Why was smoke used so rarely?

[JasonC]

HE barrages made plenty of smoke from dust, while also killing defenders. That is why it was generally preferred. Smoke also is not bulletproof in real life. MG grazing fire schemes and planned defensive barrages can see areas the smoke using attacker is trying to screen, and make them dangerous anyway. Attackers also typically have fire superiority and want to use it, not shut it off by mutually separating the fighting parties with smoke.

There still are times to use it and times it was used, but those cover the main reasons it was used a lot less in real life than it is in games. (Not just CM...)

[Michael Emrys]

Also keep in mind that operational smoke for the Allies was often produced by smoke "generators". But, as Childress pointed out, they were mostly for set piece battles. As a rule we tend to shy away from operational set piece elements because (combined) they constitute a distraction from CM's primary focus on smaller scale engagements suitable for interesting tactical challenges.

Right. And on the level that CM aspires to recreate, the Allies—or at least the Americans—very, very seldom used smoke. [Pace, Jon; I am well familiar with the adage that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". In this case though, I have my reasons for doubting that this is the case, given the often painstaking detail with which all other aspects of a fight are described.] Smoke simply was not used on a day to day tactical (meaning battalion or smaller) level such as we encounter in CM. The British and Commonwealth units had the 2" mortar with smoke and apparently used it as a matter of course. But an American lieutenant would be hard put in the middle of a firefight to call somebody up and request some smoke on his right flank. He might get some from the battalion 81 mms, if they aren't busy doing something else. But he might not get as quickly as he likes. And he might not get it at all. And since there was likely zero smoke capability within the company, he was SOL. It sort of doesn't matter to him what the division or corps fireplan was, no matter how ingenious that might have been, if it did not provide for his particular case...as likely it would not.

Michael

[BLSTK]

At the risk of stating the obvious, could the use of smoke not also have the unintended result of giving away one's position or even drawing enemy fire? In this case "smoking" would undoubtedly be detrimental to one's health.

[Michael Emrys]

At the risk of stating the obvious, could the use of smoke not also have the unintended result of giving away one's position or even drawing enemy fire? In this case "smoking" would undoubtedly be detrimental to one's health.

Depends on a lot of things, including how close to your own position you place the smoke. On the CM level, the enemy would normally already have a pretty good general idea where you are located. There probably would have already been an exchange of fire, for instance. If you drop smoke on or near the enemy position, you aren't telling him very much he doesn't already know.

Michael

[JonS]

can you recommend any other good reads.

"Firepower" by Bidwell and Graham

"Field Artillery and Firepower" by Bailey (make sure you get the newer edition - it's been updated to cover warfare since ~1990, but amazon are still selling the old edition ... as I found to my chagrin :mad: )

"1918, Year of Victory" by Ekins (obviously the wrong war, but there's a lot of detailed nuts and bolts that, with only a bit of imagination, is directly relevant to WWII)

"British Armour in the Normandy Campaign" by Buckley

"Fields of Fire" by Copp

"Airpower at the Battlefront" by Gooderson

Or, for a slightly longer list

[Zenomorph]

At the risk of stating the obvious, could the use of smoke not also have the unintended result of giving away one's position or even drawing enemy fire? In this case "smoking" would undoubtedly be detrimental to one's health.

I use it, as one example, when I need to cross open terrain in order to get in close with the enemy. Then I can harass the bejeez out of their AT assets or whatever while the bulk of my force crosses unhindered. It's also useful when you want to disrupt the enemy while they're in the vicinity of, say, a bridge that you need and don't want to blast to smithereens. At times I dearly LOVE the outcome such as when the smoke clears and the enemy gets to say hello to a tank platoon that wasn't there last they checked. Bwahaha.