Why Russia’s “New” Assault Units are 80 Years Old

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Sources:
• «ШТУРМОВАЯ ГРУППА: Особенности боевых действий штурмовых групп в урбанизированных районах» by V. Podgorodetsky, V. Litvinenko and P. Sergeev (November 2018)
• «ТАКТИЧЕСКАЯ ПОДГОТОВКА КУРСАНТОВ УЧЕБНЫХ ВОЕННЫХ ЦЕНТРОВ» (2014)
• "The Russian Way of War" by Lester Grau and Charles Bartles (2016)

[WormholeJim]

I lost an uncle due to how a unit on mission can't evacuate casualties. He was in the french foreign legion and with his squad on patrol in the desert in Algier sometime in the 60's. During a rest he got stung by a scorpion and fell ill. The squad had to move on finishing the patrol and left him to pick him up on the return two days later. When they got back to him, he had died. They send his fez to my grand mother and thanked her for his sacrifice.

[michaelkthcfan]

The general concept of specialized trench assault units goes back to World War I. German Stormtroopers of the Great War were inspired by the tactics developed by General Brusilov of the Russian Imperial Army.
Interesting Russian doctrine is the use of multi-day artillery bombardment. Previous doctrines was for brief artillery preparation so the enemy does not know where the assault will take place.

[OfficerRay]

The animation and depth of information in your videos are so hard to find in the general commentary sphere. Keep it up man!

[borismedovar]

0:30 forest protection zone is not a russian military's name for it. FPZs were planted across South Ukraine and Russia back in 50s to protect soil from wind erosion.

[gerardcurtis]

The word verbatim means "exactly as said", rather than "exactly". As such "I'll let you know what I hear verbatim" works, where as "the group is as old as the USSR verbatim" does not

[roadhouse]

It's really not a bad tactic, just because it focuses primarily on "how" rather than "who, what, when, where, or why", and thus can be applied to a lot of situations without the enemy having a way to counter it in broad terms, kind of like battle drills used by the U.S. Army. It creates dilemmas, not problems.
What would make it fail is company and platoon leadership using bad tactics within this methodology, or higher level leadership sending these assault detachments into fights they simply don't have the combat power to win.

[jakobc.]

You by far the best military focussed channel on YT. Your videos are incredible.

[danmorgan]

The fact the unit has historical analogues shouldn't be seen as a strike against it. The fire and maneuver tactics developed by the French in WWI are still adaptable to modern warfare. Those are over 100 years old.

[MichaelSmith-ppwp]

The organization seems incredibly fire heavy and rifleman light. Plan seems to be to win through sheer firepower with the assault platoon mopping up opposition and physically taking ground. The concentration of so much firepower assets compared to few infantry would seem to limit the number of assault detachments Russia could field and thus limit the extent of any offensive. Maybe good for concentrating on a select few trench lines, but only on narrow front.

[jannegrey]

yeah. When I saw someone referring to this as "innovative" I almost spilled my drink. I'm pretty sure you could find even older examples (WW1?), where sapper/assault groups were used in similar manner. Though this would depend on the front.

[toysoldier]

These videos have really engaged my interest in graphic design. Your capacity for conveying imformation with visuals is, in my opinion, without peer.

[vatodanelia]

Tactics & organisation videos are the best as always
Edit: Russian movie best in hell closely represants what u show us where 3 groups are each 9-12 men with attached AGS-17 mortar and armour teams to them. Its almost exactly same what u showed us

[rockin]

The 'officer' in the team is the NCO equiv more or less in western armies, its not really the case that the tasks of the NCOs aren't performed ('cos there's no NCO per se), rather they are performed by officers (with different training and pay, along with some other platoon and company level specialists).

[nicholaswalsh]

This reminds me of the Stosstruppen of World War One. Personally, I'd like a translated version of this manual so I can read it myself. The use of a lengthy prepatory barrage against a trench line seems to be a repeat of the mistakes of 1914-1918, where barrages that lasted sometimes up to weeks were entirely ineffective at suppressing enemy positions.

[davidlisovtsev]

imma put this video in the officer academy here, excellent work

[MrDoctorCrow]

Multi day artillery barrages, rolling barrages to cover the shock troops. Fighting from trenches. What is this, the summer of 1916?

[evoluxman]

Nice to see Battle Order paying small companies to mention them in his videos 🙏 /s

[kevinkattrup]

We all gotta love that Battle Order makes videos on everything they can. Not just to make 1 side happy, respect.

[richardthomas]

The amazing part is how some 250 dudes are standing off and shooting the place up, all so just 9 actual shooters can assault the position.

[comentedonakeyboard]

The Problem with creating "Sturmtruppen" (or in Italian it would be "Ardititi" i think) is that this depletes the regular units of the best Soldiers. As seen in Germany 1918.