RCHRD

Yesterday I found out that I might gain access to a 1:20000 map of Stalingrad printed in 1942. For someone like me it was a priceless find, tracing the course of the fighting block by block, building by building. Today I received the message; "About map(plan): I can give copy only for your private use.Only for your own reserch. Not for sale or for publish." It is unthinkable that I would betray this man's trust. I'm sorry but I must retract my offer to share copies. Still, there will be a CMBB Playing field drawn from this source. That is what I hope.

Yeah, Berlin would be cool. Contact their archival dept. I don't know about other cities. There was a pretty good Kharkov map on ebay awhile back, but no quite so detailed. Some guy in Poland has quite a few for sale. He shows up on ebay every so often.

"Scale 1-20000. All streets have names." Is that unreal or what? Damn my spelling.

I just saw it today. A little square attached to an email. A city plan, a street map, of Stalingrad printed by the Russians in 1942. I'm gonna try to get the original, but I may have to settle for a scan. I was hoping to make a series of CM maps of Stalingrad That were super accurate and now I might actually be able to. Who wants to a copy. I'm not sure when exactly I'll get it but from the message I think I'll have first dibs, having an agent on the spot.

Or so it's claimed. Three thousand plus German tanks entered the Soviet Union. Opposite were hordes of obsolete tanks and about a thousand T-34's and fewer KV-1's, say about 500. (I can look up the numbers but these are in the ballpark) I've crawled all over them and they are a wonder of their age. The T-34 is not particularly large but is wonderfully balanced. A tank killing gun, sloped, thick armor, and light on it's feet, capable of running rings around your basic boxy, underarmed panzer. It looks almost delicate. The KV looks positively scary. Squat, invulnerable. Both had transmission problems. Few radios were available, only the platoon leader had one. Someone else might describe their other shortcomings. But they were vastly superior to the German tanks in armor, guns, and, for the T-34, mobility. The Germans themselves say that Russian gunnery was good. Yet the Germans, from June 41 until the spring of 42 when the upgunned models started arriving at the front, gave better than they got. There has to be a reason. I read somewhere that 95,000 russian medium tanks were built during the war and 90 some odd thousand of them were knocked out. I'm not sure of the source for the knocked out figure. The series called panzertruppen(?) by Jentz has some good accounts of the Tankers war at ground level.

Bingo.

And I hope to be good enough at this game to use that art on some of you.

Immediately after the cessation of Citadel the Soviets launched a counteroffensive with armies supposedly gutted at Kursk. This offensive broke into, and in some cases through, well prepared fieldworks northwest of Belgorad in one day. They ended up on, and over, the Dneiper by the end of the year, gutting the Germans in their turn. That's pretty good operational methodology in my book. They came a long, long way. They had good practice against the Rumanians, then the Italians, then the Hungarians. I have a book of Soviet Tactical doctrine that shows a remarkable grasp of the operational art, good enough to win the war.

I must disagree. The tank corps infantry brigade was a motorised rifle brigade with no organic tank regiment. The mechanised brigades, within the corps or independent, were the only ones with the organic tank regiment. Except for artillery the mechanised corps were immensly powerful.

Tank and mech corps in the Soviet army were divisions, in everything but name. Sure I have figures. Three mech brigades to a mech corps with each brigade having an organic tank 'Regiment'. 39 Tanks apiece. A mech corps could have a tank brigade too, or a brigade and a regiment, or two regiments, or even two brigades, composed as in the tank corps.

A mechanised corps of the mid to late war period had more infantry than a panzergrenadier division and more tanks than a panzer division. [ March 20, 2002, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: RCHRD ]

You have road block covered by most of a company. Forward of that position you have a platoon hiding 15 meters off the road. A German column comes down the road. (There is a scenario where this is depicted.) I want that forward platoon to let the head of the column pass by and engage the middle when the roadblock group lights up the front. Is there a way?

Well, that was interesting. I made it though 5. If I had a high speed connection I'm sure I could have made it to seven.

Thanks all.

If you put a bunker into an undestroyed building, will it survive the collapse of the building. It should, you know.

Are the doodads 3D objects? I'm asking because I think the doodads are what you would use to make that statue in Stalingrad of the children dancing around the crocodile.

And will those hulks of buildings recently displayed be capable of holding fortifeid positions?

I have all five of the Panzer Campaign games. I prefer the 2D view. I play TOAW (A favorite of mine)in 2D. It's not the view but the gameplay. The HPS games I'm referring to are called Squad Battles, essentially the same level as CM. But in depicting tactical combat nothing comes close to CM. And, it seems, it's going to get even better. This conviction is only clear to me because I've tried this other tactical game and it was missing a lot. Mostly intangible things, but I will probably never play a scenario through to completion. It's just not that compelling. I guess I never noticed the recoil of tank guns because they mostly are pointed directly at me and the view is narrow from my customary tactical formation of headlong retreat.

The proud and the few. By HPS simulations. No demo but send me an email with a mailing address and I'll loan you my CD.

I've never been keen on John Tillers squad Battles Vietnam because it hits a little too close to home. But I ordered his new game about tactical warfare in the Pacific and tried it out today. What a dissappointment. When a unit fires upon another the 'tracer' meanders across the map, the graphics are just plain ugly, and there is no immersion at all. Opposed to this is CM where I have literally ducked when tracers zip, apparently, just overhead. I'm a big John Tiller fan but CM has definately raised the bar for me. Also, I think I have seen gun tubes in CM depress and elevate. How hard would it be to get them to recoil, even get the vehicle rocking back a bit?

I'm not computer savvy enough for it, but I think a cool sky/ background mod for a Stalingrad scenario would be a ruined urban area with columns of smoke and the like. Is it possible to do a sky mod as a bitmap?

I was thinking yesterday of a scenario on a large map with a German security force searching a large wooded area for a partisan band, circa 1943. Kind of a hide and seek. I wonder if that would be fun, or just drudgery.

Wow. Rich 12545. I know that guy.

Just last week, we dug up a cartridge at Volgograd nee Stalingrad, south of the grain elevators. It's very corroded so I don't know if it can be authenticated. A german helmet came from the same area, likewise corroded, but undeniably authentic.I brought the cartridge home, but, reluctantly left the helmet behind.

Thanks,Tom. I'll go back and try to find it. [ February 11, 2002, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: RCHRD ]