RAAF Expansion Pack for CFS2

75 Squadron was for Australia, together with the small garrison at Port Moresby, virtually the only forces in theater to prevent the Japanese advancement in New Guinea. It was suspected at the time and later confirmed, that the Japanese had planned to stage an invasion of the Australian homeland from an anticipated stronghold in New Guinea.

The history of 75 Squadron RAAF is one of magnificence, bravery and honor, with many pilots risking - and sometimes sacrificing their lives for their country. They flew with a numerical disadvantage against first-rate enemy pilots as those in the Tainan wing and with the best Japanese aces as Sakai, Ishizawa, Ota, Honda, among many others.

Shortly after some US P-40E were available in Australia, in February 1942, 75 Squadron was formed in nine days at Townsville, Australia, furnished with some experienced pilots taken from the North Africa front, as well as newly trained pilots. On March 19th, Squadron Leader John F. Jackson was appointed as the Commanding Officer of 75.

On March 19th, 17 Kittyhawks left Townsville, via the RAAF base at Horn Island and then in a second flight up to Seven-Mile airfield in Port Moresby. The Australian garrison detached there, gave them a heated reception as the garrison attacked the first oncoming fighters with flak. Three fighters were damaged, fortunately with no injuries to their pilots. One hour after landing, a general alarm was sounded and the daily Japanese reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted and shot down. After this, the contrite Garrison morale was greatly improved.

The Squadron experienced intensive fighting from that day through May 3^rd, when the extreme attrition on their equipment and the fatigue of the survivor pilots called for a well deserved rest in a rear area. At that time US 8th PG was taking their turn at combat in New Guinea.

75 Squadron ended its Port Moresby campaign just at the beginning of the Battle of the Coral Sea. They had opposed seemingly continual hordes of Japanese bombers and fighters that were in fact preliminary softening actions prior to the planned Port Moresby invasion.

After Port Moresby, 75 was deployed for a deserved rest and rebuilding to a rear area near Townsville, Australia only to return to New Guinea to fight again in their aging Kittyhawks at Milne Bay in August of 1942. The next year, they were back to Milne Bay with improved P-40N or Kittyhawk IV aircraft where they would support an offensive by Australian ground forces and participate in the repulse of the landing there by the Japanese.

In order to enrich your knowledge about those historic facts, you may read the "overview" and "background" text screens in each mission, as well as pursuing the links below:

Warbirds Australia: (where the idea of this campaign was born).

Warbirds RAAF Australia

Browse in the menu for the General Squadron Information - 75 Sqn. RAAF

Browse also to the RAAF Aircraft section for information on the P-40 and Schuftie P-40E colors.

There you will also see a color plate of “Cleopatra” with its distinctive white tail, one of the Kittyhawk IVs that participated in the Milne Bay action.

Today's 75 site:

75 Squadron RAAF

This link will take you to a great P-40 site:

www.P-40.com

Here is a great site for the entire Hawk family with quite a few additional good links listed. It is part of RAM an on-line Russian Aviation Museum:

Russian Aviation Museum

and once there; go here:

The RAM Curtiss Pages

“Click” on the scrolled menu items on the left.

Here is a site including information furnished by the Curtiss-Wright Historical Association. There are fine detailed photos of the restoration of a Tomahawk.

Warbirds.org - Virtual Air Museum

And for those of you who wish to study color schemes used by the RCAF also as adopted from the RAF:

RCAF Kittyhawks

And for those of you who wish to view some very considerable research on the RNZAF actions in the theater, including photographs of the planes flown and a biography of leading Commonwealth ace in theater, Geoffrey Fisken:

Peter's Royal New Zealand Air Force Pacific WW II Home Page

The following link is not to be missed!

The site is called Australia@War and it has been carefully and extensively crafted by a fellow so modest that one must search very hard to find his name, though he shows us pictures of his back yard and teaches us all we need to know about Aussie (Ozzie) slang! He is Peter Dunn and he is into genealogy as well as World War II history.

Here you will find many B&W photos taken during the period. There is a section on 75 Squadron that originally inspired the WARBIRDS 75 Sqn. Site to take on the identity of 75. There is copious information on virtually all the RAAF fighter and bomber squadrons that participated in WW II. There are pictures of many locations where aerodromes were located and there are some very poignant stories of courage and tragedy. 1,336 military aircraft crashes in Australian territory are documented as well as every known attack on the Australian mainland (of which there were many) by the Japanese air forces during the war.

As told in one such story, a 23 year-old 75 Sqn. pilot named Flying Officer Montague David Ellerton (568), was killed on 27th or 28th April 1942, when his wing tip hit a sand dune and his Kittyhawk flipped over while attempting to land on a beach about 50 kms north west of Cooktown. This brave young fellow was attempting to land on the beach to rescue a downed USAAF Airacobra pilot named Lt. William McGovern.

This story was especially tragic as the U.S. pilot had to watch helplessly while the tide came in a drowned young Ellerton who was still alive and trapped below the high-water line in his flipped Kittyhawk A29-69.

In January of 2001, Ellerton’s nephew stumbled upon the above website and read the account of the loss of his uncle. Of course he was familiar with the story, but not the location of his uncle’s death. As it happens, he was struck by an eerie coincidence. Quite by accident, he had visited the very spot in a 4-wheel drive vehicle in 1999 and came upon the wreck of the very Kittyhawk on the beach, not knowing at the time that this was the plane flown by his late uncle David!

He has since returned to the site and salvaged what he could of the aircraft for posterity.

There are quite a number of image captures of maps used during this period by the RAAF.

Don’t miss this site!

Historical Background on the Southwest Pacific Theater – Papua and New Guinea Territories

The following narrative is included to provide a deeper context for the campaign and to give the reader a glimpse at the events that occurred after the action of this campaign. It is not meant to be exhaustive. An historian or avid history buff may be offended by the sins of omission. However, the authors do provide a bibliography and we certainly mean to encourage you to go explore this subject in greater depth.

The action of the 75 defense of Port Moresby really marked the beginning of a long struggle between the Allied forces newly organized under the command of General Douglas MacArthur – fresh from his then-recent defeat in the Philippines – and the firmly entrenched and dominant forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army based not only in New Britain, but also along the northern and western stretches of New Guinea itself. Eventually, there were strongholds not only at Lae but also at Salamaua, Buna, and Hollandia and later at Wewak.

Ultimately, it took more than two years for the Allies to dislodge the Japanese and the common enemy for both sides was the jungle itself. In the fighting that ensued, the terrain dictated that much of the fighting was small arms combat supported by air actions. The U.S. army experienced its highest rate of casualty due to neuropsychiatric disorders, nearly 44 men per 1,000 under arms. In New Guinea, ambush and sudden death were commonplace. In the Southwest Pacific, small arms claimed 32% of Americans killed in action versus 17% by artillery fire. This is in contrast with the numbers for the war as a whole where overall rates were 19.7% for small arms fire and 57.5% for artillery fire.

The Allied air forces were under the command of Major General George C. Kenney and the Fifth Air Force. The struggle for control of the air resulted in the loss of 1,374 Allied aircraft between September of 1942 (after the action of our subject project) and September of 1944. During this time period, approximately 4,100 American airmen and more than 2,000 Australian airmen were either killed or listed as missing in action. There were over 24,000 battle casualties and over 70% of these (17,107) were Australian. Malaria casualties alone numbered 70,000.

During this same period, over 110,000 Japanese soldiers and airmen lost their lives to fighting, disease and starvation.

So why such a big disparity in the numbers?

It is the conclusion reached by author Edward J. Drea, that the Allies and especially General MacArthur and General Kenney, General Walter Krueger and Admiral Arthur Carpender and Admiral Daniel Barbey collectively realized a fundamental truth. The terrain of New Guinea was so hostile to ground warfare that a new strategy had to be discovered. As it turns out, MacArthur developed a risky but effective tactic of bypass. His subordinates developed and honed the rapid amphibious assault, but not frontally - rather in a series of flanking actions.

Of course it helped that the Japanese left a trunk behind with their ciphers available to the Allies and many of the strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese forces were known in advance!

And then the Japanese upper command hung onto a stubborn belief that a ground war could be fought in New Guinea. There were a number of ill-conceived campaigns to attack allied positions by cutting their way through the unforgiving terrain. They nearly succeeded a couple of times. But “nearly” wasn’t good enough. In one action – in an attack at the Australian base at Wau, they were turned around by the last minute arrival of C-47 transports with men jumping out weapons blazing while the props were still turning!

Many Japanese troops were lost in the jungle to disease and starvation after their retreat from coastal positions having been driven out by Allied amphibious action and close air support.

Most of the foregoing was learned by reading:

War in the Pacific Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, Edited by Bernard C. Nalty; Technical Advisor Russ A. Pritchard

From the above source, on the topography:

"The high mountain peaks and deep gorges, covered with thick jungle vegetation make passage overland by large units nearly impossible. The lee of the mountainous spine around the Port Moresby area is wet from January to April, but otherwise dry. On the windward side, scene of most of the ground fighting from 1942-1945 rainfall falls as high as 150. 200 or even 300 inches per year. As one veteran recalled, "It rains daily for nine months, and then the monsoon starts.""

The enemy included malaria, dengue fever, dysentery and a host of other diseases. "Men ate their rations with one hand using the other to flick away clouds of black flies that swarmed to the food."

Eastern New Guinea, New Britain New Ireland and the surrounding archipelago were all Australian protectorates, the western half of New Guinea being a Dutch protectorate.

It was in January of 1942 that the Japanese kicked off their plan of conquest by capturing Rabaul in New Britain. They killed about 300 of the Australian defenders and imprisoned the balance of the original 1,200 in this nominal force under cruel conditions. At this time, the Japanese put into affect the "FS" operation aimed at isolating Australia by capturing Port Moresby and establishing forward bases in the Solomons. The earliest part of this operation was to set up a base at Lae and Salamaua.

There was an unopposed 3,000 man amphibious landing at Lae on March 8th, the Australians having seen this coming and having withdrawn to Wau in the Bulolo valley.

100 aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown caught the Japanese by surprise and sunk 11 transports and killed or wounded about 400.

At this time, however, the Allies had no significant troop concentrations in this area and very little in the way of equipment as well. What was there was spread very thin.

The Australians had just recalled their 6th and 7th Divisions from North Africa and the U.S. sent the 41st and 32nd Infantry to Australia.

This month of March was the same month that MacArthur fled the Philippines, vowing to return. This was the beginning of the period of the campaign we call: “In Defence of Australia – 1942.”

The Map – where the action takes place!

The map above has been created and furnished by Lionel Smith - a.k.a CH_CptSmithers and is copyright protected to him. A high-resolution version may be made available at the Chaps Squadron: www.chapshq.com, in the maps section. You will note that many of the default CFS2 airfields have been added.

Schuftie and her Sister – The Virtual Model

Some reflections by Joe Amodea

Comments added April of 2002 on the occasion of the release of version two.

It’s hard to know really where to begin?

I realize up front, that if I were to relate the entire tale about the process of how I learned to build Schuftie and her sister I might be mistaken for your Auntie Gertie!

We all know an Auntie Gertie. Auntie Gertie is that family member who gathers the family around for a visit or a reunion. Once presented with a respectful, captive audience, she begins to show you slides or videos of her recent trip to Disneyworld, less interesting because she was unaccompanied by small children. Her monotone is hard to listen-to and you know you want to leave. You are polite and the weather is ominous, but you look outside longingly at you car anyway. Only then you realize the left front tire went flat after you arrived and you are stuck there for the duration.

I don’t have a captive audience so, mercifully, I will present a few highlights and low points of the creation process and I will share a few observations and recommendations arising out of my experience from the prospective of a modeler who has finally completed the project after some trial and tribulation.

Hopefully, I will save a little grief for the would be first-time modeler reading this paper and I’ll elicit a knowing chuckle or two from the more experienced.

Let’s start near the endpoint of the process.

Prognosis is still very Good!

Since the release of IDoA-42, there have been a lot of very fine models developed for CFS2 and new tools as well. As I write this paragraph, we are about six months away from the introduction of CFS3 and the return to mid and late-war Europe.

To be sure, there remain many issues to be resolved, but the most revolutionary recent development for the virtual modeler has been the introduction of the multi-resolution merged MDL or LOD (level of detail) model feature of Abacus Flight Simulator Design Studio Pro.

Of course, now we have gmax for FS2002 and for CFS3, but a gentleman named Chris File and some other enterprising folks have made it possible to make a gmax-designed model backwardly compatible with CFS2.

Schuftie and her sister are still FSDS models, though I am very likely to bring them into gmax at some point. In the meantime, Mike Crosthwaite has helped breath some life into FSDS by allowing for animations not otherwise provided for by the venerable Aircraft Animator. As a result of SDLEdit, these models now have rolling wheels, bouncing drag link suspension parts and two-plane, twist and fold landing gear.

To have differential timing of the gear and visible AI and multiplayer props and gear, a native CFS2 mdl model structure must be used. It has been possible to do this with manual SCASM coding, but that approach isn’t for me.

As I write this, Louis Sinclair may be as little as two to three months away from introducing FSDS 2.0. This promises to offer the modeler native CFS2 mdl files with built-in animation coding. If Louis is successful, then there will be one more FSDS version of this Kittyhawk as well as some other hawks that I have in the works.

I have written a tutorial on this subject of the Multi-Resolution Model so I will not go into any great detail here. If you are interested, you can obtain the article on the Abacus web site at:

Abacus Publishing

Look for the News section and then go to the FSDS 1.6b page.

If you would like the tutorial and the test application and test files that accompanied it, you may get the entire package at:

http://www.chapshq.com/aircraft/Mult-Res_PackInstall.EXE

The purpose of this feature is to allow the modeler to combine a highly detailed model with a number of successively simpler models. The simpler models are displayed when the object appears progressively smaller. You see the details in the up close view and you get great frame rates because most visible objects are smaller and utilize the simpler models.

So now we can have high detail and good frame rates as well!

But high frame rates and good detail isn’t everything, is it?

We would also like to enjoy greater functionality and even more “eye candy.”

As I write this, Microsoft is contemplating the release of a second installment of the CFS2 SDK or Software Developers Kit. In addition, a number of creative “third party” developers are working to unravel further mysteries of the new sections of the air files that contain the elements of the flight dynamics as well as the newer virtual model structure code contained within the MDL files. And work is being done with the Damage Profiles as well.

As we know now, the second CFS2 SDK did not materialize. Not generally known or appreciated as yet though, MS is now preparing to help the third-party designer community for the world of CFS3 by furnishing an aircraft SDK “in the box” with CFS3. There is a much new technology in the next generation Combat Flight Simulator, so we will need all the help we can get.

And as if all this were not enough, some folks, most notably a fellow from Italy named Nibbio, are doing some fine work with the special effect “fx” files used in CFS2. There’s more startup smoke, more gun smoke, contrails, ships wakes, bow waves, oil slicks among other things.

Those of you who have not been around long enough to remember the early days following the initial release of CFS European Theater can not fully appreciate just how much can be done and is going to be done to enhance this Microsoft game we share by the freeware, shareware, payware and commercial developers in the months ahead of us.

And then what? CFS3 of course!

Flashback!

So how did a texture artist and virtual aircraft tinkerer and package assembler come to produce a model such as Schuftie anyway?

This is the part of the article where you discover that your Aunt Gertie has locked you in the living room. You may skip the next section and I shan’t be offended because I shall never know!

Here we go!

Sometime in April of 2000, I was approached by Jorge Alsina to work on a freeware project with him at the invitation of the Microsoft SIMS team. We were to be given alpha copies of the game. He was going to write the new campaign and I was going to paint one or two aircraft. This would be a couple of weeks work at the most, right?

Excuse me while laugh hysterically for a while!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

We were going to select a project for which stock aircraft would be used and repainted. Right?

Wrong! Microsoft asked that we do an RAAF campaign. Jorge did a little preliminary research and came to the conclusion that such a task could not be undertaken without a Kittyhawk. If we were to stick to the period of 1941 or 1942, that could only mean a Kittyhawk Ia or P-40E. In fact, anything other than a USN campaign would require some variant of P-40.

“Hello Mr. Microsoft. Just send us a P-40E and we will comply.” “We might just have a P-40 lying around for you guys. Do some research and get started and we’ll get back to you.”

A few weeks later, it appears that any possible P-40 from Microsoft has evaporated and yet the requirement for an RAAF campaign remains!

Well . . . ?

I did buy FSDS Pro as did Jorge - and Jorge did build a couple of models with AF99. Secretly I had always wanted to build a model, but the learning curve held my ambition at bay.

Jorge and I discussed our options and we decided that we would pursue a plan “A” and a Plan “B.” I would begin what would become an incredibly complex and trying odyssey that would ultimately result in the Schuftie now on your hard disk drive. But we would not risk the failure of this inexperienced modeler. Jorge would simultaneously begin the construction of “Pistoff,” A USAAF P-40E scratch-built with AF99 destined to be repainted as an RAAF aircraft, should I never complete my task.

At this point in the time-line, a number of highly detailed models have been produced with FSDS Pro for FS2000. Among these are models of a Corsair and a P-47D by Roger Dial and a DC3/RD4 by Roy Chaffin and Jan Visser.

Could I deliberately seek to build an aircraft that is less detailed than these beautiful-to-look-at aircraft that have come before? Of course not!

I did not know it at the time, but I was destined for much pain and much joy and many “days” when I would come home from work early, sit down at the computer - and look up at the clock when I was too tired to work any longer to discover that it was about 03:30 local time. I had a steady diet of this. Progress was painfully slow. If I knew I was destined to build a 16,400 polygon model and then to become horrified that the frame rates would be about 7 fps in CFS2, I am not sure that I would have continued. But having gotten that far, a couple of months after commencing the project, how could I turn back?

For weeks, I struggled with simplifying the model, hoping that with each reduction of 500 polygons, that somehow I would get a magical increase in frame rate. But there was to be no magic. Nine (9) fps and then eleven (11) fps, but this was with only one aircraft flying. Put three or four of these beasts in the air and the game would become Aunt Gertie’s slide show!

Argghhhh!

Meanwhile, Jorge produced a very fine AF99 model of the Kittyhawk Ia to guard against the total failure that was appearing more and more likely. To say that I had a number of sleepless nights over this would not be an exaggeration. We were running out of time to redo the model and we were running out of time for me to repaint the AF99 “Pistoff.” Thankfully the introduction of CFS2 was delayed and even more thankfully from my point of view, there were many other issues besides my trials and tribulations that would have prevented – and did actually prevent – the timely release of the project.

I had to scrap Schuftie and start over from scratch. Meanwhile I told Jorge that I was reworking the original. Very few points remained of the original aircraft by the time I arrived at the 5600 polygon final master model you see today.

Time to “cut to the chase.”

I did build the model at least twice from scratch. I do now think that it will never be necessary again to rebuild any new model or structures with all the experience gained.

This model has been rebuilt a number of times now since the release of the first version of IDoA-42.

If you are a would-be modeler reading this document, I have a few simple suggestions for you.

Target about 4,000 to 4.500 polygons as your ultimate size. Do not go above 6,000 polygons for any reason.

How do you target in this manner? Resist the temptation to develop a 32-sided fuselage. Instead, try 18 to 22 sided structures.

Today I am quite happy that we did not release the project on time for it would have resulted in failure!

Two things occurred in the month of November that made a huge difference:

· Louis Sinclair figured out how to design a multi-resolution model or level-of-detail model capability into Design Studio Pro

· I read a SCASM tutorial written by Pentti Kurkinen and this inspired me to figure out how to design an active 3D virtual cockpit.

Meanwhile, Jorge figured out a number of workarounds in the Mission Builder and used the time to produce fourteen superb missions for our campaign.

And we succeeded in meeting most of the goals we set for ourselves eight long months ago.

The rest is, as they say, history!

Version 2.0 Improvements:

Large structure improvements

1. Slight reshape of fuselage.

2. Separated leading edges of wing and horizontal stabilizer and applied smoothing.

3. Added working animated landing light assembly for the port wing.

4. Rebuilt canopy assembly, adjusting vertical height and reconstructed appearance to be virtually identical to "E" model canopy.

5. Adjusted fit and finish of mating surfaces of canopy and fixed support structures such that they are now air tight!

6. Widened the bullet-proof glass area, corrected flaws in the upper support to provide a realistic, smooth appearance from inside the VC.

7. Pilot seat redesigned and re-textured.

8. Improved and repositioned Pilot.

9. Long-wire antenna now visible in the master model only.

10. Improved "circularity" of the propeller disks.

11. Added detail and texturing to the landing gear structures, including hydraulic lines and lg. door detail.

12. Redesigned flap assembly and details, increasing fidelity to the original.

Cockpit Details

1. Extensive texture map reworking inside the virtual cockpit. Leather map case has been added, fixed and movable canopy surfaces previously untextured are now textured.

2. Canopy opening crank assembly redesigned and now animated to simulate opening the canopy with the crank handle.

3. The stick is now animated inside and outside to conform to aileron movement and suggestive of elevator movement.

4. From outside the aircraft, pilot's hand and arm assembly coordinated movement with the stick.

5. Animated goggles, parachute, May West and harness appearance.

6. Working rudder pedals installed. (Pilot head movement retained.)

7. Pilot's legs and feet have coordinated movement with rudder pedals.

8. Visual flap controls now function.

9. Visual landing gear controls now function.

10. Added non-functioning visual linkage between throttle quadrant (throttle-mixture-prop) and engine compartment as in the real thing.

11. Added a highly detailed sub-panel beneath the lower panels that represents the guns arming panel, windscreen defogger and engine primer controls. Added labels.

12. Added visual (non-functioning) engine starter foot switch.

13. Redesigned DVC gauge display such that the gauges now function from outside the aircraft looking in as well as from within the DVC. No frame-rate reduction!

14. Developed and constructed new canopy internal-only structures to eliminate "keyhole effect" and "fat" or "larger-than-life" canopy detail appearance.

15. Animated reflector site assembly. Shroud appears and reflector bulb functions when engine is running only.

Animations other than cockpit - includes use of SDLEdit

1. Dual-plane twist and fold landing gear.

2. Rolling wheels.

3. Landing gear drag link simulated compression upon runway bounce.

The U.S. 52 Gallon Drop Tank

The U.S. 52 Gallon Drop Tank is a joint effort of Bruce Thorson and Joe Amodea. Joe produced the visual model and Bruce created the weapons library “bgl” files and damage profile.

Originally introduced as a standalone add-on in February of 2001, this weapons load-out object can be applied to other appropriate aircraft, once in your library. If you have it installed already, you may over-write or skip the relevant section of the installation routine.

There is a highly detailed instruction “sheet” that may be opened with Notepad, entitled US_52_DT.txt located in the SCENEDB\weapons folder of your Combat Flight Simulator 2 installation. Everything you need to know is contained in that one file. Contact information for Bruce and Joe is contained there as well.

The P-40E Flight Dynamics

This second version was fully revamped taking the original release as a start point. Stall characteristics were mostly improved, as climb rate, take-off run, stability, balance, landing gear and scrape points etc..

Nell FD parameters were also corrected and generally improved. Now there are infrequent crashes between formation elements.

In the first version, Jorge designed the Flight Dynamics in the early phase of the project, taking as model the AF99 "Pistoff" P-40.

Later, it was adapted to Schuftie by adjusting appropriate scrape and landing gear points. The CFS2 air file was made “from scratch” using AirEd and taking in all the knowledge that was possible from the 714th Squadron flight dynamics forum

Three renowned flight dynamics experts participated in the first version, with advice and even contributing with some data sections, in different phases of the project. Ron Freimuth helped with some early consultations. Then at beta testing, Gregory Pierson participated - and finally Bruce Thorson, who was with Jorge at the post-beta part of the project, and to whom we owe thanks for a more realistic final version.

95% of the data entered in the flight dynamics file has been gathered from several technical sources, including America's Hundred Thousand and the Pilot Manual for the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Some other sources mentioned below in Bibliography have provided additional data for engine and aircraft.

Speed, climb rate, cruise values, stall, and other performance characteristics have been modeled with the P-40E performance charts values. What is very peculiar in the P-40E is the roll rate as it was the fastest roller of all American fighters.

However, turn performance has been slightly improved over the real P-40, to make play balance more suitable for CFS2 artificial intelligence.

While the flight dynamics may not please everyone, it has been carefully designed for play-balance within Combat Flight Simulator 2.