The US Strategic Bombing Campaign of Japan June 1944 – August 1945, Part 1

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Looming out of the warm spring darkness, a bomber stream formation of 68 US Army Air Force four engine Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers made landfall well over the Japanese home island of Kyushu around midnight on 15 June 1944. The formation’s lead plane was piloted by Brigadier General Laverne G. Saunders. Japanese searchlights with their multi-million candlelight arcs snapped on ahead of them in the distance, sending up numerous probing shafts of ultra brilliant light skyward searching for the oncoming bombers. The plane’s navigator spoke. “General, we’re approaching the target and are on the bomb run.” In response. Saunders said. “Bombardier, the plane is now under your control.” “Roger!” the bombardier replied. The man sitting in the “greenhouse” glass nose of the plane and gave the “OK signal” with his hand held over his head. He then leaned over his Norden bombsight and began making minute adjustments to the plane’s course and speed; all the while fighting the only recently discovered high altitude jet stream winds that buffeted the bomber and all others in the formation. Tail winds with this speed and velocity could propel a high flying aircraft to over 500 mph while a head wind could slow their progress down to a crawl. Either eventuality could easily spoil the bombardier’s aim. The bomber’s target was the Imperial Japanese Iron and Steel Works at Yawata. Heavy but inaccurate flak artillery fire exploded brightly around the bomber stream but caused little to no damage. In addition, there were no Japanese night fighter planes anywhere in sight. The bombardier soon called out “Bombs away!” as the first of 107 tons of bombs cascaded downward towards the steel works. The bomber formation effected a long, lazy turn away from the target to return to their newly built air bases in Nationalist China. The bombing mission appeared to have been a success. However, subsequent photo reconnaissance flights sadly revealed poor results from the raid with only one bomb striking within the industrial complex due to both the high speed jet stream winds and poor visibility over the target. However, this fact was mitigated by the knowledge that the raid on Yawata was the first aerial bombing raid on mainland Japanese since the pin-prick Doolittle aircraft carrier launched air raid over two years before. The US news media was absolutely elated by the news of the Yawata bombing raid, proclaiming that this was but the first of many more air raids that would soon knock Japan completely out of the war. For once they were completely correct.

Read on…

By Eddie Makuch @ GameSpot

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 operating system could be the “best operating system we’ve ever created for gamers on PC,” according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer. On the Xbox Wire, Spencer hyped the January 21 Windows 10 event by saying he’s really excited to finally get to showcase “the great work that we’re doing” in the Windows 10 space as it relates to gaming.

Read more…

Personalized campaign setup and unique in-game rewards available to all players

Wargaming today announced the all new personal mission system for the free-to-play online action game World of Tanks is now live worldwide. The intricate system gives tankers the opportunity to personalize their mission experience by selecting specific missions from a variety of different campaigns and offers unique rewards upon completion.

Each campaign in the new setup is composed of a collection of missions for players to choose from. Players are not restricted to one single campaign, and they may opt to complete missions from different campaigns without playing them in succession.

After completing a chain of missions in a campaign, tankers will be awarded unique prizes specific to each mission. These new rewards include credits, Free Experience points, and high tier vehicles, the StuG IV (Tier 5), T28 heavy tank concept (Tier 7), Т-55 NVA DDR (Tier 9), and Object 260 (Tier 10), all with 100% tank crew, as well as the Sisterhood of Steel perk and female crew members.

Click Here for more information about World of Tanks.

As long, bitter winters set in across Europe and crops wither in the field, the Gothic people find themselves at a turning point. Furthermore, their homelands to the west of the Black Sea lie directly in the path of Attila The Hun’s terrifying ambition. To survive, they must learn to live as wayfarers, ranging far afield in order to find a secure, more fertile home.

Highlighting the themes of climate change, famine, and the threat of Hunnic conquest which drive mass migrations in Total War: Attila, this latest cinematic trailer presents a bleak vision of life at the dawn of the Dark Ages. As they approach the borders of Rome, the Goths realise their future hangs in the balance: the rider of the black horse has the power to decide their fate.

To survive in this world of turmoil and strife, certain factions have adopted a migratory lifestyle, characterised in Total War: Attila’s new horde mechanics. Unlike traditional Total War factions, whose development relies on static towns and cities, these migrating hordes are free to rove the map and pitch their tents where they will. Hordes represent the military might of an army combined with the economic, production and recruitment potential of a settlement, and offer players the first truly nomadic experience in Total War history.

For more detail on hordes and the mechanics of migration in Total War: Attila, a new spotlight video is also available here.

Author: AkG @ Hardware Canucks

2014 marked a maturing G-SYNC’s technology backbone and a relatively quick rollout into high end gaming monitors. BenQ’s latest offering (notwithstanding the announcements made at CES) is the XL2420G, a 1080P, 144HZ TN-based monitor that has recently become more affordable and offers several features that are sure to appeal to gamers looking for a fluid experience, without many tertiary sacrifices. BenQ’s has also added an integrated IR senor, making the XL2420G natively compatible with NVIDIA’s 3D Vision.

Read The Review Here

By crazyeyesreaper @ TechPowerUp!

Today’s review will cover the SilentiumPC Grandis XE1236 CPU cooler. It uses a traditional dual-tower design that makes use of six 6 mm heatpipes and, instead of dual 140mm fans, dual 120mm fans. Taking design cues from the competition’s heavy-weight dual-tower coolers, SilentiumPC keeps their offering under control in terms of height and cost. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the competition.

Read The Review Here

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• G.SKILL Releases Extremely High End DDR4 Memory Kit at 3400MHz
• ZOWIE EC1-A and EC2-A Gaming Mice Now Available
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Confirmed Specifications and Launch Date
• Arctic Announces P614 & P614 BT Headphones
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X To Feature Tweakable Idle Fan-off Mode
• KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Series Pictured
• ASUS, EVGA and ZOTAC GeForce GTX 960 Pictured
• Antec Launches Very Quiet 750W EDGE Silence Defined PSU
• Antec Shows Off P380 Flagship Chassis, P70 Mid-tower and More
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming Pictured
• BenQ XL2730Z is 2560 x 1440 Gets Adaptive-Sync
• Inno3D GeForce GTX 960 OC and iChill GeForce GTX 960 Ultra Pictured

Matrix Games today announced that this Wednesday (January 14th) they are kicking off the 2015 weekly Twitch streaming sessions with To End All Wars, one of the biggest and most accurate World War One war games ever created! During this streaming session, Surtur will be playing the game, explaining basic gameplay mechanics to new players. The Ageod developers will also be present during the stream, ready to take on every question you might have.

But that is not all! For we will also be announcing something completely new for To End All Wars! So be sure to tune in and find out!

The Stream will be live on the official Slitherine Group Twitch Channel at 20:00 CET / 19:00 UTC / 14:00 EST.

Source: Blue’s News

GabberGames announces the release of War, the Game on Steam, calling this “PC strategy gaming for the masses.” That said, they also call this one of those games that’s difficult to master in spite of its simplicity, though one element that sets it apart from a typical RTS game is a spherical map, making for a more global version of a global conflict. This carries a 10% launch discount, and here’s word on gameplay:

War, the Game is a global Real Time Strategy game. Take the role of a supreme commander directing your armies across the globe. Use your strategic wit to battle AI and other players in realistic scenarios.
Conquer the world, city by city.

Easy to learn, difficult to master. War, the Game only has 7 army types. The game rules are simple and transparent. The first few scenarios teach you all you need to know. After that it is down to your braininess.

Variety is the spice of life. Take command of the armed forced of a large variety of nations. Scenarios require wildly different strategies to win that are not obvious as you start out. The AI is expanding so there is little time to decide. The network scenarios are also varied. 25 players in a big scrum or 1 on 1. With or without alliances.

Get more information via the official War, the Game website.

“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.” (Richard Nixon – former US President)

Early 1965 – Regular US military units are deployed on Vietnamese soil. The American government sends massive support to South Vietnam to prevent the Viet Cong forces from the North unifying the entire country under the Communist banner. This Cold War conflict was not only fought with classic weapons, but also with unconventional tactics in order to gain support from civilians.

Vietnam ’65, the new game developed by Every Single Soldier, aims to capture this unique warfare duality. This is why the your main task is not to crush yout opponent as you usually do in other strategy games, but to win the hearts and minds of the local population! Your main focus will be to plan and execute counter-insurgency operations so that you will prevent villages falling under Viet Cong influence. Thanks to a refined AI and a randomly generated campaign map, you should be ready to face tough and surprising challenges!

This atypical multiplatform tactical game is now ready to enter the beta phase on both PC and iPad; and we invite players to help us test it! By signing up for the beta, players will have a chance to be selected to be one of the lucky few who will be able experience Vietnam ’65 before release and help us with the final touches, ensuring a smooth release later this year.

Players can sign up for the beta by clicking here.

Get more information on Vietnam ‘65 from its official PC product page.