CMFB questions

[Bulletpoint]

40 minutes ago, Michael Emrys said:

1 hour ago, Bulletpoint said:

Also for forests I think it would be nice to allow tanks and infantry to target farther into the forest. Of course most of their bullets would be blocked by trees, but it would be easier to blind fire straight into woods to suppress enemies hiding there.

You can kind of do that now, since a portion of bullets and shells will penetrate deeper than the aiming point. I've used that to get at units that were just beyond spotting range in forests.

I think that if you target the ground 1-2 squares away inside the forest, your guys basically shoot into the ground ?

[A Canadian Cat]

5 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

Not to be that guy, but actually it will, it just takes absurd amounts of ammo

I think it needs around 70 rounds of 75mm or 45 rounds of 105mm.

No, be that guy - I had no idea that you could breach bocage with direct fire. Cool. Massive use of ammo but cool.

 

5 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

According to numbers I found online, 70 rounds of 75mm HE carry a total of around 48 kilos of pure high explosive. For comparison, a demolition satchel charge weighs around 11 kilos, and that's including the bag, detonating system, etc.

So, using direct fire, it takes more than 4 times the amount of HE to blow a hole in the bocage than when using a demo charge.

Of course engineers would dig the explosives into the bocage and blow it up from within, increasing the explosive effect. But then again, tank shells are delivered at twice the speed of sound and use a slight time delay of 0,15 seconds in order for the shell to penetrate into the embankment before exploding, so I suppose that's comparable.

My bold - that is the key. 4 times more HE delivered from the barrel as opposed to hand placing and digging is more than fair - might even be a little generous.

[J Bennett]

I read something a company of Hetzers destroyed over 30 Shermans with no losses in some late war action. I am trying to find the article, seems pretty remarkable.

[nik mond]

On 12/6/2017 at 11:22 PM, J Bennett said:

I read something a company of Hetzers destroyed over 30 Shermans with no losses in some late war action. I am trying to find the article, seems pretty remarkable.

Hmmm, could be the ill fated Hamelburg raid. If so, it was something like 16 Sherman's, plus a some light tanks and half tracks. The Hetzers got the the jump on the task force as the task force was trying to refuel, the majority of the US vehicles were abandoned, some destroyed, most of the task force was killed or captured. The few stragglers that evaded capture reported a company of jagpanthers were encountered, after the war when the incident was investigated, they interviewed the German commander, turns out it was an understrength company of Hetzers involved in the engagement. This may or may not be the action you were referring to.