Reforger Nostalgia

[MikeyD]

Oldschool original M60A1. M60 had a modified M48 turret.

[MikeyD]

Here's a few comparatively rare T80B photos

Edited March 23, 2021 by MikeyD

[DerKommissar]

Love that MERDC camo!

[MikeyD]

I had entirely forgotten that South Korea had taken a batch of T80Us from Russia in lieu of payment on debt.

[IICptMillerII]

On 3/18/2021 at 7:08 PM, MikeyD said:

I had entirely forgotten that South Korea had taken a batch of T80Us from Russia in lieu of payment on debt.

That is where a good bit of the technical knowledge on the T-80 series of tanks comes from!

Cool tanks, T-80Us, the king tiger of the Soviet Army in the 80s. 

[HUSKER2142]

[Sailor Malan2]

On 2/25/2021 at 2:08 PM, chuckdyke said:

World War II was triggered by the Polish corridor. Gdansk was called Dantzig since the Hansa League. Their claim must seen in the perspective of the 19th and 20th century. The British 'owned' Singapore and Hong Kong and the Dutch owned Batavia today's Jakarta. The 20th century was the century that Europe imploded, I see it as a completely wasted century. Hitler belonged in an asylum seen from hindsight. The man saw active service in the trenches was gassed and probably a lot more was damaged. Nowadays we call it PTSD. 

Really simplistic view of the causes of WW2. The Polish corridor was Hitler's excuse of the week for Sept 39. Could have been any number of causes, realistically from militarising the Rhineland in 36 on. 

[Sailor Malan2]

On 2/19/2021 at 6:42 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Is that the official "stuff we broke" list? 

My Dad was in BAOR twice in the 50's and once in the early 70's (just too early for this  . He told me that German farmers hoped never to pay to knock down and replace outbuildings. He told me of one time the farmer told the tank crew that they could hide the tank in the shed (although they weren't meant to). They said the shed was too small. "Ja, Ja, ist goot. You drive in." Got himself a brand new shed.

[MOS:96B2P]

On 3/17/2021 at 7:56 PM, markus544 said:

+1.  Nice photo.   

[chuckdyke]

8 hours ago, Sailor Malan2 said:

Really simplistic view of the causes of WW2.

World War 2 started because England was in a state of war if the German army didn't withdraw from Poland. It is a little rich coming from a country which colonized most of the world. Yes, you have all the right to dismiss other views as simplistic. TBH, it leaves me cold. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by chuckdyke

[LukeFF]

5 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

World War 2 started because England was in a state of war if the German army didn't withdraw from Poland. It is a little rich coming from a country which colonized most of the world. Yes, you have all the right to dismiss other views as simplistic. TBH, it leaves me cold. 

This subforum is about CMCW, not pontificating about what the causes of World War II were. Please take it somewhere else.

Edited March 21, 2021 by LukeFF

[IICptMillerII]

Anyways, how about a return to sanity?

[chuckdyke]

4 hours ago, LukeFF said:

This subforum is about CMCW,

Okay I never started this, I just reacted. 

[benpark]

I've been noticing how off some of the 1980's color reproduction is in some of these old photographs.

Kodak Gold, lab printed is a true look of the 1980's, but it isn't how people's eyes interpreted it. Something to bear in mind when modding this later- a lot of these colors are shifted from what they looked like in person.

I've taken a sample of the purple tank (shadows are often purple in 80's lab prints) and quickly color corrected it to illustrate some of how off these older images can be-

Edited March 21, 2021 by benpark

[hank24]

7 hours ago, IICptMillerII said:

Wow, that picture looks exactly like the landscape where I grew up; east of Brunswick, north Germany. Rolling hills, much agriculture, very small woods between fields and larger forests on hilltops. Villages typically two kilometers apart. North of the Autobahn A2, the Lüneburg Heath starts with less hills, larger distance between villages, and more forest, because the soil is not that good. To the south, the Mittelgebirge starts at the Harz mountains and the Weserbergland with steeper and higher hills and more forest.

So, long lines of sight here, this is the perfect ATGM country.

Cocerning the compensations farmers received for damages. My father was not really pleased when three or four Chieftains rolled over one of our fields. The destroyed crop was compensated, but MBT's compressed the soil so much, that far less grows in these lanes for some years.

Edited March 21, 2021 by hank24

[MOS:96B2P]

1 hour ago, hank24 said:

My father was not really pleased when three or four Chieftains rolled over one of our fields. The destroyed crop was compensated, but MBT's compressed the soil so much, that far less grows in these lanes for some years.

+1.  Sounds like your farm was overrun by a tank platoon.  Probably exciting to see as a kid but not so much for the adults.   

[Combatintman]

10 minutes ago, MOS:96B2P said:

+1.  Sounds like your farm was overrun by a tank platoon.  Probably exciting to see as a kid but not so much for the adults.   

Exciting to do mate ... albeit in an FV-432 rather than a Chieftain.  If its any consolation to @hank24 I never exercised anywhere near Braunschweig ... closer to the Weser for me and I didn't ruin his dad's farm.

[akd]

Putting a bull's eye on your own tank...

[IICptMillerII]

1 hour ago, akd said:

Putting a bull's eye on your own tank...

 I just noticed that. Gotta love gallows humor!

I see my first image didn't want to embed, so here it is:

 

[CaptainTheDark]

On 2/16/2021 at 7:18 PM, Baneman said:

I've always thought that the Leopard 1 took the title for most beautiful tank.  

I always thought the Merkava was most beautiful -- sure looks like a bada** to me. From Mk I on, they just keep looking more bada**.

[sawomi]

Nah, IS-3 wins, because of most sexy curves.

Same reason why Akula-class is most beautiful SSN.

Edited March 22, 2021 by sawomi

[Mastiff]

On 3/4/2021 at 1:48 PM, hank24 said:

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.

Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.

When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.

At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).

And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.

One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.

I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.

And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.

And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.

 

 

Great story I was with the 2AD what year was this?

[Bearstronaut]

On 3/4/2021 at 1:48 PM, hank24 said:

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.

 

 

 

That's not that strange. I spent 2012-2015 and all of 2019 with USFK in the Republic of Korea. The average resident of Seoul doesn't think about the thousands of heavy artillery pieces aimed at the city and the million man army less than 40 miles to the north. After my first couple months I didn't really think about it either unless I was at work. 

[hank24]

5 hours ago, Mastiff said:

Great story I was with the 2AD what year was this?

 Must have been late '79 or early '80. I remember I was just busy to learn to drive the M113 for the drivers license.

The GIs liked my boots which were privately purchased and made of nice, shiny, soft leather. I instantly took orders, rode to the shop at Hildesheim and bought some 8 or so pairs of boots and exchanged them for cigarettes. Everybody won with  this deal. And I mean their boots were rather primitive, thin, and ugly.

2 hours ago, Bearstronaut said:

After my first couple months I didn't really think about it

I think it is like living next to a volcano. You know about the danger, but you simply don't care after some time or when you are born at that place.

On 3/21/2021 at 7:27 PM, Combatintman said:

I never exercised anywhere near Braunschweig ... closer to the Weser for me and I didn't ruin his dad's farm.

And you are absolutely sure where you have been in Germany all the time?   With all these odd place names like Gross Dahlum converted to Great Sssadahlum by the British soldiers? (They all knew Salzdahlum, a village close to their barracks; always coined their own names - really strange)

And be assured, the farm was not ruined by this incident.

[sawomi]

3 hours ago, hank24 said:

I think it is like living next to a volcano. You know about the danger, but you simply don't care after some time or when you are born at that place.

That puts it well. 

Only one time I had really fear. That was when I was 8 years old in 1983. Some rainy November morning I come to school and there is Apell and all the older ones and the teacher seem to be very scared. I did not really understud what it was all about at the time. Only that I thought there will be war and I will die. Then on that day in school we also had to read text about Hiroshima and Nagasaki etc.

I later (in the 90s) figured out that it was the time when the Pershing II where deployed in the west.