Darknight (DC)
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Posts posted by Darknight (DC)
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I thought that there would be a flood of AAR's after the 1st Round finished....silly me.
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Ahhh, a "4 on the Floor" reference.Originally posted by SuperTed:Boot to the Head!
Never thought I'd see that here. :cool:
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Okay, just a word of warning....I felt like doing something a little different just for kicks....this IS pretty long....remember, you were warned....
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To: Oberführer ÜberTed
From: Sturmbannführer Canuck
Re: Rear-guard action to allow troop withdrawal from Caen
Date: July 10th, 1944; near Caen
Assigned Objective: Keep Eiffel Drive open for withdrawal of the Division across the Orne River
My available forces basically amounted to the remnants of Hsf Hustedt’s and Hsf Meyer’s Pioneer Companies. Most my light artillery support was lost in transit during an aerial raid prior to the engagement, although Osf Hartmann was made available to spot for one of our 105mm Batteries in support.
Eiffel Drive cuts an approximately 60 m wide path through the urban terrain and our assigned frontage was approximately 320 m. The city itself was ablaze as a result of the British bombardment, which left practically every 3rd or 4th structure burning or smoldering.
Initially, Osf Günther and Osf Walke were to secure the right flank with their platoons, Osf Weisenberg and Osf Wittenburg were sent to secure the left flank with their depleted platoons and Osf Kaufmann was to occupy a key defensive structure near the centre of the line with his platoon. Hsf Meyer was to take 3 of the 4 available HMG teams to our left and set up several support positions, while Hsf Hustedt was to place the remaining HMG team in a support position on the right and then direct Osf Hartmann’s artillery support as necessary.
In hindsight, I think my biggest failing was in instructing the men to take up their positions as discreetly as possible, as the British appeared and tried to be force a crossing of Eiffel Drive before my forces had deployed properly. This became cause for much initial concern (and I think added a few grey hairs to some of my staff officers). As it developed, Osf Kaufmann’s platoon was overly cautious in making their way forward to their assigned positions and consequently, did not even spot the British platoon sprinting across the road. Osf Günther, to his credit, did observe this development from his position on the right and opened fire in an attempt to suppress the enemy troops. Upon learning of the British assault, Hsf Meyer should have tried to re-deploy and regroup the troops in his sector for a carefully planned and coordinated assault but communications were not clear. An entire British platoon was able to take up positions on the east side of Eiffel Drive and most of Osf Kaufmann’s platoon blundered into them. Within minutes, Osf Kaufmann had lost 27 of the 31 men in his command. To add to the problems, Osf Weisberg sent a squad to try and stabilize Osf Kaufmann’s situation but less than half of Unt Teske’s squad made it to a support position and they were immediately suppressed.
Meanwhile, British troops began appearing on the west side of Eiffel Drive and laying down suppressive fire; additional enemy troops were spotted making their way up from the rear as well. Hsf Hustedt tried to have some support fire brought down but was informed that there would be a 3 minute delay.
A second British platoon attempted a crossing on our extreme right while most attention was directed at the first enemy incursion but this was spotted by Osf Walke’s men. Rot Hamblen was ready when the British attempted their flanking manoeuvre and chased a crack British squad off with a few doses of flame. The British regrouped and infiltrated along our right flank but were spotted securing an abandoned church close to Rot Frick's HMG position. Rot Hamblen made the decision to try and stop the British and quietly moved into position near the church. Once in range, Rot Hamblen turned the church into a flaming hell for the British, forcing them out into the open and the waiting sights of Rot Frick and Rot Weber. Rot Hamblen died during his heroic assault and deserves special mention.
Osf Günther became had become aware of the seriousness of the situation across the courtyard, where Osf Kaufmann’s platoon was annihilated, and gave orders to Unt Robbe and Unt Seibel to charge the British position and restore the situation. This they did, charging across the open courtyard, amidst enemy automatic and artillery fire (the silly British gunners shelled their own position). One British squad broke immediately and was decimated trying to retreat, then the other squad broke and ran after it’s platoon leader was cut down. Unt Robbe and Unt Seibel then wisely withdrew their squads from the building, which was subsequently destroyed by the British guns. At about this time, British machine guns began appearing in the buildings opposite the centre of our line. Osf Günther recalled his squads to the right because of the British infiltration on the right flank, necessitating another open courtyard dash under enemy fire.
The British platoon operating on our right flank charged Rot Frick’s position, sustaining significant casualties, but overwhelmed our gun and knocked it out. Osf Günther’s men again tried to restore the situation and poured fire into the British position but to no avail. Throughout this period, Osf Günther’s platoon was subjected to heavy British artillery fire. Rot Weber’s gun went down at about this time with a jam and we lost Rot Bögenschutz to a nearby artillery blast; his team retreated back towards Hsf Meyer’s support position. By now, our own artillery had begun raining down on the British machine gun positions.
The British commander must have thought that he had broken our defences on the left because another British platoon began sprinting across Eiffel Drive from the right towards our left. As it turned out, a lucky shell from one of our 105mm guns fell in the midst of one of the attacking squads, which immediately turned and ran for the rear. The remnants of the platoon that did make it to our positions were almost immediately annihilated at no loss. Curiously, Osf Walke’s platoon also spotted two enemy flamethrowers attempt to cross the road on our right but both were immediately cut to pieces.
The British platoon that had infiltrated behind our positions was now spotted running south through a clearing near Hsf Hustedt’s position and then proceeded to move towards our left flank along a road, all of which was right under the nose of Osf Hartmann, who was so close to the British that he had to turn off his radio for fear of being discovered. Osf Hartmann was able to contact Hsf Meyer with advance warning of the developing situation to his rear and Hsf Meyer subsequently disengaged Osf Wittenburg’s platoon from our left flank and Rot Taus in order to lay his own surprise for the sneaky British. By now the enemy had zeroed in on Hsf Meyer’s support position, in an apparent attempt to silence Rot Grotz’s HMG. One lucky shell caused some chaos and caused the remnants of Rot Bögenschutz’s HMG team to run for our rear lines; they were utterly routed by the appearance of the British troops.
The British plan was obviously disrupted by the appearance of Osf Wittenburg’s platoon and fierce fighting developed across the narrow street. The deciding moment came when Rot Grotz flamed a large wooden building containing half of the British platoon. The Tommies panicked and fled the building, heading into a deadly crossfire, which finished them to a man. The remaining British troops withdrew and were spotted scrambling into the buildings south of Osf Hartmann’s position.
Hsf Hustedt now made the decision to send Osf Günther’s courageous platoon forward in an attempt to break the British position across Eiffel Drive. This bold move was predicated on the awareness that our ammunition was rapidly disappearing and a dashing charge into the British flank might relieve our beleaguered forces and seize the initiative in one fell swoop. Osf Güenther’s platoon merged into Osf Walke’s position, scraped together our last major reserve of ammo, and then the platoon charged across the boulevard. Of the 23 men who had dashed across our right flank, only 12 arrived on the other side (but to their eternal glory, not one unit faltered in their duty). According to the survivors, the platoon created chaos throughout the British flank for several minutes, forcing a redeployment of the enemy’s resources (an entire fresh platoon was rushed in) to face our new threat to his position. But as the counterattack pressed and ammo ran short, they were forced into a fighting withdrawal; Osf Günther was last seen holding the front line when an explosive charge obliterated the room he was in. Miraculously, Unt Siebel was able to extricate himself, along with 2 men, to a position to the north and then began working his way around the British flank.
At about this time, Osf Hartmann was informed by our "supporting" 105mm Battery that they had fired their entire daily allotment of shells, meaning that they could provide no further artillery support without authorization from higher command. While in the process of "diplomatically" explaining our dire need of further support, Osf Hartmann was overheard and spotted by the remnants of the British platoon that was still operating behind our lines. Osf Hartmann was forced to abandon his spotting position and he slipped away to the south before incurring any casualties. Indeed, Hsf Hustedt was instrumental in assisting Osf Hartmann’s escape when he and his men began pouring suppressive fire down on the British (although this also compromised his hidden position, which subsequently required a tactical repositioning of his HQ).
Now, one thing I will say about the British...they are a stubborn breed. They seem to have been determined to break Osf Weisberg’s position regardless of the cost to themselves. A British flamethrower team was spotted trying to make their way into firing range but was cut down 2/3 of the way across Eiffel Drive. Under extremely heavy suppressive fire into our position, a second flamethrower team got within range and was finally successful in breaking our defensive stronghold on the left flank. As our units desperately searched for escape from the sudden inferno, a single British squad charged across the roadway at a gallop. Osf Kaufmann and his aide were luckily able to halt this final charge with some well-placed rifle shots into the advancing squad. This was not much consolation to Osf Weisberg’s platoon, which had escaped death-by-fire only to be cut down by British bullets. The few remaining men in the platoon hid in some rubble until the shooting stopped. Fortunately, Osf Wittenburg raced half of his platoon into the gap. Once again, the British gained a toehold on our position, and once again they were met with fierce resistance by our men; Osf Wittenburg’s squad surprised the Tommies and their flamer was eliminated. The British squad tried to retreat back to their lines but were forced to hide in the middle of Eiffel Drive. Unfortunately for them, Rot Bahr was close at hand and he succeeded in driving the British back with a well-placed dose of liquid flame.
An apparent suicide charge was also launched by the British Tommies against Osf Walke’s anchoring position on our right flank. We can only assume that the British commander was under the false impression that our forces in this sector were critically reduced after the sacrifice of Osf Günther’s platoon. Imagine their surprise when they arrived to find Osf Walke’s practically intact platoon waiting for them. Only 9 Tommies were able fight their way into our position, none ever left. Despite a universal ammunition shortage, fierce fighting raged throughout the structure until we had eliminated the attackers. As a side note, Rot Heise appears to have lost his nerve during this final assault and he was shot in the back by Unt German while he was attempting to flee. One more British flamethrower was cut to pieces as he stepped off the curb in our direction.
One final time the British deep patrol surfaced behind Hsf Meyer’s position but this was quickly suppressed and driven away, as they were hardly more than a minor irritant by this point.
In the dying moments of the engagement, Unt Siebel, who had by now positioned himself behind the British position on our right flank, launched a surprise attack into the British rear, totally disrupting their remaining defence.
Intelligence estimates the British losses to be around 150 men. Our losses were 38 KIA and another 80 men with various wounds (most are light and they can hopefully be returned to duty soon).
Also, I would like to recommend the following men for recognition for their bravery and devotion to the Fatherland:
Osf Günther (posthumous)
Osf Wittenburg
Unt Carl
Unt Robbe (posthumous)
Unt Siebel (recommend immediate promotion)
Rot Hamblen (posthumous)
Rot Taus
In conclusion, I believe that this engagement proves that the fighting spirit of our men is still very much intact and if we are provided the necessary weapons and ammunition then we can still field a considerable fighting force.
Sturmbannführer Canuck
Deutschland Über Alles
[ February 01, 2002, 06:43 PM: Message edited by: Darknight_Canuck ]
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SuperTed:
More results from the SuperNewbie Alternates:
Dinga (German) defeated Bruce Robert (British), 82-18, in Medium Rare.
Congratulations to Dinga!<hr></blockquote>
Holy Cow :eek:
My curiosity is piqued....I await the AAR.
[ 01-24-2002: Message edited by: Darknight_Canuck ]</p>
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SuperTed:
The first results from the GV Newbie Alternates:
Darknight_Canuck (German, 41) and Bad Monkey! (Canadian, 36) played to a draw in Medium Rare.
Congratulations to Darknight_Canuck (barely)!
<hr></blockquote>Y'know, throughout the entire scenario, not one of my opponent's units was ID'd as Canadian....they all came up as UK.
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SuperTed:
Zitadelle,
Actually, it has three.<hr></blockquote>
And here I thought there were 2 on each side of the road
....as to the missing VP's, I was puzzled as well but there was that last minute attack into the rear of one of my opponent's VL...IIRC, he had slightly more casualties, our KIA was equal and he lost more FT than I did...(I think this last part accounts for the points difference).... -
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bad Monkey!:
Try telling that to my FTs. Wait, you can't, because they're all dead! :eek: <hr></blockquote>
Well, the battle is over and I think that's a good thing b/c both sides were literally exhausted (it's hard to press the attack when the ammo runs dry and your men are reduced to passing wind in the general direction of your opponent in the hopes that some of his men might faint
). This gives me about a week to take a look back at the files and craft an accurate AAR.[ 01-15-2002: Message edited by: Darknight_Canuck ]</p>
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Okay, would anyone out there have colour scans of the shoulder titles for the Royal Horse Guards (red on dark blue) or the Life Guards (blue on red) regiments???
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My God!!! :eek:
Following these arguments (it no longer seems like simple discussion) is like listening to people argue about religion.
When I made additions to the existing work by Andrew Fox, I created an example and sent it to him BEFORE ever considering that it would be released for public consumption. I made the mods for myself first b/c I wanted to and then was supported by Andrew and Michael Dorosh (another person whom I credited b/c I drew much from his original source material as well) in making them available. It is very easy to contact the original mod artist and I don't think there's many who would prevent another from adding to their work....the contact is a necessary courtesy and should be made (we're all friends here, are we not???
). I think that this entire issue has created too much bad feeling all over again.And someone explain to me why anyone is picking on the web-masters? These guys are putting in hours of their own time (and sometimes money) to allow all of us to be a Community. As Manx said, if he is made aware of a problem, it would be corrected....I think that's all anyone could ask.
Sorry if I'm rambling on too much but I was a lurker for far too long b/f deciding to become an active part of this community. It seems sad that we're now discussing legalities and lawyers and such....it seems to be flaying the fun away from the game (which is why we all got involved here in the first place, right???
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> That's great. I'd hate to have to download 23 MB worth of sleeves 5 separate times because the various uniform mods were woven from different cloth.
Gordon <hr></blockquote>
You don't know the half of it....if I had to spend 5x as much time doing this as I do now, I think my wife would divorce me, not to mention that the minutiae (???) of it all would probably drive me insane...
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> Well, possibly, but if there are multiple feldgrau uniforms or splinter camo uniforms out there it shouldn't be a problem to distinquish them in the names. How specific to a particular uniform mod will your sleeve mods be? If there are 5 different UK uniform mods out there will we need a different version of the sleeve mod for each?
Gordon <hr></blockquote>
The sleeve mods I'm doing right now are specific to Andrew Fox's Commonwealth uniform mods...that doesn't mean they can't be interchanged into other uniform mods, only that Andrew's mods are the base and he deserves credit for them (it's more of a factor when I had to add insignia to the 5011.bmp for some units).
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One thing I forgot....if this is going to be standardized, then I guess the 2-letter mod artist identifier needs to be in there somewhere as well since there are different versions of the same uniforms out there (eg. A. Fox's, M. Dorosh's, etc)...
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> For the "Regt/Bn #", do you mean something like the Regts ordinal position within the Division?
e.g. the 51st (Highland) Division's 5th Battalion "Black Watch" would be "_uk_51_4"?
Thanks,
Gordon <hr></blockquote>
Using the ordinal numbers would get confusing for most people, I think. Here's some practical examples of what I meant:
1) Royal Canadian Regt
5012_Cdn_1D_RCR.bmp
Note: I don't think that any 2nd Bn of a Cdn Regt fought in ETO, so Bn # isn't necessary.
2) 5th Bn Black Watch, 51st Highland Div
5012_UK_51D_5BW.bmp
Note: This would ID the division in which the unit is serving and the battalion # of the unit from the parent regiment.
I've gotten used to making up 3-4 letter short forms for each regiment (and I think they're pretty easy to decipher for most people interested in them). The Division would have a "D" after it's # for Infantry, "A" or "AD" for Armoured, and "AB" for Airborne. I think the division numbers are important in order to organize the files properly and to keep track of units which may have served in multiple divisions in the ETO (I have come across a number of these). Also, if an alternate version of the same unit is available (I found a few units where I couldn't decide which looked better), then _alt# would be tacked onto the end of it.
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> We have sleeves for just about every infantry battalion in the Canadian and British armies in NWE. I believe there will be glove options for all of them as well. There will be several hundred different options - perhaps Darknight should stop work until the naming conventions are set up. I would like to see a naming convention for each battalion anyway, so that we could also have a Unit button, and one click would change not only uniform sleeves, but also helmet markings, vehicle markings, interface, etc., so that all graphics in the game become specific to that one unit. We discussed this before, Gordon. Would take up a hell of a lot of hard disk space, but perhaps we could break it down by division, so if you weren't interested in a particular division, you didn't have to download them. <hr></blockquote>
The plan is to mod each Canadian/British Battalion (and I have a generic Polish sleeve too). The breakdown should probably be something like the following (for the Commonwealth anyway):
Cdn/UK/Pol
Div#
Regt/Bn #
alt versions
I hope I didn't miss anything.
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> Fourth, I'll be re-architecting/re-issueing the German Uniform RuleSet and creating an Allied Uniform RuleSet that will be part of the release of CMMOS v3.00, so I'd like to gain the participation of all the uniform modders out there so that it can be a complete "package" (note: individual modders will still own and control the mods, we'll just want to coordinate a "name-space" for the mods so that they can all co-exist under a single German and an single Allied RuleSet). <hr></blockquote>
Well, I'm in the middle of completing the British unit sleeves for each battalion right now for the HR uniforms (and I'm considering doing the US divisions later, when I complete this). I didn't really worry too much about the naming system when it was just the Canadian units on my HD (I would just use something like:
5012_rcr (where rcr is a short form for Royal Canadian Regt);
or a variant like:
5012_1rcr (where the # stood for the division)
With the British sleeves beginning to accumulate on my HD now, I've been thinking of something like:
5012_cdn_rcr
5012_uk_4ksli
(where in this case, the number stands for the Bn b/c there where no duplicate Bn in the Cdn army in ETO).
If there is some other way that works, I'm happy to implement it.
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<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> And just to add more grist to the mill, what about those sub-regiments that were created specifically to accompany the airborne divisions. Like the Airlanding Light Regiments of the Royal Artillery, the Ailanding Light Anti-tank regiments? <hr></blockquote>
If you know the arrangement of the sleeve insignia for these units, I'll add 'em to the list to be completed (and links to original badges couldn't hurt either)....
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Am I being enough of a pest yet....
I have narrowed down the info I am missing (but those damn armoured regiments are still giving me a headache
). I decided to add in the Airborne Divisions and was able to obtain most of the info required there. Here is the final list of the units I'm missing info on:10th Para Regt
11th Para Regt
156th Para Regt
Distinguishing patch, shoulder loop, lanyard for these units???
“Essex” shoulder title
“North Stafford” shoulder title
“King Shropshire L.I.” maroon/green flash???
32nd Guards Infantry Bde
How many arm-of-service strips for infantry Bde units in Armoured Regt???
Cavalry Sleeve Insignia Arrangements:
2nd Household Cavalry
1st Grenadier Guards (Motor)
11th Hussars
8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars
5th Dragoon Guards
Inns of Court Regt
2nd Northampton Yeomanry
23rd Hussars
2nd Fife & Forfar Yeomanry
22nd Dragoons
1st Lothians & Border Horse
Westminster Dragoons
1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry
141st Royal Arm’d Corps
I have some incomplete info on the above units but virtually nothing on the arrangement of their insignia of their sleeves.
Thanks again for all the help.
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I'll resend them a page at a time....it's a word document of about 18 pages. I think we ran into this large file problem previously, eh?
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Michael, did you receive the document I sent with the info I had compiled? I've found a few things to add/alter since then plus I've added the Airborne divisions.
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I've already raided these pages for the bits of info that were available. It is truly amazing how little of this info is on the web and how incomplete it is.
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Okay, I have finally decided to get on with this Operation I have been working on. It's been mostly completed for the past 2 months but I've been doing lots of other things (check out my Canadian Sleeve mods
) which have sidetracked me. I spent the summer making certain that the map was as accurate for buildings and elevations as possible.This is a "What If?" scenario with a lot of latitude (or longitude, if you prefer...it's set in North America
). The Operation is large but the battles are short (I tend to do 1 battle per sitting) and got a bit off-track b/c the number of units caused my old system to take forever to calculate the turns.If anyone is game to test this, I would appreciate the feedback. I find that it's hard to be absolutely objective with my own work. If there's any takers, drop me an e-mail.
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Okay, the list is getting smaller for those regiments of which I have absolutely no info....and I'm always glad to be given more info on any of the regiments' patch configurations (what goes above/under what).
Here's the smaller list:
“Lincolnshire” shoulder title
“Essex” shoulder title
“North Stafford” shoulder title
“King Shropshire L.I.” maroon/green flash???
2nd Household Cavalry
1st Grenadier Guards (Motor)
32nd Guards Infantry Bde
11th Hussars
8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars
5th Dragoon Guards
Inns of Court Regt
2nd Northampton Yeomanry
23rd Hussars
2nd Fife & Forfar Yeomanry
22nd Dragoons
1st Lothians & Border Horse
Westminster Dragoons
1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry
141st Royal Arm’d Corps
5th Assault Engineers
6th Assault Engineers
42nd Assault Engineers
Now, for the engineers, I'm only wondering if anything differentiated b/t the battalions...I know how the general sleeve is configured. I have partial info on a few of the armoured regiments listed but it's the configurations that are puzzling.
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Michael is right, the site has some interesting stuff but few examples (I did find a few of the shoulder titles I was missing though). The armoured regiments seem to be hard to find info on. :confused:
BTW Michael, I will send you a working copy of the info I have collated this week (I upgraded my system and was swearing a blue streak most of the week trying to make everything compatible again
)...I'm working until Tuesday, so it will be right around mid-week. -
First off, thanks to all those who have been able to help me with this little project; it's coming along nicely.
Now, on to the request...
I have been unable to locate examples of a few patches and am also missing a lot of info on the regiments from the armoured regiments. Here is the list:
“Suffolk” shoulder title
“Lincolnshire” shoulder title
“Royal Warwickshire” shoulder title
“Dorsetshire” shoulder title
“Essex” shoulder title
“Monmouthshire” shoulder title
“North Stafford” shoulder title
“King's Shropshire L.I.” maroon/green flash???
2nd Household Cavalry
1st Grenadier Guards (Motor)
32nd Guards Infantry Bde
11th Hussars
8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars
1st Royal Tank Regt
5th Royal Tank Regt
5th Dragoon Guards
1st Rifle Brigade
Inns of Court Regt
2nd Northampton Yeomanry
23rd Hussars
2nd Fife & Forfar Yeomanry
3rd Royal Tank Regt
8th Rifle Brigade
22nd Dragoons
4th Royal Tank Regt
11th Royal Tank Regt
1st Lothians & Border Horse
Westminster Dragoons
7th Royal Tank Regt
1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry
141st Royal Arm’d Corps
5th Assault Engineers
6th Assault Engineers
42nd Assault Engineers
Any further assistance would be much appreciated and will help me finish up this project.
)
). I decided to add in the Airborne Divisions and was able to obtain most of the info required there. Here is the final list of the units I'm missing info on:
Gordon Molek, Clubfoot, AndrewTF, Magua, Dknite etc. - request input for Dieppe Mods
in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)
Posted
No.3 Commando
- sailed in 23 ships
- only managed to get 7 shiploads ashore b/c of German convoy
- outnumbered by German defenders 4 to 1
It's not much but all I have at hand.