No penalty for mixing different nationalities?

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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Radagy
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Location: Italy

RE: No penalty for mixing different nationalities?

Post by Radagy »

Ok, thanks for your clarification.[:)]
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JSBoomer
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Location: Edmonton Alberta

RE: No penalty for mixing different nationalities?

Post by JSBoomer »

You are correct, company level and down would have been in French. I was talking about the operational level and not what the troops on the ground were doing. Master Corporal was not a Canadian Rank at the time, perhaps he was a Lance Corporal? It would be a the equivalent of a Master Corporal in todays Canadian army. By the way he had every reason to be proud of his regiment and his service. Thanks for your additions to my point.
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Ormbane
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RE: No penalty for mixing different nationalities?

Post by Ormbane »

In the book Rising Sun, Falling Sky the author does document problems that arose within ABDA because of differences in doctrine, language, logistics, tactics, etc. Of course, this was primarily involving naval forces and to a lesser extent air forces. Whether or not the outcome would have been appreciably different in the early days of the Japanese efforts in the Pacific is debatable, but probably not.

In Atkinson's trilogy on the US in the European and Mediterranean theaters of WW2 he also documents various frictions and inefficiencies, but again it is not clear that the ultimate outcome would have been different. Of course, there were also frictions and inefficiencies even within the same military forces, such as within US Army forces or with inter-service rivalries, etc.

In more recent times the US has learned some hard lessons about problems that may occur by mixing even US forces without a proper command structure, and we have also made some (limited) efforts to standardize weapons and ammunition with NATO allies, to attempt to reduce logistical problems. Soldiers without bullets are less effective, obviously.

On the other hand, there was the example of "The Devil's Brigade" which won several unit citations in WW2 and was composed of both Canadian and US nationals. But in this case they trained together, fought together, and supported each other in barroom brawls.

If this game were to impose any penalty for having mixed units under a HQ I would think that it would be in the area of logistics.
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KWG
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RE: No penalty for mixing different nationalities?

Post by KWG »

One reason the US Military developed the "military alphabet" is because the northern soldiers could not understand the speech of the southern soldiers. Especially on the radio.

A friend of mine was researching local battle reports from the civil war. A rebel was captured and was interrogated by the yanks. They wrote... "the rebel says Forrest has been in camp on Aug Creek."

Hog Creek.
"A word was said - a mare is standing by the fence."
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