von Lucke

I just ran a little test: Two 251/16's --- one Reg and one Vet --- set up 44m from a small house, and a patch of rubble, respectively. Angle of attack was 0 degrees (i.e; directly forward). I set them both to area fire, and hit GO. Within the first 5 seconds they both let loose MG and flame on the targets, and continued to do so throughout the turn. Next turn, I had the gunner button up, and they still unleashed firey death on the targets, no problem. Dunno what to tell you. Are you out of napalm? The MG and flamer have seperate ammo counts. Try the Area Fire function? The Target key (T); gives you a yellow line.

Yes, there are. Black Shirt Legion companies have one less platoon than regular infantry organizations, and none of the support weapons. Not very impressive, if that's what yr looking for.

For some reason, the last installment isn't loading.

In his autobiography, Hans von Luck specifically states that "at the Hotchkiss works near Paris, Becker discovered a vast number of tank chassis, for which he organized guns and finished armor plating in Germany in order to create an "assault gun" battalion." He also refers to the Becker's battalion as "Special HQ" (though that could just be a bad English translation), never as "Becker's Circus". Von Luck goes on for several pages about Becker and his jury-rigged assault guns --- you might want to pick up Panzer Commander. There's even a photo of Rommel inspecting the 200th!

This is pretty much what I did, and it netted me a Major Victory. I sent A coy. on a flanking maneuver to the east, then north --- esentially coming in through the back door: It worked rather well, as the first German casualty of the scenario was the company HQ. I left B coy. lined up along the wooded edge of the ridge just to the east of the road, with the 2in mortars, and 2 Brens --- the other two Brens went up to Pink Hill. The MkVI's I zipped around the edges, as mobile fire support for those hard to reach areas. Just to see if it would work, I sent the independent platoon on a long march over Pink Hill, to try and approach Galatas from the west. I let them approach the edge of town first, to draw off the AI --- which, of course, came running. Then popped up B coy. and the Brens to lay down fire on any Fallschirmjaegers who gave me LOS. By the time A coy. had swept right (about turn 15), most of the FJ's where at the opposite end of town. After that, it was just a matter of alternating rushes from the east and west, until what was left of the AI got squeezed into the NW corner of town. Even though the Allied player is the attacker in this scenario, it pays to take yr time and lay down as much fire as possible before moving up. I didn't even get B coy. up and moving until turn 25, or so --- and by that point, their ammo was pushing empty. When moving, always remember to leave 1/3 (at coy. level, one platoon covers, two platoons rush) of yr force static as a base of fire --- it sometimes helps to create a covered arc for a squad on an area yr sure is occupied by the enemy. As for walls, they work fine --- as barriers to movement, not so much as cover. The minute a unit takes fire, it still crawls off to the closest concealment. I had some success using the wall at the far east of town as cover, but only because enemy fire was coming in from long distance, so my troopers mearly ducked, and didn't panic. AI bonus can be significant. With an opponent like FJ's, which will be mostly Vet or Reg, giving them a 2+ experience bonus will bush them up to Crack --- a very difficult proposition, as they shoot better, break less, and win more often in melee. Green: A coy. Blue: B coy. Pink: Ind. platoon Yellow: Bren guns Orange: Remaining FJ's [ September 28, 2007, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: von Lucke ]

Smoke is yr friend. At this point, with yr mortars still being set up, and the 155mm response time (not to mention waste of limited ammo) an issue, use the Shermans direct fire capability. Two squads = 10 tubes = @7 smoke rnds ea. = 70 smoke that you can lay in to move yr armor up to support the infantry advance, or to reposition the infantry free from HMG fire. Alternatively, use area fire from the Shermans and any MMG's of yr own to blanket the most likely enemy HMG / ATG / mortar positions. (Though, if it had been me, I would have tried to get a Sherman 105 in the mix, for just such an occassion).

There are claims that a Maus saw action during the battle of Seelow Heights (outside Berlin, April 16 - 19, 1945) --- though it has never been proven.

Isn't that a full-on operation, not a scenario?

The gist of the argument (if you can call it that), is that CousinPeePee (lover-ly handle, by the way) seems bent on everyone blindly accepting his premise, despite his only "evidence" being mis-informed personal opinions and gut feelings shaped by repeated YouTube viewings and History Channel re-runs. So far, he seems to be in denial about the efficacy of his debating skills, in that he seems to think that wearing us down by repeating the same thing, over and over, is the way to go.

Yes, it spawned quite the lively discussion a while back. There's an alternate version of this scenario floating around; "Beda Fomm - the Pimple" by P.P. Stuart. You might be able to find it at the Scenario Depot or the Proving Grounds.

Read a book.

"The Battle for North Africa, 1940-43" by General Sir W.G.F. Jackson is quite good. Eminently readable --- yet full of the why's and wherefores of the various Ops --- plenty of maps (I love maps!), and written by someone who served in theater during the war. Best part is, there are several used copies for sale on Amazon for $1.50. What a steal!

Did I say it was a summary of losses for the class? No. Those four are only the outstanding examples of the group. Would you prefer "interesting examples" or, "distinguished excerpts" instead of "quite a history"? How about "don't get yr panties in a wad over something so niggling?"

Seems the Clemson class DD's had quite a history: The Mason was torpedoed on 18 Oct 41, killing one LT John Parker --- giving him the regrettable honor of being the first American killed in action while serving with the RN. The Reuben James was the first USN vessel sunk by Germany, 31 Oct 41. The Herndon was given to the Brits (who re-christened her the Churchill), who then gave her to the Russkis (re-named the Delatelnyi) --- sunk 16 Jan 45. The Stewart was captured by the Japanese and served under their flag, before being recaptured by the Yanks --- then sunk as a target 23 May 46. For the most part, those of the class that actually made it up to 1941 served to the end of the war --- and were promptly scrapped.

From the Washington Post obit: From the NY Sun obit: This, and the rambling screed that is his website, would seem to give something of a clue into this gentleman's nature. He may very well have been a genius in Economic Theory, but he also seems to be a bit of a crank. (Not to mention, for somebody with a boatload of degrees, a very poor writer. After perusing his accomplishments, I'm dumbfounded by the 5th-grade level composition stylings of his memoir.) OK, great; the guy's a War Hero and a certified genius. He still seems to have an axe to grind, though, and the sparks are a-flyin'... [ December 19, 2006, 04:29 AM: Message edited by: von Lucke ]

Maybe if you actually told him the name of the file: Go into yr CMAK folder (wherever that might be, usually Program Files), find a file named "Combat Mission AK Prefs", and delete it. Choose screen resolution for desktop, start game, choose driver / screen resolution combo as appropriate, play game.

Yah, that --- you get the idea.

Yes. I tend to run in pairs, just about side-by-side, on the principle that two guns are always better than one in an armor duel. Much as with #1, this is simple physics. Angle yr tank toward the enemy, and his shots are more likely to ricochet, rather than penetrate. This works side-to-side, as well as up / down. The greater the angle of attack of your tank to the on-coming projectile, the less likely it is to put a hole in you. In other words, if you have an armored vehicle with armor plate of 0 slope, angling the vehicle at 45 degrees (relative to the attacker) will give you the same armor slope (and increased defense to penetration) as a T34. Hit the Spacebar: See all the orders? Go to the bottom. "C" is for Covered Arc (all targets), "V" is for Covered Arc (armor targets only). Choose one. A green line will appear. Stretch it out, Left Click to anchor, and sweep it over the area you wish to cover with the tank's main gun, Left Click to anchor the end of the arc. You now have a "Covered Arc" in which the tank will exclusively fire. Use the "J" key to cancel.

Primasole Bridge, 13 July 1943 British 1st Airborne Brigade drops in the day after the 3rd Regiment, 1st FJ Division parachutes in --- first German FJ unit deployed to Sicily.

Unfortunately, when discussing the Vichy troops in Afrique, people tend to concentrate on North Africa --- Operation Torch --- and ignore Syria. In June 1941 18,000 Australians, 9,000 British, 5,000 Free French and 2,000 Indians under General Henry Maitland Wilson went up against General Henri Dentz' Armée du Levant: 35,000 French colonial troops - mainly Senegalese, Algerian and Moroccan, but including 3,000 Foreign Legionaires of 6th Regiment FFL. He also has 90 tanks, and 100 aircraft. De Gaulle and the Allies anticipated a quick knockout followed by immediate rallying of Vichy forces to the Free French. It didn't quite play out as expected. Vichy forces were small and without sufficient reserves or supplies, but their ground forces were tough and well-trained, and their small air force actually maintained air superiority for much of the campaign. Instead of a quick victory, the Australian, Indian, British, and Free French forces (two brigades of the latter, comprised mainly of Senegalese) slugged it out with the Vichy defenders (also containing a good percentage of Sengalese troops) and suffered several serious setbacks before the ceasefire on 12 July. By July most of the Free French forces (especially the Senegalese), having had enough of killing their countrymen, were of questionable value and regarded as unreliable by British headquarters. The Allies sustained about 4700 casualties. The 1st Royal Fusiliers were cut off by a Vichy counterattack and the entire battalion was lost. The Aussies lost 1600 killed and wounded during the month of combat (as opposed to about 3000 killed and wounded during the much lengthier siege of Tobruk). When the campaign ended, only some 5700 (out of about 26,000) Vichy troops elected to join de Gaulle. The remainder were evacuated by sea to French North Africa under Allied supervision. [ November 17, 2006, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: von Lucke ]

Since John D Salt answered you so much more concisely then I ever could, I will simply refer you to his post. Though, it's interesting to note that Pakistani M48's were spanked by Indian M4's (in 1965), and again by Israeli M4's (in 1967) vs the Jordanians. Personally, I think modern tank designs resemble the M18 Hellcat on steroids, more than either the Sherman or T34.

The M46 (particularly the ones sent to Korea) were nothing more than M26's with better engines. It wasn't until the M48 that the Patton came into it's own. You seem to think the T34 was something of a world beater. Maybe it was in 1941 (much like the Sherman design) --- but by 1943 it was showing it's age --- much like the Sherman design. The argument could be made, that in may ways, the T34 is the Soviet version of the Sherman tank.

I seem to recall Tukhachevsky coming up with the Deep Operation doctrine (tanks as breakthrough weapons) of armor deployment back in the 1930's --- which the Sovs essentially put into effect as early as Nov 42 with the Uranus / Mars / Saturn series of offensives. If you want to go with the Western Allies, wasn't Cobra essentially the same thing? I'd say the Sherman is an excellent breakthrough tank: Relatively fast, reliable, carries a large ammo load, and there are a lot of them. [ November 10, 2006, 04:14 PM: Message edited by: von Lucke ]

It's down at the moment.

This brings up something I've been wondering about for awhile now: Where do the nick-names on all yr Allied vehicles come from? Do you make them up, or have you seen them on actual vehicles somewhere?