During the course of WW2, some 293 permanent camps were created in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories to house the 235,473 Allied servicemen taken prisoner. Many of these POWs were Allied airmen shot down during raids over enemy territory and who were usually held in dedicated camps called Stalag Luft (Stammlager Luft, meaning Permanent Camp for Airmen) This modification provides the basic elements to replicate a typical Nazi POW camp and to facilitate the creation of missions based on the actual WW2 incidences of camp inmates being liberated through attack of the camps by Allied aircraft. These basic elements consist of:
Barbed Wire Compound | Main Gate | Guard Tower
Any number of Guard Tower elements may be combined with a Barbed Wire Compound and Main Gate to create a POW camp. To this may be added accommodation huts and assorted camp administrative buildings, plus various vehicles to realistically replicate a typical POW camp scene. The Barbed Wire Compound element replaces the standard Chemical Plant 1 in the Mission Builder or Dynamic Mission Editor (DME): Select Create > Structures > Axis Industrial > Chem. Plant 1 The Main Gate element replaces the standard HorseWagon in the Mission Builder or Dynamic Mission Editor (DME): Select Create > Other Vehicles > Axis Military > Wagon The Guard Tower elements replace the standard Kettenrad in the Mission Builder or Dynamic Mission Editor (DME): Select Create > Flak > Axis > Kettenrad The choice of these host objects was dictated by the design of the high-resolution 3D models and the need to precisely position them on the ground. All of these objects are fully maneuverable and will rotate and translate in response to the usual mouse and numeric keypad controls. Note that it is quite tricky to accurately place the Main Gate element in precise alignment with the Barbed Wire Compound. The recommended method is to roughly position the Main Gate with mouse or keypad, save the mission, and then to fine-tune the gate's location by editing the PositionX and PositionZ co-ordinates in the TestSave mission file. Once you have precisely positioned the new objects don't forget to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE! As the Barbed Wire Fence elements are physically large in their comparative scale, it is recommended that a POW camp be located on a flat section of terrain such as a river valley. If you attempt to create a camp on a hillside the fence elements will either jut out in mid-air or disappear below ground. This is due to the simulation referencing the centrepoint of the elements to ground level wherever they are positioned. This modification includes a demonstration mission with pre-positioned barbed wire compound, huts, guard towers, admin buildings, etc. To relocate the entire camp complex, either select all elements simultaneously in DME mode (left-click with the mouse whilst pressing the Control key), or edit the PositionX and PositionZ co-ordinates within the mission script itself. Otherwise, it is very simple to create a POW camp complex in any desired location using the basic elements described above. WARNING: This modification uses high-resolution (512 x 512) images and should only be installed on computers whose video cards support high-resolution textures. Attempting to install high-resolution textures on a system with a video card which does not support them may cause the game to crash. 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\StalagLuft. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the WWII Fighters\Data\StalagLuft directory. To install, double-click on the Stalag Luft Installer.bat icon (as shown below). 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. Note:- some versions of Windows will automatically close the DOS window after installation is complete. When successfully attacked, the Main Gate and Guard Tower elements can be individually destroyed.
There is currently no damage model for the Barbed Wire Compound itself as it would appear unrealistic for the entire compound to be destroyed with a single rocket or burst of gunfire. The Barbed Wire Compound and Guard Tower elements can readily be used in other mission scenarios that might benefit from these types of enhancements. © November 2005