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It’s Like the First World War…If We kill them, they’re just replaced

The war between Russian and Ukraine features hi-tech weaponry such as missiles, aircraft, tanks and drones but for many front line infantrymen, iconditions are similar to those of the the First World War

Click on the link below for an article from the London Sunday Times about front line conditions in the war between Ukraine and Russia.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/life-in-the-trenches-waves-of-russians-go-over-the-top-theyre-just-cannon-fodder-n2fcf88hq

It quotes Metar, a 54 year old Ukrainian videographer who is now a drone operator, as saying that ‘It’s just like the First World War.’ Metar and his comrades are in trenches that are sometimes only 150m from the Russians. They attack in waves across muddy ground after a preliminary artillery bombardment, trying to get close enough to throw grenades into the Ukrainian trenches.

They are poorly equipped and the worst trained are sent in first, apparently to reveal the Ukrainian positions and to use up Ukrainian ammunition. Wounded Russians are abandoned in No Man’s Land.

Unlike a First World War soldier, Metar has a bird’s eye view of the Russian attacks thanks to the drones

The Ukrainians suffered from frost bite in the early days of the fight, but have now learnt to avoid it by keeping moving. They do two days in the trenches and then two days off.

Many of the Russians come from the Wagner Group, a force of 50,000 men, 40,000 of them convicts from Russian prisons. It was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire who is close to President Vladimir Putin

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WWII GI’s Letter Home Delivered in 2021

On December 6 1945, Sergeant John Gonsalves, a US soldier stationed at Bad Orb in occupied Germany, posted a letter to his mother. In it, he asked her to stop sending him packages, as he expected to be home in January or February. He complained about the ‘lousy weather’ and inquired about his pals and Jim.

A typical letter home by a soldier then, but what makes it remarkable is that it was found undelivered in a US Postal Service distribution facility in Pittsburgh in December 2021. John’s mother is dead and he died in 2015 but USPS employees managed to trace his widow, Angelina, who is still alive, and delivered the letter to her home in Woburn, MA on 9 December 2021. They married in 1953 and had five sons.

“I love it. I love it. When I think it’s all his words, I can’t believe it. It’s wonderful. And I feel like I have him here with me, you know?” Angelina told CBS Boston, adding that she had ‘a funny feeling, he was around us at Christmas time. One of his favorite times of the year.’

She also told Boston 25 News that ‘It’s like he came back to me, you know? Really. That was amazing. He was a good man. He really was. Everybody loved him.’

See also The Times.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/soldiers-letter-from-germany-finally-arrives-76-years-late-0sqfpq2mz?shareToken=e1a95a78e1761b38bf7bc10b4c209b7d

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Axing Challenger will free British Army to re-think land warfare strategy, general says

THE British Army must embrace the fact that its Challenger tanks are woefully out of date and lead the way in Nato with a transformative new land warfare strategy, a former Joint Forces Commander said last night. Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who retired in 2016, said that, while armour will continue to play a key […]

Axing Challenger will free British Army to re-think land warfare strategy, general says

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Are China and India finally heading for their own Cuban Missile Crisis?

More on the India-China border dispute from the Defence Editor of the UK Sunday Express. The British and Chinese drew the border on small scale maps.

Eye 6

INDIA’s reluctance to join a military alliance and China’s territorial ambitions – as well as its failures to learn from the Cuban Missile Crisis – could lead to major conflict between the two nuclear states, experts predicted last night.
The warnings follow a border skirmish in the Himalayas in which Chinese troops used nail-studded rods to kill 20 Indian soldiers, including their commanding officer.
In his sharpest rebuke to date, India’s PM Narendra Modi warned China that, while India wanted peace, “on provocation, India will give a befitting reply.”
Privately, Indian diplomats attempted to play down any thoughts of escalation, pointing to this week’s Russia-India-China foreign ministers’ meeting.
“The fact that all both India and Russia are still meeting in this week’s trilateral bodes well for de-escalation and the resumption of relations,” said a highly placed source.
But with border issues not on the agenda, and Covid-19 protocols dictating the…

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China on collision course for military conflict “within five years”, experts warn

More on the threat from China, this time from the Defence and Diplomatic Editor of the UK Sunday Express

Eye 6

THE world could witness armed conflict with China “within the next five years”as an increasingly beliigerent Beijing rejects a post Covid-19 world order, a leading China has warned.
It follows a ramping up of tensions following China’s alleged role in allowing the Covid-19 virus to become a worldwide pandemic, and reports last week that it intends to brand large tracts of the South China as its own Air Defence Identifcation Zone.
Also significant is a small increase in the number of countries supporting Taiwan’s admission to the World Health Assembly – a move which China sees as a crack in its territorial claims perpetuating Taipei’s leaning towards independence
Last week a leaked internal report presented by China’s Ministry of State Security to President Xi Jinping revealed that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
According to highly placed sources, Xi has been warned to…

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Quite amazing blog

Blog full of excellent pictures of ships. Thanks to Pierre Lagacé’s equally excellent Lest We Forget blog for the link.

Lest We Forget

Click here.

This blogger has stopped blogging since 2014.

What he did is most impressive work.

If you like ships of course.

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Happy New Year!

Happy new year and thanks for reading, commenting on and liking my blog in 2015.

I will probably be posting a bit less in the next few months as I have signed a contract to write a book based on my PhD thesis on British Strategy and Oil 1914-1923, so will be prioritising that, but will keep the blog going.

 

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2013 in review

Thanks and happy New Year to all readers and contributors.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Living History — Foul Weather Mars Tall Ship Sail Past

Very interesting blog, especially the pictures of sailing ships,

Military History Now

A fleet of five tall ships dropped anchor in the harbour off Hamilton, Canada late this week as part of the city’s ongoing War of 1812 bicentennial celebrations. The collection of three brigantines, one barquentine and a three-master was led by the USS Niagara — a reproduction of the famous vessel Oliver Hazard Perry commanded during the decisive Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. The ships, which will spend the weekend on Hamilton’s waterfront, are open to the pubic for tours. Area residents flocked to the edge of Hamilton Bay on Friday to watch the five vessels take part in a sail past. MilitaryHistoryNow.com was there to take in the sight, but inclement weather kept the ships far out of range of our zoom lens. We did manage to get these following shots (see below), the first of which has been enlarged to within an inch of its life.

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Welcome to the War and Security Blog

The War and Security Blog will mostly be about the history of warfare, but I will also comment on current national security issues. As I’m British, the focus will be mostly, but not exclusively, on the UK.

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