Mike D
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Posts posted by Mike D
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OK, I give up trying to get these pics in here. I'm using Netscape so I'm not sure if that is the problem or what, but I can't get the pics to post here. Didn't there used to be a button or something on here to do this sort of thing? Anyway, I've gone ahead and emailed them to Steve/Charles and Dano. Also, anyone else that wants the pics just send me an email at mikester@ibm.net and I'll be happy to send them to you as well. And if anyone can tell me how to get them to post here and Steve thinks it won't jam up the system, let me know how and I'll put them up.
Mike.
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Everybody,
Got the pics adjusted sooner than I thought. Didn't change the file size though since I didn't want to lose any of the clarity. Since they are still kind of big I'm going to post them to a separate thread called Sherman Armor Modifications, just to be sure they don't overload the system on this thread since it is already about 40k big or so from what I can see. Steve, if when I post them over on the new thread they bring the system to it's knees or something, just nuke the thread and I'll cut down the file sizes and repost them again.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
A fools wisdom knows no bounds other than the infinite space between his ears.
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Hoorayyyy! My daily fix has arrived. Now my life is complete.
Pat, thanks, BTW, for getting Fionn's pics from his turn 21 AAR fixed. They come through just fine now. And FWIW all the pics for this latest turn look like they came through too.
Mike
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Dano, Charles, et. al.,
I've got the pics scanned in thanks to my brothers assistance. They are way too big though both from a literal size stand point (on the screen) and file size too. Plus some of the contrast isn't as good as could be. So I'm going to do some work on them here today to whittle them down to size and polish them up a bit. Should be able to post them by sometime this evening. I will probably only post 2-3 of them though because I don't want to bring the CM board down since they will probably still be aroundn 100K in size or so each. I'll e-mail the others to Dano, Charles/Steve so you can have the rest of them too. Anyone else that wants the other pics can just send me an email at mikester@ibm.net and I'll be happy to e-mail them to you as well.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Pixman,
Do you actually believe you are going to be able to tear yourself away from your computer and CM to go skiing? C'mon man, your supposed to be a true-blue CM fanatic! You should already be well along the way to developing a totally 1 dimensional personality living, breathing and thinking only CM every waking moment of every day. Eventually when the game comes out, giving up everything else in life in order to play "The Game"; no more spending any time w/ the girlfriend/wife, showing up to work late everyday, if at all, because you stayed up all night playing "just one more turn", etc., etc. Finally, losing your job, the wife/girlfriend, and everything else that ever meant anything to you in life all in pursuit of becoming the perfect armchair battallion commander and thereby turning into a total CM junky. In the end somebody that still cares about you will call the funny farm police and they will come and get you. They'll find your hunched back form glued to your chair in front of the computer and you'll be mumbling, "d*** that Mikester, he's done it to me again....". They will try to get you to come peacefully, but you won't move from the chair. Four or five of them will then have to pounch on you tearing you away from the computer and prying the mouse from your clutched grasp of your now deformed hand. While you kick and scream they hold you down and others will come and put you into the straight jacket and duct tape over your mouth. It won't be a pretty scene.
Then, later, when you finally realize what you've become, and can admit to yourself that you truly do have a problem, they will release you to the rehab clinic. You'll come and join the rest of us at the Betty Ford Clinic for CM Junkies where we will all be "cured" of our terrible CM neuro-psychological disorder. Not sure what the cure would be, probably something involving electro-shock therapy or the like. Or maybe hypnosis: "You are getting very sleepy, your eyes are growing heavier each moment; yes, that's it. CM is a very very bad thing for you, it has caused great pain and distress in your life. You will no longer find any enjoyment or pleasure from playing CM." Of course it will take awhile to cure you. In the meantime you'll experience terrible nightmares of past battles, won and lost, total loss of appetite, and the like. But eventually after 6-12 months of frying your little pea brain w/ ever increasing doses of high voltage, hypnotizing you into a complete stupor, and whatever else it takes they will "cure" you.
When the long awaited day of release from the clinic finally arrives, however, you will be nothing but a shell of the man you once were. You'll be left with the IQ of an idiot, and will often times still experience horrific dreams and flashbacks to those glorious days of "joy" where you were locked in battle w/ your cyber-foe in a contest to the death. So you'll probably have to spend the rest of your life in therapy too, not to mention you'll most likely turn into an alcholic somewhere along the way. As far as any future, you won't have one. Eventually some poor slob managing a McDonald's will take pity on you and hire you to mop the floors. From there you might be lucky enough to move up to taking peoples orders where the highlight of each of your days will be saying: "do you want fries with that?"
Dear God Steve and Charles, stop now before it's too late!
I'll send you an e-mail and see what we can work out.
Mike
[This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 09-12-99).]
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Pak40,
Havn't seen the book on St Lo that you are referring to. But if you have any more info on it I'd be interested in finding out more about it.
Mike
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Yup Steve, I do believe that was it. Thanks for the reminder.
Mike D
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"It is not easy for you "Amis" to get these, though, since e.g. the french maps and photos do not ship to US as far as I know. If you send a few emails to Steve and Charles and beg them to offer the maps through BF.C, however, then there might be a solution."
Dearest Steve and Charles,
Let the begging begin here and now.
Have any of us ever mentioned what a swell couple of guys you two really are.........? I know you guys probably don't want to start a map sideline business at BTS. So, do you know some way, perhaps over the internet, that we can order the maps Martin is talking about directly from some source in Europe? Or, is there an importer here in the US that we can get these maps from? If all else fails maybe one called "BTS World Map Importers Limited", or something like that.
I would like to be able to get some decent quality topographical maps of Western Europe, but can't seem to find them anywhere over here in the States.Martin,
Is there some kind of numbering system on these maps? A master index of them? The reason I'm asking is if I can find out exactly what they are called, how they are identified by number, etc., then I might be able to get a local map company here in Denver to order them for me. I just need to know the exact details so they know what I'm trying to get a hold of, e.g. National Geographic institutes Map #3423-23G, Map of St. Lo and surrounding area.
Thanks much for your help in this matter,
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Hey Pat,
None of the pictures in Fionn's AAR came through, just the words of the report. Martin's seems to look OK though, pictures and all.
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Pak40,
I would think that the US National Archives, US Army Archives, etc. should have those photos. Problem is many/most of them probably are not scanned into the computer to just post somewhere for folks like us to download. Others may still be classified, although I think this is getting to be pretty rare. In any event, I would like to go through what they have at the National Archives, but most of it is back in the Washington DC area from what I understand. And that's a pretty long 3+ day drive for me.
So I don't think I'll be seeing anything there anytime soon. Not sure where the Army would have theirs hidden, maybe at West Point?Mike D
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Mr. Ryan,
I've found two pretty good "books" on what you are looking for. Actually they are more like pamphlets, but they are faily extensive and are based on actual German training manuals. I havn't had the chance to read them in their entirety yet, but what I have read has been pretty good so far.
German Squad Tactics WWII:
The German Squad in Combat and the Training Manual for Schnellen Truppen. Training and Employment of the Panzergrenadier Company.
by: Matthew Gajkowski
This isn't so much a book, as it is a manual, but it is quite interesting and sounds like what you are looking for. It's part of the Nafziger collection if you've heard of that.
German Panzer Tactics in WW II:
The German Armored Units from Platoon to Battalion in Combat. According to the Manuals of March 1939 to May 1943. Plus examples of Battlefield Modifications.
by: Charles C. Sharp
Again, another very interesting manual. It's also part of the Nafziger collection.
I got both of them from a book store right here in Denver call Aberdeen Bookstore. Their webpage is: www.sonic.net/~bstone/aberdeen
They've got all kinds of great stuff over there, some of which I've never seen anyplace else before. Definitely worth checking out.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
A fools wisdom knows no bounds other than the infinite space between his ears.
[This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 09-10-99).]
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Steve,
Somehow I doubt whoever that bomb load falls on all at once is going to be very happy, but such is war.
Like Fionn, it will make me happy though, since I tend to like to play the German side as well. Guess it has something to do w/ being half German. Mike D
aka Mikester
[This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 09-10-99).]
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Hey Dano,
George was a very friendly chap that I "met" over on another board (can't remember which one now, something to do w/ AFV's) who offered to actually send me copies of the photos he had when I put an inquiry up on their chat page some time back after the armor mod's to the Sherman discussion started here. The pictures he took are from someplace called Rock Island which, if I remember correctly, is somewhere in Illinois. They have a Sherman there and several other items of interest (howitzers, etc.) all in some sort of "outdoor" museum. I had the photos scanned in at one point, but lost them when I had to reformat my hard drive.
Anyway, for you, Charles, and anyone else that is interested I'm going to try and scan them again this weekend and then post them here.George, if your lurking about somewhere out there I hope this is OK w/ you ???
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Fionn,
I understand better now what you are saying. I guess I was thinking of the case where perhaps the plane didn't have the center bomb under the fuselage and just had the two under the wings (i.e was carrying a drop tank, etc.). How many different bomb loadout configurations were there for the P-47?
Mike
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Fionn,
I'm interested in making some scenario's. But I'm having trouble finding good topographical maps of the various areas in W. Europe. What are you, Martin, BTS, and others using as ref. material to make good maps? For example, where did you get the data you are using to make the Villers Bocage scenario you are working on that is accurate enough to make a decent 3D map from??? I've got some maps on order that are 1:100,000 scale of the Normandy area in France and 2 others at 1:100,000 scale of southern and east central Belgium, but havn't gotten them yet to see if they are any good. Over here in the states we can get excellent and highly detailed maps of many areas across the country that are put out by the US Geological (geographical?) Survey that many people use for hiking, etc. Are there similar maps available for France, Belgium, W. Germany, Holland, etc.??? Seems like there must be such maps of Europe too, if so, where can we get a hold of them???
Thanks,
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Fionn,
I guess that would seem to make sense. Although I would still question being able to drop one bomb from under one wing w/o dropping the other one vs. dropping both from the wings and maybe still having one under the belly. Especially in the case of a 500 pounder under each wing, if you only dropped one of them it would put the plane into a pretty definite roll to the side where the other bomb is still hanging under the wing. The pilot could likely correct for this by temporarily holding the stick over to kick the aileron's far enough to compensate and relevel the aircraft. But I somehow doubt they would make standard practice of doing such things as flying in such a manner is generally not recommended. So me still thinks they would have dropped both bombs from under the wings simultaneously, not just one at a time.
Regards,
Mike D
[This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 09-10-99).]
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Charles,
The pics of the modified Sherman that was knocked out in the Battle of the Bulge I sent you awhile back showed the adhoc field modifications with the welded on turret side armor plates as well as the front glacis plates. The tank is from the 4th armoured division and while the sign on it calls it an M4, it also goes on to state that it had a 76mm gun. I lost some stuff I had on my computer here recently and the jpg's I had of these got nuked, otherwise I'd post them here or email them back to you.
In any event, looking at the photos I have here (courtesy of Mr. George E. Bush) there were two plates each, on either side of the turret (4 total, although the one's on the left turret side are no longer there, but you can see the weld lines were they had been attached). They were definitely thinner than the one's on the tanks front hull which looked to be about 2 to 2.5 inches thick. I'd say the one's on the turret were about 1" thick or slightly more, maybe 1.5" thick max. They only cover about 80% of the exposed side of the turret and are roughly located mid way top-to-bottom on the turret side. Also, if one were looking down at the tanks turret from above with the main gun at 12:00, the 2 plates on each side covered the side of the turret from roughly the gun mantle around to about 3 o'clock on the right side and 9 o'clock on the left side. The left rear, right rear, and rear of the turret didn't show such plates, or any evidence that any had ever been welded on either. I still have the actual photos so I'll try to find the photo's this weekend and scan them back in and post them here if you want.
FWIW the photos also show that these mod's did do some good since it's obvious that this tank was in a nasty battle when it met its doom. There are 4 very deep gouges in the thicker plates on the front hull which look to have been caused by a 75mm or larger shell impact (my guess here). It's also evident that either a separate round, or a ricochet from one of the other four, took a chunk out of the lower portion of the main gun barrel which obviosly ended it's combat effectiveness right then and there. The apparent knock-out shot though was to the turret. It appears that just above where the extra side armour was welded on the left side at about 3 o'clock or so and where the turret side wraps around to meet the top of the turret that an AP shell penetrated the turret. Most likely one or more persons in the turret were killed. The tank apparently didn't "brew-up", however, since there is no evidence of fire, black char marks, etc.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
A fools wisdom knows no bounds other than the infinite space between his ears.
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Fionn,
If you could post them over at TGN w/ a message here telling us where to find them that would be great.
Thanks, once again, for doing this as well.
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Was this common for most allied aircraft, or a peculiar trait (nasty one in this case) of the P-47? Just curious.
Mike
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There's something I don't get about this entire air attack.
There has been only 1 airplane attacking so far, a P-47 right? At least that is the way it sound to me reading the above statements.
Assuming the above to be true for the moment. How many different bomb loadouts did the P-47 have. It is a fighter, after all (well perhaps we should call it a fighter bomber), so I'm thinking that it probably could only carry 1 larger bomb (mayber 500 lb. max?), or perhaps 2 smaller ones under the wings (say 2x 250 lb.). Other loadouts against tanks would probably be several rockets under each wing. Given this, let's assume it was 2 smaller bombs. Now I'll grant you that whether a 250 lb. bomb hits the Panther/Stug, or a 500 lb. slams home, the result is pretty much going to be the same; i.e. dead tank. My question is if we assume for the moment the plane was carrying 2 bombs, did the P-47, or any other aircraft of the day in the allied arsenal for that matter, have the ability to only drop one of them at a time? I have always been under the impression that when the pilot hit the bomb release in aircraft of this era that all bombs were dropped at the same time, not selectively one at a time. Or am I totally mistaken? If I'm right, how did the single P-47 kill the Stug (with assumed bomb hit) when it had already bombed the Panther? Was it a strafing run w/ it's 50. cal machineguns that managed to penetrate the roof/upper armour of the Stug? I guess I would like to understand better just exactly what happened in this devasting arial attack by a single allied plane. While I suppose it is entirely possible, to lose 2 tanks to a single allied aircraft seems somewhat amiss to me. Of course, my assumptions/facts may be all screwed up too.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
A fools wisdom knows no bounds other than the infinite space between his ears.
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BTS,
Great to see that progress is being made. Keep up the great work.
Mike D
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Glad to see that this made it into the game too. I'm a little worried though that folks might abuse this in their scenario designs. I hope this doesn't turn into one of those features that all the amatuer scenario designers out there think needs to be included in every game design they do. Will there be some decent guidelines in the manual as to where and under what circumstances this should be put into a given scenario vs. leaving it out? Anyway, nice addition to have in the original release of the game. Keep up the fantastic work BTS.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
A fools wisdom knows no bounds other than the infinite space between his ears.
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Glad to see this make it into the game. Thanks BTS!
Mike D
aka Mikester
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Steve,
FWIW, if it doesn't make all that much difference please allow the total number of units per side to go up as high as a heavily reinforced battalion for both sides. Maybe even a battalion and a half for each side. Those of us that do have better systems would like to be able to model slightly larger battles if possible. So long as doing this doesn't somehow adversely affect the game itself in someway (not enough basic memory allocation availble in the game to track this many units, etc.) I can't see that doing this would be a problem. But of course, there is probably something I'm not aware of that may provide some limit to how many units the game can handle already.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
Sherman Armor Modification Pics
in Combat Mission Archive #1 (1999)
Posted
Moon,
I see. Patrick over at thegamers.net sent me a message something along those lines too. Actually, I've sent him the pic's and he is going to post them over there. When he's done, one of us will post the URL here for anyone interested to go there to view the pics.
Regards,
Mike D
aka Mikester
[This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 09-12-99).]