SgtMuhammed

The notion that a veteran cadre can quickly whip a green mob into an army is entirely a myth. One outstanding NCO isn't going to make much difference in a section of soldiers who barely know how to operate their equipment and who have never been under fire. Their actual combat record shows as much. It takes time to train men to be a unit and it takes a unit to be successful in combat. As Jason points out, these units were almost never given that time before they were rushed off to save the day. [ May 04, 2005, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: sgtgoody (esq) ]

As a historian in training (working on my MA with sights set on PhD and teaching) I have to agree with Jason. I would be nice if everyone new and learned from the lessons of the past but such has never been the case. Everyone is convinced that they can do it right even in situations where there is no right answer. Even horrific events that pervade the public conscience, such as the Holocaust, do nothing to deter repeat occurances. How many times do we get bombarded with the "We shall never forget" pledges only to stand by and watch as tens or even hundreds of thousands are slaughtered in Yugoslavia, Rawanda, Somalia, Iraq, Cambodia, the list goes on. Too often people who claim to learn the lessons of history have learned the wrong ones. It is easy to take a stand with words. I is a lot harder to put your but on the line to do what is right. Doing what is right has little to do with knowing the details of the past.

The Battle of Hosingen Been working on this one for a while. I would love to have someone test it H to H. Can be played vs AI as Americans. As Germans is too easy. 7 battles 30+ turns. If this goes well I am going to make a Bulge Pack covering the major actions of the entire battle. Enjoy.

Sounds like a winner. Please sent it my way. Sgtgoody@hotmail.com

The original quote is something I used to run into alot in the Army. Some new Lt. comes in with something that he read and didn't fully understand and proceeds to tell us all how it "really" is. I used to hang out with the 11C's (mortarmen) in my company and they stated quite explicitly that they could basically drop rounds on their own position, well at least danger close.

No but he did invent Al Gore, and well, the rest is history.

Of course it wouldn't really be perfect unless units can effect terrain, digging into and through, etc. Remember, a breach leaves a hole. While on the subject of CMBO in CMAK, has anyone done a conversion of "All or Nothing?" You would have to sub a few vehicles but it was always one of my favorites.

The crew of the armored car was even more surprised than the crew of the Panther. I have regularly destroyed Tigers from the flank using historic Soviet tactics. I have also suffered about historic losses, 4 or 5 to one, in doing so. The only gripe I have is that in too many battles the designers feel the need to give the Tiger numerical parity with the 34's.

The Allies would have been remiss not to at least have the threat of a response in kind to any chemical or bio attack. Both sides pretty much knew the other's capabilities. Giving away the innitiative could have lead to dissaster.

The only thing the G.C. states about prohibited weapons is that they must be officially issued and that they cannot be modified by the combatants. It is rediculous to claim that it is illegal to shoot a man with a .50 cal but it is ok to do so with anything bigger or smaller. One of the main reasons shotguns are not more widely used by the military is that they are too specialized. They are great in cqb but are of little use at normal combat ranges of 100 to 500 meters. You don't always have the option of carrying multiple weapons or of being able to go back and get the best one for the current situation. The assault rifle is a good jack of all trades and so is the most popular and widely issued firearm.

The only thing the G.C. states about prohibited weapons is that they must be officially issued and that they cannot be modified by the combatants. It is rediculous to claim that it is illegal to shoot a man with a .50 cal but it is ok to do so with anything bigger or smaller. One of the main reasons shotguns are not more widely used by the military is that they are too specialized. They are great in cqb but are of little use at normal combat ranges of 100 to 500 meters. You don't always have the option of carrying multiple weapons or of being able to go back and get the best one for the current situation. The assault rifle is a good jack of all trades and so is the most popular and widely issued firearm.

It would be interesting to see figures on exactly how much fire dicipline depends on the actions of the player. There is an obvious difference between different experience levels but how much does player action really affect the outcome.

Most accounts from Normandy cite the Gammon bomb as being the most numerous and effective paratrooper AT weapon. I know they had a version that folded in half for jumping but all my stuff is in storage right now so I don't know when it came into the force.

Italian troops were part of the southern thrust at Kasserine. Rommel sent several companies of Italian and German infantry to try to take the passes south of Kasserine. U.S. infantry and Rangers spent several days hunting them all down. When the Axis forces surrendered in Tunisia over half were Italian so one would suppose that there was some contact. Italian troops also fought Americans in Sicily.

Definitly. They continued their authoritarian ways well into the 60's IIRC.

Is it possible to sign up as an alternate? I played in the overflow tourney and would love to play in this one. The problem is I will be moving to L.A. in February and will not even get my computer back till March or April. So I probably won't be able to keep a good flow of turns at the beginning but later should be no problem.

It's in print right there in bold black pixels. It must be true.

On most U.S. maps at least, a grid square is always 1km. Not sure if the same system is used in the RA. When we trained together we all used the same maps, ours, but again I don't know if that was their standard or if it applied back to WWII.

This is indeed an extreemly common occurance. Armor commanders often give a variety of reasons why they don't want to get their machines dirty and leave us poor grunts to shoulder the load. There were several instances during the Bulge of U.S. tanks refusing to engage the Germans and falling back, leaving the infantry to face the Panzers alone. It is interesting to note though that most of these incidents occured with the independent tank battalions rather than the armored divisions.

Of course we all know that the actual capacity of any military transport is "one more..." At least for personnel.

Maybe not WWII but an example of a typical firefight from a single infantryman's perspective. Basic infantry techniques have changed very little over the last 50 years so you can substitute your favorite WWII weapons and terms for my modern ones. 0600 recieved warning order to hold the crossroads town of Kittensee in Hohenfels. 0700 arrived at the town where scouts told us we had about two hours before likely first contact. We established an outpost line and began to fortify the town. My post was to be an outlying building that we turned into a bunker. The Americans couldn't just blast the town to rubble so we knew they would be forced to dig us out. We spent the next hour and a half wiring and fortifying the buildings, sealing off windows and doors and establishing firing positions. More reports came in from scouts that BLUEFOR (the Americans) were pushing towards a ridge due north and about 2500 meters from our positions. Made a few last minute preparations and then settled in to wait. I was armed with an M4 carbine and about 400 rounds (MILES) and several grenades. About an hour after the last scout report we here vehicle noises from the north. They stop and everything is quiet again. Another hour passes and I am really getting bored. "Come on! Let's do this!" Another half hour later we get hit by smoke. I quickly move to a firing hole and peer through the fog. A couple of shapes loom out of the cloud and I shoot both of them. They seem to be pushing towards the building to my right. The smoke clears a little (about 15 minutes have passed) and I make out a squad getting ready to rush around a corner. They appear to have forgotten about me, they pay for that. Three fall in my first barrage and two more who stayed in the open to return fire. BLUEFOR pushes further to my right and finds a covered route (another 15 minutes have passed). I pick off another at extreem range (the smoke is clear now) but most make good use of the cover and push past me. I can hear fighting by other fortified positions but nothing pushes towards me or to the positions to my left. A long pause (30 minutes at least) makes me wonder if the battle is over but then some sporatic firing breakes out. Single shots and the occasional burst continue for the next several minutes until there is a massive exchange as one of our central buildings is stormed. The battle ends with the attackers controling 3 out of the town's 7 buildings. They have sustained about 20 percent casualties and nearly all of them have enough ammo to repeat the action again. I have expended about 30 rounds in about 10 minutes of contact in a battle that technically lasts over 3 hours. Not really a lot to build a game around.

One thing would be a major change in the ballistics of the round both from hitting the new obstruction and the venting of gas pressure.

One thing one finds about actual combat, or even just training fights, is that there is no standard timeframe. There are a ton of variables. Some commanders will take hours to set up to assault one objective. I'm not talking big objectives like a hill or a town but things like a house or even a room. Then others will hit fast with what they have and trust the war gods to see them through. Sometimes one works sometimes the others. Then again you could spend hours fighting for one fortified house and then about 30 minutes taking the next several blocks after it falls. One of the biggest unrealisms in CM isn't so much the time but the objectives that get assigned in that time. A villiage with about 5 or 6 single story buildings is a company objective. Throw in a couple of multistories and it quicly becomes a battalion objective. Some of the maps I have seen are division objectives at least but you are given a company or a little more to take them. In a large area of urban sprawl a company would only be required secure a couple buildings to create a beachhead. This isn't on the game itself but rather the designers to really look at how the battles they are trying to create actually played out. As has been already stated a six hour battle doesn't mean continuous firing by everyone for 6 hours. A single soldier or unit might fire only a couple minutes out of an hour or it might fire till it runs out of rounds and then gets overrun, such is war. While there might be fighting somewhere there usually isn't fighting everywhere.

1989-1991 US Army Reserves. A reserve drill sergeant unit, the biggest waste of money in the Army. 1991-1992 199th INF Brigade (MOT) Ft. Lewis, WA. Humvees with TOWs and MK19s. We were like a modern version of the Rat Patrol. During our NTC rotation our platoon was responsible for over 100 vehicle kills. Me and the Lt. claimed 7 BMPS, 2 choppers, and disco, all with a .50 cal. 1992-1994 6-502 INF Berlin Brigade. One of the last Ku'damm warriors. Best city fighters in the Army. 1994-1997 1-9 INF which became 1-5 INF Ft. Lewis, WA, again. 25 mile speed marches and living in the field. Had the joy of going to NTC twice as light infantry. I thought it sucked when I was motorized. Biggest movement was walking from the Arrowhead to the Whale, basically from one side of the trainign area to the other. Deployed to Gitmo, Cuba for the refugee crisis in 95. Came closest to combat during the cigarette riots. Me and a private holding a chicken wire fence against 3500 pissed off Cubans till the QRF arrived. Did get thumped on the head during a snatch and grab to get a murder suspect out of the camp (they were trying to get the guy we were carrying). This is the same camp that is now being used for POWs. When we got back we were designated the light component of the Army's Force XXI to introduce the new digitized equipment that 4th ID is using. I was one of the instructor/subject matter experts. I know a ton of people who are in the big sandbox right now. So far none of them have made the papers thank god. 1997-2000 1-4 INF OPFOR Hohenfels, Germany. The funnest assignment I ever had. Squad leader and BMP commander/gunner. Fought with and against nearly every member of NATO, the Brits were the funnest although patrols with the Germans always seemed to end up in a beer tent. The toughest fight was against the Dutch. Finished with 120 Bradley kills, 7 M1 Kills, and another 150 or so M113s and other vehicles, all confirmed by computer. Left the Army on 9 Aug 2000 to finish my degree which I did in May 2003. We are over here now on my wife's orders, she is a GS9 and director of the Child Developement Center here, and are getting ready to PCS back to the States to her new job in LA where I hope to start working towards my PhD. Was never in actual combat but then most soldiers never are. I would still go in an instant if they asked. I never had to take a life and never had to send one of my boys home in a bag so I feel I came out ahead.

Historically arty concentrations were much higher than we tend to see in CM. In addition to direct support there were prep barrages, and interdiction barrages, and CB fire, all of which added to the weight of steel on the battlefield. Your 105mm direct support barrage is much more effective against troops who have already been pounded by a sustained prep barrage. Also in RL you could adjust your sheaf, or shell fall pattern, to best fit your target and so achieve much better results than we commonly see.