'A scorecard for the US "lukewarm war" on Russia - strategic and tactical levels' is an excellent synopsis by The Saker of the entire situation in Ukeland, Novorossiya and the World. When I first came in contact with Saker I realized within a nanosecond that he and most of the posters on this blog were intellectually far above my narrow view. I am a 'nuts and bolts' man and I mentioned in one of my first posts that while Saker and many others here had and have a vast overview of the world I could see not much beyond my weapon sights in days past and to an extent to this day.
However, having looked through weapons sights I can at least try to give you on this blog an idea of what has and is happening for those who are boots in the mud, or, today it being summer, boots in the dust, and somewhat of an idea of what to expect in the daily grind and semi chaos of small unit actions. I will as usual try not to give the Nats any idea at all of what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. For our boys I do from time to time mention things to people I know.
In small unit tactics, small unit being fire team, squad and platoon sized ops plus Recon activities, you will have good days and you will have bad days. No army, no regiment, no rota (company), no section has ever enjoyed complete and unbroken success in any war since the beginning of time. Small units are tactical units, period. The combination of the activities of many tactical units creates strategy, but for a single small unit to have any real affect on strategy is quite rare and in reality are for the history books and studies at war colleges. Reality is small units are expendable in the grand strategic scenario.
A small unit will hold, for instance, a road block post, a bridge, a relatively important terrain feature or minor communications hub. A small unit can not and will not hold their position against an overwhelming enemy attack. Faced with massive superiority of an enemy force arrayed against it the unit will simply report in to Command, give a hasty sitrep, put up a short resistance to the enemy force and then withdraw, inflicting what casualties they can before and during the tactical withdrawal. If Command decides the terrain feature is worth holding then the small unit fights as hard as possible until help arrives from Command. The reality is the Army of Novorossiya can rarely contest in great numbers an action by the Nats when said Nats bring all their forces to bear, although this reality has in fact been changing in the last two weeks or so. Remember, a scant month or so ago the Army of Novorossiya didn't have heavy weapons or even more than a precious few medium machine guns. Most of what they did have and have today was donated by the Nats army one way or another. A tactical withdrawal of a few hundred meters generally has precisely zero to do with overall Strategy in general. The fly in the ointment of that statement is a whole series of tactical withdrawals in a short period of time adds up to a strategic withdrawal and that can have a distressing affect on the overall strategy of your command structure.
Normal life for a small unit is day in day out grinding hours of boredom interspersed with seconds and minutes of hard fighting. The soldiers clean weapons and equipment always, first and foremost, improve their positions as much as possible with what is to hand, eat, clean themselves, some always on the firing steps so to speak and keeping a keen eye out for any untoward activity in the area and they will generally have LPOP's (listening/observation posts) out in front to give early warning of anything untoward coming their way. This activity is 24 hours a day seven days a week. There is no holiday when you are in the line even if the 'line' is a 30 m wide position out in the middle of nowhere. You get to know your fellow soldiers in your unit very well as you wile away the endless hours talking about everything in the world. As with civilian life the soldiers will run the gamut from good to bad to average. The bad don't last long, they tend to be attrited out of a combat unit either by enemy action or their sarjanti (sergeants). Bravery don't mean squat when you're facing half a dozen nats tanks or BMP's and said nats are irritated to an extreme. What civilians call 'bravery' is almost always simply the unthinking actions of soldiers in protecting their comrades and holding their position as ordered. It is only after the fact that 'bravery' is adjudged.
Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Message to the readers of this blog from Juan
However, having looked through weapons sights I can at least try to give you on this blog an idea of what has and is happening for those who are boots in the mud, or, today it being summer, boots in the dust, and somewhat of an idea of what to expect in the daily grind and semi chaos of small unit actions. I will as usual try not to give the Nats any idea at all of what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. For our boys I do from time to time mention things to people I know.
In small unit tactics, small unit being fire team, squad and platoon sized ops plus Recon activities, you will have good days and you will have bad days. No army, no regiment, no rota (company), no section has ever enjoyed complete and unbroken success in any war since the beginning of time. Small units are tactical units, period. The combination of the activities of many tactical units creates strategy, but for a single small unit to have any real affect on strategy is quite rare and in reality are for the history books and studies at war colleges. Reality is small units are expendable in the grand strategic scenario.
A small unit will hold, for instance, a road block post, a bridge, a relatively important terrain feature or minor communications hub. A small unit can not and will not hold their position against an overwhelming enemy attack. Faced with massive superiority of an enemy force arrayed against it the unit will simply report in to Command, give a hasty sitrep, put up a short resistance to the enemy force and then withdraw, inflicting what casualties they can before and during the tactical withdrawal. If Command decides the terrain feature is worth holding then the small unit fights as hard as possible until help arrives from Command. The reality is the Army of Novorossiya can rarely contest in great numbers an action by the Nats when said Nats bring all their forces to bear, although this reality has in fact been changing in the last two weeks or so. Remember, a scant month or so ago the Army of Novorossiya didn't have heavy weapons or even more than a precious few medium machine guns. Most of what they did have and have today was donated by the Nats army one way or another. A tactical withdrawal of a few hundred meters generally has precisely zero to do with overall Strategy in general. The fly in the ointment of that statement is a whole series of tactical withdrawals in a short period of time adds up to a strategic withdrawal and that can have a distressing affect on the overall strategy of your command structure.
Normal life for a small unit is day in day out grinding hours of boredom interspersed with seconds and minutes of hard fighting. The soldiers clean weapons and equipment always, first and foremost, improve their positions as much as possible with what is to hand, eat, clean themselves, some always on the firing steps so to speak and keeping a keen eye out for any untoward activity in the area and they will generally have LPOP's (listening/observation posts) out in front to give early warning of anything untoward coming their way. This activity is 24 hours a day seven days a week. There is no holiday when you are in the line even if the 'line' is a 30 m wide position out in the middle of nowhere. You get to know your fellow soldiers in your unit very well as you wile away the endless hours talking about everything in the world. As with civilian life the soldiers will run the gamut from good to bad to average. The bad don't last long, they tend to be attrited out of a combat unit either by enemy action or their sarjanti (sergeants). Bravery don't mean squat when you're facing half a dozen nats tanks or BMP's and said nats are irritated to an extreme. What civilians call 'bravery' is almost always simply the unthinking actions of soldiers in protecting their comrades and holding their position as ordered. It is only after the fact that 'bravery' is adjudged.
Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Message to the readers of this blog from Juan
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