Peachy

Was it "Accidental Warrior" - by Geoffrey Picot with 1st Hants in Normandy to the end of the war - although about 2/3rds is about DDay to Brussels He commanded the Mortar platoon in Normandy as a captain and went on to be a company commander after Normandy

I recommend "The Guns of Normandy" by George Blackburn - a memoir of his time in the Canadian Artillery in Normandy but actually much more than that and really more about the Normandy combat experience. Its a thick book.

A few more

A few Panthers

Its been a while since the original post but - Possibly "An Englishman at War" The diaries of Stanley Christopherson - Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (SRY) - RHQ hit by a mortar mid June and many senior officers killed - took part in early battles for Tilly and Rauray?

If my memory serves me right - according to his book they got into the Tank during the attack - then they tried to drive the tank off of the flatbed because of nearby fires but it slipped off. So it had to be cleared away from the track after the attack and they then also realized then it has also sustained some damage from the attack. He then went to get a recovery vehicle but it took too long so they never recovered it. D

Panzer Ace by Richard Freiherr von Rosen who was with 503 goes into their role in Normandy in some detail with lots of pictures including some of this trip to Paris https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079XWSBNK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Pete Having checked IGN I can see you are spot on. I am surprised given the lengths that the dday cartographers went to, however it appears that sheet 37/16E has the spur about 500m too far south! I also note that Hill 112 is actually a 111m spot height at the crest whereas on the 1944 map it is 112 but on the reverse slope of a 120m ring contour. This explains a lot as the 1944 map would have you believe that the Cornwalls fought on the reverse slope of 112 but actually they were pretty much on the crest! Re Google I am not so sure, I think outside of the USA they use SRTM data which kind of averages everything out. This means that in fetaureless areas you cn get elevations within 1m but in lumpy areas it can be as much as 30 metres out in every 100. I think in most areas the error range is 1-9 metres which is acceptable for most apps.

Interesting Thats great to know, thanks for the info - I will need to check all of my maps against the French maps. Thanks

I think all of the Maltot and Chateua de Fontaine maps are exellent in that they are extremely accurate both in terms of terrain and scale. I have one criticism and please dont take it the wrong way, the elevations are all wrong. For my own use I have updated the elevations from the 1944 original 1:25,000 maps that I have. I am happy to share if anyone is interested. Eterville and Chateau de fontaine wer on the easterly spur of Hill 112 and as a result the route from the FUP at Fontaine-Etoupefour was all uphill. Both locations had a commanding view over the Odon, Caen and Maltot behind. Maltot was in a re-entrant from the Orne and the elevations seemed to be mpre accurate but Maltot was dominated by the high ground at Eterville and Ch de Fontaine but also from the reverse slopes of Hill 112 and St Martin (which ultimately caused the demise of the attack there). I think Long range fire from St Martin down into Maltot was part of the problem and is hard to simulate on this tactical scale even with a large map like this. The gentle slopes up from Maltot to North, West and South are essential for the map to give an idea of the challenge faced. That said - fanrtastic maps thank you for all of the effort

Interesting discussion. I was always under the impression that the UK shifted from Rifle Caliber not only to align with its NATO allies but also because the infantrys job was to close with the enemy and high volume short range supressive fire was more effective to do that job than accurate long range fire. In order to get the volume of fire you need to supress you need a lot of ammo. The one thing that hasnt been mentioned is the weight of the ammunition. My understanding certainly in the UK is that Rifle Calibre automatic weapons and high rate of fire automatic weapons require a lot of ammunition and it weighs a lot! So to go back to the MG42 - its only real limitation was that it needed a lot of ammo and it ran out quickly - so every squad member had to carry lots of 7.62 LMG ammunition. Likewise with the GPMG and the SLR in the UK - the size of the weapon was one issue but the weight of the ammunition was a bigger one. I assume that despite being 5.56 the SAW has a similar problem with ammunition volume and weight. I guess a balance between short range hight volume suppression and long range acccuracy is a hard one to achieve when you need to take into account the weight of the weapon and ammunition as well.

I have some original maps issued to uk forces in 1944. Very few Farm h=names are mentioned on the maps except those around Vendes, Rauray and Haut du Bosq which you say you have (La Grande Ferme, St Nicolas Ferme, La Bijude Ferme, Barbee Ferme, La Petite Ferme, Ferme Du Guiberon, Ferme de Montbrocq). On my map of Gavrus no farms are named although from the map places like Gavrus and Les Villains are literally 8 buildings and a church! Very different from today. Near Granville Sur Odon and Le Valtru there are no individual farms names - the smallest settlement being named is Cahier about 500m west south ewst of Le Valtru - being 4 buildings. All of the farms are visible on the map but very few are named. Those that are names like those above do appear in the AARs and war diaries but those that arent dont seem to be... The only other farm in the UK sector that I can find named if Ferme De L'Etang, about 1k south of Maltot (scene of major fightling during operation Jupiter involving 502ss Heavy Panzer Bttn) Hope this helps - in essence if they arent named on the map they would have just been referred to by Grid Reference.

Just want to keep this one on the radar. Have followed all of the tips above - Game will always Lock-up at some point - sometimes after 5 mnutes and sometimes after 1 hour. The music continues to play but the game just wont respond. I try and end the task using the task manager but it will not end. So I have to hard reeboot. Any tips from the team? System Specs as in my first post - all drivers WHQL latest.

Same problem here - every game I have played has frozen at some point and requires a hard reboot. All drivers (Creative and NVIDIA) are latest WHQL. Also The load times are minutes rather than seconds! Intel 3GHz Geforce 6800GT 1 GIG RAM Creative XFI Musc

I support all of the above but find all HTs hugely vulnerable to Artillery and Mortars and if you dont keep them spread out and mobile they have a habit of become a mass of abandoned and immobilised vehicles.

Id say it was camouflage to stop the Germans realising that it was a firefly - they used to target Fireflies because they were dangerous to their heavy tanks (and were often troop leaders tanks) - I am only guessing but it makes sense that they would try and disguise the barrel length in order to prevent this targetting

There is a copyright issue here all of the historical maps I have are covered by Crown Copyright in the UK and hence can only be used for private or research use - In my earlier Mail of 24/10 gave details of who to contact at the Imperial war Museum in London to order copies and a key of what Maps are available - I can give this key to anyone who asks for it. The IWM will probably have other maps of UK zones of ops in Holland and Germany - I will check this out next week. The thread is below http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/011993.html

Sorry - forgot to add - Babra - if you want the Capriquet Spread I can Scan it for you and mail it - it will be pretty chunky or I can send a photocopy - I have a 1944 1:25,000 of the area

I posted something on 24/10/2000 this year with reference to actual 1943/44 maps of Normandy at 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 - I think this is the shortcut - These are an excellent source. Take it from me areas like Capriquet, Villers Bocage, Noyers have changed dramatically since 1944 with Motorways, out of town supermarkets etc. The above link gives you a good source for origionals that take in large numbers of Battlefields on songle sheets and the beach maps all have Intelligence makrings of known defences.

Spandau was an area of Berlin - I think it was alleged that munitions/weapons factories that made the MG 34/42 were oocated there (Also a very sad 1980s New Romantic "pop" group)

I am not certain but I think it refers to a magazine fed airborne assault rifle from late in the war - quite rare. I will see if I can get further details

If anyone is interested you can get copies of actual 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps from 1943-44 of Normandy from the Printed books Department of the Imperial War Museum in London. E mail is books@iwm.org.uk. They seem to be limited to the British and Canadian areas of operations but these areas are covered in full detail - some of the Beach Maps show defences plotted by intelligence and some of the inland maps also show details of road widths, whether a road is hedged and natural tank obstacles. If anyones interested drop them a line and ask for an order form for Class no. 01/5(4-16).2 I recommend 1:25,000 40-16-SW for Caen, 37-16-SW for Tilly sur Seules and 37-16-SE for Cheux 37-16-NE for Thaon (Covers the early June Battles of 21 Panzer and 12ss at Lebisey, Cambes and La Londe). Costs for copies are GBP 6.00 each. I am not sure about additional costs for overseas delivery. I have used the maps to update maps for sevr lof the epsom battles and the Sunken lane scenario.