General Grachev once "joked" that he would take Grozny in two hours with the forces of one regiment of the Airborne Forces. As a result, over 10 years of war, the entire Russian army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had to be driven through the Chechen Republic. History knows many such examples of excessive self-confidence and cruel miscalculations in planning offensive operations - "jokers" from the British General Staff decided to seize a major bridgehead on the French coast with the help of one tank and six infantry regiments - a total of 6,000 paratroopers supported by 74 squadrons of the Royal Air Force and a flotilla of 237 ships for various purposes. At exactly 5 a.m. on August 19, 1942, the Allies began a brisk landing on the coast of occupied France. By 9 a.m. of the same day, the British and Canadians boarded their barges and sailed away in horror - less than half of the 6,000 soldiers survived, the Air Force lost a hundred aircraft, and the wreckage of 34 British ships sank into the cold waters of the English Channel.
The landing operation in Dieppe was a sheer profanation in order to convince the Soviet Union of the impossibility of an early opening of the Second Front. But this bloody production became a reference example from the series "how not to do" in the art of war.
It would seem that the British competently planned the operation, distributed forces, and provided powerful fire support from the sea and air. The paratroopers were well trained and provided with all the necessary equipment - up to the heavy Churchill tanks.
The only "miscalculation" of the British command - too few troops and too weak support.
Let me … 6,000 people and 237 ships - is it really not enough for a local operation with the modest task of gaining a foothold on the "other side" and holding out there only for a while, so that the British command gets an idea of the situation in France, enemy forces and possible scenarios when planning the future "Big operation"? Alas, the allocated forces turned out to be too small even for such "nonsense" as "reconnaissance in force" in the territory occupied by the Germans.
What should have been the force of the landing for a successful landing at Dieppe? Now it is difficult to name any specific figure, but, taking into account the experience of the landing in Normandy, the Allies at Dieppe should definitely have several times more soldiers and about six times more aircraft (this is precisely the air superiority that was achieved during the operation " Overlord ").
In addition to the famous military axiom “the losses of the attackers are three times the losses of the defenders”, there is another axiom - every successful offensive operation should be carried out with an overwhelming (colossal, monstrous - you can call it whatever) numerical superiority of the attackers over the defenders. The degree of this "superiority" depends on the specific situation, personal abilities and ambitions of the belligerents. The Red Army of the 1944 model was enough 2-3 times the numerical superiority over the Wehrmacht. Even a tenfold superiority is not enough for the Arab armies to "finally resolve" the question of the existence of the State of Israel.
The rare reverse examples of successful offensive operations with small forces only confirm the general rule and, again, are associated with some critical shortcomings of the defending armies. Moreover, often, despite its initial success and heroism of the fighters, a small army is quickly "crushed by numbers", drained of blood and, in the end, smashed to smithereens. Mustachioed Hitler is a witness.
The United States is fighting in a very, very peculiar way (more precisely, they are the only ones who can afford it) - in any military operation a completely inadequate amount of forces is involved, the war is waged with complete technical and material superiority and, if possible, after the maximum economic and political weakening of the enemy. Embargo to help. In general, you need to choose a weaker opponent in advance.
This is especially true of the situation in the air - here the Yankees (and their allies - during their friendship with "Uncle Sam" they picked up his habits) are striving to achieve just a global effect: aviation flies in the sky and leads to victory. 1000 of the most modern aircraft were thrown against hundreds of Yugoslav Air Force planes "breathing in incense"! The secret of such efforts usually reveals itself after the war - countries burned to the ground with napalm with sporadic losses on the part of the aggressors. And where the losses of the Yankees are in the tens of thousands, the enemy loses millions (for example, during the Second World War, the ratio of military losses to the United States and Japan was expressed by the shameful proportion of 1: 9).
Hammurabi, Tavalkana, Nebuchadnezzar …
On the night of August 2, 1990, Iraqi T-72s accomplished a feat - under the conditions of the most severe embargo on military materials, far from maintenance regulations and a shortage of spare parts, Soviet-built tanks withstood a 200-kilometer march through the desert without breakdowns and burst into Kuwait a day later., having carried out a lightning-fast takeover of the country. No "Leclerc" or "Abrams" could have withstood such a cruel test of time, rust and the ensuing frenzied march.
Iraq was strong and knew very well about it, therefore it acted boldly and decisively. Fourth place in the world in terms of the number of armored vehicles. 5,500 tanks. 800 combat aircraft. 25 brigades of the Republican Guard. The legendary mechanized division "Tavalkan" … And behind us - eight years of continuous battles with the Iranian army, which gained invaluable experience in planning and conducting major strategic operations.
“Bush, here your soldiers will be torn apart! Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi elite soldiers. They will destroy everything here, they will pass through the desert in one hour, they will blow up all your destroyers …”- Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke authoritatively about the wars in the Persian Gulf.
"If hostilities continue for six months, the costs will amount to $ 86 billion, and the losses of the American army will reach 45 thousand people killed and wounded, 900 tanks and 600 aircraft destroyed," the alarming report of the US Congress initially shocked the American public. However, President Bush Sr. reassured the nation that the war with Iraq would only last a few days, with 500 casualties. A little "pepper" was added by cunning reporters, finding out a "military secret" - 16 thousand body bags were delivered to the Persian Gulf region! The Americans took with a margin.
41 countries of the world officially took part in the Gulf War - Iraq and a multinational coalition formed from military units of 40 states
It took the Multinational Force (MNF) six months to deliver a myriad of manpower and equipment to the Gulf region! For six months, the American high-speed transports of the Maritime Transportation Command tirelessly unloaded soldiers, equipment and military equipment to the docks of numerous strong points in the region - dozens of military bases in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were literally inundated with equipment. Ammunition and food supplies, fuel and fresh water trailers were delivered across the floor of the globe.
We managed to transfer something by air - dozens of heavy transport aircraft were urgently leased around the world, for example, An-124 Ruslan was used to deliver components of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems. Soon, 160 tanker aircraft flew in, that is how much it took to reliably support the combat missions of the MNF aviation.
Armored vehicles from Syria and Egypt arrived on their own. Some important things were brought up on the warships of the NATO countries. Help for the preparation for the Great War was actively supplied from all five continents, even Argentina and New Zealand helped in some way. Sweden sent a field hospital. Czechoslovakia - chemical protection battalion. Bit by bit from all over the world.
As a result, six months later, the following were concentrated in the Persian Gulf and adjacent areas:
- one million soldiers, - 3360 tanks, - 4000 armored personnel carriers, - 2600 combat aircraft, - 1900 transport, attack and multipurpose helicopters.
- Six aircraft carrier strike groups, cruisers and nuclear submarines with Tomahawk cruise missiles, a pair of rusty battleships, several nuclear cruisers, universal amphibious helicopter docks, hundreds of destroyers and frigates from the Navy all over the world.
That's how many weapons it took to "hack" the Iraqi defenses!
Tanks are sailing on the sea
An aircraft carrier strike group of the US Navy entered the Persian Gulf, an aircraft carrier strike group of the US Navy left the Persian Gulf, an amphibious group of the US Navy patrols the waters north of the Strait of Hormuz … American AUGs can enter and leave the Persian Gulf as much as they want, back and forth - until then until the last cent remains in the wallets of American taxpayers. American AUG have nothing to do with the performance of any serious combat missions in local conflicts. Purely a means of political pressure and a demonstration of power.
Take a look at this company of five high-speed transports of the Marine Command. Any nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is just a puppy compared to them - here they are, the true "democratizers" doing all the "dirty work". These "workers' wars" do not flex their muscles at the audience and do not participate in military parades. But each of them is capable of delivering 180 Abrams tanks across the ocean in a matter of days and, in addition, a million gallons of fuel (American measure of volume, 1 gallon ≈ 3.74 liters). It is the high-speed transports of the Marine Transportation Command that are a key element in any modern local war, without them it would be impossible for the army and the Marine Corps to function far from their home shores. They are also responsible for supplying numerous American bases outside the United States.
There are 115 of them in total, 50 more vessels are being mothballed. By tradition, most of the transports are named after the heroically killed servicemen, with the exception of the Algol series - all 8 transports of this series are named after the brightest stars. On the technical side, there are two main requirements for transport: huge carrying capacity (sometimes the deadweight reaches 30 thousand tons with a total displacement of more than 60 thousand!) - these steel "barges" are so large that they are larger than the aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov". The second most important requirement is speed (at least 24 knots), and the best of them can reach speeds of up to 33 knots!
In the past, they were all civilian container ships and ro-ro ships, purchased from private companies around the world and undergoing global modernization at military shipyards. All transports are necessarily equipped with powerful cargo arrows (60-100 tons) and pontoons for dropping heavy armored vehicles without mooring to the shore. Rollers (ships for the transport of wheeled vehicles), as usual, are equipped with a lifting ramp for unloading tanks and trucks ashore on their own. Most of the transports have a helipad installed, there are rooms for accommodating additional crew members - in peacetime, transports are served by civilians, if necessary, the crew can be increased by naval sailors.
As we have already seen, it is impossible to carry out any major offensive military operations with the limited forces of the "one regiment" - even the war with small Iraq required the involvement of a million soldiers and more than seven thousand armored vehicles! On the other hand, for the transfer and effective supply of a million-strong army, special naval equipment is needed (after all, there is still no vehicle equal in efficiency and carrying capacity to sea vessels). Therefore, we can confidently say that the war between the United States and Iran will not begin until the huge transports of the Maritime Transportation Command regularly appear in the Strait of Hormuz.
