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allowed to do are much less than ‘back in the day’ as people get all kinds of upset about start screaming ‘child soldiers’ like we’re Sierra Leone.
We were criticised by some international organisations sometime ago as the junior soldiers were (at that time) not that far removed from being like the SL child soldiers. I'm not currently athwart how they're organised but if it has changed since I was a cadet (late 70's) that is to be applauded.
The Russian reliance on fixed defences may be a vulnerability if Ukraine can break through and create a big enough gap to get round the back of them.
Thats what John Barnes said, theres only one way to beat them!!
Not the Hitler Youth (my Nan was in that I believe)
My Mum was too. My understanding was that membership was compulsory amongst schoolgirls. From what I heard it was no more than a girl guides outfit. Camping on Luneburg Heath, that sort of thing.
This morning's tweets, which as they are unconfirmed I am not linking to, suggests that the Ukrainians are about to take on the main lines of defence. At the same time pointing out that a) they seem to be gathering some momentum and b) they have not yet committed everything to the battle...hmm
Meanwhile, the Russian military top brass and Wagner are now threatening each other and suggesting they will fight each other...?
hoping that some enterprising billionaire can just give wagner a big pay check to bugger off and leave a big gap in the front lines to wave the Ukrainians through.....
I don't think it's any great secret that the Ukrainians were shoring up resource and personnel for a big pushy back when the time is right.
Maybe fog of war and all that, but it doesn't sound like the Russians and thier mercenaries are ready, and even having some in-fights.
Which is probably exactly what Ukraine is waiting for.
Low flying ?...Hold my beer....
Apparently this happens to a Ukrainian Su-27 in 2020. So low, it took out a road sign. Brought it home as a souvenir.
6 of those terrible cadet versions of the SA80 that would routinely jam at least once on every cadet.
L98A1, had that brilliant if flawed burst fire mode where it would load 3 rounds into the breech at once if it wasn't oiled regularly enough (as in every other mag).
You aren’t that far out of date. I was at school in the early 00’s and it was mostly the same, but with aforementioned terrible cadet SA80s plus a token LSW.
Our school had that lot in the armoury, was at least a proper MOD strong room which we all had a nuke/zombie plan to get into. Surely you were on the Mk2 by then though, I heard they were less shit.
But don’t worry, we each had to stand to attention and confirm that we had no live ammunition on our persons at the end of the session
Ihavenoliveroundsoremptycasesinmyposessionsir!
Say it wrong and the SSM (ex RSM) and his pace stick* would adjust your attitude. We never got anything beyond drill rounds without a range officer present though, both of whom were beyond competent.
*pretty much a psychological weapon, anyone seriously ****ing about would get a mild jab, it didn't have to be as he was already pissed off and that was bad enough.
My cadet days were a mix of the 303 and the SLR. 303 would batter your shoulder and give you terrors as a wimpy teen about shooting with it again. SLR kicked upwards, massive difference to the 303 saw some of my peers almost flipped on their backs after firing kneeling. Tear gas at Shawbury was super snotty.
Ihavenoliveroundsoremptycasesinmyposessionsir!
Sir/Ma'amIhavenoliveroundsemptycasespyrotechnicsorpartsthereofinmypossessionandIwillreportanyonethatdoes!
There's the new version.😂
Also proper fun is belt fed. I did have to safety supervise cadets firing machine guns once. Watching a 15 year old get utterly ruined by a GPMG will always be a highlight. Lad nearly got vibrated backwards off the firing point, luckily I was there to prevent his inadvertent egress of the range. Spicy moment for sure.
I have no rockets in my pockets, no wombats in my combats, no schermulys down my goolies.......😜
Watching a 15 year old get utterly ruined by a GPMG will always be a highlight. Lad nearly got vibrated backwards off the firing point,
Range control at RAF Manston once (which some absolute genius had built facing across the runway approach... 😳😳) and firing the L98A1, some of the younger cadets in particular were really struggling with the recoil. I could see chips of concrete dust flying off the top of the bunker as the weapon kicked upwards.
Meanwhile the other half of the cadets were all out in Chipmunks. Coming into land just over the brow of the range.
Imagine getting shot down by friendly fire aged 15...
Looking back, cadets is a pretty massive waste of MOD budget tbh.
Looking back, cadets is a pretty massive waste of MOD budget tbh.
The Army Reserve is a bigger waste than the ACF if I'm being honest. I keep the cadets and drop the other without blinking.
CCF was fantastic. Yes there were the usual fantasists that were gonna be paras as soon as they could join but I used to love the shooting, camping and command tasks. The latter especially rewarded creativity and even with a set answer could still be defeated by some really out the box thinking.
Also, march and shoot got considerably easier once you were fit!
Wrong thread? 🤣
Wrong thread? 🤣
Yup 😆
I have no rockets in my pockets, no wombats in my combats, no schermulys down my goolies…….😜
...or are you pleased to see me
ex-WOMBAT, don't remember that version 🙂
Mind you, I hadn't realised that TA wasn't in the dictionary any more until about five minutes ago
Another addition to the "has anyone seen any verification of this and what it actually means" pile. Especially as theres assumptions about where they are going, or what they are replacing will end up going.
https://twitter.com/Ayei_Eloheichem/status/1669355287839641600?t=xA3vURIB6wZ9OrJEj2DYTQ&s=19
Google Translate
the names of the two countries that agreed on the purchase of more than 200 used Israeli tanks in light of the sensitivity of the process, but the deal is on the verge of a final signature and is expected to be completed relatively immediately, within about three months. Officials at the Ministry of Defense told Ynet that since certain mechanical parts in these tanks are American-made, especially the engine, approval from the Ministry of Defense in Washington is required to carry out the transaction
The Army Reserve is a bigger waste than the ACF if I’m being honest. I keep the cadets and drop the other without blinking.
Cheers mate, appreciate the sentiment. Good to know my effort (and those of my unit) are appreciated by the wider Army.
Pictures in the Guardian of burning Bradleys and a knocked out Leopard 2A6.
@Harry, I think that's the same ones from a few days ago but the development is that Russia has been able to get troops to the abandoned vehicles (and not just the burned out leopard but also the one that looked fairly unhurt). Whether they control them or whether it's basically just quick selfies in disputed ground, I don't think we know? Seems fairly likely that the "this is contested ground and neither side can safely recover them but equally neither side wants to destroy them" is still holding.
Cheers mate, appreciate the sentiment. Good to know my effort (and those of my unit) are appreciated by the wider Army.
We'd be stuffed without the reserve. When I first joined in the 1980s the regular army was massive and the chance of the (then) TA deploying on ops was slim, hence they did develop a bit of a drinking club mentality. Those days are long gone and the reserve are far more professional, integrated and frankly essential considering the small size of our regular force. Hats off to you and all willing to give up their spare time in defence of the country 👍
Edit to say I have a few mates in the reserve who have done operational deployments, where I'm sure their efforts were appreciated.
A delegation from South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Comoros, Zambia, and Uganda arrived in Poland before peace meetings in Ukraine with President Zelensky and then Russia with President Putin
There was a hiccough when the SA security team hadn't applied for EU firearms permits and weren't allowed off their aircraft while armed, so they elected to stay on the plane
There was another hiccough when Russia struck Kyiv with missiles forcing the African peace delegates to take to the shelters the day before their meeting with President Putin. This was made worse because four presidents were amongst the delegation, including President Cyril Ramaphosa of SA
South Africa took part in naval exercises with China and Russia in February and in May was accused by the US of supplying weapons to Russia so you'd imagine a good relationship. This attack is at the very least a PR disaster for Russia, leaving you asking who decided on the missile attack and do the African states need reminding of something by Russia?
The visit concluded in Moscow and ISW said this "Putin stated that the Kremlin welcomes the African states’ “balanced” approach to resolving the war in Ukraine in his meeting with the delegation, but did not comment on the feasibility of Ramaphosa’s suggested peace plan." and "The delegation likely seeks to balance Ukraine and Russia to maintain longstanding bilateral relationships with Russia without fully tying themselves diplomatically to the Kremlin’s war." https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-17-2023
Any updates on how the UKR counter offensive is going?
I've just browsed Twitterage.
It seems mixed - and really hard to tell what's happening. There's just huge propaganda, both positive and negative on both sides.
One commenter suggested we need to remember that after D-day, it took months to gain a proper foothold in France and then gain momentum.
Ukraine is applying more and more pressure until something gives, hopefully the Russians.
One commenter suggested we need to remember that after D-day, it took months to gain a proper foothold in France and then gain momentum
This.
dealing with deep mine fields and very accurate artillery and long range area missile systems for the offensive side has to be a proper nightmare.
This torture is allegedly being carried out to extract intelligence or to force confessions from detained individuals, or because of their former membership or support of the Ukrainian armed forces, Edwards said in a letter to the Russian Federation.“The alleged practices include electric shocks, beatings, hooding, mock executions and other threats of death,” the UN expert said. “If established, they would constitute individual violations and may also amount to a pattern of State-endorsed torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ukraine-soldiers-castrated-russia-war-0hflzhzlv
The two men had been savagely beaten. Then the drunken Russians castrated them with a knife.
“One of them told me, ‘I don’t know how I am still alive, there was so much blood, I thought I’d die of blood poisoning’,” she said.I dont know how these two countries will ever find a trusting peace.
Yatsenko shook her head. “I have a client from Georgia and she was tortured by Russians during the war there [in 2008] and fled to Ukraine. When war started here, she immediately took her kids and left, telling me, ‘I know what they are doing with young girls.’ I didn’t understand then, but now I do.”
...dealing with deep mine fields and very accurate artillery and long range area missile systems for the offensive side has to be a proper nightmare.
Yes, the Russian playbook is two defensive lines and if the attackers breach the first line then the second line will repel them.
The concrete tank obstacles have been derided but they tend to concentrate attacks around the engineers and their specialist vehicles, as do the minefields, leaving the Ukrainian forces open to artillery and allowing the second defensive line time to manoeuvre. The Russians have all sorts of problems but they've been around and anecdotally the conscripts are in the first line with the more experienced troops in the second.
What really sets this war apart is that NATO (and Russian) doctrine has always been to gain air superiority and that isn't possible. Russia has an advantage in the more southerly areas where they've been able to deploy attack helicopters. The majority of western AA kit isn't ideally positioned and the Ukrainian forces are having a tough time reaching the helicopters with their AA kit before missiles are launched and the helicopter turns tail.
One commenter suggested we need to remember that after D-day, it took months to gain a proper foothold in France and then gain momentum.
And that was against a completely broken army fighting on several fronts.
That army was very very far from broken bud .
Very far from broken indeed. But whilst they were able to put up a good fight in the bocage of Normandy, it is worth bearing in mind that what was broken was their airforce, we had almost total air superiority after D-Day, meaning we could support our ground troops and seriously impact on the Germans’ ability to manoeuvre. Something that the UA definitely don’t have.
Excellent observation, by all accounts in the south the ability to field more stand off air power is affecting the advance as you would expect.
the ka-52 fob is out of all current ukr weapons range (except storm shadow but doesn’t have cluster warhead) for now but there is talk of longer range mlrs being in theatre shortly.
there are a limited number of these attack helicopters and you’d think they are high on the target list . Unconfirmed reports say 3 downed in last 2 days ..
one thing Ukr are proving to be Is fast to adapt the f16s are some way off yet so air superiority is a no, best they can hope for is parity.
The fact ru are commiting high value assets to theatre is significant. As has been pointed out they are limited in number but also vulnerable.
That army was very very far from broken bud
kids and old blokes along with battle weary soldiers from the Eastern front. They were severely broken.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-german-response-to-d-day
The more numerous ‘static’ coast divisions were much less effective. These had little in the way of transport, and were merely expected to man fixed defences and hold their ground. They contained older troops, the medically unfit, and men recovering from wounds. Some also had contingents of Osttruppen, conscripts or volunteers from the Soviet Union and other eastern territories occupied by Germany. Many were former Soviet POWs and were generally regarded as having little value.
The fact ru are commiting high value assets to theatre is significant. As has been pointed out they are limited in number but also vulnerable
The attack helicopters are now having that vulnerability exploited and a handful have been shot down, possibly by forward operating troops.
Russia started with around 130 of the Kamov Ka52 in 2022 and have lost possibly 30 since then, but the biggest loss in the short-term will be crews who won't be flying them again.
The helicopters can't be used as intended because of the lack of air superiority and have to hug the ground which reduces missile range. You'd imagine that Russia will now change tack and adapt, Ukraine will adapt and so it goes on
The main thrust at the moment has to be disrupting Russian logistics, e.g. the destruction of a major centre at Rykove, Kherson yesterday, which will keep far more kit off the battlefield with fewer consequences for Ukraine's forces
AP are reporting that Russia had the "Means Motive and Opportunity" to blow the Kakhova dam, and this report shows what they're saying is an explosives filled car parked on top of the structure
Aircraft-based what is it?
There is a video knocking around of a pixellated missile being fired with a French backing track, a not-so-subtle message?
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ukrainian-mig-29-fighter-appears-with-mystery-weapon-pylons
The African Peace not much more than Russian's bitches....
Aircraft-based what is it?
Whatever it is, the Ukrainian's want the Russians to know and worry about it.
I have just read a few things about these ammunition and supply depots being hit. Suggestions vary from a week to a couple of weeks before the Russians are struggling to fuel, arm and feed troops at this rate - across much of the front. Suggestions that this will be far more effective than the head on fighting.
Suggestions that this will be far more effective than the head on fighting
No doubt. Russia traditionally has always needed volume; big artillery barrages, big air cover, two lines of troops, etc.
They rely on rail and regional centres and both are getting hit.
Ukraine in the meantime hasn't launched its major offensive and can rotate troops out for rest, morale should be good
Twitterarti reporting UK supplied storm shadow missiles are being used to hit the ammunition dumps held far in the rear. I think they even managed to hit an ammo train which took a out a rail head for double bubble.
Bet the satellite imagary guys in the pentagon are having a feild day, using billions of dollars of military hard and software for its intended purpose s