LongLeftFlank

Tactics II (age 9, and boy was I disappointed at first not to get "Tank Command" with real plastic tanks that popped into the air. But it grew on me). Tactics II always seemed to degenerate into a trench warfare stalemate untless you used the optional nukes... Remember that discussion "Problems of Nuclear Warfare"? Computer: Eastern Front for the Atari 800 (1981). Not a bad game actually. This was also the first instance of "We Go" logic I ever saw in a game... you gave all your corps movement orders and then they all executed at once each turn to the best of their ability.

If you can track down Cajus Bekker, "The Luftwaffe War Diaries", it contains a chapter on Flak as a Field Weapon, including a blow by blow description with map of the "Night of Ilza", where a Luftwaffe flak unit (20mm and 88mm) singlehandedly turned back a Polish counterattack in 1939. The Germans were so impressed with these experiences, their Flak units became a standard part of the Blitzkrieg package and unlike the Allied gunners, did not put up a fuss when pressed into the ground role. Of course, the 88 figures just as prominently in the memoirs of many GIs and Tommies as the Tiger, especially in Italy where many Luftwaffe field units were deployed. I recall stories of 88s being used as super long range sniper rifles to pick off individual Allied soldiers. "Why they couldn't hit an elephant at this r--" (Last words of a Union general whose name escapes me, U.S. Civil War)

The Vietnam memoir by the ex-SS Legionnaire (Karl Wegener) referred to earlier in this post is "Devil's Guard". It's a nice tale, and has some good tactical information, but large parts of it are clearly fictional. Don't read it as history. The sequel, "Recall to Inferno" which features scenes where the Germans seize Viet Minh tanks and use them against their owners, discover a Communist spy in their midst who was a former death camp guard, or make phosgene gas and wipe out an entire VC camp border on comic book plots. You can probably pass on it unless you like this stuff. Sounds like this guy Wegener would have been a real pisser to serve with though -- lots of BS and tall tales to fill the boring hours and take your mind off the skeeters.

I've got a couple of more movies with realistic (though not 100% so) combat depictions y'all might want to track down at some point: 1. The Odd Angry Shot -- the Aussie Vietnam experience. Captures a lot of the tension and boredom of the jungle war without the Oliver Stone nonsense. 2. The Bridge, with Jimmy Stewart (who knew a few things about combat himself), set in Sichuan Province, China during the '44 Ichigo offensive. Not much combat, but what's in there is pretty damn good.... and at proper combat ranges too. My main beef with SPR was that most of the final battle took place at way too close quarters, even for a city fight. Once the enemy is within sub 30m. grenade/SMG range, you don't get up and run around the way both sides were doing the whole time. You crouch in your selected hole pissing yourself and unable to see much of anything, or if you feel really motivated, you crawl like a snake. And if you're plain nuts or want to win a posthumous medal, you might engage in a brief heroic dash.... real brief. 3. The Sand Pebbles (Steve McQueen). The actual hand to hand fighting is standard Hollywood choreography, but this is one of the few movies that actually has the characters using sensible military tactics, both in the river battle and at the end. A great movie movie too and one of my favorites in any genre. 4. Oddly enough, the brief combat clips done by Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove(!) are in an authentic, grainy "combat camera" style that I suspect Spielberg drew upon. "A great.... fatigue came over me..."