hank24

Another fancy measure to increase the possible chamber pressure is 'autofrettage'. Here, an unbelivable high oil pressure ist applied to the inside of the barrel to deform the inner half of it beyond elasticity. So, when the pressure is released, the inner half is compressed by the outer perimeter, it is pre-compressed. On shot, the chamber pressure first has to bring this pre-compression to zero before it can build up a tension. Don't know wether the Russians are doing this, it is done with the Rheinmetall gun of Leopard2. First applied on ship guns around 1875 with hot rings drawn over the barrel, cooling down there and compressing it. Saves a lot of top weight.

Great AAR, Rinaldi, I love to see this, battalion operation with long movement axes, hull-down positions in rolling terrain, and long range fire. This is real tank combat. Keep it up!

You can find them here: https://opentopomap.org/#map=10/48.9802/6.0191

Similar for me, one of my first wargames was Panzer '44 from SPI, featuring many of the Arracourt battles as scenarios. I bought it around '79 and still like it, though it has a really old concept. Phantastic project, gentlemen. Actually, I am just playtesting some deviation scenario of the Ley attack, designed by DasMorbo.

+1 to SLIM. There are problems with flickering shadows sometimes, especially when the sun is low, and there might be a lot of games out there looking much better. But none has this level of fidelity and realism combined with a graphic which is more than OK 95% of the gaming time. Interestingly the same discrepancy with tabletop games. I tried Conflict of Heroes and Old School Tactical, both have beautiful maps and Counters, but the are more games which happen to have some tanks. So I return to East Front Tank Leader sporting an ugly map and even more ugly counters, but it is a masterpiece of game design. Details at www.boardgamegeek.com .

Interesting Topic. So what is a game I like and one which has the potential to be a winner at the economic side? It should have balanced adversaries, play over a wide variation of different terrain, should be concerned more with tactics than technology, and should present many different vehicles, systems and forces. Just two come to my mind: Ostfront 1942/43, with balanced forces, all terrain mother russia offers in summer heat or freezing winter, tactics as we all know it already (or would never use), a wide array of forces involved. Endless opportunities for interesting Scenarios: huge tank clashes, the cut at the shoulder of an intrusion of the front, partisans to paratroopers, city fighting, oh my. Fulda Gap in the seventies to eighties. Again balanced forces, terrain from the beaches of the Baltic, north German plain, the rolling hills of the Fulda area, down to the bavarian mountains. Equipment and tactics from more than ten different nations. And not too much technology to overwhelm tactics. These two would be an automatic buy for me. North Africa would be nice, too but lacks the variation in terrain.

During the last few days I had an interesting encounter at a geriatric department of a hospital at Braunschweig, Germany. I met an old man who told me that he joined the Wehrmacht in 1943 with the 12th InfDiv but soon came to some panzer unit where he was the driver of a Mk IV tank at the eastern front. This tank was destroyed with no loss to the crew and just days afterwards they received a King Tiger. He drove this during the successful opening of some cut-off parts of other units in East Prussia. He mentioned the cities Heiligenbeil and Elbing. Some time later, his tank was fatally hit, commander dead, all others jumped out. But then the next projectile hit the tank and he caught three splinters. Came to a Hospital at Thale at the Harz mountains, went to US captivity and to French captivity later. His unit was the 3/42. Unfortunately no further Information, maybe 3. company of some Regiment 42. I tried to find something like that, but no succes (e.g. www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de). Anybody any idea? In addition, he talked of a 'T10 tank' with a 105 mm gun. I asked if he means something like the Wespe, i.e. an artillery piece, but he insisted it had a rotating turret. Some kind of development tank? Panzer VII Löwe (Lion, according to Wikipedia, it never left the drawing board)? I think, if this is true, it is really a rare occurance to meet somebody alive today who drove one of the 492 King Tigers of the Wehrmacht. Unfortunately, I was unable to spend more time with him and some of his memorys were feint.

It is not done under fire but normal procedure during quite intervals. I read that the Wehrmacht tankers did it and it is still taught today. Exchange ammo until all are at the same level.

+1 to that, especially the snow scenarios remind me to the good old hunting days. Best whishes from Süderwalsede, by the way (40 km from Bremen).

To my knowledge, S3 ist the third staff officer of a battalion. When I remember correctly from my time at the German Bundeswehr, S1 is responsible personnel, S2 for info on the enemy, S3 for tactics and plans and deputy battalion commander, S4 for logistics. No info on c-2, though.

Downloading.... Cannot wait to see this graphic - the faked but awesome reflections on the windows, the snow, the blizzard, all the new gadgets. My thanks to the entire BFC Team!

Wow Bud, now you really got me hooked. Outstanding quality - the story and the pictures. I even saw that the rear part of a Krupp Protze is visible at its rear-view mirror. Never noticed that before.

Followed all your CAAR's, this one looks phantastic, even in black & white. Nice way to show the flashback. But I hope the colour to come back sometime later ... Thank you for all the effort, can't wait for the next panel.

Yes, no maps. I use www.viamichelin.com in parallel on my Kindle, it shows all the names of the small villages like Germeter. You will never see these at Google Maps.

Here it is: Panzerbataillon 33 verteidigt mit Schwerpunkt links in 3 Stunden im Raum Adorf, Behausen, Ceweiler, um die Voraussetzung für den Angriff der Panzerbrigade 3 zu schaffen. from Rainer Oestmann: Dazu befehle ich...! my translation: 33th Tank Battalion defends with main effort left starting 3 hours from now within the area of Adorf, Behausen, Ceweiler, to create the precondition for the attack of 3rd Tank Brigade. Google: Tank Battalion 33 defends focusing left in 3 hours in space Adorf, able to house, Ceweiler to create the conditions for the attack of the armored brigade. 3 Not too bad, just the Name of the second village was misunderstood as a verb.

That's what I would call a cool new feature of CM:FB !

Hey, Baneman you're back! Great! What the hell is TMI? Oh, forget it, maybe something which should not be written here, like the thoughts of some infantry man in Italy. There is still life here.

I totally agree to your statements, JasonC. It was common practice within the Wehrmacht to concentrate mobile, or when available, armored elements of a division to 'fire brigade Kampfgruppen' as quick reserve for the less mobile parts or as an advance element during attack or pursuit. Opposed to the official equipment tables for a PzGrenDiv, this one seemed to have had Pz IV all the time from its formation in the winter 1943/44 to the end. Maybe it is due to the unusual history of its formation from remnants of the Africa divisions. I found two well informed german language forums with information from monthly strength reports. The StuG's were at Panzerjäger Btl 33 (Anti-tank Btl) first and later came to PzAbt 115 (Panzer Battalion). Pz.Bestand Jan./Feb. 1944 Italien Ist 1.1.1944 = 1 Pz. III, 23 Pz. IV, 21 StuG III Ist 1.2.1944 = 1 Pz. III, 22 Pz. IV, 21 StuG III Ist 1.3.1944 = 1 Pz. III, 35 Pz. IV (davon 15 Pzkpfw. neu zugewiesen), 21 StuG III in Abgabe an Stu.Gesch.Brig. 907 Pz.Bestand Sep./Okt. 1944 Lothringen Ist 5.9.1944 = ? Pz. III, 33 Pz. IV, 29 Jagdpz. IV L/48 Ist 1.10.1944 = 2 Pz. III, 21 Pz. IV, 27 Jagdpz. IV L/48 Ist 1.11.1944 = 1 Pz. III, 29 Pz. IV, 24 Jagdpz. IV L/48, 5 StuG III (Zuwachs an Pz. IV und StuG III durch Übernahme Restbestand Pz.Brig. 113 Anfang Okt. 1944) Before Ardennes offensive 30 new StuG III (no Pz IV allowed for PzGrenDiv), beginning of January '45 transfer of the last StuG's from PzJg 33 to PzAbt 115. See: http://forum.panzer-archiv.de/viewtopic.php?t=6015 and http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Panzergrenadierdivisionen/15PGD.htm That proves that SPI was wrong, there were never StuG's at the AufklBtl 115, especially during the battle for Luneville (Sept. '44) 15. PzGrenDiv most certainly had none or just a few left over within PzJägBtl 33. So, orders of battle is no precise science I think, anything can happen. At the first forum they even dicussed obvious and not-so-rare mistakes of higher staffs when reporting such Division strength figures to higher HQ's. Therefore, within our scope of simulation here, and at that late stage of the war, anything can show up in a scenario, even when not listed on the official ORBAT's.

Oops, then somebody must have made a mistake in the historical notes of the 'Luneville' scenario of my old Panzer '44 boardgame from SPI (115 Recon of 15. PzGrenDiv). There they described that the role of the recon battalions of the Panzer and Panzergrenadier Divisions changed from gathering information to an expectation to fight stand-up actions, also. And that exactly fits to the role of the 1. Recon Battalion I served with in the eighties in the German Bundeswehr. It was equipped with 8 wheeled Luchs and Leopard 1. I know that there was a wide variation of the organisation of recon battalions and I am far away from knowing them all. Maybe, the StuGs were attached and not organic part of the battalion.

Ivanov: So without at least a Stug, I shouldn't think of confronting the enemy? Precisely on the point, the German Wehrmacht must have thought the same. Sometime in 1944 they attached some organic Sturmgeschütze to their recon battalions. They were used for anti tank duty and what is called in German language 'schwere Aufklärung', i.e. heavy recon. It means you fire into a forest or village, if someone fires back, it is enemy occupied. Simple, isn't it?

Back to your original request. If you want to play a particular battle, just PM me the name and I will translate the German side text and send it back the same way. BN, MG, CW, FI, GL, RT.

Thanks, just loaded it.

MickeyD said: 'go into the game editor and open a scenario you can 'export' the orders as a .txt document.' Yes, now I remember that faintly, will check that tonight at home. Should be easy with an exported .txt file. And the proposal of Ts4EVER to get a free copy of CM:FB for the translation sounds fair for me, also. But Ts4EVER seems to be better qualified, I am just an engineer concerned with military simulations. The Google translation left me rolling on the floor, these guys from silicon valley have an admirably sense of humor.

I could translate these briefings to German language and would be ready to do that for a new game like CM:FB, because that is an amount bearable. Not for all the briefings which are there presently. Writing on military themes in English or German language is my usual work, I do not even notice the difference sometimes. Would just need the text in Word or better rtf format, because otherwise it is difficult with just one screen which is completely occupied by the game. See website on my profile.

Strange word: being under the weather. I looked it up and found a general meaning - feelig sick; or did you mean the special Australian meaning - having drunk too much? Either way, I hope that its getting better.