Night combat revisited (long)

[ASL Veteran]

Having read through a lot of the older posts on this topic I have come to the conclusion that the “flare and gunflash” issue is unresolved. There seems to be some doubt as to whether the flare pistol was even used for illumination at all or whether it was strictly used for signalling. The person who goes by the name of Moon seems to feel that flares are either inappropriate or not useful in night fighting – either citing the ruining of night vision or because the illumination rounds would be fired continuously by mortars and artillery which would light up the entire map. He suggests that a map could be set for dawn or dusk conditions to simulate continuous flares. BTS seems to feel the same way, either because they agree with Moon’s position or because the coding of flares would be too difficult and the payoff would be too small. I disagree with this position completely. Illumination rounds and gunflashes are not just ‘cool’ to see visually and the payoff would not be just a little more eyecandy. First, the issue is a tactical and technological one, not one of whether you lose your night vision or not. Second, flares are not so powerful that they are going to illuminate an entire map in CM unless you are firing them up by the boatload. Third, the usage of these flares is going to be limited by the ammunition supply, the weapons available, and by the tactical situation.

I just happen to have some sources of information about flare pistols (although admittedly information is fairly hard to come by). The German flare pistols were called the “Kampfpistole” and the “Leuchtpistole”. These were 27mm smooth bore signal pistols. The ammunition most relevant to this subject was the “Fallschirm Leuchtpatr. f. KP” which was a parachute illuminating round similar to the Deutpatrone except the nose was of black plastic. Fired into the air it ejected a white star on a parachute. The Germans also fired a parachute flare from their rifle grenade launcher (yes that’s right, the Germans had rifle grenades) which was called Gew Fallschirm Leuchtgr and was similar to HE 30/1 but painted brown with a white nose. This was a 32,000 candlepower flare which burned 25 seconds and could be fired up to 700 meters away. This information came from “The Encyclopedia of Infantry Weapons” by Ian Hogg. Alex Buchner also has some information on the flare pistol in “The German Infantry Handbook” where he says that “(snip) their maximum height was 80 meters. (snip) at night details could be seen in a 100 meter diameter. When a parachute flare was used, the light lasted for up to a minute.”

Suffice to say, there was such a thing as illumination rounds that could be fired from a flare pistol. This brings us to the purpose of firing illumination rounds. Why fire an illumination round to expose the enemy when all you will do is ruin your night vision? Also, so the argument goes, since your night vision is ruined when a flare is fired, you then need to fire them continuously over the entire battle area or you will be permanently blinded by the blackness of the night once the flares burn out. This discussion of night vision seems to be a weighty item on this topic – although I feel a misplaced and irrelevant one. Aside from the fact that your night vision can be regained reasonably quickly even if you were foolish enough to stare directly at the starshell, the issue isn’t one of the temporary loss of night vision. The issue is one of ‘who benefits when a starshell is fired?’. The answer is that you are not necessarily firing the illumination round for the your own benefit. You are firing it for the benefit of all your unit’s heavy weapons! HMGs, mortars, tanks, SP guns, etc. These items are tactically more effective if they have a little space between them and the enemy. This is especially important for mortars because they are not a direct fire weapon. Modern heavy weapons are typically equipped with night vision devices so the illumination round is not as important as in WW2. If you want to get your heavy weapons involved in a night battle in WW2 though, the illumination round is the way to go. Once the target area is illuminated, the enemy troops can be hit by weapons at much greater distances than they could without the illumination. Tanks are especially affected by illumination rounds because the enemy tanks can be engaged by a friendly, non illuminated, vehicle or gun who is firing from what basically amounts to a ‘cloaked’ position. Illumination rounds, therefore, act as a form of ‘distance expander’ by allowing friendly units to engage the enemy at longer distances. You are placing the enemy on a stage and they are the main event!

The distance that the flare from the German pistol illuminates is a mere 100 meter diameter – hardly the stuff that illuminates an entire map. I don’t have any data on the IR rounds that a morar fires, but even assuming that it is in the neighborhood of three times the diameter we are only talking about 300 meters or so. I am sure that the IR rounds from artillery may light up a very large area, but I am also reasonably sure that it isn’t going to be enough to light up a whole CM map.

So when do you use these flares? Since the platoon leader isn’t going to have an unlimited supply of flares for his flare pistol, he is going to have to pick his spots. If enemy units are heard or if you detect movement you may wish to fire one up to see what is out there. You spot enemy tanks on the road, but your AT assets are located too far away to engage them in the darkness? A flare gets the AT guns involved. Wind direction is going to be a factor too, a parachute flare is going to drift on the breeze. If the wind is blowing toward the platoon leader and away from the enemy he may fret about illuminating his own positions rather than those of the enemy. He may wish to fire a flare in the area where gunflashes are spotted since the enemy is likely to be there. Since IR rounds create a lot of weird shadows, they are a little less useful against stationary targets, and this would be one reason they are more useful to the defender rather than the attacker – although the attacker’s heavy weapons would still benefit from illuminated targets. Mortars and artillery may have a larger ammunition supply, but it will still be fairly limited for mortars. Artillery won’t even be a factor (in game terms) unless one side or the other has an Artillery Observer, and even then the side with the observer may not want to use up his valuable fire missions on continuous map illumination. Continuous illumination is desireable to act as an attack channeler since the enemy is likely to avoid continuously illuminated areas unless there is no other way to advance. Continuous illumination of defensive positions would also be useful on the attack if you have a lot of heavy weapons involved.

Gunflashes and pre registered firelanes are also extremely important in night fighting – once again the reason is that they act as ‘distance expanders’ that allow your heavier weapons to engage at longer distances, or in the case of firelanes, channel an attack. Naturally it is less effective to fire at gunflashes than to fire on an illuminated target, but the option should be there. Night combat in CM now has no ‘distance expanders’ and therefore the tactical options for the night commander are limited to short range rushes and slugfests. Even an enemy tank firing at your troops now cannot be engaged by your friendly armor unless your armor is within ‘Night Visibility Range’ of the enemy vehicle – and the main gun on a tank makes quite a light show when fired at night. In the book “Tiger Ace” it is described how Michael Wittman’s gunner took out several Soviet AT guns and vehicles in the Crimea by firing on the gunflashes alone. Perhaps I will quote some of that text in a future post if necessary.

Non reciprocal lines of sight between illuminated units and non illuminated units, non reciprocal lines of sight between units that are firing and units that are not, and even such things as the graphical coding of the ‘circle of light’ that the flares would create may be extremely difficult to do. However, the payoff in all this coding would not just be extra eye candy. The payoff would be that night fighting would become a more tense and intricate balance of a players assets along with more complicated decision tree. Night fighting in CM right now is like fighting in a tactical straight jacket – the player has very few tactical options about how he conducts his attacks or defenses.

[Dschugaschwili]

From a practical standpoint (meaning including it shouldn't produce too much work) I'd say that muzzle flashes could be implemented as something similar to the "sound contact" markers for AT guns or tanks. So you would only get a marker indicating that something is there (or near there). You could then issue some area fire commands in this direction if you want. Anything else seems to be too much effort to be included in a patch (maybe in CM2).

Dschugaschwili

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Erst hat man kein Glück, und dann kommt auch noch Pech dazu.

[Guest rune]

As one of the beta testers that researched and talked with Charles about flares, I figured to chime in here. Steve, feel free to correct anything I may put wrong.

ASL and others, feel free to read this or ignore, as i must be one of the beta testers that glaringly missed things.

When I talked with Charles about Flares, the decision was made not to include them due to programming limitations. Directx 7 is used, and without forcing the cards to have T&L, there was no easy way to do this. So, unless everyone runs out and buys the geForce cards, it can not be easily done. Could it be software coded? Yes, but unless you want no bug fixes, or work done on CM2, or new vehicles, or anything for about 6 months forget it.

I also researched with various museums, including the Patton museum, Bovington, Panzer Museum, Department of War Records, AARs from various units etc. The larger arty fired flares could light up a CM map. Would they always be on call? Nope. Hand flares and mortar flares were common, but mainly in the defense.

I think the compromise of sundown is as best as it can be in CMBO. this may get addressed for CM2, but BTS would have to answer this.

Rune

beta tester who misses things

[insert sarcasm here]

[ASL Veteran]

Thanks for the response. At least it was discussed - that is all I can ask. I sincerely hope that it may be included in future releases as computers become more powerful. I guess I'll just skip night combat for now.

[Guest rune]

You'd be surprised how much and in what detail things have been discussed. I think Sten posted there have been over 4000 posts covering various topics, NOT counting private e-mails. Hardware is catching up, and some day we may have the flares. I personally look forward to it.

While I am online here, does anyone have a good OOB on the early years for German and Russians? I am researching ATRs [Anti-tank rifles] and Los has given me a good start. [Thanks Los] However, I want to dig deeper in this....oh yeah, and ATRs for the Finns too.

Rune

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ASL Veteran:

Thanks for the response. At least it was discussed - that is all I can ask. I sincerely hope that it may be included in future releases as computers become more powerful. I guess I'll just skip night combat for now.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>