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Russians Are Trying to Take Bakhmut the Same Way As They Stormed Poznan In 1945

2032
The army of the russian rederation conducts artillery fire / Illustrative photo from open sources
The army of the russian rederation conducts artillery fire / Illustrative photo from open sources

But russian invaders do not take into account that their tactics can work against a demoralized garrison, having complete air dominance and technology superiority

The Bakhmut assault has been going on for several months. Ukraine’s defense forces are holding the city, while russian army doesn’t show any signs of retreat, despite its catastrophic losses. Consequently, the question arises: if there anything better for russians than simply stubbornly trying to take Bakhmut, while "draining" own limited resources? If so, then the answer to such a question is no, they cannot invent anything better, because russian military is historically used to act this way.

The military historiography of russia is particularly proud of how the "grandfathers fought" and took the "Festung Posen" (now the Polish city of Poznań) on the way to Berlin in February 1945, after a heavy siege that lasted 1 month. And if we analyze this historical example more precisely, we will see that almost 80 years ago russians acted exactly the same as they are currently acting near Bakhmut in 2023.

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Russians Are Trying to Take Bakhmut the Same Way As They Stormed Poznań In 1945, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
rusia's army has significant resources for the offensive regardless of losses / Illustrative photo from open sources

To begin with, there are the following analogies. There is a figure that during the month of the siege of Festung Posen, Soviet troops fired 325,000 shells of all calibers, including the B-4 203-mm howitzers. 10,000-11,000 projectiles were shot per day, roughly as much as russian army now fires at the most "hot spots" on the front.

Or another analogy” it was during the "Festung Posen" assaults that russians began to use M-31 shells on single launchers to destroy buildings. And it seems that it was from this "experience" that the russians came up with the idea of using the UR-77 Zmei Gorynych systems to shell Ukrainian cities.

Russians Are Trying to Take Bakhmut the Same Way As They Stormed Poznań In 1945, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
russian army is developing the concept of "engineering assault squads" using the UR-77 Zmei Horynich / Illustrative photo from open sources

If we take a more general picture, then there will be even more visible analogies. For example, russians hoped to take Poznań as a large industrial center literally "on the fly". Therefore, the task of taking this city was handed over to the 8th Army, which seemed to be famous for its experience in street battles for Stalingrad, but which at the beginning of 1945 consisted mainly of "marching reinforcements" (the partially mobilised, in modern terms). Since there was not enough manpower from the start, additional units had to be constantly transferred for the siege of the city. In particular, special groups that were supposed to operate with 10-15 people and destroy major buildings as one of the enemy's lines of defense.

Russians Are Trying to Take Bakhmut the Same Way As They Stormed Poznań In 1945, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
russian army has significant resources for the offensive / Illustrative photo from open sources

Although the "Festung Posen" consisted of a square with an area of only 10 km by 10 km, at one point russians suddenly began to "lack artillery". Therefore, in addition to 152-mm and 203-mm howitzers and 160-mm mortars, the Red Army began to use the newest at that time IS-2 tanks with 122-mm guns as improvised self-propelled guns.

But how resultative the artillery fire was is shown by the following criterion: 60% of all wounds of Wehrmacht soldiers in this "festung" were caused by aviation, since the advantage in the sky over Poznań belonged entirely to the USSR.

Russians Are Trying to Take Bakhmut the Same Way As They Stormed Poznań In 1945, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
russia's T-90M used as the SPG / Open source photo

The Red Army stormed a 10 by 10 km square for a whole month despite the fact that the enemy had almost no combat-ready artillery and armored vehicles there. The number of the German garrison "on paper" was 40,000 servicemen, in fact up to 20,000 people took part in the battles. The most motivated part of the "Festung Posen" garrison turned out to be 3,000 cadets-junkers, who had enough motivation, but lacked the appropriate training.

When fighting against Ukraine, russian invaders are constantly trying to copy the method of action of the Second World War. But it seems that they do not take into account that their success in the case of the "Fortress of Poznań" was based on complete superiority in technology and sky dominance, while the enemy garrison was almost completely demoralized. Which in the current conditions is not even close.

Russians Are Trying to Take Bakhmut the Same Way As They Stormed Poznań In 1945, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
The "partially mobilized" / Illustrative photo from open sources

And an attempt to wage a war according to the patterns of 1945 will be a failure in the conditions of 2023, when the Defense Forces of Ukraine are charged with detaining the enemy and defeating him.

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