I have a weak understanding of radios.

[costard]

With every attempt at modelling realism BF has to judge whether or not they'll break the game. We already have a large degree of time compression in the mechanics of the game yet we have troops, vehicles and ordnance moving at reasonable or recognisable speeds through the virtual landscape. Balancing these things is not an easy task: in the end, the game is here to entertain us (a fundamental break from a realistic portrayal of war.) The fact that we are discussing the realities is... useful(?), but there is a limit to the realism that can be described by the game.

[Doug Williams]

With every attempt at modelling realism BF has to judge whether or not they'll break the game. We already have a large degree of time compression in the mechanics of the game yet we have troops, vehicles and ordnance moving at reasonable or recognisable speeds through the virtual landscape. Balancing these things is not an easy task: in the end, the game is here to entertain us (a fundamental break from a realistic portrayal of war.) The fact that we are discussing the realities is... useful(?), but there is a limit to the realism that can be described by the game.

Well said, sir.

[JasonC]

JK - I know all about Zuse, I've even read one of his books, but he didn't get nearly as far as the Brits got during the war. A curious fact about Zuse - he writes a whole book on using difference equations to approximate differential equations and solve them with finite arithmetic methods and how to translate all of that into computer routines, and he owns a computer company - and the last sentence of his book is "now all that remains to be done is to actually set this up and run it on a modern electronic computer" - which he had neglected, himself, to do... Having worked all of it out on paper with a pencil as a piece of math, and written and published a whole book on it - without ever actually using one of his computers to do a bit of it.

In short he was big on theoretical accomplishments and pushing frontiers, and short on the kind of thorough follow-through that made the theoretical practically useful...

[DavidFields]

Rankorian - first, a German 1944 infantry squad has no chance of having its own radio. None whatever. Second, the platoon leader doesn't have a radio either. The lowest German infantry formation with assigned radios was the battalion and it had 4 teams with one radio each, enough to establish comms with its component companies. The German did have some backpack sized radios - with a power output of 0.15 watts. Yes, less than 1/6th of one watt of broadcasting power.

Second, the way a squad communicates with other units is shouting or sending runners, occasionally hand signals or a pre arranged flare. They stay pretty close to each other on the battlefield and those methods are perfectly sufficient for communication within the squad. For communication up to platoon, a runner is frequently needed, and the same was often required to get new orders out to a separated squad.

Third, the tankers are not taking orders from infantry sergeants. They are taking orders from the tank platoon commander and he is designating their targets and missions. They are not a service oriented business taking requests. They can certainly react to perceived threats or chances, but they are not waiting for an infantryman to tell them what to shoot. At most, the infantry company commander may have had that talk with the tank platoon commander an hour ago when they planned the action out in a leaders meeting (not over the radio, face to face, out of action).

Third, if the infantry company commander has one of the battalion's four radios, it is on the battalion net frequency. If he and the tank leader coordinated it all ahead of time, they might have an agreed frequency to talk to each other; if the coordination is "pick up", on the fly, then they won't even know how to talk to each other. If they are coordinated, the company commander needs to be by his radio team, he needs to not be distracted by other events, he needs to be talking to the tanks (or trying to) not the artillery or his battalion CO (different frequencies, each), and the tank platoon commander has to know or guess that at that moment his own tank's radio should be switched over to the infantry company commander's frequency, or he will "miss the call". If he is instead talking to his other tanks, he will miss the call. If his personal headset is on the internal comm for his crew, he may miss it, though his radio operator might pick it up. If he is trying to talk to his armor company higher ups, he will miss the call. If he is too busy directing a duel with a Sherman over yonder, radio calls won't be in his personal bandwidth.

Then when the company CO and the tank platoon leader get on the call, they will be on the infantry battalion net or the tank platoon net. They will hear the crosstalk of the others on that net. That crosstalk will burn through their speaking - only one voice will get through. They must repeat call signs to make clear who is speaking. They must repeat everything 2-3 times to ensure they were heard. They must reply with phrases to register when they hear and understand something or the speaker must repeat himself.

Then the phrases must be precise. Which houses? Each has lost track of where the others are. Just left of the road means something different to each of them. Chances to garble the message abound. Then the tank commander must relay his instructions to his individual tanks. He will translate his understanding of all location and direction terms to his own position and that of most of his platoon. If they talked on the company net, it is the first the other tankers have heard of it. If they talked on the tank platoon's net, they heard two sets of directives and are supposed to act on the second, from their own immediate superior, so hope he got it right.

In all of the above, also keep in mind that there may be 20 men in the whole battalion who know how a radio actually works...

That help?

Yes. This and what ME and YankeeDog provide below (in addition to others) is very helpful.

Indeed, given the OP concern, I was essentially baiting you all to provide that information.

I did not realize, JasonC, the relative scarcity of Radios in the German army in 1944. I had picked them as an example (rather than the Soviets) thinking they were more like the US at that time. But, of course, cart transport was still significant for the Germans in 1944, so I should have been more savvy--also, as noted below, there seem to be more radios than you describe in-game--I did not realize the design decisions had been involved in this area.

Also, the ability to find a vehicle that has a radio, and put your unit in/near it, amplifies the radio abilities of units.

To be completely fair to BFC, the CMBN manual has the sentence, "many German formations only possess a radio for the main Company HQ,..."

Still...I wonder if CM2 would benefit from a section at the front of the manual like "design notes", or "warning", or "setting the times of WW2". This would be to try to minimize having a situation like the initial post and people thinking "the game is broke".

[DavidFields]

The tankers are not taking orders from infantry sergeants. They are taking orders from the tank platoon commander and he is designating their targets and missions. They are not a service oriented business taking requests. They can certainly react to perceived threats or chances, but they are not waiting for an infantryman to tell them what to shoot. At most, the infantry company commander may have had that talk with the tank platoon commander an hour ago when they planned the action out in a leaders meeting (not over the radio, face to face, out of action).

BTW, I think this is the most succinct, well-written paragraph in the post. In some manner, one could drop this right into someplace in the manual.

[Hpt. Lisse]

This spring, I read the autobiography of German tank ace Otto Carius, "Tigers in the Mud". It's a great read, I highly recommend it - but man, that guy was constantly getting out of his tank to reconnoiter/communicate. It made a big impression on me as far as radio usage...

[chuckdyke]

As in real life forest, canyons, water can affect communication nowadays let alone  with the equipment in World War 2. As a rule of thumb if you have LOS you should have radio communication. Even cell phones work because of cell phone tower antennas. Tanks and Infantry have a different C3 structure in the game. I noticed C3 is often broken when the command units with radio are traveling. Watching an old WW 2 documentary they their command post up in an old factory on top of a hill with a tremendous line of sight.