Recent content by Franks

The WP successes in Southern Germany strike me as odd, considering the geography is extremely suited for defensive operations. Lots of rivers, forests mountain ranges, built-up areas. For example the WP planned to advance along the river Main, the area is so full of valleys, villages every...

Advancing on a wide front is complicated by the fact that there are not enough vehicles to keep these spread out forces supplied - especially with ammuniton and spare parts. Also the German military - which actually has some trucks available for the tactical and strategic movement of troops -...

@LOTLOF I am a bit confused. Stentsch is located a few kilometers west of the Obra river and it's just a small village? Is your Stentsch fictional? As far as I can tell from maps Tukhachevsky's main force would advance along two axis: Bentschen-Frankfurt (an der Oder) and Kreuz-Küstrin...

@Lonewolf As Derek Pullam wrote: MANPADs are only suited for very short range air defense. NATO aircraft would simply operate at higher altitudes. And how do you plan to get these guys there, you need a large enough network on the ground and this network would quite possibly be under...

@Max Sinister Yes, but the Weimar Republic had a semipresidential system, so the president had considerable influence over the government. @HJ Tulp The officer corps and nco corps would be recruited from traditionally conservative or loyal parts of the population (rural areas, upper and middle...

@LOTLOF Despite the restrictions imposed by Versailles the Reichswehr maintained considerable stocks of ammunition and military equipment and would be reinforced with paramilitary formations in case of war - these formations are also known as Schwarze Reichswehr. The Ebert government was well...

@Gridley Some of those battalions were active duty. But you're right with the light infantry of other NATO countries. Still, I favor the German concept with a couple of infantry battalion battlegroups for static operations and security in the division's rear area. (As I said earlier, I'd favor...

@Barry Bull Three Unitary Brigades, the infantry battalion battlegroups provide additional forces for static operations and can be used for security in the division's rear area. E.g. every West German Armoured or Armoured Infantry Division had three independent infantry battalions during the...

@Life in Black Nope, as Barry Bull wrote such a division would be too armour heavy. Also, you lack division logistics, division engineers, medical support, ... . Also I don't think that army aviation should be put under divisional command, If you really want to go with a divisional structure...

@Life in Black Peacetime or wartime structure? Mixing different branches at the battalion level during peacetime doesn't make much sense, single branch battalions are better for training purposes. During wartime each combat arms company would usually get two or more SPAAGs and each SPH battery...

Instead of today's large corps (~ 90.000) and large divisions (~ 20.000), I'd create smaller corps and larger brigades: Staff Command Support Brigade - Staff Support Battalion (incl. Security Company) - 2x Communication and Information Systems Battalion - Electronic Warfare Battalion...

1. You probably have to add some fire support vehicles to your mechanised infantry forces. These would have to be armed with ATGMs and machine canons. Adding a turret to your APC chassis and turning them into proper IFVs would probably make it just as heavy as a MBT. On the bright side, you can...

Three problems with your IFV concept: a.) The Israelis converted MBTs into APCs or in case of the namer used a MBT's chassis. b.) These vehicles are going to be just as heavy and thirsty as your MBTs which will require you to spend more on salvaging and engineering equipment plus strain your...

Well, one of the lessons (not completely learned) from World War 2 is that (mechanised and armoured) brigades are better suited to mobile warfare than divisions at the tactical level. In an ideal (post World War 2) world I'd like to see a unitary brigade with two armoured battalions (44...

Originally posted by euromellows Probably the most important thing about the Polish war effort is that they fought very well but their tactics and strategies utterly failed, e.g. the Germans simply outmaneuvered and contained the Polish forces. So it's most likely that the fighting around...