Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. Today we have, much like last week, 2 renders of American equipment; the M3A1 Halftrack and the M1 Mortar.

The M3A1 Halftrack was modeled by Agus and Rad and skinned by Agus.

The M3 Halftrack origins date back to 1938 with the M3 scout car, which was designed by the White company. It was later decided to add tracks to the rear of the vehicle, creating the M2 Halftrack. This M2 was too small to be used as a personnel carrier and so it served as an artillery tractor and reconnaissance vehicle. In 1940 the M3 Halftrack appeared. It was much bigger than the M2 and it had room for as many as 13 people (3 in the front cabin and 10 in the back). In total, nearly 41,000 M3 Halftracks were produced in the war. They continued to be used long after the war ended, with as many as 22 countries still using them in the 1980s.

The M1 Mortar was modeled by altfuture and Toddel and skinned by Toddel.

The M1 Mortar was a slightly improved version of the Brandt mortar, which in turn was based on the Stokes Trench Mortar, used by the US Army in World War 1. It could fire up to 18 rounds per minute at a maximum distance of 3 kilometres. It could be split up into three parts (the barrel, the base and the bipod) of roughly 20 kilograms each. This allowed it to be quickly moved and deployed, giving the US infantry battalion a lot of firepower and flexibility.

That's all for now, but be sure to come back next week for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our IRC channel and our public forums to discuss this update and other news.

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. This week we've got 2 renders for you. One of the American M3 Binoculars and one of the American M5A1 Light Tank. We have also added last week's Purple Heart Lane to the maps section on our website, together with a picture of the much requested minimap.

First up today then, are the M3 Binoculars. They were the standard binoculars of the US Army in the Second World War. These were modeled and skinned by Seth Soldier.

Up next is the M5A1 Light Tank, nicknamed the 'Stuart' by the British. This model was made by Toddel and Ilya and it was skinned by Alina. Although Ilya and Alina are not officially part of our development team, we do hope they can make future contributions to Forgotten Hope.

The M5 Light Tank was the successor of the M3 Light Tank. It was originally called the M4, but the name was later changed to M5 to prevent confusion with the M4 Medium Tank, better known as the Sherman. As with all American tanks, the M5A1 Light Tank is better known by its British nickname; the Stuart. The M5 started replacing the M3 in 1942 and although its hull armour was much improved it still had the same weak 37mm gun as in the M3. Many M5s served in Normandy, but mostly in secondary roles, because it was completely outclassed by German tanks. In the Pacific it was used in much more active roles. It was not until late 1944 that its successor, the M24 'Chaffee' appeared on the battlefield.

Last week many people asked for a minimap image to go with the pictures of Purple Heart Lane. We've prepared one and you can now find it in the maps section.

That's all for now, but be sure to come back next week for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our IRC channel and our public forums to discuss this update and other news.

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. This week we have a bunch of screenshots from the map 'Purple Heart Lane', by Natty Wallo. This map is based on the 0.7 map pack map 'The Road to Carentan - 1944', which was made by Pvt. Allen. The map portrays the advance of the US 101st Airborne Division over the Carentan Causeway. This causeway was nicknamed the 'purple heart lane', because so many men were shot on it. (The purple heart is a medal awarded to US soldiers who are wounded or killed by the enemy.)

Rommel realised the danger to the Axis defenses should Carentan fall, for it was the link between Utah and Omaha Beach and also the key to an American drive west to cut the base of the Cotentin Peninsula. The defense of the city was in the hands of the Fallschirmjaeger-Regiment 6. Allied High Command's decision to send the 101st paratroopers in on their own, with little armor or air support, was based on expectations only to encounter scattered resistance along the causeway to Carentan. On the evening of June 10th however, all attempts to drive the Germans back with artillery had failed. Colonel Cole and his men of the 502nd PiR advanced cautiously down the Causeway to seize the hub of German resistance and eventually clear the entrance to Carentan itself...

That's all for now, but be sure to come back next week for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our IRC channel and our public forums to discuss this update and other news.

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. Today we have a small announcement regarding our old forums, renders of the American machinegun and the German Panzer IV H, some screenshots taking during the betatesting of Lebisey and an advertisement from the German Forgotten Hope 2 community History is War. Before we carry on to any of this though, we would like to welcome our new modeller and skinner Herc!

It turned out after all that FileFront would stay online. Having already moved our forums and our website we decided that we will continue our 'official' forum at our current host Warumdarum.de. We have asked FileFront not to get rid of our forums though, but to keep it as an 'unofficial' forum. This simply means that you cannot count of developers visiting it and helping you with questions. We would, again, like to thank FileFront for the 5 years of hosting us and we are glad to see that it could be rescued.

Now then, on to the update. Our first item today is the American M1919A4 .30 caliber Machinegun, more commonly known as 'the 30-cal'. This one was made by Seth Soldier.

The M1919 .30 cal machinegun was the air-cooled counterpart of the M1917 water-cooled .30 cal machinegun. The original idea was to have a light machinegun that could quickly be repositioned if needed. Once in use it was found that the gun was too heavy for this and that it was too light for sustained fire. Since sustained fire was considered more important at the time, the gun was fitted with a heavier barrel and tripod. This setup is the same as used in our M1919A4. (Much later, in 1944, the need arose for a machinegun that could be easily repositioned and the 30 cal was given a lighter barrel and a bipod, resulting in the M1919A6. This gun however entered service after the Battle of Normandy, so it won't be in our next release.)

Up next is the Panzer IV Ausf. H. This tank was modeled and skinned by Toddel.

The Panzer IV Ausf. H was the most numerous of the Panzer IV versions, with as many as 3774 tanks produced. It entered production in April 1943 and continued to be made until replaced by the (nearly identical) Ausf. J. This Panzer IV Ausf. H is fitted with the side-skirts. Originally they were designed to stop the bullets from Soviet anti-tank rifles, but in Normandy they work against HEAT weapons with great effect. Any Bazooka or PIAT round will have to hit your tank in the front or in the rear, because your sides are fully protected.

Finally, we have some action screenshots of Mr Cheese's map Lebisey, taken during beta testing.

And at the end of today's update we have a short advertisement from the German Forgotten Hope 2 community 'History is War', who started their second campaign some days ago:

This is a German Forgotten Hope 2 community, which features an extremely detailed ranking system which is modeled on the real Royal Army and Wehrmacht. We try to re-enact the great battles of WW2 as interesting as possible with the aid of variable and challenging tasks in which the effort of every single soldier is significant. You even can create and play your own custom-kit and you will be able to gain lots of medals for different services. We already hold three FH2-servers, including our own TS-server. So, you are a ambitious FH2-player, interested in most possible realistic warfare, without getting a bullet in your chest? Then you are right here!

That's all for now, but be sure to come back next week for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our IRC channel and our public forums to discuss this update and other news.