Ts4EVER

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we are showing off a render of some Finnish armour, pressed into service after capture from the Soviets. The Finns first came across Soviet T-34s during August 1941 in the Karelian Isthmus. They would capture two intact before the end of the year, with a third following in the spring of 1942 and a fourth in autumn of 1943. Nine more were ordered from Germany in 1944, but only 3 were delivered before the end of the Continuation War. These tanks received minor modifications including new headlights and cut fenders. The Finns gave the T-34 the nickname "Sotka", after a perceived resemblance to the pochard duck or perhaps after the name of a tugboat that a Finnish T-34 driver had served on. All of the T-34 taken into Finnish service survived the war and were taken out of service by the end of the 1950s. Our T-34 model of 1941 made by Pointblank86 and Stubbfan was modified into our Sotka by Seth Soldier and Matt Baker.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we have a render of yet another soviet silencer. But first, in case you missed it, Roughbeak posted a devblog covering upcoming weapon animations over on our forums. See it here. Additionally, Ts4EVER has also been covering his process of making an FH2 map in a Youtube series here. The Soviets had put some effort towards the development of a practical suppressor for their rifles throughout the 1930's, but every design had failed on one or more criteria. It wasn't until 1940 that the brothers Mitin presented an acceptable design. The BraMit suppressor fixes to the Mosin rifle in the same way as the bayonet, and has two expansion chambers each sealed with a thick rubber plug. It was used with special subsonic ammunition, which drastically cut the effective range but allowed for extended life of the rubber seals and much reduced sound. Somewhat more than 50 thousand were constructed during the war, and ours was made by Ashton and Seth Soldier.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we are showing off a couple of renders of our new Fallschirmjäger playermodels In 1935, the Soviet Union performed a series of training manoeuvres that included an impressive display of parachute deployed infantry. Hermann Göring was one of the international observers, and took these ideas with him back to the newly formed Luftwaffe. Started as a volunteer battalion in early 1936, the Fallschirmjäger were formed into their first division in 1938. The first opposed airdrops took place in the Invasion of Norway, and were soon followed by the stunning capture of Eben Emael in Belgium. The culmination of the large strategic airborne operations of the Fallschirmjäger came in the Invasion of Crete, which despite being a victory came at a great cost of life. As the war continued, the Fallschirmjäger would act more often as elite infantry, and by 1944 new units were no longer receiving even the most basic in parachute training. Distinguishable from the average infantryman by their distinctive unbrimmed helmets, you'll be able to see our new models on maps such as Crete, Purple Heart Lane and St. Lo thanks to the work of Kraetzer, Stubbfan and Matt Baker.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we are showing off a couple of renders of some old friends in new clothes. As part of the program of Lend-Lease, the UK and the US provided the Soviet Union with thousands of tonnes of supplies - everything from rubber to trucks. Amongst this essential supplies were also provided many hundreds of armoured fighting vehicles. The Soviets first learned of the M10 in March 1943, though they were not seemingly enamoured with the concept, taking several months to order just two for evaluation. One of these was used to measure mobility and reliability, which was determined to be good. Certainly as good as the domestic equivalents and very similar to the M4A2 tanks. The only real objection was to the open top. Gunnery trials were delayed into 1944 by a lack of ammunition, and while the gun was liked, the crew ergonomics were not. Only 50 M10s were ordered, and they finished arriving about the same time as the gunnery trials completed. They were delivered critically short of spares and other equipment, and training proceeded with a lack of manuals with crews who had not any previous tank destroyer experience. In the end, 44 of these vehicles were split up between the 1223rd and 1239th Self Propelled Artillery Regiments, who used them in Belarus and Poland respectively. No more M10s were requested, instead the M4A2(76)W would take its place. Our Soviet M10 was modified from the original by Agus by Matt Baker. The Valentine was perhaps the most liked of the various tanks received by the Soviets from the British. Small, reasonably well armoured and with good reliability, they could be found on the front lines all the way from Moscow in the winter of 1941 through to the end of the war. Replaced in British service by the Churchill by mid 1943, it remained in production through to 1945 almost exclusively to equip the Red Army. The tank went through several different designs, and was produced in both the UK and Canada. The Mk VII variant was a Canadian built version of the Mk II with a new US made transmission and GMC 6004 engine. More parts were made by castings, and the BESA coaxial machinegun was replaced with a M1919A4. In total, the Canadians would make 1420 Valentines, with all but a handful being sent to the Soviets. Ours was modified from Montoya's Mk II by Matt Baker.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we have a render of an interesting revolver that was both advanced and already obsolete when it was introduced: the Nagant M1895. The Nagant brothers were well known in the imperial Russian court due to their role in the development of the Mosin Nagant rifles. In the 1890s, the Tsarist army was looking for a replacement to their ageing Smith and Wesson Model 3s, and the design by Léon Nagant was adopted in 1895. The Nagant is a gate loaded revolver, a conservative choice in a period of top breaking and swing out cylinders. Unusually, the cylinder is cammed forward before each shot, allowing the brass cartridge to form a gas seal with the barrel. This was felt to be important, as it allows for an increase in muzzle velocity, it however had an unintended side effect of allowing the Nagant to be suppressed. In the early 1930s, the Mitin brothers developed an expansion type suppressor using nine 8mm thick rubber seals to capture the gas behind the bullet. It was clamped over the end of the barrel and required the use of special ammunition with pointed bullets due to the rubber seals. A similar design would later be developed for the Mosin Nagant rifle. Many of these suppressors were used by partisans behind German lines. The Nagant M1895 was produced all the way from 1896 through to 1945. Intended to be replaced by the Tokarev pistol, it was put back into major scale production during the War. Ours was made by Ashton and RedRogueXIII. Additionally, before we go, we just have time for a video produced by Mayhemic.MAD that shows a visualisation of the SVN used for FH2 development as the years have gone by. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Zw-8n6wiU

New update: Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we have a render of a new rifle that will be equipping the United States forces, the Springfield M1903A3. While the US entered the war with the M1 Garand as its standard infantry rifle, there were the inevitable shortages and delays that lead to the M1903 Springfield rifle seeing widespread use in the first few months. In anticipation of this, production of the Springfield was re-continued in September 1941 using vintage tooling stored since 1919. As this started to wear out, many milled parts were replaced with cheaper stampings, and the original ladder sight on the barrel was replaced with an aperture above the bolt. Called the M1903A3, the rifles with these changes would see frontline service alongside the Garand, particularly seeing use for launching rifle grenades and with the Rangers. Our M1903A3 has been made by Seth Soldier.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we are showing off renders of the G-2 variant of the BF 109, but first: We'd like to thank all of our fans for voting for us in the second round of this year's ModDB Mod of the Year! Once again, we have managed to get enough votes to earn an honourable mention in the Player's Choice - quite the feat for a mod that has been released for 11 years now. The G series of the Messerschmitt BF 109 fighters was largely identical to the preceding F series, with most of the changes happening inside. Small incremental changes such as heavier reinforcing of the wing structure and additional cooling scoops for the spark plugs were intended to update the F-4 frame to take the new more powerful DB 605A engine, which increased the available horsepower by over 100 to 1445hp. Produced starting in early 1942, the G series would go on to be the most numerous of the BF 109s. The Finns bought 162 of the G series starting in 1943, with the first batch arriving in March. 48 of these were the G-2 variant. The Finns had great success with their Messerschmitts, scoring 667 victories for 34 losses in the air. After the war, they would continue in service with the Finish Airforce until 1954. Our BF 109G-2 was originally made by Toddel, with Finnish markings added by Matt Baker.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. We'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and what could be a better present than another StuG? We'd also like to thank everyone who voted for us in the ModDB top 100 mods of the year, and we are looking forward to finding out the results! In the spring of 1943, the Finnish Armed Forces made a request to Germany about acquiring assault guns. With a positive response, an initial order for 45 was placed, though ultimately only 30 of these would be delivered and paid for. At the same time, training was provided to a small group of Finnish officers and men in Germany, and at their request the order was expanded to include all the support vehicles that would normally equip a German StuG battalion. On arrival in Finland, the Schürzen and mounts were removed, a wooden tool crate was fitted to the rear deck and spare roadwheel mounts added to the side of the superstructure. The gunshield on the roof was modified to take a DT instead of an MG34, and three tone camouflage was painted over the original dunkelgelb. There were other changes made later, including additional side armour, improved armour for the driver's vision slit and concrete added to the front of the superstructure. The most obvious of these changes was the addition of logs to the sides above the fenders. Known to the Finns as the Stu 40 G, they would quickly pick up the nickname Sturmi. While the Sturmis were on the front line from the summer of 1943 onwards, they would face their biggest tests at the battles at Kuuterselkä, Tali and Vuosalmi in the midsummer of 1944. Across these three engagements, they would knock out 87 soviet armoured vehicles for only 8 losses. The StuG was by far the most modern armoured vehicle that the Finns had in 1944, and was well liked by its crews, who found it to have excellent outside visibility combined with a good gun, allowing them to see and to shoot first. Perhaps their main complaint was the underpowered engine and narrow tracks limiting its performance off-road. A further 29 vehicles were delivered that summer before the Finnish capitulation in September, but these would see little service during the Continuation War. Finland still had 45 Stu 40 Gs when they were declared obsolete in 1959, and many of these would go on to be dug in as pillboxes. Our Sturmi was made by Toddel.

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update. Today we have a nice little early Christmas present in the form of a render: Amongst the multitude of Soviet tanks captured by the Finns were two ISU-152s, both of which were captured around the Portinhoikka crossroads during the battle of Tali. Tank number 1212 was found stranded at the side of the road with battle damage and a thrown track, but still with a crew and a working gun. After a short fight it was captured, however it would serve out the remainder of the war at a repair centre. It served as a heavy recovery vehicle with the Finnish Army until 1964, when it was transferred to the Parola Tank Museum. The other vehicle was captured completely intact, and was almost immediately pressed into service. Over the next four days it was painted with Finnish camouflage and markings, went through some evaluations and testing and then finally was used in a counterattack. With a hastily assembled crew who had no real experience operating such a heavy beast, it was hit several times by two dug in T-34-85s. The crew bailed out and the ISU burned. With their limited experience using the vehicle, the Finns praised it for its hard hitting gun and strong armour, but they disliked how blind, clumsy and slow to aim and fire it was. Seth Soldier modified our original ISU-152, which was made by himself, Rad, Toddel and Matt Baker.