jjhays

Tigers in the mud is an excellent read from a first person perspective. It may not give you a complete tactical picture of tank warfare but it does give a good picture of it. Much better than Guderians book which I consider all those books written in the 50's to be rather apologetic than anything else.

quite interesting thread here, It was common (still is) to "battlesight" the main gun at some preset range. There fore it was quite easy to make adjustments with the stadia and your reticle in the gunsight according to the distance to the target. The long range shots also must take into account weather, ammo temp, and the heating up of the gun commonly referd to as gun tube droop in the larger calibers... just my 2 cents in euro.

I almost never play with time limits and it is usually not a problem with my opponents. As far as giving out your IP address, should be no problem as any one can usually get it anyways when you are hooked up to the internet, just dont be careless with it. Never did play PBEM way back when that was the only thing and it sure makes the AI look like gumby!

As for portable flamethrower units, their ability to sustain long streams of flame was hammpered by the fuel supply. The damn tanks are heavy and cumbersome as they are and when filled where that much heavier. I am surprised you get this many shots off with a portable unit but fits well into the play of the game.

Maybe up against Tigers in Tunisia which would be rare but I dont recall there being panthers in North Afrika. Yes most Shermans from the time of Torch to the italian campaign were 75mm. I would expect to see battles against MK IV's and III's.

THis show was part of the Beltring war and peace show, very excellent show with way too much to see in 2 days!

B 1-35 2BCT, 1st AD is still here, Baumholder.

The loader has a seat of course and a shoulder pad that swings out so he wont fall into the breach. Yes leg guards and a imaginary line that they draw. Beyond that line is death and maiming.

post a link or something....

When I have loaded in the past, when I arm the gun I stay glued to the left side of the turret till after the recoil. It is a rush!!! especially with the hatch open. Tank Table 12 is great, you just unload your whole ready rack in a matter of minutes on stationary and movers. My Stub base deflector broke once so I had to throw it on top of the turret. Every time we fired the stub base would clang around in the turret almost always hitting someone (not seriously though). Eventually used a heat mitten to bat the stub base down as it came flying out of the breech and avoiding gettting hit by the breech. Very dangerous but hey! we qualified. Also my fastest load time was 4.3 seconds for a HEAT (52lbs).

I don't remember the details but it was the fuse for an explosive round fired from some kind of gun that would explode when near helicopters. It was supposed to detonate based on detecting the electromagnatic pattern made by the whole helicopter (not just the blades). I remember him showing some (very primitive) 3D That is exactly how the MPAT works when switched to AIR. You just twisted the nose cone to either AIR or ground and then loaded it. The only MPAT I have seen is a trainning (dummy) round and they are rare as hell.

I need to go for now since it is midnite here in Baumholder. take care!!!!

Funny thing happened to us at the last CMTC. We had a Bradley ADA with us. so we thought we were safe from those mock Hin-Ds. Nope a BMP got the brad and then the Hind-D's got my whole platoon.

No have never used the MPAT, never seen one! in the UCOFT use only sabot air in the command.

In real world situations I would rather hide from a copter. If you miss, it wouldnt take long for him to light your *&^ up. Also a HEAT or SABOT if the computer can do the lead and distance will get the job done.

I'm no tank expert, but I found a website which indicates that they use HEAT with a proximity detonator to take out helicopters. Here's the site with a nice shot of a helicopter going KaBlammo. MPAT is what you are talking about. On the nose cone you can set it for Proximity (air) or ground. In keeping with the thread topic the command would be " gunner MPAT-air helicopter"

I bet they will take this thread to to the general discusion soon. BTW have been a die hard CM player since the first demo... was that in 99 or 00? such a long time ago and the graphics!

I think the 1st AD and the 1st ID have their moments. Hard to judge things. I will leave it at that, haha. I love Germany and treat every free moment as my last and do lots of train rides and daytrips to all kinds of historical places you only read about in history books. Probably the best place I was at before I went to CMTC (Hohenfels) and Gunnery (Graf) was the Maginot line and the citadel fortress in France, Bitche.

BTW we have the largest collection of running US WW2 AFV's. I dont participate much in events with the club here but it is sure fun to jump in a sherman or halftrack and go for a trot. We have a M24 in the motor pool right now that they are working on getting going.

Have yet to see an actual MPAT round, and my Platoon sergeant who has 18 years on these beasts has never seen one either. As for the STAFF that is cost prohibitive and still experimental. To answer some previous questions, the 120mm fires a combustible cartridge and all you are left with is the stub base (AVCAP). The "super sabot" with a DU penetrating rod can just about penetrate anything out there within 3000m

Baumholder, 2BDE 1AD

One question: I heard somewhere that the Abrams no longer carries HE rounds--it's a pure anti-armor vehicle. Is that true? And if so, what's the logic of that...wouldn't you sometimes be likely to encounter infantry and need some HE? Or do other arms take care of them? I find in CM I'm firing HE from tanks a lot more often than AP. And apparently a post-WWII analysis of US tank destroyers found they fired something like 5 times as much HE as AP. Yes this is true, no more HE. We have HEAT. ALthough it will not have the fragmentation effect of what a 105 HE wold have if it hits something solid it sure makes a mess of things (bunkers, bldgs, fortifications, etc.). Plus there is the co-ax and the .50 for troop work if need be.

What do you want to know about Fire commands? I think my sig says it all. They have developed since the first introduction of tanks on the battle field. At gunnery and supposedly in combat you use commands to ensure accuracy, safety, and cohesion among the crew. For example if the loader gives a "up" meaning the main gun is armed he better get the hell out of the way of the breach when he hears "on the way" or it might be his last breath. I can get into incredible detail if you want but it can be boring.

If you do lose your TC it will degrade your ability to maneuver the vehicle against the enemy. The loader or radio operator (if equiped) will have to tell the driver where to go. A driver in a tank has very limited vision and almost no peripheral and must rely on the commands of the TC to be succesfull. Take the TC away and loading is degraded or commo is.

What you are experiencing is called "turret down" (much like hull down). This is basically where your main gun can not fire and of course your turret is hidden from view as well. On some tanks the sights are on top of the turrets instead of inline with the tube also the TC will be able to see but the gunner may not.