Jasper Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 I just finished posting just about all I got right now. I'm going to start looking for more stuff in the 1941-1942 era for the Eastern Front (Eastern front! Gimme a break. It's only east to the Germans) Anyway there is a German Article with that title, I think on the fourth Geocities page. If anyone is really keeping track - since the "Lessons Learned" #1 - #9 were already posted by someone else - I posted a link to where they're at. I deleted the files and I'm filling up their space with other stuff. If you want to be up to your eyeballs in infantry tactics try the "Lessons Learned" by the 34th Inf. Div. on the Spaceports site. If you can read it in one sitting you're a better man/woman than I am. ------------------ Check out http://www.geocities.com/funfacts2001/ or http://hyperion.spaceports.com/~funfacts/ for military documents written during WWII. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pillar Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 Jasper, Do you have a link to those? You have been a great resource and have introduced me to articles and other online documents I didn't know existed... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bastables Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 I have to agrre Jasper, nice find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles.Osborne Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 Just started reading Lessons Learned. Fascinating stuff. Thank you. Miles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mace Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 Originally posted by Bastables: I have to agrre Jasper, nice find. Bastables!!!! How are you mate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bastables Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 Originally posted by Mace: Bastables!!!! How are you mate? On leave till sunday mate then its back to run around in the bush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grisha Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 jasper, Great stuff ------------------ Best regards, Greg Leon Guerrero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodlebug Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 Hi Jasper. This looks like a great post but for one thing. What the heck are .pdf files and how do I read them? I'd rather show my complete ignorance now and read the information than keep quiet and not. Any help from anyone greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoncawley@ameritech.net Posted February 10, 2001 Share Posted February 10, 2001 "if you can read it in one sitting" Just did. Great stuff in there. Oh, I skipped or skimmed some parts - med evac, supply (besides ammo) and commo-wire worries. It is so obviously the real deal and so diametrically opposed to all the tactical genius cock n bull stories one often finds instead. Three things immediately stand out. One is the constant refrain of simplicity, or how confusion leads to disasters and its absence to success. The second is tactics that use some defensive aspects even in attack, like a "fire-base" first block as "base" when taking a village (which works in CM too), and this line - "every objective is carefully chosen to invite counterattack over terrain favorable for complete artillery coverage". The third is how important it was to simply know exactly where enemy was, and to hide from him in turn. One other minor thing I also noticed, was the constant references to mines and their impact on operations. The obstacles the real guys encountered, when they encountered them, were much more elaborate affairs that one usually sees in CM. Oh, you do hear about the small minefield spotted by the longer grass (can you *mow* a minefield? Noooo), or the wire obstacle right in front of a fortified house. But you also hear about AP minefields a *mile* long and 300 yards deep, backed by concertina wire, pillboxes, then a hill, double-apron wire, foxholes, plus dugouts to shelter from artillery on the back slope - all behind a river obstacle and forming in total a barrier a mile deep. And still driven through, by using an entire battalion of tanks (and the fire of a corp's worth of artillery prep), once a way was found to get those across the river. CM "assaults" look nothing remotely like this. Wrong scale, really. I also noticed the near consensus on the dismounted 50 cal being too heavy to prove useful in offensive operations. If you look at the ammo loads they carried, even its use in defensive operations must have been extremely limited. You see figures like 100 times the .30 cal MG ammo as .50 cal (not counting the stuff for the M-1s, which is only about half as much as the .30 cal MGs despite the number of M-1s). Part of that may be the mountains of Italy "talking", though. Much harder to lug those .50s around the hills, where trucks don't even run close to many of the fighting positions, than in France. Just my observations on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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