Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain

Another true classic in the Amiga flight sim history.

Based on the Battle of Britain during 1940, it gave you the chance to fly as a pilot of the RAF defending England or in the Luftwaffe as part of the preparations for invading England.

The ground detail was lacking, but who cares about ground detail when you consider the aircombat! It was just AWESOME. No "if's" no "but's" just AWESOME . Chunks of aircraft would fall off as you hit them, you could see the flashes of strikes on the fuselages and wings - aircrew would jump for their lives using their parachutes while others weren't so lucky as their aircraft exploded in a ball of flame around them, while others suffered a slower longer fate as the aircraft spun down out of control in flames.

There was a real effort made to make the aircraft look like the part, with national markings and various camo patterns, different coloured spinners, stripes and patches etc.

The flight dynamics of the aircraft did differ from each other, but they weren't a patch on the likes of Rowan's Battle of Britain now available. But, without a doubt, every mission was a thrill, and flying as a RAF pilot in the campaign was some of the toughest but most enjoyable combat flying myself and my friends have experienced.

The aircraft available were :

The 4B versions of the '110 and '109 were fighter bombers, while the Ju88 could be used as a level or dive bomber. If you flew in a bomber, you could man any of the positions : pilot, bomb aimer, nose gunner, top turret, belly turret and side gunners ( but not in the Ju-88 ). In the '110 and Stuka, you could also man the rear gun while the aircraft flew on in autopilot mode.

The game allowed you to rise through the ranks of either the RAF or Luftwaffe and earn medals. The game also allowed you to create several personalities and have them fly with you on combat missions. The best way to do this was go through all the single missions to give the pilot/crew combat experience flying them yourself, then let them fly in your squadron during a campaign - and if luck was with them, they would score kills, get promotions and medals.

The game also allowed you to create several personalities and have them fly with you on combat missions. The best way to do this was go through all the single missions to give the pilot/crew combat experience flying them yourself, then let them fly in your squadron during a campaign - and if luck was with them, they would score kills, get promotions and medals.

You also had the ability to save your kills on a gun camera, and the game also included a mission builder, which was simple to use, but the missions you could create were far beyond anything you may get in the game generated campaign. In true Ultra-Geek fashion, I actually ended up doing a custom mission for each day of the Battle for the RAF after doing a fair bit of research on the actual battle itself ( on some of the more significant days, there were several missions ) that's at least one historical mission per day from the 10th July 1940 to October 31st 1940.

You could never be killed by enemy fire in this sim, even if your aircraft were being blown to pieces - the only way for you to die was to physically crash into the ground or sea. Also, your parachute was fail safe and always opened, no matter how high or low you were!

Another funny thing, when your aircraft went out of control through too much battle damage, you would always spin to the right. You could do belly landings, both on land and sea, which was useful. The combat damage to your aircraft was inflicted on either the airframe or the engine(s). The engines were very slow in throttle response - they measured from 0 to 100 percent power, and you had to tap the key for each percent you wanted to go up or down, there was no snap commands to full or idle power!

On the German medium bombers, there was a bomb aimers position, but the results from releasing the bombs from here was very, very random to say the least. I flew dozens of test missions from the mission builder trying to find the best parameters to do a bombing run and came up with the following:

Hey-presto! On target everytime! For some reason, even at that low level, you didn't get fragged by your own bombs as long as you were in a medium bomber. Talking about the bombs, you had the option of releasing them one at a time, or in one continuous salvo.

The targets available to you as a bomber pilot were the RAF airfields, radar stations and various factories, HQ buildings and ships. You did encounter flak as a Luftwaffe pilot, but I don't ever recall any aircraft being damaged by it, let alone being shot down - also the flak only appeared if you attacked a shipping convoy.

You could also do dive bombing in the Stuka and the Ju88, as both were equipped with dive brakes.

The Stuka had dive angles etched into the pilots side canopy. The Messerschmitt fighters had machine guns and cannon. The cannons were a superb weapon - oddly both myself and my mate Tom had better success in the Me110 than the Me109. We got the knack of doing head-on passes on the RAF fighters, doing some damage with the cannons - just enough for the rear gunner to finish them off as we passed. We both racked up 390-ish kills each over many campaigns in our own pilot careers with the '110s.

Just remembered about landing the aircraft - no wheel brakes!!! You had to let down as slow as possible and let the speed bleed off as you hurtle down the runway! (luckily, you didn't crash if you went off the runway!). You didn't have to land at an airfield to end the mission.

You had the ability to quit in mid-air, but you had to do it over certain areas though. If you quit while over the channel, the game took it as if you had ditched in the sea, but you always got rescued by your own side. If you quit over enemy territory, it ended as you being forced down and belly landing, resulting in you being taken POW.