W10 Searchlights - The Schwerpunkt Pledge

Eagle4ty

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If nothing else they can always use SL's for the purpose they were designed for: To illuminate a nighttime Bob Hope USO show. (BTW done until well into the late 1960's for sure).
 

Michael Dorosh

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If nothing else they can always use SL's for the purpose they were designed for: To illuminate a nighttime Bob Hope USO show. (BTW done until well into the late 1960's for sure).
Appeal to historical accuracy all you want, Sherry will still refuse to publish USO scenarios just to spite you.
 

RandyT0001

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If nothing else they can always use SL's for the purpose they were designed for: To illuminate a nighttime Bob Hope USO show. (BTW done until well into the late 1960's for sure).
365_apocalypsenow2.jpg
Are you going to argue with Coppola?
 

RandyT0001

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Maybe I am imagining it but I think I recall that searchlight bounce cloud illumination was used during the Battle of the Bulge when the Allies were re-conquering the lost territory from the Germans. Have to rack the brain a bit to see if I can trace the specific reference.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Maybe I am imagining it but I think I recall that searchlight bounce cloud illumination was used during the Battle of the Bulge when the Allies were re-conquering the lost territory from the Germans. Have to rack the brain a bit to see if I can trace the specific reference.
It was widely used in Normandy, so wouldn't be surprising to read it used later.
 

jrv

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The Ardennes: the Battle of the Bulge said:
Searchlights had been used by the Allies to illuminate the battlefield during the North African and Italian campaigns. However, the six battalions of tank-mounted searchlights (Canal Defense Lights) which the Americans brought into Normandy had been reconverted in November for normal armored use on the grounds that no "operational requirement" for the Canal Defense Light existed. The Germans had produced a large number of searchlights for use with flak batteries in the defense of major target centers in the Reich. In early December OB WEST ran two tests of searchlights in a ground role, with and without troops. These tests showed that an accidented battlefield could be extensively illuminated in front of attacking infantry. As a result some two hundred searchlights were gathered immediately behind the assault front and, on the morning of 16 December, flicked on to guide the first waves of infantry and to point targets, by cloud reflection, during the artillery preparation. Although very successful in assisting the assault companies over the first one or two thousand yards, the 60-cm. lights (with a ground range of little more than three thousand yards) could not keep up with the attack, and a number of German detachments, supposed to guide on the searchlight beams, wandered away from their objectives. Some of these smaller lights were brought forward and appeared in attacks as late as 18 December, but the ponderous 150- and 200-cm. lights seem to have been left behind at the original line of departure.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Ardennes/USA-E-Ardennes-25.html

JR
 

Mister T

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Searlights were also used by Soviets when attacking the Seelow heights.
 

klasmalmstrom

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Searlights were also used by Soviets when attacking the Seelow heights.
I have read accounts that the Soviet tankers weren't all that happy, as they created nice silhouettes of their tanks for the Germans to aim at.
 

Michael Dorosh

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I have read accounts that the Soviet tankers weren't all that happy, as they created nice silhouettes of their tanks for the Germans to aim at.
Canadian infantry on the Verrières Ridge had the same complaint, it was even depicted in that The Valour and the Horror miniseries.

And we've all seen Pork Chop Hill though that was more a problem of the wrong hill being illuminated.
 

von Marwitz

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I have read accounts that the Soviet tankers weren't all that happy, as they created nice silhouettes of their tanks for the Germans to aim at.
This is what I have read in several accounts of the battle, too. Also from the German perspective that it helped to target the Russians.

von Marwitz
 

Paul M. Weir

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Yes, "Artificial Moonlight" was often a two edged sword. Compounding the silhouette problem at Seelow heights was a fairly heavy fog which made silhouettes more visible, black shape on white background, but also tended to partly blind the advancing Soviets. While not as bad as driving in fog with main beam headlights, it still was enough to be commented on later by Soviet soldiers.

It's use in the first night of Wacht am Rhein had similar mixed results, especially in hollows and valleys where fog/mist gathered.
 

Eagle4ty

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It was widely used in Normandy, so wouldn't be surprising to read it used later.
Also used by the Soviets during Saturn and several times after that, most notably for fighting in the Kuban area and along the Dnepr & Muis. Now all we need is direct fire illum to back light targets used by German StuGs & 88's during Opn Winter Storm at least.
 

pswede26

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I'll say this much. Our research uncovered that searchlight tactics used against the Chinese were so effective that SL mounted M46 and Centurion Tanks became primary artillery targets...especially during the Battles for the Hook. Hide and seek tactics were developed...tanks operating in pairs or groups...shudders that could be opened and closed very quickly to minimize highlighting/silhouetting... We worked very hard to replicate these tactics in the rules without adding too much chrome. Searchlight usage, from a WWII perspective, had its issues...good and bad. But this is the Korean War. We had different enemies. Tactics were developed as a result of North Korean and Chinese action...not German, Japanese, Russian, Italian, etc. The Chinese used massed night attacks to mitigate US firepower and were very effective. The longest retreat in U.S. military history (U.S. Eighth Army in late 1950) was a direct result of effective Chinese maneuver and envelopment...at night. Searchlights took the night away from the Chinese.

Searchlight operations played a major part in later stages of the Korean War. From our perspective as designers, leaving them out would have been irresponsible. For those ASLers that don't like night scenarios...sure, SLs are chrome. Many see the desert rules, caves, or beach assaults with NOBA as chrome. I can go on and on. There are a lot of rules I will probably never use or play...but knowing I can if I want to is pretty cool.
 

von Marwitz

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Our research uncovered that searchlight tactics used against the Chinese were so effective that SL mounted M46 and Centurion Tanks became primary artillery targets...especially during the Battles for the Hook.
Was this due to the effective searchlight tactics the enemy wanted to inhibit or because they were just easy to make out during the night?

von Marwitz
 

Michael Dorosh

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By mid 1952, IIRC, the Chinese were able to mass 100 guns at a time on individual UN company positions. They had lots of artillery so probably took the opportunity to shoot at all kinds of worthwhile targets. To put that in context, the entire Commonwealth Divisional artillery (i.e. the number of guns supporting its 9 infantry battalions or 36 companies in total) consisted of fewer than 100 guns if only counting the field regiments, and probably just a bit over 100 guns if including attachments of medium artillery and heavy mortars.
 
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