Royal_Dragoon_Guard

Hi, just thought some readers might be interested to read about a CMBO fanatic loose on the Normandy battlefield today! Its amazing what is still to be found, eg. 2 local woods have yielded foxholes, weapons pits and what look like hiding areas for vehicles - earth dug up on two sides, certainly big enough for a halftrack/armoured car for example. One of the woods, the largest in Manche, is full of bomb craters, some near the foxholes too! Hill 192 yielded several bits of shrapnel, including quite large chunks with screw thread visible etc, probably US 105mm. Just along the lane from me is a sunken track between banks, halfway up on one side, only barely visible in winter because of the foliage, is a small dugout, dug into and under one bank. It still has a rusty corrugated entrance roof propped up by a couple of old railway sleepers. Not far away there is a curious U shape carved out of an otherwise complete bank, tree covered, about 5 ft. high. The view through this gap is of the main road from Isigny (Omaha beach) to St. Lo. Range is about 800 metres where the road tops the ridge and drops down to my valley. I reckon this was an anti-tank gun position, 5 cm I reckon , not an 88mm or even a 7.5cm, the lane/path is far too narrow. I have researched and discovered the crossroads near me was held by a company of German Infantry falling back from Omaha. There are a couple of mortar craters, 81mm, in the vicinity too. You need to search away from farmland where everything has been tidied up. Patches of woodland and around the sunken lanes, especially coppices formed where 4 hedgerows meet, are good places. The French are very tidy so its not easy to find these relics! Nearby there are two houses still sporting extensive pock-marking from small arms fire. One, overlooking a bridge across the Vire, has what looks like an impact from a larger weapon, possibly 37mm, along with much .50 damage, M5 Stuart or M8 Greyhound? The best houses to search for this are the old farm outbuildings made of wattle/daub (dried mud).

I know, when I re-read it, it came across that way too, didn't mean it to!! What I really meant was that "Bocage" means a TYPE of terrain NOT a specific area, hence the equation with "Moorland" in the UK, get it? You get both in more than one area. Whereas the North Downs are the only North Downs right? Consequently if you are talking about the type of terrain Bocage is, then it is found in pockets all over France. For example I have just come back from a holiday in the Auvergne, and guess what - French information boards there refer to areas of Bocage, and not a Sherman in sight! Bocage is a local name given to terrain of small, enclosed fields bordered by banks 1-2 metres high topped with rough hedges/trees. The Normans were the first to construct this type of terrain (very much man-made), and so the name derives from them. But it is NOT unique to Normandy. Some recent writers have tried to say that Bocage is unique to Normandy, some even going as far as to say it only occurred around St Lo in the western sector of the Normandy beaches!

Yeah, no joy, looks like they've disowned it. I'll try again all the same, maybe if I annoy them enough they'll come up with something! Still, CMBO is such a brilliant game, I can put up with that little bit of hassle each time I load it. I've got CMBB and CMAK on order right now, wonder if they'll be alright in this department?

Hi folks, I've lived in Normandy for 2 years now, and I've been looking around the place with an eye to CMBO! First thing is the term "Bocage", to the French this word describes a type of terrain found anywhere in France, not just Normandy. It occurs all over France in pockets, similar I guess to "Moorland" in the UK. I live in a house set in an original sized bocage field, believe me those banks and hedges are tough! They are rough too, with all manner of bushes/shrubs and trees - not hedges in my book. Bocage existed on both the American and British/Canadian sectors, but the best survives here in the US sector today.

You fellas getting carried away or what? If you are all talking about the "Saving Private Ryan" movie I saw - set in Normandy 1944, you can forget Tigers and Jagdpanthers. Truth is there wasn't a single one of either of these AFV's anywhere on the entire American front! The US airborne faced old French tanks from 1940, plus a handful of Marder open topped tank destroyers. No Panthers faced by the US airborne then. 251 halftracks did arrive later in the campaign on that sector, but I dont believe there were any around St. Mere Eglise for example. Don't believe what you see (or hear) in the movies!

I did actually post my original question in that section too, but sometimes users can answer these problems too. It seems the problem lies with MS windows xp autorun. Turn that off and it doesn't do it apparently. Why this should be I don't really know - all my other games work ok with autorun. Odd! Also CMBO worked alright with autorun on windows 98, even odder methinks!

Thanks for that, Autorun can be a pain at times!

Yes it is, I think I brought one of the first copies from PC World!

Yes it is, I think I brought one of the first copies from PC World!

Hi, apologies if this has already been covered, but I'm new to CMBO on windows XP. Game is installed and fine, but whenever I pop the cd in to play, that loading screen comes up saying Install wizard/install/repair etc. Why? Even if I :mad: :mad: click the icon fast, it still reappears at the end! I dont remember this happening on windows 98 SE, yet the game was sold for windows XP. Any way to stop it doing this each time please?

Hi everybody, apologies if this has already been covered, but I'm fairly new to CMBO on Windows XP. The game is already installed, but everytime I pop the cd in, up comes that screen for loading/repairing etc! Even if I click the icon quick, I still have to go through all those annoying prompts, or its waiting for me again at the end just the same! I dont recall it doing this on Windows 98 SE. Presume there must be a simple fix for this? :mad: