Re: Stargrunt II - WW II

In a message dated 97-08-30 02:34:23 EDT, you write:

<< I've seen a suggestion somewhere to give the US M1 rifle a
 FP of 1.5 since it was a clearly better rifle than that used by the
other
 nations.  Not sure if I think that is worth the effort. >>

Just to throw my nickle in -->	The M-1 was an excellant rifle easily
worth a
full 2, BUT as US Army training did not emphasize combat training. [ See
S.L.A. Marshall's historical opion on this for confirmation]  So in the
early
part of the war a US squad only put out as much firepower as a bolt
action
squad because so few men [about half or less than in an equal numbered
German
squad] were firing (1942 or so). 
Now by the time Normandy was over  the ETO (European Theater of
Operations)
was running a quikie Advanced Infantry course before feeding
replacements
into the line (Refer to Omar Bradly & et al) so the US squads (mostly
combat
veterans) had their firepower way up.

Also in 42 the squads were slotted for 11 men - 1BAR, 1 Thompson, 9
M-1s.  by
late 44 to the end there were in practise only 9 slotted with 2BARs and
1
Thompson and 6 M-1s ( and only rarely did they acheive this. Sometime
after
Paris Patton (3rd Army) issued his men Panzerschrecks and Panzerfausts
instead of the Bazooka because they were better weapons and they had
captured
wharehouses full of them in France. 

Ifyou were to ask me to write a scenerio I would give a fresh (from the
states) unit a full 10/11 men and a firefactor of 1. If we were doing
the
bulge with veteran troops the squads would have to be 6/8 and a
firefactor of
2.

Early war plt: 35 men --> 5men in command stand - LT(carbine),
Srgt(Thompson), 3 runners(M-1s) of which one would have the radio.
3Squads
w/10 men 1 BAR, Thompson (Sargent) 9 M-1s.[M-1 FF:1]

Late war vet plt. 24men  --> 3men in command stand - Lt(carbine), sgt
(Thompson/ M-2), radio man (M-1)   3squads - 1 sqd 2BARs, 1 Tommy gun, 2
M-1s
(marksmen); 2/3 sqds - 2BARs, a tommy gun, 5 M-1s [M-1 FF:2]  note: 2
manuever sqds and one firesupport sqd.[this one would have the bazooka,
or
panzerfaust] or maybe even a 30 cal Lmg.

If you think that a late war US plt was a rather wicked combat team, you
would be correct. If you look at them early in the war (being green
morale)
you might not envy them and you can see why the Brits kind looked down
on
them. As near as I can determine, the longer a division was in a combat
zone
the closer it resembled a late war plt, so a 1st division outfit might
be
closer to a late war plt as early as Sicily. A new division, such as the
one
on the Schnee Eiffle that got overrun at the start of the Bulge, might
resemble an early war plt as late as Dec 1944.

If you are real interested here is a book that might help with US
performance
in WWII, "Closing with the Enemy" by Michael D. Doubler   University
Press of
Kansas ISBN 0-7006-0675-0

Tom Hughes