Marine Paras

[robot]

How come in marines pacific in 1/1942 i get paras and no planes too use them. I had to go to the brits too make my para drop. Am assaulting the japanese on bataan. My main force having hard time getting thru mine field. Wanted to drop 2 cos of paras near back 2 objectives. But no planes in force selection. Hope the brits are good piolets not much chance for the paratroops if miss drop zones. No way my main force can get to them to releave them. Got to mine ffield on about 3rd turn am now in 5 turn still there. Paras comin in on 5 thru 8th turn. 1st drop path finders 2nd and 3rd drop inf and 4th is mostly heavy weapons. Dont know why i use the devil dogs from the sky guess i love to see the white chutes comin down. Also maybe because i loved bein one. Turned 71 in august 1 day after havin triple bypass. So now maybe ill be able to finish this dam long campaign.

[Supervisor]

There are a couple of setting in the preference screen you'll have to tinker with to be able to get all avaialble units in that time frame. The first is to make sure you have the option to use air sections on by selecting 1 as a minimum. In the general preference play with true troop/rarity button this will give more selections to use. In the realism section tinker with Historic ratings and the Characteristics setting on or off until you get the units your loking for. I don't think the USMC owned any Troop/Cargo A/C, they only poses strike A/C and Bomber sections so they had to rely on the US Army's to get them their. But I'm not a history buff so I might be wrong on the availabilties.

[Alexandra]

Also, the USMC didn't keep Para's for long, from a very good histrory of the development of US Paratroops. I belive they used then in the Guad campaign, then phased them out.

Part of it was lack of organic transport aircraft, and part of it was they wanted the high quality marines that were in the 'trooper units brought back into regular ones.

Alex

[KG Erwin]

The Marine Paras were used as ground sloggers, but did well at Guadalcanal, most notably alongside Edson's Raiders in the Battle of Edson's Ridge. They also served in the New Georgia campaign. The Paramarines were disbanded in December 1943 to become the nucleus of the 5th Marine Division. They were never used in combat in an airborne role, and were too lightly armed to perform effectively in a ground role as the Japanese resistance stiffened during each successive operation. As a side note, I think the USMC was trying to justify its existence by expanding its roles to include the Paras and the Raiders. They tried hard to be all things, but in the conditions of the Pacific War, they realized quickly that the Marines had to become all heavy infantry, and in a sense, they did all become assault specialists and combat engineers as the war progressed. I like playing the USMC in a long campaign, since by 1945 these guys become the kings of close-assault, and their firepower is unmatched by any other infantry in the world.

[john g]

Originally posted by robot
How come in marines pacific in 1/1942 i get paras and no planes too use them.

From what I have read McAurthur hated paras and gliders. He could have used them many times, but he didn't want to.

Most of the glider ops in the Pacific involved moving a general's staff car from island to island.
thanks, John.