I think if you’re going to house rule trade routes for Soviet Lend Lease then the Alaskan Far East route should be 2 or 3 IPC’s because as said before, most of that equipment was non combat military equipment like food and boots, so something just enough to be upkeep rather than a fresh unit.
Hey Midnight
saw a thing ? where they flew out of Watson lake shuttle mode …but…:) Good points made by all.
The dude on the history channel had a 30 30. Good luck with that was my thought : )
@ CS thought some combat planes shuttled through the Pacific route. Don’t remember specifics. Could add planes to their route. Once again a bit more complex but if other routes can …
That was ALSIB (ALaska-SIBeria “air road”). That involved planes - some combat, some transport - that were flown to Fairbanks, Alaska, and then transferred to Soviet pilots who then flew them to Siberia. I learned a bit or two about that when I was stationed up there in from '01 to '03. Wikipedia has more info on that here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALSIB-Midnight-Reaper
Right on Midnight Reaper !!!
Is That where the Midnight comes from ? : )
Good Point CS
but planes and if we go big and think about the options for each player could maybe do …heh heh I know : )
Well if USSR was flying planes from Alaska to Far East, I wonder if they disarmed those planes to make peace with Japan. Stalin did NOT want to be attacked by Japan with Germany and his allies driving deep in his anus hence why the Pacific trade route wasn’t allowed to take combat equipment.
SC may have a point there. I can see 6 - 2 - 2 for LL 6 icp goes to IC in or around Archangel.
@Caesar:
I think if you’re going to house rule trade routes for Soviet Lend Lease then the Alaskan Far East route should be 2 or 3 IPC’s because as said before, most of that equipment was non combat military equipment like food and boots, so something just enough to be upkeep rather than a fresh unit.
Don’t forget food = SPAM ! :-D
Chart 1 Chart 2
1 = 10 1 = 0
2 = 5 2 = 5
3 = 5 3 = 5
4 = 5 4 = 10
5 = 5 5 = 10
6 = 10 6 = 10
Chart 2 more risk and a bit more reward.
But ! :|
@SS:
Don’t forget food = SPAM !
A better option than starving, I suppose, though not by much. The 1949 movie Battleground (a dramatized though fairly realistic depiction of the siege of Bastogne, shown from the perspective of a fictional unit of the 101st Airborne) makes a couple of references to how tired the American troops got of eating K rations whan that’s all they were given for weeks on end. And as an example of the reaction which soldiers have when abundance and variety are suddenly introduced to an inadequate and boring diet, there’s a scene in Cornelius Ryan’s D-Day book The Longest Day in which a German paratroop unit out in the field finds a canvas container hanging from a parachute in a tree; they bring it down by felling the tree with a couple of grenades, cautiously approach it, and discover that it’s an American supply container full of food and cigarettes. “For the next half hour the seven tough paratroopers had the time of their lives. They found cans of pineapple and orange juice, cartons of chocolate and cigarettes, and an assortment of foods the like of which they had not seen in years. Friedolin gorged himself. He even poured powdered Nescafe down his throat and tried to wash it down with condensed milk. ‘I don’t know what it is,’ he said, ‘but it tastes wonderful.’”
Well German rations usually were high protein chocolate, cheese in a can, coffee, and some potted meat. They mostly preferred military field kitchens rather than personal meals.
@ CS thought some combat planes shuttled through the Pacific route. Don’t remember specifics. Could add planes to their route. Once again a bit more complex but if other routes can …
That was ALSIB (ALaska-SIBeria “air road”). That involved planes - some combat, some transport - that were flown to Fairbanks, Alaska, and then transferred to Soviet pilots who then flew them to Siberia. I learned a bit or two about that when I was stationed up there in from '01 to '03. Wikipedia has more info on that here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALSIB-Midnight-Reaper
Right on Midnight Reaper !!!
Is That where the Midnight comes from ? : )
There’s a (mildly amusing) story behind that name, but I picked that up after I left Fort Wainwright and Fairbanks behind. It’s a story for another day.
I still love Alaska, but I don’t live there now and likely won’t again any time soon. My avatar is from my time in Alaska - that is the Distinguished Unit Insignia (DUI) for HHC, 172nd Infantry Brigade. I wore that on my uniform when I served up there. The 172nd gone now, but I still remember.
-Midnight_Reaper
P.S. Edited to add one comment.
@Caesar:
Well if USSR was flying planes from Alaska to Far East, I wonder if they disarmed those planes to make peace with Japan. Stalin did NOT want to be attacked by Japan with Germany and his allies driving deep in his anus hence why the Pacific trade route wasn’t allowed to take combat equipment.
I know of no information either way about the armament status of those planes, but I do know that they were moved in waves from Fairbanks to Krasnoyarsk. Krasnoyarsk would be about on the line between the Europe 1940 map and the Pacific 1940 map, or in Evenki on the A&A Anniversary Edition map. I gather they were sent west from there, as needed. They sent P-39 Airacobra and P-63 Kingcobra fighters, B-25 Mitchell and A-20 Havoc bombers, and C-47 Skytrains.
-M_R
Yeah, I am not sure either. I do know with Sherman tanks and Lee tanks as example, the US would sell a package of the unit instead of just the tank so let’s say the US sent a Lend Lease Sherman, you as the nation buying it are getting the M4 Sherman, 3 Thompson SMG, 2 1911’s, full ammo for both the tank and firearms, and a weeks worth of rations. And there was no getting around this package, either you took it or you didn’t. So I assuming US made aircraft for USSR had the same thing however I don’t know for example if US bombers under Soviet banners used Soviet weapons instead of US ones as an example.
I still love Alaska, but I don’t live there now and likely won’t again any time soon. My avatar is from my time in Alaska - that is the Distinguished Unit Insignia (DUI) for HHC, 172nd Infantry Brigade. I wore that on my uniform when I served up there. The 172nd gone now, but I still remember.
Given your service time in Alaska, here’s something that may interest you if you’ve never seen it: the two-part miniseries “World War III” which aired on in 1982. It’s purchasable on DVD (I own a copy) and perhaps it’s also available on a streaming service somewhere. About half of the story takes place in Alaska, with the other half being divided mostly between Washington D.C. and Moscow. The opening credits of both segments are set in the Alaskan wilderness, with some very moody shots of wind-swept snowy landscapes, and after the credits the first episode cuts to a dramatic helicopter shot of some White Alice Communications System parabolic antennas at a military base. (It’s only last year that I discovered, by accident, what those huge mirror-like contraptions are called and what they’re for, but I’d never forgotten how striking they were when I originally saw them in the miniseries.) There’s an early exchange of dialogue between two servicemen who are on radar duty that does a good job of conveying their respective personalities (and the hardships of their posting): the first man asks his colleague if he wants some coffee; the colleague goes into a long, slightly cynical soliloquy about “Is it coffier than coffee? Can you smell every bean?” and so forth; the first man hands him a mug and says casually, “It’s instant from Fairbanks, made in New Jersey.” There are little bits of this kind of acidic humour here and there throughout the miniseries, but for the most part it’s deadly serious in its tone and content. There’s a pretty good summary of the miniseries on Wikipedia, but if you plan on watching it you should avoid reading the summary because it gives away the whole story.
Strangely enough. USSR actually ignored targets in Alaska if WWIII ever kicked off. I know a handful of nuclear weapons would of went that way but it wasn’t seen as a breaking point to try and invade it right off the bat.
