Full Moon

Hello and welcome back to another update of our progress in developing Forgotten Hope 2. First up this week we have a new map by Knoffhoff to show: Alam Halfa. First, some historical background on this battle.

"The battle for Alam Halfa was Rommel's last chance to break through at El Alamein. As the Commonwealth 8th Army (for the first time under the command of General Montgomery) continued to grow in strength Rommel's Panzer Armee Afrika was in bad shape. More and more of Germany's resources were diverted to the Eastern Front and many of Rommel's supplies did not make it past Malta. So, on the night of the 30th August 1942 (almost 65 years ago) Rommel's forces set out to break through the southern section of the British lines. The plan was to drive through the Allied minefields to the east and then move north, passing the Alam Halfa ridge. From this position the ground would favour the German tanks and they would be able to finish off the British as they had done at Gazala previously. But from the start, things did not go Rommel's way. The British minefields were much larger than anticipated and bombing raids on the advancing forces caused considerable delay. To make up for lost time, Rommel would swing north much further to the west than origianlly planned, attacking the western end of Alam Halfa ridge. This was exactly as Montgomery had planned and he had ordered the ridge to be reinforced by dug-in anti-tank guns and tanks in hull-down positions. Needless to say the German attack on the ridge failed and during the following night British and American bombers dropped over 4000 tons of explosives on the German tanks. After a further day of fighting the order was given to retreat. Rommel's last chance to break through had failed and all he could do now was dig in and prepare for the inevitable British attack. Though the Second battle of El Alamein is often said to be the turning point in the war in North Africa, most modern historians agree it is the battle of Alam Halfa which turned the tide."

Next up, we have a pair of reconnaissance aircraft. The Fieseler Fi156 "Storch" was one of Germany's principle reconnaissance and communication aircraft used in World War 2. The model was donated to us by [79th]Le_Chat, skinned by Toddel and coded by ctz.

Secondly, we have the Piper J-3 Cub, shown here in typical desert camouflage. This serves as the allied reconnaissance aircraft. This was modelled by Mange and Rad, and skinned and coded by Rad.

Next, ctz recorded two videos showing off some air combat gameplay in Forgotten Hope 2: "Ground Attack" and "Dogfight". The Bf109 E-7 Trop cockpit model was created by Toddel and Herc. The Ju87-B2 cockpit model was created by Toddel. The arms you see were modelled by Zero and posed by Killi Vanilli. Coding was by ctz. A nice thing to notice in these videos is how the smoke columns rising from the ground react to the turbulence caused by passing aircraft.

Download "Ground Attack" HQ

Download "Dogfight" HQ

Finally, please join us in welcoming seasoned modders Smig and Robur to the team. Smig's speciality is static models and Robur is a multi-talented modeller and skinner.

That's all for today, but be sure to come back for another Forgotten Hope update. And don't forget to join us on IRC. Feel free to visit our public forums to discuss this update or other news.