Airspeed A.S.51 Horsa I Assault Glider.
Glider Pilot Regiment 1944-5
by Alan "Hutch" Hutchins

Graphics resolution 512x512

This modification replaces my earlier Horsa glider project which was simply a thinly-disguised
alteration of the standard Arado AR234 airframe and bitmaps. This new project entailed a complete
rebuild of every aspect of the aircraft and its associated bitmaps. Also, in an effort to enhance
realism, I have added a pilot and co-pilot to the cockpit and made all of the cockpit transparencies
completely translucent.

The Horsa I was the most effective assault glider in service during WW2, capable of carrying a 
complete platoon of 28 fully-equipped infantrymen into battle. A later version, the Horsa II, was 
modified with a hinged nose-section to permit the transportation of jeeps and 105mm pack howitzers 
in support of the glider-borne troops. 

The Horsa I was first used in action in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily, but really 
came into its own in support of the Normandy landings, where 20% of all stores were delivered 
by glider, and during the later airborne operations of Market Garden and Varsity. The Horsa was
also employed effectively by US forces during 1944 and 1945 and was used in the airborne invasion 
of the South of France.

This mod depicts a Horsa as flown by a British Army Glider Pilot Regiment crew during the airborne 
assaults of D-DAY, OP MARKET GARDEN (Arnhem, Holland) and OP VARSITY (Wesel, Germany) in 1944 and 
early 1945. The bitmap for the glider crew depicts a sergeant-pilot of the Glider Pilot Regiment
in the standard dress of camouflaged Denison smock, khaki battledress trousers and leather flying
helmet. Their Denison smocks carry their badges of rank and their maroon-and-light-blue Airborne
shoulder patches. Far from simply being aerial taxi-drivers, once on the ground the glider pilots
then reverted to the infantry role.

This skin with its associated 3D files are modifications of the seldom-used Jane's AR234 jet bomber
model and is intended to enhance any airborne assault mission scenario. Whenever you wish to add
the Horsa to a mission remember to select the AR234. Also remember to edit the mission file to show 
the side and nationality as ALLIED/BRITISH or you will be constantly warned of enemy bombers over the 
R/T!

I have included a small mission file with this mod simply to demonstrate the gliding characteristics 
and landing effects of the Horsa. This will also allow anyone wishing to incorporate the Horsa into 
their own mission to simply cut and paste the relevant lines of code into their own mission files.

Anyone familiar with the normal sets of bitmaps and J3Ps will notice the absence of any Damage files.
This is a deliberate omission in view of the characteristics of assault gliders. Almost by definition
the landing of a military glider is nothing more than a semi-controlled crash landing! In my initial
experimentation with the Horsa project I found that every time a Horsa touched-down it immediately 
defaulted to the damage bitmap which was somewhat disconcerting. As battle statistics for airborne
operations show that very few gliders were lost to enemy fire, I decided to leave out the usual damage
files with this aircraft. 

Whilst all Horsas that took part in the D-Day airborne operations were decked out with the familiar black
and white Invasion stripes, this wasn't entirely the case with those employed in the later airborne ops. My
collection of historical images shows Horsas both with and without Invasion stripes during the Market Garden
operations around Arnhem in September 1944. The aircraft employed during Operation Varsity, the last great 
airborne operation of WW2 which took place in March 1945 on German soil in the Wesel area, did not - to the 
best of my research - carry Invasion stripe markings. I have therefore not incorporated Invasion stripes with 
the Horsa bitmaps at this stage but will probably offer them later as another optional mod.

In order to preserve the realism of this mod, it is necessary to modify the sound files for this aircraft. 
This is accomplished automatically as part of the installation program. Your original or existing sound 
file archive (Sim.elb) are saved to a backups folder in your Jane's Data directory so restoring the 
previously-installed sound files is a simple matter.

Before installing this, or any other, custom modification, you are advised to take a backup
your original ww2.sqs archive. 
 
Extract the contents of this archive to the WWII Fighters\Data directory.  Assuming the
default installation, this is: C:\Program Files\Jane's Combat Simulations\WWII Fighters\Data
The files will be extracted to a new directory WWII Fighters\Data\Horsa_Glider. Using Windows Explorer, 
navigate to the WWII Fighters\Data\Horsa_Glider directory.

This distribution includes only high-resolution (512x512) textures for users whose video cards
support high-resolution textures.
  
WARNING: Attempting to install high-resolution textures on a system with a video card which 
does not support them may cause the game to crash.

To install, double-click on the Horsa_Glider.bat icon.
This will open up a DOS session and the installation will proceed in this window. When
the installation is complete, a message saying "DONE...CLOSE DOS SESSION" will be displayed in the window.  
Close the DOS session by clicking on the X close button in the top right corner of the window.
Installation is now complete.


Alan Hutchins
Perth, Western Australia
simplyhf@space.net.au
March 2005


