GoofyStance

Literally, "Tank knocking equipment." Seriously, that's what Google said

Good observations, and I agree (though I didn't know that about the boots). Most likely a pre-war publicity photo. And any more relaxed, the guy on the far right would fall asleep

Not unless the "young dudes" were Volkssturm being shown how to use the door knocker, circa 1945. Talk about desperate measures (waiting for an uniform grog to point out details in the clothing that mark the picture as having been taken on May 15th, 1938 ... or some such date ...)

So that's what that box is for! My initial thought was, "Why'd they put a brick on the shield - a last-ditch close-defense weapons system?" What rank is the soldier on the far right of the photo, seated on the ground - an Obergefreiter?

I hope I haven't confused anyone with the vague nature of my description. Being ignorant of the proper terminology, I was trying to call attention to the four I-shaped, bottom-hinged projections that are located roughly halfway up on the outside of the gun shield. The one projection on the far right is flat against the shield, and the other three appear to be projecting outward at an angle from the shield. I assumed they provided support for the folding parts of the gun shield, because there appear to be small brackets on the upper shield that seem to correspond in location to the upper, free ends of the projections. Perhaps the projections' design were such that they made handy, ad hoc hanging points for ammo cases during transit?

What was the purpose of those hinged (?) projections on the front of the gun shield - two on the front portion, one each on the side portions? I see them in all the pictures on the web site that Dandelion pointed out. I assume they're support posts for the upper portions of the gun shield, which seem to fold down? If so, why would the shield be folded down - for long-distance transport on open flat cars, or for lowering the profile of the gun in flat, open country?

Based on the title of this topic, I was expecting a mod that displayed a 24-hour wedding chapel which suddenly transforms into the divorce window at a court house ...

I was playing a QB as the Americans vs. the Tac-AI Germans in 1944 Italy, and my P-38J air support dropped a pair of 1600-lb bombs on a StuG IIIG. Unfortunately, the bombs only bracketed the StuG and caused the crew to button up. The next turn, the StuG was fine and motoring about the landscape. However, at one point it actually drove precisely across the middle of one of the bomb craters, only being slowed down until it got to the other side of the crater. Now, I'm no ordnance expert, but I'd think a 1600-lb bomb would make a hole big enough to cause a StuG crew to think twice about trying to cross the hole. Is there any chance of an AFV bogging down or even getting completely stuck trying to traverse a bomb crater?

My apologies for going off-topic, but Mr. Dorosh's comments prompt me to ask a question that I'd had for years, but never followed up on: what caliber(s) were the German coastal artillery on Walcheren Island? I wondered since they were largely responsible for denying the Allies the use of the docks of Antwerp for months in 1944.

Sounds like a wonderful time at General LeMay's brainchild track. I've never been there, but I heard all about the exotic gatherings that took place in the 50s and 60s. Myself, I vividly remember my dad taking me in his Porsche 356B D'Ieteren Roadster to Mid-Ohio in the mid-70s to see an IMSA race. I can still recall the full-boogie 935's downshifting at Turn 6 with the 3-foot-long flames being spit out their tailpipes. Three days ago? I worked, then pumped iron, then watched TV while I worked on a Photoshop project. So there's hope for me yet

You're right, I should've thought of Michelin. Their first radial tire design was patented in 1946 and their first radial tire marketed in Europe in 1948. So what kind of Porsche did your brother have (or still have)? A 356A, B, C - or a 550 Spyder :eek:

Definitely not Firestone Radial ATX's ... yes, I know radials weren't available till the late 60s

I agree. Having been involved in environmental damage mitigation in the past, I've assessed the seedier side of nature - Superfund Sites, oil spills, abandoned dumps, etc. Many of these "crimes against nature" were a result of plain ignorance or expedient reasoning ("Dumping these chemicals will save lives!") In the 1930s and 40s, chemical research was marked by leaps and bounds, spurred on by the catalysts of war and massive government funding. However, most of this research was geared towards winning the war, not protecting the environment. As a result, we now have extensive contamination of firing ranges (lead, copper, zinc, arsenic, tungsten, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, to name a few contaminants), and areas of the South Pacific are still recovering, 60 years later, from widespread use of DDT to combat malaria in GIs. The dumping at sea of waste oil and defective lead batteries by war ships, and the torpedoing of oil tankers (as Michael mentioned) were commonplace occurrences. Then there's the catastrophic damage to the environment as a result of the use of atomic bombs and testing these primitive WMD's. Back then, little was known about the environmental damage caused by the new-fangled means and methods of winning the war through chemical means, or else people were more concerned with other, seemingly more important considerations. The destruction of a few thousand birds or even the wholesale extermination of insect species were viewed as a small price to pay - or no price at all, given the apparent uselessness of these species in the world as perceived by the common man. Even in today's "enlightened" world, it's not unusual to run into people who still think this way, with the result that the almighty dollar takes precedence over preserving the environment where we still can. But I digress. This is a forum for the discussion of CM products and related military issues, not an environmental platform. I will, however, leave you with this quote by Aldo Leopold: The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it. The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: "What good is it?" (A Sand County Almanac, 1948)

In today's day and age, the gun crews would be roundly chastised by the divisional environmental officer for spreading a contaminant on the ground, and the news agencies would have a field day with this horrible, deliberate fouling of a delicate ecosystem ...

They were trying to escape!!! </font>

Here's a link to a period photo, though the site is in German.

Ah - that makes sense! Does placing the final movement markers too close together interrupt the movement of one PoW unit, if the two units are still some 40 meters apart?

In the first three pictures showing the knocked-out French tank, there's a Wehrmacht soldier with a white armband and a wand with a bicolored circular disk at one end. I recognize the disk as being a traffic directing baton used by the Feldgendarmerie, but if that guy was a MP, where's his brass gorget, and what is the armband for? The only armbands that I know of used by the Feldgendarmerie were SS Feldjager and post-war MP's (see here for more info.) I'm sure there's a lot I don't know about the use/non-use of the gorget and the armband - perhaps a grog will be kind enough to educate me

I was playing a QB between the AI as the British and myself as the Italians in a short fight in North Africa. During the fighting, a British AFV got within my lines before being shot up, and the crew (crack, four OK and one casualty) bailed out. In the next turn, after being shot at by an Italian pioneer squad some 50 meters away, the British crew surrendered. I ordered the crew to move past the pioneers towards my platoon HQ squad (some 25 meters further back). The crew started moving (next turn), but when it got to the trench where the Italian pioneer squad was located, it stopped and refused to go further in subsequent turns, despite my repeated orders. In fact, twice it started moving back towards friendly lines! All this time, the crew icon had its hands up in surrender. The pioneer squad was getting shot at by several infantry units some 100-200 meters away and was occasionally taking cover, btw. Meanwhile, the sole survivor of a crack British infantry squad, which had also surrendered in the vicinity, had no qualms about obeying my orders to move close by the HQ squad, completing the 150-meter move in two turns despite bullets whistling past the survivor. He had to cross two manned trenches and some open ground ... I understand that PoWs will remain in captured mode unless a stronger friendly unit comes within (shouting?) range, at which point the PoWs might revert to fighting status. But are there any conditions under which PoWs might behave erratically, such as under fire or in cover?

[bump] No comments on this revised foliage scheme? I'm wondering if anyone would like to see this on one of the mods sites. If not, I'll just take my camo and go home

Ok, now that my computer is back up and running, and I've got a better idea of what to do and not do with my leafy camo mod, how do these two Jagdpanther (early) mods look so far with summer and fall foliage, complete with branches poking out here and there? Any and all comments and suggestions are welcomed - thanks!

Where's the third leg? Or did the King ... never mind. :cool:

Mikey, That mod looks great! Especially the Zimmeritt and the partial/damaged skirts. What program do you use to make those mods? And do you stretch the side-view BMPs by a specific percentage so the AFV is not "scrunched" while you make the mod? If so, what percentage do you use - or do you just stretch and shrink and eyeball till it looks right? Finally, how do you return the BMP to its original size without getting the pink background showing up along the edges of the spokes and wheels in the game? I hope this makes sense, as these are problems I keep running into when trying to work with my leafy foliage mod. It'd help if there was an AFV modding tutorial out there that I've yet to find ... And on that note, may I use your mod for my leafy foliage, once I iron out the wrinkles?

Mikey, Thanks for posting that link - your leafy camo is a nice mod. Gives me more of an idea on what to do with my own, though my hard drive crashed yesterday and I had to rebuild it from scratch. So my modding will be delayed a few days until I get everything loaded once again. By the way, was that Hetzer suffering an untimely end ...?

Forty years ago?? I'm curious, what board-based war games were available back in the mid 60s, if you can remember? How realistic were they, given their board-related limitations? I'm envisioning a scenario in "GI's and Krauts," circa 1964: "My menacing, hulking King Tiger just entered the wheatfield, followed by a platoon of Nazi stormtroopers with evil red eyes, froth at the mouth, and bared, filed-sharp teeth ..." "Ok [rolling dice] my trusty 37mm anti-tank gun just blew the living daylights out of your Tiger with one shot. The lone squad leader, Sgt. Fury, stood up in the middle of the Nazis and, with his tried-and-true .45 Colt, wiped out the whole platoon (without reloading, of course). When it was all over, he lit up a Lucky Strike and walked off into the sunset ..."