LongLeftFlank

... Next thing we'll be reading music reviews in Janes or Military History. Franz Ferdinand -- Bouncing Back From Sarajevo, the "Archduke of Soul" Reinvents Himself as a Gang of Four Tribute Band.

And then be forced to go back and get it.... --What are you? --We are PTR-riflemen. --Where is your PTR then? --We left it there. --Go back and get it! This should tell you much of what you want to know about what life was like for Russian ATR riflemen. Iremember.ru - V Zimakov, PTR gunner

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Footage of the brewup, among other things Panther Brewup - Cologne

I once proposed a business idea to my pogue relatives in Cape Breton.... take a cue from the berry and citrus growers, and sponsor "Club Your Own" sealing expeditions. Fresh Air. Family Fun. All You Can Club For One Low Price. (Just kidding, eh?) P.S. Q: What's the difference between a harp seal pup and a time share? A: For a harp seal, the beating stops after you're dead

Yep. And if an APC is a death trap, this makes the Hummer, with whatever armor you slap on it, what exactly? You listening out there, Donald "Go to war with the army you've got" Rumsfeld? Or is the Bradley/Hummer contract constituency in Congress more important than the lives of the troops? (Don't all answer at once now).

A buddy of mine, a USN SEAL, did some "grey" work in Israel and the Levant after leaving the service. Among other things, he co-authored a 1983 study on a new troop carrier for the IDF, after M113s proved totally unsatisfactory for MOUT in Lebanon (i.e. a lot of Israeli kids were killed or maimed in the things). They determined that there was just no substitute for MBT armor protection when it came to MOUT. The other option on the table was the equally expensive Bradley, which the IDF declined owing to insufficient armor and troop capacity and some other 1980s teething troubles (underpowered, trouble swimming due to top heavy turret). Even back in 1988, my friend was, and remains, convinced, that APCs in MOUT are basically death traps. A modified tank is the best way to save life and limb, and operating costs compared to the latest APCs are very similar.

.... and the headscarf and gumboots. I didn't want to be the first one into the cesspool, but this is just too good to resist. I believe the platinum dyejob and collagen implants depicted in the bmp are more typical of a SU-92 Mafiya Floozy. This model, affectionately dubbed "Suka" by the troops, was the mainstay of the Guards Clubland Divisions throughout the Yeltsin era, seeing a great deal of action on all fronts (nudge nudge saynomore). A few models were subsequently exported to London, Brooklyn, Toronto and Miami Beach, where following extensive refitting and upgunning, they remain in widespread service today in the... (OK, I'm going to stop this now before I get a visit from a big ugly man in a tracksuit named Evgeni).

.... or costumed as infiltrators from the Hermann Goering Division (which they took a little too literally)

.... or costumed as infiltrators from the Hermann Goering Division (which they took a little too literally)

Thanks, gents, for the advice and links. A few highlights from my reading so far include: - Numerous difficulties arose in correcting artillery fire, observation was limited... Shells embedded deeply in the swampy soil... Offensive movement was fraught with great losses [by treebursts]. - Infantry support weapons were widely employed down to company level. - In inaccessible areas, infantry operated ahead of the tanks... which fired from a halt before the infantry emerged from the defiles between the swamps.... [Against pakfronts], the tanks and SAU carried parties of submachine gunners. - Troops had great difficulties with the mixed minefields and wire obstacles. - Special detachments were sent out to limit enemy attempts to destroy or block roads. And this more or less flanges with your advice on tactics.

Speaking of SU-76s, any pointers or sources on historically realistic tactics for the "Beotch" in an offensive infantry close support role? Clearly you can't use them like T-34s. The scenario I'm thinking is a Fall '44 infantry battalion attack vs. German blocking positions in some godforsaken patch of marshy pines on the Polish-Baltic frontier (what a bloody awful place to die, eh?). The otherwise highly amusing "Colombina" memoir doesn't shed much light -- the only offensive CS role described is shooting a German AC (and then getting brewed up in turn). I notice most "in action" photos show SU-76s lined up in arty position, wheel to wheel, e.g. Russian Warrior - SU76, although this may be posed. Full disclosure: I have a childhood score to settle with "Suka", having had to sift through mounds of hideous orange SU-76 counters in the SL Cross of Iron module to find AFVs I actually wanted to fight with

Ah, dear old Fremont, "Center of the Universe". Are they still doing the outdoor cinema up there? Like the "Svejk" animated gif, too.

Surrealer still, my friend Vince met Eddie (the guy in the p*** business) online while playing Unreal Tournament. Vince is a venture capitalist, which means he collects obscene amounts of money for putting together deals and then has most of his day free to game. The same goes for Eddie, although his business model is somewhat more .... labor intensive (and yes, he does help out on the shop floor occasionally -- of course we asked). Alas, I have not as yet been able to interest Vince in CM (too much thinking involved).

Speaking of Ostfront footage, during my stag party last year, I found myself at 3 AM in an *ahem* -- leather-themed establishment on Delancey Street. The protocols of this forum do not allow me to describe the full proceedings, or how we came to be there ("This is my friend Eddie. He's in the p*** business.") However the basement dance floor was filled with smoke, strobes, techno-industrial at 120 decibels, and, running in a continuous loop across a full wall of video screens..... 1943 Ostfront footage. So here's us, 4 Canuck MBAs in black tie at a Manhattan BDSM club, smoking Cohiba Churchills and dancing in a drunken haze with an Amazon goddess whom we dubbed "Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS" (at least, we think she was a she), while Mark IVs and Tigers roll across the steppe. My souvenir of that night is one riding crop, slightly used. All true, I swear on the grave of Leni Riefenstahl.

No disrespect to the bravery of the GI noted above, but that "fanaticism" could also be a manifestation of overconfident but green troops. As many veterans noted, they pulled "brave" stunts in their first few days in combat (e.g. in BoB the sergeant climbing a tree at Brecourt Manor to fire on entrenched enemy MG) that they'd never have tried subsequently once they knew the real risks involved. But perhaps motive -- fanaticism, esprit or simply plain ignorance -- doesn't matter so much.

So, my Lords, if I may summarize The Argument: PROPOSITION: Nomadic/pastoral cultures (e.g. Cossacks) are morally (select one) BETTER/WORSE than settled/agrarian cultures (e.g. Amerika) because.... THESES/ANTITHESES: a. Noble, freedom-loving Cossacks never built gas chambers, much less napalmed slaves at Wounded Knee, or (ultimate abomination) dreamed up IMF/WTO b. Ignorant, stinky Cossacks wouldn't have faintest idea what gas was unless goats they stole passed it during intimate moment, much less invent railway timetables, napalm or sulfa drugs Discuss. Also, accusations of Nazi-fanboydom or good old fashioned Byronic romantic pastoralism seem a little half-cocked at this point. Nobody in this thread has either defended those fine humanitarians von Pannwitz, Kleist and Vlassov, eulogized the poor martyred souls of the First Division, or damned the perfidy of Gen. Alexander and the Argylls. Indeed, those subjects haven't even been brought up in this increasingly weird but strangely fascinating Plato's Cave of a forum. So let's everyone take a deep breath and step back from our goats, stolen or not....

I correct myself. The desant took place in 1929, although the VDV didn't exist at that time as such. The first airlanding formation wasn't stood up until 1931. At the 1935 Kiev maneuvers, the spectacle of desantniki parachuting in battalion strength from TB-3 bombers, together with glider landings, impressed the German observers enough to set up the Falschirmjager, whose exploits in turn led to rapid imitation by the Western Allies. Seem to recall the Germans saw rather a lot of other things at these particular maneuvers that left a deep impression them.... most notably the BT-5 fast tanks. Kind of a World's Fair of the blitzkrieg, although I've never seen anyone other than the always suspect Suvorov (Razin) give it much notice historically.

Yes, my Kazakh friend explained that to me. But they don't take umbrage at the name, nor the association. Apparently her people (she is a quarter Russian though) have their roots in three different Khanates who became quite peaceful and settled over the centuries. Rather than resisting the Russians (Czarist and later Red), they more or less welcomed them in, in sharp contrast to the Turkics (Turkomans, Tajiks, Azeris) who were still creating major trouble in the 1930s. BTW, according to the history of the Soviet airborne troops (VDV), the first recorded vertical insertion op took place in 1932 when Red Army troops were airlanded on the Steppe to cut off a Tajik "basmach gang".

I know there's been some kind of running gag among the CW mob on this board relating to the Bren tripod. I just haven't ever been able to surface the original thread. Any hints? Is it really worth it?

Will Relative Spotting extend to friendly units as well? (i.e. I'd like to see potential for friendly fire in poor viz/close terrain).

Yes, barbarism is relative. Ask Kurt Waldheim. (No, don't. He'd just lie anyway). Cossacks occupy a colorful middle ground between the conventional and settled Russian Slavs and the Tatar/Mongol and Turkic horse peoples who still occupy the bulk of the Eurasian steppe. And they share the same characteristics of most clan-based groups with weak ties to lands, kingdoms and kings -- military prowess, tactical mobility, opportunism, fickleness and tendency to pillage the more settled peoples they encounter. Who naturally fear these people as barbarous and perfidious. While Russian nationalists prefer to downplay the fact (e.g. Nevsky), for about 2 centuries the Dukes of Muscovy and Kiev were little more than tributaries of the Khanates of the Golden and Blue Hordes. Cossack tribes likely served in the Hordes, then switched over to the Russian dukes as it suited them. Very likely though, their roots lie even deeper in Slavic history, as vestiges of the hordes who rolled west over the German lands (who had previously displaced the Celts, etc., etc). "Cossack" and "Kazakh" are essentially the same word (and the latter definitely make no secret of their historical and racial connection to the Khanates).

Brilliant allegory! But (wait for it..............) ..........whose grass mod did you use?

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Crew dismounts/bugouts/remanning is not a feature I'd have prioritized from a gameplay perspective, but then again.... As has been noted many times before, if CM2 is going to be at all realistic as a combat simulation in a 2007 world (i.e. next year!), keeping friendly losses to a minimum -- vehicle crews included -- will be a prime Allied victory condition, regardless of what others may exist. For the other side, killing more than a handful of "white meat" in a single engagement will deliver a strategic victory (i.e. on CNN) no matter how badly they're mauled otherwise. So otherwise suicidal actions become quite rational for them, just as some of the more aggressive and risky Allied tactics become unavailable to us. ....Unless the storyline posits some new terrorist attack that outrages/desensitizes Allied public opinion to casualties.