Magpie_Oz

In short they are best employed to indicate the locations of the enemy anti tank defences, usually by means of a colossal explosion, flames and smoke

The bastard must be a German spy, or at least a sympathiser !

They all look very cheerful because in the time honoured SOP for General Officers who are condemned to death, Kesslering, being the senior officer is having his nuts scratched by both von Mackensen and Malzer, using the right hand of course, the left being suitable only in instances where the junior officer is juxtapositioned with said senior officer and then only if he is NOT holding a posie of flowers "And to think, at one point there was an actual girl on the forums......." What girl wouldn't want to partake in gems like these ??

The stability of the boarders are not the issue, the problem is that the colonial power determined the borders without heed of the mix of peoples contained within. Thus we have the situation where mortal enemies are forcibly bound together and expected to form a country.

Any soldier, in fact any person, in a position of authority who uses that authority for their own ends or in reaction to their own feelings is guilty of the highest betrayal of that trust and as such should be stripped of the authority immediately. This principle is drilled into officers right from day one. Well in Australia it is and I am sure the USAlians are no different

The Uters get confused and depressed if we Sportscarers do not give them tasks to do. They are simple folk and are happiest when helping. It is most certainly not slavery tho' they are paid handsomely using the standard rates of the beer economy.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think that much of the internal strife that the African nations have at the moment is in a large part due to the boundaries of their countries being determined by the conquests of the colonial powers and pay no reference to traditional tribal boundaries determined long before the arrival of Europeans. BTW how did we get from Normandy to Africa ?

Were you not informed? Boat and ute owners are condemned to a life of servitude to those of us who buy sports cars, it is just the natural way of things. ( Sodding back to Off )

I think it goes beyond bad judgement and more towards nepotism, abuse of power and corruption.

Even a slow moving light plane is pretty hard to hit with a rifle or non-AA mounted MG, of course an AA gun would take it down pretty quick. From 2000' you can see quite a deal but are well above effective small arms fire and as the Viet Cong found out many years later, shooting at something that has a regiment of artillery and ground attack aircraft on immediate call ......... well let's just say you better make those first shots count.

no you are safe, genital and follicular lice live are different and do not migrate. Perhaps the CM:Parasites module will break up the generic 100 into their sub-species?

Yes we should have saved the money by killing a few more 10's of thousands of soldiers lives in what would have been a pointless and unjustified conflict. Besides EVERYBODY knows that Patton was abducted by zombie space aliens and served as their high commander until his death when Elvis took over.

Actually he was a Cavalryman so maybe he thought how much his horse would like the apples. I do agree tho' 25, in France, on his honeymoon, .......... pretty sure what I know what was on his mind and sure wasn't terrain appreciation.

The Nyala is an IMV (Infantry Mobility Vehicle) and I think, just like the Aussie Bushmaster, its main role is to transport the infantry section through its patrol and up to the FUP. The firing ports and mounted MG are really just for local security when on the move and in not really meant to be for fire support of an attack. In my experience, and I must point out it was not with the Bushmaster and not with a regular infantry unit, our SOP was to dismount and fight on the ground, the gunner taking the pintle mounted MG with him. The driver came too so the vehicles were completely unattended when dismounted.

The Magpie is an imitative bird, more so in fact than parrots, so it's true call is hard to define, however many Aussies are wakened by the beautiful warble that sounds pretty much like "phucoffchapommiebaaaasterd" A call that endears it to all Australians. Excuse me now, I shall Sod Off as directed.

Still no idea what you are on about .......... so I will stay sodded off

An interesting stat from the 21st panzer wikki page that does give a bit of an idea : Between 6 June and 8 July, 21st Panzer reported the loss of 54 PzKpfw IV, with 17 PzKpfw IV arriving as replacements. On 3 July a German report stated the following number of enemy tanks destroyed by 21st Panzer according to weapon used: Pz: 37, Sturmgeschütz: 15, Mot. Pak & Flak: 41, Artillery: 3, Infantry: 5. Total 101. To 27 July German tank losses continued in similar numbers.

I remember we had an adapter for our standard M26 grenades that would go on the end of an L1A1 SLR. The idea was you would load up with a magazine of ballestite cartridges, put a grenade in the holder, pull the pin (!), then fire the thing off. As it flew the carrier would fall away and allow the lever to fly off thus priming the grenade. Eventually it was decided that bollocking about with a live grenade held on with a flimsy bit of disposable tin and having to carry a special magazine of cartridges was far to dangerous and fiddly as compared to the M79 Grenade launcher. Placing the rifle butt on the ground was not so much about the recoil but more because of the low velocity of the grenade requiring a high trajectory, it was easier to put the butt on the ground. Some grenade adapters had an integral sight for the ballistics of the grenade.

And what about if it is just an "adjust" not a full on scratch?

Which attack are you taking about ? Op Charnwood the bombers attacked at night, same with Op Totalize, so the colour of smoke would be irrelevant, Op Tractable was in the daylight however a smoke screen was laid down to mask the advance so it seems unlikely it was to show the FLOT , the preliminary bombardment before Goodwood did not cause friendly casualties The Tractable and Cobra heavy bomber raids caused friendly casualties but the others were deemed quite successful, which is why it was tried on several occasions.

Why ? Don't they have houses in the country? Rural folk are no better adapted to living in the field than city folk.

Unless you are fighting squirrels I cannot see how working on a farm is going to prepare you for combat. Sure someone who is familiar with the great outdoors will have a more comfortable time of it if living in the open but that is a small part of combat and also is not the sole preserve of country folk. Hunting deer is a long way from battle. At a real pinch there MIGHT be a slight advantage to the person who has killed an animal previously but even that does not compare to shooting a person or being shot at by same. And as has been said, after the first engagement everyone is pretty much on a par. There are only two things which you cannot be taught to do and you must rely on your background to be able to achieve: 1. The ability to place yourself voluntarily in a situation of mortal danger where there is a very real prospect of serious injury or death. 2. Just as hard, some would say harder, you have to be able to reconcile within yourself the horror of killing another person, Being able to continuously do 2. while in the position of 1. is what makes a good soldier. Training and disciple helps but at the bottom line how you deal with these things comes from within and whether you are from the country or the city doesn't matter a toss.

"the Russian miracle in WWII" Check this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II) Down the bottom there is a table that says it all. For example: Steel production in 1944 Germany 28.5 Million Tonnes, USSR 10.9 Million Tonnes Tanks and SPG's production 1944 : Germany 27,300 USSR 28 963 Workers 1944: Germany 18mill USSR 9mill Soviet industry was apparently 6 times more productive than the Germans half the work force with a third of the materials produced 6% more

I guess my real question is why does the fighting in the bocage not hold as big a place in the history of the British Army as it does the Americans? Maybe because for quite a few of the US Army this was their baptism of fire ?

Raises a good point tho', how did the British and Canadians fare in the hedgerows?