John Kettler

The_Capt, That was a cracking good and amusing read, for which many thanks! Given the way you describe him, maybe it's Bil for "Bilious"?! Ref the Dragon, it was useless against a T-64 frontally and also couldn't handle a rapidly maneuvering target because it steered by small thrusters, not fins, and rapidly exhausted them. Something almost certainly not modeled in CMCW is that the Soviets were already using IR-defeating graphite flakes in the T-64 and later model smoke discharger grenades. That's straight from a then SECRET and change threat briefing by a branch chief of US Army's FSTC (Foreign Science and Technology Center)in 1978 when I was at Hughes. The T-72 was the low end of the Red Army force updated force mix (T-62 replacement), and the T-80 was a simplified version of the T-64 premium tank as one British analyst called it. The T-64B was the first Russian tank with a cannon-launched guided missile. Its purpose was twofold: engage ATGM platforms operating outside of cannon range and also engage attacking helicopters. Yes, you read that second item correctly. The Russians subsequently developed similar weapons for FCS upgraded T-55s and T-62s. Regards, John Kettler

Sgt.Squarehead, The difference between AT-3 of the Yom Kippur War and the AT-3B of this fight is dramatic. Warhead penetration is considerably improved, but the devastating improvement is in missile guidance, for AT-3B is SACLOS, not MCLOS. Thus, all the, er, gunner has to do is put the crosshairs on the target and keep them there--just like a TOW does. Consequently Ph is on par with the TOW. Believe the AT-3B was also faster than the AT-3. Regards, John Kettler

The_Capt, Do you mean to tell us the people who fielded a jammer against every radar and transmitter of importance, including using MRL fired expendable radio jammers, can't return the favor? Used to deal with their jammers as part of my threat work, and the BRICK series was flat out scary. Let me give you some idea of Red capabilities. When the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, they deployed so much aerial and ground jamming (along with revolutionary radar absorbent chaff) that we couldn't see what was happening at all. Regards, John Kettler

The_Capt, On a BMP-1, the forward ports L and R are the only ones that will take the PKM. The rest are for the AKMS. Regards, John Kettler

The opening material and illos were priceless. Have a serious question for you, though. In your February 18 post, you say that the TOW can fire through smoke. Except, it can't. Smoke blocks LOS, and without LOS, SACLOS guidance doesn't work. The standard TOW sight, absent, say, flares, isn't night capable, either. The Texas Instruments AN/TAS 4 thermal sight, which was designed to fit the TOW and other systems, does provide a night capability, but it most certainly is WX limited. How do I know? Was the Soviet Threat Analyst in the Operations Analysis Department of Hughes Aircraft Company, Missile Systems Group, which made the TOW. TOW studies and analyses were major parts of my department's work. To give the mathematicians and computer modelers some sense of the real world, a TOW launcher was set up on a hill across the street on a hill not all that far from the plant and looking down into the Chatsworth Reservoir area behind the plant. Believe slant range was typical for Western Europe, maybe 700 yards or so. Was playing TC that day in a bailed NG M48A5, and with a real NG guy who worked at the plant driving it. We crewed the tank being used as the search target. We had rain (misty to moderate) and some fog. Great was their consternation when time and again, they couldn't see us at all, either visually with 7 x 50 binos or with the AN/TAS 4. Unfortunately, the AN/TAS 4 is hard to find usable information about online, so I have no read on how it fares vs HC type smoke, let alone WP or RP. What I do know is that it wasn't until the US deployed advanced 8-12 micron FLIR systems that we finally had real ability to see through smoke, and to exploit that, the TOW 2 was fitted with what we called the waffle iron (gridded thermal source) in addition to the usual xenon visible band beacon. Having the advanced FLIR but only a xenon only TOW wouldn't work through smoke, because there was no way for the tracker to see the missile's xenon beacon through smoke. Believe the American advantage/s you describe in the game may not have existed IRL. Would love to see some solid tech data on the deployed US systems supposed to be able to work through smoke in 1982. If you put a blanket of smoke in front of his positions, then you deny him the few long range firing positions available, allowing you to close on him and engage him in a knife fight where you have huge weight of numbers. Can tell you the Russians did careful map analysis of all the good firing positions for the US screening force and plotted fires on them. This would've been especially bad for ATGM armed helos waiting to rise up and fire! Regards, John Kettler

The odds of ever seeing these in CMx anything are likely nil, but still worth sharing. Bicycles with nasty fangs! Note also their captor has what appears to be a captured StG44 on his shoulder, in addition to his own Sten. https://www.facebook.com/worldwarincolor/posts/4129222643874163 Regards, John Kettler

Took some digging, but US release has yet to occur. It will be released on both Netflix and the Internet October 15, 2021. The Dutch release was December 2020. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10521092/releaseinfo Regards, John Kettler

Erwin, So true! You're most welcome. Regards, John Kettler

By a fluke, came across this video with the stunning story of an epic active defense by Israeli tank commander LT Zvika Greengold during the Yom Kippur War. What he did was so damaging to the Syrians that he may well have saved Israel from defeat. Am posting this because it shows the true killing potential of a good tank (Centurion) handled by real tank pros and what an aggressive, motivated TC can do, using terrain and calculated daring extremely well, against even a huge combined arms force of vastly greater power and far worse training and experience. What he did is the essence of what the US planned to do to the Soviets in Europe when fighting while greatly outnumbered. Through much of some 24 hours of almost continuous combat, and never having more than a handful of tanks at most, often fighting solo, he time and time again savaged the attacking Syrians in their T-55s and mercifully fewer T-62s, with much of the action taking place at night, with the foe having active IR and the Israelis no such help. During this action, he swapped tanks three times after they were hit. He fought on, even burned, until he could do no more. By then, reinforcements had arrived. While the situation described is obviously not a typical CMx2 battle, I believe that it would be a fascinating scenario through which to explore the core situation, but while having no idea myself as to how VPs would be handled. If nothing else, it would be a real performance test in seeing how well players might fare as the defender in a similar situation. During this action, LT Greengold became a multiple tank ace and was awarded the Medal of Valor (Israel's highest military honor) for his timely incredible successful defense against overwhelming odds. Regards, John Kettler

Bufo, Sorry for any confusion, but when I was in military aerospace, we had three different terms we used, none of which was EFP: plate charge, Misznay-Schardin Device and SFF (Self-Forging Fragment). Regards, John Kettler

This is a smart submunition which uses a SFF/EFP to defeat an armored target detected as the spinning submunition scans the ground with its sensor while descending. It is the direct equivalent of similar US systems. Have known about these since 1985, when the CIA briefed attendees of the Soviet Threat Technology Conference and seen promo videos from the manufacturers of Smerch and such, but this is the first real photo I've seen of the actual submunition, which seems to be used for both MRL and air strike applications. https://armamentresearch.com/rbk-500-spbe-cargo-munitions-employed-in-syria/ Regards, John Kettler

90 mph? That would be quite the challenging target for the shotgun drone killing advocates--provided the drone wasn't flown in a stupid manner. Regards, John Kettler

Sgt. Squarehead, The comments on the video I posted thought the drone was the one you named. As for what you posted, we now have hard proof Mordor is real! Regards, John Kettler

This drone is whipping along at such a clip you may wish to slow down playback speed. From what I can tell, this is recent imagery. Regards, John Kettler

Got this at huge discount at HPB outlet store in Washington. Haven't read it yet, but the spot reading alone was more than enough to justify buying this highly rated book. Not only dies it provide an education on an important topic, and vital lessons learned, but I think it'll be especially valuable to scenario creators. https://www.amazon.com/Militant-Tricks-Battlefield-Islamic-Insurgent/dp/0963869582 Regards, John Kettler

As part of a doc on military blunders, there is a long segment (starting at ~30:30) on the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The doc includes interviews with such key participants as General Giap, who produced an astounding statistic on the logistics of the battle from the Viet Minh side. To get 1 kg of supplies from the main supply base 700 km away took 24 kgs of food. And it was Giap who designed and implemented this war-winning logistics network that did the "impossible" and on a huge scale at that. One of the French regimental commanders is interviewed, as is the soldier who captured General De Castries. The ground truth footage is extremely revelatory, in ways no written account can quite convey, and a fascinating large diorama the Vietnamese have today of the battle showing its key terrain, attacks, process of siege and much more bring the battle to life in ways that the written record can't. It's hard to overstate just how dominating the heights over the main part of the fortress were. There is also footage from the Viet Minh side, but I think much of it is a reconstruction rather than a live record of the climactic stages of the battle and immediate aftermath. Regards, John Kettler

The MHQ article is in Volume 7, Number 4, on Page 100. It's titled Dien Bien Phu And The Opium Connection and is by Douglas Porch. Regards, John Kettler

What a fascinating discussion! There's an apt historical anecdote I'd like to share. In 1820, the whaler Essex was repeatedly rammed, and ultimately sunk, by an enormous enraged sperm whale, ultimately inspiring the Melville novel Moby Dick. The story of what happened after the skipper, John Pollard, and crew took to the lifeboats is, for want of a better description, serially gruesome. https://allthatsinteresting.com/essex-ship But what came in the aftermath (forget where I read it) was in some ways worse. At a Nantucket party the mother of one of the crewmen who didn't make it it approached the former skipper and said: "I believe you knew my son" and named him, to which he replied: "Why know him, ma'am, I et him." Ref the OP, here, also, we find people being killed as food, not dying and then being used as food. At least in this case, lots were drawn. Regards, John Kettler

While visiting brother George and family in Tacoma WA area, got to go to a killer bookstore in Tacoma and got a great deal on a stack of MHQ (Military History Quarterly) which were shipped home with other books I got there and other places. Haven't read the MHQ article, yet, but one of the Table of Contents entries talked about an opium connection to French fortress of Dien Bien Phu. News to me, so it went on my Let Long Left Flank Know List, in case he didn't know this already. Did a quick online search to see what else I might be able to turn up without going through a pile of MHQ, and found this, which not only confirms an opium connection but describes decades of the opium history of Indochina and, later, Vietnam. Massively documented article! https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/cultivating-subjects-opium-and-rule-in-postcolonial-vietnam/6179DD3E7F977B76868617CBB2155984 Regards, John Kettler

Erwin, No, but every now and then I come across money I cleverly hid and then forgot where I hid it! Regards, John Kettler

landser, Indeed. Also, my owned game count was off, in that I bought both CMFB and CMCW on pre-order, too. Regards, John Kettler

Though in one sense, this is of academic interest only, since am still not CM capable, it was still exciting. As some of you may recall, was previously forced to give up my rented library/game room here at the house and move its considerable contents into my remaining two rooms. Much frenzied packing and moving resulted in losing track of many things, including the box with all my CM games, both CMx1 and CMx2. It was exciting to see items long unseen and to retrieve my CMAK period story anthology. But what was astounding was the shocking to me discovery that I owned twice as many CMx2 games as I thought I did! My belief, and strong recollection, was that I owned only CMBN (all modules) and CMBS, but I was stunned to find I had somehow acquired--with zero memory of having done so--CMFI and CMBS (no modules for either)! Maybe I got them via some BFC super deal. For sure, they can't be demos, because those are always DL only. Regards, John Kettler

This looks really good to me. Regards, John Kettler

MIkeyD, Have seen various pics of the many times repainted (including hot pink overall) T-34/85 in some UK park, but not this one. If the tank's self-aware, does it cry inside over what's been done to its proud martial self? Regards, John Kettler

Among most military enthusiasts, the view prevails that the last bayonet charge took place on Mount Tumbledown by the British against dug-in Argentine troops during the South Atlantic War. But I just learned there was one quite successfully employed in the Bosnia-Serbia set-to in 1995 by the French against the Serbs, who had taken UN peacekeeper French soldiers captive by a highly effective ruse de guerre aka dirty trick. The French resorted to the bayonet so as not to potentially shoot their own captive comrades and not only carried the position and inflicted casualties but thoroughly intimidated the Serbs. I'll let an expert military commentator on the correct use and psychological effects of the bayonet do the wrap up. Here is Lance Corporal Jones, of long and distinguished service in many wars with Her and His Majesty's Army, including with "Chinese Gordon" at Khartoum. Regards, John Kettler