[GOT A QUESTION, COMMENT, OR ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE? Just post it to the Editor and all the members can read it here.]

Arthur Goodwin:

John Astell's piece on the (U.S. First Infantry Division (TEN 1) seems to have been lifted almost word for word from Shelby Stanton's Order of Battle: U.S. Army, World War 11. Unfortunately, the 612th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 462nd AA Artillery AutoWeapons Battalion, and the 741st Tank Battalion that Mr. Astell lists as being habitually attached to the Big Red One, Mr. Stanton lists as normally attached to the Second Infantry Divi sion. The units normally attached to the First Infantry Division (according to Stanton) were the 634 Tank Destroyer Battalion (aft 1Aug44-8May45, arr. UK 8 Jan 44, landed FR June 44, equipped with self-propelled tank destroyers (M10) since 42), 103rd AA Artillery Auto- Weapons Battalion (att 16Jun44-7Feb45 and 24Feb458May45, arr UK 9Dec43, landed FR 10Jun44, and the 745th Tank Battalion (aft 6Jun44-8May45, med tank bn, arr UK 25Aug43, landed FR 6Jun44).

Phillip Buhler:

I have played FITE a number of times, both solitaire and against other competent players. Not once have I been able to push the German lines as far east in the Ukraine as they were historically in April, 1942, although I did capture Leningrad once and Murmansk every time. Either I am just a better Artic player and Finnish commander, or I didn't make the mistake of sending Guderian south in Oct.

[ How do the rest of you feel about this? Is the south too hard and the north too easy for the Axis, or is it all in how one swings the schwerpunkt? Send me your impressions and we'll feature them next issue.--ed.)

Response: Trends in the East (Europa #3)

Michael Emrys:

John Astell has written elsewhere that the combat strength assignments in Europa work out pretty well for divisions, less so for regiments and brigades, and are almost impossible for battalions. This could easily be remedied by going to decimal fraction strengths. This way, instead of trying to conserve overall division strength by adding or subtracting an extra point to one regiment/brigade in a division the designer/developer could assign each a uniform strength of, say 2.3. A battalion could be assigned a strength of 0.7 or 0.2 perhaps. The decimal fraction should not exceed one digit. Decimals should not be used with whole numbers that exceed one digit. As an alternative to that, decimals should not be used for units exceeding 1 RE in size, although I prefer the other.

[An interesting idea though somewhat extreme. Perhaps a more viable solution would be to introduce a combat strength of 1/2 (or 0.5) to fill the gap between 0 and 1. For example, the British 2-5 Para X in Torch awkwardly breaks down into three battalions as such: 0-1 -5, 0-1 -5, 0-5. Instead, it could breakdown to 0.5-5, 0.5-5, 0.5-5. No doubt there are other units currently rated as 0 or 1 that could better be represented at 1/2.--ed.]