Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Ukraine War: Russian Retreat?" video.

While generally correct, the true situation was: Adolf was plopping V-2s on London. Churchill phoned Monty. Monty plead with Ike. Market-Garden was born... without proper review. Tedder couldn't stop it. Bradley and Patton knew it was nonsense on stilts. At the time, 21st AG and 12th AG were rolling unopposed. The Krauts were dropping rifles all over France. In the film, "Patton" Bradley informs Patton of Monty's need for the American's Red Ball Express truck fleet. ( 2,500+ GMC trucks ) Keep in mind that General Bradley wrote those lines, himself. (Check out the credits to the film.) It was the loss of the deuce-and-a-half trucks that cost Patton and Bradley their gasoline. Monty had his supplies of ammo and food, aplenty. He didn't need any thing American. Just the GMCs and the gasoline. Patton was not cut off from gasoline -- rather he lost his Red Ball Express truck fleet. M-G terminated the Red Ball Express. This is always skipped over by historians... because M-G was a fiasco. No Red Ball => Patton could not conduct offensive operations. Neither could Hodges. (Bradley) (Bradley never stopped running 1st US Army. He used Hodges as a place holder.)
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I don't buy it. The primary objective at the outset is the elimination of the Ukrainian Air Force. When that does not happen, the Russian invasion starts to head off the rails. As for the loss of Kiev: Putin has not allocated enough infantry to take such a major city loaded with hostiles. Military history shows that it takes about 200,000+ fired up troopers to clear a city like Kiev. History says that Kiev will require 20,000+ troops to garrison it. It's a HOSTILE city. Berlin required a garrison of ~ 50,000+ Soviet troops. (In the greater Berlin area.) It took two army groups to conquer... and the Nazis were on their last legs. But the real kicker is that the British and Americans cut Berlin off from all resupply. Whereas Kiev is about to flooded with more smart weapons than they can easily handle. You'd better believe that Putin & Company are freaking out. Check out the smiles on the Russian generals. Oh, wait, they're not so happy.
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Don't forget that the US Army was compelled to fight with minimal casualties -- friend and foe. So, all along, the troops were chomping at the bit -- but held back by higher command. Then there was that horrific sand storm that shut down everything for about a week -- remember?
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The idea of using conscripts in the first wave is strictly 18th Century military thinking. It flatly does not work with modern high-tech, very expensive, military gear. Outside of Cold War Soviet myth, it's never witnessed anywhere. (with mechanized combined arms armies)
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@TheSympathize For most of history, professional armies have been the norm. It took Napoleon to raise the first modern conscript army. Yup. Due to breakthroughs in math (think statistics) the French were the first nation able to construct a viable conscript system. Not that prior generations didn't raise 'armies of enthusiasm' under the magnetic leadership -- and prospects of plunder -- of this or that Big Man. (Alexander the Great had a professional army -- in the modern sense -- and it whipped through Darius III's instant armies. Darius only had a nucleus of professionals. When they went sideways -- Arabella resulted.) But, for Putin's War, he REQUIRES professionals. He has NO TIME to train his boys as he needs a lightning war of regime change. The IDF is a blend of pro and reservist. Due to its small nation construction -- everybody knows just about everybody -- things are different. America, Russia, Red China -- things get different because of scale. But for a mechanized military force, you just can't use conscripts. Even the massively expanding Nazi panzer force had to use seasoned boys... and pretty much the cream of the crop, too. Yet, Putin has employed boys that have not only been lied to, but they're still just learning the ropes. Mech war is so complex that it takes about two-years before a soldier is fully capable. Yet the Putin War demanded -- obviously -- troops that were fully fledged -- because the campaign required great professionalism -- right from the start. As a KGB man, Putin largely ignored his army. His FSB is still tip-top, of course. From the American Revolution, Civil War, etc. it's been repeatedly shown that instant armies work by far the best when on defense. (Bunker//Breed's Hill, etc.) They are rotten when on offense. (First Battle of Bull Run) If the very same boys had enough time during training, then battle results would be drastically different, of course. And then consider: Putin lied to his troops. His war has been kept a secret from his own army -- largely. This only makes sense if you consider that if they were informed, they'd rebel. And we are seeing that rebellion, right now. The Russian lads are deliberately burning through their vehicle fuel PDQ. Dumping ammo/ fuel is a classic way for soldiers to get out of a fight. (In days past, troopers would get their gunpowder wet.)
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For a guy that is constantly being surprised -- you have a heck of a following. Nothing that's happened has been much of a surprise to me -- except the ability of the Ukrainian Air Force to keep on flying. The Mig-29 is such a hangar queen, I had been led to believe it'd ground itself. I predicted the full on invasion once I saw Putin pulling out his diplomats from Kiev. That was a TELL. I got the Falklands conflict 100% right -- decades ago. (Brains were fried, my audience thought I'd stepped back through a time machine.) I got the First Gulf War 100% -- decades ago. (New brains were fried. Ditto for audience shock.) And I clearly saw Bush-Rumsfeld go off the rails almost two-decades ago. No dictator can get away with using an instant army, a conscript army for Putin's War against Democracy. THAT'S what's important here. IT'S why Putin's army is off the rails. A conscript army is best at defense. Just ask Lincoln. Gettysburg was the first strategically defensive battle for the Union. Lee blew it. He needed to await the 1864 election. Then Lincoln would be gone. Atlanta put Lincoln back in the White House. The end became nigh. The flood of Western gear is only now reaching the battle zone. Put a fork in Putin's project. It's done. Gangsters need CASH -- and Putin & Company have just lost their stash. Lastly, Soviet designed helos are hangar queens -- just like everything else. In another week, most of his airmobile boys will be grounded. They will not be shot down. Instead their helos will be back in the shop. And soon enough the mud comes. It's a defender's dream. Mud destroyed the Nazis. Mud even paralyzed Napoleon. Hard on the Black Sea coast, mud has already begun -- in the afternoon.
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