Hilts

RIGHT FLANK: Western Approach Sector. Troops on the right pinned down by enemy SMG fire from a house in the centre background. The Stummel moves in to engage. 2nd ZUG scouts enter the town

CENTRE & LEFT FLANK: For two or three minutes my FO's in the church tower have been observing the enemy armour. They have been stationary on the road heading towards the town. I wondered whether they would move into the town en-masse or split up and attack from the sides. I am hoping that they split up then Ober's Panther may be able to pick them off one by one. FO's now able to report that they are indeed splitting up! An enemy truck is spotted in the town centre. HMG42 opens up on it achieving several hits to the engine compartment but I can't tell whether it is knocked out or not. Enemy troops were seen occupying this house in the foreground just south of the Northern Approach. Over 100 rounds were fired into it......

RIGHT FLANK: Stummel begins bombarding the buildings situated in the Western Approach sector. Infantry move up in preparation for assault on the terraced houses in the foreground. Enemy troops including possibly a heavy machine gun were seen occupying these buildings earlier in the battle but I am hoping they have been neutralised as no sightings have been reported recently. Panzer1 moves up to offer additional support if required.

Centre: A truck arrives laden with ammo and mortar rounds. Two mortar ammo bearers rush to unload one of the crates. RIGHT FLANK: Scouts from 2nd Zug race across open terrain towards cover. I have almost reached the outskirts of the town. They discover enemy dead, in the copse. More infantry move up but then get caught in a mortar attack. They take cover behind the wall and 2nd Zug sustains its first casualty.

LEFT FLANK Northern Approach Sector. More troops move up. Enemy resistance is stiffening on all fronts. Heavy enemy fire coming from the house in the centre background. Infantry and the immobilised Lynx return fire. Bringing up the Stummel in support. I am starting to miss the loss of the two Pz IVs in the previous engagement. Finally I can attend to the wounded at the crossroads. Looks like the cavalry have finally arrived! Five Shermans spotted on the road SSE of the town.

Northern Approach sector: Pioneer scouts advance through gardens towards the town whilst looking out for enemy units. One sapper volunteers to investigate the nearby house. Taking no chances he uses a demo charge to demolish the house wall and then rushes in. The house appears deserted. FO's in the church tower spot enemy activity in the centre of the town. They call in an artillery strike.

LEFT FLANK: Northern Approach. The immobilised Pz2 finally spots the Greyhound and opens fire hitting the turret and killing the commander. The Greyhound reverses away and breaks off contact. RIGHT FLANK: Enemy mortar rounds start landing near 2nd Zug HQ and attached units. Time to get out of there! Scouts from 2 Zug race back to a Kubelwagen to replenish ammo. A view down the Argentan Road looking towards the town and the Western Approach. No sign of enemy troops apart from the destroyed armoured car in the foreground.

Enemy soldiers were seen in this out-house earlier in the battle. Taking no chances Larcher opens up with a machine gun and the 20mm cannon. The building is riddled with bullets and shells and collapses. Then a set back. The Lynx receives two direct hits from a Greyhound behind some bocage way over on the enemy right flank. One crew member is seriously wounded and the Lynx is immobilised.

All the action in these turns takes place at the Northern Approach. After just over twenty minutes of fighting all units ordered to check their ammo. Some teams are running low so trucks brought up from the rear for re-supply. Sappers blow a hole in the wall then rush through and occupy the final building in the Northern Approach sector. There are two dead and dying American soldiers lying in a pool of blood on the ground floor. Better check upstairs on next turn. Meanwhile on the other side of the street assault goes in on the big house overlooking the Northern Approach. When this house is cleared the Northen Approach should be secured.

LEFT FLANK: More sappers move into position for the assault on the final building in the Northern Approach sector. These lads are carrying explosives should they be required. Meanwhile Larchers's Lynx changes position and is on the hunt for any routing enemy units. I have set up my Pak40 behind some bocage to anchor the extreme left flank and to cover any American armoured counter attack in this area. I also have a good field of fire covering the Chagny Road, which you can see on the embankment running from left to right where the red writing is. If any enemy reinforcements come down this road it should get interesting.....

RIGHT FLANK: Units advance towards the outskirts of the town and the Western Approach over on the right. ...and immediately engage enemy infantry in the house centre background. I may have to put some shells into that next turn. On the extreme right flank I need to know what's behind that bocage lining the Argentan Road, where the destroyed Greyhound is. A scout unit is dispatched to find out. More units move up towards the town passing American dead on the way.

Cheers! I still have all my artillery intact apart from the Nebelwherfers. With the Yanks in retreat I am thinking about another bombardment of the town but I also like to keep some in reserve (for emergencies). I simply crop the UI off by using the PAINT.net programme

House clearing continues at the Northern Approach. Same deal as before. Two HE shells accompanied by covering fire from a HMG42 across the street. Then two sappers rush in. This time the house is empty... Dispositions on the left flank after about twenty minutes.

The attack continues. On all sides American forward elements are seen fleeing back towards the town. Some don't make it. Still no sign of enemy armour. Over on the right flank Graf's two man scout team armed with MP40s rush into a building and surprise three enemy soldiers, who are immediately gunned down. I was lucky.... I thought the building was unoccupied Here are the dispositions on the right flank after about twenty minutes of fighting.

Lt Ober's Panther moves over to the right flank to try and exploit better fields of fire. It immediately comes under fire from a Greyhound armoured car hidden behind some bocage on the Argentan road over on the American extreme left flank. Ober returns fire ....and scores a direct hit killing all the occupants.

The assault on the Northern Approach begins. The Stummel puts two HE shells into the building in the left foreground. Then two German sappers race across the road to occupy the building. Inside there are two dead American soldiers with a third cowering in the corner. He promptly surrenders.

An abandoned Sherman, a victim of the rocket attack at the start of the battle is seen amongst the ruins of the town. Two American scouts armed with Thompson sub-machine guns pop up from behind a wall and open fire with devastating effect on a team of five Germans advancing up the road Four of them are wiped out

That looks much better. Thanks mate.....you even managed to turn it the right way round!

I'm having a bit of trouble exploding the main CMFI brz file to find out the file name of the weapon. It's not working the same way as CMBN did, for some reason. Solved it! The file names are: m1903a3-m1 green.bmp and ditto yellow.bmp Cheers Juju

Here are two screenshots of the weapon in question taken from the CMFI UI I'm not sure what the filename is but will see if I can find out And this is the CMBN UI showing the M7 I was referring to.

I'm not too sure is the answer to that. In CMBN it's listed as simply an M7 on the UI (I don't know if that is a Springfield or not) but in CMFI when you mouse over the weapon on the UI it's listed as M1 GL on Springfld. I also noticed that for some reason this weapon faces the other way round on the UI!

That worked....thanks Phil.

The only US small arms that I have come across, which is not covered by your excellent mod is the M1 rifle that carries a grenade launcher. It's listed on the UI as M1GL on Springfld I have successfully converted my Lee Enfield n1 mkiii rifles by renaming them as suggested above but I can't get it to work for the Lee Enfields with scopes. Does anyone know what the correct code is? I have tried lee-enfield-scope_n1_mkiii green.bmp and lee-enfield_n1_mkiii-scope green.bmp and neither has worked.......

The Tiger was buttoned up, which makes it even more annoying! It would have been the perfect example of precisely when to use a satchel charge because he would have had plenty of time to prepare it (if required) and then just lob it over the wall as the tank approached. How on earth did you get your men to lob four at one vehicle when it was presumably moving at speed?

I don't understand this total reluctance for troops to use their satchel charges against armour. I once had a lone US paratrooper (vet) who was hiding behind a low wall waiting for an approaching Tiger. The Tiger, which was buttoned up, duly pulled up alongside and stopped at the other side of the wall about two yards from the para. The para had one satchel charge and no grenades. In the next turn I unhid him and he opened fire on the tank with his rifle! The turret cranked round and blew him to hell. What we need in my opinion is a blast armour command similar to the one we have for buildings and/or area target with "use explosives" like in CM 1