Clearing Barbed Wire

[Dennis Mkr]

I saw some early discussion on the general forum about clearing Barbed Wire to the effect that it couldn't be done. You just had to live, or die, with it. Is that still the case? The documentation talks about clearing minefields but not barbed wire.

[109 Gustav]

That's right, barbed wire and roadblocks can't be cleared. Basically, it would take too long for engineers to do this to be included in a 15-60min battle.

[Louie the Toad]

So what works in a scenario where all I have

that could neutralize barbed wire is:

Trucks to run over it.

Panzerschreks to shoot at it.

Satchel charges to blow it up.

Infantry squads to act as human bridges to get over it.

Got a roadblock problem too.

:confused:

[busboy]

Louis, you seem to misunderstand. You can't do anything to raodblocks or barbed wire in CM at all. They are where they are placed for the duration of the game. However, you can go over or around them. In the case of barbed wire, vehicles can cross it, but it doesn't allow the infantry to cross it faster. Also, infantry can cross both barbed wire and roadblocks, it just takes some time.

[PantherGunner]

Engineers should be able to clear barbed wire. It actually takes engineers a longer time to remove a deliberate minefield than barbed/concertina wire in real life. Infantry squads should be able to clear wire as well.

[Frenchy]

Engineers should be allowed to clear barbed wire. Only takes a turn to lob a satchel charge to blow a hole in the obstacle in the heat of combat. Road blocks are a different story.

My grandfather was a combat engineer during WW2 (270th Eng.). I have written their unit history and believe me they could and did remove wire quickly. Roadblocks tended to be bypassed and taken down later after action was done.

[Panic]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Frenchy:

Engineers should be allowed to clear barbed wire. Only takes a turn to lob a satchel charge to blow a hole in the obstacle in the heat of combat. Road blocks are a different story.

My grandfather was a combat engineer during WW2 (270th Eng.). I have written their unit history and believe me they could and did remove wire quickly. Roadblocks tended to be bypassed and taken down later after action was done.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Blowing a hole in a wire obstacle is not the same as clearing it. Having done a bit of this, I can tell you that fully removing a wire obstacle is beyond the scope of this game. It is a difficult, sticky job and cannot be done under fire.

There are several fairly quick and easy ways to get through a wire obstacle -- tree branches, boards, coats and other clothing, artillery fire, bangalore torpedoes, satchel charges (to a lesser extent, they tend not to cut well), etc. The point is that all of these things take time -- not much, but some. Add to that the general caution exhibited by troops crossing obstacles like this (all obstacles should be covered by fire) and what you get is a nice delay. Which, of course, is the whole point of the obstacle, and so the obstacle is (IMHO) pretty well modeled in the game.

[Me. 262]

I agree, Engineers should be able to clear barbed wire and also road blocks, and of crse it is very historic also. :cool:

[Radar]

I kind of agree also that wire should be cleared/negated by engineers. I don't mean up to OSHA standards but enough for easy access.

Now as for clearing it under fire, that is a problem not related to clearing the wire itself, right?

[Stalins Organ]

Engineers in CM get to clear minefields in as little as a minute using satchel charges.......

now way back when I was an Assault Pioneer we would never have used satchel charges on mines, but we would have on wire........

Of course it also depends on eth type of the wire - low wire is a bitch and needs bangalores or cutters (or tanks!), but high wire is fairly easy to demolish with explosives by putting your charges next to the stakes - without support it is quickly flattened and made much less effective.

[Olle Petersson]

How about clearing barbed wire, and perhaps even some minefields, between the battles of an operation?

For an operation with one battle a day, clearing of "conquered" wire (and mines) would be feasible. If desireable is another question, but it would at least be nice to have the option...

For an "operation" with several battles in a single day clearing would be less feasible.

How to convert this into program code is way beyond my skill.

Cheers

Olle