Jump to content

LATEST NEWS

    CA-WW1 - Green-tails over Flanders Fields
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Jasta 5 at Cambrai - a 'Wings Over Flanders Fields' Campaign   The first mission - 20 November 1917     A little while back, CA member Captain McMuffin suggested I report on the progress of a campaign or two. Seems like a good idea to me, so here's the first installment of the first campaign. If there's interest, I expect I'll feature different sims; but first up, it's back to the new kid on the WW1 block, Wings Over Flanders Fields.   My chosen unit for this campaign is Jagdstaffel 5, famous both for its Albatrosses' green-painted tails and as the unit of the 'Golden Triumvirate', the three famous NCO aces Rumey, Mai and Koennecke. It's also the unit of Leutnant Hans von Hippel, whose green-tailed Albatros DV with its prominent dragon marking (apparently borrowed from another pilot) was famously photographed after a lower wing broke off at altitude and the pilot was lucky to get down in one piece.     It's late November 1917, the first day of a big British offensive, spearheaded by a large force of tanks. It looks like fate has picked an interesting time for me to arrive at the front! A rookie Leutnant on my first assignment to a combat unit, I'm glad to have been posted to a staffel with a decent reputation and some outstanding pilots - Jasta 5.     We're based at Boistrancourt, near the town of Cambrai itself, right in the path of the new British offensive, although we pilots don't know this yet.     Our aircraft is the Albatros D V, the latest version of this sleek fighting machine, but by now, we all know its abilities are falling behind those of the latest enemy aircraft. And the lower wing troubles which first appeared with the D III model in early 1917 appear to have resurfaced. But in the hands of a good pilot it can hold its own and until better aircraft arrive from German factories, we must make do with what we have,     At least the flight I'll be with on my first mission is a good crowd, experienced pilots with a fine tally of victories between them. In fact the top scorer, Sikorski, has been detailed to fly on my wing, no doubt to keep a close eye on me and make sure I don't do anything silly...and also that I get home in one piece, I hope.     The day of my first combat flight has arrived! It's early morning and six of us have been detailed to patrol near Cambrai at about two thousand metres. I'll be flying in the leading 'vic', on the left of our leader, Hauptmann Bonin. Fortunately, the weather is good. In my excitement I have neglected to check the intelligence reports but I know that we can expect to face the enemy's best and that both French and British aircraft could be operating in our sector. As they fly offensively, I know that we can expect to meet them from the moment we are airborne.   On the grass at Boistrancourt in front of our canvas hangars, our lined-up aircraft make a fine sight, with their varnished plywood fuselages gleaming softly and our red-edged green tails proudly proclaiming our Jasta's identity. What will my first mission bring? It's time to find out!     ...to be continued!

    T-34 twosome - part 2
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    The T-34-85 goes to war in 'Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942'!   Ok, so we've put the late-war version of this iconic Soviet tank through its paces in 'T-34 -vs- Tiger'. Now, it's the turn of 'Steel Fury'. The T-34-85 is one of many vehicles which SF '42's small but talented, active and dedicated modding community has given us, extending the sim beyond its focal year into 1944 and beyond. The tank itself doesn't have 3D interiors but no matter, it can be played just as well from the external, open hatch and gunsight/binoculars views.   And here's the mission. It's one of many single missions that come with the packs available for use in the NTA mod, download links and installation instructions being available over at the Graviteam forum, here.   Edit, August 2014 - the NTA add-on has been discontinued, but a successor, the Steel Tank Add-on (STA) is now available: http://stasf2008.ephpbb.com/t6-steel-tank-add-on-steel-fury   For this mission I'm also using a simple game file edit that increases fire effects, suggested by long-time tanksimmer Frinik. The mission is part of Mission Pack 1.1 and its full name is 'v.Chrenogostie, 26th June 1944y. 13:30 (T-34-85)'     My orders are rather short and doubtless lose something in the translation. But it's not hard to understand that it's June 1944 and my task is to prevent a breakout by encircled German forces. Specifically, I am to provide tank support for the defenders of a blocking position, around the village of Chernogostie.   With the briefing panel removed, you can see more clearly the lie of the land and the disposition of the defenders (red). Our Red Army forces appear fairly well sited for all-round defence, though concentrating on arcs facing east, from two low hills on the eastern side of the village. Chernogostie itself seems to lie in a dip at a crossroads, surrounded by these low hills. The enemy is evidently expected to launch concentric attacks on our positions (blue arrows to the right; not sure what the arrow pointing north indicates - perhaps the German's next move?).     There appear to be four tanks in my platoon (red diamonds), though when the mission started, only three seemed to accompany me; perhaps the fourth was just in the area by accident, or he fell away early on for some reason I didn't see. Anyway as usual while in the map screen, I selected the order to conform with my movements ('Do as I do') and chose line (abreast) formation.   Still looking at the map, I made a quick Combat Appreciation, using an abbreviated format I was taught long ago.   Aim - to destroy enemy forces attacking Chernogostie.   Enemy - likely armour and infantry, headed from Chernogostie from points east, if our 'int' was to be believed.   Ground - wooded and slightly undulating, with slightly higher ground in the centre-left at Chernogostie, and lower ground on the near left and the far right.   Plan - right flank is rather too far away and likely facing stronger enemy attacks, so stay left and use cover - of the trees to my front, that little finger of higher ground I can see, and any folds in the ground - to move the platoon, by bounds, to fire positions on the left (north) of Chernogostie. From there, destroy enemy forces crossing the open ground to attack Chernogostie, starting with their right flank and working my way around in a clockwise direction. Take the German 'arrows' in the flank, one at a time, or even come in behind them.   Would my plan work? I'd soon find out. I launched the mission, loaded AP and settled down in the gunner's station, while surveying my surroundings in the external view, relating them to what I could see on the map. Here we go!   ...to be continued!

    Red Storm - T-34 twosome
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    The T-34 in Steel Fury and T-34-vs-Tiger    Having gone up against T-34s in recently-reported missions in both SF '42 and T-v-T, I thought it was time to see how things looked through the other end of the telescope....through the gunsight of the famous Soviet tank, to be precise. This report is the result, featuring the same tank in both sims, for comparison.   T-34-vs-Tiger is set during the period of the Soviet 1944 summer offensive, and the T-34-85 is the playable version. It's a fine replica, evidently an earlier production model with the prominent inverted 'U' turret lifting lugs and the two-piece commander's hatch.     This sim also has the previous production version, commonly called both the Model 1943 and the Model 1942; but this isn't playable.This 76mm-gunned model's presence both adds variety and ensures that when playing the Tiger, you aren't always up against the top Soviet medium tank.     SF '42 comes with an earlier T-34. To this, the modders have added two later versions: the Model 1942/43 and the T-34-85. All three versions are pictured below. I believe only the stock version (top) has 3-D interiors (second pic). These are certainly nice to have, but non-essential. All the Steel Fury T34s have superior animation to the T-v-T models, with working suspension and crew who open or close hatches as the tactical situation may dictate.           The T-34-85 went into action in early 1944, replacing the original 76mm gun with a more potent 85mm weapon in a larger turret, which at last had a 3-man crew, so the commander no longer had to act as gunner, as well.   My appetite for the T-34 was recently well whetted after watching 'White Tiger', a modern Russian film to which CA member Snailman had recently posted this link. It's a rather strange and spooky film and the Tiger in question is apparently an IS-2 conversion (seems they built a realistic Tiger replica but ended up using the Stalin tank conversion, which if nothing else certainly emphasises the point that this was no ordinary Tiger). Despite the strange plot and some overly fuel-filled special effects, the visuals are great, the performances strong and the tank action is not to be missed.   Anyway, back in sim-land, the missions I chose to play are 'Liberating Krinovichi' from T-v-T's stock single-player 6-mission Soviet campaign and Steel Fury's 'Chernogostie', which is in one of the mission packs which go with the NTA mod. The T-v-T mission, as its name suggests, is offensive in nature; the SF '42 one is defensive. First up, it's T-v-T. Knowing that this sim's main antagonist is no less than the Tiger tank itself, I was expecting trouble, but glad that I'd be meeting it in the latest T-34. I reckoned that woud give me a fighting chance of avoiding ending up like this:     ...to be continued!

    Panthers at Prokhorovka!
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    From Kharkov to Kursk - a change of scenery for Steel Fury!    The battle The fighting at Prokhorovka has gone down in history as one of the biggest and most desperate tank battles ever seen. It was a battle within a battle, fought on the southern front of Operation Citadel, the German offensive against the Kursk salient in July 1943. This was an ill-starred effort to regain some of the initiative lost after the Stalingrad disaster. At Kursk, the Soviets knew the Germans were coming and the offensive soon bogged down amidst well-sited defences, storms of artillery fire and fierce armoured counterattacks. The fiercest was at Prokhorovka on 12 July, when hundreds of T-34s from the 5th Guards Tank Army swept forward in massed waves and ran headlong into II SS Panzerkorps.   As its full name indicates, Ukrainian tanksim Steel Fury is centred on the 1942 battles around Kharkov. However, thanks to the modders and mission makers, its scope has been extended well beyond those battlefields and that year. Sure enough, if you install the NTA mod and the associated mission packs you will find that you now have a short series of missions based on the Battle of Kursk - specifically, inspired by the fighting at Prokhorovka. From these, I chose a mission featuring the Panther tank, which the Germans had rushed into service for Kursk, only to find that mechanical teething troubles and limited crew training added up to a very disappointing debut. Would I do any better? There was one way to find out!   Edit, August 2014 - the NTA mod has been discontinued but its successor, the STA Mod, is now available: http://stasf2008.ephpbb.com/t6-steel-tank-add-on-steel-fury   The mission and the tank Here's the mission briefing. I think it's fair to say that its intention is to recreate the general pattern of the German operations at Kursk on a smaller scale and - as I found out - give the player a taste of the kind of fighting at Prokhorovka, where the Germans were on the offensive but were faced with having to fight off waves of oncoming Soviet tanks.     With the briefing panel minimised, you can get a better look at the map, including the disposition of the units, the lie of the land, and the route to your objective. I've got a platoon of three Panthers - the blue diamonds, bottom centre in the map below  - and we are in the middle of the attack, with other tank platoons either side of us. Rather than keep us with our parent tank company - which would have been fully equipped with Panthers (those that had not broken down, anyway!) for the sake of variety we have a mix, including the stalwart Panzer IV but also some Tiger tanks and Elephant tank destroyers/assault guns. There's no mention of infantry or fire support in the briefing but as it turned out we had dismounted Grenadiers with us. It's probably no bad thing that they were on foot; there wasn't much hostile artillery or mortar fire and when the German SPWs (half-tracked APCs) do feature in an SF '42 mission, they seem always to suffer especially heavily!     Basically, the operation is in two phases. First, we attack and destroy the enemy defensive positions. Then, we pass through and re-group on the other side, presumably in anticipation of a counterattack.   Before leaving the map screen, I selected line abreast formation and 'Do as I do! for platoon orders. I didn't fiddle with the default game settings, which would have allowed me to change relative skills for each side and increase or reduce the balance (=the size of the enemy force, relative to mine). I kicked off the mission then as I usually do, in the external view, went to the commander's station and popped open the hatch (F3, P key) then moved to the gunner's station (F2) and loaded an AP round. From this station you can control turret traverse/elevation and do most of what the tank commander can, too, giving orders to driver and loader; so this is how I usually play.   And here are our three Panthers, lined up and good to go. Nice to see that they are the correct model for Kursk - the Ausf. D, with the original 'dustbin' commander's cupola and vertical flap on the right of the glacis plate for the hull machine gun, instead of the later ball mounting. Another early feature is the set of three smoke dischargers either side of the turret (non-functional, as I believe SF doesn't simulate tanks popping smoke) Edit -  Steel Fury mission-maker and modder Lockie tells me  'SF has smoke grenades. To use them u need sit down on loader place and press "space" on keyboard to fire' .     The other units either side of us didn't hang about, but soon shook out into formation and roared off towards the enemy defensive lines, which were more or less in plain sight and not too far off, either. It didn't stay quiet for long, as the air was soon filled with the din of combat. Already, tall columns of smoke arose from the battle's first victims, friend or foe.     Everyone else might have been in a hurry but not me. I drove forward a little way into a small fold in the ground, where I halted and started scanning the ground ahead for signs of the enemy.     ...to be continued!

    T-34 versus Tiger
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Back to the Russian Front with 'WWII Battle Tanks - T-34 vs Tiger'!       The year 2008 was a promising one for tank simulation enthusiasts, with two new WW2 tank sims released around the same time. One was Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942, which found most favour with players, continues to be modded and played, and has been featured in three recent mission reports here at CombatAce.   This time it's the turn of 'the other sim' - the aptly-named T-34 vs Tiger. Strangely, this was released by the same publishers - Lighthouse Interactive - as Steel Fury; my T34 - vs Tiger manual even has a 2-page, centre-fold spread advert for SF! As a fan of the Tiger tank in particular and something of a tanksim nut since discovering Panzer Commander, I was keen to try out the new sim. But with sub-par AI, no interaction with other tanks or vehicles in your unit and a very limited set of heavily-scripted (and questionably realistic) missions, I soon realised why most players seemed to gravitate (sic) to Graviteam's 'Steel Fury', instead. Still, 'TvT' has some really good features and in particular, is in most respects a very good simulation of operating the two featured tanks. And if you like it enough to hanker for more, there's an ongoing payware mod by Zeewolf which adds vehicles and missions.   Having fairly recently taken some time off combat flight sims to play Steel Fury and report the results, I thought I'd dust off T-34 vs Tiger and do likewise. Will a fresh crack at the sim after the passage of several years change my first impressions? Let's find out!     The mission If you're single-player only like me you won't be too bothered that the sim's apparently promising multi-player capability never seemed to have been realised. But the single-player option also had its issues. There's only six missions for each side. There are no training missions - it's all on-the-job-training, as it were. Together, the missions form a campaign of sorts but they seem to be no more than a loosely-sequenced series of small operations in the same general area in the same timeframe.   The area is between Smolensk and Vitebsk in what is now Belarus, in the northern sector of Germany's Army Group Centre. The timeframe is summer 1944, during Operation Bagration, the Soviet summer offensive for that year. This was a major disaster for the Wehrmacht and a great success for the Red Army, with large swathes of Soviet territory being liberated and much destruction being visited on Army Croup Centre.   I was tempted to try out the T-34; but for better comparison with both my early efforts with TvT and my recent forays with SF, I decided that I'd let the Tiger off his leash once more. As for my choice of mission, this was limited..to one mission in fact. Irrititatingly, it seems you have to 'unlock' the missions by winning them. There may have been a cheat to unlock missions but if there was I can't find it now. [EDIT - found it! it's here] I don't know if this approach was a crude attempt to make the best of the twelve missions by forcing replays but I find this pretty hateful - and unrealistic, to boot. Unless you get the chop in one sense or another, life goes on, whether or not the powers-that-be deemed your last operation was a success. It doesn't help that mission success in TvT seems tightly-defined in terms of things you must kill, down to the last tank...and I mean 'you must kill' because the AI may be little help. But more of this anon.   So - this report deals with the first of the six German missions, because that was all I could get at, readily. Except that there will be two flavours - stock and ZeeWolf. This is because ZeeWolf's TvT project, though subscription-only, includes some freebies. And one of them is a new mission, which seems to replace the original first mission, when you install it (at least it did for me). The package seems to make some other changes, too; it may be a different time of day in each mission is fooling me here but I get the impression that the very harsh lighting is softened, losing the too-dark shadows and warming up the colours. And the Tiger is back to the full set of rubber-tired roadwheels (it started like this but the TvT official patch changed these to the resilient steel-tired roadwheels with the outer row removed). Top pic is stock+patch; bottom is with ZeeWolf's freebies installed:       Kurtenki - the stock mission I'll keep this one short, not least because if you have ever played TvT, you'll know this one off by heart; there seems to be little-to-no variability in TvT missions, with friends and enemies identically scripted and positioned each time...unfortunately.   I didn't get a screenie of the briefing but...it's brief. Basically, drive down the road/track towards a 'blown' river bridge and destroy any enemies seen massing (or doing anything else, for that matter) on the enemy bank. I don't find it easy to tell the lie of the land from the little briefing and in-game maps in TvT - that they show forests, the 'rides' between them and the roads is their most useful feature - but we're starting between the village of Kurtenki and the river, on a sort of plateau from which the ground falls away steeply to the river, then rises just as steeply on the other side - terrain perhaps more suitable for a mountain lion than a tiger.   Anyway, here we go. There's two of us in Tigers, on this job. See what I mean about that harsh lighting? Apart from that, these are mostly very nice renditions of a fairly late-production Tiger 1. Apart from the steel roadwheels, distinguishing features for mid- and/or late-production vehicles include the commander's 'low profile' cupola with episcopes instead of the older 'dustbin' type; the ribbed 'Zimmerit' anti-magnetic mine paste on vertical surfaces; the lack of turret-side triple smoke dischargers; no 'Fiefel' air cleaner filters on the rear plate; and spare track stowage moved from the lower nose to the turret sides.     Are you the boss on this operation? Or just a 'wing-man'? Search me. But never fear, it doesn't matter. The AI, including your boss (or 'wing-man') pay you no attention, unless the mission designer has built in triggers which provoke them into action when you (or others) do a certain thing. You have no way of controlling your fellow tankers and playing as a platoon/troop commander. It's hard even to co-operate with them, as their actions seem hasty, unpredictable or silly - sometimes all three at once.   As is my wont, I switched to the gunner position then turned on the AI driver and AI tank commander (TC). The former I can give driving orders W-A-S-D fashion, from the gunner's station. I can also tell the loader whether to load HE or AP rounds. The AI TC will spot targets for me. Another advantage of playing in the gunner's sattion is that you can orient the turret to cover likely threats, instead of just driving around with the gun at twelve o-clock all the time - with the Tiger's slow traverse, this can help you get onto targets faster. I could equally have stuck to the commander's station and let AI both drive and gun. The AI gunner wil engage what he sees but if you're playing TC you can also mouse-click targets to designate them.   In SF the AI crew will open or close hatches as they see fit but not in TvT. As only Soviet TCs fought entirely buttoned up I briefly switched to the TC position, unbuttoned, and then once the TC had popped into position, left him there and went back to the gunner's station. For some reason the TvT Tank Commander insists on standing tall in his cupola, instead of sensibly operating with just his head exposed. But I still prefer this to hatches permanently closed. There are well-rendered tank interiors in TvT but I never use them. External view, TC hatch open, or gunsight/binocular view, that's my style   As I passed the other Tiger he sprang into life. After that, he did his own thing. I drove south towards the river, past some grenadiers with an SPW manning a flimsy barricade. The sounds of my Tiger rumbling along and my TC calling out my driving commands were well done; sound effects are one of TvT's strengths, to my ears.     After I passed this little barricade the other Tiger rumbled past me. The terrain - a wood on one side of our track and a steep slope on the other - seemed designed to funnel us in a certain direction. No Operation Flashpoint-style wide open sandboxes, here. Making the most of it, I was planning to creep up to the crest line - beyond which the terrain looked to dip down into the valley. Scan every inch of terrain as it revealed itself in front of me. Hug the woods on the left and watch what emerged across the river to my right. My fellow tank commander, bless his cotton socks, had no such concerns. He drove right up to the crest, stopped, and started shooting. He then drove on down the other side, out of sight. 'Bloody Hell!', I said to myself. 'There goes Plan A. Now what?'     ...to be continued!

    Panzer rollen in Afrika vor!
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Steel Fury joins the Deutsches Afrika Korps!       Graviteam's tanksim Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942, as its name indicates, started out limited to the Eastern front, about a year into 'The Great Patriotic War' between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. However, thanks to the efforts of modders you can now travel a bit further afield in time and space! This mission report is set in the sim's original time frame. But for a battlefield, we're bidding adieu to the Steppes and are off instead to the desert of North Africa. Here were fought some of the war's classic tank battles, between the Germans and Italians on the one side and the British Commonwealth and later the USA, on the other.   By mid-1942, the war in the desert had developed into a see-saw battle as first one side then the other enjoyed the advantage. In 1940, Operation Compass saw the British fling back westwards a much larger invading Italian force. The following year the British 'Desert Rats', robbed of troops to prop up the war in Greece, were in their turn flung back east towards Egypt by the Axis forces, now re-inforced by Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. At the end of 1941, the British Operation Crusader, after some fierce battles, threw the Germans back again. In mid-1942, after a lull, the Afrika Korps was one more on the offensive; once again the British were pushed back well to the west.   The mission The mission I'm playing here is 'Gazala', which signs me up with the famous 21st Panzer Division, justly famous for its combat record with the Afrika Korps. As usual, I'm using the latest NTA mod and the current Mission Pack. I also enabled the Africa mod, which I'm assuming is needed to replace the stock SF terrain with something appropriate for (in the words of that RAF song) '...a very pleasant land, where miles and miles of sweet eff-all are covered up with sand.'   Full details of all the necessary items you need to get NTA installed with all the bells and whistles are over at the Graviteam Steel Fury forum, here. Edit, August 2014 - the NTA mod has been discontinued but its successor, the STA Mod, is now available: http://stasf2008.eph...d-on-steel-fury   This mission starts off with an excellent German newsreel compilation from the theatre, some of it in colour or colourised. The briefing itself is in the stock SF style. This has rather a lot on the regimental/divisional battle picture which is fine, but not much on the company-level operation that you're involved with. The map gives you some idea what's going on but it's no substitute for something in the format of proper 'oral orders' given to you, and the other platoon commanders in your Combat Team, by your own company commander.   Despite the 'Gazala' title, the mission is set on 26 June 1942, after the battle of that name. By this time, the victorious Germans and Italians were pressing on east towards the Egyptian frontier, and the date is more appropriate for the fighting that took place around Mersa Matruh.   Here's the map for the mission. Basically I am part of a roughly company-strength tank/armoured infantry team, with no air or artillery support. We've to carry out an attack on British defensive positions either side and behind a long minefield of the sort that so often protected the infantry in this sort of warfare. While in the map screen, I called up the orders panel and selected line abreast formation and 'Do as I do', which I interpret as 'Conform to my movements and actions' and should really be default behaviour - Standard Operating Procedure or 'SOP', as it's called.     My mount was billed as a Panzer IVF1. This has the short-barrelled 75mm gun more suited to infantry support, its low muzzle velocity limiting its effectiveness in the anti-tank role.     For some reason I ended up instead with what the British called the 'Mark 4 Special', the Panzer IV F2 (later renamed as the G subtype). Part of the German response to the T-34 and KV-1, this had a much longer 75mm gun and was a potent tank-killer. Needless to say I had absolutely no objection to being up-gunned in this fashion!   I switched to the gunner role (F2) and then toggled on the internal view (F9) and to the gunsight view (Insert). I selected and loaded an armour-piercing round. Then I toggled back to the external view (F9 again) for better situational awareness and to have a better look around at our force. It comprised a mix of Panzer IVs like my own, lighter Panzer IIIs with the short 50mm gun, and some Sturmgeschutze (assault guns) with short seventy-fives. Amongst us were panzergrenadiers in light and medium half-tracked Schutzenpanzerwagens (SPWs). There was even a soft-skinned Opel Blitz truck, living rather dangerously! It was quite an impressive phalanx, each vehicle raising a dark plume of dust as it rolled north towards the enemy.     I ordered the driver to advance and joined the throng. As we moved off, orders came over the radio. These were in German and it was helpful to have them spelt out in a text panel atop the screen.       The others set a fairly fast pace but I could not keep up. My driver ignored commands to go faster, and I gradually fell behind. Perhaps it was just as well, but my platoon - which I took to be the pair of long-barrelled Panzer IVs which I could see nearby - didn't wait for me. I have no idea why. There is a game setting ''Always obey orders' which i had turned off as recommended for a previous mission; perhaps that was why. Either way, I felt like the Duke of Plaza-Toro in that Gilbert and Sullivan song:   In enterprise of martial kind
    When there was any fighting
    He led his regiment from behind
    He found it less exciting.   I ended up watching the first phase of our assault through the gunsight. And this is what I saw. In the centre, enemy mortar or artillery fire whacked into our leading elements. Slightly right, some troops debussed from a light SPW which then then rattled on ahead.     To my front, some more Panzergrenadiers had also debussed and were crawling ahead. I wondered whether it would have been safer for them to have stayed in their armoured carriers.     Other dismounted infantry were being helped forward by other Panzers, like these Panzer IIIs.     Feeling rather left out and seeing no sign of the enemy tanks reported on the right, I stopped and rattled off some rounds from the co-axial MG at what might have been an enemy heavy weapon which I could see as a rectangular-looking blob which came into sight above dip in the ground. I walked my tracers onto him until I saw the ricochets sail skywards. My target might just as well have been a rock but the shooting made me feel a little better, if nothing else.     What this Panzer IV was doing sitting in the middle of a battle with all hatches open, I didn't know - immobilized and abandoned already, perhaps.     The enemy position seemed to be in dead ground ahead of me; I rolled forwards again but I could see nothing of them, apart from the odd tracer whipping past on either side. That the defenders could clearly see at least some of us was obvious from the burning vehicles which began to appear around me as I slowly ground forward, accompanied for a while by another Panzer IV which may have been one of my platoon who had decided to stay with me, after all,       By now, I'd begun to catch up with some of my comrades, as they paused to fire at targets which I could not yet see, like this Panzer III ahead and left of me.     As that Panzer moved off and swung right, I noticed his turret spin around, as if he were tracking a target. Then I saw it too! A single enemy tank, some way off, was moving quite rapidly from right to left. He looked like a Valentine, a small but heavily-armoured British infantry tank, successor to the famous Maltida that reigned as 'Queen of the Battlefield' until our eighty-eights tore them apart at Halfaya Pass in '41. I knew that the Valentine would be a tough target for the Panzer III's short-barrelled 50mm gun. This one would be up to me! I set the range on my sight and lined him up with the lower right corner of the middle triangle. A little adjustment for his movement and my first round would be on its way.     ...to be continued!

Portal by DevFuse · Based on IP.Board Portal by IPS


×

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..

  I accept