Bullethead Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Getting in the mood for CM2, I was just reading the story of Hermann Bix, a tank commander whose exploits are sketched in "Panzer Aces" by Franz Kurowski. The episode that caught my CM-tuned attention concerned the fight of Bix's company against a KV-1 in a village in November 1941. In this engagement, the KV was holding up the entire panzer company frontally, but Bix was able to maneuver around buildings until he was only 30m away on the KV's flank. He then blasted away at the broadside of the KV, including using "special rounds", but all to no effect. Meanwhile, the KV totally ignored him. In desperation, Bix finally shot at the KV's gun tube and ruined it, causing the KV's next shot to explode inside and knock out the tank. The book includes a picture purportedly of this KV. It has several dozen shot dings in the side of the turret and a shot hole clean trough the gun tube, which is bent slightly at that location. The turret still points straight ahead. There is a group of Germans looking at the damage with "Holy S***!" looks on their faces. The number of shot dings exceeds that mentioned in the narrative, but that's beside the point. The CM-related point is, I'm making a prediction. I predict that BTS will try to give the Russian tank AI similar reactions (or lack thereof ) because while the gun tube thing might be unique, there are a lot of stories of about oblivious Russian tanks. Can you imagine how this will go over on this board? I can already see the threads ranting about Russian tanks turning neither hull nor turret to face threats despite several turns of taking hits. And I'm willing to bet there will be more virtual venom on this subject than was generated by the recent hull rotation affair Remember folks, you heard it here first ------------------ -Bullethead In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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