Bocage, Low Bocage, and Hedgerows

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PoorOldSpike

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BOCAGE, LOW BOCAGE and HEDGEROWS (manual p.34)
This screenshot includes all 3 types.
Bocage and low bocage both block standard vehicle and infantry movement, and they both block LOS unless you've got your nose in it, but low boc is easier to see over, especially if you're on higher ground or on the top floor of a building.
Hedgerows don't block movement.
Test 'A'- I gave the tank a move order straight through the low boc but it ignored me and went round the left end of it, crashing through a hedgerow in the process.
Test 'B'- I ordered the tank to crash straight through the hedgerows and it went straight through, creating gaps as it went. (the gaps weren't there when it started)
(Incidentally the piles of rubble at lower left are the remains of a wall demolished by Sherman fire)

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STANDARD UNITS CAN'T GO THROUGH BOCAGE: (specialized units can, and i'll test them in due course)
Note: the manual says there's Bocage and there's ordinary smaller hedges, not to confuse the two. I'll test out ordinary hedges later

I give our boy a move order straight through the Bocage-
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But he completely ignores me and goes through a gap-
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Infantry ignored me too, and went through a small gap-
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BOCAGE BLOCKS LOS UNLESS YOU'VE GOT YOUR NOSE IN IT

He can't see jack because he's not near enough to it-
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So he must get his barrel into it like this..
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..to disturb nesting birds-
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Infantry too can't see through bocage if they're too far away from it..
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..although they might get the odd fleeting glimpse through it as they move closer-
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But the only way to guarantee good LOS is to get their noses in it-
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AT guns too have to get right up to the bocage to get guaranteed LOS-

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"Their fatal barrels gaping on girded Harfleur"- Shakesp's Henry V
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Some tanks have wicked 'forks' welded to the front like this and are called 'Rhinos', they can rip a gap in bocage, and other non-rhinos can follow them through the gap.
In the setup phase in bocage country visually inspect your tanks to see if you've got any valuable rhinos among them.
(Or you can inspect them quicker by selecting any unit and cycling through them with the '=' key to see if there's a 'fork' on any of their silhouettes)

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That is called the Cullen hedgerow device. Created by a US tanker he had used something like it to clear the land on his daddy's farm.
 
Video evidence suggests that these hedgerows were not 'dozed' by the cullin equipped AFV. The drill seemed to be to get up to speed and ram the hedgerow. It was by no means a sure thing and multiple tries are seen by M5 tanks trying to get through a 'medium' sized hedgerow.

It's my opinion that the larger hedgerows could not be attacked this way. Especially when topped by trees. But it's also my opinion that the worst of the bocage country had already been fought through before the invention of these devices.

The game seems to model the whole affair in simplistic terms.
 
Direct-fire detonating pointblank in hedgerows

Title says it all. It seems the game is modeling HE shells from Shermans going off right in the hedgerow in front of them.

HE shells are designed to be boresafe and are actually not 'hot' till about 25 meters after leaving the barrell. This done mechanically with springs so that while the HE shell is being accelerated, a blocking device prevents the fuze from working. After leaving the barrell, the shell is no longer accellerating and the spring recovers so that the fuze is functional.
 
Yoozername said:
...the cullin equipped AFV. The drill seemed to be to get up to speed and ram the hedgerow. It was by no means a sure thing..
Click to expand...

Allied propaganda probably made Cullins sound better than they were to boost morale of the troops and to lower Ger morale, eg-"look boys, we can go root out the krauts with these babies!"
 
Given the flat rubber tracks on many sherman and M5, they would not have much 'dozer' capability. A real dozer has a diesel engine and low gearing. The excellent torque allows them to operate right up against a load. I suspect the sherman dozer might and have been the best solution but it would need a few swipes at a hedgerow. I doubt that anything short of an actual dozer or a big load of explosive could take on the largest hedgerows.

Shermans are very tall and very narrow and toppled over on many an occasion. I would hate to be in one attempting the 'ram' technique with a cullin.

I think the game does not handle bocage well at all. I was surprised they would even try.
 
You should have been hired to write the manual.

Consider starting a wiki page to put all your game research into one place where everyone can go to view it.
 
You may be interested in this.

http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/resources/csi/doubler/doubler.asp

To quote in part:

"Soldiers of the 2d Armored Division's 102d Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron invented the hedgerow device that gained the widest publicity. During a discussion between some of the 102d's officers and enlisted men, someone suggested that they get "saw teeth," put them on their tanks, and cut through the hedgerows. Many of the troops laughed at the suggestion, but Sergeant Curtis G. Culin took the idea to heart. Culin designed and supervised the construction of a hedgerow cutting device made from scrap iron pulled from a German roadblock. Testing showed that the device allowed a Sherman to cut easily through the hedgerows. Because the hedgerow cutter's blades made a tank resemble a large pachyderm with tusks, troops called the device a "rhinoceros," and Shermans equipped with Culin's invention became known as "rhino" tanks. Though the most famous of the hedgerow-reducing devices, Culin's "rhinoceros" was only one of many such contrivances invented and employed throughout First Army.32


A close-up of a typical hedgerow-cutter device
Culin's device soon got the attention of the chain of command within 2d Armored Division and V Corps. On 14 July, General Bradley attended a demonstration of Culin's hedgerow cutter. Bradley watched as Shermans mounting the hedgerow device plowed through the hedgerows "as though they were pasteboard, throwing the bushes and brush into the air." Very impressed by the demonstration, Bradley ordered the chief of First Army's Ordnance Section to supervise the construction and installation of as many of the hedgerow cutters as possible.33

First Army Ordnance assembled welders and welding equipment within the beachhead and from the rear areas in England to assist with the project. Welding teams used scrap metal from German beach obstacles to construct most of the hedgerow cutters. In a prodigious effort between 14-25 July, the First Army Ordnance Section produced over 500 hedgerow cutters and distributed them to subordinate commands for installation. By late July, 60 percent of First Army's Shermans mounted the hedgerow-cutting devices.34"



I believe dozer equipped Shermans were quite effective. If so, the Culin equipped ones should have been too. Incidently, they were originally constructed using steel from the German beach obstacles, not knocked out tanks.
 
you got to admit that this was modeled as it has been modeled so the Germans couldn't have a MG aiming at every hole in the bushes. To put some tactical dynamics in a battle, like a Sherman piercing unexpectedly through a bocage followed by an infantry squad dashing for the first houses of the village.
i guess you see what i mean.
 
I'd like to put this at the CM wiki (http://combatmission.wikia.com/wiki/Combat_Mission_Wiki), which I am trying to jumpstart. But I cannot PM PoorOldSpike. (I guess because he not registered? Is that what "Guest" means?) Anyway, if POS reads this, or you do and you can get hold of him: Can I have permission? It means placing your work under a "free" license.
 
I certainly dont mind... its not my work. :highly_amused:

I guess it belongs to the FGM to an extent. When members sign up they agree to this in the terms and conditions if they care to read them.

All posts and content posted to this site become the property of www.thefewgoodmen.com where such ownership does not conflict with existing copyrights. You also understand that posts may be deleted or modified to comply with local laws. Alternatively, not claiming ownership, but rights for use: you agree to grant www.thefewgoodmen.com permission for perpetual and unlimited use of all posts and other content posted to this site.
Click to expand...

So in saying that I dont mind if you use them. If POS comes hunting though I will pass him onto you.. nowt to do with me. :smug:
 
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