gunnergoz

Which explains why the Israelis designed a commander's cupola so effective in providing cover while letting the TC look around, that it was copied and license-built by the USA for the M-60 series of tanks and was later adapted for the M-1 Abrams.

MacArthur was fired because his conduct threatened civilian leadership supremacy over the US military. An enormously popular figure, MacArthur had the ego to go with it. He had the backing of influential members of Congress and for many, could do no wrong. Truman saw MacArthur's posturing and belligerence in Korea as the sort of thing that could launch a full-scale war with China and the Soviet Union. IIRC, MacArthur was all for droppin nukes into China and for more aggressive actions to cut off Soviet support of the N.Korean/Chinese forces. When MacArthur was unresponsive to hints and signals from the Executive Branch to tone it down and get in line, Truman went over there and personally fired the general. You have to hand it to Truman, he did it himself and didn't just send a messenger boy to take care of business.

Have you posted in the Opponent Finder Forum yet?

Ah, but the 2.5" version was available in the later part of WWII. That is what is was designed for. I'm a thinking late 1944, but I can't exactly tell ya when. </font>

It's true. The Germans knew a good thing when they saw it and did the design right...in a workable warhead size. The US 2.75 was designed around what was basically an AT rifle grenade warhead.

To the Germans, Russian planes like the Sturmovik will always look hostile. The steppes, on the other hand...

Ah, but the 2.5" version was available in the later part of WWII. That is what is was designed for. I'm a thinking late 1944, but I can't exactly tell ya when. </font>

With the two man T34 turrets, there's very limited ability to acquire targets while the commander is busy with his head in the turret and looking through the narrow field of view of the gunsight. It was a problem in real life and tank commanders in almost every army were prime candidates to be picked off. I'm not sure there is much of a solution. Post war command cupola designs gave the commander more protection while maintaining some ability to look out directly, but there is alway the risk of a sniper getting the commander, especially if the ranges are short or the vehicle is not in motion.

There's quite a difference in size between the complete 105 round and the 75. You can pack a lot more 75's in there, even for a halftrack. Another reason to limit the T19's load was the fact that the halftrack chassis was overloaded with the howitzer itself and didn't have much reserve capacity for ammo, which is pretty heavy in and of itself. The M7 was a whole different story, being built on the M3 tank chassis. All in all, these halftrack conversions were not considered very successful and were stopgap solutions in any case. Only the M3 GMC with the 75mm was relatively long-lived, being used as a second-line support weapon in other theaters than Europe. Happily, the halftrack AA variants, in particular the ones with the Maxon 50 cal turret, did very well. The turret and ammo was a better match for the halftrack's load carrying capacity.

I'm at home now and just re-checked the length of that German infantry gun round vs the US 75mm round. The warhead ratio I'd guessed while at work (2/3 the length of the US 75mm) was pretty right on, but the cartidge case on the German IG was a lot shorter than the US case...it is approximately 20-25 per cent of the US case in length. Meaning? There is a LOT less propellant in that infantry gun than in the US 75mm gun.

Just to mix it up a bit...is it not true that a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor is entitled to be saluted first by all, of any rank whatever? Or so I've heard.

I collect ordnance and have an example of the WW2 German 75mm infantry gun round...the warhead is about 2/3 the length of the US 75mm round (used in everything from the 75mm Sherman tank to the French WW1 75mm GPF), while the cartridge case is about 1/3 the length of the US round's cartridge case. You end up with a very compact and fairly powerful round in these "pocket cannon" but not much muzzle velocity or range.

What those guys said... Seriously, though, the US Army did come from a culture where the unnecessary loss of life in battle was thought to be a good thing. The US did and still does, prefer to throw shells, rather than soldiers, at a military objective. See Bolger's "On Death Ground" for a good expression of this philosophy. Not a bad philosophy, as long as you achieve your ends without too much collateral damage. The problem with it is that there are times when you must resort to old-fashioned mano-a-mano combat techniques to get the enemy out of their holes and hideaways. Your troops have to be trained, led, equipped and prepared for that. Early in WW2, US troops were not so prepared. After a while, the survivors got better at it. Needless to say, today it's not a problem that US troops can be accused of. Our guys on the ground will go face to face with anyone, anytime and will come out on top almost every time. There are times when firepower is a substitute, but it has limits and in the end, the ground is held, and taken, by the grunts.

Grog reflex, it's called. A chonic, untreateable disorder of the ego. Symptoms include the compulsion to seek out trivial details of utter irrelevance, then to inflict same upon innocent bystanders who had asked for the time. While uncureable, it can be placed into remission by being shamed into silence by an even more obsessive/compulsive grog who has more to say about less and less. Hope this helps!

Ok, Ok, so now I'm going to have to go out and buy the damn thing so I know what you people are talking about. Is it out in trade paper yet?

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG... Any idiot can tell from the position of the tow cables that he was PULLING the KV-2 when he lost his footing and drew it with him down the slope!

That's all grog BS. Artillerymen will tell you the rings represent the numbers of hernias inflicted upon crewmen having to limber and unlimber the big S.O.B.s all the time.

I have to say, whatever may be the case of company commanders in real life, my use of them in CM is to lead the leaderless...typically observe for massed mortars, or lead separate ATG or MG groups a bit behind the lines, or to support one flank or the other with AT guns, a detached HMG, whatever, etc. Good leader units are valuable in the trenches all right, but somehow I resist putting the old C.O. right on the front line if I can avoid it...just don't like losing the Old Man, if you can imagine that! Talk about "projection"...

Michael- I'm at work now and can't provide examples, but my reading (e.g. McDonald, "Company Commander") tends to bear Jason out. Company commanders had a pretty high fatality rate in WW2 and even Korea. They are considered the lowest level of command normally operating under direct fire. I'm sure that a "bad" CO could find ways to avoid exposure, but they wouldn't likely last too long if they did that, since the company commander was expected by BN/Rgt to produce results and that took a lot of hands-on. FWIW, see also the experience of Capt Winters of Band of Brothers fame, atypical in performance perhaps, but otherwise representative in the amount of exposure to combat that a company commander had to have. I don't think things have changed too much, either, even today...

In part from my most relevant answer in another thread: How to play CM: Don a WW2 tanker's helmet and some greasy coveralls. Don't bother shaving or showering for a few days. Turn the lights down low throughout the room. If you have a stereo, put on some Wagner real loud (you know the tune already, don't you?) Burn some canvas, wood, metal shavings and animal hair (unless your own is conveniently falling out) in an ashtray by the computer. Let the aroma waft around the now-smoky room. Go without eating for a couple of days, then eat a half pound of jerky and crackers real fast. Wash it down with water from your dog's bowl. Stay up a couple of nights. Turn off the phone and TV. Tell your significant other you have a communicable disease, assuming you don't already have one. Insert CM disk and pick a scenario. Havablast. Be sure to scream, whimper and curse a lot. Don't answer the doorbell because they'll just take you away anyhow. When you're done with the scenario or totally fried, walk outside and mill around a mall, experiencing what it must have been like for returning veterans. Avoid cops and people with big nets. Return home if you can find it, dial in the PC to this forum and tell everyone what war is really like. Congratulations! You're now a Grog!

It may be just a "game" but you haven't savored it until you try this: Don a WW2 tanker's helmet and some greasy coveralls. Don't bother shaving or showering for a few days. Turn the lights down low throughout the room. If you have a stereo, put on some Wagner real loud (you know the tune already, don't you?) Burn some canvas, wood, metal shavings and animal hair (unless your own is conveniently falling out) in an ashtray by the computer. Let the aroma waft around the now-smoky room. Go without eating for a couple of days, then eat a half pound of jerky and crackers real fast. Wash it down with water from your dog's bowl. Stay up a couple of nights. Turn off the phone and TV. Tell your significant other you have a communicable disease, assuming you don't already have one. Insert CM disk and pick a scenario. Havablast. Be sure to scream, whimper and curse a lot. Don't answer the doorbell because they'll just take you away anyhow. When you're done with the scenario or totally fried, walk outside and mill around a mall, experiencing what it must have been like for returning veterans. Avoid cops and people with big nets. Come back here and tell us about it! What are you waiting for? Put on that helmet and get going, soldier!

I think some people are making a mountain out of a maushill. I for one don't really care if it made it in or not, I have enough challenge using the historical vehicles against one another. And for some reason, the fantasy hypothetical scenarios (e.g. Abrams vs Panthers) never excited me much either. For that matter, I was recently infatuated for a time with Silent Storm...an excellent WW2 tactical simulator at the individual soldier level. But once the "science fiction" elements of the game kicked in, it lost all it's appeal to me. To each their own, of course. I'd just rather see the limited resources of the BFC team going into realistic, plausible and historical simulations.

Use them for night battles...they nicely demarcate the lines of defeat...

BFC, Pleeeze include a Sumner class destroyer on wheels for the next CM, so I can blow away all those Mausies that keep showing up! Please fix or somefink.

In the late 40's and early 50's, the US Army printed some books about German experiences on the Eastern Front, drawn from survivors interviewed by US historians after the war. Obviously, most of the people interviewed were German, this being the early Cold War...not much was coming out of the Soviet side then. I know that in one of these books --- which have since been reprinted --- there is an actual incident described in some detail about a KV-2 that held up the advance of a German panzer korps in July '41 IIRC. The story is likely true considering the official source and research done...after all, the US Army was looking for ways to fight the Soviets and war seemed a distinct likelihood back then, so the experience of German soldiers and officers were a gold mine of tactical and operational expertise. I recall it pretty well...the KV-2 was blocking the main road that was the axis of advance of the korps. Initial attempts to knock it out with 37mm guns were futile, even when efforts were made to target potentially vulnerable spots. The thing just sat there and menaced all comers. Eighty-eights were brought up and didn't kill it off, though some rounds apparently penetrated to some degree. German engineers finally got up close enough to set charges that stunned the crew and, IIRC, the crew was taken out when they attempted to escape. By then, the tank was immobile from track hits or whatever, but the main gun was still functional. It apparently took about 30-40 hours to finally conclude the episode, if memory serves me. I've also seen photos of this particular tank, or at least that purport to be the same one...riddled and peppered with dents and pockmarks, but still ominous and deadly almost to the end. Anyway, there is credible evidence that at least one such incident took place.