Deadly Dave Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 if I can order off field arty to land at a coordinated spot why cant i plot it for fighter planes like Tac ops, or at least be able to plot the flight path and leave it to the pilot to drop what he wanted, Also if tanks have radio comms what cant they act as a platoon HQ or CO does for leaderless squads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted September 1, 2001 Share Posted September 1, 2001 Ground to air cooperation was not as advanced during WW2 as it is in the TacOps world. targets were often inidcated by firing purple smoke. 19 sets (the standard radio in the Commonwealth) were not too reliable. You could not just switch frequencies. Arty FOO teams were the norm. FACs were still experimented with. Platoon level radios often did not reach across a hill, or were useless in woods. Tanks and infantry were not on the same frequency, AFAIK. it would also often be the other way round - tankers would take their orders from the infantry. CMBO does not have an armour command model, and therefore this can not be handled. I would be surprised if there was a lot of interchange between tanks and infantry, other than organic, as e.g. Tankodesantnikyi (sp?) in CMBB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Deadly Dave: if I can order off field arty to land at a coordinated spot why cant i plot it for fighter planes like Tac ops, or at least be able to plot the flight path and leave it to the pilot to drop what he wanted, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Andreas has already given you a pretty good answer, but I would like to expand on it a little bit. Only dedicated Foward Air Controllers (who BTW were aviators themselves seconded to the ground units) had radios that could operate at the same frequencies as the Jabos. Even at divisional level, the grunts could not have called up anybody in the air, let alone at the platoon level. Secondly, even when somebody was there to talk to the flyboys and could tell them what was desired, it was not at all easy for the flyguys to spot the right target from the air while flying at hundreds of knots and trying to avoid FLAK and not fly into the ground at the same time. You might be surprised at how easy it is to get disoriented under those conditions, especially if the weather isn't helping, which it wasn't most of the time. The upshot was that it could be dangerous even to have "friendly" airpower around. If they see a tank in the general area they had been directed to, they would shoot at it. If it just happened to be a tank on their same side...well, "Oops! Sorry about that." <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Also if tanks have radio comms what cant they act as a platoon HQ or CO does for leaderless squads.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Tanking and grunting are distinctly different arts. Very, very few tankers had also mastered the art of infantry combat and the infantry knew that. What makes you think they would have the slightest interest in anything a tanker might have to tell them? Coöperation is one thing, and hard enough to achieve in practice anyway; command is an entirely different kettle of fish. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Power Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 The USAAF does not need ground to air radios because they have the greatest fighter-bombers ever known as I witnessed today: And through all that smoke: Unfortunately I was playing the Axis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 Gee, Max, I'll bet that really bites something fierce. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishu Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 Hey! thats a shadow of F6F! That was purely PTO plane.. what a cheat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark IV Posted September 2, 2001 Share Posted September 2, 2001 Come to think of it, the Jabo pilots were officers. Wouldn't it be great if THEY could assume command of leaderless squads as long as they're in the area? Friendly pilots often adopted the expedient of scribbling notes and dropping them to friendly troops, to warn them of nearby enemy, as they were otherwise mute to the infantry. A sickening example of the lack of ground-air communications is the story of the bomber support for the Canadians at Operation Tractable. The SHAEF standard signal for friendly troops near the front was yellow smoke, or yellow flares... and the target indicators for the supporting RAF bombers were yellow flares. After the first wave dropped successfully, the target area was obscured by smoke and dust, and some worried Canadian troops fired their yellow flares to identify themselves.... The resulting carnage at Hautmesnil Quarry killed 150 Polish and many other Allied troops and wounded over 400 British, Canadian, and Polish soldiers, who had no way to communicate the error to the friendly bombers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Panzer Posted September 3, 2001 Share Posted September 3, 2001 max power or whomever: ...where can i pick up the german flag bmp.s bearing swastikas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Power Posted September 3, 2001 Share Posted September 3, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Peter Panzer: max power or whomever: ...where can i pick up the german flag bmp.s bearing swastikas?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually the german flag in the pic is a part of the interface bar, Deanco's Interface Mod to be exact. It can be found here: Combat Missioin HQ 3rd Party Mods Page 2 of this webpage has a variety of other battlefield flags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Panzer Posted September 3, 2001 Share Posted September 3, 2001 ...thanks max, that's a bit more like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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