Andreas

Or you could just wait until CMBB is out - it appears this is not something that needs resolving now.

What? A bunch of overweight Ritterkreuz wearing re-enactors fought in Russia? Cor blimey, guv, who would have thought... Did their HMG teams run?

I am sure that they suggest abdication and making Sven Göran interim king until David Beckham grows up soon, if yesterday is anything to go by. My word. Yep, we are all systems go. Got the email, but due to other CM related matters did not have a lot of time responding.

See, I told you that you need not worry about the World Cup finals interfering with the Bovington trip.

There is a statement in 'The initial period of war' by a German officer that 'HEAT was not available then', when talking about the impossibility of dealing with gamey Red Army Ubertanks when all you have is either a Panzer 38t or a Panzer IV kurz during the opening battles of Barbarossa. The guy was either in 1. or 6. PD.

ISTR that another Canuckian invention was radar-directed counter-battery fire. They had an experimental unit in France post break-out from Normandy. Now if I could only remember where I read that... 'Guns of war'?

Tomb, are you going for the Tankfest?

Maus?[/QB]

Original Blitzkrieg doctrine (what was the name of the British chap who thought ahead on this)? Although one could argue that was just a way to get over the risk of a new trench war. But it was developed to combine the new weaponry in the arsenals, in the absence of a direct threat on the battlefield. The Soviet experiments with airborne forces in the 1930s, and the theory of deep operations (or whatever it was called) would also fall into this category.

Techie, maybe. But neither of these were US inventions. The Germans used Tungsten a long time before the US, so did the Red Army. The Germans introduced the closely controlled fighter-bomber in their Blitzkrieg campaigns (complete with FACs in HTs), and they introduced SP tank destroyers as stop-gap solutions in the East (Marder, Panzerjaeger I) in 1942 or thereabouts.

Regarding what Battlefront should be offering here. I would welcome easy access to stuff that I can not get through e.g. Amazon. So, that would be publications in English or German about the war in the Soviet Union, e.g. memoirs by Soviet officers. Also, Battlefront.com could try and make a deal with Colonel Glantz to make his unpublished studies (e.g. Vistula-Oder operation) available. I'd buy it.

Herr Oberst - the all-time best unit history for the Commonwealth is 'The South Albertas' by Donald Graves. Worth every penny. Another one I enjoyed although it is very different, is 'The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry 1939-1945' by Major Godfrey, MC. There are a lot of German divisional histories in German. Check for them on Ebay. As long as they are not fancy (i.e. Panzer or SS unit histories), they go cheap too. I just bought an original 1941 training booklet 'Tactics for the reinforced infantry battalion' for Euro 5.50. An interesting one I really had to pay for is Esteban-Infantes 'Die Blaue Division'. The guy is a right old fascist (he was the second GOC of the Blue Division), and writes crap like 'our brave soldiers fought to the last with a smile on their faces.' Makes you retch, but if you get past that, it is a very interesting historical document, and contains a lot of information on the actions. In the 1950s, an outfit called Scharnhorst Buchkameradschaft or somefink published a series of vignettes dealing with specific combat actions. I now own (through Ebay.de) 'Der Kampf um die baltischen inseln 1917-1945' and 'Gebirgsjaeger zwischen Don und Dnjepr', an analysis of fighting of XXIVth (? - whatever, some Roman numeral) Gebirgsjaegerkorps in the autumn/winter campaign 1941/42. Excellent maps, in both of them. The books were often found in Bundeswehr barracks libraries it seems.

Could it be here? Tut tut, member number 244, and does not know how to use Google

Delaforce in 'The Black Bull' has some info, but as always with him, it has to be consumed with care. I see what I can dig up on the weekend. You should definitely make them 'fanatical', I think.

If someone is taken in by the argument 'If you think there is a meaningful difference between a shot every 3 seconds and a shot every 2 1/2 seconds, then you are probably smoking something.': I just went through the very simple math because I am bored. Assuming a net explosive/shrapnel load of 6.45kg (total weight of shell 9kg, propulsion load 2.55kg, no figure for actual explosive load given) for the 8,8cm Sprenggranate: Lower end of ROF: Flak 18 and 36 deliver 97kg on target in a minute Flak 41 delivers 142kg (~47%+) Higher end of ROF Flak 18 and 36 deliver 129kg on target in a minute Flak 41 delivers 161kg on target (~25%+) This matters when fighting infantry, or acting as artillery, or fighting planes. It does not matter when fighting tanks. Neither does Jason's experience as a howitzer gunner.

Thank you for living up to your sig Jason. I believe there is a meaningful difference - why would they have increased ROF otherwise? Answers on a postcard. Does this meaningful difference come in at ground-level? Well, probably not. Does it matter for AA use? Don't know, but if your gun is not radar controlled, the more HE you can put in the air in a given time, the greater your chances of taking out that pesky Lancaster. What was the designation of the 8,8cm gun? Oh that's right - 'Flak'. Having said all that, I am really bad at comparing apples to oranges, so I leave it up to you to draw definitve conclusions. Now coming back to the real question - what was the theoretical ROF of the 8,8cm guns in: a) Tiger I Tiger II c) Nashorn d) Elefant e) Jagdpanther Was it as high as 22-25 rounds/min? If not, was it not as high because the tank crews spent more time touching up their noses? Inquiring minds want to know.

ROF for 8,8cm Flak different varieties, quoted from Piekalkiewicz 'Die 8,8cm Flak im Erdeinsatz': 8,8cm Flak 18 and 36: 15-20 rounds/min 8,8cm Flak 37/41: 15-20 rounds/min 8,8cm Flak 41: 22-25 rounds per minute I guess they changed something about the layout of the Flak 41 that enabled the loaders to touch their noses faster. What does a Tiger manual say about ROF?

I am quite sure the FAQ has somefink to say on that. ISTR that Matt made statements about it, which it would not be my place to quote.

Sure, email is in the profile. I just have to find my CMBO CD somewhere...

If you work in Sevenoaks, you can as well come out for a drink to London. Share a cab with John or somefink. Thursday 1830 The George. An 11th Armoured Division trooper quoted in Delaforce 'The Black Bull' has very unkind things to say about the Commandos' fieldcraft, when they were inserted into a bridgehead across the Weser near Stolzenau, close to where I lived for many years. Apparently they suffered high losses from artillery, because they did not dig in immediately.

Michael, contrary to how it may appear here, I can make decent conversation about other topics, if properly incentivised John, BT has been trying the same with me, but I have Homechoice. So I just call them and tell them to sort out BT. Works wonders. Engineer showing in a day and that kind of stuff.

Got a new one. None of that Canon Japanese rice cooker sh*te anymore, I went back to German quality. Agfa e20.

John, stop making up excuses for the stupidity of your erstwhile bosses, and answer the question of whether you will be gracing us with your presence on Thursday. I found out that the cute barmaid is Italian.

They were all converted by Hauptmann Alfred Becker's lot. The top picture shows a 10,5cm lFH 16 (Sfl.) on the chassis of the Pzkpfw. Mk. VI 736 (e). This is a special vehicle, from 1940. The second picture shows one of the four armoured observation vehicles on the Mk VI 736 (e) chassis, part of 15. (Sturmgeschuetz) Batterie, 227. Artillerieregiment, 227. Infanteriedivision, created 29. Mai 1941. This battery had 12 10,5cm lFH 16 on the chassis of the Mk VI 736 (e). In October 1941 it became III. Abteilung/Artillerieregiment (mot.) 140 of the new 22. PD. The version shown in the bottom picture is a batch production version. The picture in the other post shows a 15cm sFH 13/1 on gun carriage Lorraine Tug (f) (Sdkfz.135/1), captured by the British in North Africa. These were converted in 1941/2. 30 were sent to the Afrikakorps (23 arrived). All information and the pictures from the excellent Book 'Die motorisierte und Panzerartillerie des deutschen Heeres 1939-45' by Wolfgang Fleischer and Richard Eiermann, published by Podzun-Pallas, 2001. ISBN: 3-7909-0721-9

Tut tut, edited while I wrote the first response. Übergrog award goes to you, mate. Do you by any chance own Fleischer/Eiermann's book too?