Hoping to see a good depiction of hedgerow combat in the American sector where it was more an infantry and arty slog and less a tank fest. Goi g to beinteresti g how they do this.
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Maybe as the stages of the battle go by, tanks can start coming with hedgerow cutters?
street to street combat wouldn't be too bad
hopefully unit sizes won't be squads but platoons
otherwise troop movement and damage gets silly
hopefully unit sizes won't be squads but platoons
otherwise troop movement and damage gets silly
As noted in the article itself though the real usefulness of the "Rhinos" have been questioned by historians, most notably by tank expert Stephen Zaloga. Quite simply bursting through a hedgegrow with some kind of bulldozer tank isn't very practical as the act makes a lot of noise and will just attract anti-tank fire. The real "solution" the hedgegrows was the eventual development of combined infantry-tank assaults - the details of which were only really worked out after bloody combat experience - rather than gimmicky tank modifications.
Indeed, it's highly unlikely that the story of Sgt Culins (of 3rd Armored Division) inventing the Rhino is even true - his Division had basically just arrived by the second week of July whereas many other tank units had spent the past month fighting in the bocage terrain. It is much more likely that 3rd Armored had simply copied the idea from a different unit; and historians only credited 3rd Armored because it was one of the better-documented Armored Divisions in the US Army (with its Divisional history being published shortly after the war).
Hedgerow cutters would be good. But the fact the german machine gun positions were a lot of the time dug into hedgerows should also be a thing.
Hedgerow Hell would be very fun, as (hopefully) cheap Panzershrecks/Faust units will negate anyone who thinks a Tank Rush with Shermans is a good idea.
Having flashbacks of Battlefield 1942's Bocage map, which despite the name was completely naked hills.