Re: ammo cannisters

[DRG]

It's entirely up the player how aircraft are loaded. It'd take you a minute with the game to figure out what would go in and what space would be left after it's loaded to allow for "escorts" but there is NO guarantee those "escorts" would land anywhere near where you really need them to be

Don

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

but at least they would be on the same plane

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by iCaMpWiThAWP

but at least they would be on the same plane

Why would you be para-dropping 25 pounders right onto a contested enemy held position anyway?. or vehicles, either.

You would drop them as a second or third wave onto ground the previous waves had by then made safe. Better in gliders which they could then roll off. (Tetrarch off Hamilcars say).

Andy

[RERomine]

I'm confused. Where did the thing about air dropping guns and howitzers come from beyond my joke earlier in the thread?

I understand the part about separating crews from their artillery type pieces (please drop gun before crew jumps ), but did anyone actually have planes designed to drop guns and howitzers during WWII and in significant enough quantities to be useful for something other than special ops? These days, they are typically rolled out of the back of the plane. Maybe someone had planes like that back then, but I don't know of any. Personally, I have always used gliders for delivering guns and small vehicles. I thought it was standard practice back then and really, the main reason they used gliders.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by RERomine

I'm confused. Where did the thing about air dropping guns and howitzers come from beyond my joke earlier in the thread?

I understand the part about separating crews from their artillery type pieces (please drop gun before crew jumps ), but did anyone actually have planes designed to drop guns and howitzers during WWII and in significant enough quantities to be useful for something other than special ops? These days, they are typically rolled out of the back of the plane. Maybe someone had planes like that back then, but I don't know of any. Personally, I have always used gliders for delivering guns and small vehicles. I thought it was standard practice back then and really, the main reason they used gliders.

from your earlier post:

yea, the idea is great, but i think they might need "escorts" jumping out with them, so, will the planes after loading up the gun still have some carry capacity?(maybe 6 men left is eneough)

I took that to mean you needed escorts from the guns jumping. Escorts meaning that you were going into a hot LZ with paradropped crews, since that was the subject being discussed.

Australia has a pack airborne 25 pounder, others may have airborne pack howitzers.

Personally - I would leave any arty in my deployment zone in a regular battle.

Andy

[thatguy96]

The US Army had both Parachute and Glider Field Artillery Battalions, and at least both were armed with 75mm howitzers. There were definitely manpacks and special drop equipment for disassembled components of the 75mm howitzer. I'm not sure about the 105mm airborne howitzer.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

Originally Posted by thatguy96

The US Army had both Parachute and Glider Field Artillery Battalions, and at least both were armed with 75mm howitzers. There were definitely manpacks and special drop equipment for disassembled components of the 75mm howitzer. I'm not sure about the 105mm airborne howitzer.

who would drop a disassembled howitzer into a battle area? , i think there were no air dropped 105s, but theres a pack 105

[montieth]

Originally Posted by iCaMpWiThAWP

who would drop a disassembled howitzer into a battle area? , i think there were no air dropped 105s, but theres a pack 105

Someone who wanted the close fire support vs having NONE.

The 75mm Pack Howitzer M1A1 with Carriage M8 was broken down into specific components suitable for air dropping. These were Paracrates M1-M7, M8 Parachest and M9 Paracassion.

M1 Front trail
M2 Rear traila nd axle
M3 Bottom sleigh and recoil mechanism
M4 cradel and top sleigh
M5 Gun Tube
M6 Breechblock and sight
M7 wheels
M8 Parachest Ammunition, 10 rounds packed in fiber cannisters
M9 Paracassion, a knockdown hand drawn cart for moving 8 complete rounds.

The whole assembly of 9 paracrates have total weight of 2571 lbs.

The US and British Availed themselves of this method of providing close fire support to their Paras. Everything larger was deployed by glider.

[DRG]

In winSPWW2 the Australian ( ANZAC.. whatever ) OOB has air transportable 25 pounder abrn Howitzer for 9/43 and 9/43 only. AFAIK it was only used once and may have been put in there for a scenario. USMC is the only OOB that has crewed mortars in [A] para formations

This from the text files on that Australian formation

In September of 1943, at the request of the USA, with barely two weeks of training, the Australians deployed two gun detachments of the 2nd/4th Field Regiment to airdrop in support of US paratroops at Nadzeb, New Guinea.*
*
This formation represents one of the two detachments.*

The code to drop crews separate from crewed guns and vehicles in 99.9 % of cases only apples to MBT and is mainly there to keep PBEMer's "Honest" when using air droppable vehicles in modern battles.

Don

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

But will this feature be on the next update right?