Sgt Joch

Day 4: December 19th. Sixth Panzer Army sector: attacks fail to break through the northern shoulder.

very nice site frenchy, nice paintings.

yes, there is. Day 3: December 18th. Sixth Panzer Army sector Fifth Panzer Army sector

December 17th summary: Sixth Panzer Army sector

Day 2: December 17th. Sixth Panzer Army the initial attacks on the 16th met some resistance: However, the situation improved on the 17th: In Fifth Panzer Army's sector, american and german tanks met in a series of bloody skirmishes:

The Battle of the Bulge movie was cute, with Robert Ryan as a german tank commander and american tanks posing as Panthers and Tigers. "Band of Brothers" also had a couple of good episodes on easy company's part in the defense of Bastogne. I am surprised there have not been more movies about this battle. I would have thought a story about american soldiers (i.e. heros),defeating a superior german invading force (i.e. nazis)would be a surething by Hollywood standards.

I am surprised no one started a post on this. The Battle of the Bulge started 60 years ago today on December 16th, 1944: Here is a good overview for those interested: Battle of the Bulge [ December 16, 2004, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: JC_Hare ]

Yac, The strategy guide is very good since it explains the strength and weaknesses of each type of units and how to best employ them individually and collectively. It deals with the whole concept of fire/maneuver teams, how to use terrain effectively, using covering/suppressing fire, setting up a kill zone, etc., etc. It has helped me a lot in formulating defense/attack plans, although my current PBEM opponents might disagree . Other than that, the only way to really improve your game is to play against better opponents, they will force you to raise the level of your game. Regarding book reccomendations, I am currently reading "Panzertruppen" vol. 1 and 2 and "Tank combat in North Africa" by Thomas Jentz, which are very good if you want to learn how tanks were employed tactically in WWII. However, that knowledge is not directly applicable to CMAK/CMBB. [ December 15, 2004, 09:10 AM: Message edited by: JC_Hare ]

Regarding Napoléon's "Old Guard", because most of them were grizzled veterans with many year's experience campaigning under Napoléon, they were quick and quite vocal in second guessing their officers and even Napoléon himself on every aspect of army life, including strategy, tactics, army organization, equipment, food, etc.,etc. Since they were fiercelly loyal to the Emperor and he depended on them as his "ultimate" reserve, he let them grumble to their heart's content. In other words, they thought they knew better than everyone else, even the great Napoléon, how the army should be run, which is probably the best definition of a modern day "Grog".

Yac, if you are looking for a book to improve your CMBB/CMAK tactics, the first book you should read, if you have not done so, is the "CMBB strategy guide". It helped me a lot to improve my tactics.

Emar, I had a look at your OP, the map is very impressive and very huge! :eek: I will have to play it eventually since it has canadian troops.

very nice, and yes the CMAK shermans are in dire need for your touch!

Emar, could you email me a copy of your OP as well, I would like to look at it.

Hi Adamo, You can find the operations at the following link: http://bootsandtracks.com/OpList.php Franko's "Tank Warning" is also very good, German vs. AI, if you have steady nerves.

You can also try: "Der Manstein Kommt" German vs AI; and "Failure on the Aksai" soviet vs AI. Both in the Stalingrad pack.

a motorbike in french is usually referred to as a "motocyclette". "moto" is a contraction used in popular language. "Motocyclistes" is the word for the riders.

This may help. http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/Wray/wray.asp#elastic

I have read Raus's book and the first part up to 1943 is fascinating. He commanded a brigade in the summer '41 drive to Leningrad, took part in operation typhoon and the fighting around Rzhev in early 1942. He also commanded the Panzer division that spearheaded Manstein's drive to relieve Stalingrad in December 1942. He describes alot of the tactics used by the German and Russian forces, he was a commander who led from the front and his often first hand and personal descriptions of the tactical actions in that period is riveting. After Stalingrad, he was bumped up to corps and army command and the book becomes less interesting. He was removed from the front line and it is obvious that he is relying more on secondhand accounts and after battle reports. But it's not a tank book per se, it is a memoir of a german general. I heartily recommend it though, it really gives you an understanding of the tactical challenges faced by the German army in Russia.

Hmm, check out the reviews of Liri Valley at www.amazon.com some time. </font>

I leafed through Zuelkhe's books "Ortona", "The Liri valley" and "Gothic Line" at lunch trying to pin down a more definitive answer. Khaki in the summer and wool battledress in winter looks like a good rule of thumb for the infantry, although I did see pictures of canadian troops wearing wool battledress in summer. I still have not found an answer for AFV crews, wool battledress in winter makes sense, but in summer the few photos I have seen show crews wearing either the battledress and short sleeve khakis. I would think wearing short sleeve khakis, like the commonwealth early war AFV uniforms probably makes the most sense in a non-air conditioned tank in the hot italian summer.

I have a FX 5900 with 56.72 drivers. There are no graphic issues with CMBB/CMAK. FSAA and fog work well. Radeons don't render fog.

Thanks for all the info. Makes sense about the overalls, they would be too hot in summer and would probably be too warm during the Italian winter as well.

That's exactly the info I was looking for, Khaki in summer, wool battledress in winter, would'nt want my virtual troops to commit a fashion faux pas. What about the AFV crews? Were the coveralls used in Italy?

Andrew, Michael, thanks for the quick reply, I had seen photos of canadian soldiers in Sicily and in the summer of '44 wearing KD, but I did not think it would be warm enough at Ortona in december.

I have downloaded Andrew TFs commonwealth uniforms mod, but frankly I'm not sure which is the most appropriate for the Canadian army in Italy: tropical Khaki or lightweight denim? And what about AFV crews, denim or coveralls? Right now, I'm using the green denim, but I don't know if it is accurate. [ June 14, 2004, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: JC_Hare ]