The Lessons of War - Part 1

One of the tactical lessons I learned was from instructor/inspector staff during the time that I was the logistics officer supporting 4 regimental live fire operations in the National Training Center at the Mojave Desert. One observation was that artillery fire is ineffective against armor. This is complete nonsense as was proven by the Axis' use of German 88s, an anti-aircraft weapon, as anti-tank artillery at Operation BattleAxe, in North Africa during WWII and as was demonstrated recently at the Battle of??Vuhledar in Ukraine.?If your enemy is stupid enough in the age of drones, to send armored columns on roadways, simply mine the roadsides and disable both forward and rear tanks and wipe out the column with precision-guided, other artillery, naval gunfire or close-air support.

Adapt, Improvise, Overcome -?a U.S. Marine motto.?

NY Times : Battle of Vuhledar?

In an Epic Battle of Tanks, Russia Was Routed

A three-week fight in the town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine produced what Ukrainian officials say was the biggest tank battle of the war so far, and a stinging setback for the Russians.

March 1, 2023

NY Times: KURAKHOVE, Ukraine — Before driving into battle in their mud-spattered war machine, a T-64 tank, the three-man Ukrainian crew performs a ritual.

The commander, Pvt. Dmytro Hrebenok, recites the Lord’s Prayer. Then, the men walk around the tank, patting its chunky green armor.

“We say, ‘Please, don’t let us down in battle,’” said Sgt. Artyom Knignitsky, the mechanic. “‘Bring us in and bring us out.’”

Their respect for their tank is understandable. Perhaps no weapon symbolizes the ferocious violence of war more than the main battle tank. Tanks have loomed over the conflict in Ukraine in recent months — militarily and diplomatically — as both sides prepared for offensives. Russia pulled reserves of tanks from Cold War-era storage, and Ukraine prodded Western governments to supply American Abrams and German Leopard II tanks.

The sophisticated Western tanks are expected on the battlefield in the next several months. The new Russian armor turned up earlier — and in its first wide-scale deployment was decimated.

A three-week battle on a plain near the coal-mining town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine produced what Ukrainian officials say was the biggest tank battle of the war so far, and a stinging setback for the Russians.

In the extended battle, both sides sent tanks into the fray, rumbling over dirt roads and maneuvering around tree lines, with the Russians thrusting forward in columns and the Ukrainians maneuvering defensively, firing from a distance or from hiding places as Russian columns came into their sights.

When it was over, not only had Russia failed to capture Vuhledar, but it also had made the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing columns into ambushes.

Blown up on mines, hit with artillery or obliterated by anti-tank missiles, the charred hulks of Russian armored vehicles now litter farm fields all about Vuhledar, according to Ukrainian military drone footage. Ukraine’s military said Russia had lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle. That figure could not be independently verified. Ukraine does not disclose how many weapons it loses.

“We studied the roads they used, then hid and waited” to shoot in ambushes, Sergeant Knignitsky said.

Lack of expertise also bedeviled the Russians. Many of their most elite units had been left in shambles from earlier fighting. Their spots were filled with newly conscripted soldiers, unschooled in Ukraine’s tactics for ambushing columns. In one indication that Russia is running short of experienced tank commanders, Ukrainian soldiers said they captured a medic who had been reassigned to operate a tank.

My Comment: I refer to Ukrainian Spring, one of 2,472 Linkedin articles in which I made reference to the learned observations on Ukrainian and Russian tactics and military capacity by Lt. Gen. Hertling, now retired.?

Continued