i would suspect the cows would walk to the creek and then be dispatched under rule 303.War is hell.
Operation Sea Lion (1974 Sandhurst Wargame)
- Thread starter Not James Stockdale
- Start date
i would suspect the cows would walk to the creek and then be dispatched under rule 303.War is hell.
I realise I'm quoting myself, but I pondered the water situation in post number two, way back on page one of this thread. I've always assumed that the Germans would manage to get at least some soldiers across, in the first wave, and perhaps some more in the second. I don't know how they would conduct a blitzkrieg with only a handful of light tanks and some pack artillery. How many gallons of petrol does a Panzer II use in a day's fighting? How many tonnes of shells would a German howitzer fire in a day? All of that equipment has to be ferried across the Channel, and every tonne of ammunition is a tonne less water; every tonne of water is a tonne fewer artillery shells.
In 1944 we managed to get tens of thousands of well-supplied troops across the channel with tanks and total air superiority, but even with help from our American chums we failed to take Caen on the first day and bogged down thereafter. In 1940 the Germans, going the other way, would have been in a worse position. It doesn't matter if the individual fighting German circa 1940 was superhuman, there's only so far a man can dash from cover to cover without water before he collapses.
Each soldier would presumably carry his daily rations with him and perhaps a water bladder, but just that one issue alone would kill the invasion. Every well between London and Dover would have been blown up, or filled in with mustard gas. Even if we didn't implement a scorched-earth policy, I imagine that supplying tens of thousands of soldiers with water in peacetime conditions as part of an exercise is difficult. Under artillery fire it would have been even worse.
Furthermore I remember reading about a tank that we developed. The Covenanter. It was awful! The cooling system didn't work and the engine was overloaded, so it tended to overheat. We built over a thousand but didn't send any abroad because it was no good and would have been useless in the desert. Production began in 1940. I don't know how many were built by mid-1940 but I bet someone here has the figures. They wouldn't have had to drive very far to stem the German advance, and all we had to do was slow them down until they surrendered. On top of which we probably had lots of WW1 artillery pieces and armoured cars etc. Just one tank parked at a strategic river crossing would have played havoc with the German advance, and they didn't have time to spare.
hipper
Banned
Accuracy is putting your shell close enough to its target so it might hit. actually hitting is a matter of statistics, or luck if you prefer.
Pretty much, the British Army doesn't have to win. It just has to not lose.
And that is very easy to accomplish against less then 90,000 under supplied, under equipped, starving and dying of thirst light infantry. All they need to do is go get a few school teachers who speak German, or better yet some immigrants, set up a giant loudspeaker, and blast testimony 24/7 towards the German Pockets, about how if they give up they'll get food and water, and Herr Hitler doesn't care about their fates etc etc.
hipper
Banned
I believe its more like the limits of accuracy which varied on the gun i believe the RN 15” would drop into a 250 yard circle, other guns had different levels of accuracy. the whole subject is a bit of a Tar Baby though.
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The Twins are broken in Sept 1940
Bismarck is not ready for war until March 41 at the very earliest
Soooo nope.
So the troops have disinfectants and like all soldiers (especially in water limited environment), know to wash their hands.
Troops are still getting gastro, even in the Falklands. Troops in PNG in 42-43 cut the arse out of their pants to save time and mess. They just had to do the job.
“Exposure to the cold weather was a problem for all troops in the Falklands and the boggy and rugged terrain also caused multiple cases of Trench foot
and endemic mild diarrhoea from drinking the water.”
“Within the facility, two British army and two Navy surgical teams worked side by side. The lighting was deemed inadequate, and there was no sterile water, no autoclave, no diathermy machine, and a limited supply of linen. Gloves were worn but not often changed from one operation to the next.”
https://jmvh.org/article/logistics-in-the-falklands-war/
We should thank Cholera for its place in starting IV therapy.
The Germans had seperate water and fuel jerry cans. Water marked with a white cross. Which WW2 island assault did the Corps use jerry cans for fuel and then fill them with water, which the troops couldn’t / wouldn’t drink, and went short?
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The stupidity of the Germans for not supporting the bombardment of Scarborough with a corps-scale amphibious assault?
But there's a book on the Tirpitz which claims:
Well. If it's in a book you say....
What they didn't know was that HMS Artful tracked them the whole time.
Honestly....
How many mines could they actually drop each night? What was the actual track record in the previous few months?
TDM
Kicked
Good point, but apparently the soviets are invading Iran and Malta has fallen so who knows (I think we'll find Glen's slipped into one of his atl-not-atl's)!
If Maltas fallen, at best it and its coastline is littered with dead Fallschirmjagers - so they cannot take part!
As for the rest....now totally convinced beyond a memory of a shadow of a doubt that its weapon grade trolling.
That worked well for the Soviets with 6th Army. Took two months, no supplies, guys staved to death, froze to death, but sounds a plan
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