A new free campaign for IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Normandy is on the way. Titled ‘Wings over Caen,’ this historically-based scripted campaign is intended to give us a thrilling experience with the Typhoon over the Normandy map during the heyday of its use as a close air support aircraft. Let’s have a look!
Typhoon triumphant
A key weapon in the Allied arsenal were the fighter-bombers of the RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force and USAAF 9th Air Force with a considerable number of them being made up of the infamous Hawker Typhoon. The fighter experienced a second life as a fighter-bomber and its successes in the skies of Normandy were well known.
Although Allied fighter-bombers were, in post war counting, only able to knock out a few tanks, their affect on softer targets and the overall psychological impact of the constant bombardment of these fighters had a notable mark on the course of the Normandy invasion. Constant support of Allied troops in the Caen area during the invasion was necessary to crack the embattled city just inland from the invasion beaches. This is the story that 1CGS is going to tell with ‘Wings over Caen.’
The campaign is going to put pilots in RAF No. 245 (Northern Rhodesia) Squadron and covers the period between June 27 and July 27, 1944 during some of the most intense fighting in the area. The notes released today by 1CGS suggest that anti-aircraft, artillery, and anti-tank weapon suppression, destruction of enemy transports and armored vehicles, and free hunt missions are among some of the types of scenarios that the campaign will cover.
The campaign appears to have been done by in-house mission developer BlackSix who has done several excellent campaigns in the past including Steel Birds and Ice Ring. If past campaigns are any indication, missions will be short and action packed.
No other updates
I am personally excited about the release of a scripted campaign featuring the Typhoon. This is an aircraft that has been somewhat underserved by WWII flight sims over the last couple of decades and so getting this fighter in the sim was a huge triumph on its own. Featuring it in a detailed scripted campaign is great.
That all said, the reaction from the community has been muted somewhat by the lack of news on other items and with a shortage of recent updates there has been a buildup in questions from all over the community.
In the short run, we know that there is still new content coming such as the already announced IAR80/81, Spitfire XIV bubble canopy variant, and the Bf109G-6A/S. Other content has been alluded to, however, it seems likely that we won’t see any significant news for quite some time from the 1CGS team about the bigger projects.
Although the 1CGS Q&A back in the fall left us with more questions than answers, it does seem increasingly likely that the Great Battles Series is moving to a kind of legacy updating status while the team builds something new. I’ve speculated on what that might be right here.
We may not get news on that for a while. In the meantime, Great Battles content continues to come out including this new campaign coming for free to all Battle of Normandy owners.
Stormbirds 
Leave a comment