Armoured Infantry
In standard Crossfire vehicles can initiate close combat, and our experience was that vehicles used this exclusively in games, as it was much more effective than fire. For example:
- A half-track carrying a platoon of infantry. +3 for passengers, +1 for PC, +1 for APC, i.e. +5, making them unbeatable. They can waltz over the table killing everything in their way.
- Even a tank with its +3 close combat bonus is potent enough to achieve Terminator status.
As a result we prohibited vehicles initiating close combat.
More recently, however, I've been reading accounts where tanks did use their tracks as weapons, so I'm inclined to soften this restriction. The question is:
- when can vehicles realistically initiate close combat?
- which vehicles?
- how do passengers contribute?
Certainly tanks versus entrenched infantry should be allowed. Tracks were often used to grind down a trench to eliminate the dug in infantry. And tanks versus guns should be also allowed - accounts are full of tanks overrunning guns.
I'm less sure about other options, for example, were half-tracks ever used to overrun anything? Were any vehicles in WW2 used as real infantry fighting vehicles (as opposed to just armoured personnel carriers)? I believe the Hanomag might have been, so should they be allowed to initiate close combat? In contrast the M3/5 half-tracks and Bren carriers were people carriers and should not. But how to avoid the +5 close combat advantage for a Hanomag full of panzer grenadiers. And what about Soviet tank riders. Although they usually dismounted to fight, however, when the tanks were meant to punch through enemy lines, they stayed mounted and fought from the tanks. How to represent this?
In summary, I think both the original rules and our resulting House Rule are unrealistic and I'm looking for a good alternative. I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Historical Tactics
British Tactics
The British motto was "If in doubt, dismount" (Bull, 2005, p. 54).
For most of the war the British had only the Universal and Bren carriers as armoured personnel carriers (Bull, 2005). The 13 carriers of a Carrier Platoon were used to protect flanks, reconnaissance, intercommunication, raids, and just as transport for personnel, stories or weapons. They weren't used as infantry fighting vehicles. The carriers had little trench crossing ability, were stopped by any tank obstacle, and many other obstacles besides. Nor did they offer much protection to fire. That meant when the carriers got near the enemy, the Bren teams got out.
In 1944 the British began to convert tanks and self-propelled guns into "Kangaroos", i.e. turretless fully tracked vehicles used as armoured personnel carriers (Bull, 2005; White, 2002). Their attack capability comprised a machinegun and the option to attack the enemy trenches with their tracks - which in White's opinion made them "fairly helpless" (p. 61). The idea was for the Kangaroos to drive into the enemy positions, halt, using the machine gun to provide covering fire as the infantry to dismount, the wait for the infantry to get clear (so the vehicle didn't detonate mines and endanger their colleagues). Given their vulnerability the Kangaroos were then expected to clear out as fast as possible. During Operation Blackcock 155 Brigade including the 4th Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers were transported in Canadian Kangaroos converted from Shermans and Grants. As it happened White and his platoon were dismounted as soon as there was a chance they would face German anti-tank guns, and so walked the last several kilometres. Other units of the battalion, however, continued in their vehicles and as a result lost several tanks and kangaroos to enemy tank fire.
In 1944 American made M3/5 Half Tracks were issued to some units (Bull, 2005). Each rifle platoon was allocated four half-tracks.
American Tactics
American Armoured infantry had the M3/5 Half Track (Bull, 2005). They were intended to advanced mounted as far as possible until either enemy fire or difficult terrain forced them to debus.
In 1944 some American infantry supporting tanks were carried on the tanks themselves (Bull, 2005). Six men could ride on a medium tank (such as a Sherman) and four on a light tank. The infantry got off before combat started.
Russian Tactics
Although some half tracks and bren/universal carriers were supplied to the Russians via the Lend Lease programme, the majority of Russian armoured infantry were tank riders.
The number of tank riders assigned to vehicles and to units as a whole seemed to vary a lot. At one point Loza's (1996) tank brigade shared only a company and a half of tank riders.
From both Loza (1996) and Bessonov (2003) it seems the tank riders almost always got off to fight.
Tank riders also got off if they were likely to have to fight. For example, Loza (1996) describes a tank getting bogged down in mud. The tank riders dismounted and took up a defensive position to cover the tank crews as they tried to extricate the bogged vehicle with the help of a second tank. In the same incident, under pressure from immensely superior numbers some of the tank riders from the bogged vehicle actually climbed inside the tanks before they were buttoned up.
On occasion tank riders did remain mounted during combat. Loza (1996) describes a surprise night time attack on a dug in German outpost (two squads plus machine guns). The seven Russian Shermans charged through, crushing the enemy trenches, but without firing. In contrast, the sub-machine gunners, still clinging to their tanks, blaze away at the defenders. Once, however, this force was in position to attack the main German positions the tank riders dismounted and accompanied the vehicles on foot.
German Tactics
Sources
Bessonov, E. (2003). Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army. London: Greenhill.
Bull, S. (2005). World War II Infantry Tactics: Company and Battalion [Elite 122]. Osprey.
Loza, D. (1996). Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks: The World War II memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza. University of Nebraska Press.
White, P. (2002). With the Jocks: A soldier's struggle for Europe 1944-45. Sutton.
Alternative Rules
APC Accompanying Squad in Combat
Tim Marshall's house rule ...
An APC within a stand's distance of its squad is assumed to have its MG manned by a squad member. Refer to such APC status as "manned". Beyond a stand's distance, only the driver is assumed to be on the vehicle and it is not capable of being fired. Refer to such APCs as "driver only".
¦ A manned APC contributes an extra die to its squad for one shot only in phasing and non-phasing fire. The target must be within a 450 arc left/right of the front of the APC (similar to an HMG arc).
¦ When a manned APC is suppressed, immobilized or destroyed, its accompanying squad is always suppressed.
¦ Driver only APCs/transports are always soviet style command control. The PC for such APCs is the infantry platoon commander.