Paco QNS

From "Mine were of trouble", by Peter Kemp (cited by Mark Hannan): ------------------------ From the "Directivas Circunstanciales ... de Alfereces Provisionales" 1938:

Found this article War in the Sahara, Bogart-Style by Kenneth Koyen.

Her is a preview: BBC News Look in "Images of war".

The boardgame Turning Point: Stalingrad had a nice map of both the city and the suburbs, based on aerial photos. You can see another view of the board in the article Consider the odds, sir! and even get the PDF rules here (9,8 MB): http://www.avalonhill.com/rules/TPS.pdf Regards and forward.

Go to the Scenario depot It is "Stalingrad the movie scene", or "S. the movie" by Daniel Haeni. It´s quite interesting, and reflects well the film. Against the AI, is winnable, BTW.

They were also sent as lend lease to the Soviet Union (tough not to CMBB). IIRC, some of them were sent via Persia.

"The Trick" to reduce ammo wastage with OB mortars is to give them a "Rotate" order -I´m too lazy, but I´ll try to discover searching who invented this-. The more degrees off target, the more seconds it will employ first rotating and then backing to point their target (around 20 seconds delay per 90 degrees. Maximum is 40 seconds for a 180º rotation). Obviously, the target will be free of bombardment the first part of the turn, so is a good idea to alternate the mortars in the pair with different delays (mortars always must be used in a two battery, or more). ((In older times, another trick was to give the mortar a tiny movement order, but my present experiment -with CMBO and a 3" mortar targeted via HQ- doesn´t work; probably only to for direct fire?)) Regards.

About the rifle grenades, in the Pacific, this report: Second Marine Division Report on Gilbert Islands-Tarawa Operation you can find the following cites -and many others, on all weapons- :

Almost all railroads I´ve seen are built on a bed of crushed rocks, about twenty centimeters of high and around double that under the soil level. It depends heavily on the terrain, drainage and annual-rain-index. Main problems are karstic soils and others with little consistency. Heavy rains dissolve them, when drainage fails to prevent eroding. Do a search on Google Images, using "ferrovia" -and ignore the brazilian pictures-. Here is a modern pic Ferrovia Lugano-Ponte Tresa, cerca de Orcesco Please reformulate, if you question remains unanswered.

Thank you, Martin. Best regards.

I am playing this Op, but there is a problem. ... possible s p o i l e r for those playing from the german side ... In the US briefing, it is referenced as a 4 battle op, though once on play there are 5 battles. Is it to allow a) skip the night combat and/or use another battle to take the Mesarinolo Mount? -very useful, if (. At the beginning of the fourth battle, my roadblocks are 500 yards apart from the Highway Nº 87 !! - - - - And congratulations, Moon. I like the operation very much. A river crossing, taking a mountain -and a town, too-, you can´t ask for more !! (oh, and fighting german tanks also). - - - Feliz Navidad y próspero año nuevo para todos.

A L L A R E S P O I L E R S --- Or: what do you expected in this topic? --- I tried this battle, from the allied side, giving the italians a +1 Experience Bonus. Judging the initial set up -historical- too "interesting" to my taste, I asigned half the tank force to support my infantry attack. a)Arty Plan: Pre-targeted the sandbagged positions in TentMosque, SallyPort, and the dual and foursome in the left and right flanks of my easterly combined armas attack. Also pre-target the center HQ position, and the dual sandbagged forts of the main gate -didn´t used a shell in the last, though-. b)East Assault: The infantry will probe the defenses, with an initial jump-point staged in the cemetery, to assault the SallyPort. To prevent an ambush there /too obvious/ a recon was made in a wide front, clearing also a external sandbag -near the TentMosque-. The Matildas were extremely useful, only two inmobs -the M menace-, and one KO by inmob+gunhits. Another couple distracted the TentMosque -being also inmobilized-. The last Matilda supported the advance into the Camp. Only cleared the Port and the four houserows to the HQ -only disputing this (not taking it), with a Rifle squad versus a Bersaglieri inside the building in the end turn-. The assault was too cautious, and slow. ((Lesson learned: half the 3´ mortars ammo will have been better invested in smoke, helping the infantry attack, and not trying to smash guns)). c)West tank attack: a real duck shooting of italian "tanks". Two inmobs by mines and another in front of the guns of the MainGate. The rest of tanks entered the Camp -unsupported-, and suffered one Abandoned and two KO -one of them a BREW-UP by a Platoon HQ (Tte. Viale)-. At end, one Matilda was holding a northern flag and two others were near the General HQ. ((Lesson learned: better have joined the tanks with the infantry and then mutually support them)). FINAL TALLY: Major Victory as Allied, 74% to 26%. 160 men OK (404 axis OK); 59 casualties (290 axis cas.); 14 KIA (69 axis KIA); 5 captured -Matilda crewmembers- (62 axis captured); 8 axis guns destroyed; 6 allied vehicles destroyed (27 axis vehicles destroyed). All in all, a nice and entertaining scenario. ((Mental final note: stay in roads to avoid mine losses))

_ Beg pardon, but that is neither an IZ or IZM. This is an IZM And an IZ was almost identical, but with a mini-turret on top of its turret, mounting another MG. Around 15 vehicles were used during the SCW. The 11 survivors were returned to Italy or/and NA. Articles here: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/spain/Spain-1.html and here -in spanish-: http://www.panzernet.com/articulos/historia/carrossps2/fichasguerracivil.htm http://www.panzernet.com/articulos/historia/carrossps2/guerracivil4.htm Regards. ---------------------------- edited to correct: Yes, that was an IZ -though the turret seems squared to me, and it lacked the coverwheels - Here is another view: from: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Italy/ItalianArmoredCars.html ----------------------------------- [ December 08, 2003, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: Paco QNS ]

The icon is named "fasces". http://www.livius.org/fa-fn/fasces/fasces.html You can found them closer than you think: http://clerk.house.gov/histHigh/Virtual_Tours/Artifacts/bronze.php

CMAK landed today at Seville, Spain. Just for the long weekend. Yessss.

Preordered to BFC. All my percentages belong to them.

Confirmed, though it is the bolt head. Citing http://homepage.tinet.ie/~nightingale/mg42.html (more exactly, citing the google cache from that page)

IIRC it is variable (changing the bolt). Regards.

Pheasant Plucker : Yep in Tunisia. ------------------------------------- The Matildas II weren´t there, though. BTW, A little test: How many tanks can you see in "Fun in the sun..."?

Happy birthday ! What´s the title of the first CMAK pic? "Eight Army going up" ? Congratulations to all the team, and keep the good work!

They stockpiled quite a bunch of all things before the war (tungsten mainly from China). During WW2, both Portugal -with gobernment imposed limits- and (mainly) Spain sold tungsten to Germany. Mostly, per auction. Bidders were both Germany and Great Britain -to block german boughts-. Later the U.S.A. also entered in. Spain´s production went from 225 Tons. in 1939 to 3.974 Tons. in 1943 ( 17,66 times ). Prices escalade from 639 $ /Ton. in 1939 to 27.397 $ /Ton. ( 42,87 times ). Good article (in spanish) withs graphs -though incomplete- in last pages: http://www.unizar.es/eueez/cahe/caruana.pdf Another article ""A Wolfram in Sheep's Clothing: Economic Warfare in Spain and Portugal, 1940-1944"" (go to "Download the selected file" at the end of webpage to get the PDF) http://ideas.repec.org/p/rut/rutres/200008.html Regards.

// Off topic .Semantic-and-strictly-neutral-post// Re to Elvis : Firstable, "cabron" is not a spanish word -with the local-variant exception related later in (2)-. 1)"Cabrón" -with an accented "o"- means: a) Buck, or he-goat; In a figurative+vulgar+insultant sense, the consenting-adultery husband; Also figurative, a bad intended person; c) In Chile -localism (not the announced before)-, a ruffian. 2)"Cabron", pronounced //caaaaabronnnn//-closing mouth at ending and gritting teeht-: In Cádiz´s carnival jargon can be both a mild derogatory term and an admirative-envious sting. ((Carnival in Cádiz is a sort of "Peng city" ! )) http://www.andalucia.com/festival/carnival-cadiz.htm

For what is worth, a couple cites: Around Stalingrad, winter 1942-43: http://www.vor.ru/55/Stalingrad/History_10_eng.html In the Chapter 3: Pertinent Aspects of Nazi-Soviet Warfare During the Winter of 1941-42 http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/Chew/CHEW.asp#3 Regards.

Correct name will be "Carretera de Málaga" when leaving Granada, and the opposite in the other way. No autopistas ((double road, asphalt, bridges on every crossroad)) (nor autovias -that´s a free "autopista"-) till much later. Will follow in next post. A spanish link: http://www.aecarretera.com/historia2.htm Regards

This source: "Greek ground forces in Crete and their small arms, Nov 1940 - May 1941" by Alexis Mehtidis http://orbat.com/site/history/open4/GreekGroundForcesinCreteandTheirSmallArmsrev.pdf suggests there was a misunderstanding, and they were "probably British 0.303 Nº 3 Pattern 14 built in the U.S.A. -hence ´American type´-" (in page 6, under Gendarmerie). Who knows? Either one, another addition to a logistical nightmare. - - - Off topic, note the use of the infamous "Chauchat" LMG. Regards.