Welcome, RAF Redhill.

[Bader]

Since I live two miles from it, it's about time we had it in-game.

Firstly, a bit of Bletchingley my home village, five miles east of Redhill, looking due south as you sit on the A25.
We have an 11th century Norman church. It's a bit smaller than this, but I guess no-one will really mind .


The layout of the roads is spot on, and the building opposite the church is the Whyte Hart pub (it's really not a bad likeness at all), dating to 1388.
I even added my house, at the very end of the village as you hit the fields. Just had to really It was built in 1933, so would have seen the Battle play out.
You can see Redhill AF to the south west in the middle top of the top pic- the hangars (which are orange in this shot=minor bug) are just visible.


Now onto Redhill AF

This is looking due north. The local railway lines were a very common navigation reckoning point for pilots returning home and are completely accurate in-game. The road systems and railways were perfectly placed by Rowan.
In fact the very straight east-west railway line was used by pilots in this period to locate most of the south London airfields of Kenley, Croydon and indeed Redhill. And so it is in-game.
You pick up the Ashford-Redhill line (in Kent, at Ashford) and can follow it for 50 miles or so until you meet the intersection point at Redhill for the London-Brighton tracks. Then you just turn right for the south London airfields.




Approaching Redhill AF from the north.


Home sweet home. You can see the hump of the North Downs a few miles away to the north. They are big enough to walk up, but aren't really terribly high, in truth.






Redhill AF was active through the Battle and War period. No squadrons were based there during the actual BoB (training was moved north as it was too dangerous around London), but many flew from there afterwards. Number 1 flew Hurricanes from Redhill in 1941.

There's a full list of the very diverse combat and training aircraft types here and some interesting info on Redhill AF:
http://www.wingsmuseum.co.uk/RAF_Redhill.htm

Redhill saw:
Magisters
Harts
Moths
Battles
Lysanders
Blenheim IVfs
Beaufighter IFs
Hurricane IIAs and IIBs
Spitfire IIAs, VBs, VCs, IXs
Mustang Is
Anson Is
Typhoon IBs
Tempest Vs
Dakotas

[Osram]

Great!

[redband_151]

Bader,

I think I recall reading that the Do17s attacking Kenly at low level on August 28, 1940, followed a railway line in, shooting at anything interesting along the way. Is this railway line going North to South the same?

[Zorro]

The in depth detail, history and stories associated with your visuals are the elements that breathe life into the world of BOB. Not only is it heart warming to have this true history mentioned to us in your post, but adds to the richness of what this sim attains to. This encapsulates the very accurate historical, Time Machine feel of BOB that no other flight sim has yet attained. The pic with the Tiger Moth fly by past the village could of been something that was actually seen back then. This post puts a lump in my throat. Now I feel like going to that pub!

[Bader]

Bader,

I think I recall reading that the Do17s attacking Kenly at low level on August 28, 1940, followed a railway line in, shooting at anything interesting along the way. Is this railway line going North to South the same?

Yes, that's highly likely.

It turns out that I had already placed some things near Bletchingley when making the Kenley low level raid way back. The attackers swept right over this location en route north to Kenley on that special day.



In fact, it has just dawned on me, with some dread, that in-game if you ride in a low level Do17 in that mission you sometimes travel right over the top of my house!

It's only a game, right? But somehow it is a good deal more than that when you realise what was truly happening right overhead when my father was my children's age.






I recall that the gunners were equipped with 1500 rounds of ammunition (twice the normal load) specifically to shoot things up on the ground.
Nasty business.

You can just see 111 Squadron in the distance in the top shot. They catch the raiders over the target.

[Bader]

The in depth detail, history and stories associated with your visuals are the elements that breathe life into the world of BOB. Not only is it heart warming to have this true history mentioned to us in your post, but adds to the richness of what this sim attains to. This encapsulates the very accurate historical, Time Machine feel of BOB that no other flight sim has yet attained. The pic with the Tiger Moth fly by past the village could of been something that was actually seen back then. This post puts a lump in my throat. Now I feel like going to that pub!

You'd be very welcome, Zorro! The Whyte Hart is a great place:
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/ ... etchingley
http://www.massivepub.com/venue.asp?venueid=70
It looks an awful lot like the in-game whitewashed version.
Just let me know when you're in town


We do get a lot of Moths and other light stuff right over the house, as they turn into finals and land just three miles away. It is wonderful to see. There is no doubt that the pic I posted is accurate. We see such things today, and it would have been accurate then too.



And to your point, yes. BoBII is a Time Machine, no doubt about it. So very much of it is accurate. It just feels like England.

[Pat_Pattle]

That looks great!

Did you need to flatten the land underneath beforehand?

[Bader]

Glas you like it

Fortunately, no. No heights were changed. Didn't need to..

[the_soupdragon]

Excellent work Paul.
When will Redhill aerodrome make an appearence in the BoBII world?

SD

[Bader]

Hello Soup. All planned for 2.08, I'd say. Working away on new objects for it now