Thursday, April 2, 2009

Operation Avalanche - Hickey & Smith

Just finished the book and was rather disappointed, the authors don't seem to understand some basic WW2 military terminology German Infantry are referred to as "Panzers" in a lot of place, they don't understand the differences between Panzer and Panzer-Grenadier Divisions or even at times the basic hierarchy between division/brigade-RCT/battalion.

All the Germans tanks seem to be Tigers and in places quoted as 72 ton, which is the weight of a Tiger II.  I haven't read enough around the battle to be certain, but I don't think any Tigers were involved, certainly none of the Heavy Tank battalions were present. 

It's very much a narrative account with some nice details covering the operations of the commandos and rangers, although at times the geography is confused.

For wargaming purposes, there is very little detail on what was happening on the German side.  However for our game I had the impression that more space needs to be allocated to the La Molina/Dragonea area as this was the major area of fighting for the Commandos. 

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