ok, as the secrecy is broken ...

[Palaiologos]

Stephan dude, "Cromwell" refers to the tank type.

[fairline]

Re: fairline, some things I haven´t understood yet .....

Originally posted by jim panse
In german (as well as austrian) army organisation it looks like this: Company < Battalion < Regiment. Each Battalion consists of 3-5 companies "normal" infantry and one sKompanie ("s" = schwer = heavy; => "heavy Company"). A sKompanie has more menpower than a "normal" company and more firepower too. Is this the equivalent to the British heavy weapons company? If yes, how do you think that kind of unit should be represented???

That's exactly right. Each British infantry battalion = 4 rifle companies and 1 heavy weopons or support/HQ company. The Support Company or HQ Company had the battalion heavy weopons, eg the larger mortars, etc. You could either represent them with a mortar crew or leave them out altogether. Just to confuse matters I havent mentioned that armoured regiments have 3 tank squadrons + an HQ squadron which you could represent with Stuart Light tanks (or leave out again)

(1) 1 Dutch Armoured Brigade "Princess Irene" (3 regiments/9 squadrons) - Cromwell
How I shoudl understand this? (And don´t tell me that Cromwell was the name of its commander )

Sorry, confusing again. What I meant was this: the Princess Irene Brigade was an independent armoured Brigade organised in the same way as British armoured Brigades (which could be either independent or part of an armoured division). This means the Brigade comprised 3 armoured Regiments (equivalent to US or German Battalions!!) each of which had 3 tank squadrons + an HQ squadron; so each Brigade = 9 Squadrons of gun tanks + 3 HQ squadrons of light tanks etc in total. The Princess Irene Brigade was equipped with Cromwell tanks, not Shermans.

(2) 1 AT Regiment (2 batteries of 17-pdr towed + 2 batteries Achillies)
2 batteries Achilles Tank Destroyer means 2 Squadrons, right?

This is another British Army anachronism. All 'artillery' guns, whether anti-tank, anti-aircraft, field artillery, heavy artillery, self-propelled or towed were operated by the Royal Artillery. All Armoured Regiments (ie normal tanks, not tank-destroyers) were operated by the Royal Armoured Corps).

The Royal Artillery (RA) organisational tree is:

troop----battery-----regiment-----(brigade or division)

The Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) organisational tree is:

troop-----squadron-----regiment------brigade

Remembering that 'Regiment' is equivalent to a US or German Battalion.

Achilles 17-pdr tank destroyers were regarded as SP anti-tank guns not tanks, so they came under the RA structure of batteries not squadrons. Don't ask why this is, but it probably couldn't be more confusing.

(3) 1 Airlanding Lt Regt = 3 batteries
The Airlanding Artilley were M8 75mm Pack Howitzers I think?!

Correct! ie each airlanding regiment = 3 batteries of M8 howitzers
[/QUOTE]

[jim panse]

I know Preicles but the word "Cromwell" stood there without anything next to it and it´s a bit confusing because I can´t believe that an infantry brigade has had only Cromwell tanks as transporters.

[Case]

Jim, heavy weapons companies almost never fought by themselves - they were normally split roughly evently between the rifle companies. As such, they really shouldn't be included as independant tactical units.

Re the British paras, they seem to have had a combined heavy weapons & HQ company. Given the high tooth to tooth ratio in para units the size of both the HQ and weapons units didn't justify seperate company commands.

BTW, have you gotten into the German TOE & OOB yet? The composition of German units was something of a movable feast by 1944, with most German units being desperatly understrength. It wasn't uncommon for units which appeared as divisions on Hitler's situation maps actually having the manpower of only a few battalions. Which is just like how Hitler liked it.

[Case]

Re: Re: fairline, some things I haven´t understood yet .....

Originally posted by fairline
This is another British Army anachronism. All 'artillery' guns, whether anti-tank, anti-aircraft, field artillery, heavy artillery, self-propelled or towed were operated by the Royal Artillery. All Armoured Regiments (ie normal tanks, not tank-destroyers) were operated by the Royal Armoured Corps).

This practice wasn't limited to the British Army - German assault guns and tank destroyers were also manned by artillery personel. The justification was that the German artillery needed a front line role so that artillerymen had a chance of winning the highest medals for valour!

That this argument was accepted by Hitler is an interesting case study of the beuorcratic chaos and empire building which was a feature of the Nazi regime at all levels.

The Royal Artillery (RA) organisational tree is:

troop----battery-----regiment-----(brigade or division)

...and then there come the 'Royal Army Group Artillery' units. Which in true British style were allocated to Corps, and not Army Groups.

[jim panse]

Next unit information update:

(1) I increased the number of the units belonging to the II SS Panzerkorps by 28, adding some additional Panzerjäger and split the Pioneer Regiment attached to each of the two SS Panzer Divisions up to company level.
Now the Germans have 190 units and the Allies have 262 units (1st Allied Airborne Army & XXX Corps); the 50th Northumbrian Division was transferred to the VIII Corps on 18 September.
* Do you think that the number of the units are more or less well balanced?

(2)

BTW, have you gotten into the German TOE & OOB yet? The composition of German units was something of a movable feast by 1944, with most German units being desperatly understrength. It wasn't uncommon for units which appeared as divisions on Hitler's situation maps actually having the manpower of only a few battalions. Which is just like how Hitler liked it.

This will be represented by the Hitpoints. I this is the only way to simulate this. ANy other ideas?

[fairline]

Originally posted by jim panse
I know Preicles but the word "Cromwell" stood there without anything next to it and it´s a bit confusing because I can´t believe that an infantry brigade has had only Cromwell tanks as transporters.

Sorry jim, I've tried to confuse matters further. I mixed up the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade with The Czech Armoured Brigade. I think the former was in fact an infantry Brigade (with tank regiment attached?)

Case mentions the 'Army Group, Royal Artillery' which I had left out. As he says each Corps had an AGRA attached, each of which included 1 Field Regiment, 4 Medium Regiments and 1 Heavy Regiment, RA.

5th AGRA was attached to XXX Corps, I think. If you want to include them, a Medium Regt RA = 2 Batteries of 4.5 inch guns and a Heavy Regiment = 2 Batteries of 7.2 inch howitzers and 2 Batteries of US 155mm guns

[fairline]

...and just to add to the mix I think the 8th Armoured Brigade were attached as support for 43rd Division during Market Garden, but I may have this wrong (?)

[jim panse]

Ok, is there any kind of additional information still out there?
* How many King Tiger were at Nijmegen and Arnhem? * How many of these beasts eqipped the 2nd SS Panzer Korps?
* Which AA Guns were used by the US Airborne Divisions?

I´ll attach now the - more or less - final OOB I´ll use for this scenario and a list of the units I still need.

needed units: 4.5inch Gun, 7.2inch Howitzer, a multi-unit graphic/uniform style of the Royal Dutch Princess Irene Brigade, an US airborne AA Battery!

[Case]

Originally posted by jim panse
This will be represented by the Hitpoints. I this is the only way to simulate this. ANy other ideas?

AFAIK, the German divisional commanders were ususally less delusional then Hitler, and prefered to amalgamate their understrenght units into a full strength ones in preference to fielding heaps of understrength companies. As a result, it wasn't uncommon for 'divisions' to only consist of a couple of roughly full strength battalions.

Fairline, do know where I could find an OOB listing the composition of the British Army Group Royal Artillery units in Italy?

[fairline]

The Germans tended to use Kampfgruppe by this stage, rather than stick to the paper-only Divisions. They tended to be named after their commander and were amalgamated all-arms battlegroups.

To a lesser extent, the British and Americans did the same thing. US armoured divisions usually fought as 3 Combat Commands (CCA and CCB were mainly armour and infantry with CCR as support)

The British had finally got the hang of combined armour-infantry ops in NW Europe, unlike the desert campaign when the infantry element of an armoured division would usually fight almost independently from the tanks. A British Armoured Div of '44 was nominally composed of an Armoured Brigade and an infantry brigade, but in practise they usually fought as 4 Battle Groups, each comprising 1 infantry battalion and 1 armoured regiment (there were effectively 4 tank regiments in the division including the Armoured Recce Regiment)

Case: I only have details of the AGRAs in NW Europe, but I came across a great site with Italian campaign OOBs. I'll see if I can find a link

[Case]

Originally posted by fairline
To a lesser extent, the British and Americans did the same thing.

As well as the armoured divisions, by 1944 virtually all the Allied infantry divisions included a tank battalion more or less permenetly attached from the corps level tank reserves (US) or Tank Brigades (UK)

Case: I only have details of the AGRAs in NW Europe, but I came across a great site with Italian campaign OOBs. I'll see if I can find a link

If you could track down that link I'd really appreaciate it - I'm helping someone perfect a TOAW scenario on the Italian campaign, and we haven't been able to find much info in the corps level units deployed during the campaign.

[fairline]

Found it. It's a great site for Italian campaign OOBs but doesn't include AGRAs I'm afraid

http://members.aol.com/Custermen85/Units/BritishOrg.htm

All I know is that 1 AGCRA supported the Canadians:

http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-rod-ita-uni-e.htm

[Palaiologos]

TOAW ?

[jim panse]

And the list of the units that will appear in the scenario:

Germans:

1. Fallschirm Armee:
Infanterie Komp.
MG Komp.
Infanterie Komp.(mot.)
Panzerjäger Komp.
SdKfz 7/2 FlaKwagen Komp.
Fallschirmjäger Komp.
SdKfz 251/21
15cm Nebelwerfer 41 Batt.
7,5cm PaK 40
PzKpfw III Ausf L
PzKpfw Ausf G

II. SS Panzer Korps
Waffen SS Komp.
PzKpfw V Panther Komp.
PzKpfw VI Tiger Komp. = schw. Panzer Komp.
Panzergrenadier Komp.
StuG III Ausf H Komp.
(schw.) Artillerie Batt.
SdKfz 7/2 FlaKwagen Komp.
Jagdpanzer IV/70 (V) Komp.
8,8cm FlaK/PaK Komp.
SdKfz 234/2 Puma Komp.

Luftwaffe
Fw-190D
Bf-109G

Wehrmacht
Widerstandsnest
4x2cm FlaK


Allies:

1st Allied Airborne Army
1st Parachute Coy
82nd Airborne Coy
101st Airborne Coy
Polish Parachute Coy
6pdr AT Batt
M8 75mm Pack Howitzer
Willys MB Ford 4x4 Jeep

XXX Corps
Infantry Coy
lorried Infantry Coy
Sherman V Sqn
Achilles Mk.IB Sqn
Sherman VC Sqn
Armored Car Sqn
mot. Infantry Coy
RFA 25pdr SP Batt (Sextons)
mot. MG Coy (Bren Carriers)
Recce Sqn (Cromwells)
Lt AA Batt
17pdr AT Batt
RFA 25pdr Batt

Prinses Irene Brigade
RD "Prinses Irene" Coy
RD 25pdr Batt

Troop Carrier Command (Air element)
C-47 Dakota
Hawker Typhoon
Spitfire Mk.IX
P-47D Thunderbolt
P-51D Mustang
Horsa Glider


Other:
German POW
Bridge (who would have guessed that ....)
Dutch Civilians

* Have I forgot something?
* Should I include some PzKpfw VI Tiger II too?
* Should the 21st Tank Regiment get some Panthers and Tigers too?