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Smoke can kill you

B

Bidermann

Guest
Yes its happened again infantry advancing acorss open ground towards a smoke screen being laid by 105mm,s a shell landed 50 yards away and a man fell down dead. Is this because WP are fired within the smoke screen?
 
Yes its happened again infantry advancing acorss open ground towards a smoke screen being laid by 105mm,s a shell landed 50 yards away and a man fell down dead. Is this because WP are fired within the smoke screen?
heart attack perhaps?

on a side note I am noticing that infantry is much more fragile than in CMX1. I had my Russians oooorahing up and down hills all day in CMBB with little ill effect.
 
WP, and other smoke shells, have an internal HE charge that splits the shell open. The WP is ejected through the pressurization from the internal explosion before the splitting. Also, the spin of the shell flings out the WP and splinters. It's probably true that the WP danger zone is greater than the explosive/fragments zone. That is, in the case of artillery falling at a steep angle. Certainly so for mortar rounds, that also fragment in this same way to release the smoke chemicals. The fragments would basically be driven into the ground. The explosive charge is about 1/10th of a normal HE shell. Many WP/Smoke shells use the HE shell bodies by the way.
 
WP (Willie Peter to us Viet Vets) is a serious weapon, the fact that it provides concealment is a secondary feature. I've never been on the receiving end of this type ordinance and am immensely glad for that. It was an essential part of the ammo load for the 60mm mortars in a Marine Inf Company circa 1969, in the Nam/RVN.

From Wiki...

White phosphorus is a material made from a common allotrope of the chemical element phosphorus that is used in smoke, tracer, illumination and incendiary munitions.<sup id="cite_ref-www.faqs.org.470_0-0" class="reference">[1]</sup> Other common names include WP, and the slang term "Willie Pete," which is dated from its use in Vietnam, is still sometimes used in military jargon.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">[2]</sup> As an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus burns fiercely and can set cloth, fuel, ammunition and other combustibles on fire, and cause serious burns or death.
 
I see there were some posts at BF regarding this issue.

It's highly doubtful that a 105mm WP artillery round that flies over your head and detonates 50+ meters in front of you will harm you. The explosive content is very small and the fragments would basically be thrown forward away from you. The effects of the WP would not 'umbrella' backwards. It's my opinion that even if you were to the sides you would be safe to some degree. If you were forward of the impacting shell, there would be some element of danger.

But people are reporting casualties at distances that are not technically correct. It's funny that BF resisted the WP initially in CMx1 and went to the other side of the scale in BN.
 
Correct, the issue has been reported and I, too, believe there is something slightly wrong with the simulation of smoke rounds. That you have casualties if those rounds land right on top of your men is only reasonable, but not 50m behind the actual point of impact. I expect that to be fixed in the first patch.
 
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