Tekman

Panzertoopen is right that the Germans had no I dea of how big a tank battle they were in . Russian propaganda has created false impressions of this battle that are clearly evident in these posts the Germans had to cease operation due to a lack of fuel which ment that tanks could no longer support infantry. Most losses incured on the Germans were on the retreat by russian air power not by armour in the battle.

When Hitler asked a jr comander on the eastern front what weopons he needed thinking he would ask for Tigers, Panther or some wonder weopon the answer was "give us more MP44's." the MP44 is the father of the AK47 in fact the desighn is stolen from the Germans. Its classed from what i have read to be the best assault rifle of the war.

Just think of doing Kursk the worlds largest tank battle both sides equal to the task (except the Germans were low on fuel) this would be great! And yes 90% of the most decicive battles were fought in the Eastern Front. Just think the battle for Lenningrad had more casualties ( just military casualties) 3million killed & wounded on both sides combined than the rest of the Allies had the whole war. This is usually glossed over by the Americans & British who like to think they were the only ones who did any thing in this war.

In the Chambois senario i decided to try the Germans knowing they wre out numbered & out gunned I decided to move a certain position on the field of battle ( not trying to give away the senario) & put up a strong defensive front with tanks & men in a position that I could easily exit in. The problem is that i would manually target a tank the AI would take over & target a lesser threat to it my men were putting up supressing fire & stalemated the advance of the infantry but my tanks would not fire on any targeted vehicals or Tanks? I had a Sherman in the bushes @ 200yds targeting says it could see it but only parcially no not a kill may be not even any damage but I should be able to lob a shell in to the bush to flush it out. The damn AI kept targeting a PIAT 440yds away? If the computer says the Sherman is a parcial block on the targeting that means the tank crew knows its there & should consider a Sherman slightly hidden @ 200yds. more of a threat than a PIAT under fire by my infantry & 440yds. away. May be Im hoping too much from my targeting thinking that the Panther should have lob shells in to the bush to flush the Sherman out. Please someone let me know!

the problem here is that every one forgets that an Mg42 can fire 1200 rounds/min but against ground troops that a disadvantage because it wastes too much ammo its true effective range on tripod is 600yds. Short bursts are the only way to keep a sustained rate of fire for these guns I think you can change the barrel in about 10seconds to keep the rate of fire up but that could be the MG34. The Vikers had a max firing rate of 1100rnds/min with fully automatic bursts of 10to20 rnds.: 60 shots/min. slow rate 250 as rapid fire. Its effective range is 1100yds. Hopefully this clears some of the misconceptions about the effectiveness of machine guns. Remember these guns are not known for accuracy just fire power so suppression rather than killing power is more realistic