Andreas

Tom, judging from Tout's 'Tank!' and his later 'A fine night for tanks', both about this battle (it was not just Canuckians and Polish, you know, the Pommies got to play to), there was little to no organised fighting in the dark. The proverbial hit the fan when dawn came, and the Germans realised that they had an armoured brigade with infantry in APCs about 5 miles inside their defensive belt. The aim of Totalize Phase 1 (the night attack) was to put the forces in a position where in the morning they could dig out the German strongpoints in places like Gaumesnil. Which they duly did. So the closest would be Helge's (Desertfox) 'Cintheaux Totalize, and Franko's battle (the name of which I can not remember). Lt-Col. Worthington managed to get his men (and himself) killed because he was unable to read a map during the day as well.

Who's grass are you using Martin?

Are you mocking me ???? -tom w</font>

Chambois and The Mace are not actually part of TOTALIZE. They happened 10-12 days later, and another operation (TRACTABLE) happened in between. TOTALIZE was sinply the operation to finally break through the German defense in depth on the Caen TO Falaise road, after earlier attempts had ended in failure (e.g. GOODWOOD). TOTALIZE, although not the full success it was supposed to be, certainly was not a failure either. It managed to unhinge the German defense, and showed what would happen, once the armoured force of SS Panzerkorps that had opposed the Commonwealth until then was replaced by infantry divisions. Particular desasters on the Allied side were Worthington Force on Hill 140, and the short bombing that hit 1st Polish Armoured. As always, no clues about actual happenings during the battles should be taken from Panzermeyer without corroborating evidence from elsewhere BTW - the 34 Fireflies that Tout talks about (quoted earlier) must be the full compliment of his armoured Brigade. I think 'range' has a fairly loose meaning in his sentence, as in 'if Ekins had not gotten Wittmann, somebody else would have.' BTW2 - just imagine how well Ekins would have done with superior German optics and the 88 wondergun...

Nope, will try again from home in an hour or two.

Marcel, for some reason your site does not work for me anymore. Work machine, Windogs 2k. The pictures for the links do not load, and the links don't work in the browser, although I can see them in the 'properties' window. The cartoon loads fine though. Any ideas?

{John D. Fiddlespoon, of Fiddlespoon, Grognard & Claptrap (solicitors and commisioners for oaths) rises, and interjects:} On a point of information, that's "Ekins", M'lud. {Lord Justice Cocklecarrot (for it is he) peers over half-moon glasses and mutters:} I'm grateful to counsel. Proceed. All the best, John.</font>

Ed, no offense intended. Is your paper available online? I see you are in the UK. If you feel like arguing this one over a drink, come to The George in London 1830 this Friday.

Mike, I think that settles your question. No, we have not resolved the issue.

Thanks John, I always mix them up. Both are fine books by the way. I was fortunate that Warwick University library stocked quite a bit on that (beats reading for the PhD anyday). Are you up for drinks?

Depending on the distance and angle, a Puma can take out a Sherman. I guess yours made a wrong call.

Just read through this - memories of running HMGs come back. Since I saw my grandparents on the weekend (they both do fine, thank you very much), I think it is about time to bring out my grandmother's take on this sort of discussion again: 'The way you call into the forest, it'll call back on you'. Regarding the basic complaint - play scenarios. Scenario designers (well, the good ones anyway) take care to design in a lot of the operational complexity. Regarding CMMC - interestingly, there is still a boundary issue upwards, i.e. to Army Command. This is simulated by a GM, but still it can be a problem. Regarding CMBB being just CMBO with an added Balalaika. Obviously Nac4 knows something I don't. I am very interested to hear which CMBB he is playing, and where he got his knowledge from. Could he be a Beta tester, one wonders... Well, not really.

Wasn't it 'Ekins'? 2nd Northants Yeo, Ken Tout's regiment.

Unsurprisingly, CMBO runs like a breeze on Apple Powerbooks and iBooks. No overheating. So the answer is, if you want to get a laptop, get a decent one, get an Apple.

While we are at it, Michael, did you know your GD for CM site features in the bibliography of 'Spearhead 2 - Grossdeutschland' by M.Sharpe and B.l.Davies, publisher Ian Allan? Also, I got a picture out of my grandfather's collection that will bring out the uniform grog in you in a bad way Now if only I can get myself a new scanner...

'Go to it', the history of 6th Airborne (cracking book, by the way) has a series of pictures of a patrol of paras, and they wear winter camo (could be home-made, bed linen or somefink). If my scanner worked...

You are too kind, sir. Very nice map - what snow are you using? Really, I never installed Tom's snow, so I never saw the map like this. Thanks for that. Also, be advised that the map is fictitious, but the forces are as close as I could get from sources. All the best, Andreas

Some Saturday afternoon, maybe?

Well, if a book is discounted from the day it appears for sale, pretty much anywhere, I think it says something about it. How many discounted Glantz books are there? From what Justin told me, it sounds to me as if his publisher told Beevor to knock it out quickly, while 'history is the new gardening', still. As for groggishness, if you look for armour penetrations or operational analysis, Ryan does not do that either, but contrary to Beevor, he did the 1st hand research (he e.g. went to interview Koniev and others, together with Erickson), while Beevor just rehashes all this. FWIW - I certainly enjoyed Beevor's Spanish cicl war treatise, but well written it was not.

The feedback I had from one grog says: 'Get Cornelius Ryan's 'The last battle''

The George is the regular venue for the 'London unhinged CMBx nutters meet' which is organised by yours truly and features regular appearances by John Salt, Kip and me, and less regular ones by Justin, and various others. Even Hakko Ichiu is reported to have been there. All welcome. Email me if you are interested in the next one. Soddball - still waiting for you to make an appearance. Don't force me to come out to Tunbridge. [ May 22, 2002, 11:58 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Trucks? Pillepalle! This builds character.

And there I was, thinking it was all about having a pint at The George... Which I'll be happy to organise when you are over here. Reading this thread I decided to do a cycling tour of Normandy end of June. Damn, now I have to get fit.

Yep.

And if you really want to know how ridiculous the vehicle looked IRL, go to Bovington.