Picture of the day

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Looks pretty funny, but when your country is covered in canals and rivers, it's a very quick and easy way to get around. Not only that, but you're often well-protected by the banks for the canals, and there are no obstacles except canal locks.
 
"Showing up where you're not expected" may be a social faux pas in polite company, but is the essence of infantry movement. The Japanese took Malaya with bikes. The Finns skied into spots the Russians hadn't considered possible. The Yanks spent the Vietnam war riding helicopters all over hell. The Dutch, had they been invaded in winter, would have surprised a few Germans by showing up in places that they hadn't been. It's a very legit method to move guys quietly and efficiently.

Speaking of Finns, here's a rare picture of a young soldier with critical elements of the Finnish Nocturnal Messaging Brigade.

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Any wimp can use pigeons.
 
RRCo. said:
Looks pretty funny, but when your country is covered in canals and rivers, it's a very quick and easy way to get around. Not only that, but you're often well-protected by the banks for the canals, and there are no obstacles except canal locks.
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Our Brigade (4 CMBG) HQ organized an assault boat paddle exercise from Germany into Holland - on the canals. Sounded like a great idea at the time.

What we didn't realize was that the banks of many of the canals were so high and our view of the country side was extremely limited. We would have been sitting ducks in natural killing grounds. Best thing about it was the evening visits to the gasthofs.
 
Sharps '63 said:
Our Brigade (4 CMBG) HQ organized an assault boat paddle exercise from Germany into Holland - on the canals. Sounded like a great idea at the time.

What we didn't realize was that the banks of many of the canals were so high and our view of the country side was extremely limited. We would have been sitting ducks in natural killing grounds. Best thing about it was the evening visits to the gasthofs.
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NOTHING ever good comes from assault boats - when used in the assault! ... despite the intriguing potential that seems so achievable before hand...
(they are grand for getting away though!)
 
AP said:
NOTHING ever good comes from assault boats - when used in the assault! ... despite the intriguing potential that seems so achievable before hand...
(they are grand for getting away though!)
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Full disclosure, I have no experience with assault boats.

IMHO with todays tech being relatively available to modern combatants, good satellite communications and overhead real time views available seeing what is on the other side would be relatively easy unless of course they enemy is well dug in and well camouflaged. Then of course any type of frontal assault would just be plain suicide.
 
All the high tech crap ('smart' bombs, drone surveillance, mortar locators, etc., etc.) in the hands of the modern military has not won any wars I can think of. The guys with the AK 47's wearing sandals seem to be holding their own quite well.

In the end, it's still the grunt with rifle and bayonet that settles it.
 
Speaking of grunts, here are members of the Royal Hungarian Motorcycle Brigade managing a "spot of bother":

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Not much to go on, but can you name either the bike or the rifles? I'm guessing this is a better shot of the bike:

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Sharps '63 said:
All the high tech crap ('smart' bombs, drone surveillance, mortar locators, etc., etc.) in the hands of the modern military has not won any wars I can think of. The guys with the AK 47's wearing sandals seem to be holding their own quite well.

In the end, it's still the grunt with rifle and bayonet that settles it.
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"War is a mere continuation of politics by other means." (Clausewitz - the translation varies).

Clausewitz was close. Politics is about economics - the management and distribution of wealth in a society.

War is actually economics. Both sides fight until one side can no longer afford it. And that's why the jammie and sandal wearing set is doing quite well. When it costs maybe a couple hundred $ to "train" and arm a fanatic, and then a few million $ in high tech gear to take him out... Well, the math gets pretty out of hand fast. So long as you can keep digging up poor, uneducated, desperate young men willing to take up your fanatical cause (no shortage of those on the world labour market), eventually, the team using the million dollar solutions is just going to run out of money.

The U.S. didn't pull out of Iraq or Afghanistan because they won or lost on the battlefield. They pulled out because they couldn't afford the cost of it anymore.

And yes, now everyone is back. But notice how much more limited the effort is this time. It's fun to blame Obama, and even Harper to an extent, for not having the political willpower to put boots on the ground in any significant numbers this time. The truth of it is, they just don't have the money to do it.
 
Would be cheaper to kidnap radical Mulahs and extremist recruiters, lock them away in a secure hospital environment, give them all ### changes and document every minute of it for mass consumption in the world. Of course to be humane we would release them in a country ruled by Sharia law and have camera crews ready.
 
Once the geo-political-economic situation makes it imperative to put boots on the ground, the money will materialize. Lack of it has not kept the world from war for any great lengths of time.
War toys are crazy expensive as is training soldiers to use them. The only people happy with that are the arms makers.
 
diopter said:
Would be cheaper to kidnap radical Mulahs and extremist recruiters, lock them away in a secure hospital environment, give them all ### changes and document every minute of it for mass consumption in the world. Of course to be humane we would release them in a country ruled by Sharia law and have camera crews ready.
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Best idea yet.
 
Met Radley-Walters in Kingston at Staff College after he had retired. I was a lowly student - the Directing Staff (DS) had a long and impressive table reserved for themselves at the head of the dining room. The students sat at tables like boarders at an English grammar school in rows well "below the salt" as befitted us. Rad and his wife came in the dining room and completely ignored their place of honour at the head table and sat at one of the students table - as it happens it was next to me. They were both very genuine and kind and took the time to ask me how the course was going etc. about my family etc his approach and questions certainly made me feel comfortable and at ease... his wife was equally thoughtful and engaged. He remembered clearly several members of my Regiment who were KIA and told me a little of his recollection... FWIW -- the name/picture posted above reminded me of the event. There is a reason why some of these soldiers are remembered - and it isnt just the number of tanks destroyed ... which reminds me - he may also hold the record for the number of tanks shot from under him!

(Radley talked about having to walk back to the start line after he had lost his tank (enemy fire/breakdown??) any way Radley apparently, lost another tank to enemy fire later that day and was annoyed at having to walk back yet again to get another - so he ordered a sergeant out of his - told the sergeant to walk back and Radley took over the sergeants' tank! - the story was a little more detailed than this and very interesting)
 
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