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Operation Situation Report Summary - Ukraine 4 March

 Defense Without Strategy Ukraine seems to be hell bent on fighting a static war without almost any flexibility. Their forces may be valiant and defiant, but without a coherent strategy, the best they can hope for is to prolong their own suffering WITHOUT significantly hurting the enemy. Here is how the situation stands as of now. Kherson has fallen. The front in the South was decisively broken day before yesterday with the capture of the railway station and port. Naturally, the Russian forces did not wait and moved straight North to Mykolaiv. All UA forces on the Dnepr facing South are likely to be outflanked. Unless the Russian spearheads are cut off and destroyed in a day or two, it will be too late. The fall of the entire South seems to be inevitable.  To extricate the forces, UA should have withdrawn forces from other sectors (including far away Donetsk front). Now, the best they can try is to win time to reinforce Kyiv. Kharkov is almost surrounded. This battle seems to be fought

Operational Situational Summary - Ukraine 2 March

From a glance at the map and the news reports, it appears that the Russian advance has been very slow or even checked. However, a deeper look shows the situation has worsened significantly for Ukraine. That this happened as per my expectation in the past few posts makes me feel worse. In the North, the Russian forces have already encircled Chernihiv in the past couple of days. This is not yet fully updated on this map. The two strong armored spearheads from Konotop (which had also fallen) are currently holding in Pryluky and Nizhyn. The Chernihiv garrison probably has a day or two before the Russians reach Kozelets. Then any breakout attempt to Kyiv will become extremely difficult and will likely result in very heavy losses. It is to be expected that this city too, will fall soon without affecting the battle of Kyiv. This is bad for Ukraine. Now that the International Community has rallied for Ukraine, the previous fears of Russia dealing with breakaway republics in the East should be

Operational Situation Summary - Ukraine 27 February

The media has been reporting massive Ukrainian victories and impending Russian defeat. The talks have also been cancelled, neither side could agree on the conditions and location. Russia has in the meantime put its nuclear arsenal on alert. Below is however the frontline as it stands roughly. Kyiv Front As we can see from the map, the situation is actually worsening for Ukraine and pretty quickly. While the latest attacks on Kharkiv were beaten back and most of the city retaken by ZSU (Ukrainian Armed Forces), Kyiv is being encircled slowly but surely. The North was the first to fall and rapidly. A direct assault to occupy the city failed yesterday, and it seems a further reinforced assault also failed to breach the city defences. In fact, some of the supply convoys were attacked further slowing the Russian advance. However, if we look at the map, it is clear that the Russians are simply encircling the capital. The road to Korosten is in Russian hands, the road to Zhytomyr is being thr

Conventional Military Options for Russia and possible Ukrainian Defense Strategy

Russian Armed Forces have continued their invasion of Ukraine over the past couple of days. The first operations had begun from the bridgeheads claimed by separatist forces in the so called Donets,  Luhansk People's Republic and the Crimean People's Republic. I will not go into detail comparing the tactical or operational situation. That requires a more serious study. Also, the information coming from the media sources is fairly limited and often contradictory - so drawing the proper conclusions is difficult. However, the overall strategic situation is a lot clearer . The image below shows the current frontline. The major problem is that such a solid frontline beyond these lines do not exist. There have been saboteurs who have been found operating significantly deeper inside Ukrainian territories. But these are roughly the lines where the major conventional forces stand. Ukrainian Mistakes before the invasion Intelligence Failure There have been some failings from the Ukrainian

They shall not grow old

I have always been enamored to war. It is different from being in love with war. I never disliked war, considering it a tool in the instrument of politics or policy making. In that I am more in line with what Clausewitz had in mind . But my fascination for war and especially conventional modern warfare (WW1, WW2) has only increased. I remember picking up Zhukov's Memoirs and Konev's war diaries when I was in Class IX. Then I devoured von Manstein's Lost Victories, Achtung Panzer by Guderian, Keitel's War Memoirs, Stuka Pilot by Hans Ulrich Rudel and so on. In addition, I have extensively studied about war strategy - all that is available in the public domain - from economics of warfare to Manstein's favorite sickle cut, from Beweigungkreig to Deep penetration Warfare and Cold Start doctrines. In all these accounts the individual glories of generals, and officers or political figures reigned supreme. They never claimed otherwise, but the grim realities of war es

Stalingrad 2013 Movie Review

I saw the trailer of this movie once and really really liked it. What was really interesting was the Thomas Kretschmann acted in a movie with the same name exactly 20 years back. Stalingrad was released in 1993 and the young Kretschmann played the role of a dutiful but conscientious German leutnant of the ill fated 6th Armee. Here also he comes back, slightly older and rugged. The spectacular visuals, the background sound and the lack of background music makes it a realistic watch. That is all positive that I have to say about this trash. Yes, that's what I will this. Naturally, while watching this I brought in similar scenes of Stalingrad (1993) among other war movies. And in comparison this movies cuts so sorry a figure that I dared not watch the entire movie even! The story starts of slow enough and just completely refused to pick up pace. The entire movie seemed to be directed by an amateur school student, bolstered by some insanely talented special effects team. This made t

Shun the Empire of the Sun

Spoiler Alert : If you read this, watching the film may bore you. Yer warned. There are only very few war movies that I did not like. Empire of the Sun is one of them. The war movie directed by none other than Steven Spielberg is set in Shanghai, China during the World War II. It basically documents the life of an young English boy under Japanese occupation. The movie is so bizarre right from the beginning that I often wonder what got into the head of the director. An overly irritating English boy is shown as living the life of extreme luxury while China is being devoured by Japan. So far so good, as that was pretty much what happened in real life as well. But after the Japanese take over the city things become more and more ridiculous. Starting from American adventurers in occupied China to the boy turning into a surrender freak! You would often wonder if the boy is just plain childish or retarded, or God forbid, both! An innocent boy's chronicle of life under foreign oc

September 6

Today is 6th September. In 1965 Indian tanks halted on the Ichogil Canal of Lahore, just short of the main city. The ceasefire came into effect in a couple of days. This 'brilliant feat' of defense by Pakistan Army is considered a matter of pride for them. It is for them and also for many Indians that I am posting some pictures. Pakistani Patton Tanks in Patton Nagar Sherman - Pakistan Army - Ichogil, Outskirts of Lahore Gorkha Regiment celebrating Sialkot Sector - Captured Pakistani Tanks Pakistan's 1st Armored Division in Indian hands Pakistan Patton Tank in ditch Pak Chafee Tanks in wheat field, Punjab Pak M24 Chafee Tank taken to cantonments as war trophee M24 Chafee stuck Indian PM Lal Bahadur Shastri posing over captured Pakistani Patton Tank Indian Officers pose in front of captured Pakistani Sherman - Chawinda Pak Tanks Captured - Chawinda Patton Tank loaded into

Let's Lose Another War

Pakistan Army Recruitment Poster Was wondering what to do. Suddenly had a stroke of imagination. Created this using Google Drawing. Doing stuff like this in office is not easy. Not because people are watching. But because the software to create something like this is not available. Online web apps - especially the image hosting apps and editing tools are all blocked for being hosting or image repositories. While just doing some random ego searching I hit upon this idea. I had this inspiration from this one here. I do not know who exactly created it. A simple Google image search will show. You can do that. I feel too lazy now. :D

Significance of June 6

Tomorrow is June 6th. The world may be well on its way to forget the importance of the day. But I, far away from the historic places, value it. Yes, I mean the battlefield of Normandy or Normandie. On June, 6th , 1944, the Allied forces began their Operation Overlord . English, American and Canadian forces assaulted the German forces of Festung Europa , perched on the imposing but ineffective Atlantik Wall. This is not going to be a war account. I have no veteran stories or other war manuals or diaries to share either. I just write this in memory of the countless number of Allied soldiers killed my MG42 s while they were coming ashore, the disfigured bodies of many Allied men (nay boys) who faced hell from the German artillery batteries and static naval guns. I write about the hundreds of paratroopers who went behind the lines to harass German forces in their rear, the pilots who broke the back of the German transport and logistics network, about the valiant few members of the Fr