Sub Base
21.Real Base
22.ACM Base
23.Calc Best Climb Pitch
24. MoveItem
25. MoveTransItem
26 AirCraftDanage
27. FighterDamageBehaviour
28. ArcadeBase
29. TouchedGround
30. SetEngage
31. Seen
32. VisibleAcCheck
33. AeroDevice::Action
34. MainPlane::Process
35. Surface::Process

244
36. SimpleACM Invalid Move Code
37. ManualACM Invalid Move Code
38. MoveItem – AI A/C damage
39.:SetInstruments - Instruments

245