Gary T

He's right, they're were no units equipped as such. Same goes for the GJ squads. Unusually the 1941 sqauds are correct. It was brought up in CMBO and CMBB when they were first released but was completely ignored. Most of the gamers weren't bothered either as is gave them 'cool' units to use and pandered to their image of the German army bedecked with automatic weapons.

Redwolf, While your point is correct about the increase in automatic weapons from 1943 onwards this still doesn't explain why the GJ and Jaeger units are almost exclusively armed with SMG's. This suggests BFC think they were some sort of specialist assault infantry which they were not. All the evidence I have, and have seen, does not support the thesis that these units had more automatic weapons that the standard German infantry unit. Gary.

Ah, one of my pet peeves...I brought this up years ago in CMBO...apparently it is not a mistake. They, for some reason, believe GJ had more automatic weapons than normal infantry. Not sure why they think this though. They have done the same for Jäger and GJ troops in CMBB. I brought it up but the point was completely ignored.

Mine works under 1.03 (well would do if I could load any PBEM files) but I have never been able to start from the setup screen either...click play and just get a fatal error.

I know you didn't Yann and I know you aren't suggesting that but others were assuming that I was being 'gamey'. Unfortunately I can't even use the 1.03 beta as I have the CDV version.

Actually I am that 'gamey opponent' and lets get one thing straight - I didn't deliberately position my ATG's in trenches in unhittable terrain. And the one ATG gun that took out the 4 tanks wasn't dug into a height he bypassed. He knew the gun was there and chose to attack my main position without surpressing or covering it. So my crew actually pushed it 75 metres up to the top of a hill (in full view) and took out the tanks with flank/rear shots from 500 metres plus. As for the 81mm mortar not being effective...the crew was broken more than once and also came under small arms fire causing it to go into panic. However I had a company HQ in the trench next to the gun so the crew didn't abandon their weapon but started firng again. [ May 11, 2003, 02:30 PM: Message edited by: Gary T ]

Institute for Historical Review...shameless revisionist crap. As for Allied 'death camps' - another revisionist exaggeration stemming from James Bacque's now thoroughly discredited 'Other Losses'.

Can we please have some historical Gebirgsjäger and Jäger squads instead of the 'super' SMG heavy units we have in CMBB and CMBO?????? Please?

This is for Rex:

Alt + Print Screen...

Part three... Next turn the smoke had cleared and the T34 made its ill timed move only to be slotted by the Stug. In the centre of the battlefield the PZ IIIs and one of the Stugs had moved forward to engage the KV1. The Stug deflected the KV1s first shot before nailing the KV with its first round. Seeing my Oakleaves to the Knights Cross beckoning I ordered the PzIIIs forward. The devious Asiatics had laid an ambush and two were knocked out. The supporting Stug also took a hit on the gun rendering it inoperable. I had moved the other Stug round to engage the Soviets last remaining tank...using the Soviets tree planting system against them it threaded a shot through the trees and took the behemoth out. My understrength infantry in the woods had, by superhuman efforts, managed to hold the Soviet hordes in the woods, dying in place for the most part. Unfortunately one of the supporting HTs, a Sdkfz 251/10, had its gun taken out by an ATR round. In the same round one of my two remaining Stugs also took a hit on the gun from the 76mm AT gun. At this point I decided to call it a day (I think I'd just come back from the pub or just got up - can't remember). Although it was about even at this point I didn't have enough infantry with which to take back the forest and only had 1 Stug and 1 PzIII unscathed. I suppose I could have withdrawn the rest of the infantry and then rushed the flags with my Stugs near the end. If I hadn't suffered any losses in doing this I may have won. However, it would have been gameiness of the first order...militarily the game was up. To save us wasting anymore time I decided to call it a day...the rest of the moves would have been academic. I like to thank Lucky (Mark) for the game and I have gone 'von Seydlitz' and offered my services to the other side... In my memoirs I shall be painting this engagement as a heroic action in which the gigantic Soviet armoured steamroller was shattered on the steel fist of my small force. Of course instead of surrendering my men would have withdrawn ready to fight again to prove the superiority of the glorious German Wehrmacht. So I've blamed the weather, being outnumbered, exhausted...only Hitler left. Hmmm, I'll have to think of something for that. [ March 10, 2003, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: Gary T ]

Part Two.... The result one turn later - three knocked out Sdkfz 251s. In the woods the heroic German landsers fought back the Soviet waves taking prisoners and routing whole battalions. But still they kept coming. Back up on the hill the Soviets had called in a smoke barrage to allow their cowering T34 to move. Unfortunately it was miles away from the Stug and did not block LOS. How we laughed (or would have if we had not been humourless Germanic types - no offense Andreas ) at the suicide to come. On the other side of the battle field the brave 2 man Pak 38 crew (commanded by Obergefreiter von Marwitz - a nobleman demoted to the ranks) had manhandled their gun into the woods and engaged a Soviet T60 moving up along the road, knocking it out. See part 3 [ March 10, 2003, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: Gary T ]

Okay, here's the German side of the story. I intend to publish this under the title 'Victorious Defeats' in which I intend to blame the weather, Soviet hordes, exhaustion and Hitler. Firstly the results: Numbers tell a story...my glorious German Herrenvolk, outnumbered 10 to 1, inflicted similar casualties and totally annihilated the Soviet armoured spearhead. German combat losses were 2 Pz III's and 3 HT's. All other vehicle\gun\mortar losses were after the surrender..indeed taking away the Pow figure the points are about even. Anyway, on with the excuses... My force consisted of unfit, green/regular forces. As they were unfit I decided to buy a HT mounted company as I thought they would become exhausted quickly. What I didn't know was that they would turn bright red and start wheezing in the short walk from their HTs to cover. I had part of a PzG company, 3 PzIIIs, 3 Stugs, 1 Pak40, 1 Pak38, 9 HTs. The main handicap to my colossal military genius however was that my forces suffered from a 50% loss setting. While not bothering the vehicles too much it left my infantry sections seriously lacking in staying power. Only just over a third of my force were riflemen...this was to be the most important factor in the battle. My side of the map had a large hill (good - fields of fire) but no roads (bad - the Soviets could get to the objective first) a factor made worse by the rain and mud. I positioned a Pak40 to cover the right flank (this never fired a shot all battle) with Stugs on the hill on overwatch covering the road to the right. The Pz IIIs and HTs moved down the hill to the woods where the objectives were. The left flank was covered by a Pak38 which was to take up positions in a wood to cover the road on the left. First turn the eagled eyed Stugs commander spots two T34s milling around...he dispatches one with huis first shot from 961m. The other hides in the trees. The HTs moved down to the treeline to unload their portly troops. A KV1 emerged from behind the wood. Safe in the belief they were behind the pine forest they continued to mve forward. However the dastardly, regimented, Soviet tree planting layout meant the HTs were spotted. See next post...it won't let me post any more images for some reason...

Well I surrendered...do you want the excus...er AAR?

The Sturm Batallions were an Army level unit in existence in 1944-43. They weren't an adhoc unit formed briefly and then disbanded. I have documents and orders of battle that show these formations in the following Armies - 18th, 16th, 4th, 9th, 1st Panzer, 2nd Panzer, 4th Panzer and of course 7th. I have no doubt they existed in others as well. Off the top of my head I think 4th and 9th Armies actually had a Sturm Regiment, certainly in the summer of 1943 they did.