Skipper
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Posts posted by Skipper
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What was the name of the guy who dropped a first A-bomb?
On the appraisal of Hitler's personality and abilities, I'd refer anyone to Churchill's monumental "World War II".
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Ahh, yes - it was a turbocharger that I was talking about.
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> I'll let you reconsider that statement and
> do some research.
Put it this way, it was not usual at all (if we are talking about the same thing - ie, compressor on the air intake). Turbines for these things were tough to make at the then state of metallurgy.
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> I would add that the lowlights mentioned
> reflect on the leadership and not the men
> involved.
There are two versions: "You are the boss, you are a fool" and "You are the boss, I am a fool". Both are wrong. Leadership is also "the men involved".
[ 05-02-2001: Message edited by: Skipper ]
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For Soviets there may be many contestants for the best moment (Bagration is a good choice, too), but the worst is undoubtedly the summer 1941.
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> benefit of supercharging
No such thing in a WWII plane engine.
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The only part of the diesel that has to be high tolerance is the high pressure fuel pump and the injectors. Both are very simple to replace and do not require much of any tuning after replacement. And it goes without electric ignition - which is the major maintenance PITA in an old petrol engine. Besides, diesel oil vapour doesnot explode. Diesels are also more fuel-efficient.
Afaik, germans did not go with diesels for the simple reason that they lacked diesel oil. They used synthetic fuels for their tanks etc, and all the diesel they could make from their sparse supply of oil went for the Kriegsmarin (sp?).
About the use of engines in winter, it always amused me that in Russian Far North (where I used to live) everybody would get up in the morning, pull a car battery out of closet, put a flame under engine, maybe use a lighter to unfreeze the lock on the door, and go to work. Otoh, if anything close to that temperature would happen in Cyprus (where I live at the moment), no car will start, thousands will die and it will generally be a disaster of epic proportions.
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Okay, if anyone wants a flame war, here is some fuel for that.
No name calling, and I positively refuse to talk in "the best anything" terms. So...Germans did not consider "an average GI" as the toughest opponent they had to face. Far from it - Western Front posting was considered as a vacation after Eastern Front (well, almost). On the contrary, Eastern Front posting was regularly used as a punishment.
Soviets held quite low opinion about fighting capability of the Japanese army that they crushed in Manchuria (although they recognised the fanaticism).
Germans had about 80 million, USSR - about 190. However, a few more countries fought along Germans in the Eastern Front, another quite a few had their industries and agriculture working flat out for the German war effort, and USSR has lost 6 million of the regular army in summer 1941. And they still won after all that.
Hitler was neither a military idiot, nor a genius. He was a leadership genius, however. Without his leadership, germans would be unable to do much of anything in WWII (which, IMHO, was likely to happen anyway). He distrusted many of his own generals, for a good reason. There were more than one attempt to stage a putch against him by the miiltary during the war.
Western allies started fighting seriously in Europe when the outcome of the war was already more or less decided. It just made the end quicker, more decisive and somewhat less attractive for Uncle Joe Stalin
Lend-lease food, trucks and other stuff were very important to Red Army success in 1942-43, no doubt about it. It did not play a big part in 1941 events, however - neither Barbarossa, nor Soviet counteroffensive in Moscow. Ie, Barbarossa failed virtually without western allies involvement.
In 1942-45 Germans did not inflict unusually heavy casualties on the Soviet Army.
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What other reason beyond bigger AT guns entering service do you need? A medium tank should be able to face an enemy's normal AT gun and have a good chance to survive the encounter. Otherwise, it loses a lot of tactical options. Because AT gun nearly always has a first shot, if not first two or three in such a duel, enough frontal plate thickness to defeat an AP round of a given caliber gets on the top of design specifications.
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Back to Luftwaffe, one critically important result of the german air superiority that is often overlooked was air recon. Which was then the best, if not the only way to follow enemy tactical redeployments quickly enough to counter them.
The lack of air recon data was in fact one of the biggest command and control problems that soviet commanders experienced in 1941.
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Judging by the title "Barbarossa to Berlin" we are talking about 1941+. I guess...
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Throughout the war USSR kept a sort of "armistice" with Japan until August 1945. My impression is that Japanese never really wanted to go north. Their defeat in a border conflict in 1939 (Halhin-Gol) helped, too. However, in perception of Soviet leaders, the threat was there.
Hence, USSR maintained a sizeable force in Far Eastern military district throughout the war. This force was "sizeable" only in manpower - no modern tanks, very few heavy weapons. Part of that force was Pacific Fleet, consisting of no less than 40 submarines and an assortment of surface ships, mainly DDs and smaller (by doctrine, USSR had lots of subs and coastal defence ships, but very few capital ships and no aircraft carriers at all).
Afaik, during 1941-44 Soviet Pacific Fleet worked in convoys and such, and there were no large engagements with Japanese Imperial Navy, except a few incidents.
After the war in Europe was over, and following his commitments in Yalta, Stalin ordered redeployment of a lot of troops and their equipment from Europe to Far East. This force went through Japanese Quantung Army like a hot knife through butter. Success of this operation was largely determined by a series of strikes in unexpected places. This included a crossing of "impassable" terrain in Mongolia (Goby desert and mountain range) and several sea landings. The landings were, quite naturally, assisted by the navy.
[ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: Skipper ]
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On that "Komsomolets" artillery tow vehicle already mentioned here. During the defence of Sevasopol, they camouflaged these things as dummy tanks (complete with composite plywood/rubber armor, 76 mm log and a bow MG for firepower).
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Sorry for nit-picking, but if memory serves, the IS-85 was originally referred to as simply IS, and with arrival of IS-122 they started to call the 85mm version IS-85. These are designations I've seen in actual soviet AARs. IS-3, on the other hand was indeed officially designated as IS-3, and I suspect that names IS-1 and IS-2 came to use at that time.
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On the "pet" issue of "human waves", "unarmed mobs" etc etc.
Q: How will CM2 model soviet troops differently?
A: QTE ... it will feel quite different to command a unit of the Red Army than players are used to from the original Combat Mission. Generally speaking, morale and firepower will be high, but command efficiency will be low. UNQTE
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Said to have 1700 posters from various countries and periods.
WWII collection: http://poster.genstab.ru/ww2.htm
Few samples:
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Not about a Panther, but there was a report (Voronezh Front , 1943) that Tigers can be successfully engaged by a 45mm AT gun at distances of 300m or closer. To quote "a morally strong fighter can rather easily hit the tank's vulnerable spots".
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The list is here (in russian):
http://history.vif2.ru/library/archives/losses/losses6_r.html
It does list several 45mm side penetrations, a couple ricochets and even a frontal penetration of gun mask on this tank:
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Firefly moving fast from left to right flank of a medium map, well behind my forward elements. Seeing a JgdPanther on a hill well behind "his" forward elements. Squeezing 1 round. I'd say 700m, almost frontal aspect. Bang - one dead JgdPanther.
Needless to say, this JgdPz was the only real AT asset my opposition had. If only a quad flak burst did not jam my Firefly's gun on the next turn...
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> even though they all preach the wonders of communism.
In that particular song? Where? :confused:
PS There is nothing in the text about democracy and free markets, either.
[ 04-22-2001: Message edited by: Skipper ]
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> I vote for Symphony No. 7 "Lenningrad"
Man, that's a choice! Btw, have you heard that the premiere performance of that symphony took place in the besieged city itself?
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try adding http:// in the beginning. I cant put it in the post because this board software thinks there may be no () in the URL.
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Continuing our "dry runs" at CM2 this and CM2 that (I do hope that BTS chaps read at least some of them).
Here is my version ("The Holy War", an MP3 sound file):
web.referent.ru:2003/nvk/forum/files/Ivan_cat/Svyaschennaya_vojna_(Krasnoznamennyj_ansambl_).mp3
What is yours?
By the way, the link I posted will not work for long. This is a "dumping ground" of russian VIF2 forum - older files are removed.
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> Many of the tank crews pressed into
> service in 1941 had never even seen indoor
> plumbing, let alone an internal combustion
> engine
In what way was it different from the tank crews pressed into service in the following five years? The former had one to two years to train (and train they did), the latter normally had a few weeks crash course. Simple machine repairs are a relatively easy skill. If you have spares and time.
Best soldiers of WWII?
in Combat Mission Archive #3 (2001)
Posted
Yup, that's the one. Unsurpassed for the "killing machine" so far. Btw, I am sure he was one of the finest bomber pilots, too. They should have picked him for a reason.