Steve McClaire

Prior to 3rd August CCA is out of the line refitting. 3rd: Ordered to seize Martilly and protect left flank of XIX Corps. Attack begins 0600, 3/66th Armor Rgt in the lead. Advance 5000 yards and then (at 1000) make contact with German roadblocks backed by dug-in tanks, AT, and infantry. Fighting unitl 1730 and reached a stream 2 miles north of Martilly. Rose requests more infantry but is denied. 4th: Attack at 0800, coordinating with 29th Infantry. Left-hand column led by 1/66th Armor moved west of Vire and captured hill 219 - ordered to continue attack and seize high ground south of Vire but held up by German infantry infiltrating hill 219. 2/66 fought into Martilly against opposition of the same type described above. 5th: Results for the day summed up as "...unable to dislodge opposition..." which seems to indicate little action. Assume there was little activity as they had acheived their initial objective. That night ordered to attack SE and take Domfront. 2/41 Armored Infantry attached and division & corps artillery support promised for attack. 6th: Action as described earlier. 7th: CCA pulled off the line again, save 1& 3/66th which 29th Infantry did not allow to leave hill 219 (which implies CCA is under command 29th?). CCA was normally built around the 66th Armored Rgt with 1 battalion 41st Armored Infantry and 1-2 Armored FA battalions, 1 armored engineer company, and some elements of the divisions 82nd recon bn. Note that 2nd Armored was a 'heavy' armored division. Cheers, Steve

The way "Hell on Wheels" reads it is pretty obvious Houston is often paraphrasing (or perhaps even quoting) the various unit AARs. I suspect the tankers were refering to whatever river it was as "the Vire river" and he just brought it along without checking. Same for the apparent math problem w/ number of tanks in a medium tank company (10 knocked out, 9 continue = 19, when TO&E was 17). There are details scattered through the narrative about exactly what CCA units were where. I can sort these out if you want more details. Steve

I believe it was CCA of US 2nd Armored. They were trying to take Vire August 4-6th and lost at least 14 Shermans on August 6th (all from the same company) which is specifically mentioned in the source I have, though it does not give a total of tanks lost on that day. See pages 240-242 of "Hell on Wheels" by Donald E. Houston. Here is a brief quotation: "Corps and Division artillery shelled Vire heavily during the night of August 5th ... Brooke (Division CO) ordered Rose (CCA CO) to take the town the following day...the attack started at 8:00am and met heavy artillery, mortar, AT gun, tank, and small arms fire. After an entire day of trying to advance the command made only 500 yards...One tank company lined up behind a hedgerow, planning to rush the Vire river. German fire knocked out ten of the tanks; when the other nine moved out to cross the river four of the were promptly destroyed." Early Houston states that, on August 5th, CCA captured some prisoners while taking Martilly (NW of Vire) who "revealed that two infantry regiments and an artillery regiment had moved into the area to relieve the 2nd SS Panzer division, which had begun moving out of the area the previous evening." If this is correct it sounds like the StuGs were supporting a German infantry unit, presumably under the same Corps as 2nd SS Panzer. Steve

Ah - Michael Dorosh's comment about being able to open the files made me think otherwise. I am not sure if the tournament save is strictly necessary, as I don't believe you can load a 'started' game in the scenario editor anyway. Steve

You can send out saved games with the passwords already entered and still have both sides able to do their setup - this is standard practice in CMMC and I've done it many times. 1) Tournament save the scenario. 2) Start the scenario as if you were going to play it hotseat. 3) Enter first player password. 4) Hit 'Go'. 5) Enter second player password. 6) DO NOT hit 'Go'. Instead, hit 'Alt-S' and save the game. Send out this saved game file to the SECOND player. Now both players must use the passwords you've already enetered, and both still get to do setup. Steve

As I posted earlier, US Army combat engineers were never equipped with flamethrowers as part of their standard TO&E. As I understand it, the US Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) was the branch responsible for flamethrowers, and would issue the weapons (held at Corps or Army level presumably) and basic training to combat units that needed them. Since flamethrowers are available as 'support' when purchasing units in CMAK, they really shouldn't be in the standard 'package' for US units IMO.

What areas do you have wartime maps for? I am always on the lookout for original map images. Do you have them scanned, and are you willing to share if so?

I am not sure if there is anything here on parachute packing crates, but you might go to http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usamhi/DL/chron.htm, go down to the WWII section, and check out the US Army 'Standard Ordanance Catalog' documents. They are huge and take a long time to download, but they have information on virtually all the US Army weapons and ammunition.

Check out http://www.feldgrau.com/weaprod.html for some statistics on German weapons production.

Anybody know who jumped in DRAGOON? Was it the 17th.?</font>

I've already posted several US Army OOB issues & requests in the 'Official patch thread' in this forum. I'd suggest doing the same, so they can see more customer insterest.

Other US Army artillery spotter teams it would be nice to have for accurate representation: 3 tube battalion level 81mm mortar (in every tank bn and armored infantry bn) and 6 tube division level 105mm howitzer (armored FA bn). Units it would be nice to have for dismounted US mechanized cavarly: 3 man 60mm mortar, 3 man M1919A4 MMG, 4 man .50 cal MG, .30 cal MG jeep, and jeep with both .30 and .50 cal MG (the .30 was dash-mounted).

US Army OOB errors: - There doesn't seem to be a US 4 tube 105mm division level artillery spotter unit in the game. The only 105mm spotter available is a 6 tube regimental spotter that represents the regimental cannon company. - US combat engineer units never had flamethrowers as part of their TO&E. - US AB squad should have 2 x .30 cal LMG (M1919A6) and no BAR. One .30 cal LMG was assigned to each of the two AB squads in a platoon, and the platoon commander controlled 2 more .30 LMGs he could assign at his discretion. The BAR wasn't added to the squad TO&E until (I believe) 1944, and then it was in addition to the .30 cal LMGs. This one was in CMBO too, in a way, though the .30 cal MMGs given to the AB platoon in CMBO made it a wash I guess. - It would be really nice if there were some way to get a troop & platoon type for dismounted US mechanized cavalry units. The TO&E down to individual weapons is readily available, and would allow scenario designers to create scenarios involving these units without having to 'fudge' using the huge 12 man infantry squads. There's already a "Recon 44" squad type that is close enough to do the job (1 x Plt HQ and 3 x Recon 44 squad), even though the weapons mix is not quite right. As a side note, did the British '44 infantry battalion really have 1 flamethrower in every single platoon? I'm not an expert on the CW formations in Italy, but this seems highly suspect to me...

After getting CMAK and browsing the list of American units in the scenario editor, I have noticed several apparent errors. Some are new, while others appear to be carry-overs from CMBO. - There doesn't seem to be a US 4 tube 105mm division level artillery spotter unit. The only 105mm spotter available is a 6 tube regimental spotter that represents the regimental cannon company. - US combat engineer units never had flamethrowers as part of their TO&E. - US AB squad should have 2 x .30 cal LMG (M1919A6) and no BAR. One .30 cal LMG was assigned to each of the two AB squads in a platoon, and the platoon commander controlled 2 more .30 LMGs he could assign at his discretion. The BAR wasn't added to the squad TO&E until (I believe) 1944, and then it was in addition to the .30 cal LMGs. This one was in CMBO too, in a way, though the .30 cal MMGs given to the AB platoon in CMBO made it a wash I guess. - It would be really nice if there were some way to get a troop & platoon type for dismounted US mechanized cavalry units. The TO&E down to individual weapons is readily available, and would allow scenario designers to create scenarios involving these units without having to 'fudge' using the huge 12 man infantry squads. Steve

I guess I didn't make my point clearly -- Say you have a rocket battery with 36 launch rails. You give that battery 72 rockets. In CMBB that battery will launch 36 rockets, and then (apparently) launch another salvo of 36 rockets, with no time needed for reloading. Obviously this isn't physically possible, so I assume it's either 1) a bug, or 2) a design decision to allow the battery to use the ammo when it can't actually reload in the CMBB timeframe. I take it no one has discussed this yet, though.

I searched on this but couldn't find a previous thread -- it appears that Soviet rocket batteries have a reload time of 0 in CMBB 1.03. I've done a few tests with the scenario editor, adding more rounds to various rocket FO teams than they have tubes. For the Germans there is a delay of 3-5 minutes for reloading between every salvo. For the Soviets all the rockets seem to come in, one salvo immediately after another, until all their ammo is gone. Maybe I'm mistaken, as it is hard to tell exactly how many rockets are landing when there are dozens coming in in the space of 30 seconds, but that is how it looks to me. Anyone else notice this? Did I miss a previous discussion on the topic?

The Malaxa is copy of the French UE carrier produced locally in Romanian. It was unarmed and used in the divisional AT companies/battalion to tow anti-tank guns. Basically an armored gun tractor.

Not to hijack the thread, but there were M10s involved in combat during the Tunisian campaign. The short version is that the creation of the M10 was a 'rush job', slapping an 3 inch AA gun onto a Sherman chassis, and was in the field in late 1942 / early 1943.

"Red Army Handbook" by Zaloga has some good information on Fortified Regions. According to that source there were Fortified Regions pre-war, manning actual border fortifications, and throughout the war, operating with the field forces once the actual fortifications themselves were lost. I assume they were used primarily defensively, as their mobility was low and manpower was extremely lean. It also appears that their weapons, even mortars and artillery, were intended to be used via direct fire,as there were no FDC personnel for observation and only 1 radio per battalion. A Fortified Region consisted of several Machinegun-Artillery battalions (it appears roughly 3 each). TO&E for MG-Arty Bn March 1942 is given as: Bn HQ (22 Men) Signals Plt (24 men) Pioneer Sqd (9 men) 4 x MG-Arty Coy, each - Coy HQ (8 Men) - 4 x MG Plt (2 x LMG and 2 x HMG each) - AT Rifle Plt (2 x LMG, 7 x AT Rifle) - Mortar Plt (2 x 50mm and 2 x 82mm mortars) - Arty Bty -- Bty HQ (7 Men) -- AT Gun Plt (2 x 45mm gun) -- Field Gun Plt (2 x 76mm gun) As stated, the organization was extremely lean, with barely enough men to man the weapons (no covering riflemen, not even any men as dedicated ammo bearers). In CMBB terms there would be only a Company HQ and no Platoon HQs, except for perhaps the artillery battery, IMO. So at battalion level in CMBB you'd probably see 1 x Bn HQ, 4 x Coy HQ, 4 x Plt HQ, 40 x LMG, 32 x HMG, 28 x AT Rifle, 8 x 50mm mortar, 8 x 82mm mortar, 8 x 45mm gun, and 8 x 76mm gun.

As the only person on the forum to try and defend the inclusion of 76mm canister in CMBB, perhaps you can explain exactly what your sources are. All I have seen given in support is one reference on the Russian Battlefield website. Now it is a fine website with a wealth of information, but unless Valera has first hand experience with 76mm canister it is not a primary source. Do you know where he got his information about canister rounds? Every other grog who has looked into this using primary source material (field manuals, gunnery tables, etc) has found noting to support the existance of 76mm canister. It's possible that they could all be wrong, but if every T-34 carried a half-dozen rounds of 76mm canister it seems unlikely that the cansiter round would have gone completely unmention in official field manuals. [ June 19, 2003, 09:42 AM: Message edited by: Steve McClaire ]

Glantz's "Zuhkov's Greatest Defeat" is an excellent source for all the Operation Mars fighting, and does cover the Luchessa situation in some detail. The river valley was the boundary between two German Korps (XXXXI.Pz.K was south, forget the northern Korps designation), and also the boundary between the 110.ID (north) and 86.ID (south) - one rgt of each division was involved in the fighting (both reinforced with whatever the divisions could spare/scrape up - both were holding very long fronts). KG Lindemann was the KG of the 110.ID holding the northern shoulder of the Soviet breakthrough. GD sent KG Kohler (Gren.Rgt.GD) and KG Warschenauer (2 companies of GD Pionier battalion) but Glantz does not mention any attached tanks that I can recall. Other GD units were involved in a counter attack along the Luchessa much later (Dec or Jan 43 I think) after they were freed up from the fighting to the north and around Belyi to the south. Steve

I think it depends on what wooden bunkers are supposed to represent. Despite the graphic, I always assumed a wooden bunker was supposed to represent a heavily reinforced fighting positions -- i.e. you dig a hole for your machinegun position, then roof over the hole with logs and earth, leaving just the firing slit to the front and a place to crawl out in back. Concrete bunkers could be representing something much bigger, with a much larger (and more obvious) firing slit. Then again, the wooden bunker could be a little plywood house, just like it looks.

Well, there were some Greek units on Crete at the time of the German invasion, so technically speaking there were Greek troops involved in a location CMAK is said to specifically cover. However, the bulk of the fighting was done by the Kiwis, so I wouldn't be suprised if we don't hear Greek.

Not sure if this is already a known bug, but it happend to me with 1.03c. A BA-64 is ordered to 'reverse' around some trees, then 'move fast' close to a ridgeline and before finally using 'seek hull down'. It begins to execute the move near the end of a turn, and during the orders phase of the next turn I see the orders have been changed by the AI -- the BA-64 has already reversed past the first waypoint, yet that 'reverse' waypoint is still in its orders, but is now in front of the armored car. The rest of the waypoints are in the same location, but are now set to reverse instead of 'move fast'. The final 'seek hull down' remained unchanged. I can provide files for this if anyone wants to look at it.

I have a file that shows this (I think) -- I will email it to you. I think it is from the very first 1.03 patch. A T-26 is hull down behind a ridgeline, firing at a German 'Gun?'. It comes under fire and promptly drives FORWARD about 100m, out into the open, turning to the right. Predictably, it is turned into a sieve in short order.