Normandy 44 interdiction

[Fhil]

I played the 750 round campaign.
I had noticed that I had a lot less attrition moving my units hex by hex for both infantry and vehicles.
The problem is tedious.
Most of the time you have to wait until nightfall to move if your front line isn't creaking.
Good luck.

Regards,

Pat

 It would be more or less fine moving only at night, if the night turns wouldn´t be 4-hours long, that means only two turns. And instead of the real distance that the units would cover, you´re only able do a half of that.

[Plain Ian]

Normandy 1944 by Niklas Zetterling, IMHO this detailed study confirms the the in-game allied air interdiction is set too high for the 750 turn MONSTER.
A happy Halloween to all my readers.

I've never read Zetterling but have read plenty of D Day 1944 books. These have the usual anecodotal passages by Germans who experienced Allied tactical bombing. I've pulled this from the web to illustrate -



These kind of anecdotal passages have always summed up what I thought it was like in June 44 for German units moving in broad daylight.

Having said that I'm also reading Beevor's book on Arnhem which is about Operation Market Garden in September 44 and came across this epic passage.



4 Tigers and 3 Panthers being 'destroyed' by rocket firing Typhoons? Mmmh. 

So I guess its difficult to decide?

[Kool Kat]

I played the 750 round campaign.
I had noticed that I had a lot less attrition moving my units hex by hex for both infantry and vehicles.
The problem is tedious.
Most of the time you have to wait until nightfall to move if your front line isn't creaking.
Good luck.

Regards,

Pat

Gent: 

How many turns did you complete in the 750-turn campaign scenario? 

[Indragnir]

Normandy 1944 by Niklas Zetterling, IMHO this detailed study confirms the the in-game allied air interdiction is set too high for the 750 turn MONSTER.
A happy Halloween to all my readers.

I've never read Zetterling but have read plenty of D Day 1944 books. These have the usual anecodotal passages by Germans who experienced Allied tactical bombing. I've pulled this from the web to illustrate -



These kind of anecdotal passages have always summed up what I thought it was like in June 44 for German units moving in broad daylight.

Having said that I'm also reading Beevor's book on Arnhem which is about Operation Market Garden in September 44 and came across this epic passage.



4 Tigers and 3 Panthers being 'destroyed' by rocket firing Typhoons? Mmmh. 

So I guess its difficult to decide?

Ian,

Those are claims. Battlefield analysis showed air power accounted very few kills vs tanks if you compare vs ALL airforces claiming, either Allied/Soviet or Axis (but for dedicated tank busters, those were more effective indeed.)

Tactical air power was effective delaying even armored columns and did cause a great damage to soft targets, interdicting reinforcements, supply etc etc.

[CountryBoy]

My recollection of Beevor's book on Normandy was that the Allies did a battlefield study of the effectiveness of air attacks and generally found that it was wildly overestimated. Soft skinned vehicles sure, but not so effective versus tanks.

I also wonder how many soldier kills an interdiction attack might cause? Let's say a column of men, on foot or in trucks is attacked from the air, wouldn't they all scatter in every direction? There would be losses certainly, but 150 men running in every direction makes for a difficult target. Their vehicles (if they have them) would no doubt be shot up, but actual casualties might be low. What got me thinking about this was that a recent air interdiction attack in my (still ongoing) PBEM of Normandy 44 saw a German company of men (around 110) lose something like over 30 men. So over a quarter of the entire unit was wiped out by one air attack. Granted their movement should be hampered, but the KIA seems a little extreme.

[ComradeP]

Though the account given by Weber might indeed have happened, it does sound like a sequence of lucky hits instead of a representative air-to-ground attack. Particularly if the tanks caught fire.

I wonder how many bombs or rockets were dropped or fired for each destroyed tank. That is, actual destruction, not superficial damage or a bomb blast scaring the crew into bailing out.

I also wonder how many soft vehicles were actually destroyed (by damage to the engine, steering gear or wheels) by strafing. Though vulnerable, the actual critical areas of a truck are quite small compared to the size of a truck+cover. Holes in the cover or bed of the truck would just mean...holes in the cover or bed of the truck. Bad news for anyone in it, but not critical damage to the vehicle. Damage from crashes caused by drivers jerking the wheel when being strafed might cause more damage than the actual strafing run.