Knowing that are game would likely be based around a German invasion of Britain we had to take into account that Germany never actually achieved this, why that might be, and how we could change this realistically in our games history to account for their success. The following are notes I have taken from various websites on what made an invasion unlikely, and at what points it could have been effective.
The allies narrowly avoided postponing D-Day by
a fortnight to a date when the weathermen would have given the go-ahead and the
result would have been utter defeat in storm-tossed seas. No detailed account
of the forecasts has been given in the media before.
Previous accounts relied on the interpretation of James Stagg, a Meteorological Office
man seconded to the RAF. But he merely reported to Eisenhower the analyses of
three two-man teams of forecasters from the Met Office, the United States
military and the Royal Navy.
Only the Navy men, Lawrence Hogben and Geoffrey Wolfe, survive.
Dr Hogben said: "We six never agreed about anything except that Stagg was
not a good meteorologist and that he was a bit of a glory hound." The six
worked for months before D-Day, perfecting forecasting techniques many of which
are still in use.
Then Eisenhower would have a two-to-one majority in favour, the
attack would have been June 5 as Eisenhower
wanted. The weather was terrible that morning, with Force Six winds and high
seas."
But a telephone call from the two naval officers stiffened the
resolve of the civilian forecasters to resist the Americans.
The Met Office forecasters refused to change their opinion of
June 5 and Stagg was forced to tell Eisenhower that the weather did not meet
the criteria laid down by the Overlord planners.
Dr
Hogben added: "If we had been a little less certain and said no again, it
would have had to shift to the 19th. As it happened, on the 17th, all six of us
produced a forecast for the 19th for almost perfect conditions, so they would
definitely have gone ahead."
And if
in that parallel universe, D-Day had taken place on June 19, what would have
happened?
"Utter
catastrophe. Complete failure. On June 19 the biggest storm of the 20th century
came up.
"If
they had landed that day, I doubt many landing craft would have even made it to
the beaches. It does not bear thinking about."
Problems with
operation Sealion
It was more than likely
that "Operation Sealion" would have met with disaster as both
Grossadmiral Erich Raeder, chief of the German Kreigsmarine, and Hitler himself
knew that the biggest threat to an attempted crossing of the Channel was not
the RAF but Britain's traditional strongest force, the Royal Navy, which was
much larger than the Kreigsmarine. The strongest section of the Kreigsmarine,
the U-boats, would have had little success in a confrontation with Royal Navy
destroyers due to the relatively shallow waters of the Channel.
The 22-mile width of the English Channel, and the
overall difference in power between the British and German naval forces, made
the amphibious invasion plan risky, regardless of victory or defeat in the air
during the Battle of Britain. In addition, the Kriegsmarine had allocated its
few remaining larger and modern ships to diversionary operations in the North
Sea.
Even if the Royal Navy had been successfully
contained or neutralised the chances of a successful amphibious landing were
remote. The German landing craft were primarily river barges and not built for
sea crossings which would have limited their use to good weather days (not
hugely regular in the English Channel) and they were slow and vulnerable to
attack from the sea and land. Because they were not specialised landing craft
the amount of artillery and tanks carried would have been limited. On top of
this there weren't enough barges to transport the first invasion wave nor the
following waves with their equipment. Without specialised landing craft, the
Germans would have needed to immediately capture one of the ports, an unlikely
situation considering the strength of the British coastal defences around the
south-eastern harbours at that time. The British also had several contingency
plans, including the planned use of poison gas.
By capturing airfields
The Royal Navy had
overwhelming superiority in the Mediterranean, but the Germans still managed to
conquer Crete with paratroopers. All they would need to do is to capture
working air fields in Southern England and they could be resupplied by air,
even if the Royal Navy had cut them off at the channel.
Removing RAF/ B of Britain Unsuccesful
It's also easy to argue that the Royal Navy
could not even operate in the English Channel without taking heavy losses if
the RAF gone. German dive bombers and sea mines proved decisive against Royal
Navy ships and the Germans had coastal batteries along the French coast and on
the Channel islands.
Misleading Navy as to the assault point.
Dunkirk
British
casualties amounted to 68,000, while French losses totalled around 290,000 with
many more than that either missing or taken prisoner. German casualties, on the
other hand, amounted to 27,074 killed and 111,034 wounded. The statistics tell
the story. Hitler had reason to be pleased with his forces, whose tactics,
skill and fighting prowess had led to such a rout. His Order of the Day on 5
June stated:
The decision
of Gort (the commander of the BEF) to ignore Churchill and the French
commanders and head to the coast, the halt order, the weather, the survival of
the Eastern Mole (the pier from which the majority of troops were evacuated),
and the incredible determination of the Royal Navy, all combined to save the
BEF.
Field Marshal John
Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort,
At the outbreak of war he was
given command of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, arriving on 19 September
1939.[30] During this time he played a part in a
political scandal, the Pillbox
affair, that led to the dismissal of British War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha. Following
the Phony
War, the 1940 German breakthrough in the Ardennes split the Allied forces and communications
between the British Expeditionary Force and the French broke down, and on 25
May 1940 Gort took the unilateral decision to abandon his orders for a
southward attack by his forces.[31] Gort's command position was difficult,
serving under French high, theatre, and army group command while also being
responsible to London. Withdrawing northwards, the BEF together with many
French soldiers were evacuated during the Battle
of Dunkirk.[32]
Gort is credited by some as
reacting efficiently to the crisis and saving the British Expeditionary Force.[31] Others hold a more critical view of Gort’s
leadership in 1940, seeing his decision not to join the French in organising a
large scale counter-attack as defeatist
By 16 July Hitler
had lost patience. In Directive No 126 he stated, ‘As England, in spite of the
hopelessness of her position, has so far shown herself unwilling to come to any
compromise, I have decided to begin to prepare for, and if necessary carry out,
an invasion of Britain’. But Hitler had, to borrow Chamberlain’s earlier
phrase, ‘missed the bus’. It seems highly unlikely that Britain could have
resisted a German invasion in early June. Churchill knew this and after his ‘We
shall fight them on the beaches’ speech, reportedly covered up the BBC
microphone and said, ‘but we’ve only got bottles to do so’. Certainly the BEF
was in no position to fight. On their return, brigades existed as names only
and the nation, dazed by recent events, had virtually no preparations in place.
The recently created LDV units, with pitch forks and the odd shotgun, would
have provided little more than a spirited but futile resistance.
The depleted Navy,
as well as the RAF, was Britain’s only hope, but the numerical supremacy of the
Nazi forces provided Germany with a massive advantage. Hitler’s decision to
delay gave the country much-needed time to prepare. He refused to listen to his
Generals. The only man who might have persuaded him otherwise was General Kurt
Student, founder of Germany’s airborne forces, who had worked out a plan for an
airborne assault on Britain well before the invasion of France had begun.
However, Student had been seriously wounded in Rotterdam. In the end, Operation
Sea Lion was never attempted. Years later Student remained convinced that it
could have been successful if it had taken place immediately after Dunkirk:
‘Had we launched an airborne operation to occupy the ports where the BEF was
disembarking, England’s fate would have been sealed.’
Weighing up this information we decided that Britains most vulnerable point would be just after Dunkirk where, in instead of holding back for three days, the German forces pressed on to the beaches, scuppering our evacuation of soldiers and equipment.
After further research I came across a tank (Tauchpanzer) the Germans were adapting, using caulk and tape, in an effort to make it amphibious. As our historical tangent has Germany crossing the channel I thought it would be interesting if these tanks were developed further and used as part of the assault.
As they will now become a key part of our narrative I decided I would create a tauchpanzer as my first piece of concept art. The picture below shows my progress so far. The scene is going to be underwater, and I think that the oxygen hose poking from the roof gives it a sinister feel, almost like a gas mask for the tank
Presentation
The link below shows us the game design doc for Fallout- Brotherhood of Steel, we can use this as a guide for our art.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32184089/Fallout-Brotherhood-of-Steel-2-Design-Document
I found the page below to be particularly helpful as it highlighted to me that, although it is nice to have as many highly polished images in the document as possible this is not always necessary or possible when getting as many ideas across as possible in a short space of time.
This is certainly not my finest work however at the moment it is very much about getting the idea across as quickly as possible. I have tried to emulate the same visual style as the artwork being produced by the other members of our group, particularly relating to the line work and the almost sepia overall colour of the piece. I am reasonably pleased with it as a representation of how stealth kills, potentially a key part of the game mechanics depending on the players personal style, would appear in game.
This picture of a secret exit from the BRO base is what inspired the final part of mission 1 for me.
