Gen. Mick Ryan on how to cross a river. Or not. Brilliant thread!

[Tomconroy]

Link to tweet

[PortTack]

1. They actually made 3 attempts! 2 pontoon bridges, both blown up. Then they tried just driving

Their tanks into the river. The tanks are now stuck in the muddy river bottom. Estimates are they lost a battalions worth of equipment and possibly 200- 1000 soliders.

[Tomconroy]

2. They suffered the greatest defeat of the war so far

Link to tweet

Starts mid thread.

[Tomconroy]

3. The Guardian reports:

Link to tweet

[brush]

4. They drove tanks into the river after bridges blown up?

WTF is up with these Russians and the ridiculous decision making? Tanks don't float, are heavy as hell and tend to get stuck in mud at the bottom of rivers if anyone is stupid enought to drive one into a river.

Are Russian tank commanders dense? No wonder they're losing.

[modrepub]

6. Death By Combat

or death by firing squad. I'm guessing failure to meet your objectives has really bad consequences, so why not?

Russian/Soviet military casualty figures from WW I and WW II were much higher than other countries. They have always placed a low priority on their soldier's lives.

The difference today is Russia is standing alone. It has no real allies that can prop it up economically to maintain their high loss rate in soldiers (who knows if women will be conscripted; they were in combat units during WW II) and material. The longer this conflict drags on, the harder it will be for Russia to sustain. Replacement soldiers and material will become harder to produce under economic strain. Ukraine by contrast, has nearly unlimited resources on the material side if NATO continues to send them weapons and support materials. More Ukraine soldiers will be trained and move to the front as time goes by to replace personnel killed or wounded in combat.

The best chance of Russian success probably evaporated in the first days of the conflict.

[marked50]

9. I will add that another reason The Soviets were successful in WW2

was also the Lend Lease program that the US supplied them with- aircraft, food, materials, oil, and all sorts of other equipment.

Ironic isn't it. The Russians are now facing our Lend Lease program given to their adversary- Ukraine.

[modrepub]

10. Exactly

All wars are wars of attrition. And I'll add, there are no winners in war, only lesser degrees of losing.

The Soviets were on the winning side of WW II. For that win, it's estimated that the Soviets lost over 26 million people. That's about the current population of Australia.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Apparently all the officers with knowledge and training are being killed.

So the Russian army will make more and more foolish decisions.

Those who are still alive overestimate their abilities, are overly optimistic, and lie to the politicians.

[Layzeebeaver]

8. "deploy snorkles" to a tanker it likely the same as "fix bayonets" to a rifleman

You will either make it thru, or you will suffer a horrible death.

I am curious about the engagement of Russian artillery, air, and missile in this affair.

Did they just send in a tank battalion on it's own, without support? If so...

This seems to be to be a breakdown in command structure.

[pecosbob]

5. "What I did to destroy Russian pantonne bridge over Siverskyi Donets"

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1524506104192974849.html

What I did to destroy Russian pantonne bridge over Siverskyi Donets - a thread 🧵