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Eddy

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Posts posted by Eddy

    Invade the boot, or Sardinia / Corsica?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Thanks Michael.

    After reading your post ,there are some further advantages for invading southern France that I can think of.

    1. The number of Free French would probably increase as more and more of their homeland was liberated.

    2. Invading Southern France a year before Normandy would solve problem the shortage of landing craft which delayed the real Anvil.

    3. If, after Overlord, the Allies were bogged down in the beachead in Normandy and the Germans won the battle to reinforce, the allies could shift the emphasis back from northern France to southern France.

    4. It allows unblooded troops to gain experience.

    So, completely changing argument (aka being a pain in the arse), why bother with Italy at all?

    It was after all designed to tie up German troops, which would be achieved by invading southern France. The terrain is not very favourable for the attacker. And it ended up sucking in more allied troops than German, thus defeating the point of the whole thing.

    Despite my earlier posts, this is closer to my actual position. I have always thought that the invasion of Italy was pursued for the wrong reasons; specifically by Alan Brooke and Churchill, i.e. to avoid decisive action with the Germans as they feared a blood bath, and to appear to be doing something while waiting for the Allied strength to be built up in Britain.

    France is as good as Italy in these regards, with the added advantage that once Overlord is launched, the two fronts can work in tandem.

    Cheers

    Eddy

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    Invade the boot, or Sardinia / Corsica?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Michael,

    Good points, well made but what would you tell Uncle Joe?

    He would surely see the taking of Corsica and Sardinia as further prevarication while his own troops did all the dying. This would further bolster his paranoid psyche that once the Germans were nearly beaten, the US/UK would walk into Europe all the way to his borders. It's probably what he would have done, if the roles were reversed.

    However take Stalin out of the equation, if Corsica is taken, why airdrop in Rome? The allies could invade way up north near, for example, Genoa with a seaborne and airborne invasion. Looking at the map, it doesn't seem that far from Corsica so presumably air cover wouldn't be a problem. Furthermore, if near Genoa was invaded, and the allies struck east, the whole of the boot would be cut off.

    Cheers

    Eddy

    Off topic: Err bit embarrasing this one but what does the D in D-Day stand for?

    My brother asked me, I didn't know so I lied and told him it was Disembarkation Day. First thing I could think of.

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    Invade the boot, or Sardinia / Corsica?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Back on topic, what advantage could be gained by going to Sardinia/ Corsica?

    I suppose it allows the allies to invade further up the Italian coast, as well as threatening southern France.

    Here's the but...

    IIRC part of the idea of invading Italy was to draw some troops away from the Eastern front, as well as providing strategic airbases. As such, does it matter where you invade as long as German troops are sent to Italy and your bombers can reach central Europe?

    And as for France...

    I don't know the terrain in central France. Is it be favourable for the kind of sweeping tank battles the allies envisaged for the liberation of Europe? Or are there areas where an invasion force could become bogged down. One thing I can say is it's an awfully long tail from southern France to the German border, and a long way for the air forces from Britain to support them. Also open to flank attacks form western, or north western France.

    Just a few thoughts.

    Cheers

    Eddy

    0

    Invade the boot, or Sardinia / Corsica?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    As well as the seperate peace, as Michael and Koenig have stated, there were a few other, more subtle, levers with which he could apply pressure.

    The first was specifically the question of Poland after the Nazis had been ejected. This had been the catalyst for the the UK's declaration of war so was still important. Churchill hoped that if he kept Stalin sweet, the London poles would have a say in the post war Poland. And for Poland you could read all of Eastern Europe in general as well.

    The second, and probably more important, was that the US and UK wanted Stalin's help with defeating Japan, after victory had been achieved in Europe. Japan had been very careful not get into hostilities with the Soviets. If Britain and the US had been tardy in opening a second front, Stalin could very well be tardy in opening a front with Japan.

    So the amount of pressure he could apply was considerable.

    However, it works both ways. The western allies and specifically the US could apply pressure back by through logistics. They shipped a staggering amount of material to the Soviets e.g. 13 million winter boots ( very handy ), 2000 locomotives, 5 million tons of food, 427000 vehicles, and loads more boring numbers.

    Cheers

    Eddy

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    Invade the boot, or Sardinia / Corsica?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    With Clusters,

    I seem to recall it was diplomatic pressure. I think it was in Roy Jenkin's excellent biography of Churhill.

    It was nothing as explicit as threatening to break friends, more like sniping at Churchill at the conference in Moscow (IIRC) and to the British ambassador in Moscow (whose name escapes me) nearly all the time.

    Churchill also had the problem that around this period the Murmansk convoys were stopped, further giving Stalin a stick to beat Churchill with.

    Churchill was desperate to keep what he would see as Britain's status as a world power, and possibly he felt that if Britain looked like it was letting the side down, it would undermine this position.

    Anyway, in answer to your question I would say diplomatic pressure, with adding complaining and sniping.

    Cheers

    Ed

    P.S. Churchill probably felt far more pressure to keep the US happy. They could have changed their policy from Germany first to a Japan first, as Admiral King and I think Gen. MacArthur were pushing for.

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    Invade the boot, or Sardinia / Corsica?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    IIRC the decision to invade Italy and not Corsica was for political reasons as well as strategic ones.

    The western allies were under a great deal of pressure from Stalin to open up a second front, and the British where under pressure from their US allies for an invasion of the Atlantic coast in 1943. Haunted by their experience in the first world war, Allan Brooke and Churchill were fearful of such an invasion, as they believed the western allies, specifically the US army, did not have sufficient experienced troops to be able to successfully invade France, and that such an invasion in 1943 would fail, with catastrophic consequences.

    However, the British had to come up with something to appease both the US and Soviet govt. It is doubtful that anything less than an invasion of mainland Europe would have been enough to placate Stalin.

    Corsica or Sardinia would probably not cut the mustard with either Stalin or Marshall, who already had doubts about the British will to win.

    Also, the invasion of southern Italy would allow bases for the strategic bombing of central Europe, such as the mining of the Danube, central and eastern Germany etc. Remember, at the time (1942 – 43) there was still a belief by many that strategic bombing could be the decisive factor in the capitulation of Germany. Corsica or Sardinia may not have provided the Allied air force with such bases.

    Thirdly, they (the British) probably thought it was a soft underbelly, and that it would be easy.

    Cheers

    Ed

    0

    Sanitation in the African campaign

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    There was something about this on QI a couple of Friday nights ago. The British Army used the experience gained in Empire building, and from the East Indian Company's troops, in realising that disaease was linked to sanitation. Hence from Napoleonic times, losses from disease were lower than many other armies.

    However, I'm reading Alamein, by two blokes (can't remember), and they have just been writing about the high level of dysentry in the Eighth Army.

    With this in mind, BFC should patch a v1.05 with smellovision for the correct realism.

    And flies. Lots of flies.

    WAV packs of soldiers thowing up in five different languages.....

    Cheers

    Ed

    0

    The future

    in Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord

    Posted

    Blutzeit

    CMx2 is the name given for a game currently being developed by Battlefront.Details are farily patchy, but we do now the following;

    1. It's being developed by Battlefront

    2. It's a game

    3. It's probably another wargame

    4. CMx2 is it's development title

    5. It's a complete waste of time asking Battlefront about it

    6. Nearly everyone has a view to what it should be

    If you wish to lose the will to live, do a search on CMx2 or CM2 or CMXX, go to the earliest post and read them all the way through.

    Cheers

    Eddy

    0

    Got mine today BUT...

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    The folder CMAK in Program Files is already used for those of us who have Microsoft Visual Studio .Net. (I think. Well, I got it from somewhere.) It is the Connection Manager Administration Kit, produced by a small West Coast company called Microsoft, run by a mad man/generous businessman (*delete as applicable*)

    I for one will be glad that CMAK will go into a battlefront folder, as if it had gone into Program Files/CMAK folder it may have resulted in STRANGE THINGS HAPPENING. That is if I were ever to find out what the Connection Manager Admninstration Kit actually does, and then I found a use for it.

    So now I can sleep easy at night knowing the chance of STRANGE THINGS HAPPENING has been significantly reduced on my PC. Thank you, Mr Battlefront.

    Cheers

    Ed

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    MCMMM/CMMOS question?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    I don't know about CMAK but for CMBB I originally used CMMOS and then later used MCMMM without taking off the CMMOS mods, and there was no problem at all. I can't remember what I had Modded so I'm not sure if they where the same bitmaps.

    So in answer to your question, I had no problem using both, but I didn't fully test

    Cheers

    Ed

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    No HE shells

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    An extension to the length of the gun, sort of tapered thing? Thus increasing the velocity and accuracy of the projectile? Or am I looking at the wrong thing?

    And check out the multi turreted Light Tank A3E1, Carrier - Machine Gun No. 1 thing. A proper land ship.

    Cheers

    Ed

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