BluecherForward

I would like to be able to select either WP or smoke, when I call in smoke/WP, but I am sensing that is not possible - at least not yet.

Thanks MikeyD, So if it makes a difference, is there a way to select between smoke and WP? If not what criteria does the game use to select between the two?

That's too bad - and not very realistic. WP is nasty stuff.

These are great ideas!

That's Este's point, somebody was supposed to be in control - Alexander. Can only recommend this well-researched and well-written work by a retired U.S. Army officer.

The one German General of the Nazi era that comes to my mind - as a man of honor - was Ludwig Beck. We would all do well to remember his courage in the face of tyranny. Too bad the British and French caved in to Hitler over the Sudetenland - there might have been no World War II in Europe...although there would have been bloody civil war in Germany as the military and Nazi's went at it. From Wikipedia: "He increasingly came to rely upon contacts with the British in the hope that London would successfully exert its influence on Hitler through threats and warnings, but he failed. Beck and his conspirators knew that Germany faced certain and rapid defeat if France and Britain helped Czechoslovakia in 1938. Accordingly, they contacted the British Foreign Office, informed Britain of their plot and asked for a firm British warning to deter Hitler from attacking Czechoslovakia. In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement, handing the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany. That ended the crisis and hence Beck's efforts at a putsch." More regarding the plot of 1938 from https://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-munich.htm "Beck and Halder formed a group of conspirators consisting of several top generals, along with former diplomat Ulrich von Hassell, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris who was Chief of German Intelligence, and Berlin's Police Chief, Graf von Helldorf. They hatched a plot to arrest Hitler the very moment he gave the actual invasion order. According to their plan, Berlin would be sealed off by special Army units to prevent the SS from interfering. Other units, aided by anti-Nazis in the Berlin Police, would seize important government buildings while top Nazis such as Göring, Goebbels and Himmler would be arrested. Assuming this all worked, Hitler would be hauled before a special court and charged with leading Germany toward a military disaster. (my note: and violation of the Weimar Constitution). But there was one big if in this whole scenario. The plan would only work if both Britain and France maintained a belligerent attitude toward Hitler and made it known to the world that they would fight to preserve the little Czech Republic. This would serve to convince the German people that certain defeat awaited Germany if it attacked Czechoslovakia and would justify the overthrow of Hitler." He died a hero after the failed attempt to kill Hitler and save what was left of Germany (physically and morally) in July 1944.

Aragorn2002 and danfrodo, Have either of you read Carlo D'Este's Bitter Victory? He does not paint a very positive picture of Alexander - indecisive and not in control - at least as far as Operation Husky was concerned.

Is there a way to differentiate between using smoke and white phosphorus on a target area? I would like to use WP when it can also cause casualties.

No offense taken Aragorn2002. I found the article thought provoking and well-written. ...so why did he attempt to go all the way into Egypt? ... with such limited logistics?...with an increasingly limited air force? ...while violating his specific mission instructions? There is more to campaign-winning generalship than good tactics. Kind of like the argument over the "superior" Panther tank - that was complicated to produce and maintain vs the "inferior" Sherman tank argument, don't you think?

Thought I would include a link to a great article on the Afrikakorps and Rommel by renowned historian Robert Citino: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/drive-nowhere-myth-afrika-korps-1941-43 Worth a read.

Another way of looking at it: They charged those defensive positions in the desert in the early days because they knew they were out-ranged and over-powered by many of the German tank guns and AT guns (especially the 88). Closing the range by "charging" was a reasonable tactical response by the leaders of the British armored units confronted with this challenge. They needed to get in close for their weapons to be effective. ...and let's not forget that in the case of Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December 1941) at least - when it really counted - these tactics succeeded.

I totally agree - Crusader, Brevity, Compass, Battleaxe - and of course Gazala! How could we forget the "boxes," Bir Hacheim and the Cauldron? And then there is the whole thing about Tobruk. Reading a great book right now - highly recommend it:

Ah yes, Al Alamein - no beer there, that's for sure.

I was thinking the same thing, but I am not a programmer and I know they have a lot of things in the planning stage. Sure would buy it though.

This is such a fascinating period or warfare - and history. Enormous leaps in technology, equipment, and tactics; plus such a variety of forces and organizational types. Would love to see a re-working of CMAK.

Yes, Barbarossa!

Great point SimpleSimon. I agree that TRPs would be very useful for the offense. I would also like to see the ability to "repeat" the fire mission after calling for fire on an unanticipated target - either immediately or at some later point in time - which is why I was hoping that TRPs could be assigned to targets that have been called in during the battle. With regard to the "repeat" mission, see Erwin's comment below - that is what I would like to see, as well.

And going through the spotting cycle again is also unrealistic - not what would have happened - at least not in in most/many cases.

What about adding a "REPEAT" mission to artillery fire missions and registering fires on those target which have already been called in once? The arty in this game is very nicely done, even including the linear sheaf mission - so why not the "repeat" mission? Call for fires that are serviced normally result in that target be registered as well, so why not automatically insert a TRP onto every site in which artillery is called - like in the real thing? Maybe some nations were not up to doing this in the Second World War, but U.S. and British artillery certainly were - I assume the Wehrmacht was as well. Not sure if the Soviets used that capability.

Good points, but it takes two to tango and German forces were not in the same condition in June 1941 as they would have been under different circumstances. Defeat in the Battle of Britain and bailing out Mussolini in Africa and the Balkans took significant punch out of the German forces. But the main cost of these diversions was time. The extra month or so used by the Germans to take out the opposition in the Balkans would have made a lot of difference. So it is good for us all that Hitler was infatuated with "Il Duce."

Totally agree with you Erwin. Also agree with BFCElvis about being way off topic.

This is truly a great point Aragorn2002! It goes along with a theory that I acquired somewhere along the way that nations usually do not embark on war out of a feeling of superiority, but out of fear of losing their relative advantage in relationship to a rival or rivals. Hitler's Barbarossa, the German execution of the Schlieffen plan in World War I, Israel's Six Day War, and Japan's 1941 Offensive, are some examples of this phenomenon off the top of my head.

I could recommend a dozen books to try to change your opinion, but it seems as though you are not prepared to believe anything. So I guess my question is, why do you believe in the current efforts to rehabilitate Stalin? If I could recommend one book on this specific subject, however, it would be this one:

First of all - Stalin deserves no praise. He is in the same league of mass murderers as Hitler. In addition to the murder, imprisonment and degradation of nearly all of his military leaders in the 1930s, in 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization—in effect a second Russian revolution—which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. Ask a Ukrainian about that history sometime. Let's also not forget that without Stalin's agreement with Hitler to partition Eastern Europe (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), there would have been no Polish invasion in September 1939. Check out the capabilities of the BT-7 and T-26 tanks compared to the majority of German tanks that began Barbarossa - they are at least comparable to the the PzKpfw IIs, IIIs, 35(t)s, and 38(t)s that made up the overall majority of the German panzer force at the time (while outnumbering them many times over). If you look further, you will find that the number of Soviet T-34s and KV tanks significantly outnumbered the number of German PzKpfw IVs (Germany's heaviest tank), with which the Wehrmacht that started the Barbarossa campaign. So I don't know if it is accurate to say that the Soviets had "obsolete" armor at the start of Barbarossa. Actually, the Soviets in the western districts were right in the middle of upgrading all of their units - they would have been weaker a year earlier. A number of T-34 tanks, for example, were captured while still on rail cars (heading west). Also, not sure OKH saw Barbarossa as a sure bet - although it is certainly a fact that the Germans had terrible intelligence about Soviet capabilities and resilience.

I agree as well.