• Editor's Notes................Tim Hundsdorfer
• The Last Alliance.............Tim Hundsdorfer and Lars Thuring
• Weapon Notes..................Tim Hundsdorfer
• The Loveable Corporal Snudle..Tim Hundsdorfer
• Achtung! Panzer! Update.......Tim Hundsdorfer
• Last Call.....................Tim Hundsdorfer
• ANOTHER NEW DIGEST!

Hmm...been a long time since the last one of these went out. A long time. Is it useful? What's the point? Not sure, but I do pointless things best.

Clearly, the meat has long since gone from the ASLML, and the list has moved into a forum for discussions of rules. Perhaps this is an indication of it's success, perhaps I am, as many claim, a crotchety old curmudgeon.

I was recently looking for an article from one of the old digests...The Support Weapon Notes by Geir Aalberg, to be exact. Nostalga? I'm not sure. But I'm sure a vehicle which delivers the real meat and potatoes of the ASLML will be welcome at every do or.

I'll do what I can, when I can, and put it before you. If you are interested, send submissions. If not, let me know and we'll let this sucker go back to the morgue.

Tim Hundsdorfer (Some people call me the Space Cowboy)

[Just so you know, I am not the editor of the Digest. I've just marked it up with permission to add it to my site. --Jeff]

The Last Alliance

Board Configuration:

+----------+----------+          
|     XXXXX|XXXXX   10|          
|     XXX43|XXXXX     |          
+----------+----------+          
|     XXXXX|XXXXX   20|     ^    
|     XXX42|XXXXX     |     N    
+----------+----------+    

Game Length: 8 turns. Germans setup first; Russians move first

Victory Conditions: The Russians win by clearing boards 10 and 20 of unbroken Hungarian units while inflicting more CVP than they sustain.

Remnants of the Mariateresafreiwilligensdivision set up on any whole or half hex on board 20 at least two whole hexes from the east edge: [ELR:2]
JgdPz 38t, 447x4, 347x5, 10-2, 7-0, LMG, PSK

Armoured Relief Force: elements of the IV SS Panzer Corps, enter on the west edge of board 43 on turn 3
2xPzKw VG (Panther), PzKw VIB (King Tiger), JgPz V (JagdPanther), 10-2 AL

Elements of the 3rd Ukranian Front, enter on turn 1 on the south edge of board 42 or north edge of board 43: 3xT34/85, SU100, 10-3 AL, 9-1, 8-1, 8-0, 7-0, 5x 628, 7x527, 5xLMG, HMG

SSR:

1. EC are ground snow with no wind at start. No Quarter (A20.3) is in effect for both sides.
2. The Hungarians may designate two buildings as "points of fanatical resistance". In these buildings, all Hungarians are fanatic, and all Hungarian leaders act as commissars (A25.22).
3. Hungarians are considered SS for all purposes, and their broken side morale is increased by one from it's printed value, they are immune to ELR failure replacement (though they may be replaced in other ways), instead breaking into two half squads. The Hungarians may use Panzerfausts as if they were German conscripts. They may use Panzerschrecks without captured or inexperienced use penalties. The Hetzer is manned by a fanatic Hungarian crew, but uses red to hit numbers. The Hetzer may set up HIP in concealment terrain.
4. On turn 8, German units not stacked with a leader may attempt to exit off the west edge of either board 42 or 43 (even if broken) and do not count toward Russian CVP providing they have LOS to at least one of the reinforcement AFV's.
5. The Russian Radio represents a module of 200MM Rocket OBA.
6. German 658 units are SS, despite their ELR and are replaced with two broken halfsquads.

Aftermath: Despite the stand of the SS and fanatic Hungarian defenders, Budapest fell on February 14, taking with it Germany's final ally. Many Hungarians of the MTFD fought on, most escaping to the west following Germany's final defeat.

No doubt one of the greatest examples of Reichswehr foresight in armament requirements leading up to WWII was the development of the PaK 35/36 (37L AT Gun). The PaK 35/36 was first used in the Spanish Civil War where it was a resounding success. Its use continued into 1942 with diminishing effectiveness.

The PaK 35/36 was an excellent, durable design for mobile warfare. Its specially designed mantlet and rugged recoil/counterecoil system allowed it to be towed across the most broken terrain. It even incorporated compartmentalized rubber tires, to preven t the possibility of being shot flat.

Its gunshield was an awesome 50mm thick! Though, it was too small to be truly effective. It weighed only 435 kilograms, so it was easily manhandled into position. In effect, the PaK 35/36 became the Wehrmacht's antitank rifle: easily and quickly deploy ed, relatively effective against light armored probes, and a great boost for local morale.

The effects of this cannot be trivialized. French doctrine called for the employment of light armored forces to search for weak points. When countered with the PaK 35/36, the French found no weak spots to exploit. This was particularly the case in Nort hern France and Belgium. In effect, the PaK 35/36, with its meagre penetration of 28mm of armor at 500 meters, blocked French counterattacks by forces against which it was almost completely powerless. A great example occurred at Stonne, where Landser of the Grossdeutschland regiment attempted to hold back Char B1s at great cost. More indicative of the mismatch are events which occured at the Abbeville bridgehead, where the Germans lost 12 guns without inflicting serious losses on the French.

The PaK 35/36 was well over 10 ft in total length. Given the ammunition requirements, this was not an impossibly small target. Rate of fire under optimal conditions was 16 two kilogram shells per minute, and with a firing arc of a full 60 degrees, one c an understand the fear this would inspire in the crews of light tank.

At the outbreak of the war, the Wehrmacht possessed well over 10,000 of these guns, and the number would swell to over 15,000 before they were phased out in 1942.

PaK 35/36 were arranged in Panzerjaegerabteilung (a name adopted during the French Campaign, previously the unit was known as a Panzerabwehrabteilung). The units were arranged by platoon (3 guns, plus a team with a LMG), by company (4 platoons plus a car, a field kitchen and transport), and by "unit" (3 companies plus staff, intelligence unit, supply trains and motorcyclists). Overall, the Panzerjaegerabteilung had 36 guns; 550 officers, noncoms and enlisted personnel; 18 light machine guns; 114 motorize d vehicles and 45 motorcycles. Each company was comanded by an Oberleutnant, with the assistance of a Leutnant and a Feldwebel. Ideally, each PaK 35/36 had 36 AT and 24 HE shells.

While the gun was generally considered a highly effective weapon in 1939, changes were already coming into effect which would render it obsolete in a very short time. What's more, its success in Poland and in France would convince OKW that the need for a replacement was on the horizon, but not quite as close as it was in reality.

The only major tank attack mounted by the Poles was successfuly beaten off by the PaK 35/36 near Warsaw on September 12, where one PaK reportedly knocked out 6 Polish vehicles.

As has been noted, it's usefulness in France was somewhat mixed, showing a glaring weakness of the PaK 35/36 versus medium and heavy tanks. However, it was felt that, with the introduction of the tungsten core shell in 1940, which penetrated a whopping 6 0mm of armor at 100 meters, the PaK 35/36 was still an effective AT gun. What was not counted on was the normal range of later engagements (the penetration dropped off pretty rapidly after 100 meters) and the declining availability of tungsten (which was supplied to Germany, primarily, by the Soviet Union from sources in the Urals and Siberia).

There were also cataclysmic mistakes made by Army Intelligence (Abwehr) leading up to Barbarossa which would have devastating consequences for the effectiveness of the PaK 35/36. Evidently, the Soviets believed well before Barbarossa that the Germans wer e beginning to upgun their tanks and antitank capability. This lead to the up-armoring of the KV and T34 series tanks. This information was undoubtedly supplied by the Roet Kappel (Red Orchestra), the Soviets famed spy ring in Berlin, which supplied so much valuable information through bribery, close connections, and sexual blackmail. While it was false (the German refit was nowhere near as far as the Soviets assumed), the net effect was that the new heavy Soviet tanks encountered in the final stages o f Barbarossa and in Typhoon were impervious to the PaK 35/36.

Regardless, by 1941, the Landser derisively labeled the PaK 35/36 the Wehrmacht's "door knocker", a chilling statement about it's effectiveness. Nevertheless, yet another attempt was made to stretch the effectiveness of this now obsolete weapon with the S tielgranate 41, a shape-charged weapon similar to the Panzerfaust. The granate fit over the barrel of the PaK, and was fired by a blank round. It was fin-stabilized and had a range of 300 meters (extreme maximum, in reality a hit was improbable past 200 meters), so the SG41 was clearly an expidient to keep the PaK 35/36 on the front until improved antitank capability became available. Only two were issued per gun! Its effectiveness was questioned, but this is largely because of its negligible availabil ity.

The drop off in effectiveness which occurs, particularly with the APCR ammunition, is not as well represented, and the to kill number of the Stielgranate 41 is probably overstated (my source claims penetration was at 80MM, regardless of range).

The use of the PaK 35/36 in the Panzerkampfwagen Ausfacht's AF is an indication of the pre-eminence of the gun, which had so much to do with the Wehrmacht's early successes. Its continued use into the Russian campaign is an important example of the short sightedness on the part of Wehrmacht procurement and intelligence.

Advanced Squad Leader represents this nicely, making the PaK 35/36 a decent weapon (BTK:9) versus light allied tanks like the AMC35 (AF:1) and the MkVIB, but it had a reduced effectiveness versus medium tanks like the H39 (AF:4), while the Char B1 and T34 were virtually impervious (AF:8 and AF:11, respectively) to its attack.

Source: Alex Buchner, The German Infantry Handbook 1939-1945, Schiffer Military History, 1991

NOTE: One of the great things about the old ASL Digest was this regular feature...The further adventures of everyone's favorite Eastern Front NonCom, Otto Snudle. Snudle was constantly in trouble with his superiors, especially his irrascible platoon lead er.

[Ed. note: I've decided not to carry this column. Call it censorship, call it paranoia, call it what you will, but I don't want it to be misconstrued by outside readers as mongering to Nazism. - Jeff]

The next generation of Achtung! Panzer! will probably delete the HMG. Campaign Game fanatics may scream, but Tim has encountered a new (old) source which says the MG34, in use in 1940, could not be used in such a high rate of fire configuration. As you k now, the German machine gun counters represent both the MG34 and the MG 42, and in Geir Aalborg's excellent article in the OLD ASL Digest, it's pointed out that the MG34, while an excellent weapon, should not be represented by the HMG counter.

Also, flamethrowers will be eliminated from the CG as well. There just isn't any historical justification for their inclusion.

The first playings have been somewhat of a suprise, and may indicate that changes are necessary. The initial reports indicate that the Allies play very conservatively, which is an easy way to lose the campaign. Tim is now considering changing the initia l FT17's for D2's or Somuas, in order to give the French attack a little impetus. It'll need more playtesting to be more sure.

There you have it. The meat. The potatoes. If you like it, good. If not, let me know and I won't send you anymore.

It's available for distribution as you see fit, but I'll retain the copyright on the stuff I wrote. [If you have any questions, send them to Tim Hundsdorfer

Meanwhile, pig out.