Andreas

The original English version uses 'Unt' as well, it has nothing to do with censorship. A bit of history - Runes are not particularly German, they are Scandinavian/Celtic.

[think]It would not have made a dent.[/think]

Awww, come on. For a local counter-offensive by the Germans with their railroad network and all in March 1945? Give them some credit. You are of course right, it was the equivalent of weeing in the wind. Of course, a Soviet general would have looked over it and asked what he was supposed to send in as exploitation force, but that is a different story... Considering what the Germans had lost, and lost again, and lost again in AFVs by this stage of the war, I find that figure quite remarkable.

This might help. Nachrichtenabteilung is the divisional Signal Battalion. They would most likely be trucked, with some HTs and ACs in the Aufklärungsabteilung (maybe). I don't think all motorised divisions were on the two regiment organisation in 1941. Maybe wrong though. I am quite certain they would have 3 BN regiments, however. Data I have for 13. ID (mot) in 1939 gives it 30 armoured vehicles, 10 of these probably cannon armed ACs, none with the infantry. It has three regiments with 3 BNs each. It has 1,687 trucks, 765 of these with the infantry. Interestingly, it also has a battery of 10cm Kanone 18 in the heavy detachment. Only motorised and armoured division held this gun as standard issue in the early war years, but there is some debate about how many were present in the motorised divisions. 13. ID (mot) became 13. PD in early 1941, so 1939 is the last detailed TO&E I have for the ID history of it. Hope that helps.

Funny, I think that's what happened in Real Life™, too Gamey bastards, the Soviets... Silvio, I would have thought that at that stage most of the tanks would be Tiger II, not Tiger I? Ripley gives the following strength on the move to Hungary: I SS Panzerkorps 1. SS PD, 12. SS PD, 501. sSS PzAbt and 560. Schwere Panzerjägerabteilung 36 Tiger II 67 Panzer IV 85 Panther 51 Jagdpanzer IV 16 Jagdpanther 8 AA tanks >150 HTs II SS Panzerkorps 2. SS PD and 9. SS PD 65 Panther 45 Panzer IV 53 Stug III Artillery included a heavy regiment with 21cm guns and a rocket brigade. Quite the striking force, I was not aware that they could concentrate that much 'stuff' so late in the war. All figures from Ripley, 'Steel Storm', which is a bit naff-looking, but surprisingly well-written book.

Should be 6. SS Panzer Armee, operation 'Spring Awakening' (Frühlingserwachen), aimed to relieve the encircled Budapest. It failed (what a surprise...) 6th to 15th March 45, around Lake Balaton in Hungary. That the one?

Schrulli, I am getting worried. Did someone spike your tea again???

Just done some digging around (long live Google, so take all this with a grain of salt). There were also AGs E & F, from the Balkans, who after their retreat through Yugoslavia defended Budapest (although E may have gotten stuck in Yugoslavia at least in part). Also AG North Ukraine and Centre were combined in June 1944 (by which time, to all intents and purposes AG Center was pretty much history). Schoerner was the last GOC of AG Centre and it dissolved in Czechoslovakia. AG South made through Austria to the lines of the US Army. I don't think any of these went through formal surrender procedures, but am not sure.

I recommend the tutorial.

Fieldmarshall, you are wrong on that. AG Kurland was always an independent AG (the highest field formation in the Wehrmacht). The old AG Centre (or parts of that) became AG North in the last weeks of the war, when it fought in East Prussia and Pommerania. The remainder (and mass) of it became AG Vistula, which kept that name to the end I believe, even when they were fighting on the Oder. Regarding AG South Ukraine, there was not a lot left of it that could be rescued from the Maelstrom of Romania in August/September 1944. Less a question of merger I would have thought.

Mike, good digging. My money would be on the 10cm Kanone because of the seemingly longer thick part of the barrel at the rear. Also, the 15cm sFH18 had the barrel retracted for transport. But it is probably not possible to tell. I'll post comparison pictures here in the next few days. Regarding the prime mover, confusingly the 'mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 8' was called 'Sdkfz.7', and it seems to have been the standard prime mover for both 15cm sFH18 and 10cm Kanone 18.

Nice try mate, but 'no', AFAIK.

Canadians don't get units with guns in the game though, and they have a special 'Native American Logger' unit. It is also bilingual (French/Inuit).

Err, are you sure about that payload? All I could find indicates it was more like 20,000 kg for the glider and a lot less for the 323 variety. Also, unless the 323 had a smaller door, I think you would struggle fitting a Mark IV in through it. Then again, I am no expert on this stuff, so feel free to ignore me. Michael, thanks for that. Difficult to make out if one can not see the whole barrel. Ahh, the 10cm Kanone 18, vanquisher of the KV at Rossienie, and stuff...

Phancucchin, JonS has already answered it all. Just to confirm - the Erika Aisle was a weird leftover from a failed Soviet breakthrough, followed by a successful attempt to cut off the broken through Soviets followed by a successful move to re-open a supply line by the Soviets. All in the space of three-four months. It certainly was not the place to be if you valued life and limb. The counter-battery observers just used the position to get good readings on the position of the Soviet guns inside and outside the pocket. In this case, they may have needed two lines to register sound because of the narrowness of the position. Normally they would have advanced warning posts, but the Erika Aisle was apparently not deep enough for that. I will post a picture of observation positions in the Yelnia salient here in the next few days. Sound and flash ranging could be carried out independently or together. Both sound and flash ranging batteries (company size) belonged to the same parent unit, a Beobachtungsabteilung (Battalion size). BTW - does anyone know if the Soviets used sound ranging? One of the unit histories in Froben suspects they only did flash ranging.

Grisha, he is one of my mates and is over here regularly, to chat about how crap the Wehrmacht was. Seriously though, good job on the loss figures, very low considering what the offensive achieved, and I am reasonably convinced it was not a 1:4 exchange either Still have to find the time to read that leavenworth paper That kife-saving story I am not aware of, can you elaborate?

Grisha, he is one of my mates and is over here regularly, to chat about how crap the Wehrmacht was. Seriously though, good job on the loss figures, very low considering what the offensive achieved, and I am reasonably convinced it was not a 1:4 exchange either Still have to find the time to read that leavenworth paper That kife-saving story I am not aware of, can you elaborate?

Heh, don't knock the Matilda, there's nothing wrong with it. You could have a nice cuppa and some cake with the TC, but be careful with the 2-pdr though, it could poke your eye out. Of course, if you meet a Tiger, it is all going to end in tears, although it would have gone pear-shaped already when those Mark IV Specials came trundling along. Caught between the divvill and the deep blue sea, you would be, then. Of course, there is no way on earth you could get a leg over with lovely-dovely Tatjana from the sniper school when that distinctly unpleasant fellow Dmitriy comes along with his spanking new T34, but there you are. Having said all that, it is still a beaut of a tank. So still, mustn't grumble. Just keep a stiff upper lip, and chin up, eh wot, old chap. More tea?

Illo, that is not an 88, looks like either a 10cm Kanone 18 or a 15cm sFH18 (I think these used the same carriage, so they are difficult to tell apart). Hmm, checking my sources it does not get any easier, but I am inclined to go for the 10cm Kanone 18. Any arty grog out there who can answer for certain? [ July 29, 2002, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

A full platoon of 88s (presumably w/o the prime movers), 130 fully armed infantrymen, 60 wounded, or 52 250l barrels of fuel is the data I have in another book on the motorised variant, the Me 323/D-2. I doubt it could take a Panzer IV, just from looking at the front opening. Funnily, the picture I have shows lots of horses being unloaded. Are plane-borne cavalry paratroopers modelled in CMBB? I am not allowed to tell...

Or just hold on to your current machine (since it looks as if CMBB will run fine on anything up to 2-3 years old, 4MB VRAM iBooks maybe excluded) and buy a new one when CM2 comes out. I am very happy with my G4/400 and don't feel the need for something new at the moment, or even in the next two years or so. If you are really desperate for a new machine, you can also always get an old iMac on Ebay to play CMBB on, that has the advantage of none interfering with your use of it.

That happened yesterday, and a few people attended. Nice afternoon, with a BBQ that was very capably handled by Sean from New Zealand (no surprises there). Folk in attendance were James Crowlez, Simon Elwen, Mike (Flamingknives), Richard Morgan, and Sean the Master of the BBQ. Feel free to post your comments here. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Konew, but Shukow got all the glory Konew is very magnanimous in his memoirs though, and manages to (barely) conceal the seething rage that he and Rybalko must have felt when the new line dividing 1st Byelorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts was drawn south of the city centre by Stalin. 'The telephone conversation I had with Rybalko about this was less than pleasant [unerfreulich].' He then goes on dressing it up nicely. Regarding the willingness to take casualties. According to Raus 'Panzers on the eastern front', the first encounter with snipers tied to trees was in June 1941. He professes disbelief that a soldier would do this, because there was no way to be taken POW. Interestingly, his feelings mirror those of British soldiers regarding snipers in Normandy.

Konew, but Shukow got all the glory Konew is very magnanimous in his memoirs though, and manages to (barely) conceal the seething rage that he and Rybalko must have felt when the new line dividing 1st Byelorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts was drawn south of the city centre by Stalin. 'The telephone conversation I had with Rybalko about this was less than pleasant [unerfreulich].' He then goes on dressing it up nicely. Regarding the willingness to take casualties. According to Raus 'Panzers on the eastern front', the first encounter with snipers tied to trees was in June 1941. He professes disbelief that a soldier would do this, because there was no way to be taken POW. Interestingly, his feelings mirror those of British soldiers regarding snipers in Normandy.

And today you could have attended the 2nd London CMBB Preview in Forest Hill. Look what you could have won.