Posted on 07/20/2017 9:24:37 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Wonder what happened to the guy who destroyed three of them a few months ago.
Let’s go back to those fun times of The Soviet Union.
Their goal was to get to The English Channel. Interesting because the movie about Dunkirk is out.
That means going across Western Europe as fast as you can.
They didn’t have all this airborne stuff to drop troops and tanks into East Germany. Railroads are much better for moving on interior lines of communication.
It’s like all their equipment being amphibious. You don’t need amphibious equipment if you are on the defensive. You just drive over the bridges you hold.
But, if you’re attacking through Western Europe, well, there’s lots of rivers and they’ll probably blow the bridges, so the Soviets needed amphibious equipment to make it to the English Channel.
Turns out those old Soviets actually did want to rule the world.
Those are just silk delivered missile magnets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(1970_film)
They used 16,000 Soviet troops as extras in an epic Dino De Laurentis movie. They couldn’t even supply those.
In the Ukraine, not Western Europe with blown bridges and depots getting bombed.
I guess I don’t understand your comments.
The Soviets couldn't keep 16,000 troops supplied in the Ukraine in 1970 for a movie.
The logistics required for an invasion of Western Europe was way beyond their capability.
The PT-76 `amphibious tank’ was a tin can. Lots of them destroyed in Vietnam.
The old Soviet military was a serious threat only to those who were easily terrified.
No matter how many armored vehicles, aircraft, ect that existed in reality or on paper, the Soviet could not supply any of them well enough to maintain any kind of offensive. And, they knew that.
The Soviet could barely manage to supply its own forces *while* those forces were in their own home bases doing nothing.
I want one.
OK.
Yep, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome if they were going to take Western Europe. A lot of their problems were internal problems.
That doesn’t mean they didn’t want to over run Western Europe.
I was in a discussion about the quality of Soviet tanks. Many people in the discussion were saying that the Soviet equipment was poorly designed and built and that this showed the incompetence of the Soviet leadership.
We were specifically discussing how far Soviet tanks would go before they would breakdown. There was a lot of discussion about how few kilometers the Soviet tanks could go before breaking down and how our tanks could go much farther.
I asked for a tape measure. I went up to a map of Europe. I measured the distance from the Soviet starting points to the English Channel.
The Soviet tanks could easily make it to the English Channel before breaking down.
The Warsaw Pact equipment was designed for people of many different cultures to use to get to the English Channel. Once they got there, with nuclear weapons backing them up, the war would be over.
Thank God for the TOW missile and the LAW.
I argued that very point in college in the 1970s.
impressive for 3rd world coups and parades. against real AT weapons not so much.
I forget who the Secretary of Defense was, but there was supposedly a conversation at a D.C. Party in the late 70s where the Russian Ambassador asked him,
“You wouldn’t actually use those Neutron Bombs on us, would you?”
Our guy smiled and said,
“In a heartbeat.”
Just try to keep those tanks filled with diesel with traffic jams, idling, getting lost.
Hard enough without NATO aircraft and artillery contesting.
Western Europe had a lot of diesel fuel. They could take it as they went along.
They knew it wouldn’t be easy, but they had to look at their best chance of success for a mission their political leaders gave them.
Do you think the Warsaw Pact didn’t want to conquer Western Europe?
That plan didn't work in the Ardennes in 44'...
Do you think the Warsaw Pact didn’t want to conquer Western Europe?
There were some Soviet hotheads. The rest were trying to scam designer jeans and nylons for their mistresses and get cool stuff for the dacha.
And then there were smart ones that could do math that asked how they could get 50 miles past the border and refill fuel tanks and ammo.
The Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union fell apart because of an overly large emphasis on producing weapons.
They had large Airborne forces and their equipment was all amphibious.
This indicates in a very material manner their focus on offense.
I think that you are arguing with me because it’s a slow Thursday.
Have a good one.
By the late 1970s, Western Europe was near to agreeing to terms with the Soviets. Then America elected Ronald Reagan. Suddenly, the US rebuilt and expanded their military and deployed the Pershing II tactical nuclear missile to menace Russia's bases and its European heartland. European spines stiffened and the moment passed. Less than a decade later, the communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact and then the USSR collapsed.
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