John Kettler

The American Heritage Museum, which belongs to the Collings Foundation, has an IS-2, which will eventually be a runner. The Collings Foundation apparently bought a substantial part of the esteemed Jacques Littlefield collection after his death. The AHM is in Stow, Massachusetts. YT has several videos, in one of which it's Track Day for the IS-2 and, of all things, a Borgward B IV Ladungsleger. The term means charge layer, a big HE charge in an armored box it would trundle up and drop off right next to a vexatious strongpoint! In this video, the IS-2 is already tracked and is being moved into the work area. The group doing a;; the work on these AFVs is Abrams Company of the United States Brotherhood Of Tanks and nothing to do with robots or internet mischief. The soundtrack, aside from a mournful Russian song, is highly distracting and many songs weird, given the subject matter. Recommend muting it, for there's no VO or live dialogue you'd miss out on. Regards, John Kettler

The American Heritage Museum, which belongs to the Collings Foundation, has an IS-2, which will eventually be a runner. The Collings Foundation apparently bought a substantial part of the esteemed Jacques Littlefield collection after his death. The AHM is in Stow, Massachusetts. YT has several videos, in one of which it's Track Day for the IS-2 and, of all things, a Borgward B IV Ladungsleger. The term means charge layer, a big HE charge in an armored box it would trundle up and drop off right next to a vexatious strongpoint! In this video, the IS-2 is already tracked and is being moved into the work area. The group doing a;; the work on these AFVs is Abrams Company of the United States Brotherhood Of Tanks and nothing to do with robots or internet mischief. The soundtrack, aside from a mournful Russian song, is highly distracting and many songs weird, given the subject matter. Recommend muting it, for there's no VO or live dialogue you'd miss out on. Regards, John Kettler

Can supply additional info if desired, including commander's name and unit. Pic was shot March 21, 1943, the first day of Spring. Just look at the mud on the running gear. And if anyone wants a bigger version of this AFV, Tamiya has one in 1/35 scale, apparently rereleased. Regards, John Kettler

Thanks to BFCElvis, was able to sort out PW issue and pre-order CMCW, with the DVD. Was wondering why it cost so much money ($10) to ship a single DVD in its case? Regardless, am posting link to product page on FB and tagging some friends who might be interested. Regards, John Kettler

StieliAlpha (as opposed to Steely Dan), Thanks for the help. Hope BFC sorts it its official and cool sounding support email handle. Regards, John Kettler P.S. As soon as I typed in the email address you just gave me, the ellipsoidal box turned red! Are you sure you got it right, because red means it's wrong?

It was photographed on the Eastern Front in 1943 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-197-1235-15%2C_Russland-Mitte%2C_Panzerjäger_"Marder_II".jpg Regards, John Kettler

Will "Molon labe" be anywhere in those files? Had to ask! Regards, John Kettler

BFCElvis, Thanks for letting me know. Since there was a specific CMBS manual for it, thought there'd be one like it for CMCW. There was also a special tin, too, and those are cool, but nothing this time. Am I correct that the pre-order includes the DVD as well as electronic activation (?) or DL? Regards, John Kettler

The support link returns a daemon notice. Followed all procedures rigorously but got nowhere fast. Please help, so I don't miss the window. Thanks! Regards, John Kettler

BFCElvis, For pre-orders, is there a physical CMCW Manual included? Hope so! Already have an Engine 4.0 Manual and the basic CM manual. What else do we get for pre-ordering in the way of things that won't be available to post-release buyers? Regards, John Kettler

BFCElvis, Hi! Posted this question earlier here but never got an answer, for the Slitherine version discussion took over! Is it still possible to pre-order CMCW, or has that ship already sailed? Had to wait to get the money, and though I'm still in no shape to play CM (sigh), I wanted to get the game with the physical manual and all that because I have faith I will be able to play again at some point, the Cold War Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact threats were what I analyzed for a living at Hughes and Rockwell, and I wanted to support BFC. Please let me know. Thanks! Regards, John Kettler

Are you talking about entrenchments or foxholes? Regards, John Kettler

Vergeltungswaffe, Glad you found it worthwhile. All, Thanks to brother George, here' s a longish article that puts the above OP battles into a much greater context, so much so that the battles in the OP are described only in the last two paragraphs. https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2020/03/01/operation-queen-the-western-allied-november-1944-offensive/?fbclid=IwAR28Zj4kYjLdOfV3p9p2WRtkbFCGvo1LowsSPK1jflgbtsRXsQnPaePWGoU Regards, John Kettler

chuckdyke, In the prepared defense, what you say would make sense, and such installations were shown in that Sacred War video, but the accounts I read mentioned no field phones. It's absolutely true that the US supplied vast amounts of commo wire, field phones, switch boxes and more to Russia. This is readily verifiable in the Lend Lease shipment lists on HyperWar. All, Something worthy to note is that the Cover Armor Arc is the plan, if you will, but not necessarily the reality. The AI can, will and sometimes does override your plan, including firing prematurely and even engaging out of sector, for example. This is the result of the rightly dreaded under the hood calculations over which you are powerless. While you may think you're issuing orders, as far as the AI is concerned, they're more like strong suggestions. My understanding is that the better quality your troops, the better their morale and fatigue status, the more likely your plan will be followed. Since the typical CMx2 game for the defender involves very few ATGs and such, things like premature opening of fire can severely damage defense integrity when the offending weapon is dealt with quickly and decisively by direct and indirect fires. Similarly, an ATG which engages out of sector may create a de facto breach in the defense, allowing the enemy, whether AI or human, to go where their should be no way in. The above reminds me of something sorely missing from the CM games from the get: the At My Command order to open fire. If you watch Russian war movies and series especially, the ATGs are rigidly controlled until explicitly ordered to fire (Ogon!), so as not to give away the battery position until crushing surprise fire can be delivered at very high Ph from close range. Not only is this an issue for AT ambushes but also for infantry ambushes. Haven't played CMSF, so can't speak to that, but have handled a hasty AT defense in CMBS. In none of them have I found a properly implemented capability to open devastating, stunning, simultaneous fire to gain fire superiority. As a result, ambushes don't work in-game anywhere nearly as well as they do in real combat. In turn, this causes significant losses which shouldn't be sustained. This is especially true when facing a high quality foe with modern equipment in CMBS, where a poorly executed attempt (uncooperative AI when using Cover Armor) to apply simultaneous fire to a larger heavily armed foe can get the defense shredded in a handful of minutes, if that. TOW 2B is a marvelous weapon, but if the struck T-90 series tank survives or has friends looking the right way, at typical combat range, the life expectancy of the firing Bradley CFV is likely to be exceedingly short, especially since there isn't very good modeling of hull down, leaving a huge chunk of the house on tracks Bradley CFV exposed when only the turret should be hittable. Regards, John Kettler

The standard Russian ATG battery deployment was a "L" shaped one, with a 3-gun gun line as the killing power and a gun on either the left or right flank and about 50 meters ahead of the gun line to open fire first to force the attacking Panzers to turn toward it, opening up their flanks to attack from the gun line. That key gun was not a good place to be if you wanted to live (not that life expectancy was at all good on ATGs!), because not only did it draw terrible return fire, but many were simply driven over, crushing gun and crew. Unlike in the Sacred War video where the ATGs are super close, the actual spacing between guns could be as much as a whopping 300 meters, though 150-200 was more typical. In close terrain, of course, ranges were reduced, as they were in particularly noisy environments. Frankly, I have no idea how anyone could shout 300 meters and be heard (voice was primary means of control), so believe the open fire and cease fire would be tied to a flag command or maybe a flare being fired. Source again is Panzer Killers, so be sure to recheck the gun interval distances. Am pretty sure I got them right, though. The info is in the part dealing with the Destroyer units (towed ATGs and tank-killing SUs). Regards, John Kettler

Am highly surprised that a pair of battles falling smack dab in the subject area for CMBB has generated so few views and no comments in almost 24 hours. Was the headline not compelling? This is an account of battles in which an entire US tank battalion was reduced to a shell of itself, the tanks almost ran out of ammo, enemy fire rained down, resistance was ferocious, etc. Regards, John Kettler

My favorite retired US Army Scout, SFC George Kettler, asked for my help assembling some game chrome for his upcoming 4-player CoC battle, naming a battalion CO who died in the real one. He was posthumously awarded a DSC. The unit itself won a DUC for what it did. This was a very hairy and super expensive fight for two German towns, Hastenrath and Schnerpenseel, as part of the Siegfried Line campaign. It makes Fury look like the attack of the pantywaists! https://3ad.com/history/wwll/memoirs.pages/earl.htm Regards, John Kettler

Bad Squiddo Games is in the final 24 hours of its fabulous KS campaign. The firm specializes in believable females, and its Soviet soldiers and aviators who are the subjects, including soldiers, tankers and aviators, together with some notable specialty items. Campaign focus is winter warfare, but there are some new troops to fill out the summer line. Scale is 28 mm/ or 1/56. The Rules prohibit posting the link, so either go to Bad Squiddo or KS to find the campaign. Tons of painted examples shown. Be advised there seems to be an issue with where the page directs, but despite appearances, the campaign is massively oversubscribed (factor of 4), so everything is unlocked. Regards, John Kettler

Unless I missed something, the regular ordering has begun. That's what I saw when I took the pre-order link given in this thread. All I saw offered was the basic game for $60.00, with no mention of anything else. Got some money and was going to pre-order to get all the goodies, though I know full well I presently simply am in no shape to play ANY CM. Regards, John Ketter

Erwin, You're welcome. SimpleSimon, A most cogent reply! Now let me. Give you a perspective on the Cold War Red Army (circa mid 80s) take on initiative "Initiative consists of the exact and precise execution of the commander's plan." Regards, John Kettler

Doctrinal open fire range for the ZIS-3 was 750 meters and 500 meters for the 45 mm M1937 and M1942. IN the latter case, the weapon was accurate enough to target specific parts of the tank, such as tracks. The Red Army philosophy was to hold fire until a high hit probability would result, the idea being to open with surprise fire and then pour it on until the foe broke or the battery was blown up or overrun. See Drabkin's excellent Panzer Killers for more information. Regards, John Kettler

Erwin, My understanding is that the no chute drop was tried--with disastrous results, but am unsure whether this was during troop trials in Russia or actual combat in Finland in 1939. Have zero knowledge of the purported German countermeasure. Regards, John Kettler

"Under White Cupolas" shows how the Soviet Desantniki trained and fought, together with some good material on the air landing troops, who came in by plane once an aerodrome was secured. The paratroopers fought in their jump coveralls and paratrooper helmets, were very lightly equipped relative to US and British airborne troops. This made them speedy by comparison. The pragmatic Russian approach to doing things simply is clearly on display (check out the supply bundles). Found it odd the Desantniki would destroy fuel and munition stocks on an airfield they planned to capture, but maybe that was in case they couldn't actually seize the objective, thus turning that mission into a raid instead to inflict crippling damage on that airfield. Regards, John Kettler

Had read the relevant earlier manual (1942), but this covers the rest of the war and is extremely detailed. Was highly surprised to learn the Armored Rifle Squads had neither BAR/s nor LMG. The analysis does say Armored Rifle Platoons did informally acquire BARs, because of their not being in the TO&E and the M1919 on the M3 HT being utterly unsuitable as a SAW. Also of note, besides the organic bazooka team in the Squads, was that each squad had two grenade launchers for the M1s. By US infantry stanards, the TO&E was odd, for there were on 2 x Rifle Squads, rather than the usual three. Here, it was 2 x Rifle Squad, 1 X LMG squad and 1 x 60 mm Mortar Squad. https://www.battleorder.org/usa-armored-inf-rifle-co-1943 Regards, John Kettler

Most of us are broadly aware of Stalin's purges of the Red Army and their devastating impact on Soviet combat performance when the Germans invaded and for quite some time thereafter, but what if it wasn't quite that way? What if the numbers are enormously exaggerated? What if the truth was cloaked and then and largely remains so now, at least, here in the West? A Texas A&M history professor, Robert Reese, a SME on the Soviet military under Stalin and author of four books on that topic, takes a hard look at what really happened, how bad it was, who it affected, how, why, reporting biases, already existing officer shortfalls, training deficiencies and more. The true picture is far more complex, convoluted and nuanced than the cut and dried depiction we're used to encountering. https://www.historynet.com/stalin-attacks-red-army.htm Regards, John Kettler