IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte is bringing with it the largest map from the series yet and with that map comes the need for a ton of research and resources on everything from cities and settlements to something that we really care about – airfields! The IL-2 devs are looking for some help here. At the same time, we’re getting our best look at the new Bodenplatte map in terms of its overall geography.

Research and references

A couple of weeks ago Jason Williams put out a call for help and as far as I can tell, they are still looking for information.

We have an official problem that we need help with. The team has been working on the Bodenplatte map feverishly and they have the cities/towns/villages more or less figured out and under control. However, we now need to focus our attention to airfields and we’re missing too much info to be able to do them to our satisfaction.

So, we turn to the community for help. The more history minded brains working on this the better. If anyone has information such as maps, books or can lead us to such material to help get a better understanding of runway layouts, taxi ways, runway materials and other useful information please post it here so we can examine or acquire it. Western WWII airfields is an unfamiliar part of the world for the map team and it is proving tougher than originally thought to learn about them.

We want the Bodenplatte airfields to be good, so we need your help. Here is a sample of some info we came across, but is it part of a larger archive or wartime publication?

Jason Williams on the IL-2 forums

So, if you have any information be sure to pop by that thread. I unfortunately don’t have a lot of airfield references beyond their codenames and basic locations – which clearly the team already has, but I will see look and see what I might have on each.

Let’s look at the map

I don’t have too much to add about the map other than to say – wow! From Bastonge in the north to places like Arnhem and Remagen in the north, we have a huge air with which to fly tactical missions as flown by the 9th Air Force (USAAF) and 2nd Tactical Air Force (RAF) against the Luftwaffe.