WINSPWW2 Sub-Tactical?

[vic]

Chuck,

All I had was from the library and that was some time ago and my aging memory fails.

However from "Dirty Litle Secrets of WWII" (Dunnigan and Nofi, not a bad little read incidentally):

U.S Army Medical Service, Historical Unit "Wound Ballistics"
Washington, D.C, Office of the Surgoen General, 1962.
Alllegedly "not for the fainthearted"; covers WWII and Korea.

Also from "DLS of WWII" (page 58):

Regarding GI opinions of which weapons were feared:

"Artillery was the major cause of casualties among the infantry" [i read this as >= 50% - vv] "...mortars 17%...MG's 6%..."

same page...

"Interestingly none of the troops feared rifle fire or considered it 'dangerous'. This was also quite accurate. The most dangerous weapons were artillery (including mortars) and these accounted for over two thirds of all casualties."

Add in other fragmentation (grenades, mines, aircraft ordinance etc.) to the fragmentation numbers, take into consideration most bullet wounds came from MG's (sheer volume of fire) and there's precious little left for "rifle fire" and even that would include snipers.

The classic (tactical) method of inflicting casualties on advancing troops (especially in the open) was to pin them with MG fire and then mortar them. Obviously "advancing in the open" was avoided if at all possible. Company and battalion mortars were handy, responsive and very accurate, particularly in the hands of experienced crew.

The USMC made good use of the 60mm (two or three tubes per company) and first-person info on this can be found in "With The Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa" (the late E.B. Sledge, Marine mortarman, who later became IIRC a college professor, Presidio Press, November 1981. There is also a Bantam Press paperback version, crica 1983.)

Also from DLS of WWII (pp 237-238):

Re: German tactics

"Every infantry squad of ten [not twelve] men had an MG ...crew would always set up before the rest of the squad advanced. In defense, the rest of the squad was there mainly to defend and find targets for the MG. The platoon commander had his three squad MGs to work with and was trained to ensure that enemy troops would rarely avoid walking into a wall of MG fire. The Germans put a lot of thought and energy into placing their MGs...In effect a German infantry squad was just one big MG unit. The other men in the squad [provided protecion, spotted targets etc.] and of course carried a lot of [MG] ammunition. ...German units carried a lot more [MG] ammuntion with them than did comparable American outfits. On the battlefield, firepower was king and the Germans knew it."

hope this helps some. seems like i did a web search for detailed casualty stats a while back and didn't, strangely enough, come up with much sufficiently detailed information. maybe i quit too soon.

as an aside, i did a lot of testing in SPWW2 in an effort to get rifle fire casualties down but none of it did much good. i shortened rifle to range to 7 (the practical maximum anyway) and reduced HE kill to 0 and it was still very bloody, particularly at closer ranges.

part of this is due to the significant overstatement of rifles in a squad. e.g. the SPWW2 German squad "fires" 12 rifles. in fact a real squad had 7-8; 10 man squad with a two/three-man MG crew. (firepower-wise the SP squad is more like a 14-15 man group.) this was what gave rise to the "subtactical" (another post this thread) tests i did. in this i had fire teams (3-4 men) that had ONLY rifles/grenades and others that had ONLY an MG. this mitigated things somewhat casualty-wise (i.e. no slot 1 weapon x "men" PLUS MG in the same unit). however other issues (fragility, propensity to pin etc.) developed which made the try problematic.

perhaps another scheme might work, e.g. "men" in squad equals actual MINUS MG/"secondary weapon" crew. so a GE squad of 10 with rifle, MG, HG, RG would use an SP "men" value of 7 or 8. This would reduce rifle fire casualties and help the fragility issue (enough?). likewise a USMC squad of 12 with rifle, 2xBAR, HG, torch would use "men" = 9 (deduct 3 for the BARs and the flamethrower).

it's a lot of work doing all the modifying and testing and i kind of burned out on the last iteration.

good luck with your research and please share any good info/sources you may run across!

best,
vic