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Some memories from a WWII arty vet


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Slapdragon,

Thanks! Looking forward to it. Would be a sad thing indeed if I let my grandfathers stories pass away with him. I've got some pretty amazing stuff from him this far. It's hard to believe what he has lived through.

~Henric Edwards

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We have a family friend in Finland who served as officer (probably the SS equivalent of Leutnant) in 5. SS PzDiv "Wiking" from 1941 to 1945 IIRC. Unfortunately the guy's had some type of Alzheimer disease for a while now, and he doesn't remember anything, not even his own wife.

His uniform is cool though, and they say he wrote a diary while he was at war, and that the diary is somewhere in the house. I'll try to find it next time I go there. Imagine what kind of stuff he must have lived through!

His story is quite amazing too: he was 16 years old in 1941 and wanted to enroll in the Finnish Army to defend his country, but they refused him, because he was only 16. So he fled from his home, to Germany, and joined the Waffen SS there. :eek:

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Mikael ]</p>

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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bruce Robert:

What about a forum for first-hand accounts from wherever we can find them. I think the single biggest problem with most warGAMES is the lack of human element. We talk about ranges and velocities and command structure, but all this still comes down to the person(s) who are out there trying to get a job done while staying alive. Perhaps some additional programing reflecting this, while maintaining the fun and playability of the GAME, would come out of this type of discussion.

Thanks<hr></blockquote>

I also think this is a an awesome idea. If it's okay with everyone I'd like to share a war story too. You see, my grandfather was in the Air Corps during WWII and he was in a B-17 Flying Fortress. He was a tail gunner and was a Staff Seargant (did I spell seargant right?). He flew many mission, bombing things and what not. He saw Me-109s and 262s, and other famous planes and jets. The thing that caught my eye was that on one mission, while the bomb doors (i don't know the technical name for that is) were opening, flak went into the plane (through the opened doors) and exploded. A few troops were injured, and to my knowledge none were killed, a good thing. My grandfather assisted the injured. At the end of his mission, all soldiers on the plane recieved medals, and they met personally with a V.I.P. in the Army or Navy, I can't remember, possibly someone with the last name Nimitz, or something like that. I have seen many of his medals, but he has memoirs that I have not seen. I will try to get them from him so I can read them, and if I do, and if anyone would like more info, I could post more stories. I just thought it was relevant so i posted this.

Oh yes, by the way, this was a great post Bruce Roberts, there are lots of people coming here to read and respond! Could you tell more war stories, Bruce, or anyone else? smile.gif

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Major Concussion ]

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Major Concussion ]</p>

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK, I had a look for my info on the M101A1, but can't find it. I did find some stuff on the L119 (US M119) which also uses M1 ammo. The values won't be exactly the same for both guns, but they will be close.

Low Angle:

Charge 1: 0 - 3400m

Charge 2: 0 - 4000m

Charge 3: 0 - 4700m

Charge 4: 0 - 6200m

Charge 5: 0 - 7900m

Charge 6: 0 - 9400m

Charge 7: 0 - 11400m

High Angle:

Charge 1: 2100 - 3400m

Charge 2: 2500 - 4000m

Charge 3: 2900 - 4700m

Charge 4: 3800 - 6200m

Charge 5: 4900 - 7900m

Charge 6: 5800 - 9400m

Charge 7: 7100 - 11400m

With the high angle range brackets you can see that there are usually at least two charges that will acheive any range.

When using low angle, you may wonder why one would bother selecting a lower charge, since chage 7 can engage anything out to 11400m. Using a lower charge causes less stress and wear on the barrel and carrige, and lower charges also have a higher trajectory for the same range. You can use this to 'loop' the shells over intermediate obstacles such as ridges.

Oh, and an errata to an earlier pst in this thread: the 25pr has four charge bags, not three. Charges 1-3 are used most of the time, but the fourth, or 'super', charge is used to acheive very long ranges.

Regards

JonS

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