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Welcome to the 29th Infantry Division |
The 29th Infantry Division is a realism unit in the online World War II game, Darkest Hour: Normandy 1944. Realism is the conducting of a gaming group as close to real combat as possible.
Above, you will find our primary navigation menu with five links on it. For each of the links, a submenu is provided on the left of the page with related links.
For more information about the 29th, read our About page. | |
| Friday, March 5, 2010 |
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Fallschirmjäger by
Sgt. Heck
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 A short look on one of the 29th's opposing forces in Normandy.
The Wehrmacht (German Armed forces) began recruiting for the first paratrooper units on January 26th, 1936. Until July, two regiments of Fallschirmjäger were reorganized as 7. Luftwaffendivision (7th Air Force Division), a unit that was renamed to 1. Fallschirmjägerdivision in 1943.
As you can see from the name, German paratroopers belonged to the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). This was unlike most other nations where paratroopers were part of the land forces that were transported by Air Force units. Another unique quality of the Fallschirmjäger was that when they jumped off the plane, they only had grenades and their pistols. Other small arms were dropped in special containers, since it was considered to dangerous to jump with a rifle or sub-machine gun (SMG) "am Mann" (on the person).
The armament of Fallschirmjäger was slightly different when compared to that of regular army forces:
For example, 25% of the men were standard issued with the Maschinenpistole 40 SMG, a very high amount compared to other units. About one in ten soldiers was equipped with a Maschinengewehr 34 machine gun. Due to the nature of a parachute unit, almost no heavy weapons were kept available with the exception of recoilless rifles (Leicht-Geschütz 40).
The division did not reach the full amount of manpower until the landings upon Crete. The first Airborne forces that saw action consisted of company sized units dropped behind enemy lines in Poland, Scandinavia, and the western front.
After the defeat of Allied forces in Greece, the island of Crete was the last stronghold for British forces in the Mediterenian theater of war. Since the naval bases on the island were a key element to Britain's superiority in this region, the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, German high command) decided to conquer Crete with airborne forces that were remaining in Greece near Korinthe.
7th division attacked Crete on May 20th, 1941 with 15.000 paratroopers dropped by 500 Ju52 transport planes. After proper airfields were captured, 14.000 mountain infantry soldiers were landed. British forces on the island consisted 35.000 men with 7000 Greek soldiers amongst them.
Although "Operation Merkur" was listed as a success, German paratrooper suffered more than 6000 casualties. No more airborne operations in WWII were planned, paratroopers served as quick reaction forces in Sicily, Italy, and Normandy.
91. Luftlande-Infanterie-Division's (91st Air Landing Division) 6th regiment participated in the defense of St. Lo and therefore, more than likely, faced 29th ID during Operation Overlord.
9 Comments
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| Sunday, February 7, 2010 |
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Back From a Vacation, Back into the Routine by
Cpl. Brewer
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 Some of us in the 29th ID are having to expend more effort getting back into the routine of drills and the life as a member in this unit. Some of us feel as if we need another vacation to recuperate from our recent one. Some of us find ourselves looking at the calendar or having to be reminded by a fellow comrade about the day and time of our drills. If you have felt as if you've had to somewhat give more effort towards remembering and attending drills, then you're not alone. It is just natural for people to struggle after a time of not having to attend a regular obligation. But we all must remember one thing about being a member of the 29th Infantry Division...
The truth is, we never go on vacation from being a member of this magnificent unit. Even if we are on a break from drills, we are still representing the 29th Infantry Division every time we play on the server, post on our forums, or any others. Being a member of this unit, you have proven that you can and do conduct yourself in a manner becoming of a 29th ID member. Many people in the unit have jobs and some of those jobs keep on working right through the holidays, day in and day out. The Military Police cannot take a break from patrolling the server, monitoring the forums, or preventing spammers from doing as they wish. The workers in the Medical Office do not ignore the constant requests for help so that they can go on a skiing trip with their girlfriend. These men and women represent the selfless service of the members in the 29th Infantry Division.
While we are technically not on a vacation, being in the 29th ID practically is a vacation since every aspect of it is enjoyable. As I am writing this article, it is not a chore for me. I enjoy it. Drills are mandatory to attend, but I would still go even if they were not. When we come back from one vacation, we are practically going into another. The 29th ID is that little boost at home you need to get through your school and work days.
If you are a Darkest Hour player who has considered joining the 29th, but is still unsure, then ask yourself a few questions. Do you want to be apart of the longest lasting realism unit in DH as well as one of the longest lasting units in all-around realism? Do you want to be apart of an organization that exemplifies honor, respect, and professionalism? Do you want to have continuous fun playing unique, realistic in-game scenarios? I cannot see how any reasonable person would say no to any of these questions. If you are still in consideration of joining the unit, I suggest personally talking to a unit member or even just trying it out by scrolling up and clicking on that button "Enlist!"
6 Comments
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| Sunday, January 3, 2010 |
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Forum Upgrade by
Lt. Col. Wilson
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In case you haven't noticed, we have upgraded our forums to the latest version of SMF. To many of you, this means a few colour tweaks and cool new features. But for me, it is much more than that.
When we first switched to SMF from our old phpBB forums, I began learning PHP in order to modify our forums - very slightly - to add things like 'posting absence' and such. I gradually learnt more PHP and added more features, but as you might imagine, modifying the forums with very little knowledge of how things worked led to inconsistent and inefficient coding - aka a mess.
Even worse, all the modifications that were made pretty much bound us to SMF v1.1.1, because if we upgraded even one version, we would have lost all of those, or it would have been quite difficult to upgrade.
Ever since shifting to the 'personnel system', I have been striving to make it independent of the forums, and simply work with the forums. But there were certain things, like the calendar, that I never thought I'd get around to. Well, I'm pleased to say that I have, and as you can see, I've made all of our custom features independent of the forums. The only custom bits on the forums are things required for forum functions (i.e. avatars, announcements, etc.).
Overall, things are far more efficient now, and we can upgrade much easier in the future. The forums should run a lot faster, as I've also decreased their size from 3,821mb to 197mb (I know..wow), and now I only pull custom 29th records where necessary in the forums.
I'm sure you'll run into bugs. SMF changed plenty of variable names, so I'm sure there are a few 'typos' in our system as a result. Please report these bugs here and I'll fix them as soon as I can.
Enjoy the new features and all the stuff 'under the hood' ;)
25 Comments
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| Tuesday, December 22, 2009 |
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Expanding to a 3rd Company by
Lt. Col. Wilson
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I am pleased to announce the addition of Able Company to our roster, formed by the ever-growing Third Platoon of Charlie Company, which was created for its European-friendly drill times. Our 230 members are now organised into three companies: Able, Baker and Charlie.
A little over eight months ago, we began surveying the unit to find out if we would have enough European players (or North Americans who preferred earlier drill times) to form a 'European Squad'. We found enough - it was roughly 8 if I remember correctly. However, we knew it would soon have a few more with retired members returning and European cadets from Basic Training, so we planned for it to be its own platoon, starting out as a single squad. I was able to talk T/4 Cranston into leading this squad-sized platoon, and it proved to be one of the best moves I've made.
As we have seen, the Darkest Hour community produced countless European players or North Americans who preferred earlier times, and the ranks of CP3 filled up very rapidly. With 50+ players, they quickly became the largest platoon in the unit. We saw them expand to a fourth squad (over the realistic limit), and still overfill the squad numbers to as high as 15 members per squad.
Clearly it was time for a second European platoon. But adding one to Baker Company would seem silly, as if it were its own Company, it could have its own Company Drills, rather than two platoon drills per week. This route making more sense, we began the planning for an expansion to a third company. Fortunately, we had strong leadership that was ripe for moving up. 1Lt. Cunningham, Charlie Company's XO, was proving invaluable to his company and quite capable of even more, thus he was chosen to lead Able Company as its Commanding Officer.
Staff Sergeant Cranston was able to hold the largest platoon in the unit together, alone in its platoon headquarters, for eight months, without any platoon leadership training like our officers have received. Through this and many other things he's done in the unit, he's proved his qualification for Officer Candidate School, and is now training to became a Lieutenant. Sergeant Egerton has also proven to be a very valuable asset to CP3, a member from its beginning and a role model to the entire platoon. He has been chosen to lead the newly formed Second Platoon of Able Company.
The hard work of these leaders allowed us to structure CP3 into the size and format that it is meant to be. But it was the hard work of all members of CP3 that made this necessary in the first place. The 70% attendance of drills, the hard work of its squad leaders, and the huge amount of recruitment taking place. I would like to thank our recruiters from CP3, especially its top 3, for filling up the platoon so much that it had to expand to a third company!
Able Company Recruiting Hall of Fame
1. Cpl. Tuomainen with 66 recruits
2. T/5 Vandewalle with 34 recruits
3. SSgt. Cranston with 29 recruits
Congratulations to all members of the new Able Company, and to all members of the 29th Infantry Division, past and present, for bringing us to where we are today - a battalion sized unit with three companies!
17 Comments
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