Andreas

Were these guys drunk or stoned when they came up with the names? Because German it ain't...

Another thing (although maybe not modelled in CM) is that many HMG teams (and I have seen pictures of heavy mortar teams equipped like that as well) had stereoscopic rangefinders (the small version, like the one used on the 20mm AA gun), which would of course help to deliver fire very accurately, even though the integrated optics on the tripod may not be that great. Having had some minimal training on the MG3 lMG config, I can confirm what Parabellum said. Your training NCO got really arsy if you could not keep it down to 3-round bursts. Not that I ever did hit anything on the range anyway.

Flowerlike blossom my KV shines red tonight 88 struck hard

The hit thread is back ray of sun piercing the night true beauty lives there

Bah, G&T is for people who populate the general forum. Just upholding a tradition, but what do you Swedes now about that...

Right, the haiku thread has reappeared, and now for the best thread ever (no, I can not be bothered to dig out the link, I am hoping someone even sadder than me will do that). So, with the impending release of CMBB to the Great Unwashed™, err sorry, the general public, what sort of alcoholic beverage do people look forward to partake in while dismembering the heroic defenders of the working class, or chopping up the steel-chinned defenders of the Fatherland? If I was more of a man, Vodka would be the tipple of my choice, instead I settle for a nice glass of Bushmills Malt, courtesy of John, preceded by a bottle of Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout from Tadcaster. Alternatively, a bottle of Skullsplitter Strong Ale for those Stalingrad scenarios.

The old colours are a true blast from days gone by I wish I was blind

John, thanks a lot for the Marine Gazette article on Stalingrad. Made me think about doing a scenario (Byte Battle™) based on that kind of tactic immediately.

Would you not use the 75L24 equipped HTs for that?

The first TO&E that I can find that relegates it to pure recce is one of 7.PD dated 17th jan 1943, which gives each Abt. of PR 25 7 Pz II in the recce platoon. All companies are now either purely Pz III or Pz IV. I have posted the June 1941 TO&E that puts them into the line units, and I would argue that for the whole of 1941, it has to be seen as an MBT, although with a specialised role within the company. I am no TO&E grog, so I would be interested to see a 1942 TO&E.

Basty (can I call you Basty?) - I think another reason for the failure to break in more deeply in the north could also be what I said in an earlier post - Zhukov's statement that it was an intel failure on the part of the Soviets to anticipate the main thrust from the north, and consequently assigning more defensive assets up there. I have not studied Kursk in any depth, so I do not know whether that statement is just post-war/memoir politics, but it sounded fairly reasonable.

Not quite - in June 1941 13.PD was equipped as follows: Pz-Rgt.4 Staff coy 3 command tanks Pz III Rgt recce platoon - 5 Pz II I Abt. Staff coy 2 command tanks Pz III Abt recce platoon @ 5 Pz II 2 light tank coys Coy HQ 2 Pz III 1 platoon @ 5 Pz II 3 platoons @ 5 Pz III 1 medium coy Coy HQ @ 2 Pz IV 1 Platoon @ 5 Pz IV 3 Platoons @ 4 Pz IV II. Abt same as I. Abt. Total Pz II 35 (15 recce, 20 line) Pz III 68 Pz IV 38 Bef Pz III 9 hope I got my numbers right. The divisional Panzer AA 13 had ACs, not Panzer II.

A good example of the difficulty in making general statements is AG North in 1941. Three PDs were present (1. 6. 8.) I do not know the tank equipment of 8.PD, but 1. was a fairly 'normal' PD, with largely PIII and PIV. 6. however was the only PD that was left with Pz 35t in 1941. 6. PD Pz II - 70 Pz 35t - 105 Pz IV - 42 1. PD Pz II - 45 Pz III - 75 Pz IV - 28 Assuming 8. PD was equally equipped as 1. PD, we have the following tank strengths in AG North: Pz II - 160 Pz III - 150 Pz IV - 101 Skoda 35t - 105 Don't know the number of Stugs. Trying to develop a hard & fast rule for QBs is fine, but it will not be better than rarity, and will deprive you of the interesting sight and tactical problems posed by the more unusual crap fielded in 1941, for example.

Michael, I thought your number of 100 naval ships lost was too high, but that may have been a typo on your part. Are you sure that the named ships you mention are naval, or are they merchants? Haupt is a fairly decent source I feel. He was an officer in AG North and wrote the book in the 1960s, but seems to have done his homework. Which is more than can be said about the translators and editors at Schiffer.

Der Kessel, link in my sig, in the Byte Battles™ section.

Hmm, Haupt has the following figures (annd did I mention that I hate Schiffer translations?) 1st Convoy (Adm. Tribuc on Kirov in command) Kirov 18 Destroyers 6 torpedo boats 28 Mine Sweepers 6 submarines one tanker 25 merchant ships 2nd Convoy (Konteradmiral Panteleev on DD Minsk in command) Destroyer Minsk 6 Mine Sweepers 12 Escorts 60 steamers The desaster was exacerbated by two incidents. First the Germans had laid the blockade between August 8th and 24th, when DD Engels went down as its first victim. Despite this, the Soviet command was unaware of it. to make matters worse, it seems Tribuc's convoys did not approach it in formation, because they had been scattered by a raid executed by 7 Ju-88 of 2. KG77.

Michael, the number for naval ships seems far too high. Haupt names the navy ships lost when they ran into the Juminda blockade as: Destroyers Sverdlov Artem Volodarskiy Skoriy Kalinin Escor ship 'Sneg' Submarines S-5 SC-301 SC-324 Mine sweeper T-202 Training ship 'Zeleznorodosnik' plus 35 merchant ships. The cruiser 'Kirov' was damaged but limped home. he quotes a passage from another book saying that Soviet ships engaged ground targets during the assault on Reval. During the initial attacks on Narva, August 8th-15th Soviet destroyers also engaged ground targets, until the German 502nd Coastal Battery brought 'some relief'.

Does anyone know how spotting was done? My impression is that they were just integrated in the normal artillery net, and did not have special spotters, unlike the RN in Normandy.

Prinz Eugen also supported the attempt by GD to re-open the connection between AG North and AG Centre in 1944. Apart from that, light cruisers of the KM supported the German landings on the baltic islands. Finnish gun monitors were used as well I think. ISTR surface vessels were also used to support the 1941 advance along the baltic coast. The Baltic fleet used moored ships in Leningrad, and supported the re-conquest of the Baltic islands with surface ships.

How many of these 1,350 made it to the front though? It seems to have taken at least a few weeks to retrain crews, and this was done in Germany. So you find battalions in conversion until about mid-1944. E.g. 13.PD had no Panther battalion in August 1944, I think SS Wiking also got theirs quite late. Does anyone have the info on how long the conversion took, and when the various battalions converted?

The Germans also had something called 'schwere Panzerbüchse 41', with a tapered barrel. The panzerfaust site sees that more as a light AT gun. TO&E strength seems to have been 3 to a battalion of Panzergrenadiers in January 1943.

The place is called 'Oppenheim' (today Nierstein-Oppenheim, at least that is the station name).

Quite good battle write ups here

Then why don't you? If your posts are all going to be along the line of: 'The Soviets were crap, the Germans were great, why - because I say so', you can spare the time to post them. Some people here are trying to get some serious discussion going, and just throwing out stuff like you do that is: 1) not backed up by anything 2) plain wrong (which would not be so bad if you at least tried to argue the case) is both pointless and annoying. Either put up some evidence, or leave those who are prepared to talk about the topic like adults to get on with it, watch and learn.

That was me. I run it at home on a G4/400 16MB ATI Rage 128, 384MB, and at both previews it ran fine on 8MB ATI cards, in one case on an oldish iMac.