Andreas

Yes, and when doing so you were ignoring my prior post outlining how history shows that such a force does not need to be tactically robust, which showed that your idea is flat out wrong. Vorausabteilungen during the battle of Uman were not in a position to threaten or harm the enemy, if looked at in a purely numerical and combat power way. They lacked armour (except for some Stugs with short 75s), they lacked numbers. Yet still they did have a moral and a positional effect. Once you have addressed this argument convincingly, you may claim that you have already answered me. Until then... You ignoring the point leads me to believe you: a) did not read it or did not care about it even though you asked for it because b1) it contradicts your idea, and therefore is bad b2) it is wrong, but you don't feel like explaining why b3) you did not get it Which is it? All the best Andreas [ March 19, 2007, 06:01 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Lots of casualties on March 15. http://icasualties.org/oif/ It is a weird series of pictures - I presume the guy blew himself up with the vehicle? Is it certain that is not a series of photoshopped pictures? If it is real, what happened to overwatch and security? All the best Andreas

Pot, meet kettle. Seriously Adam, you are not in a position to make such a statement, following your happy mixing of all levels of warfare before. All the best Andreas

A Prussian educated instructor NCO would need recussitation seeing this. Tidy? Ha! All the best Andreas

Maybe, but it just doesn't look tidy!!!!! All the best Andreas

Congrats on becoming an uncle akd. All the best Andreas

Reference to use of fragmentation ammunition in Barbarossa is made here: http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1983/mar-apr/ratley.htm I believe it was introduced in 1941. All the best Andreas

Reference to use of fragmentation ammunition in Barbarossa is made here: http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1983/mar-apr/ratley.htm I believe it was introduced in 1941. All the best Andreas

Thanks for taking the time to post the bibliography. To be honest, I would not rely too much on Mattson's book if that is indeed it. All secondary sources, who may have their info from lord knows where themselves. In the case of Lucas (which is in my library, unread), it is at least primary sources, but not very hard ones (predominantly personal memories and unit histories as well as articles in veteran's journals). But still, Mattson's bibliography does not sound particularly convincing. All the best Andreas

Thanks for taking the time to post the bibliography. To be honest, I would not rely too much on Mattson's book if that is indeed it. All secondary sources, who may have their info from lord knows where themselves. In the case of Lucas (which is in my library, unread), it is at least primary sources, but not very hard ones (predominantly personal memories and unit histories as well as articles in veteran's journals). But still, Mattson's bibliography does not sound particularly convincing. All the best Andreas

Meanwhile, back in Kronstadt Marat, after having been sunk and killed by Rudel on 23 September, was back in action on 8 October, according to the history of my grandfather's unit. I am going to give him a call and see if he remembers something on this. All the best Andreas

Meanwhile, back in Kronstadt Marat, after having been sunk and killed by Rudel on 23 September, was back in action on 8 October, according to the history of my grandfather's unit. I am going to give him a call and see if he remembers something on this. All the best Andreas

I fully agree. You lost me there. Yes, but I doubt they were responsible for that many kills. They did not enjoy air superiority across the whole front. Again, you lost me. Operation Kutuzov would have been well within range of any German plane stationed on the northern shoulder of the Kursk salient. All the best Andreas

I fully agree. You lost me there. Yes, but I doubt they were responsible for that many kills. They did not enjoy air superiority across the whole front. Again, you lost me. Operation Kutuzov would have been well within range of any German plane stationed on the northern shoulder of the Kursk salient. All the best Andreas

To clarify, those are losses to all causes. I don't think you can do this and expect to arrive at a sensible result. Tank losses will presumably increase/decrease according to the rythm of operations to some extent. For example, at the moment you take the extraordinarily high losses of Goodwood and the probably higher than average losses of the first phase of St. Lô and apply them as an average loss across the first seven days of July, when e.g. the attack on St. Lô only started on the 7th. That will most likely overstate the average losses you calculated for both the UK and the US. So, on the basis of your simple averaging, I would not agree that the German kill claims are inflated by 2%. The underlying math is far too dodgy. I would be perfectly happy to agree that the overclaiming for this period is less than I expected, and have in fact done so: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=81359 But that's where it stops. To argue that it is only 2% based on average numbers is not acceptable to me. I agree that a basic figure everybody can agree on would be helpful, but yours is not it, as far as the overclaiming margin goes. All the best Andreas

as i wrote, i base it on the information presented in this thread. Central Front in 1943 credits 6.3% of its tank losses to aircraft. 1st Ukrainian Front in 1945 credits 8.2% of its destroyed T-34/85s to aircraft. thus the rough 7% figure. 7% of the total irrevocable Soviet tank losses would be roughly 7000 tanks.</font>

as i wrote, i base it on the information presented in this thread. Central Front in 1943 credits 6.3% of its tank losses to aircraft. 1st Ukrainian Front in 1945 credits 8.2% of its destroyed T-34/85s to aircraft. thus the rough 7% figure. 7% of the total irrevocable Soviet tank losses would be roughly 7000 tanks.</font>

SO - believe what you want. If you want to believe I am wrong, be my guest. Why you get so hung up about, well I think I can come up with some reasons why, none of which would be fit to write here. If you want to believe that the Germans did not notice that they were being fired at by Marat, hey presto. If you want to believe in Santa, you are welcome to that too. It's a free world, I can't stop you from believing in stupid things or being an idiot, and neither do I want to. All the best Andreas

SO - believe what you want. If you want to believe I am wrong, be my guest. Why you get so hung up about, well I think I can come up with some reasons why, none of which would be fit to write here. If you want to believe that the Germans did not notice that they were being fired at by Marat, hey presto. If you want to believe in Santa, you are welcome to that too. It's a free world, I can't stop you from believing in stupid things or being an idiot, and neither do I want to. All the best Andreas

Before I start any discussion based on the number 7,000, I have to ask, you are extrapolating on which basis, exactly? And please remind me where I said the Germans overclaimed by 10x. In your own time. All the best Andreas

Before I start any discussion based on the number 7,000, I have to ask, you are extrapolating on which basis, exactly? And please remind me where I said the Germans overclaimed by 10x. In your own time. All the best Andreas

Uh, yeah. Whatever. Note that the caption says 'dying', not sinking, which means your attempt at semantics are a bit pointless. Unless you want to argue that Marat then became a Zombie. Full points for trying though. Of course, I would be interested to read the German original. All the best Andreas

Uh, yeah. Whatever. Note that the caption says 'dying', not sinking, which means your attempt at semantics are a bit pointless. Unless you want to argue that Marat then became a Zombie. Full points for trying though. Of course, I would be interested to read the German original. All the best Andreas

What's his source for that? All the best Andreas

What's his source for that? All the best Andreas