Andreas

No.

Will Bert Render Piggy? That's All He Got. Crispy TOBRUK #1.

My suggestions: Hill 86: "Höhe 86" The Vineyard (Die Vinejartz?): "Der Weinberg"

A page on Arnhem: http://www.arnhemarchive.org/ The homepage of the Sosabowski family: http://sosabowski.com

No.

Yes they did capture Matilda II at the battle of Arras, and probably also some that were left behind at Dunkerque.

Kip He may refer to the article on Der Kessel.

You speak German? Waffle = Labern, Sabbeln. I would suggest to DNFTT. He is really not worth responding to, with his googled up knowledge. Grogspam is a very good way of characterising it. BTW - don't you owe me a turn Simon? If not, should you?

Joachim True or false: If you have time to post here, you have time to send me a turn.

Wow, he even bothered to draw the wang. That's dedication right there. </font>

I overlooked it (was there a buzzing noise - oh, just jon), but you can take my second para in my previous post as endorsement.

IRL I think that, as you say, you still have to go to the place, to figure out what you can see from there. I hill-walk a lot, using 1:25k OS maps (best there are), and they are just not good enough to tell me if (and more importantly how far) I can see from spot X, until I get to it. Now one problem with the game is that this necessitates some micro-management. Another is that you have no control over individual units while they move. So if the unit crosses a crestline onto a forward slope, it would probably stop IRL, if it had a consciousness, because it is doing something stupid. In CM it goes on. I think that in a computer game, it will be very difficult to fix this.

Sorry, mishtake in translation. SmK (sic!) stands for 'Pointed Round with Core' (Spitzgeschoss mit Kern). The core is steel, with a lead cover and a steel mantlet. The MV would be lower than that of an ordinary round, but the speed loss would also be lower, leading to higher impact energy at range. Initially introduced to deal with trench shield armour in WW I, then used against first tanks. Quantities available, at least early in the war, must have been reasonable, judging from an ammo use report by 21.ID during early Barbarossa, where ~ 8% of 7.92 ammo fired off during the two days of a major engagement (in which Soviet tanks were present) was SmK.

Hey, Andreas, I don't know anything about this one, but if he looks like he could work out as a Mortal Enemy, could I annoy him for you and take him over? I've simply been bereft since Cabron66 got banned, and Emrys hasn't been worth a ****e as a Mortal Enemy, especially lately as he's started sending me his poetry. Normally I wouldn't ask, but I figure what with your busy social life, and the fact that I have no life to speak of, you might not mind. I think I might be playing one of your CMBB creations right now, I'll have to check, but since it doesn't suck in an evil way, it's probably not one of the umpteen Rune scenarios I'm playing. Hope this finds you and all your hypocritical ilk well, next time you have a beer with Soddball, kick him in the fork for me, will you? XXOOXXOO -Seanachai </font>

Yes, have seen it. MGs certainly have armour penetration - just try a German HMG against a Purple Heart Box, at short distance (below 200m). You'll be surprised. The Hollywood effect is a bit annoying sometimes, but dead is dead. The ammo used for this was called SMK (steel mantlet core). IIRC it could defeat up to 8/9mm of armour at short ranges.

You notice I cunningly avoided mentioning the desert? Could not care much less about that theatre, truth be told, so I am no position to make informed statements on it (not that that has stopped me before).

Indeed. I have begun to think of this as either an operational, or a tactical problem. Operationally, the Germans had real trouble knowing where they were in Russia, at times. The maps they had were just not good enough. Villages on the map would not exist. Villages would appear that were not supposed to exist. A whole railway line was found that nobody knew about. Think of that as the meta terrain, and it makes life for the planners difficult - as in 'Tomorrow, I./IR 347 will take the village of "unnamed village", which is 20km NE of the village of Frunse. II./IR347 will occupy Frunse.' What happens then is that I./347 occupies some random place (no good even asking the locals, if you have no idea what to ask them for), while II./347 occupies another village that is almost entirely, but not quite unlike Frunse, which did not exist in the first place. That is one issue. Tactically, it is quite clear that the player has more information than an officer even with a map. It is e.g. possible to explore every nook and cranny on the enemy's side of the map. Try that in 1944 in Italy. 'Excuse me, Herr Oberfeldwebel, would you mind awfully if the lads from the RA have a rummage around your position to see from where you would have a nice key-holed place to interdict the road. I knew you would not, there's a good boche. We'll be back tomorrow to tear you and your fellow Jerries apart. Have a nice day.' Or the old favourite - 'if only we make it to that ridgeline, we'll have a grandiose view across the valley'. Must be one of the three great lies, because (woops!) what from the map looked like the highest place in town is actually overlooked by that other ridge 350 yards hence, where the Germermans have cunningly installed an HMG. Shame you did not know that before the bullets hit you. That happened a lot in the very chaotic Italian mountain ranges. In particular accounts of Cassino are full of it, IIRC.

Is this the first 'BFC my Panzer IIIs are not invulnerable, fix or sumfink' thread?

Que? Not sure what you are referring to. Anyway, all of my scenarios are listed at the SD. For a while I did not bother too much, but I think by now they are all there.

As posted in the CMBO forum.

The Germans tried to destroy the Nijmegen bridges by use of frogmen (?), floating mines, and aircraft, with no success, AFAIK. They also tried a fairly hefty attack in late January, IIRC, towards the bridge, which was stopped in Zetten by a battalion of 49th West Riding Infantry Division. Not sure who blew up the Arnhem road bridge, my guess is that it was the Germans. The 'Island', as the Pommies called it, was a scene of mostly low-intensity fighting throughout the winter. Much of it was flooded by breaches in the dams of the Rhine.

Regarding the CD scenarios. I always include the link to the SD, as well as an invitation to review, in the briefings of my scenarios, and I think I did that for the CD scenarios, so that maybe one of the reasons I do get a few reviews. I also engage in discussion with those who email me privately about my scenarios, and invite them to review if they have not done so, whether their thoughts are positive or negative.

Does anyone know how the research survey compares to his book on the Soviet airborne forces, published 10 years later?

That's easy, you can't.

Maybe some authors feel it is not worth their time for the return involved?