Some points from a Brit ex-grunt

[SelfLoadingRifle]

1) The British section of the period consisted of 8 men, not 10. This was split into Gun Team and Rifle Team. The Rifle Team consisted of the Section Commander (usually a Corporal) with a Sten plus 5 riflemen. The Gun Team consisted of the gunner, armed with a Bren and the Section 2IC, usually a Lance Corporal, also with a Sten.

2)The gun was NOT a one man weapon, but crewed by two. This would apply to the Bren and all belt-fed weapons such as the MG 34 and 42. Whilst these weapons could be manned by one man only, re-load times would be considerably longer. There are some exceptions to the rule. I think I am right in saying that the U.S. BAR was a one man weapon. I do not know whether the Russian DP (I know, wrong game) was a one or two man weapon, but no doubt one of my Russian comrades on this forum would be able to enlighten me!! The Maxim family of guns were (I believe) crewed by up to 6 men, but this is way before my time.

3) The Bren mag was indeed designed to hold 30 rounds, but if 30 were loaded, the weapon would jam. This was due to the rimmed 303 round and the curvature of the mag. Only 28 rounds were ever loaded. The figure of 30 is therefore wrong and should be adjusted to 28 in any future patch.

4) All members of The Section would be carrying a couple of Bren Mags (at least) or a hundred rounds plus of link ammo. These would be passed to the gunner when needed. It should be remembered that the gun represents at least 50% of the fire-power of The Section - more in the case of the Germans, who fielded two LMGs per section.

5) And finally names!

Wolf, Lewis, Wyatt, Briar, Conrad, Elijah, Hugo, Oscar, Elliot, Noah, Jason, Humbert, Alison, York, Gideon, Roland, Dwayne, Taylor, Darien, Anderson, Abraham and Ulysses - are all very American sounding Christian names that are not commonly encountered in Great Britain, and certainly not as the names of the average squaddie. Douglas should read as Doug, Raymond as Ray, Bertram as Bert. Kevin is out of period and dates from the 60s and 70s.

Some typical Brit Christian names are Alf, Charles, David (or Dave) Edward (or Ed) Fred, Gary, Henry (or Harry) James (or Jim) John (or Jack) Keith, Leo, Larry, Len, Mike, Patrick (or Pat) Peter Richard (or Rick, or Dick) Sam, Timothy (or Tim) Victor (more commonly Vic)

Some Brit Christian and Surname combos will ALWAYS go together. Examples are,

Chalky White, Nobby Clark, Dusty Miller, Dicky Bird and Jimmy James.

Officers often had posh sounding names. Typical Christian names would include Rupert, Rodney, Timothy, Stephen, Bernard, Quentin and Anthony. Michael, Andrew, Richard, Edward and Charles would also sound about right.

Surnames for Officers were sometimes double-barrelled. Orpan-Smellie, Huntingdon-Whitely, Bonham-Carter and Salisbury-Trewlawny are all real names I have come across. Foreign sounding names such as de la Billiere and van der Merwe also have belonged to some very real Brit officers. Some officers even have titles. The Hon. is often encountered, and also Lord.

I hope this helps!

SLR

[Sneaksie]

Thanks for the tips.

1) AFAIK mechanized inf. section consisted of 8 men like you say, while 'ordinary' inf. section consisted of ten (section commander, section 2IC, machinegunner, MG assistant and six riflemen). If i remember right, both are in the game.

2) Unfortunately, this isn't possible in current engine to have two- or more men manning a weapon and being part of a squad simultaneously. For example, AT rifles were a two-men weapon as well.

3) Ok, i've corrected it. New patch for Africa is unlikely, but there may be another title incoming with Brens around

4) Currently MG assistant carries 10 rounds. We could give others a couple of magazines as well, but this would lead to unnessesary complications (micro-managing each squad member to give magazines to the gunner, in addition, this would result in other infantrymen, for example truck drivers, also to have Bren magazines). BTW, in Kursk you should position MG assistant close to the gunner and he will hand him magazines automatically, i don't remember whether this works in Africa.

5) I made the corrections that were possible, removed American names and added some of yours (some were already in). Unfortunately, game doesn't distingiush between squaddies and officers in terms of names, so you may end up with squaddies having posh names anyway:) I used full names (Richard instead of Dick, for example) because Colonel Dick Something would sound strange i think.

[SelfLoadingRifle]

I served in the 80's and early 90's. Some of the kit that was issue when I was around is now appearing in events such as military vehicle rallies:eek: I think that this officially makes me an old fart;)

I suppose that you are never too old to learn. For example, I never knew before that bog standard WW2 Brit Infantry were in 10 man sections! However the past is indeed a different place and they certainly did things differently:) For the record, my two guns were the LMG (the 7.62mm version of the Bren) and the GPMG. I was still serving when the SA80 came into service, plus that piece of junk the LSW:mad: which shouldn't be dignified with the name of gun. Section configuration then changed from rifle/gun team to two identical fire teams each with an LSW and 3 riflemen. We have since learnt the errors of our ways and have adopted the Minimi, however I digress:rolleyes:

I hope very much that you will be adding a Brit add-on to the forthcoming Korea game. The Glorious Gloucesters spring immediately to mind. If this is indeed the case, I hope that my post will have proved useful.

Best regards

SLR.

P.S. Please add Dinger Bell to the Christian/Surname combos that always go together. Perhaps the coding makes this impossible, but what the heck!!