Battle locations IRL

[Headshotkill]

I had some fun looking up the locations the various campaigns take place, a lot of them haven't changed in over 70 years! I found most of them by first locating the nearest river and then following it upstream from where it ends at the coast.

Stepanovka-Marinovka, Mius river (Kalinovka to the south under Tarany):

https://www.google.be/maps/place/Stepanivka,+Oblast+Donetsk,+Oekra%C3%AFne,+86260/@47.9172758,38.8135583,7249m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x412c1a9d80d2a9cf:0x8f764f1df66fa536!2sKalinovka,+Oblast+Koersk,+Rusland,+307573!3b1!8m2!3d51.8938531!4d34.5092587!3m4!1s0x40e1abf847facb65:0x59a3bfde7c16f39e!8m2!3d47.9278458!4d38.802166

Note that saur-mogila was a memorial to WW2 but it got destroyed recently cause of the civil war in the region, scary to think after all these years the region is again contested.

Verhnyaya Lubyanka, Oskol river (Krasney Pahar to the west, Volokonovka to the north-east across the Oskol river):

https://www.google.be/maps/place/Verkhniye+Lubyanki,+Oblast+Belgorod,+Rusland,+309673/@50.4537869,37.7192444,11554m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x41241fd51326776f:0xefa7c16af80be86e!2sVolokonovka,+Oblast+Belgorod,+Rusland!3b1!8m2!3d50.4827685!4d37.859508!3m4!1s0x4126a1e97f618d75:0xe5d6ab6b2ef33ef6!8m2!3d50.4451185!4d37.7404647

Volokonovka has grown quite a bit from the small town it was.

Shilovo, Don/Voronezh river:

https://www.google.be/maps/place/Development+Department+of+the+neighborhood+Shilovo/@51.5496019,39.0870367,4305m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4124d2bb7002aead:0x5385b51afe49aab!8m2!3d51.5504315!4d39.0887231

This one was incredibly hard to figure out, the area has been extensivly urbanized and terraformed over the last 70 years. The city of Voronez has expaned much, infact I think Shilovo is now considered a neighborhood of the city.
As you might see the towns south of the Voronezh river no longer exist, maybe they were bombed to dust anyway.
Note the barren area with the empty roads directly east of the neighborhood, maybe this was the original location of the Shilovo village?

[hamrock]

That's really interesting, thanks for posting this.

[Technopiper]

Great find! I'd love to visit them on a better day.

[Chaudard]

Thank you. I searched for Shilovo, I cannot found it :(

[Headshotkill]

Verhnyaya Lubyanka, Oskol river (Krasney Pahar to the west, Volokonovka to the north-east across the Oskol river):

https://www.google.be/maps/place/Verkhniye+Lubyanki,+Oblast+Belgorod,+Rusland,+309673/@50.4537869,37.7192444,11554m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x41241fd51326776f:0xefa7c16af80be86e!2sVolokonovka,+Oblast+Belgorod,+Rusland!3b1!8m2!3d50.4827685!4d37.859508!3m4!1s0x4126a1e97f618d75:0xe5d6ab6b2ef33ef6!8m2!3d50.4451185!4d37.7404647

Volokonovka has grown quite a bit from the small town it was.

[Headshotkill]

Shilovo, Don/Voronezh river:

https://www.google.be/maps/place/Development+Department+of+the+neighborhood+Shilovo/@51.5496019,39.0870367,4305m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4124d2bb7002aead:0x5385b51afe49aab!8m2!3d51.5504315!4d39.0887231

This one was incredibly hard to figure out, the area has been extensivly urbanized and terraformed over the last 70 years. The city of Voronez has expaned much, infact I think Shilovo is now considered a neighborhood of the city.
As you might see the towns south of the Voronezh river no longer exist, maybe they were bombed to dust anyway.
Note the barren area with the empty roads directly east of the neighborhood, maybe this was the original location of the Shilovo village?

[niki_belucci]

Hi, did the same "exercise" some time ago for GTOS secnearios:

Here my original post in the GTOS forum on steam:

Originally posted by niki_belucci:

While dealing with histroy and battle reports, I always find it very interesting to reference the actual locations of the past with today's world. Hence I fired up Google-Maps and revisited the battlegrounds of GTOS campaigns - very very interesting to see how few/how much has changed compared to the past. And it also gives you an even better understanding of the tacitical and strategic situation back then. E.g. In Pavlovka using StreetView from the highway you can see even more... that's not an easy river crossing and perfect spot for a hiding enemy on the other side.

In case you're interested you'll find the "Winter Campaign" locations here: Overview Battlegrounds GTOS [http://www.zeemaps.com/view?group=2535941&x=36.190681&y=49.796336&z=8]

[andrey12345 v2.0]

Originally posted by Headshotkill:

Note the barren area with the empty roads directly east of the neighborhood, maybe this was the original location of the Shilovo village?

No, Shilovo is now one of the districts of Voronezh.

Building plans
http://voronezh3.users.photofile.ru/photo/voronezh3/200733777/xlarge/210246416.jpg

Real state
http://v-kurse-voronezh.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/%D0%A8%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE-%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE.jpg

And in place of the river, now a water reservoir.

https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/38431/59088519.a9/0_da036_692c7de3_orig.jpg

[Technopiper]

Interesting how human activity interacts with natural landscape. Geography teachers have been trying to tell us this and only now are the lessons coming back.

[Headshotkill]

Originally posted by andrey12345 v2.0:

Originally posted by Headshotkill:

Note the barren area with the empty roads directly east of the neighborhood, maybe this was the original location of the Shilovo village?

No, Shilovo is now one of the districts of Voronezh.

Building plans
http://voronezh3.users.photofile.ru/photo/voronezh3/200733777/xlarge/210246416.jpg

Real state
http://v-kurse-voronezh.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/%D0%A8%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE-%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE.jpg

And in place of the river, now a water reservoir.

https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/38431/59088519.a9/0_da036_692c7de3_orig.jpg

I had an idea to perhaps improve player's orientation, understanding of the operations and where they take place, what if you selected the different campaigns on a large map of eastern europe kinda like you choose historical battles on a map in the Total war games.
You could give a more engaging briefing about the "bigger picture" these operations take place in, for example with Shilovo you could see on the large map how the bigger operation around Vononez worked out and how the campaign you're about to play ties into it, a lot of the players have little understanding of east Ukraine and they might feel disconected because they neither know where they're fighting nor know in what broader operation their campaing takes place.
I was suprised that Shilovo was so close to Voronez as the area we get to see in the game might provoke the thought that we're fighting around some isolated villages in the middle of nowhere.

Best interpretation I have of such a map would be the map of IL2-Sturmovik battle of Stalingrad where you select missions on a map like that.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1271461575

[andrey12345 v2.0]

Originally posted by Headshotkill:

Best interpretation I have of such a map would be the map of IL2-Sturmovik battle of Stalingrad where you select missions on a map like that.

In the flight simulator, the map is initially more and more larger in size, so there can showed the strategic situation. We have maps of less sizes, and the maximum is tactical situation (in some cases operational).

I hope you do not propose to draw another large map separately on the front line, just to entertain the player

[cyclical1]

He means just a 2d map -- similar to how the red discs show where in eastern europe the battle took place.

[Chaudard]

Awesome, thank you Headshotkill and Andrey!