wisbechlad

The LAV25 is purely for recce in the USMC I thought? In which case, the UK equivalent is the Scimitar. But UK recce forces, ISTR, are not designed to be "aggressive" recce, but passive. The Bulldog is an battle taxi, to get to the front. The Warrior is an IFV, to add fire support as well.

I'm at mission 9 I think - just finished clearing a valley, quickly. Looks like this next mission I get yanks to bear the brunt of the fighting - uh, I mean co-operate with. Police Station was a nightmare, but a very good one. The mission I didn't enjoy was the convoy protection one - because I just couldn't get the trucks to exit, and it wasn't clear from the briefing that I should have been securing other objectives other than just exit trucks. Plus the design seemed a "gotcha" The one I enjoyed most was actually airfield assault. I messed up the recon, and was cursing Staff for sending in a light force with no arty over open ground to seize buildings. So I devised a very conservative plan, rather than trying to take too many victory locations, and making good use of my sections' decent range (LSW and minimi's) Ended up with major victory

Doctrine? The UK army has a doctrine? Nasty, continental things doctrines... Since WW2, AFAIK, the UK army has two main purposes. Defend the North German plain (BAOR) and engage in "small wars" (Aden/ Borneo/ Falklands/ Afganistan etc) So, paradoxically, it is the "light" forces that are offensive. The "heavy" forces were designed to be defensive. But as that defensive need has largely gone away, there is no urgency to (say) develop a new IFV. The light forces are where it is at - see all the recent arguing about helicopters to improve airmobility.

Yep, the Scimitar ISTR weighs four tonnes. A large car (Bentley) weighs two tonnes. This is the spiritual successor of something like the Humber Scout Car or Daimler AC, not a Chaffee

Nice. But British troops, in desert, in long sleeves? Some mishtake shurely

Bollocks, forgot my password. And the email address I registered with has long gone. Oh well. Here is an interesting lecture on military geography of Normandy: http://www.esci.keele.ac.uk/geophysics/People/Jamie/MilitaryGeology/M_G_6_Notes.pdf Some interesting grog facts that I didn't know before reading this: - Choice of Normandy was influenced by its suitability to build airfields - Much of the airfield surfacing needed to be shipped in (50% in UK sector, 75% in US sector) - Allies had a whole quarrying (and presumably road resurfacing) organisation Oh yes, and on topic, has examples of cross country movement maps, showing soil types, areas where tracks are likely to break etc.