An introduction to the project news

On April 9th 1940 the German military launched Operation Weserübung. The goal was to quickly invade and take control over the two Scandinavian nations Denmark and Norway. When it comes to Denmark, the invasion went as the Germans expected; The danish military surrendered in just 4 hours, making it the quickest one of all their invasions of the European countries. Norway was a completely different case however; Even though the Norwegian military was suffering from lack of equipment, training and men, it really packed a punch. Good morale in the Norwegian ranks in addition to horrible weather and terrain made the actual country a nightmare to completely invade.

Eventually the Norwegians also got help from the British, French and Polish, but to little avail. German equipment and manpower proved to eventually become too much, and the invasion was complete after 62 days - making it the longest lasting German invasion of a country in WW2.

The mod aims to bring in the Norwegian Army as an additional playable faction for the game. The motivations, goals and reasons behind adding this rather obscure nation to a game about WW2 are several:

• The invasion of Norway is an almost untouched subject for all media - especially games. It's a great opportunity to educate and teach others about what happened during those 62 days back in 1940.
• The fact that the invasion happened in 1940 makes it possible to make some drastic changes to the style of combat already present in the game. Assault rifles and SMG's will not be the dominant weapons in combat anymore, instead being replaced by a heavy focus on rifles and light machine guns.
• The Norwegian Army for a WW2 game is a very interesting addition in itself; the equipment used has never been seen in any game before, and it should prove interesting to set the mightiest military in the world up against an army using outdated, and sometimes even homemade equipment.
• The mod from a historical perspective allows for some neat additions in the future, namely adding support for the British, French and Polish armies. Adding the Danish army is also a possibility.

The main goals for a future first release are as follows:

• Adding the Norwegian Army as a playable faction.
  
  • This includes turning the 7 default playable classes in Day of Infamy into classes with historically correct Norwegian equipment, uniforms and voice acting.
• Including at least 2 maps baed on historical engagements where the Norwegian Army fought against the Germans.
• Essentially time-travling back to 1940 in terms of the equipment for the default German army in Day of Infamy to better represent how the fighting panned out during the invasion. This means the removal of assault rifles, flamethrowers and also the possibility for many of the classes to carry automatic weapons.

First media

Here are some of the things that have been done for the mod so far. For this post, the media will be restricted to weapon models, as this is the field where most work has been done so far:

The Krag-Jørgensen was the result of Norwegian engineering brilliance. First built and patented in the late 1880's, the Krag was of an unusual but sturdy design. Perhaps it's most unique feature was the side mounted box-magazine. Upon reloading the rifle, one would simply flip the magazine open and literally drop 5 rounds in. The feeding mechanism of the rifle handled the rest. The rifle was first taken in use by the Danish army in 1889, and the U.S.A also made it their standard rifle in 1892. The Norwegian military was hesitant to adopt the rifle at first, but in 1894 it became the standard rifle for the Norwegian Army.

Accurate and sturdy, but expensive and difficult to manifacture are some of the terms best used to describe this rifle. It's use against the Germans in the 1940 invasion made it perhaps one of the biggest, if not the biggest symbol of Norwegian defiance.

A regular Krag-Jørgensen was an incredibly accurate and deadly weapon in itself, but what happens when you mount a scope on it? It gets even better of course. In 1910 the Norwegian military ordered a thousand scopes from the German manufacturer Voigtländer. All were delivered, and mounted on the Krag rifles. This piece of equipment is exclusively available for the Norwegian Sniper class.

The Krag has some additional attachments available to choose from: Number one is the standard issue bayonet for the rifle. It gives the Norwegians a good back-up opportunity if close range combat breaks out. The other attachment is the 'Hagen' rifle grenade launcher. Designed by a Norwegian with the name Karl Hagen, this attachment was approved for use by the Norwegian military in the 20's. It had the neat feature of being able to use the gasses produced by normal ammunition as a propellant. This was quite unusual for the time. The grenade launcher is available for the Engineer and Support classes.

Moving on to something with more firepower, we have the Madsen M/22. The Madsen was designed by a Danish artillery captain in the early 1900's, and was a very successful design. The design was sold to over 30 countries worldwide, and support for over a dozen calibres was possible. In 1914, the Madsen became the standard issue light machine gun in the Norwegian military being issued at a rate of one per squad. While the Madsen was popular for the most part in the rest of the world, the situation was different in the Norwegian ranks; It was plagued by malfunctions and jams caused by the standard Norwegian calibre, and it was also difficult to produce and maintain. Luckily, having guns jam is not a good game mechanic, and it will function without flaws during gameplay for this project.

It comes with 30 and 40-round magazines, and can be used by the Machinegunner and Support class.

The Aasen hand grenade is an obscure piece of equipment. While the Norwegian Army in 1940 did not have a standard issue hand grenade because of budget cuts, instructions and drawings regarding this grenade can be found in soldier manual books dating to the 30's and 20's. Designed by the Norwegian inventor and pioneer within grenade technology Nils Aasen, this grenade was approved by the Norwegian military sometime in the 20's. It has a unique pin which holds a pressurized trigger in place with a casing of metal plates. When the pin was pulled and the grenade was thrown, the casing dislodged from the grenade body which then relased the pressurized button holding the grenade fuze striker in place.

The grenade can be used by all Norwegian classes.