German 251 Halftrack Machineguns

[kb6583]

I went down this road before with Brens. Now playing the Germans with lots of 251 halftracks, which have a single machine gun mounted on them. Just what does it take to fire that machinegun?  It looks like the driver, when the 251 is stationary, can do that, but can he? Or does a mounted infantry type unit need to man and fire it. Also, with these 251's, what's the difference between "Open Up" or not?

[Brille]

Usually the halftracks come with a 2 men crew, one gunner and one driver.

Sometimes though you can have just the driver available. If so you can put any infantryunit in the halftrack and the first one to enter will be the gunner of it.

 

I often split a scout team of a squad and let them embark if I truly need the firepower of that mg.

The gunner will choose it´s own target and automatically mans the gun if an enemy appears. So you don´t have to set them on "open up". The advantage however would be a better situational awareness if you let him keep a look out but he exposes himself if he does. And don´t be mistaken: Even though they have an armored shield they can be very vulnerable to counter fire, especially from MG.

If you don´t "open up" the gunner will pop up when he sees a target and fire away until it is destroyed or out of sight. After that he ducks down into the vehicle again for maximum protection.

 

[chuckdyke]

3 hours ago, kb6583 said:

Now playing the Germans with lots of 251 halftracks,

Depends on the scenario. With their Panzers come Panzergrenadiers specially trained infantry who compliment their tank formations. Ideally, they are in their halftracks. It was the pioneer of the modern IFV. However, they came in a variety of guises. Some had the 75mm L24 others the 75mm PAK, 81 mm mortars or the troop carrier they were not designed to operate independently. The moment you separate them from their formation you put them in jeopardy. A modern IFV can do a number of roles the German Halftracks depended on the different combinations as required. 

[Halmbarte]

They (like all the half tracks) are hideously vulnerable to everything bigger than a rifle caliber MG.  

Hapless has a video on the 251: 

H

[Vergeltungswaffe]

This mod from @RockinHarry helps 250 and 251 gunners immensely.

On 11/24/2022 at 8:02 PM, RockinHarry said:

Took me a bits of longer to test and pack this one up. I name it Version 0.9 since it´s not completed yet, at least what german halftracks concerns. I´ll add these at later time, but Infantry stance changes seem complete now, unless I get some error reports or something. Halftracks are same as in previous upload and just complete set of infantry animation files are added in this version.

Note: This was tested and made for !CMRT! (v2.12) but would likely work in CMFB and BN as well. Haven´t tested yet but you could try. In case you´ve installed my previous infantry animation mod (Re-Animate), then load the Halftrack one AFTER it in your data/z mod folder. They do work together and overlap in large parts, but the Halftrack changes should supersede to make it work as intended.

Feedback, reports on issues and f*ck ups (on my part) highly welcome. Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ndvbc3v1907e62/RHZ SdKfz250-251 Ani Mod V0dot9.zip?dl=0

 

Page 4 and 5 of the thread have a number of comments from him about it as he worked through several iterations.