BARMAN1950

I'm not sure whether this is on topic or not, but here goes. In Korea we used "Willy Peter" as an anti-personel weapon. It's primary function was of course as smoke. It was used by FO's to "mark center sector" as a preliminary to targeting for artillery. It was found to be an excellent anti-personel weapon against fortified "gook" positions both for its smoke effect and also for its ability to drive the enemy out of thier positions. As a side note it was difficult to get anyone to throw a WP granade because some of the burning pieces would invaribly come back towards the thrower. Other weapons that were used against personel were the Quad 50, and 40 mm AA. Both not designed to be anti-personel weapons, but very very effective in that role. Boy those Quad 50's really were in great demand as oversight during an attack! sadly we did not get them in that role as often as we would have wished. It was also a great way to breakup the gook mass attacks!

A message for "Richie" of Richie scenario pack fame. I downloaded your "scenario pack" just fine. Are these for CMBO or CMAK? Sorry for the silly question.

I am a little hesitant to jump in here with "war stories from Korea", but I thought that it might be informational. In Korea we (infantry) carried weapon, ammo, canteen, intrenching tool, and a pancho. all of our other gear was usually back with the Regt service company. They would, if possible, bring up chow, sleeping bags,etc if we were to be in some location for more than a day or so. For chow we would carry a days supply of C-rations. I presume that these were sent up to our position by "somebody". Our Regt Had a Platoon (P& A )who were responsible for getting ammo up to the line companies. Anytime that we were to be in a defensive status we could get extra granades and ammo for our foxholes. If not used the extra stuff would be collected by the P&A platoon before we moved out. I was a BARman so my regular ammo load was 12 magazines (20 rounds each) in my belt, and an additional 100 rounds of loose ammo in a pouch for reloads. I also usually carried a couple of granades,and a 45 pistol. My asst gunner carried a bag with 10 or so extra (loaded) magazines, and a machine gun box of loose ammo for reloads. even with all of this ammo it seems that we were always stripping M-1 clips to get more ammo for the BAR. Most of the time this equip was sufficient. There were times (winter 1950) when we did not get the proper winter gear, and froze our asses off. But all in all our combat load was sufficient. I see our troops today with all of the gear that they carry, and I think that these guys are in a hell of a lot better shape than I was. I do not have a good feel as to weather or not the current system is better or worse than WW II or Korea. If our soldiers are more at ease having all of the gear that they carry, and train that way then it must be OK. As an aside, I think that in todays military there is an over concern about "collateral damage". In WW II and Korea we figured that the best way to take a town or village was to flatten the SOB with artillery or bombs, then send in the Infantry. That way we killed a lot of combatants, and the civilians usually got out of the way. Did some innocents get killed? You bet, but those civilians who didn't get killed soon learned to get out of the way. Is this the way to fight a war? I don't know. But in my (not so humble opinion) if a war must be fought then "let slip the dogs of war" and get it over with. War should be so brutal that the population want it to be over as soon as can be. Sorry if I've gone off topic, but when I see day after day the military pussyfooting around because they are worried about "collateral damage" it makes my blood boil. Either fight a war or don't fight a war. But get the job done with the least casualties on your side.

I was at a regt reunion a couple of weeks ago for a reunion of the 29th Inf Regt. The Regt is the "school" regt at Ft Benning GA. They put on a demo for us that consisted of Strikers, Bradleys and a 120mm mortar vehicle (M113's) I think. I asked the question "what is the tactical difference between the Striker & the Bradley". I was told that the Striker was basically a troop carrier much like the HT of WW II fame, whereas the Bradley was a "fighting vehicle". The Strikers had the 50 Cal M2 or the M19 auto-granade launcher. The way in which the Strikers & the Bradleys worked together (at least in this scenario) was VERY impressive. I am sure many of you grogs knew this, but it certainly cleared it up for me.

US Army, 1947 to 1954. I had a couple of glorious years in Japan during the occupation with the 11th AB Div & the 1st Cav Div. The Korean war came along and screwed up my vacation in Japan. Went to Korea as a Cpl BAR man. MOS was 4745 (Lt weapons Infantry) now called 11 Bravo. I ended up as an SFC platoon Sgt. After Korea I was a target during the Atomic tests in Nevada in 1952. Went to Germany in early '53 after Ranger scool at Fort Benning. Loved the German Beer and German girls. Finally called it quits in '54, I think that we spent as much time in the field in Germany as I did in Korea. Being a civilian is not too bad!

Jason, what a great article on the earlier (and later) days of the Korean war. I got there in July of '50 with the 29th Infantry Regt. It was a "Bastard" regt from Okinawa. We were pretty well wiped out in our first few battles at Annui & Hadong near Chinju just prior to the formation of the "Pusan Parameter". Our two Bn's later (Sept) became the 3rd Bn's of the 35th & 27th Regts of the 25th ID. An interesting note was that the first tanks deployed on the US side were M-24's not a good tank to fight the T34-85's that the gooks had. Later (in August) the Marines came in with M26's and the Army got M4A3 -Easy 8's. Also we did not get the 3.5 inch Bazookas until (I think) late July or August. Much of the ammo that we had for the 2.36" bazookas were duds. You are correct as to Chinese tactics, as I remember them. Although it should be mentioned that most of the earlier Chinese successes were against the ROK units (at least in the 8th Army sectors) The Chinks would roll back the ROK lines thereby exposing the flanks and rear of US units. The most notable example that I can think of was the travail of the 2nd Infantry Div, at Kuni Re. Again Jason, a great history lessson!

A (perhaps)silly question from a "newbie" What is involved with playing in a tournament? I have looked around and have not been able to find out what is really going on when you play in one. Sorry if this is a stupid question. Thanks, Barman1950

Hey Birdgunnar, I just downloaded the remainder of the CMAK scenarios. Thanks for your suggestion, it worked like a charm! Regards Mate

G'day Birdgunner, I downloaded all of the CMBO Scenarios that you posted to CMMODS. In downloading the CMAK scenarios I only found 2 downloads, basically Scenarios A through J. Did I miss the rest or have they not been posted yet?? I sure want to thank you for your efforts. Thanks again Mate! Barman1950

A very basic question I'm sure, but how do I use those fabulous mods at CMMODS?? I have a G3 iMAC at 600mbs. I have never mod'd anything before but I would like to "give it a go". Thanks for your help!

Sorry about the mis-spellings, I have not as yet had my first cup of coffee!

I have a question regarding the "Peng challange & Cherry Waffle" threads. Are they a part of on-going games ? When I go to a forum (CMAK,CMBO,etc I expect to find subjects dealing with those topics, but find many messages dealig with Pengs, Cherry Waffles etc. I am a fairly new bloke and have never quite understood their pupose. I am not condeming them I just don't understand their purose. Please no flames, this is an honest question. Thanks!

Hello Folks, I have been away for a few months. Today I attempted to download the Mods to CMAK. I had not previously downloaded any mods to CMAK. So, I downloaded V1.03. The download appeared on my desktop as a .sit file. I clicked on it, and stuffit went to work on it. So far, so good. then nothing! I can't find anything that I can open to start dragging things into my regular CMAK files. I have a iMAC G3 using OS 9.2.2. any suggestions would be appreciated,

Hey Mr Dorosh, I agree with you 100%. I think that it would be a logical extension to the WW II games. There would be some small update in weaponry but the tactics would be similar. The NKPA used mostly Russian tactics and weapons. It would be a reminder to me of how futile the M24 Chaffee was against the T34. As most of you will remember the US medium Tank Bn's were, in the early days, not armed with Medium tanks. We finally got M4A3E8 tanks around September of 1950. They could handle the T34's. Also, we did not get the 3.5 inch bazooka until early August of 1950.

By the way I forgot to mention that many of these battles might go on for several hours. The gooks liked to start thier battles shortly after midnight. they would continually attack until around daylight when they would pull back to avoid our air support which (if they were going to show up at all) came after daybreak. Speaking of air support, the best that we had was usually from the USMC, the Australian AF,and the Union of South Africa. The Aussies and Africans flew P-51's, the Marines flew Corsairs. The USAF flew mainly F-80's. The F-80's did not get as low nor fly as slow as the other units. My only experience with being strafed was from a flight of F-80's (not an experience that I would like to go through again) At the time we had our "Air Panels" out, and an FAC was talking with an AT-6 that was "supposed" to be directing the whole attack! They only made one pass at us, but it was enough to make a believer in air power out of me.