The Holocaust was pretty damn stupid. Wasted an enormous amount of resources that could have gone to the war effort.
No argument there. What I meant was that the German Army in WW2 usually fought smart - that’s what mad them so dangerous.
Fair enough.
Prigozhin says it is time to declare victory and go home.
From the Daily Beast:
“For the authorities and for society as a whole, it is necessary today to put a decisive end to the [special military operation.] The ideal scenario is to announce the end of the [special military operation], to inform everyone that Russia has achieved the results that it planned, and in a sense we have actually achieved them. We have ground down a huge number of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and we can report that the tasks of the [special military operation] have been completed,” he wrote.
Were there any open windows around when he said that?
Age isn’t that important for rescue missions and cargo. These helicopters were very well maintained in the UK.
Link The 40-year-old British helicopter flying in Ukraine
While it’s true that they’ve killed a lot of soldiers, can anyone do a nice summary of how powerful the Ukraine military is today, compared to January 2022? Manpower, equipment (both numbers and quality), training, organization, command and control, all that? I suspect it’s far superior, but don’t really have the numbers to back that up.
Military and security service personnel strengths
up to 700,000 active-duty personnel, including the Armed Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, National Guard, and State Border Guard (July 2022)
note 1: following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President ZELENSKY announced a general mobilization of the country; prior to the invasion, approximately 200,000 active Armed Forces troops (125,000 Army; 25,000 Airborne/Air Assault Forces; 2,000 Special Operations Forces; 10,000 Navy; 40,000 Air Force); approximately 50,000 National Guard; approximately 40,000 State Border Guard
Ukraine needs to follow Israel’s policy, Israeli citizens who meet the conscription criteria are required to serve once they reach 18 years of age.
Russia will be a threat for a long time. This war may eventually end, but a new invasion will be a long standing concern.
Except for the ultra Orthodox.
And this is not the thread for that discussion. Start a new thread or at least drop it here.
One engineer, Ihor, tells me that the Sea Kings are in fact mostly new, with very little of the original helicopter remaining.
That’s how aircraft need to be maintained. Most of the General Aviation fleet in this country is 50 to 60 years old. These aren’t cars. Aluminum holds up well, and every aircraft is inspected annually (or ever 100 flying hours, if used to make money) and must be kept airworthy in order to fly.
And rescue/cargo helicopters are not like fighter and attack jets. Newer helicopters might be better (faster, burn less fuel, modern components), but old ones work just fine. As Ihor the Engineer says, they’re like new.
I’m guessing he’s more used to ex-Soviet helicopters.
Or the sentence was badly translated. : )
A couple of centuries ago, when British soldiers wore red uniforms and were expected to walk, line abreast, towards enemy guns, the sergeants and junior officers were following behind ready to shoot anyone who tried to turn back, and to push soldiers into any gaps caused by enemy fire.
Russian T-90 at Louisiana truck stop. The shipping label on the barrel says its going to the Army Aberdeen Test Center.
Long trip from Ukraine to Gdynia, Poland and then the US.
That is why non coms and officers in every army carry sidearms.
Great idea. Then there’ll be no one to oppose Ukraine taking back their territory.
Summary
Over in the “Nazis could have won WWII” thread there’s pretty well-sourced argument saying the opposite, the proportion of available resources that went to that was not all that great. Certainly not enough to have made a material difference
.
Summary
What about the effect of not having Jewish German scientists and tacticians helping the cause?