The point on communication is extremely important - due to the speeds of maneuver. Not really different from ground maneuver warfare in that regard, if you're driving an armor column into enemy territory - horse couriers are not going to cut it. I believe this was the primary advantage Germany had while invading France in WW2. The German tanks weren't that much better then the french ones, but they had radios, lots of them - enabling speedier decision making with reasonably accurate information.
According to the book Blitzed by Norman Ohler they did indeed go for 17 days with no sleep. A quote from German general Heinz Guderian: "I had ordered you not to sleep for forty-eight hours. You kept going for 17 days".
There is one incident mentioned in the book where Rommel comes accross a the bivouac of a French infantry division in his path and simply runs over everyone with his tanks while firing at them. It's not to say that the French were sleeping the whole time but they did have to rest and did not have to ability to deal with the speed and ferocity of the German attack.
The Germans ordered and distributed 35 million doses of methamphetamine before the attack.
1) In 1938 Pervitin was invented and brought to the civilian market and quickly became endemic among the German population.
2) In 1944 they invented D-IX, but that was never mass produced.
3) 35 million doses of methamphetamines (mainly Pervitin) was the complete number produced for the military forces during the COMPLETE second WW.
4) Guderian himself orderd for his 1. Tank division 20.000 tablets for the early days of the war in the West especially for the breakthrough at Sedan., that was in average roughly 1 tablet per soldier. If we assume that he used them only for tank soldiers (Panzerschokolade) that would mean ~15 tablets per tank soldier.
5) Now what happens to the human body deprived of sleep:
The maximum is around 11 days.
After 24 hours:
Reduced concentration, irritability, increased blood pressure, and dizziness.
After 48 hours:
Weakened immune system, impaired glucose metabolism, and strong cravings for carbohydrates.
After 72 hours:
Hallucinations, delusions, and mental breakdown.
More than 96 hours:
Considered torture and can cause permanent psychological and physical damage.
6) The Germans weren't the only ones:
The British also used amphetamines extensively, while the Americans developed a barbiturate-based pill called Blue 88 to treat battle fatigue.
Please don't believe everything, just because it was printed in a book.
Addendum:
7) Look up what amphetamines do to the human body.
That certainly helped, but the key factor was doctrine. The 1933 German Heer doctrine 'Truppenfurung" has been published in English - well worth reading. Not only does it show how Blitzkreig and panzer divisions worked, co-ordination of ground forces with air support, but also cavalry, horse lines and veterinary services - along with observation balloons.
What if the Russians threw a war and nobody studied logistics?
Every war since WW1 has featured ammunition shortages in the early war, the slow pace of industrial mobilization, etc. This one adds the incompetence to believe that the war could be fought without industrial mobilization at all.
"Whatever it takes" to kick the can down the road one more day.
To me, it looks like today it's all about believing thay you can win a war without fighting it, and you can't lose a war unless you recognize you're part of it.
Andrii Yermak’s home has been searched by anti-corruption agencies as an investigation into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme moves ever closer to the president
In other words, when everyone flies into outer space and is armed with blasters, Ukraine will finally have enough SkyShield systems. As for the entire Ukrainian government of thieves, who since 2014 have been telling Ukrainians fairy tales that there is no war in Ukraine, but rather an “anti-terrorist operation,” while Russian mercenaries and regular troops were killing, raping, and robbing its citizens in Donbas, and then telling fairy tales that “there is no alternative to Minsk,” actively embezzling all Western loans and squeezing all the juice out of the Ukrainian economy, it seems that this was the only “powerful” strategy of the Jews Poroshenko and Zelensky. The Panama and other offshore scandals confirm this. Oh, right, I forgot, it seems that Poroshenko's collaborationist regime and his ubiquitous army of bots were telling fairy tales that the army had actually been restored and there was no need to worry. It seems that he is now buying tires for the military and generators. Such a caring president... Probably so that everyone can cover themselves with them during rocket attacks. We also had Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Jewish), who built a “wall” on the border between Ukraine and Russia. It seems that together with Poroshenko, they stole 3 billion hryvnia and successfully distracted the population by saying that they were needed by the state and that something was being done for security. Then Yatsenyuk celebrated his first billion dollars and fled to the US. I think the residents of Kharkiv and Sumy will long remember such a “great” politician. Of course, only those who survive all this.
Thanks for this. You have written about parts of this before, like the EMCOM. But not stressed communication so much I think. Thx. Btw you have mentioned your itching toe before, maybe a doctor?
Fun thing that at the moment Ukraine looks to be the only country in the world, which is managing to survive and to mostly defend agains 600-800 air target raids every week.
Just imagine 600+ targets. All of them are manouvering. Some are fake. Others are Shaheds, Cruise Missiler, Ballistic Missiles. All moving with different speed.
Different tactits every montth. Most common is a swarm of Shaheds, which fly in convoluted paths, trying to trick AA. And then — launch of cruise missiles / ballistics.
Ballistics is fucking scary. You can't reliably shot it down, it's so fast. And extremely deadly. Those are things living 10 meters craters in the ground. When they hit building, there is no building anymore.
NATO has advances air force, but I think at the moment they have no understadning how to defend agains a swarms of drones on a regular basis.
You can't constantly shot down $10K drones with $1M rockets. Or to use expensive jets constantly to hunt them.
===
For all foreign friends of Ukraine:
If you could, please support "Shahedoriz" (Shahed Slayer) project.
Those are specialised AA FPV drones, that are very succesfull in hunting down Shaheds. And they are cheap!
At the moment this one of the best ways to defend agains drones: cheap, effective, mass-produced in Ukraine.
Also I want to say, that situation is very depressing.
Katsaps are advancing. We are losing the best men and territory.
Social Networks are all in necrologs.
russian are mass-producing drones and destroying our energy infrastrcture.
People are extremely tired of war, death, grim news.
We all heard of those corruption scandals. All Ukrainians are absolutely outraged on this.
Please, do not make those news discourage you to help Ukraine in every possible way.
Even 10 euro are helpfull.
Donate to the Return Alive, Sternenko, or direclt to the armed untis.
===
Just for example about situation:
All units constantly need cars.
I am donating to a Communication Unit, helpin them to buy such mundane stuff like batteries to the radios, powerbanks and other supplies. Because we just don't have it. Soldiers are spending their own salary to buy all of this.
Dear Tom.
I gratulate you on your changed tone. I like the way you changed from accusation to fact statements. I am looking forward to more this.
The point on communication is extremely important - due to the speeds of maneuver. Not really different from ground maneuver warfare in that regard, if you're driving an armor column into enemy territory - horse couriers are not going to cut it. I believe this was the primary advantage Germany had while invading France in WW2. The German tanks weren't that much better then the french ones, but they had radios, lots of them - enabling speedier decision making with reasonably accurate information.
The Germans were also amped up on methamphetamine and didn't need to sleep for 17 days. A big advantage when attacking sleeping French troops.
Sorry that is PR nonsense (no sleep for 17 days) and the French troops were not sleeping.
According to the book Blitzed by Norman Ohler they did indeed go for 17 days with no sleep. A quote from German general Heinz Guderian: "I had ordered you not to sleep for forty-eight hours. You kept going for 17 days".
There is one incident mentioned in the book where Rommel comes accross a the bivouac of a French infantry division in his path and simply runs over everyone with his tanks while firing at them. It's not to say that the French were sleeping the whole time but they did have to rest and did not have to ability to deal with the speed and ferocity of the German attack.
The Germans ordered and distributed 35 million doses of methamphetamine before the attack.
I start with the bottom:
1) In 1938 Pervitin was invented and brought to the civilian market and quickly became endemic among the German population.
2) In 1944 they invented D-IX, but that was never mass produced.
3) 35 million doses of methamphetamines (mainly Pervitin) was the complete number produced for the military forces during the COMPLETE second WW.
4) Guderian himself orderd for his 1. Tank division 20.000 tablets for the early days of the war in the West especially for the breakthrough at Sedan., that was in average roughly 1 tablet per soldier. If we assume that he used them only for tank soldiers (Panzerschokolade) that would mean ~15 tablets per tank soldier.
5) Now what happens to the human body deprived of sleep:
The maximum is around 11 days.
After 24 hours:
Reduced concentration, irritability, increased blood pressure, and dizziness.
After 48 hours:
Weakened immune system, impaired glucose metabolism, and strong cravings for carbohydrates.
After 72 hours:
Hallucinations, delusions, and mental breakdown.
More than 96 hours:
Considered torture and can cause permanent psychological and physical damage.
6) The Germans weren't the only ones:
The British also used amphetamines extensively, while the Americans developed a barbiturate-based pill called Blue 88 to treat battle fatigue.
Please don't believe everything, just because it was printed in a book.
Addendum:
7) Look up what amphetamines do to the human body.
That certainly helped, but the key factor was doctrine. The 1933 German Heer doctrine 'Truppenfurung" has been published in English - well worth reading. Not only does it show how Blitzkreig and panzer divisions worked, co-ordination of ground forces with air support, but also cavalry, horse lines and veterinary services - along with observation balloons.
What if the Russians threw a war and nobody studied logistics?
Every war since WW1 has featured ammunition shortages in the early war, the slow pace of industrial mobilization, etc. This one adds the incompetence to believe that the war could be fought without industrial mobilization at all.
"Whatever it takes" to kick the can down the road one more day.
To me, it looks like today it's all about believing thay you can win a war without fighting it, and you can't lose a war unless you recognize you're part of it.
We live in interesting times
in corruption scandal
Andrii Yermak’s home has been searched by anti-corruption agencies as an investigation into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme moves ever closer to the president
Seems Yermak resigned. Let's hope that will somehow improve the situation.
In other words, when everyone flies into outer space and is armed with blasters, Ukraine will finally have enough SkyShield systems. As for the entire Ukrainian government of thieves, who since 2014 have been telling Ukrainians fairy tales that there is no war in Ukraine, but rather an “anti-terrorist operation,” while Russian mercenaries and regular troops were killing, raping, and robbing its citizens in Donbas, and then telling fairy tales that “there is no alternative to Minsk,” actively embezzling all Western loans and squeezing all the juice out of the Ukrainian economy, it seems that this was the only “powerful” strategy of the Jews Poroshenko and Zelensky. The Panama and other offshore scandals confirm this. Oh, right, I forgot, it seems that Poroshenko's collaborationist regime and his ubiquitous army of bots were telling fairy tales that the army had actually been restored and there was no need to worry. It seems that he is now buying tires for the military and generators. Such a caring president... Probably so that everyone can cover themselves with them during rocket attacks. We also had Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Jewish), who built a “wall” on the border between Ukraine and Russia. It seems that together with Poroshenko, they stole 3 billion hryvnia and successfully distracted the population by saying that they were needed by the state and that something was being done for security. Then Yatsenyuk celebrated his first billion dollars and fled to the US. I think the residents of Kharkiv and Sumy will long remember such a “great” politician. Of course, only those who survive all this.
Big thank you to Tom for that excellent first part. This isn't a waste of time, quite the opposite.
Technologies change, but not basic principles.
Couldn't the first together with the to follow parts be the framework for another interesting book from Heleion in their new Technology@War series?
Зеленский уволил Ермака... Дальше что? Уволится сам? И кто прийдёт вместо него? Сырский?
I think that removal from office does not mean removal from power - all of Yermak's employees remained in their positions.
IMHO that will change with the new person responsible for the office.
Thanks for this. You have written about parts of this before, like the EMCOM. But not stressed communication so much I think. Thx. Btw you have mentioned your itching toe before, maybe a doctor?
Awesome article, typed on a weekend no less! This is why I read and subscribe to your site, thanks again!
Fun thing that at the moment Ukraine looks to be the only country in the world, which is managing to survive and to mostly defend agains 600-800 air target raids every week.
Just imagine 600+ targets. All of them are manouvering. Some are fake. Others are Shaheds, Cruise Missiler, Ballistic Missiles. All moving with different speed.
Different tactits every montth. Most common is a swarm of Shaheds, which fly in convoluted paths, trying to trick AA. And then — launch of cruise missiles / ballistics.
Ballistics is fucking scary. You can't reliably shot it down, it's so fast. And extremely deadly. Those are things living 10 meters craters in the ground. When they hit building, there is no building anymore.
NATO has advances air force, but I think at the moment they have no understadning how to defend agains a swarms of drones on a regular basis.
You can't constantly shot down $10K drones with $1M rockets. Or to use expensive jets constantly to hunt them.
===
For all foreign friends of Ukraine:
If you could, please support "Shahedoriz" (Shahed Slayer) project.
Those are specialised AA FPV drones, that are very succesfull in hunting down Shaheds. And they are cheap!
At the moment this one of the best ways to defend agains drones: cheap, effective, mass-produced in Ukraine.
https://www.sternenkofund.org/en/fundraisings/shahedoriz
===
Also I want to say, that situation is very depressing.
Katsaps are advancing. We are losing the best men and territory.
Social Networks are all in necrologs.
russian are mass-producing drones and destroying our energy infrastrcture.
People are extremely tired of war, death, grim news.
We all heard of those corruption scandals. All Ukrainians are absolutely outraged on this.
Please, do not make those news discourage you to help Ukraine in every possible way.
Even 10 euro are helpfull.
Donate to the Return Alive, Sternenko, or direclt to the armed untis.
===
Just for example about situation:
All units constantly need cars.
I am donating to a Communication Unit, helpin them to buy such mundane stuff like batteries to the radios, powerbanks and other supplies. Because we just don't have it. Soldiers are spending their own salary to buy all of this.
Volunteering is extremely importnat
It's what literally saves lives of our people.