Artillery

[metier9]

I cant quote the reference it was a documentary i saw a long while back.
It said that 80% of casualties where caused by artillery of one nature or another. It could of been about the first world war instead of the second world war, but is this statement correct? Also, does artillery have that much effect in combat mission to co-inside with the statement?

I noticed from random posts here and there from blitz and battlefront forums, that unless there are trenches present people only take mortars (by example) to counter the odd AT gun? Im new so i might of got this wrong as well.

[Copper]

IMO that seems a bit high but then again is that purely combat casualties or civilian casualties as well.... I mean there were many big cities that crumbled under artillery fire with civilians still living in them so it may be possible.

If it was WW1 then that wouldnt surprise me as it was a war of attrition and some of the guns they rolled out were truley devasting. Big Bertha in particular.

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/new...illery.htm

[metier9]

Ive heard of the big guns in the WW2 e.g. the Karl mortars

http://hpwt.de/2Weltkrieg/Karle.htm

The reason i may have got confused with world war 1 was because of a documentary on the 'Mons'.

I think the comment was made on combat casulties.

[Mad Russian]

Ive heard of the big guns in the WW2 e.g. the Karl mortars

http://hpwt.de/2Weltkrieg/Karle.htm

The reason i may have got confused with world war 1 was because of a documentary on the 'Mons'.

I think the comment was made on combat casulties.

It wasn't about the First World War...most of the casualties in WWI were caused by machinegun fire IIRC. I'm thinking that figure is for WWII. And yes, if it is counting mortars as artillery, which it more than likely was, then that number is one I have heard before.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mike Abberton]

[Kelen]

I noticed from random posts here and there from blitz and battlefront forums, that unless there are trenches present people only take mortars (by example) to counter the odd AT gun? Im new so i might of got this wrong as well.

Don't know about other players but i always take along a few mortars, (normally 60mm or 81mm.

Yes I use them for taking out those pesky AT guns, but I also use them for knocking out light buildings, (probably the only use for the British 50mm), and even though they've only got a few rounds, I find their abilty to blind armour, (particularly large German SP guns), a life saver on many occassion. Drop a couple of smoke rounds just in front of them and race your armour round the side for a flank shot. As SP's don't have turrets, their limited gun traverse and slow reaction time normally means that they can't turn quick enough to fire back or present their heavy frontal armour.

[McIvan]

It represents, I think, the constant dribble of casualties from artillery & mortars, every day, relentlessly, in their ones and twos.

Artillery was one reason why the ratio of wounded to dead was so high in favour of the wounded.....rifle/MG wounds were more likely to kill (something like 2 wounded for one dead), and artillery/mortars more likely to wound (something like 4-5 wounded per KIA).

I have heard it expounded that the average rifle compny inflicted only about 1/3 of the casualties it suffered, which ties in with the never-ending attrition of artillery and mortar fire.

[Mad Russian]

I was surprised to find that tanks in WWII fired something five times the number of HE shells to AP!!

When I first read that I couldn't believe that it was accurate. But having since served in an armored division I found that tanks rarely carry more AP than HE. Of course they aren't called that today, but the intent is still the same. Killing infantry is a tanks main job. Killing other tanks is secondary.

Infantry holds the objectives and therefore is the most valuable target on the map.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Fullhouse]

CM does nothing to model artillery at the operational level.

If you were to play Highway to the Reich or Conquest of the Agean (both great games) which have the company as the smallest unit, you would have a much better idea of how destructive divisional level artillery assets are.

[McIvan]

You can get a feel for one type of artillery in a game like [name omitted for spoiler reasons], where the Germans have three 150mm arty spotters, each with 25 rounds and two TRPs, and a large area/reasonable amount of time. The German dribbles out the rounds, a salvo at a time, disrupting and causing casualties to the Russians in a most effective manner.

Alternatively you could have green 81mm or 3inch mortar spotters (to get a higher command delay) with about a thousand rounds and a scenario restriction to only use target wide. Heck, why stop there....let's have a 25pdr spotter with another thousand and some 4.2inch mortars as backup. All target wide. That would be fun :) Er...for the side with the artillery, that is. But a big assault force, lots of rough terrain rather than woods, a thin line of defence and lots of flags, and you could have quite a good game...