Heulende Kuh

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. This week we are showing another three German vehicles for Normandy. We also have an advertisement for an FH2 mappack from the guys at World at War.

The first thing we would like to show today is the new Normandy skin for the German recon plane, the Fieseler Storch. This plane was modeled by [79th]Le_Chat and skinned by Toddel.

By June 1944 the Luftwaffe on the western front had been largely annihilated. The constant bombing of airfields and complete allied air superiority meant that there wasn't much that could be done to counter the allied advancements. Although these conditions obviously put restrictions on the use of planes in general, the Storch it was still used in Normandy. Its main special quality was its very short take-off and landing distance. The Storch could land in only 30 metres and take off in 80.

The second item for today is the new version of the German APC - the Sd.Kfz 251/1 Ausf. D. (You've already seen the Ausf. C in Forgotten Hope 2's desert maps.) These half-tracks were made in as many as 23 specialised variants and one of those is our third news item - the Sd.Kfz 251/1-II "Stuka zu Fuss". Both those models were made by K96 and Toddel.

As the tide of war turned against Germany it was forced to redesign many of its vehicles and weapons to make the production process shorter and less resource consuming. A good example of such a vehicle is the Sd.Kfz 251 Ausf. D. The first of these vehicles was produced in late 1943 and compared to its predecessor the Ausf. C it had a much simpler design. The Ausf. D was by far the most numerous of the 4 Sd.Kfz 251 versions with more than 10,000 produced.

The Stuka zu Fuss (Stuka on foot) is quite simply an Sd.Kfz. 251/1 with 6 rocket-launching frames attached. It could fire 280mm high-explosive rockets or 320mm napalm rockets. To aim the rockets one had to turn the entire vehicle, as the frames could only be turned vertically. Since the vehicle did not have a roof to protect the crew from the rocket blast, they had to leave the vehicle and launch the rockets from a safe distance. The wurfgerät 40 rocket launcher (the type mounted on the Stuka Zu Fuss) was nicknamed the "Heulende Kuh" or "Bellowing Cow".

Finally, we have an advertisement from one of Forgotten Hope's communities, Battle for Europe: World at War:

The World at War (WaW) Tournament is proud to announce the first community map pack for Forgotten Hope 2. Many of the great custom maps featured in the tournament have been brought to the masses in this map pack which features six outstanding maps. The maps feature great gameplay and many lush forests and abundant grass. If you are tired of getting sand in all the wrong places be sure to give this map pack a try.

You can download the server and client files for the map pack at http://www.bfewaw.com/map.

That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our IRC channel and our public forums to discuss this update and other news.