The Biggest Tank Battle of the war in Ukraine.
This engagement is the key to figuring out what the heck is wrong with the Russian military. Military history is littered with battles that exposed glaring inadequacies, be that in; outdated tactical doctrine, training, equipment, or simply leadership.
A notable example would be the Battle of Jutland, 1916, when Admiral Beatty reacting to his Royal Navy battleships exploding, famously said:
“There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.”
The Royal Navy and senior officers held committees to get to the bottom of what the frack happened. It turned out to be a legacy doctrine issue from the days of ships-of-the-line when the Royal Navy focused on high fire rate — old Beatty’s ships were stacking Cordite in gun turrets and leaving blast doors open, to speed up main gunnery rate of fire.
The management and storage of high explosive Cordite was corrected, blast doors were closed and the Royal Navy effectively resolved the problem.
Now to the massive tank battle that recently took place in eastern Ukraine.
The Battle of the Plains of Vuhledar, 8th — 27th February 2023.
The much-vaunted Russian offensive that Russian fanboys had excitedly hyped as being a game changer in this war (sharing photos of Russian military equipment and mobilised conscripts en route to Ukraine), was launched at the beginning of February 2023.
On the 8th of February a formidable force of freshly mobilised troops of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade were supplied with infantry fighting vehicles and tanks, before being tasked with assaulting Vuhledar, while detachments of motorized infantry would assault the entrenched Ukrainian defenders in the wooded approach in tandem.
This armoured Russian column rumbled across the frozen ground following a dirt track beside a wooded ditch, straight into a bottleneck mined and already ranged by nearby Ukrainian artillery and entrenched tanks. — Henrey Bradley’s Battle of Vuhledar.
The British Ministry of Defence had a field day keeping the world upto date on the battle. Russians dismissed it all as Ministry of Truth, while aloofly complimenting themselves on being so well-read.
After the successful Ukrainian ambush of this initial Russian armoured column, the invaders threw a wobbly because frankly losing 30 armoured vehicles including Tanks, was embarrassing, in revenge they moved Thermobaric rocket systems to the area and systematically flattened the small town of Vuhledar.
While the use of Thermobaric weapons is disturbing, the Ukrainian 48th Rifle Battalion and 68th mechanised Brigade defending the now ruined town were not about to retreat or just sit around taking the punishment — footage emerged of the Ukrainians destroying the Russian Thermobaric launcher.
Russian military commanders weren’t about to let these minor setbacks persuade them that there were easier targets than Vuhledar, the small well-defended coal-mining town had been selected as the site of a Russian breakthrough and nothing would change that.
The civilian cottages and urban areas between the front lines were bombarded by Russian heavy artillery and Thermobaric weapons — then the invaders tried to attack again.
A second even larger armoured column was prepared, formed mainly of mobilised Tartar minorities of the 72nd Motorised Rifle Brigade and 155th Naval Infantry Brigade — equipped with Russian T-72 Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
The second Russian armoured column thundered along a dirt track straight towards Vuhledar, as the potholes bounced them around in their Soviet tin cans the Russians could see the ruins across the Plain and their confidence increased. Their formation was tight, Tanks and IFVs following in a closed-up column formation — the Ukrainians were quiet and everything appeared to be going well, their column looked intimidating.
The best thing about the column formation is that even untrained conscripts can follow in a line, making the work of subpar officers much easier.
Igor had miraculously survived a few column attacks, or slaughters as he now thought of them, he wondered if this one would be any different.
Suddenly the lead T-72 tank was hit and exploded, and with that, all hell broke loose. Unseen Ukrainian tank positions along the tree line and amongst the ruins of Vuhledar were ruthlessly picking-off the strung-out Russian armour along the dirt track, while Ukrainian artillery that had precisely ranged the Kill Boxes, now rained heavy shells on the tightly packed enemy column.
Igor had seen enough, he turned his tank around, weaving between the smoking hulls of his comrades, only to hit a mine that blew his tracks off.
Two major Russian columns had now been sent across the Plains of Vuhledar and stumbled carelessly into Ukrainian kill boxes and been totally annihilated.
“The supposedly enhanced capability of 155th Naval Infantry has almost certainly been significantly degraded because it has been backfilled with inexperienced mobilised personnel. This lack of experience is almost certainly exacerbating Russian officers’ tendency to micromanage, which in turn reduces operational agility.” — British Ministry of Defence.
Russian military commanders had to have seen that something was wrong, surely they would order an attack in a more flexible formation, perhaps with air support and maybe even advance behind a screen of smoke and artillery, with forward reconnaissance forces.
Nope, the following week the Russians formed another even larger armoured column, packed with freshly mobilised conscripts and furnished with what dwindling stock of tanks and IFVs could be scrapped together — before sending it across the third dirt track across the Plains of Vuhledar.
No prizes for guessing what happened.
This final Russian armoured assault was well equipped, with more than 50 Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles, but attacking an entrenched enemy position across open ground, straight into the firing line of enemy tanks, trundling into what you know is a Kill Box, WHILE IN COLUMN FORMATION, is nothing short of idiotic.
These five Russian T-72 tanks and some IFVs were just a small portion of what was lost in that final assault. Images of the dead Russian conscripts laying across the Plains of Vuhledar have been released, but frankly, you all get the point.
Seriously, it’s hard not to feel bad for the Russian conscripts at this point, when two large-scale armoured columns get annihilated and a week later Russia sends a third column into the exact same trap, like somehow the result would be different.
- In total, 130 Russian Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles were lost during this battle, most of these were taken out by Ukrainian Tanks in ambush positions and artillery, trained on the prepared kill boxes, on the Plains of Vuhledar.
The Russian military keeps attacking like lemmings in massed columns and losing unbelievable amounts of heavy armour, tanks and infantry. Then does the exact same thing again, and again.
Attacking in columns is ineffective and it has been since the Napoleonic Wars. This formation is used when militaries have poorly trained soldiers and officers incapable of more agile formations and battlefield tactics.
The Duke of Wellington noted after the battle of Sabugal, in 1811, where a smaller British and Portuguese army had inflicted three times the casualties on the French Napoleonic army, that:
“Really these attacks in column against our lines are very contemptible”. — Wellington.
The point he was making is that using Column formations to attack enemy positions was stupid.
After the battle of Waterloo, where the French Imperial Guard marched in columns straight into the Allied lines and were cut down, he would say:
‘They came on in the same old way and we beat them in the same old way.’ — The Duke of Wellington.
In closing, Russia’s losses are so high in Bakhmut and Vuhledar, because Russia doesn’t learn from its past mistakes and continues to repeat them, which is why Russia will lose.
