John Kettler

This is a joint Australian, south Korean, Israeli and US entry in the current Australian IFV competition, with the finalists be the RedBack and Rheinmetall's Lynx. The baseline armor on the RedBack is, to me, farcical--protects vs NATO 7.62 mm AP, but apparently at least the front can be fitted to protect against Russian and similar 30 mm auto cannon. The RedBack will be be transportable on the Royal Australian Navy's amphibious warfare vessels, the Canberra-class LHDs (Landing, Helicopter, Dock), and the C-17, both for rapid movement to outer islands. As you can see, it's very high tech, including integral APS. It's designed to work with manned and unmanned turrets and can even be operated as a robotic IFV. It's armed wiht a 30 mm Bushmaster auto cannon and the Spike LR ATGM and has a 7.62 mm coaxial MG. As the second video indicates, The Royal Australian Army (RAA) is in the midst of a major recasting (ha!) of its armored force, with huge amounts of money in play for, not just a new IFV, but a new recon vehicle and SPH. RedBack IOC is expected to be 2023 and serial production in 2024. Baseline armor aside, I'm hugely impressed with what appears to me to be a highly capable and well thought out IFV with heavy armament and specifically built to demanding RAA operational requirements, requirements so stringent that two candidates were summarily dropped for not meeting them. While this has no immediate connection with CM per se, I think it's wise to be aware of such a major defense program, especially in the context of some future game BFC might decide to do involving the Chinese and a very large, mostly empty neighbor! For the RAA, getting RedBack or Lynx will be a tremendous jump, considering the current AFV in use is an M113 version. Regards, JOhn Kettler

KGBoy, You know where the AI terrifyingly excels? Identifying LOS under the most demanding conditions! Very early in my CMBN days, I was playing a scenario in which dense woods covered much of the right side of the map. Got zapped near instantly via a thread the needle shot )which passed between a great many trees by a matter of inches) and nailed my TD. Figuring out how that was done took me many minutes of hard work to figure out via repeated replay and shot line reconstruction. Have never played RT (way too brain processing demanding, stressful and also neurologist prohibited because of my TBI), but if the AI's also super quick on LOS identification and exploitation via fire, then it would be really difficult to deal with in high obstacle density situations. Regards, John Kettler

This is a truly awful film, so why post about it? It's full of Soviet military hardware, including the star of the show, a then state-of-the-art Ka-50 Black Shark, NATO codename HOKUM! The video's not crisp, but even so, you'll be able to see some amazing things, including Soviet AFVs in an operational mountainous environment, not the Poligon. This film obviously had Soviet MoD support, for real AFVs get shot up and blown up. The bill alone just for the helicopters used must've been enormous, but I suspect a lot of it was charged off as training. Because some of what's shown is pretty gruesome in places, I've opted not to post a link, but the war toy goodness is on YT and the title for this post is how YT lists the video. The impressive maneuvering capabilities of the Ka-50 are on considerable display. If you're used to regular helicopters, prepare to be surprised. Regards, John Kettler

Probus, Got into them initially by way of seeing a number of GPW series on Amazon Prime and branched out from there. Overall, I find GPW movies and series from Russia, Belarus and elsewhere to be far superior to what Hollywood produces, with the added advantages of new terrain, new stories, new culture/s, considerable amounts of period weapons and hardware. In these, too, there are factors at work not generally found in western war stuff: spies, denunciations, NKVD, Special Department and more. Most of these films and series also show what it's like to wage war on own turf, something we in the US have almost no experience of. Often, during the GPW, your own people are more dangerous than the Germans, and if you're some sort of a general, you may find yourself in hot water with Stalin! StarMediaEN on YT is a great resource, but there are others, too. Have even watched some GPW movies with no English subtitles and been able to somewhat follow things by observing how people speak, act, react and so on. Regards, John Kettler

As Russian war movies go, this is pretty much brand new (2015). The Road to Berlin is a beautifully crafted, at times, moving film. It is full of CM goodness, albeit only part of the story. ONe of the more interesting CM aspects is that you can see a HUnt order being executed. What it has, that The Burning Snow does not, are some very good VISMODS and adaptations for earlier German armor and what appear to be real T-34/76s. Link's good.It's in Russian, with English subtitles. Regards, John Kettler

They Fought for the Motherland, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk who directed the 8-hour War and Peace that cost $100,000,00 in then-year dollars and had 40,000 Red Army soldiers in it, follows a Rifle Regiment in the run up to the Battle of Stalingrad. The shoot location had to be moved when digging entrenchments turned up bones of the war head and lots of UXO. Another one for which the link is good but Mosfilm blocks embedding! Regards, John Kettler

Wanted to pass the word on this gritty intimate doc all filmed by one guy but am not posting a link because there most definitely is some gory stuff. Even so, it is rich in all sorts of details that ought to be very helpful. to the skin modders for weapons, buildings and more. It shows the environment, what really low level combat looks like and much more. It's on Vimeo. "Donbass under fire: War is War" documentary by Maxim Fadeyev. 18+ Донбасс на линии огня. Фильм седьмой «На войне как на войне» 18+ Assault on the New Terminal of Donetsk International Airport, combat footage 16-18 January "Donbass under fire" documentary Maxim is the only journalist who were at the terminal on the fisrt day of assault, he moved out to the New Terminal with "Sparta" troops to film the fights there, spent night in the New Terminal when only first and fourth floors were controlled by the militias while second and third floors were held by the UAF. Regards, John Kettler

The Liberation docudrama is absolutely awash with CM inspiration, because so much combat is depicted at all levels. The first one is Kursk, and the series runs clear through the Battle of Berlin. The might of the Red Army is massively displayed here in this series, not least in enormous tank formations attacking you'll not find anywhere else but a ComBloc war pic or TV show. It's one thing to read about a tank attack or even see one at ground level, but to see a vast sea of tanks from the air is another matter altogether. The tanks aren't always period correct, and the Germans are VISMODs of varying degrees of fidelity, sometimes straight up Soviet tanks, too, but the single biggest issue in the visuals is that there's not a GPW combat aircraft to be seen, just trainers. Sigh. The problem is that this movie series, for that's what it is, each one a full length film, was released in 1970, by which time the GPW combat aircraft were long gone. That left Yak trainers of 1950s vintage. Don't know why, unlike the Red Army, the Red Air Force didn't maintain GPW warbird stocks. Maybe because they're harder to maintain and lack the impact of tanks parading past the reviewing stand? The link is good. Regards, John Kettler

Something I wanted to note ref the Russian war movies and series in which there is a love interest, competition for females and such. Unlike the US and most forces, the Red Army had female combat medics, plus nurses and doctors at all levels. Women also served on AFVs, gun and mortar crews, antiaircraft crews, infantry, in comms, in supply, as mechanics, artificers, traffic direction, MPs, as snipers and more, including a tiny, relative to the Red Air Force, contingent of fighter and bomber pilots, other aircrew, ground crews and such. Further, you had dancers, singers and musicians traveling about and doing USO type shows for the troops. Unlike Hollywood, which arbitrarily sticks a romance into a movie to make it appealing to women, in the Red Army things happened organically. I have a book on my shelf right now in which the commander of a half platoon and later a platoon of regimental guns connected so strongly with a nurse who cared for him after he was seriously wounded that they married during the war! Further, because of where her field hospital happened to be positioned, he got to see her a number of times during the war, too. I know of another case in which a husband and wife were on the same ISU-122 crew, she as commander and he as driver mechanic. There is a transcript of an ongoing navigation argument as to how to reach the Reichstag during the Battle of Berlin. Encounters with women in the Red Army occurred at a vastly higher rate, but likewise, I'll be the first to admit that the hottie count in the Russian war movies and TV series is not generally borne out by available imagery of many of these ladies! That the GPW was a horror beyond measure for those on the sharp end I don't dispute, but I can't help thinking about how the presence of so many women was beneficial to those men and that it made real and immediate the very notion of fighting to save the sacred Rodina. The Motherland! Regards, John Kettler

Probus, Wannsee Conference isn't a war movie per se. It's a chilling, deeply disturbing film about a multi-day conference in which the Nazis set up the structure of a systematic program of genocide directed against Jews, the Roma, gays, and more. It's an unflinching look at the banality of evil, expressed in detailed and specific allocations of tasks, resource requirements, system throughput, economic value obtained from the dead, transport requirements, expressed as trains per day, railroad requirements which were competing with the needs of German military logistics, etc. Regards, John Kettler

If doing a war film, such as the aptly named The Hot Snow, it helps if the Soviet MoD fully supports it! That way, you can use the Poligon, considerable amounts of real HE to blow things apart, field dozens of anachronistic VISMOD Tiger 1s (almost certainly first used in Liberation docudrama), also anachronistic T-34/85s (subs for T-34/76s) in enormous numbers, deploy hordes of real Red Army troops from the Moscow Military District and the Siberian Military District, field horse drawn gun teams, artillery tractors, big nasty guns, even Katyushas! This lets you build an extremely credible and progressively demolished battlefield in ways Hollywood couldn't even dream about. The scope is vast, but for all the weighty decisions made, the film revolves around the tip of the defensive spearhead. Here is small unit combat par excellence. Have seen this film now twice, and the more often I see it, the more I notice. It's based around a Russian novel, and that guy seems to know war: command, command style, choosing the ground, operational situation, Schwerpunkt, small unit dynamics and so much more. I imagine the novel would be the Russian equivalent of the Cross of Iron, but with far greater sweep. Am having embedding issues, but the YT link for it works. Russian with English subtitles.

If you don't mind breaking down an epic war film into CM sized chunks, may I recommend the monumental Battle of Neretva? Based on a crucial battle which did take place and pitted Tito's partisans against Germans, Italian and Chetniks, this has many action which could be treated as discrete CM fights. If you haven't seen the probably 1000+ person, astounding Battle of Neretva, featuring a breathtaking cast list, spectacular terrain, lots of different structures ranging from huts to multi-story buildings and big churches, then are you in for a unique experience, starting with location (the Balkans, specifically, Yugoslavia). Has multiple nationalities all speaking in their languages (English subtitles throughout) , so much military hardware the Internet Firearms Data Base missed lots of it, including VISMODs (VISusal MODifications; think SPR Tiger 1) and AFVs I couldn't identify at all, lots of usual and unusual artillery, combat of every size and sort. This movie was made in the late 1960s, before digital FX, so the human hordes are real people, not clones of a few. The print's not very good, but gets better later in the film. Based on my own experience, it won't take long before you're so swept up in the film you really don't pay much attention to image quality. Regards, John Kettler

Local Skirmish seems to me to be a CM natural fit, for it's low level tactical combat, well depicted. The life and death fight that ensues is almost a nothing viewed from a higher command perspective, hence the brutally both ironic and accurate title. It's Russian with English subtitles, so free language lesson! LongLeftFlank, Something went wrong, and you wounbd up with anything but the bedraggled US Army of the 1970s. Hadn't seen King Peter, but just noticed it moments ago in my YT sidebar. An endorsement from you is huge. Regards, John Kettler

Lieutenant is the perfect counterpoint for Three Days in the Life of Kravtsov, For this guy didn't so much as go the front; the front came to him. This is something eminently doable in CM, perhaps as a series of micro scenarios. Troop count is very low, and there are some nice war toys to use, too. What I especially like about this movie, over and above the combat, is the look at a society woefully unprepared for war and how the system does and doesn't handle its stresses, both organizationally and individually. The classless society is most definitely not, and the characters are credible people, not ciphers. I think it's much better than most so-called war movies. Regards, John Kettler

Erwin, When I saw it, Apocalypse Now. was like some sort of an acid trip (based on what I've read of such). It was bizarre, disconnected, surreal and even incomprehensible. That wasn't the director's fault, but studio execs who a) didn't think they could get people to watch so long a film and b) conflict with movie theater owners who disliked long films because they cut down on audience turnover per day. The result was the film was savaged to meet a much shorter run time. It was only years later that I finally got to see the director's cut. That one made perfect sense, was coherent, really told the story, in detail. I maintain that if you haven't seen the director's cut, you haven't seen Apocalypse Now. Regards, John Kettler

Probus, As far as I'm concerned, watching 1944 with English subtitles is the way to go, for you get to hear the actual languages used, facial movements match the words, and it's altogether more believable, even intimate. This has been my position on foreign language war movies ever since I got to experience the difference between good subtitles and dubbing, which often is awful in every important aspect (pitch, pace, pause, inflection, pronunciation and more) and frequently has only half a butt at best. Have seen Das Boot with subtitles and dubbed. Had to turn off the latter, for it was ridiculous and had nothing of the mood, feel and presence of the one I'd call real. English dubbed samurai movies should be outlawed as a form of torture, too! Regards, John Kettler

Immortal Battalion/The Way Forward starring David Niven is a classic. Niven was a Sandhurst graduate and was a leftenant. Regards, John Kettler

Warts 'n' All, Who is/was Jorrocks? I don't follow the reference. Regards, John Kettler

Not a movie, but a TV series, Three Days in the Life of Lieutenant Kravtsov is marvelous and offers plenty of grist for your CM mill. Russian with English subtitles available. YT won't let me embed the video, but the series is on the StarMediaEN YT channel and also Amazon Prime, Runs four episodes in total, each roughly 40 minutes long. Demoted, also from StarMedia, is pretty exciting in its own right. Going back to US war films, I think there's a lot to be said for The Longest Day. There's combat galore and a marvelous construction kit called CMBN for making your own! Regards, John Kettler

At Changde in 1943, the Chinese Army finally stopped the Japanese onslaught, but at astronomic cost: 290,000 Chinese soldiers to stop 50,000 Japanese. Perhaps to be expected given the Japanese used CW and had tons more experience in combat. Could probably do something on this using CMBN, reskinning Landser, etc. Have to say, the clip looks fantastic. Film's been deemed to be akin to SPR. Daresay plenty of war vets would find it triggering. Regards, John Kettler

Theirs Is the Glory, shot in the ruins of Arnhem, and using many veterans, as well as well period AFVs alive and dead, has, I think, much to recommend it, not least that the pieces to depict it are already in in CMBN:MG. Regards, John Kettler

From what I've experienced in CMx2 there are only two places (short of being inside a pillbox, if that's possible) where an ATG can be placed and not spotted right away for the reasons given: grass and from well to the rear of the ostensible front line and also a crater. Neither of these provides the visual cues that allow pre-emptive targeting based on the presence of sandbags. Once had an ATG in a crater kill multiple AFVs which were located on a ridge well above it. Regards, John Kettler

chuckdyke, In the Sacred War video I now can't find anymore, field phones are shown explicitly, but only down to battery level, not the individual guns. Were it not for LL, the Russians would've been screwed on the comms, for we supplied astronomic amounts of field telephone wire, plus scads of handsets, switchboards, etc. Regards, John Kettler

Something happened to the pic. In case it got pulled for good, it showed a Nebelwerfer with a hamster in each tube. Regards, John Kettler

Freyberg, For a real rip-snorter of a battle, find and watch the amazing Chinese film The Factory/The 800. Believe I saw it on Amazon Prime. It's a fantastic fight (super duper Pavlov's House), but if someone could depict the action through CM, it would rate a personal visit from Steve AND Charles, including having to explain to them where the Japanese AFVs came from. Here's the real Sheng Factory then and now. Here's a clip from The Eight Hundred. Regards, John Kettler