I'm so flying that Yak!!!!

[Volron]

So long as it doesn't turn into another F4F-3/4 type hybrid, then I won't have any complaints.

[Wmaker]

Great News!

Yak-7B will fill a massive hole in the planeset and Yak-3 is an iconic WWII fighter and has been wished a lot.

Personally I've been hoping to see mid-war Soviet fighters for roughly 10 years now.

Nice skin choice on the 7B, Greebo. And an awesome job as always regarding the quality!

[bustr]

At least the machinegun charging handles were put in the cockpit on the front page. The 12.5mm in the hood for Yak have a charging handle for each machinegun just as the 20mm will have the same charging pull handle between the knees.

Check out item (12).



Fig. 3: 1-2, an oxygen cylinder-bore control valve guard, 3-electrical control unit, 4-wheel steering, height trimmed management 5-valve cleaning and release the chassis, 6 — controls the engine systems, 7 — rear view mirror, 8 — 9, sight — an oxygen device KPA-3 bis 10-handrails for climbing out of the cockpit, 11 — handle recharging machine guns, 12 — mechanical penreloading the gun, 13-14, fan-wheel control shutters masloradiatora, 15-16 Control Panel, radio-control airplane pen, 17-18, bronezagolovnik-armoured glass, 19-20, electrical equipment-steering Rod 21, height — control knob ventilation, safety harnesses, 22-23-24-bronespinka seat, engine control devices, 25-26-airspeed indicator, altimeter, compass, 28 — 27 — and slip indicator, 29 hours 30-variometer, 31 — radio station, 32, left side control panel, 33 — right side control panel.
 

[Slash27]

(Image removed from quote.)
(Image removed from quote.)

[gyrene81]

Trim?

Luftwaffe persecution complex?

  it's more of a that he can't fly them like everyone else. happens once in a while. 

i have a feeling there are going to be a ton of yak3s in the air for a few weeks once they are released... 

[Tilt]

<snip> the largest battle in WWII:  Stalingrad. <snip>

Whilst Stalingrad was the pivotal battle of WWII. I think you will find that Bagration was the largest both with respect to the number of combatants and the shear loss of Wehrmacht numbers through the complete annihilation of the whole of an army group (central) whereas at Stalingrad the Wehrmacht "only" lost an army (6th).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration

Bagration was infact Hitlers "greatest defeat" of WWII. It was a walkover for the Red Army and it happened just after a comparatively minor landing took place in Normandy.

[GScholz]

Whilst Stalingrad was the pivotal battle of WWII. I think you will find that Bagration was the largest both with respect to the number of combatants and the shear loss of Wehrmacht numbers through the complete annihilation of the whole of an army group (central) whereas at Stalingrad the Wehrmacht "only" lost an army (6th).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration

Bagration was infact Hitlers "greatest defeat" of WWII. It was a walkover for the Red Army and it happened just after a comparatively minor landing took place in Normandy.

Kursk was bigger. Soviets alone lost a million men there.

[GScholz]

Sadly, I don't have $425k to spare...

Same here 

[BoilerDown]

May finally be time to make my return.  PS2 is getting dull anyways.

[Franz Von Werra]

As I understood, most of the southern army headed south to go thru Turkey etc to get to the Suez cannal, go west, and then squish the allied armies in the North Africa, while Rommel attacked from the west to east. Hence putting a allies under a two front war in north africa.

By the time of Stalingrad, USA made, USA paid machines, guns, food, supplies AND EVEN STALIN'S LUNCH, was arriving in Stalingrad and againt all of Germany's fronts. At the same time, Germany armies were as far away from Berlin as ever so German's supplies were at an all time low. Fighting on three fronts, west in air vs USAF b17s and b24s (let alone the garrison army to protect from any d-day attempts, like the battle of Dieppe), south in africa then in Italy, and in the east vs Russia.  To get to the point, all the Reich was surprised by the seemingly endless supplied opponents.

The other point is, that for the larger(?) portion of the Germany army that had gone south to squish with Rommel, now needed time to retreat or be cut off. By the time it came back, Paulus in Stalingrad was totally surrounded due to other axis armies being overran. Paulus had to stand or die to save the other retreating portion or there would have been no southern front at all.

It was USA supplies, their overwhelming impact, that won the battle of Stalingrad, and the fact that Hitler and his command didn't realize just how much was arriving on the opposing fronts. In a way, Paulus succeeded by 'saving' the southern portion enuf time to retreat.

One of the following battles of retreating German armies was in the crimea peninsula can be seen in the movie 'Cross of Iron' was pretty good, german side, entertaining. Sam Peckinpaw and James Coburn.

"I have a feeling that this whole thing is begining to slide" ~ Peckinpaw
"Here's to the cake!" ~ a german soldier
"Here's to the great German Wehrmact, even when its going down in defeat!" ~ another German soldier.

A good book on the subject; "the black march" by Peter Neuman, an SS soldier that was part of the army trying to save stalingrad, made it to the axis side of the front of stalingrad, but defeated. Read this for their state of mind and some horror stories.

[Brooke]

I've heard that Iron Cross is a very good movie.  I haven't seen it yet, but I will. 

[gyrene81]

As I understood, most of the southern army headed south to go thru Turkey etc to get to the Suez cannal, go west, and then squish the allied armies in the North Africa, while Rommel attacked from the west to east. Hence putting a allies under a two front war in north africa.

By the time of Stalingrad, USA made, USA paid machines, guns, food, supplies AND EVEN STALIN'S LUNCH, was arriving in Stalingrad and againt all of Germany's fronts. At the same time, Germany armies were as far away from Berlin as ever so German's supplies were at an all time low. Fighting on three fronts, west in air vs USAF b17s and b24s (let alone the garrison army to protect from any d-day attempts, like the battle of Dieppe), south in africa then in Italy, and in the east vs Russia.  To get to the point, all the Reich was surprised by the seemingly endless supplied opponents.

The other point is, that for the larger(?) portion of the Germany army that had gone south to squish with Rommel, now needed time to retreat or be cut off. By the time it came back, Paulus in Stalingrad was totally surrounded due to other axis armies being overran. Paulus had to stand or die to save the other retreating portion or there would have been no southern front at all.

It was USA supplies, their overwhelming impact, that won the battle of Stalingrad, and the fact that Hitler and his command didn't realize just how much was arriving on the opposing fronts. In a way, Paulus succeeded by 'saving' the southern portion enuf time to retreat.

One of the following battles of retreating German armies was in the crimea peninsula can be seen in the movie 'Cross of Iron' was pretty good, german side, entertaining. Sam Peckinpaw and James Coburn.

"I have a feeling that this whole thing is begining to slide" ~ Peckinpaw
"Here's to the cake!" ~ a german soldier
"Here's to the great German Wehrmact, even when its going down in defeat!" ~ another German soldier.

A good book on the subject; "the black march" by Peter Neuman, an SS soldier that was part of the army trying to save stalingrad, made it to the axis side of the front of stalingrad, but defeated. Read this for their state of mind and some horror stories.

 that has got to be the best outrageous version of alternate history i have seen this year...nice job Franz.  

[Franz Von Werra]

"The Black March" book was printed in England under the title "other mans wars" I think, few different titles. Its good too.

[Tilt]

Kursk was bigger. Soviets alone lost a million men there.

Soviets lost over a million at Stalingrad ( considering all its phases) and over 600,000 at Kursk, 770,000 casualties during Bagration. In terms of deployed combatants and material Bagration is considered the greater. And loss of material to the Whermacht during Bagration was the greatest of all Whermacht defeats.

[Brooke]

Whilst Stalingrad was the pivotal battle of WWII. I think you will find that Bagration was the largest

That indeed was a big one.  I'm not sure which of Stalingrad or Bagration had the most men overall.  Stalingrad was 3M at its peak, but total over its whole course is a larger number than that.  Stalingrad had 2M casualties, which I think is larger than Bagration.  Bagration did have more aircraft.

Kursk was a big one, too.  At 2.8M men involved, it is slightly smaller than Stalingrad and Bagration, but it of course had more thank than either.

It is interesting to know that, in terms of men involved, casualties, aircraft numbers, tank numbers, gun numbers, etc. -- whichever of those metrics or any combination of them one wants to use -- 80% or more of the fighting in WWII in Europe was between Germany and the Soviets.