Panzerblitz

This is the box cover of a wargame I played around 1977-78. It was the first wargame I learned to play, and it got me "hooked." I had long been interested in the German-Russian war of 1941-45, and it was fascinating to see how the battles were fought.

Situation #2 was one of twelve battles recreated in the game. It was one of my favorites, as it is very challenging. With limited forces, the German player had to stop three Russian divisions advancing into the German rear.

Another old favorite was situation #4. Historically, it is the latest. Almost all of the battles recreated in the game occurred from July 1943 to July 1944. As the game creators state, it was then that both sides were roughly equal in a tactical sense. Strategically the Soviets had gained the upper hand by 1943. The Germans, however, long retained a tactical edge which the Russians found difficult to overcome. Based on accounts of the fighting at Korsun-Cherkassy in February 1944, I question the idea of tactical parity in the 1943-44 period. Almost invariably, German armored units at Korsun trounced those of the USSR. Tactically, the Soviets may not have equaled the Germans until the time of Bagration--June-July 1944.

The "Standing Sun": A Martian Perspective

Artist's conception of the western sky on Mars just after sundown, with meteors and stars. Some of the latter are presumably near the solar trajectory, along the ecliptic.

As I've written, ancient astronomers were perceptive. A casual observer would not have noticed the slight decrease in the sun's movement along the ecliptic when Earth is at aphelion. Earth's orbit is nearly circular, which means there's little difference between perihelion and aphelion.
The mean Earth-sun distance is 93 million miles or 1 AU. When at perihelion Earth is 91.4 million miles from the sun. At aphelion the distance is 94.5 million miles. The latter distance is only 3.4% greater than the former. That means the difference in Earth's orbital speed (hence the sun's motion  against the stellar background) is correspondingly minimal. It is discernible but hardly conspicuous.
Mars is a different matter. Whereas Earth's orbital eccentricity (degree of deviation from a circular orbit) is only 0.0167, that of Mars is 0.0935. Mars at perihelion is 128.4 million miles from
 sol, but at aphelion the distance increases to 154.9 million miles. Whereas the difference between closest and farthest distance from the sun amounts to only 3.1 million miles or 3.4% here, Mars is 26.5 million miles, or over 20% farther from the sun at aphelion than at perihelion. Naturally this causes a more perceptible difference in the sun's speed along the ecliptic.
Since Mars is farther from sol than Earth, the sun always moves more slowly there. But the annual changes are relatively greater, hence more noticeable. Sol, as seen from Mars, traverses essentially the same zodiac constellations as it does here. Aphelion occurs before the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. At the time of the solstice, the sun is on the border between Aquarius and Pisces. When Mars is at aphelion sol is presumably a little farther back, in Aquarius. Stars just east of the sun then, hence in the west after sundown, include those of Pisces and Pegasus, but none of first magnitude. Given the minimal atmosphere, however, even dim stars are visible--and for quite some time. Under aphelic conditions, stars 10-20 degrees east of the sun persist for many evenings. Their height in the western sky, just after sunset, remains little changed for weeks. The sun takes twice as long to reach them as it does here. Martian conditions certainly amplify the "standing sun" phenomenon noted by the ancients.