The Adder

The holes should be for ventilation. I should mention that the pic is from Waffen-SS in Pictures. Nice to see you again sitz. I'll mail you later. Adder

While we are waiting .... Adder [ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: The Adder ]

Hi all, After a long time on leave, I'm back at the front looking forward to my transfer to the Eastern Front. BTW, here's a quick pole: When do you think CM2 actually will be ready: a) early December 2001 X-mas 2001 c) Jan-Feb 2002 d) later Best regards, The Adder [ 08-20-2001: Message edited by: The Adder ]

Hi Rommel, Try this http://www.onwar.com/maps/wwii/index.htm Best regards, The Adder CM-OKW ------------------ It is said, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so by learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God. Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead, to remind me I'm best" - Edmund Blackadder

I agree with Griffin. Let's make Col. Klotz's work available on our sites. Then we can defeat "the Evil Company" and also make sure that all the great work is available for all true war-gamers. Col. Klotz - RIP The Adder CM-OKW ------------------ It is said, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so by learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God. Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead, to remind me I'm best" - Edmund Blackadder

www.ASL2CM.com was only a alias for http://w1.312.telia.com/~u31213280/index.htm Unfortunately it seems that Col. Klotz has closed down for good! We will miss his great site!!! Regards, The Adder ------------------ It is said, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so by learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God. Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead, to remind me I'm best" - Edmund Blackadder

Gentlemen, Feldgrau has a great forum, with many good postings. Recently there was a posting asking the above question. I bring you the excellent answer from "Vinnie" here: "Artillery shells fired at low angle (i.e., less than 1600 mils or 45 degrees) have a burst pattern where the side spray is greater than the depth, by perhaps 50%. The 105mm HE shell burst is about 30 meters across and perhaps 20 meters deep. In this zone 50% of the men standing upright when the shell detonates are expected to become casualties (perhaps 1/4 killed and 3/4 wounded). Individual fragments travel much farther than this, but the percentage of casualties falls off rapidly. The burst for 150mm HE shell is about 50 meters wide and 30 meters deep. The 4 guns of a 105 howitzer battery would then pretty well cover 120 meters of front, perhaps half the frontage of an infantry platoon. 6 pieces would cover about 180 meters. The bursts can be concentrated more or spread more openly if the fire direction center is willing to be fancy, but in general the shells will land in the same pattern as the guns are laid out at the battery. The 4 guns of a 150cm howitzer battery would cover about 200 meters of front, still less than a single infantry platoon. During WW2, the firing unit in the German Army was the battalion, not the battery. That is, the fire direction center was located at battalion headquarters and batteries were not capable of independent operation for indirect fire missions. This is not to say that batteries didn't occasionally compute and fire their own missions, just that they were neither equipped nor trained to do so. Battalion HQ would send firing information to each of its batteries, or mass the entire battalion on one target and then rapidly shift the entire battalion to a new target. Modern artillery (i.e., since 1900) is massed at the TARGET, not at the GUNS. "The German Infantry Handbook" by Alex Buchner says that a battery would take 45 minutes to occupy a position and lay the battery "after receiving instructions". This is an incredibly long time by post-war standards; an American battery in 1975 (when I was an artillery officer) had to occupy a position and have all 6 pieces laid in less than 5 minutes. I assume that the WW2 number includes perhaps 30 minutes to move to the new firing position. WW2 artillery adjustments were quite slow by modern standards. 1 or 2 howitzers would begin firing at the calculated location of the target while the observation party recorded the fall of each shot and made adjustments. The time to recalculate the firing data (elevation, deflection (or traverse), and time of flight for time fuzes) would be a few minutes, perhaps 2 or 3. The firing data then had to be called to the guns by field telephone, the fuzes set, the powder increments counted and checked, elevation and traverse set by the assistant gunners and check by the section chief, and the order to fire received and executed. The rounds would then take perhaps 30-45 seconds to fly to the target, and the observers would need perhaps 1 minute to sense the rounds and announce their observation. One could then easily spend 15 minutes on the adjustment alone, before what Americans call "fire for effect" was opened. This would be the same for either 105mm or 150mm firing batteries. Once a target had been centered in the bursts, the battery, or battalion or regiment, could fire quite rapidly at it. The 105mm could fire 6-8 rounds per minute; the 150mm 3-5 rounds per minute. This is actually limited only by the stamina of the crew; the guns can be fired as fast as shells can be loaded and the lanyard yanked. A more practical consideration, however, is the rate of ammunition resupply. This might be as few as 5 rounds per gun per day (sometimes even less than that), meaning that a battery could fire only 1 mission. Management of the reserve ammunition, which numbered in the hundreds of rounds, was a critical task for battalion and regimental officers. There is also the problem that fuzes are also rationed, and so the battery might only get 1 time fuze per gun per day (and 4 point detonating fuzes). And the battery might get only 1 illumination round per gun per day (which must use the time fuze), or perhaps zero. And perhaps only 1 smoke screen round, or zero. Building an effective smoke screen without dozens of rounds per gun is impossible. Clearly if the battery fired no shells at all on Tuesday, then they had 10 rounds per gun to fire on Wednesday, etc. I believe the Germans used the term "days of fire" (Munition fur einen Tag) to plan artillery consumption. For a major attack, batteries would be issued (or allowed to draw, since most artillery units had to use their own trucks and trailers to draw shells, powder, and fuzes) at least 5 days of fire. For the Ardennes attack in 1944 there was barely enough ammunition stockpiled to provide 3 days of fire to most battalions." Reference link: http://www.feldgrau.com/forum/messages2/11509.html Best regards, The Adder ------------------ It is said, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so by learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God. Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead, to remind me I'm best" - Edmund Blackadder

Merry Christmas to all my fellow CM'ers from Norway as well. A special greeting goes out to Buzzer, Sitzkrieg, McAuliffe and Airborne. The Adder CM-OKW ------------------ There is no spoon ...

Hi Robert, Sustained! Especially when you use the new subdued mods without grid overlay it is hard to see elevations and terrain type. Hope BTS picks this up in CM2. Best regards, The Adder CM-OKW ------------------ There is no spoon ...

Hi sellsj, The Belgian Combat Mission Page is run by my good CM friend and opponent McAuliffe. He beat me for the first time yesterday in a modified "Move it or loose it" PBEM. Good job! (Thanks to Airborne for administering the initial set up). See some pics and aar's from previous games at my page. And his web site is great as well. Best regards, The Adder ------------------ "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race; they have no word for fluffy"

Nice to see that there are so many old-timers here who have played Elite I found Elite in a playable, java format on the net. So blow the dust of your space suit, buy that fuel scoop, and heat up the pulse lasers, Commander Jameson! Enjoy! The Adder ------------------ "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race; they have no word for fluffy"

ELITE must be the definite, all-time favorite game. Doesn't pictures like this take you right back? Those were the days! The Adder CM-OKW ------------------ "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race; they have no word for fluffy" [This message has been edited by The Adder (edited 12-02-2000).]

Hi JV, Glad you enjoyed it. Nice pics you have posted. I wasn't allowed to take any ... Those Hand Grenades are serious stuff! The Funky Pirate is a great place, and I guess you know this character btw: I am currently working on a few pages with pics from my trip to the Big Easy. Have a look here, more to come soon. Best regards, The Adder ------------------ "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race; they have no word for fluffy"

Buzzer, Post an OT thread and you will get lot's of good answers. Post a thread on an important topic that was discussed during the beta testing, and you get the wonderful "do-a-search" comment. Thank you for your willingness to bring up important subjects! Best regards, The Adder CM-OKW ------------------ "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race; they have no word for fluffy"

Buzzer, I agree with you on the matter of ignoring targets. One could imagine an automatic "ignore" if the tank commander knew that he wouldn't be able to knock the target out. However, that decision has to be made on the info he is currently possessing. As you have seen, enemy tanks may change designation several times before they are properly and correctly identified by your troops. Thus, an "ignore" command must then only be available/activated for correctly identified targets. On the other hand, and I guess this is your main concern, you should be able to ignore targets whether you know exactly what it is or not, and whether you are able to take them out or not. I can't understand why that should pose problems neither "technically" nor "historically". On the battle field, even in W.W.II and with "fog of war", there is a certain amount of communication between units; and especially between tanks (at least in CM, the Russians used a different system which we may see in CM2?). This is in fact the whole basis for CM, and explains why we as commanders can see all the enemy units spotted by our men. Finally, I think it is important to bring up such debates as this, even though it has been discussed before. If we don't discuss what we find important with regard to CM, we'll all end up in the Peng-thread. Best regards, The Adder ------------------ "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race; they have no word for fluffy"