Thanks for a truly great reply @oriskany, I always appreciate you taking time out for them.

I was actually quite spoiled for the evolution of the Russian armored formation. Bryan Perrett in one appendix of his classic book Knights of the Black Cross gives a fantastic first look description of the units of the allies and axis forces units generally divided in the broad groupings of early, mid and late war. The I have a number of works by David Glantz, but primarily Kharkov 1942 and Enduring the Whirlwind by Gregory Liedtke. Ensuring the Whirlwind is best described as an accountants view on WW2 through the ledges, Also giving great org charts covering even units that Glantz glosses over. So I am fortunate to have enough resources to see this past of the war from both sides and a third view of expended resources.

But all seem a little light on describing the infantry divisions at the time of the battle they are describing. From my research on the Wars of Finland the Russians had a habit of creating heavy and light infantry divisions by taking a battalion from one division and assigning it temporarily to another. At least with the evolutions of the armored formation I can give you an almost at times bimonthly update on formation charges from division to brigade and independent brigade to tank corp.

For Izyum I hit a frustrating black hole concerning unit strength and status. Over November and December the Russians are making a lot of costly counter attacks across the majority of the Front line, some are tiny and a few are large. Then the Russians take a moment to breath and start counter attacking in mid January. Are the infantry just chewed up units being thrown back in, have they been rebuilt or are they fresh units. This is where I am struggling to get back to the real Russian Army. As you know troop quality has a big impact FoW. I am probably over thinking this but I am attempting to achieve the following.

1. Meet Izyum, the Russians were kicking some goals in Jan 42 and learning.

2. Demonstrate the Russians tried different units and yes you can leave Moscow and leave the T-34’s and KV-1’S at home and win.

3. Get to know your forces that are available to you.

4. Cover 2nd Kharkov.

5. Understand what is really at stakes here and just how much both sides are hurting.

6. Examine the command style of Paulus, should it come as a shock at Stalingrad.

7. Use the above as a primer for Case Blau.

8. Have a lot of fun as we learn some great history.

Concerning the T-34 I remember reading the there was not do much different versions just continuous growth through different upgrades from different factories. It also said that just by looking at the road wheels and the pattern on them, that not only could you tell which factory the tank came from but also the production batch that could be worked out by other changes to the hulk and turret.

Russian assault guns is one of the things I hope Yarrick starts to use. I am also hoping that he discovers how great Russian light tanks are. They are fantastic at evaporating stubborn dug in infantry. Generally speaking the Russian tank brigade was a great combined arms formation. Just that it was deployed in two echelons and all too often the spacing between them was too great.

So hopefully by the end of Kharkov I will have eradicated the ‘faceless red hoard’ and replacing it with something a bit closer to the real thing.

Anyway I have 3 more books to digest and I will sign off on this campaign guide.

Thanks for showing me when the different variations of the T-34, SU and infantry units come in.

I have started something similar for the Germans. They start with the short barrel 50mm PZ-3’s. I think of these as filling the same role as the short 75mm M4 in the late war period. However it will not be until August 42 before they get the up armored long 50mm PZ-3’s in large numbers. So to be effective AT guns minus the 88mm as it accounts for only around 2% of the tank kills for the first quarter of 42 in the south. 2cm Flak guns scored more than double this due to the T-60 being the most numerous tank at the time. There were still a bunch of T-26 and BTs floating about and then there were the Valentines and the very rare KVs and T-34’s. The Germans could deal with the T-34’s from the side at short range with the short 50mm but not quite so with the Valentine. At range both the short 76mm and the 2 pounder could penetrate all German frontal armour. This is the problem when the German forces in AGS are using last years hand me downs from the other two army groups.

So as you know and what I started about the face of South-Western and South Fronts have a unique face and offer up some very interesting gaming. As you say the Russian  faceless hoard is a crime against gaming.

Now to get back on topic.

The DDs at Omaha. I have noticed that many Historians try to seek out a single cause to an event. Yet a disaster is a collection of tiny events and small wrong decisions. I believe this to be the case at Omaha. Again Historians say this was the cause or new light says this is the cause. However what they claim is only part of the unfolding disaster.

I do understand the reasons behind the US not to use the funnies. Nearly all the Valentine prototypes sank and had to be recovered, multiple times in some cases. The demonstration of the Catherine Wheel came very close to killing the King, Churchill, army observers including US officials. D-Day was the big event and these things were unproven, so they were a big risk. To Percy Hobart’s credit he really pushed the funnies to their limits and weeded out dodgy machines, but Britain did not convey his efforts fully enough to convince the US that the funnies they were going to use actual did what was on the label and would work on the day. So at the end of the day the US was not sold on the funnies and could not take the calculated risk in using them. The other issue with the funnies is that they were too top secret and very few got to see them strut their stuff.

The US was prepared to look at the funnies after they justified themselves on the day. The US asked to borrow a unit of Churchill crocodile flame thrower tanks for the assault on Cherbourg and very shortly after this we see the M4 crocodile. So once properly shown the US was more inclined towards the funnies.

The flanks between the German units are a bit fuzzy and mingled in Normandy. I have read one account that the 352nd was a veteran unit from the Russian Front and was posted to Normandy to be rebuilt. By D-Day it had been rebuilt and was hard in training for return return to the Russian Front. On the morning of June 6th it was to do an anti invasion exercise and as a result they were at a high state of readiness.

If this is so initially the troops must have been amazed on just how real the exercise was. 😉

So I look forward to the Omaha mega game.

The SPI D-Day mega game was a little bit bigger than the PL box in width and length but you would need to stack about 5 PL boxes to match it in height. The box was heavy it felt like it was full of bricks. I think realistically they mega games were aimed at large wargaming clubs rather than a group of mates.

On a completely different note to finish off. GM has finally released two models of the Camero out here. They can only be ordered through HSV (Holden Special Vehicles). These guys are the ones who build the official race cars for GM trading as Holden out here, but they do create street legal versions as they are required to sell 400 of these to be eligible to race in the touring class races, which is the class that has more followers than the other classes of motor racing in Australia. The HSV Came to is going to be a very serous piece of kit. It will be interesting how they stack up against our HSV Commodores. Another HSV Monaro built you would know as the last of the V8 Pontiacs. We build them as a left hand drive version of the Monaro and shipped them direct to the US.

The current HSV Commodores is faster and better than the HSV Monaros which in turn were all over the standard Pontiac we spotted to the US. This year Ford has been running very well in the touring cars using the Mustang.

It is interesting but I hope GM does not kill off our local Commodore in the process. 🙁