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Special Aircraft Service
Battlefield - Airborne - Tactical (BAT) => BAT Missions and Campaigns => WAW (World at War) => Topic started by: vonofterdingen on November 25, 2024, 12:43:48 PM
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(https://i.postimg.cc/K8BcFd2C/01-Blue-Title.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/xXjV3pqP)
This campaign follows the exploits of the Spanish Esquadrilla Azul, a volunteer squadron that fought against the Soviets on the Eastern front. Be sure to download both the campaign and skin folders.
Download campaign and PaintSchemes folders here: https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=3219 (https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=3219)
For convenience, here a second link for the PaintSchemes folder only: https://www.mediafire.com/file/oiitsr5mvkxmthj/Blue_Squadron_PaintSchemes_v2.zip/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/oiitsr5mvkxmthj/Blue_Squadron_PaintSchemes_v2.zip/file)
History and Background by Lars
Spain’s Blue Squadron, aka Esquadrilla Azul, was formed in the same way that the Germans created the Legion Condor during the Spanish Civil War. The Germans rotated their aircrew so that many more than one unit gained combat experience and learned new techniques. In the same way, the Spaniards rotated five different squadrons to the Russian Front, usually with some pilots overlapping to help the new arrivals settle in.
Eventually Allied pressure forced the Spaniards to withdraw from Russia, else be drawn into WW2 on the Axis side. The aim of fighting had been to continue the battle against the Communists but on their home ground as a ‘return fight’ after beating them in the Civil War. Thus the squadron badge has the number 2 or II added to the three bird logo.
(https://i.postimg.cc/26PXzXmX/02-Blue-He-112.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/gXHKssxv)
The Spanish army sent 18000 men as the Blue Division which fought on the Leningrad Front. The air contingent was recruited in order to directly support them, but to the initial disappointment of the pilots they were employed towards the Central Front during the Battle of Moscow, and the next contingents stayed in that area and were prominent in the later Battle of Kursk.
The participating pilots were all part of the Spanish Air Force, aka Ejercito del Aire Espanol. On the home front they were responsible for defending their air space from frequent intrusions by both Allied and Axis aircraft. Thus we begin the campaign with home defence. Mention should be also be made of Spaniards who flew with the Allies but that is another story.
There were many changes of base during the various tours so we have kept generally to the main airfields used. Different sources give different details but we hope we have done the units justice.
Combat records summary
1st Esquadrilla Azul aka 15 span./JG27
Aircraft Bf109E7B
Personnel 17 pilots (who had 79 kills between them from the SCW)
Central Russian Front September 1941 to January 1942. Battle of Moscow. Escorts, ground attack and free chase missions.
Flew 422 combat missions, had 94 air combats and destroyed 10 aircraft in the air plus 5 on the ground for the loss of 5 pilots.
2nd Esquadrilla Azul aka 15 span./JG51
Aircraft Bf109F2 and F4
Personnel 17 pilots (at least 24 kills from the SCW with some pilots fresh from training)
Central Russian Front June to December 1942. Free chase and escorts.
Flew 1312 combat missions, had 117 air combats and destroyed 13 aircraft but lost 3 pilots.
(https://i.postimg.cc/8zZbwnFf/04-Blue-109.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/VJbMkgWz)
3rd Esquadrilla Azul aka 15 span/JG51
Aircraft Bf109F4 then Fw190A2
Personnel 19 pilots (I kill from the SCW plus veterans from SCW who never scored plus trainee pilots)
Central Russian Front December 1942 to July 1943. Free chase and escorts.
Flew 1718 combat missions, had 112 air combats and destroyed 62 aircraft but lost 5 pilots.
4th Esquadrilla Azul aka 15 span/JG51
Aircraft Fw190A2 and A3
Personnel 20 pilots (4 kills from SCW plus veterans and trainees)
Central Russian Front July 1943 to February 1944. Battle of Kursk. Free chase and escorts.
Flew 1918 combat missions, had 277 air combats and destroyed 74 aircraft for the loss of 7 pilots.
5th Esquadrilla Azul aka 15 span JG51
Aircraft Bf109G6
Personnel 19 pilots (4 veterans plus trainees)
Central Russian Front February to March 1944.
Flew 86 combat missions, had 6 air combats with no claims but one loss.
Thanks to Hans Werner Neulen and Jose Luis Gonzalez Serrano for the above statistics.
(https://i.postimg.cc/1zzmkM9q/05-Blue-dogfight.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/fV6QXcSz)
Installation
This campaign was written and tested using the SAS BAT Mod Pack, available here at the SAS website:
It may work on other modded systems but the campaign uses Command and Control objects and Triggers, so many mission features would be lost or unworkable without these features. In many cases, enemy aircraft and targets will not appear without these mods.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tgGfP4cC/06-Blue-P-38-kill.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/v4X3wbMp)
To install:
• Extract the Blue Squad.zip file and the Blue Squadron PaintSchemes zip file to a temporary directory and unzip them.
• Copy the decompressed Missions and PaintSchemes folders to your IL-2 1946 root folder.
• In the New Pilot Career page, choose Spain Nationalist in the Air Force selection drop-down.
• Choose Blue Squadron in the Career drop-down.
• We recommend turning off No Instant Success for this campaign.
• The campaign is designed to be compatible with any rank selection.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mgHPrBJS/Screen-Hunter-1075.png) (https://postimg.cc/TKTd7MRy)
Credits
Many thanks to the BAT team for developing, maintaining, and improving the BAT Modpack. As in all of our campaigns, we make liberal use of Kurfurst’s mission templates, available at the Mission 4 Today site.
We all know how valuable skins are to campaign building and enjoyment. Special thanks to Wolf44 who made many skins for us expressly for this campaign.
Known skin credits:
CR-32 juanmalapuenta
Bf-109 Dori, AG.skins
Fw-190 Wolf44
P-39 Goodwood
He-112 Wolf44
This campaign also uses skins from the BAT install and we do not know the author(s). If you spot a skin here that did not receive proper credit please let us know and we will rectify the oversight.
(https://i.postimg.cc/L5wjrndc/Last.png) (https://postimg.cc/kRNVSMgs)
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That sounds like a very interesting campaign.
cheers
David
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Thanks for your work. Let's fly it now
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Many Thank you.
And...could you provide the file of SEhouse31 object for the lower version's BAT users ?
I can replace it with SEhouse30 object, but I'd preferably respect the original mission.
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I don't happen to have any of the invidual static objects. As far as I know they are embedded within the BAT sfs archives. Also, be sure when using obsolete versions of BAT that you at least have Triggers. Without them you will have 80-some very boring missions. We often use triggers to place enemy aircraft and targets. C&C objects also play important roles.
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Thank you for the good work vonofterdingen and everyone else. And for developing this interesting thread in Spanish aviation history.https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,67499.0.html
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You are most welcome Yaro. You may like to know I have written both a Croatian and Slovakian campaign which Vonofterdingen and I will bring to life in the new year hopefully. Our next campaign is the Bulgarians then the Polish in the VVS. Lots more to come but it takes time to create and test. We are most grateful to the modders who create such a great environment to work with. A special thanks to Wolf44 for stepping in at short notice to create our Spanish skins.
As Von says, if only we had started this when we were younger. lol. Then we would not have had such a wide choice.
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You are most welcome Yaro. You may like to know I have written both a Croatian and Slovakian campaign which Vonofterdingen and I will bring to life in the new year hopefully. Our next campaign is the Bulgarians then the Polish in the VVS. Lots more to come but it takes time to create and test. We are most grateful to the modders who create such a great environment to work with. A special thanks to Wolf44 for stepping in at short notice to create our Spanish skins.
As Von says, if only we had started this when we were younger. lol. Then we would not have had such a wide choice.
That's exactly what it is.
I greet you and wish you success in creating these missions.
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Thank you for your hard work!
wolf44
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Looks very interesting!
I will add this to my collection of misisons and campaigns I want to fly after map building is finished! :)
Uhm ... may this work as a coop misison, if I add it in the right folder?
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Neither Lars nor I have ever played online so I am not sure how to make Co-op missions. Hopefully someone else can answer your question though.
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Looks good, and interesting subject matter. The first mission went off without a hitch.
Just to clarify;
To install:
• Extract the Blue Squad.zip file and the Blue Squadron PaintSchemes zip file to a temporary directory and unzip them
Is there supposed to be a skin pack, or does the campaign just use the default BAT skins?
And thank you for your dedicated work - your campaigns add so much to this old sim, and are much appreciated.
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There re custom skins linked in the missions, but you are right, there are no skins in the download!
Probably an oversight?
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When want to download the skins, just click on the file (0bytes) part.
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Gunny is correct. There are two download links: one for the skins and one for the campaign files.
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Thank you vegetarian. Nice to be hear that. More campaigns to come which Von and I hope you will enjoy.
The Blue Squadron skins file was so large that M4T could not cope with it so we had to use mediafire. That line says 0 bytes but they are there. Just press the entry and download.
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Great work.
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Thanks Von and Lars. I'm enjoying the campaign very much.
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Well, all these years and I never knew what that file link meant! Thank you Gunny and Von -I can now play the campaign as intended.
Makes me wonder though, how many other campaigns have I played over the years without the correct skins... :-[
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Right there with you vegetarian!
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Apologies to all regarding the confusion over the PaintSchemes folder. For convenience's sake, we have added a standalone link for the Paintschemes folder in the first post.
Believe me, you will enjoy this campaign much more with these excellent skins by Wolf44, Dori, and others.
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Thank you very much! I will try it ASAP.
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Great campaign, great skins. For me the best part starts in Russia, mission 11 and beyond.
(https://i.postimg.cc/3RRqQX1W/22.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/R3kdcnjz)
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Hi universal persons,
As Mission4today is down at this time , has anyone got any link so as to D/L this mission?
Many thanks
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M4T is back online now.
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Hello passerby,
In mission 840 there is a skin I don't have: White_39_unmarked_P39D2.bmp
Could anyone point me to where I might find it, I've combed through so many skin collections but unable to locate it.
Many thanks.
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Yeah! Missing skin in Mission: 840-Smol-Fw190A3-EscortStukas
Ayone has this skin?
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Apologies gentlemen. This skin is by CanonUK by the way.
Download here: https://www.mediafire.com/view/vcqbjhzcyuztro5/White_39_unmarked_P39D2.bmp/file (https://www.mediafire.com/view/vcqbjhzcyuztro5/White_39_unmarked_P39D2.bmp/file)
And thanks for reporting the issue!
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There's no need to apologize, Vonofterdingen! In fact, I want to express my gratitude for the campaign and for addressing this minor issue. Thank you!