Re: [DS2]TD Design

Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Barry Cadwgan wrote:
> 
> > It was more a case of being able to fit a bigger gun (and actually
> > useful) on a chassis you already had a production line set up for.
> 
> Yes, I fully agree. But some designs (e.g. StugIII, Hetzer) were
actually
> good AFVs unlike stop-gap measures like Marders.

Well, good defensive AFVs anyway.  Putting in an attack is a little more
difficult.

In games like Spearhead, open topped vehicles like the Marder have a
firing order advantage over fully enclosed vehicles.  But then, given
their armour, they need all the help they can get!
 
> > The Pz 3, likewise obsolete as a MBT gained a new lease on life as
an
> > assault gun.
> 
> Except that StugIII production started long before PzIII became
obsolete.
> Long barrel Stugs did help with T34's before PzIVf2 came out, though.

True.  My point was that by 1943, the Pz3 as a MBT was not a going
proposition.  The Stug was still useful.
 
> > The Jagdpanther on the other hand was just plain _mean_.. 
(Sillynesses
> > like the Jagdtiger don't count.)
> 
> The Jagdtiger was simply a propaganda weapon. I don't think they ever
got
> any to the front (or maybe something like 5 of them).

Oh, they did run one battalion (two operational companies), 512th, which
was wiped out on the western front in 1945 (Ruhr pocket) and was
reformed in 1945 and again wiped out in the attack on Paderborn.

All in all it was not a significant weapon.  (Scary if it was shooting
at you though.)
 
> > The point is, it takes time to set up a production line, and if you
can
> > get more use out of an existing one, and even remanufacture old
tanks,
> > so much the better.
> 
> Yup. The germans actually used quite a lot of captured/remanuctured
AFVs.
> Not as MBTs, but for SP arty, recovery vehicles etc.

Heh.  Lots of french stuff... the Lorrain-schlepper (sp) is a
particularly clumsy looking beast.

-- 
Barry Cadwgan ( BCADWGAN@FL.NET.AU )
http://www.users.fl.net.au/~bcadwgan/homepage.htm
"The end does not justify the means.  
 The end is the sum of the means,
 as the road travelled determines the destination." 
Valijon Starbringer (Hellflower Trilogy, Eluki bes Shahar)