Sgt Joch

According to the Soviets own numbers, average life span of a Tank was about 6 months from the time it left the factory. By the time of Bagration, there were still many T34-76s left, but they were relegated mostly to infantry support doing the SP artillery grunt work. T34-85s were mostly found in Tank Corps/Armies/Mechanized Groups and were tasked with the glamorous mobile exploitation role. T34-76s are in game. There are 2-3 variants in the scenario editor.

I see I missed this thread before. This is an issue I have looked into and tested often in the past in CMBN and CMFI. First, yes, the penetration model is based partly on Rexford, but the shatter gap and predicted penetration in game is a lot more forgiving than what Rexford would predict. U.S. 75/76 mm ammo in game will penetrate in many instances where Rexford predicts it should be deflected. Rexford is just one element BFC factored in. The real issue is that despite all the debates and predicted damage tables, there is actually very little empirical data, basically just the 3-4 U.S. Army tests in 1944. U.S./CW 75/76 mm ammo in game is more accurate and penetrates slightly better or better than what the 1944 tests would predict, at least from the in game tests I ran. Based on that, it is hard to say BFCs interpretation of the data is wrong.

CM is like a fine wine, it just gets better with age. I remember in 2005 when CMx2 was announced, many posters wanted BFC to keep the CMx1 engine and just make a few tweaks. Good thing they did not listen.

yes, it works perfectly. Great for siphoning out the Trolls.

exactly.

looks like another classic. George provided a lot of info on the German forces. I have some on the Russian forces, mostly from Dunn's "Soviet Blitzkrieg". The 3rd Guard Mechanized Corps was built around 3 mechanized brigades (the 7th, 8th and 9th Guard mechanized brigades), each with 3 motorized infantry battalions and an attached tank regiment (respectively the 42nd, 43rd and 44th Guard Tank regiments). The Corps also had an attached tank brigade (35th Guard tank ) with 2 tank battalions (I/35 and II/35) as well as 2 SPG regiments (1510th and 1823 rd) and various other support units, engineers, AA and AT guns. In total, 16,090 men, 240 tanks, 42 SPGs, 99 other AFVs, 252 guns/mortars, 18 37mm AA guns and 1223 trucks. The "Mechanized Corps" designation is a bit of a misnomer since it was really the equivalent of a powerful armoured division. No mention on the types of AFVs, but based on various sources, the 240 tanks would be primarily T-34/85s and the 42 SPGs would be primarily SU-76s. There is also a discrepancy on the designation of the attached tank regiments, a 1943 OOB lists them as the 42nd, 43rd and 44th while a 1945 OOB lists them as the 43rd, 44th and 45th. The Corps was part of Gen. Oslikovskiy's Horse-Mechanized Group which also included the 3rd Guard Cavalry Corps. It was tasked with initially bypassing and encircling Vitebsk and then racing deep behind German lines. It did this very well breaching/bypassing many german defensive lines over a 10 day period. On july 2nd, elements of the 8th mech. appeared across the Usha river from Molodechno. The rest of the Corps arrived over the next two days. On july 4th, the 35th tank and 7th mech brigades attacked across the river and captured Molodechno from the German defenders which included elements of the 5th Panzer. At that point, the Russians were about 15 km east of where the scenario takes place.

been playing through this one, German vs AI, excellent armor v. armor scenario. lot's of tension and action! love the map, big detailed, lot's of rolling, folding terrain, lot's of room to maneuver and tactical options. force size is just right. nice to see the Tiger in its natural element. It could be deadly in the right circumstances.

nice work, looking forward to giving this one a spin.

classic!

that is not the issue, I am not defending the Russians or even claiming they are right, simply pointing that you misread the article. As the author points out, even though flightradar24 pointed out that the aircraft had a transponder, it is not known if it was on at the time of the intercept. That intercept has also been widely covered. There have been many other follow up articles. As I understand it, most professionals see it as a non issue: http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/23/rc-135-aircraft-commander-explains/

sburke, you should re-read that article again: The Russians claimed the RC-135U had its transponder off, the U.S. is claiming no.

Does yours? drop the personal insults, this is not the first time you have tried to slide those in.

Waterloo was june 18 so not there yet. I love how the Napoleonic wars have morphed into a struggle of Democracy over tyranny over time, similar to the struggle against Hitler. But England was no democracy at that time. Under the electoral system, only a small number of rich landowning men had the right to vote. Under the Common Law, children as young as 12 were sentenced to death for stealing a loaf of bread. Habeas Corpus was regularly suspended. Jews had many legal restictions. One of the first acts of the Revolutionary/Napoleonic Regime was to reform French criminal and Civil Law. Jews were granted full civil rights by Napoleon in 1809. The reformed civil laws known as the Code Napoleon is still basically in effect in many jurisdictions including Québec where many of its principles are codified in our Civil Code. Vive la France! Vive l'Empereur! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwsS4v2QL-A

re: the current Iraqi Army, Col. T. Reese wrote an unusually blunt memo in 2009 that should have made it clear that the new Army was a disaster waiting to happen, but it was widely ignored by the Obama administration. full text here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/world/middleeast/31advtext.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

These are estimated numbers and all occurred after NATO started its bombing campaign in support of the KLA. If you want to make a case that NATO intervention was required, you have to look at conditions beforehand. According to one UN report, there were 30-50,000 refugees in late 98, most displaced Serbs. again apples and oranges, you have to look at casualty figures before the intervention started. The KLA claimed thousands were killed, but no investigation on the ground has been able has been able to say with any degree of certainty how many were killed, when they were killed or even which side killed them. "bodies to holes"? no western org ever did a on the ground investigation, these are all estimates. Serb and other neutral sources reporting from inside Serbia put the number at 2-5,000 Serbian civilians killed by NATO air stikes.

Serbia. different war.

1.5 million? can you count? the entire population of Kosovo in 1999 was 1.7 million and around 15% of those were serbs. The most refugees ever claimed by the UN was around 200k and no independent investigation since then has found the number was even close to that. 8,000 KIA is also a gross exaggeration. The KLA and the Serb forces were involved in a guerilla/counter-insurgency war, there were killings on both sides. The number thrown around at the time was 3-5k killed by Serbs, but no independent investigation since then has found any evidence of that. Most likely the number killed was less than 1,000 with the number pretty much split between Serbs killed by the KLA and Albanians killed by Serbs. Meanwhile an estimated 500-5,000 Serb civilians were killed by NATO air strikes. The KLA manipulated the US/UK and Clinton and Blair went along with it because it suited their political purposes. Now we are stuck with a bad international law precedent which other countries, like Russia are exploiting.

That is how these threads always wind up. These forums used to have a lot of interesting discussions about military history, now it is just endless boring chest thumping about how superior our side is to the other side.

I sense a new project coming up.....

on that we agree.

You could argue that, but we are very far removed from "terrorists" planning an imminent attack on U.S. troops. Drug Dealers/Producers are a economic target, just like German/Japanese civilians in WW2. Sure, the U.S. can choose to murder Afghan farmers in the name of the "war on terror", in the hopes that it will somehow impact the Taliban finances, but don't pretend it is any more precise or humane than what was done in WW2.

That might be justifiable, if it was true, and certainly that is what the administration is feeding the american public, but in fact the target list is very broad. being a deserter was enough to have a death sentence: Just having the wrong phone could trigger a strike. No verification was made to see who was there: civilian casualties were considered acceptable "collateral damage". Note also how the definition of "civilians" was deliberately curtailed: the procedure to "identify" a target was also a bit vague: Drug dealers, farmers and couriers were also considered to be legitimate targets, whether they had any connection or not to the Taliban: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-docs-reveal-dubious-details-of-targeted-killings-in-afghanistan-a-1010358.html The U.S. governemnt likes to give the impression that the drone program is a hi-tech "James Bond" type precision operation, but when you look into it, it is just another variation of the same type of terror bombing we have seen before, like the WW2 saturation bombing or Vietnam type "Kill ratios". Is it making "America safer" or just creating the next generation of enemies?

Ah yes, assassinations which include U.S. citizens. Apparently, the President has the authority, but he refuses to release the legal memos justifying same so we can see for ourselves. Spiegel had an interesting article on that, seems the standard to be included on the "kill list" is looser than the administration lets on: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-docs-reveal-dubious-details-of-targeted-killings-in-afghanistan-a-1010358.html

Kosovo was problematic as well.

"studienka" is very good PBEM. I have also played "Woroblin Bridgehead" and "Augustus Plague Boil" PBEM, both are very even.