Air Force Bases of CloD - Printable cards

[JVM]

Hello Tom!

This is a very nice idea you got there...I will not say anything about the english A/F which are quite well documented anyway as most of them were existing before war.
However concerning the german ones, your work also emphasizes how horribly wrong the french side airfield representation from 1C is!
It is absolutely no fault from you as you just got the material 1C has been creating and this material was done almost as an afterthought by projecting large blotches of an always identical texture in the airfield locations. Problem is that the shape is generally all wrong (the airfields had shapes wich were following the underlying farm fields), and the fields are far too large: it was very rare to have more than 1000 m in the largest dimension.
The texture is obviously all wrong, and worse the hangar/revetment/dispersal area are totally imaginary and bore no resemblance whatsoever with the real thing. The relief rendering is also quite bad: the relief at these german places was often not what you would expect for an airfield in UK or Russia...The Germans had no qualms about slopes...

This being said I just hope in a more or less far future it will be possible to correct that in the main map (I will be willingly heralding the effort...) but this will not happen before the dust settles on the CLOD present issues and before the SDK becomes available.

There is nothing you can do at the moment unfortunately but I can give you some alterations to make in order to be more precise:

1) Calais Marck is quite OK: even the main hangar is quite close to its initial position but I believe is the wrong type (it was a french "standard" hangar not a german blister).
The parking areas (better use the word "dispersal") were to the north of the field and to the south of the south highway. The indicated zones are actually part the takeoff/landing area and were not used (this applies to basically all german fields).
The indicated runway axises are not really necessary (unless due to the 1C way of making LDG/TO axises) the full area was used depending on wind direction and urgency.

2) Boulogne ALPRECH (not ALPERCH): main axis was more 130-310. Dispersal areas are on the field edges north and east. Hangars location is total fantasy (only four in reality including a concrete one of civilian french origin to the extreme north of the field)

3) Desvres: shape quite OK. Dispersal areas are North, North West and South on the edges. Most of them were individual hangars interspersed with netted revetments and they were aligned alongside the edge of the field in the NW part, hidden in the wood on the N part and around the (not shown!!!) manor/farm to the South...we are a long way from the truth here...

4) Campagne-lès-Guînes (not Champ Les Guines): shape far too large but axis about OK (that was really the only practicable axis). It was an extremely uneven field. Only one hangar known, in the village itself...All the rest were revetments on the NE edge of the villaged, and NW alongside the woods (not even in the woods themselves due to extreme density of said woods).
The hangars shown are pure invention, unfortunately.

5) Hydrequent: actually known by the Germans as "Marquise Ost". Shape is all wrong: should be a triangle with a corner at the south near the Hydrequent village. Hangars are totally out of wack, as usual.

Real dispersal areas were north around a large farm, east around an old mining operation (north of Hydrequent village) and south east around another large farm on the west boundary of the Hydrequent village. Individual hangars and one blister hangar to the SE.

6) Colembert: too large...the field was limited by the road to the south. The south part of the CLOD field is actually 50m lower than the rest. Colembert A/F was on a high plain, and the south part of the shown field is actally the Colembert village in the valley, 50 m lower...In this village there is also a splendid castle which is not only a very visible landmark but was also the location of the I./JG3 and Stab/JG3 quarters.
The hangars to the east are correct. To the west they were on the wood edge...

7) Coquelles: shape about OK. Main axis was about 020-200 and the secondary was more like 100-260. Main dispersal areas were a wood on the west (at least 15 m hgher than the field centeraround a large farm to the North and around another one to the south east all on the periphery of the field (as usual the full field area was used for T/O and Ldg)

8 ) Samer: shape quite OK, axis as well. Most of the dispersal area was at the NE end, and there were probably no hangars, only netted revetments as usual only on the edges of the field.

9) Hermelinghem: shape is quite OK but much too long toward the WNW. There was also a perpendicular axis on the eastern edge. No hangars, only netted revetments semi-hidden alongside the large trees at the north of the field with a U-shaped earth mound around the tail of each Bf 109 (at least 12 are still identifiable to this day).

10) Oye plage: location is OK and that's about it...the shape is twice too high; it was extremely elongated alongside the only one usable 07-25 axis and it was a grass/sand airfield. What you show as the main axis is actually the main road between Oye plage and Gravelines and the field was slightly north of that road.
There never was a paved runway...actually no BoB airfield had a paved runway ever! Those only appeared in the end of 1940 and mainly 1941/1942.
Dispersal areas north (around a farm) and south around another farm and a small copse.

11) Pihen: again, far too large but shape is OK. Main dispersal area was around a manor and adjacent wood at the SE end (not shown on CLOD map because crushed by the texture blotch...)

I will stop there and come back later (if you are interested!)

Amically

JVM