Gyrene

Rick, we seem to be out of sync here, and I'd like you to know that I'm not trying to flame you or anything like that. Not all pilots were newbies and thinking of their safety only. A 22 or 23 year old pilot could easily have 40+ missions in his name. The best pilots or gunners are the ones who can act beyond the ordinary to get the job done. We should not be to quick in dismissing anecdotal evidence. Take the case of riverboat crews in Vietnam: They developed the technique of skipping 40mm grenade rounds in the water to give the rounds enough time to arm and to skip underneath the foliage. This was not in any US Navy manuals and was not officially taught, but was very common practice. Give another 20 years and many by-the-book scholars will flatly deny that this was ever done, as it was never sanctified by official publication, regardless of what the veterans have to say. Maybe fighter pilots in WWII tried to skip bullets under tanks and maybe they didn't, but if they didn't it wasn't because they were too scared to try a particular tactic, but more because they thought it wouldn't work. Gyrene

the bulk of squad firepower in WW II came from the squad automatic - in the case of the Germans, the MG 42. The type of rifle is largely irrelevant; the bolt action K98/Lee Enfield/Springfield/Mosin Nagant were really just a security blanket. Semi-autos like the M-1 Garand, Tokarev, G/K 43 or even assault rifles like the FG 42 and MP 44 were 'nice to have', but likely didn't increase the number of men killed by infantry small arms fire. Machine guns were for suppression, until you could maneuver on the enemy and kill him with grenades, make him run away, surrender, or fix him in place so you could drop mortar and artillery fire on his head. Rifles did kill enemy troops, but the role the typical rifleman played on the WW II battlefield is often misunderstood. He was important, but more often than not, he simply wasn't a killer. To that end, the "pesky" K98 was just as good a weapon as any other.</font>

46 to go... Gyrene

Rick, my mentioning that pilots often felt invincible was to illustrate the point that trying to skip bullets under tanks and tricks like that were the kind of things that fighter pilots would likely try, if they were told they might work. I just think that the notion that most ground support pilots would just want to get rid of their payloads and scoot away from the scene as mentioned as incorrect. Given enough flak that might be the case, but that was not the norm. Gyrene [ March 13, 2002, 01:30 PM: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

You must be talking about my...Nah...Too easy Gyrene

The forum has almost 8000 registered members, with only 49 left to hit that number. We could get a cake or something. Gyrene

They're marked so the side who laid them down knows where they are. In real life these would be just lines on a map and some local-knowledge symbols to prevent friendly casualties. On the flipside the markers would be laid down by enemy engineers as they locate the mines. Gyrene

You have not talked to many veteran fighter pilots have you? Most of the throughout the history of flying have seen themselves as invincible, their attitudes usually being the complete opposite of the soldiers on the ground. Gyrene [ March 13, 2002, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

It's a bug. You'll get some flak for bringing the problem up. It won't get fixed in CMBO. The bug will probable be fixed for CMBB. The end. Gyrene

Would a strafing run by a .50 equipped fighter do any damage to tanks like Tigers & Panthers? I'm not usre how much armor their top decks have and if a .50 would do anything to them, but footage of fighters strafing tank columns with machine guns in WWII is pretty common. Gyrene

The "slowness" of OS X is not apparent when you start to realize you can do 3 or 4 critical tasks at once reliably, something that OS 9 & before were horrible at. I went on a OS 9 (And thus CM) free month to force myself to learn X and I'm glad I did. Gyrene

Photoshop Elements is basically Photoshop 5.5 without Channels and 4 color (CMYK) support. It's definitively worth the money. Gyrene

I'm more for the cool and fashionable meself. Gyrene

They'll charge you if you lose any of your gear issue like harnesses and ammo pouches. There's always a surplus store near a Marine base selling all that crap to departing Marines. I hated dealing with MCP (Marine Corps Property, or supply), biggest d*ck heads in the planet next to MP's. I can't remember what the pay scale was, but I think I made a little under $1000 a month as a L/Cpl (E3) with over 3 years. You can get a pdf file with the current pay scale here. The only way a Marine got to save money was going on ship or on a tactical deployment where we had no place to spend our money. Gyrene

The holes in the road wheels are definitively .50 Gyrene

You have a plate in your head, so why not?</font>

Missing a Tiger tank from 14m 3 times is pretty much BS to me, and it happens more than it should in the game. At 14m that Tiger's back side would pretty much fill up the field of view of the PIAT gunner in that direction, he would require skill to miss :mad: Gyrene [ March 07, 2002, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

C'mon you sons-a-b*tches! Do you wanna live forever? Gyrene

CM:BO has been available in England - and the rest of the world - since June 1990. The only difference is that come this Friday, you won't have to buy it over the web. Seems a small point to wait 18+ months for :confused: Enjoy the game when you get it JonS</font>

Nice palm tree Tanks...Now blow the top off of it and we're set. Gyrene

The pay rate was pretty good....If you never left the barracks and always ate at the messhall. We also had an exchange program for dress uniforms, but utilities come out of your pocket, as did all the brass, ribbons & such. Marines get paid the same as any other branch, and after 3 months of boot camp everyone is disappointed at how little your first paycheck is, especially if you had to buy Dress Blues and an airline ticket back home for leave. (I did not need either, as Blues were optional when I was in, and I was within driving distance to home) Most large bases run a "thrift" store in which you can buy used uniforms and was a great place to find a bargain, like cammie utilitiy sets for $10 Gyrene

Thankfully, they will be making the bill of the floppy hat smaller, it's freaking huge as it is. Gyrene</font>

I'm no longer serving, but I can tell you that the state of the art in thermal imaging makes any conventional camouflage completely useless. FLIR can see right through most types of camouflage today, including a dug in sniper hide. Gyrene

Thankfully, they will be making the bill of the floppy hat smaller, it's freaking huge as it is. Gyrene

The Jeep is quite a bit faster than the Kubel, you'll have to give it a head start. Gyrene