Feldgrau.net

Supplementary question. When were each of these Medium Regiments first supplied with 5.5" guns? Previous to a response I gave on the AHF, the first 5.5 were not used till May'42. Obviously they could well have been issued prior, but at least we have a date to work back from Which regt and what...

Good question, and the simple answer is I don't know because although it's something I keep an eye open for I've yet to come across it. I suspect it's a matter of looking at the war diaries. That said Joslen's annex on the Alamein ORBAT reveals 3 medium regts, 7 & 64 each with one bty 5.5 and 1 ...

From BM 584/45 AG 4 (Medals) (WO212/493) unless otherwise stated British medium regts in Africa before end 1942. 7 Med Regt (25/26 & 27/28 Btys) 1/12/40 - [less 1 sect] WD Force | BTE 1/12/40 - 1 sect 25/26 Bty 7 Armd Div | BTE 3/3/41 - [less 2 btys] 13 Corps | BTE 3/3/41 - 27/28 Bty Cairo Base ...

Hi Stefan, Steen Ammentorp The Generals of World War II I suggest looking at Orders of Battle Vol 1 & 2 UK and Colonial Units in the Second World War 1939-45 prepared for the Historical Sect of the Cabinet Office by Lt Col HF Joslen, 1960. It lists all divisions and brigades (less Indian), incl...

In interesting and relevant subject, UKs' new Joint Doctine Note on Culture provides various 'snippet case studies' but I was somewhat surprised to see no mention of Political Officers on the NW Frontier, who included some immensely astute and able men.

Probably army command but corps or lower control. Medium arty was in short supply so it would likely be centrally commanded and assigned as necessary, this could include being placed under command of lower formations for particular periods or tasks as an alternate to being assigned in support for pe...

UK Divisional commanders (all major general although some acting) from Joslen's ORBATs (which don't included Indian divs but do include African ones, and don't include any corps comds or other general officer positions). You'll note that a couple of the wounded became field marshals and one name occ...

The Aussies & Kiwis were certainly proud to serve the mother country, until they discovered what the Brits really thought of them and in fact despised them as soldiers. Not forgetting that we arguably had the most competent General in General Monasch [incidentally a German Judaic adherant &...

My typo in the last sentence, should be 51 HAA with 152, 153 & 16/2 HAA btys these were with the WDF. In Tobruk the btys were 152, 153 and 235 bty of 89 HAA Regt. Its not terribly clear when RHQ 51 HAA arrived because in Apr 1941 it appears that the regt's wksp and sigs sect were there but not R...

In May 1940 AA assets in ME were 40 HAA, a mix of 3 in, 3.7 and some 4.5 on the way, plus 1 bty (12 guns) LAA (40mm). When the WDF was formed it had a single LAA bty. Wavell identifed a need for 2 AA bdes, one mobile and sought what amounted to 22 HAA (achieved circa Sep 1941, reaching 49 btys by Oc...

Bellamy cites GF Krivosheyev (he explains his approach to Russian spellings at the beginning of his book). However, the reference (translated) is The 'Secret' Stamp is Lifted. Losses of the USSR Armed Forces in Wars, Military Actions and Armed Conflicts , Moscow, 1993. He also cites Glantz's Leavenw...

The figures given by Prof Chris Bellamy in 'Absolute War' published last year, and using official Soviet sources are: Total force 1,669,500 in 3 Fronts, the Amur Flotilla and Pacific Fleet. Only 2 of the Fronts were committed to action. In addition there were 16,000 Mongolians in the joint Soviet-Mo...

Addition : British 11th armoured division had two batteries of M-10 and one battery of 17 pdr while Guards and 7th armoured division had two batteries of M-10 and two battery of 17 pdr. The combination of bty types in a regiment was not standard, just the types of battery. Regts in NW Europe had 4 ...

Obviously, but I'd have expected some external sign of them.

German arty seems to have had some affinity for optical rangefinders and tripod mounted binos.