Posted on 12/15/2022 5:01:58 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Wind howled through leafless trees and through the windows of the blown-out apartment building as the surveillance team marched up flights of stairs covered with broken glass. The cold numbed their fingers as they set up their equipment: a laptop-size thermal imaging sight, its tripod and a Starlink satellite dish and battery.
(snip)
What unfolded over the next half-dozen hours was a routine but essential part of the daily rhythm of the war — part drudgery and part urgent calculation as the team ascertained the coordinates for enemy positions, relaying them to the Ukrainian artillery battery miles away.
This type of mission, observed over the course of two days this month by reporters for The New York Times, was a window into how the war is being fought — a battle that is relentlessly violent but also technically sophisticated.
At its core, the fighting for Bakhmut looks little different from a battle in the Eastern European steppes of World War II: armies committing troops, tanks and massive artillery barrages to capture ground.
But Wolf’s team, armed with a satellite hookup and a thermal optic that can see a person up to five miles away, quickly showed how much war had changed in the last 80 years.
(snip)
The team is part of Ukraine’s foreign legion, a unit created at the start of the war that has supplied thousands of international volunteers to bolster Ukraine’s ranks. Wolf, a 29-year-old former U.S. Marine, came to Ukraine because, as he put it, “I’m a good Christian and it was the right thing to do.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Greetings from NATO:
UKRAINIAN Carol of the bells...
Appropriate!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJeEVxHErio&t=4s
Yes, this war is going to be studied. First of its kind..conventional modern peer to peer.
Good info in the article.
To do battle there you would want some type of thermal blocking technology (ULCANS camo netting) and automated directional finding equipment (SDR with Scope/mapping) to alert the present of starlink uplink transmitters.
The battle for Bakhmut ended yesterday in Russia’s favor.
Thermal works well when hunting PIGS!
Apart from what history may say, there are immediate lessons for the world's militaries: Javelins and other ATGMs can defeat or blunt armored attacks; an abundance of MANPADs and other modern antiaircraft defenses can deny air superiority, with drones substituting in large part for manned aircraft in recon, surveillance, and close air support; and HIMARS and other rocket artillery are more effective than even an abundance of traditional tube artillery. And, oh yes, if you want to win, buy the expensive weapons from NATO and the US, not the cheap junk from Russia.
I’ve read that “foreign legion” volunteers are desired targets of the Russian army. Western soldiers have little to no experience in this type of warfare.
As one guy said “NATO soldiers aren’t used to the other side having a bigger gun.”
NATO exists to fight Russia and Russian capabilities and methods.
I wonder if Wolf knows that his fearless leader’s wife is in Paris on a £40,000 Christmas shopping spree courtesy of the Red, White and Blue? 😆
The battle for Bakhmut ended yesterday in Russia’s favor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russia is using WWI artillery targeting systems and accumulated ammo. Their only choice has been “wall of fire”. Russia has obliterated Bakhmut, rendering it of no particular value, only of psychological value. Bakhmut is a crossroads, so there’s that. But, like most cities Bakhmut lies on flat low ground. It will forever be easy pickings for any army which wants it badly enough to trade lives and equipment for it.
Some Russians are passed out around the champagne winery on an eastern edge of the city—as far as they got. Others...well...
https://twitter.com/visionergeo/status/1603031593764913162?s=20&t=jx7Q7o56jnbt4FDC9kdosg
Russia has taken Bahkmut? News to me.
A map of the situation in Bakhmut as posted 14 hours ago.
https://twitter.com/War_Mapper/status/1603184710087512065?s=20&t=QaoggpTxcaHgBsUC6NonFw
Say, aren’t you the guy who suggested we nuke Moscow?
Well, congrats Comrade Jon, for Wagner taking a strategically worthless burned out ruin of a town. Let's see how long they can hold it now.
BTW, Ukraine still has Kherson...it's a good trade, if that is what it actually is, but Russian-control of Melitopol is tenuous now. Good luck holding it too!
I would not be surprised at all by this.
In August 1943, when the Soviets were attacking in the Kharkov area the German lines had been torn open and there was little effective opposition available to stop them. But the Germans left behind three 50,000 gallon carboys of vodka as they retreated. The Soviets found them and for three days the advance of a force of 80,000 soldiers was brought to a standstill while the Soviets drank up the liquor. The Germans were able to bring up reinforcements and cause the Soviets heavy casualties when they resumed their advance. Some things will never change.
Very interesting history. Thanks!
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