Andreas

Bombarding the abbey was wrong because it served no constructive purpose in the context of the Allied strategy. The Allied commanders at Cassino, with the exception of Dimoline (who was sacked for being too smart and showing it), probably Tuker (who was off sick) and Juin (who was not listened to on general principle) had no fecking clue what they were doing. None of them, at no time. That includes Freyberg, Anders, and any of the Americans you care to mention. Reading up about the conduct of the battle from the Allied side makes me angry every time I do it. Fact is that Tuker requested the bombing, with the support of Dimoline (who commanded 4th Indian when Tuker left), if the ground forces could follow it up immediately. Freyberg tried to get Clark to agree to it but failed, so he went over his head to Alexander. He got his wish, the bombers went in, but the ground forces could not follow through, which was hardly surprising. Bombing the Abbey was a desperate act, borne out of frustration. It was supposed to be the answer, but the Allies had failed to figure out what the problem was. Allied forces could not know what sort of agreement the Germans had with the Benedictine order and the Vatican. There were battle reports that Allied forces were fired on from the Abbey before the bombardment. It is almost certain that these are wrong. There are any number of hills and positions close to the abbey, so how in the heat of battle, when often fire was coming from all sides, the abbey could be clearly identified as the culprit, is a bit of a mystery. Especially when the monks and the Germans are very clear about whether they were there or not, and both agree that the Germans were not. So you have the impression of some grunts during the chaos of battle vs. the documented evidence by the Germans and the monks. Except for apologists for Freyberg and encyclopedia.com, I don't think anybody seriously still claims that bombing the Abbey was anything but a stupid mistake. I have seen it suggested in a study on Cassino (Ben Ariel 'Cassino', probably similar in Ellis 'Cassino') that Freyberg only got his way because he was the resident New Zealander, with a special role of representing his country in the theatre. The point stands - the whole of the massif was a giant OP and provided a wealth of MG nests, outside the Abbey ground. Removing the abbey did change squat about that, and actually benefitted the Germans (and that could have been known). If any of the Allied commanders could have been bothered to have a look from up close, they would have noticed. Here is a picture of the massif, probably from the NW, I would think. Cassino picture To argue that this is all with the benefit of hindsight and therefore does the Allied commanders an injustice would also be incorrect. Juin and Dimoline had the right answers in February 1944, if not before. They were not listened to. All that still does not make it all the Allies fault though. The Germans incorporated the Abbey into their defensive line. To then complain later when it gets destroyed is extremely rich. Just marking an exclusion zone of a few hundred yards around it does not change the fundamental point that the Germans loaded the gun and aimed it at the Abbey. The Allies just pulled the trigger.

Sorry OBJ, I don't understand. I thought PVK'c post confirmed the BFC OOB, if that is what you posted in your first post. I am away from the game at the moment, so I can not check. Also, which formation types are you looking at? Heer or Waffen-SS?

Ah. That might be the explanation. This particular CRT has seen main-frames rule, I believe.

Mark was at the pre-preview at my place, arranged to make the one next week a bit easier for numbers, and because he and Jim could not make it next week. The basic setting was a wind-still, very hot day. The vehicles were spaced apart, abreast on one side, and space apart and one behind the other on the other side. Dust clouds did merge, but only in the wake of the vehicles, so you could clearly see that there were four vehicles moving at one point. With windy conditions, that changes. Deception tactics can be used to alleviate this problem. Place tanks close to each other. Have carriers or trucks go like mad somewhere out of LOS. Advance in line. All sorts of stuff that adds another level of complexity to the game.

Well that is good news. I have a CRT screen on the Mac, so I did not think it would be that. Are you connecting through VGA or DVI?

Just started with my new machine, and to see how it runs installed the CMBB demo. ATI Radeon 9000 & a very crappy old monitor, until I get the LCD display later this week. I find it is very dark - ALT-Tab out and back in seems to lighten it a bit. Giving high contrast, and upping Gamma values also helped with brightness, but makes the game look like a throwback to the multi-coloured world of CMBO before modding . I looked at a comparison between a Soviet squad in Mac and PC, and while I think the PC does show things somewhat crisper (and shows some things I never saw on the downsampled Mac), it is too rich in colour, and quite dark. I'll post some screenshots later, when I have figured out how to do it on the PC. What do people find are the ideal settings for all this wonderful stuff you can do in the ATR settings menu on the PC? I read through the troubleshooting page, and disabling the Z-mask helped with game performance.

What he said.

Boy if he could smell the British just by sniffing the map he must have had a really good sense of smell. </font>

Wave his arms frantically, while shouting 'curse you Albert, for not bringing the fuel through to get me to Alexandria.' You could see him shouting at his radio operator 'Get me Berlin, I need to talk to the Führer about my plans for the invasion of the Hindukush.' The possibilities are endless. The mind boggles.

Carlsberg does not qualify as 'beer', strictly speaking. 'Virgin pee' would be more appropriate. Not even good enough for Scandinavians.

Thanks a lot mate!

A basic rule is that the more complex the scenario/op, the more detailed the briefing needs to be in the intel and mission section. Briefing content is something I am still working on. While I have never thought of balancing out intel against forces, I think that is quite an interesting idea, and could work quite well. Maybe difficult to pull off reliably though, since scenarios are played by players of varying ability, and this basically adds another level of complexity. One final point - on the CM scale, you need to be very detailed with the reinforcements. Just saying 'armoured reinforcements will arrive within the next 30 mins' does not cut it, IMO. On this level, commanders would normally know who they can expect, with what, and a more detailed timeframe (unless again this is all part of a complex plan, in which case it ought to be spelled out clearly in the briefing).

I am sure the Soviets would be surprised to hear that, even if you were using the Gregorian calendar. The first major defeat was at Yelnia, when the Wehrmacht retreated from the salient on 6th September 1941. Before the 7th December you would also need to count the Timoshenko counter-offensive which by then had pushed back German forces from Rostov (start late November), and probably the Moscow counter-offensive, which pushed them back from, you guessed it, Moscow. Of course either of these three earlier defeats involves significantly bigger forces than the Afrikakorps, so it is easy to overlook them. Shame you could not make it yesterday Lou. Was a good day out.

Yep. I still haven't taken the plunge and bought a PC, which means that I'm still running OS 9.2 as my preferred system. It's okay, but I can't stay with it indefinitely. My goal is to hold out until the new CM engine is ready (which I'm hoping will run under OSX). </font>

He sounds Australian, which means you need to point out 'wash' in a dictionary to him. Actually, read out and show him how to do it, more like it.

Yes that's right. For some reason (I blame it on Berli's evil machinations), the other thread has vanished. Or maybe it was never here. Sneak Peak at my place, 1st November. I hope to have it going on two computers then, one PC, one Apple. If I figure out how to, I hook them up. So far a number of people have indicated an interest so not many places left. I would ask anyone who has previously said they want to come to reconfirm though. Food I will look after, drinks have to be bought and brought by those attending.

:eek: :eek: :eek: </font>

Yes, but now that we have Happy chashm, all is fine and dandy. Seanachai, we have noted that you are trying to usurp our rightful place. You are on our list. May our prophets proclaim it throughout the realm! Right then, clearly the Apocalypso is developing a bit of verve. Posters to this board will be able to derive the same sort of satisfaction from their 'I was there when the four horsemen rode' experience as the orchestra on the Titanic did from playing until they took a dip. The signs are multiplying, and in the same way as the owl was a powerful portent of what was to come to Herod on his acclamation as a God, so the appearance of Reincarbonated taken with Seanachai's attempt to put himself above us will in future times be seen as a defining moment. Or sumfink. [ October 24, 2003, 07:56 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Paul Adair (Col. ret. dec.)

Another reason for the delay was that the airfield had not sufficiently dried up to be useable in early May, or sumfink (Yeah, I could drag out my copy of 'The Attack on the Soviet-Union' by the MGFA, but I have to go downstairs to watch spin City). I think it is generally accepted now that the Balkans did not play the big role that many once thought they did.

What do you mean 'disappointed'? You are one of the gang of bleeding four who control this forum, so how about you pull your effing finger out and do something about it? Christ on a crutch - I knew I could not rely on Emrys to get it right, but now you blow it as well. Crikey - do berli and I have to do effing everything ourselves. Edited to avoid repetition, deviation or hesitation. Bah. [ October 23, 2003, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Ah, but what you don't know Happy chashm, is that Reincarbonated is completely right. He sees right through us. Basically, me, Kip, JonS, flamingknives, and David Glantz are best mates. We go down the pub together, and then after a few pints, we play 'tease the colonel'. I usually start, being mean-spirited. We just tell him how great it would be to write a book about some imaginary Soviet stuff, like, uh... the L'vov Sandomierz operation (it helps if you use unpronouncable names, because nobody will bother to check whether the place exists on a map). so after a while we get him to do it. Kip, JonS and I just dictate some outrageous stuff to him, like, uh... the Soviets won, and stuff that nobody would believe in their right minds, but they may if the good Colonel writes it. Then he gets the book published, and we quote stuff from it at length. So that makes us look like experts, and everyone is really awed by our knowledge. Then when we get back to the pub we high-five each other and drink more. I mean, we even managed to make JonS look like someone who knows what he is talking about. Quite a bit of work in that, actually. Works every time. Just don't tell anyone. Especially not Mike Dorosh or Emrys, we haven't let them in on it yet. Mum's the word! So far I have been able to keep Kip from going on in public about how great the SU76 and the KV1s are. That would, like, totally blow our cover.

we can call you 'Happy chashm' if that would make you, well, happy. Does anyone know if Sandler is Canadian? He must be.

I am a bit surprised to hear that. which tank trials do you mean? The ones in the Soviet Union in the 20s?

How's that for irony? </font>