fridericus

hi redwolf: you finally found the big mistake by battlefront when designing the panther-turret with only 100mm curved. its simply wrong. the right number would be 180mm curved for panther turret front. the reason for it is, that the gun-mantlet of the panther covers around 95% of the turret-front and so you wont have luck to hit the turret-front without the mantlet. th same mistake made th battlefront team with the kingttiger and when setting the fronts of hetzer and german tankdestroyers on "curved" ( when they use curved, but not as real at 60%, they should use the whole armor with the much stronger mantlet. cu fridericus

@ Tero: Never leave the home without the 88-gun. alone the sound of this incredibke gun kills the hearts of the allied tankcrews...

i had bad luck as german in this operation. i had bad wether and in battle 2 a LOs of only around 80m, so i cant use the ATGs in an efficent role.

i read the history of the 17th ss PzGDiv. "goetz von Berlichingen. when they defended the rhine area between Karlsruhe and Speyer, they used their 88 in an indirect fire role. WITH AP-AMMO! when firing indirect, the 88 was able to hit with AP-ammo around 5m near the target at a range of around 11km. so the 88-artillery of this Div destroyed enemy tanks by using the 88 with AP-ammo in an indirect fire role. the 3 books are written by officers of divisionstaff and the title is "Die Sturmflut und das Ende" (The Stormtide And The End)

daily. after the whole division was attacked, they stopped recon and had to fight.

wrong. just read "Das Auge der Division" (the eye of the division), where a Untersturmfuehrer of the recon battaillon describes, how the 17. SSPzGrnDiv "GvB" did recon: They drove with highest speed to enemy, then jumped off the schwimmwagen (swim capable version of kuebel). in cm you can avoid this with some MGs. but you will lose every match, when only your opponent recons. at least in turn 3 i have to penetrate the setup-zone of my enemy in a normal qb meeting. [ February 25, 2004, 06:12 AM: Message edited by: fridericus ]

thanks, claus. before i didnt know the grenadier field manual.

it would have been easier, when you had read the book. martin van crefeld is prof. on the hebrew university and as a jew i wont be a too good friend of the wehrmacht. he wrote this book in a job for the us army. he just compared the percentage of different decorations awarded in the different armies to generals, officers, ncos and enlisted men. this percentage he compared in the armies within the 4 groups. then he saw, that onlay in the wehrmacht, for example, the officers got nearly exacly their men-percentage on Ritterkreuze. in all other armies the generals and the officers got too much decorations compared too their group-size in whole army. then he compares the different recruiting system, health care etc. the Ritterkreuz was awarded for operational success, equal wheather bravity or not.

please dont forget, english isnt my mother tongue, so i make too many mistakes. sorry, when i cant explain exactly what i mean. i just wanted to show, that the PK-men were there, where the battle was. i agree with you, that sure many pics were taken without battle, but i wont see this as a dogma. when you see this web page , you will agree with me, that the Ritterkreuz was for operational success and "tactical deeds of bravity, who reach operational success". the Deutsches Kreuz was made for men, who fulfilled the requirements for the EKI some moretimes, but never gained enough operational success with them for beeing awarded with the Ritterkreuz. During the whole war only 7500 Ritterkreuze were awarded --- in total size of german armored forces of 20 mio. and 6 years of war it isnt much.

much more important: which not?

Nase. Das habe ich nie behauptet. Meine Signatur bezieht sich ausschliesslich auf die in unserem Lande vorherrschende Verunglimpfung unserer Soldaten, obwohl sie ihrem Lande dienten. Sie könnten nichtmal das damalige Unrechtsregime gewählt haben.

@ yankee dog: sure; i would never attack an unbroken line of defense with halftracks - you would nearly lose them all to ATGs; thatswhy the german invented the combined arms. @ sirocco: according to Will Fey, "Panzerkampf im Bild", Lanzerath was captured by Parachuts AND Engineers of 3. Pionierkompanie/1.SS.PzD.LAH @ Michael: the reason for decorated PK-men and doctors is quit simplier. they were officers, the PK-men as "Sonderfuehrer", and when the unit lost all regular officers, the btns were lead by them. in this way problems in getting decorations for bravity were erased. when you read Martin van Crefelds "Kampfkraft" (i dont know the english title, perhaps armypower or such), you will see, that german decorations were the only in the whole war, which were given only for good reasons, but not, as in other armies, for the rank or such. when a system lies, the men stay as they would be without the system. [ February 24, 2004, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: fridericus ]

died on their own feet!

they have/had the taxi-doctrine, as i described above.

do you know the division/corps, to which this brigade was assaigned?

??? they transported the inf with much suppressing fire to the enemy, the inf jumped off, and the halftracks supported as hMGs and with 75L24-cannons.

Lanzerath, Honsfeld

in this simple way its wrong for the german army. Even Doctors and PK-men got "Deutsches Kreuz in Gold". this decoration you get only for bravity. so i dont think, that most of the pics were staged.

they dismounted.

the KG Peiper, KG SS-PzGrenRgt1(+)/1.SS-PzD. LAH in the attack in the Ardennes. the grenadiers fired on us soldiers in houses while the halftracks speeded through the towns. i have german language books here, but still looking for english text. perhaps someone can help.

i will look for it. btw, the fire was for surpressing, nothing else.

to the worth of haltracks: i remember a hugh cmak-battle last week, in which on each side at least 50 tanks participated. the the match was reported, that 2 sdkfz251/1 killed 38 resp. 54 enemy inf!

their is a mistake in understanding. the allied used the haltracks only as battlefield-taxi, in this wrong way they built the m113. but the halftracks dont have only to transport the infantry, but also they have to support the infantry with fire and additional ammo. the haltracks of the wwii were well suitted for attack, but never for defense because of their lack of armor and weapons. in an attack the haltracks drove with high speed in the enemy with all men firing from the car, when reaching the enemy positions, the men jumped off and the bloody melee started. the haltracks didnt have a top-armor, so in the late war too many of them were shelled by arty. after the wwii the israelis mounted enough MGs on the little m113 and used them like the germans, as their whole army works. there are only little differences in the system of discipline. in cmak and cmbb at least 1/3rd of my inf is mounted on halftracks. attacking with infantry on food in cmbb/ak is nearly impossible; only 1 MG delays an attack of a whole enmy infantry-company. so you stronly need haltracks to transport infantry protected of enemy small arms- and mg-fire. in this way you can speed your infantry in a qb meeting eng. down to the flags/important positions, and hold them easy. when your enemy has to attack in a meeting eng. because you were faster to the flags, then he has the problemn of attacking with the same point value as the defender.

if i remember right, the best german tankhunter was a panzergreneadier-colonel with 23 confirmed tank-kils. when i have time, i will look for the book.

NO. in real life you can shoot a tank immobilized, when direct hitting with a he, area doesnt make nothing.