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Anyone who considers Montgomery inflexible would perhaps care to read up on his manoeuvering of the 3rd Infantry Division before Dunkirk. He kept them together and skillfully withdrew them to safety despite the chaos of the German breakthrough and Allied collapse, and received a lot of very high praise which did his subsequent career prospects no harm at all. He also refined his Alamein plan mid stride with the Supercharge offensive, there are probably others I can't recall at the moment, so I really don't see how that charge can be levelled. For critics of the Rhine operation a it could be worth remembering that Britain and the Commonwealth had been in a long war by that time, and they were short of men. He had to be sure he wasn't wasting lives where possible, politically it would not have been acceptable, hence the big effort in an attempt to elimintate unnecessary risk. I think as a General he was very good, but his ascerbic personality has coloured his reputation, particularly with the Americans. What was it they said, 'As quick as a ferret, and about as likeable'. Just MHO anyway

I had to chime in with more praise. This mod makes the biggest visual improvement to CMBB by far. Outstanding work. Thanks.

1. Yes. 2. Yes. 3. It all depends on the Royal Navy. If Hitler inherits it intact and can add the German, Japanese, Italian and French to it then the USA must do something desperate and quick. It would have been spectacular one way or the other Ps. Shouldn't we be talking about 1940 instead of 1941? The Brits weren't likely to give up once another great power (Russia) had joined the war. [ October 23, 2003, 07:32 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Ok here you go. However as they say in The Holy Grail: 'It's only a model.....shhhhhh!' [ October 19, 2003, 07:50 AM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Here's one. I cannot find production figures though. It seems the twin 20mm Oerlikons were the same as the versions fitted on ships for AA defense. The Bofors 40mm variant looks a bit like a Jpz1, I'll return if I can locate a piccy. [ October 19, 2003, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

I never knew Word Processing could be so dangerous. If it is in then can we have spreadsheets as well? It will be handy for AARs.

Perhaps in the Goodale thread, lad, when it gets here. Thank you for the versification, Wisbech Lad. </font>

All together now! Men of Harlech (Modern words used by Regimental Band) Tongues of fire on Idris flaring, news of foe-men near declaring, to heroic deeds of daring, call you Harlech men Groans of wounded peasants drying, wails of wives and children flying, for the distant succour crying, call you Harlech men. Shall the voice of wailing, now be unavailing, You to rouse who never yet in battles hour were failing, His our answer crowds down pouring swift as winter torrents roaring, Not in vain the voice imploring, call on Harlech men Loud the martial pipes are sounding every manly heart is bounding As our trusted chief surrounding, march we Harlech men. Short the sleep the foe is taking, ere the morrows morn is breaking, They shall have a rude awakening, roused by Harlech men. Mothers cease your weeping, calm may be your sleeping, you and yours in safety now the Harlech men are keeping, ere the sun is high in heaven they you fear by panic riven shall like frightened sheep be driven, far by Harlech men. Note that this is not the particular version composed for the film Zulu, and there are several other versions of Men of Harlech. However it is a magnificent hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck rendition of the modern Regimental tune actually sung on location, amazing. Thanks for sharing [ October 11, 2003, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Unfortunately my memory isn't so hot but I definitely read a few years back (Ian Hogg?) that the Brits did consider sloped armour on some of their tanks early on, but decided to stick with flat armour. The flat armour proponents cited the space/size reason mentioned above, and also that sloped armour is a disadvantage (it presents a flat target) if you are being fired on from a higher elevation, or if the target tank is travelling downhill. Flat armour becomes sloped in effect if that occurs, and perhaps they expected it to happen fairly frequently. [ October 11, 2003, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Michael - That was my first thought on seeing the Grant as well. The 75mm was a short howitzer and looks way too long on the screenie, more like a long AT gun. I'm not concerned by the modern picture of the tank as I suspect the 75mm is probably just a fake, all pictures from primary sources I have seen before show a short howitzer. An example is below, the gun ended at the front of the tank, as in this picture of a Scots Grey's Grant in 1942: Maybe the 37mm looks a bit too large/thick as well? Regardless, the howitzer should definitely be shorter and fatter. The 37mm gun was actually longer than the 75mm, and AFAIK was supposed to be the primary AT weapon of the tank, with the howitzer for HE use on soft targets. Of course it didn't quite work out that way in RL. As extra evidence I offer a photo of Monty's own Alamein Grant in the Imperial War Museum. As you can see the muzzle brake version of the howitzer is also much shorter than the CM model. [ October 11, 2003, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Nice. If you like I can pen my new desert war ditty which opens 'There was a young man in Buq-Buq'

Eeeeew! The latest 'Sherman stalking Fritzes' pic is worse. Massive mountains and plain sand all around, plus the sky seems grainy. What part of North Africa is this supposed to be?

Another raised glass to Bill and the Raiders from me. Rest assured, your work with CM and SP has been enjoyed and appreciated. Good luck in your next endeavours.

Hehe - ignore - I see the other thread now

I'm curious. It's kinda sad to see the Raiders retire, and I would have like to express my thanks for their work with CM and SP in particular. Cheers Bill.

Great, thanks for the explanation From the pictures I've seen of the Desert War rocky arid terrain seems to be much more prevalant than sand dunes. I suppose deep sand would be impassable for most transport anyway hence they avoided the Sand Seas. Another question if you don't mind, will we be able to have the rocky arid type terrain as a default in the QB generator rather than the sand terrain? Re: the mountains, many thanks for the prompt on Tunisia. However AFAIK in Cyrenaica and Egypt where the fighting took place until 1943 there were no mountains, just escarpments which I assume would be a flat topped cliff. I was hoping to see empty horizons, but what the heck, they could be modded.

Yes! That rocky desert is much better than the other sand dune type terrain. [Edit] I'm not sure about the towering mountains in the background though, was there such huge mountains around in the desert? [ September 23, 2003, 12:38 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Does anyone know if some or many units in CMAK will be depicted using 'placeholder' graphics like we have in CMBB? Thanks.

It's fun to stay at the... Y M C A... </font>

It's fun to stay at the... Y M C A... Simply scrummy darlings to see that this board accepts those less than stiff wristed posters as well.