Mark Gallear

I thought I would plug my own little site - mostly anti-censorship stuff - get rid of that WG or stopped them dumbing down the historic flags and unit badges (You have to scroll down - its in historic order!) Mark's Mod Corner

Praise at last, it would go to my head, but as it is late on a Friday night the alcohol has got there first.

I also have it here with all the other mods you need:- Mark's Mod Corner I don't advertise on the search engines because I get enough custoers just from posting on messages like this!

I have made some minor tweaks to my scenario icons (all three) – straightened the Russian armour badge, gone over to the Russian Partisan medal, etc. This message is really to let people know of my sites existence – which has the mods or links to all the mods you need to get rid of the “WG” in the European version and upgrade the dumbed down US version to more historical iconic badges. My understanding is that it is not illegal to have Nazi, Fascist or Communist icons in an historical game only to promote Nazism (and presumably racism) to the youth of today. (Not there are very many about these days – well maybe the odd one in Austria and Switzerland.) Hence my political claptrap that if you know what happened you wouldn’t want to live in a country with one of the above governments. It is a small site on a Geocities – so don’t expect the luxury of 500mb downloads whenever you feel like it. Form an orderly queue and try and avoid using accelerated download managers – you don’t need them. Mark's Mod Corner

US Army studies seem to suggest the opposite – troops who go into battle for the first time take more risks are more willing to move under fire than more experienced troops. As time goes on and casualties are taken the less willing they are to move forward under fire. However, the more training and esprit de core they have the better they will fight and then longer before total battle fatigue sets in and they just cower and rarely fire their weapons. The US airborne troops did far better than other units who had like them had no battle experience but had extremely good training, the units had better selection and they knew that they were volunteering for a dangerous but important task. British Airborne and commando units by D-Day were largely picked from battle experience units and had extra training – it is hard to say that they did better during D-Day and Market Garden than their American counterparts. (Although it is hard to believe that any troops at any time fought harder the British Paras at Arnhem). The US Army studies do not really explain SS units that kept fighting all the way through the war at a high level of effectiveness. Although individual case studies show signs of such battle stress occurring in these units. British interrogations of SS commanders where amazed at the fanastism and loyalty shown to Hitler that translated into fighting ability, which few allied units matched in the name of democracy. Perhaps this is just a British perception rather than a reality. I think Battlefronts line that a unit's effectiveness is decided before a battle begins is largely correct. It can only really go down hill not up. I think this is true even if you push the operation system as I did in my Polar Bears op which simulated over a months fighting. German troops before the invasion of Russia had tasted nothing but victory and that by itself increased their confidence. Russian Guards units were formed from units that had been successful – they were giving slightly better equipment and possible some extra training.

It's up again come back and give me more bandwidth violations!

Yep, the Finns have found my website – it pays to advertise! Somebody could put a nice message about the mods – particularly the ones that were not done by me or voice some agreement as to my cause - - and obviously nobody would want to download things off the site if they didn't. A future patch could make most of my CMBB downloads redundant – and that won’t happen unless a fuss is made. If Battlefront thought they could make an extra customer by correcting the crap in the CDV version – they would do it an instant and quote free speech in America to any legal crap coming from Germany.

Strangely enough as far as I can tell my site has been up all this afternoon. I am sure the CM mod database is very good sight but who owns it? My site makes its agenda very clear and would that message or some of my files get across – such as the Finish armour. I forgot to thank Murr39 for giving me the idea of using the anti-partisan badge. Anybody got any idea what Security troops represent exactly - SD, Military Police, Foreign second line units?

My Scenario Icon bars now come in three variants. German Crosses uses the simplest badges for the icons to please people like Eden Smallwood. Iron Crosses uses an (uncensored) Iron Cross 2nd class for the German infantry for that certain film look. The Grog Scenario icons uses an actual badge for all the different German and Russian troop types, such as the Infantry Assault badge for German infantry . For those people that just know that the anti-partisan badge is a dagger with snakes at its feet in a circle of oak leaves, just from looking at a strange grey blob! All in glorious 20 x 20 pixels! All have been updated in some form – so you need to update! Von Lucke has also done an update of his scenario icon bar. I also have matching hidden icons for Balkankreuz, hi-res Iron Crosses from Juju and properly mirrored Red Stars in cloth and metal cap badges styles. I also cover all the mods that will get your CDV version as clos as possible to the US version and beyond! http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arena/8461/mod.html

I am gob smacked! Chris Bishop WWII: The Directory of Weapons lists the PTRD just coming into use at the invasion – no mention of ammo thing! http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Comet/6498/t2000ww2sovietsmallarms.html This web site takes line introduced shortly before – Hog & Weeks Military Small Arms of the 20th Century gives only 1941 as the year of introduction but says the bullet was originally a steel-cored streamlined armour piercing type, but this was superseded by a non-streamlined tungsten-cored armour piercing-incendiary pattern. White Phosphorus and Bastables, view that AT rifles were considered useless and only came into service in 1942 largely borne out by some of the web sites I have found. http://www.battlefield.ru/library/bookshelf/weapons/weapons3.html http://www.tdg.nu/resources/Russian%20Zone/Equipment.htm This Russian site contradicts itself and says PTRD goes into official soviet Tows in Oct 1941 and Dec 1941. July 1941 many designers received the tasking to develop antitank rifles in the shortest possible time. Simultaneously an attempt was made to put into production the 7.92-mm German PzB-39 rifle as a temporary measure. A month later the design bureaus of V. A. Degtyarev and S. G. Simonov presented their own rifles for range testing, designed around the 14.5-mm cartridge. Because neither rifle was substantially better than the other, both were adopted for general use. http://www.ankkurinvarsi.net/jaeger/AT_RIFLES2.htm Finnish site – says same that Russian have no – AT rifles at start of war but PTRS Rifle in service in August 1941 but only 77 made by years end increasing to 63,000 by end of 1942. For PTRD went into service in August 1941 and 17700 made by end of year. Another Russian site not in use until Sept http://www.stormpages.com/garyjkennedy/Weapons/infantryantitank/infantry_anti_tank_weapons.htm This Western site says that they had them at start of war but no ammo until 1942. Not sure when the game introduces the gun but my conclusion is that the Russians were developing them before war and very limited issues were made in Sept 1941 with the crappy ammo. Therefor should be in game in Sept 1941 but made very rare and expensive. For the Ampulenjot, the only web reference I could find was far a Close Combat mod! I think date of introduction is two early and should be pushed back to September as well – what does everybody else say. Can anybody put my picture up the game representation as a mortar is pretty bad – you have to see it to believe it. Ok what is everbody else thoughts on the mines?

Not claim this is gospel but I was messing about with one of he scenarios to check a mod. It was a large number of Tiger IIs attacking a town wiith one or more JSIIs. I attacked the JS2 from very short range and drove a King II right up to it and noticed numerous hits from the 88mm on the front but all bounced off. The JSII managed to kill at least 2 Tigers IIs. The impression I got was that the 88mmL71, (a better gun then any German 75mm) could not pentate the fromt of JS2, and my understanding from battle accounts was that it could.

This is news to me my sources claim that the PTRD 1941 came into service in mid 1941 and was around at the start of the war. If it was rare in the first couples of months then rarity costs should come into play. The PTRS-41 a bit later. Information on the Ampulenjot is a lot less clear coming from German intelligence sources. I suspect around Sept-oct 1941 and all but gone by mid 1942. I was pretty generous in saying that it vaguely resembled a Mortar. If anybody can put it up for everbody to see. Email me and I will send a scanned picture along. maybe some kind soul will mod it for us.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that nobody is interested in modelling mine fields or even in Russian infantry weapons - found two with the introduction dates wrong!

I am looking for a unique badge for the German security troops for my infamous scenario icons. Had the suggestion of the antipartisan badge, anybody got any pictures, links other ideas? Get the scenario icons here

Sorry went and had another go at my scenario icons. Still open for business!

I never heard any noises to warn but it still loaded. Not sure why your isn't - sounds like you have to increase the time - the loader is loading before the game - maybe,

In the game actual minefields are hidden until spotted only hastily placed “Daisy-chain mines” are easily spotted as they are hastily placed above the surface. This does not fit in with my idea of how mines were used – the Russians before Moscow and the Germans at El Alamein placed minefields many miles wide and deep. The minefield's boundaries would have been clearly marked. I would have thought the attacker during his set-up would know the disposition of such weapons. Do you represent such mines by normal AT or anti personal mines or use daisy chain mines? The fact that Engineers can now clear paths through such mines is a big improvement in the game system but where are the T-34s with special mine-rollers? Daisy Chain mines are supposed to represent rapidly placed booby traps for tanks not personnel but these were more likely to be hidden and not easily spotted. So do I use normal mines for this effect or the hastily placed “Daisy chain mines”? I recently watched a clip of film of Russian soldiers laying AT mines along a road as hidden booby traps. As the road was basically mud – they placed the mine in the track of a vehicle on the road and even had a spare tyre to place fresh tracks on top! The film lasted seconds. I also perplexed by the introduction dates of Russian Infantry Anti Tank weapons – my understanding is that the PTRD 1941 was available at the start of the war, but is missing from the lists. :confused: You have to buy the Ampulenjot system Kartukov – this was developed some time in 1941 after the war had started as a stop gap homeguard weapon in much the same way as the British Northover projector, which was never used in combat. (German reports note the sudden appearance of this weapon). It does vaguely look like a mortar and fired a Molotov type projectile using blackpowder ignited with a percussion cap! By 1942 it had just about disappeared.

Sorry I messed up again - should be an exam before they et you post! I have been having emails again! Here it is again: This link should get you there - I hope! I know what you mean Eden but some nations just don't give their troops sensible iconic symbols such as SS Runes. If you what the full historic experience you have to suffer but I was surprised when I tried to do them the first time how much you can do in 20 X 20 pics.

Eden what did you mean by that - they are all little picture types of insignia!!! Ok some are a lot better than others - Von Lucke did a grand job with his. Not to happy with some of the Italian ones - but without the help of Italian player Funcky Bax who did the research, I could not have done them at all. The orginal CMBB although very nice as an icon was largely fictional - in terms of the Italian army anyway. Redid the Communist Romanians and almost all the Hungarians as well. If there are any artists or Pro-modders out there who can do better on the Icons - my little site will host there work.

I found whilst revising the Italian icons that a Romanian Icon had been used in the place that the Italian ski troops should have been. This resulted in a complete overhaul (almost) and Von Lucke has revised his as well Get them in between Trick and Treaters, Halloween pests, etc at : - Mark Gallear's Mod Corner As this is a Geocities site – usual rules apply don’t all come at once – it will all be changed and different tomorrow anyway and don’t use download accelerators you don’t need them. I would like to use a distinct icon for the German Security troops – anybody got any ideas – looking for a distinctive badge, etc. “Dirty Mark” Gallear

As far as I know you do not need a loader for CMBO because the SS were not refred to as WG - mainly because you bought directly from Battlefront. (However I could be wrong because a version was sold in shops with mods - but never heard of any censorship on this one.) Anyway my site has all the mods you need to fight censorship in CMBB and a couple of decent scenarios/operations for CMBo as well! Mark Gallear's Mod Corner Come and visit my site and give me bandwidth nightmares now!

It does work - did you get the English language version? You probably have to delay the program as CM2 is starting very slowly. I was quoted 90secs (1 and half minutes).

What about the theory that a rooky Archer SP 17pdr gunner did him in. (He was the driver took over as gunner for this one battle and then went back to been the driver for the rest of war ....

I have had mutiple his on a JS2 from a Tiger II at point blank range (and I mean drove right up to it blasting all the way) all bounced off - is this possible - its not my perecption of what would happen in such a battle. (I was messing with one of the scenarios to test a mod!) God knows what the JSII crew were thinking but they did put down the odd big cat. Ok I admit the JSII was smaller and had better but even so..... :confused:

You have choices - Tom site then REPORTS -> DATA (on the english site the english version, and on his german site the german version). or my site at the bottom http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arena/8461/mod.html