Official Free Historical Campaigns "Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey"

[Juri_JS]

The Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey campaign pack contains a fighter (Fw-190 A-6), fighter-bomber (Fw-190 F-8) and Stuka (Ju-87 D-5) campaign. Missions are taking place in June and July 1944, 

To play all campaigns, you need Battle of Bodenplatte, Battle of Normandy and Siege and Liberation.

All missions have random element, so it should be interesting to fly them more than once.

    

Historical Background
In 1941, Finland joined the German attack on the Soviet Union to regain territory lost during the Soviet invasion in the winter of 1939-40. In addition, the Wehrmacht was allowed to use Finnish territory in the north of the country as a staging area, although Finland never officially joined the Axis. During its offensive in the summer of 1941, the Finnish army advanced beyond the old border and, especially in East Karelia, took over territories that had previously belonged to the Soviet Union. Three years of trench warfare followed.
In January 1944, the Red Army broke the siege of Leningrad and pushed the German Army Group North back to the Narva area and beyond Lake Peipus. After German troops temporarily stabilized the front and prevented Soviet forces from advancing further into Estonia, Finland became the Red Army's next target. On June 9, 1944, the Leningrad Front attacked Finland on the Karelian Isthmus. After massive artillery and air attacks, the Soviet 21st Army broke through the Finnish positions at Valkeasaari one day later. The overwhelming enemy superiority forced the Finnish units to begin a fighting retreat to the Vammelsuu-Taipale Line (VT Line). However, the Red Army's rapid advance did not give them enough time to organize an effective defense, and the VT Line was breached on June 14. After counterattacks failed, the Finnish high command ordered a retreat to the last line of defense on the Karelian Isthmus, the underdeveloped Viipuri-Kuparsaari-Taipale (VKT) line. While some detachments fought a bitter rearguard action against the advancing Soviet troops, the Finnish army managed to occupy the new positions in time, forming a continuous line of defense that ran from the town of Viipuri to the Vuoksi River and then eastward along its course to Lake Ladoga. After the Finnish commander-in-chief, Marshal Mannerheim, requested military assistance from the German Reich, it was decided to send the German 122nd Infantry Division and the 303rd Assault Rifle Brigade to Karelia. In addition, German arms supplies were further increased, especially urgently needed anti-tank weapons. For Germany, it was imperative to prevent the imminent collapse of the Finnish armed forces and the danger of a separate peace with the Soviet Union, which would place the Wehrmacht units fighting in Lapland in a dangerous situation.
Soviet air superiority was particularly noticeable. In addition to the numerical inferiority of the Finnish Air Force, the lack of close-support aircraft to support the hard-pressed troops on the ground proved a major disadvantage. The Luftwaffe therefore decided to send a detachment to support the Finns, which was named Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey after its commander. The detachment was stationed at Immola airfield and was led by Oberstleutnant Kurt Kuhlmey, the experienced commander of Schlachtgeschwader 3. It was composed of the following units:
- I./Schlachtgeschwader 3 (Ju-87 D-5)
- 4th and 5th Staffel of II./Jagdgeschwader 54 (Fw 190 A-6)
- 1./Schlachtgeschwader 5 (Fw 190 F-8)
- 1./Nahaufklärungsgruppe 5 (Bf 109 G-8)

Aircraft Skins
Fw-190 A6 and Fw-190 F8 skins in the campaigns by Hanu.

Edited April 1 by Juri_JS

[Juri_JS]

Some photos taken at Immola airfield:

Erich Rudorffer, commander of II./Jagdgeschwader 54 infront of a I./Schlachtgeschwader 3 Stuka.

(You can easily find the exact spot where the photo was taken on the map.🙂)

 

Ju 87D5s from I./SG3 pass over a JG54 Fw-190A6

 

Fw-190F8 of  1./Schlachtgeschwader 5

 

Kurt Kuhlmey

 

Monument for Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey at Immola airfield

 

Members of Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey killed in action

Edited April 1 by Juri_JS

[LuftManu]

Awesome work @Juri_JS! Thank you very much for this incredible gift!!! 

[Juri_JS]

Unfortunately the version of the Stuka campaign with wind data in the briefings, needed for correctly setting the Stuvi bombsight, did not make it into 7.004. I will see that it gets added in a later update. Wind isn't strong in the missions, so not adjusting the Stuvi shouldn't be a big problem.

You can leave the target height setting of the Stuvi at 0. Target heights in the missions are usually between 5-30 m, so it doesn't really make much of a difference to change the setting.

Edited March 31 by Juri_JS

[sandmarken]

Very cool! Will try tonight!

[easterling77]

Thank you very much!!!

I eagerly waited for more content for my beloved 190

[Kapteeni45]

Will try ASAP

 

[BladeMeister]

Very nice Juri_JS. Makes me want to get my Hotas finished and back flying. 

Thank you Sir.

 

S!Blade<><

[Kapteeni45]

Very good missions, i must say! And this map is awesome. Finland looks... Finland. And i like the way how map is populated with small villages along the roads. And the roads are the best i have seen in Great Battles. I hope that we will have Finnish campaign too.

[Jaegermeister]

Congratulations on the release @Juri_JS, this looks like a very thorough coverage of the subject. It should be great fun to fly!

Thanks for all the hard work. ~S~

[Hanu]

10 hours ago, Kapteeni45 said:

Very good missions, i must say! And this map is awesome. Finland looks... Finland. And i like the way how map is populated with small villages along the roads. And the roads are the best i have seen in Great Battles. I hope that we will have Finnish campaign too.

For what I know there was plans for Finnish Ju-88 campaign, but if you use "Attack Ground target" the AI Ju-88's drop just one bomb per attack... -it would have had totally unrealistic feeling. They have different built-in logic compared to Stuka for example.

------------------

But luckily these campaigns are great! And historically really accurate 😍. Juri_JS has once again done tremendous job!

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Very magnificent! I've eagerly awaited this campaign for a long time, and if all goes well I may even have one or two hours to spare to test it tomorrow! Thanks, @Juri_JS and congratulations on the release!

 

12 minutes ago, Hanu said:

if you use "Attack Ground target" the AI Ju-88's drop just one bomb per attack...

The "Emergency drop ordinance" option of the Force Complete MCU usually works wonders for synchronised mass drops of bombs.

[Juri_JS]

22 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

The "Emergency drop ordinance" option of the Force Complete MCU usually works wonders for synchronised mass drops of bombs.

Do emergency dropped bombs explode?

[Hanu]

7 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Very magnificent! I've eagerly awaited this campaign for a long time, and if all goes well I may even have one or two hours to spare to test it tomorrow! Thanks, @Juri_JS and congratulations on the release!

 

The "Emergency drop ordinance" option of the Force Complete MCU usually works wonders for synchronised mass drops of bombs.

I would think this to work in level bombing (as normal attack ground does also), but the challenge is to dive bomb with Ju-88's.

[alpenspion]

Thank you for this new campaign!

Edited April 2 by alpenspion

[Juri_JS]

Later this year, I will update the campaign missions when the P-39Q and the A-20G become available.

And of course I am curious to see your screenshots from the missions. Feel free to post them here.

Edited April 2 by Juri_JS

[easterling77]

Returning from the first Jabo mission.

All worked fine and the AI-mates and I messed up a vehicle column pretty bad.

Thank you @Juri_JS for this hughe amount of content.

 

Best Greetings

DP

Edited April 3 by easterling77

[easterling77]

Finished the first mission for the 190 Fighter campaign - it was quite the fun and successfull

 

 I just ran into two minor things to question - nothing that hampered the mission for the player.

Spoiler

One 190 from a neighbouring flight flew after an airbattle against Yak 9's out to the sea till gas run out

And the mission breifing mentioned a releave flight of two 109's - they never showed up - I stayed till my gas ran low and my flight had to turn back to Immola

 

 

Spoiler

@Juri_JSIf the mission log file is of interest for you, I can provide it - if somebody could tell me where I can find it again😅

Edited April 3 by easterling77

[GenMarkof007]

S! @Juri_JS

A big thanks for the new (free) campaigns!

Quick question — would it be possible to start the campaign as a wingman rather than the flight lead? I think it would really help during the first few missions to follow a lead, get familiar with the airfields, and learn the area more comfortably.

I’m currently flying the Stuka missions.

Cheers, GenMarkof007 😉

[Juri_JS]

1 minute ago, GenMarkof007 said:

Quick question — would it be possible to start the campaign as a wingman rather than the flight lead? I think it would really help during the first few missions to follow a lead, get familiar with the airfields, and learn the area more comfortably.

It's not that simple and would require a complete rework of the missions.

1 hour ago, easterling77 said:

One 190 from a neighbouring flight flew after an airbattle against Yak 9's out to the sea till gas run out.

The AI does this sometimes. I don't think anything can be done about it.

1 hour ago, easterling77 said:

And the mission briefing mentioned a releave flight of two 109's - they never showed up - I stayed till my gas ran low and my flight had to turn back to Immola

Might have been caused by a missed waypoint that triggers the 109 flight. 

 

[Jaegermeister]

On 4/1/2026 at 3:33 AM, Juri_JS said:

Do emergency dropped bombs explode?

They do not, but if you have them drop their initial attack load and then jettison the remaining bombs, it will appear as though they did.

 

On 4/1/2026 at 10:45 AM, Hanu said:

I would think this to work in level bombing (as normal attack ground does also), but the challenge is to dive bomb with Ju-88's.

Here is the answer to your challenge... It seems to work fine. The delay in the lead aircraft jettisoning remaining bombs is to allow the rest of the flight to attack. I am not sure which model Ju88 you wanted to use or what bomb load, but it should work the same with any dive bomber.

Ju88_Dive_Bomb_Test.zip

You are welcome to start another thread in the mission making and editor section if you have any other questions, in order to not clutter up Juri's Campaign topic.

 

Edited April 5 by Jaegermeister