Maidstone comes from the Old English ‘mægden’ meaning a ‘maiden’ with ‘stan’ as a ‘stone, rock’; therefore, the ‘stone of the maidens’.
The Domesday Book chronicles Maidstone as Meddestane.
I continue to be fascinated with many English place names.
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Here is what the Germans thought was worth bombing in the 1930's at Maidstone.
Green dot:
A Royal Army Barracks.
Anything that houses potential enemy trained riflemen should be destroyed! Let them sleep on the wet ground under tents. Hopefully some of them will get sick.
Red dot:
His Majesty's Prison.
Bombing this place might open some walls and prison cells, letting some thieves, rapists, and murderers out into the countryside,
tying up the nearby Royal Army riflemen chasing them down before the criminals create Hell & Havoc, which they may surely do!
Not really a strategic target.
Yellow dot:
The original photo named this as "Maidstone power station".
I see no evidence of a Power Generating Plant. Maybe a Power Distribution Substation there. I see what looks like the Germans noted as Electric Transmission cables and supporting pylons going to it.
If you closely at this recon photo, the Germans have also outlined a target on the bottom left, on the Medway river's east bank.
Well.. this is the Medway Brewery.
No folk love their beer more than the Germans, except maybe the English and the Australians.
Take away their beer and the enemy will die of THIRST!
Again, not what I call a strategic target.
I chose to only make the Maidstone Barracks as a Target.
Due to the rather poor given BoB1 terrain at this place, I decided to make the Royal Army Barracks the only Target here. Adapted to this aim, as well as I can with given terrain.
I did not save an "as before" picture.
Paul made Maidstone as a Target with many big warehouses and some oil tanks, for v2.10.
The yellow outline is where Paul put his Target of huge warehouses.
The red arrow lies on the closest proximity of His Majesty's Prison, pointing to the Royal Army Barracks, which appears as a gray rectangle, as I made, and relocated the Target.
--Here I posted an oldmaps.com 1938 map I managed to get before they made their maps hard to get for poor amateur historians like me. Not shown due to Copy Right.
Showed Maidstone in great detail--
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Based upon this, and given the rather substandard BoB1 terrain here, I pegged the Barracks location relative to the cross-railways of the SOUTHERN RAILWAY and the NORTH KENT LINE.
The red square denotes the closest proximity of His Majesty;s Prison, in relation the the rail roads, the River Medway, and the Maidstone Barracks.
The white line is the unmade extension of the SOUTHERN RAILWAY.
The blue line is somewhat.. the course of the (upper) River Medway.
This is the first photo that I found of the Maidstone Barracks, 2 years ago:
Later, I found this photo at Britain From Above. http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/ Without Britain From Above I could not have built most of the Targets I have done so far. Great website.
Same photo taken at the same time. Shows the Maidstone Barracks Railway Station and rail yard better.
My attempt to replicate reality, at these Royal Army Barracks:
Another photo from Britain From Above.com. Looking toward The Prison. Circa 1930's.
My representation.
Previously, someone has placed a church very well close to where there was/is one. Two blocks away from the prison. Prison having it's own Chapel to let the sinners come to God & Jesus.
Yes, there is a Maidstone ObjectAdds file in game. I don't who made it. He covered most of the north side of the city.
I placed all my OA objects for the Barracks into this maidstone OA file.
Two other views of the Maidstone Barracks:
Due to the given terrain, I have had to improperly align the Maidstone Barracks as per North to South. Beg Pardon. Had to align with given suburban terrain.
Also, I had to cover the victory gardens at the Barracks parade grounds with my cobblestone texture.
Which I have only used once, at Wissant.
These cobblestones are improper, sorry. This flat object tends to overlay and obscure other objects that are on top of it unless your view is very close to them.
Most of the tree objects do not suffer this obscuring and remain visible at all view heights.
I do not use this SCORCH object because of this problem, however, I felt the need to use 3 of them here at Maidstone, to replicate the parade ground, and obscure the house gardens.
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This Target has only 17 target elements.
Shown here with the target elements denoted with yellow dot.
Red dot is "Target Central". I confess.. I made target central so as to make it easier for German level bombers to bomb this place.
I know how the LW AI Campaign Command lays out Raids upon this place, and all other Targets. The LW AI will always give a Raid path to hit Maidstone from the south.
Target is rectangular, so I have to choose the "central" target as one side or one corner.
I gave a bit of advantage to the German level bombers here, knowing how they tend to overshoot the Target with the 2nd and 3rd Staffeln.
I have read that these old barracks at Maidstone were originally built during 1801 in response to the threat of Napoleon.
