Veteran: How to tell if you face an elite or bad Unit

Cover design by vonKickass.

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our brains

Cover Images:

00:00 Teaser
00:20 Intro
01:06 Mine placement
03:09 Trash
04:22 Really Good Unit
04:51 Package Size
06:36 Position construction & maintenance
08:55 Telling how positions are changed by weak & strong units respectively
09:57 Improvements to a position & habits
11:33 Machine Gun Position

#ukraine #ukrainewar #veteran #howto #elite

[hsiehman]

"If you didn't drop it; Don't pick it up. You see wire, metal, plastic, freshly turned dirt; Don't step on it."

[sumtingwong]

Crazy to have an interview with a German soldier who fought in the eastern front in 2024

[pRahvi]

5:07 about eye-catchers: There's a classic legend from bootscamp where the sergeant blames the conscript of poorly concealing the place where the mine was planted, only to learn he's standing right on top of the (dummy) mine as the more obvious spot was just a decoy.

[harrymills]

Don't walk where it's easy to walk. Avoid natural paths. It's tougher slogging, but nobody's likely to stick a mine where the terrain is more difficult than the terrain adjacent.

[therangedmartialartist]

This is kinda "military 101". Key indicators that your unit is a hard target and "gives a shit". Do they behave professionally, do they take their duties seriously, are the men physically fit and keeping their gear in good working order? It's amazing how the stuff you do in boot camp that you thought was stupid at the time really does translate into performing well in battle.

[GarethFairclough]

As a veteran, this is absolutely on the mark.

When I was in training, we were taught to *always* take your rubbish with you, or at least bury it. Do *something* to not make it blindingly obvious you had been there. Whenever we left a position, we always did our utmost to make it seem like we had never been there.
We weren't front line troops either, but logistics types. This is just billy-basic stuff. It might seem minor to some grunt on the ground, but these little bits add up.

The mine thing really makes sense too. I hadn't thought of it in terms of the packaging, but it makes a *lot* of sense. In Afghanistan, I knew of some guys got hit when they stumbled on things while they were focused on the big obvious IED that had already been spotted.
One friend of mine was killed when he literally stumbled on an IED that was buried in a big gravel mound. He had been ordered on top of it to get a better PoV, and was on his way down it when he tripped and caught the IED as he tried to steady himself.

[wyskass]

Cat behavior is a good example of natural instinct which is just like good soldiering. They naturally memorize their environment and always notice changes from before. A different small item or branches even, and cautiously investigate. You always treat something foreign as dangerous and observe from afar at first, then approach slowly ready to retreat immediately, before poking at it. Keep yourself and area clean as a habit. Be alert to any unexpected movement by immediately forming a defensive position just in case.
The ideal observation and safety spot is always hidden from view but with good outward visibility. Seek high ground as advantage. Always walk softly and affect ground minimally while keeping low and using terrain for cover. Always bury your waste to not indicate you were there. Take time to observe from safe position before deciding on action and approach cautiously and silently without revealing your presence. When striking do with utmost ferocity and speed to overwhelm with maximum surprise. Take advantage of night and enemy unawares. Don't make noise nor release any smells or indicators of your presence.

[Warmaker]

Discipline seems to be the typical indicator for a good unit. Discipline to do the job right. Right procedures and practices are carried out and enforced.

[wyskass]

This helps illustrate why boot camp or military schools immediately start enforcing discipline for organization and cleanliness. While it may seem pointless to perfectly make your bed every morning for example, that kind of ingrained habit is exactly why a well trained professional soldier it attentive to details as discussed here and will always put in full effort into those small things which do matter. Never idle time during training to get out of that habit.

[mrandersson]

Mines are scary. Worse, they will be a problem a long time after this thing is over.

[samsham]

Makes sense.
Cleanliness, discipline, Planning, forethought, multiple contingency plans.

[brett]

I was a combat engineer in the US Army, one thing I learned working with other countries engineers or being deployed. We are all devious fucks. Set certain personal land mines on their sides for people probing the ground to find mines, then using fallen vegetation to create funnels into the mined areas. Even trip wires to nothing going from upper left down to the right on the edges of the path of travel expected. I can remember clearing minefields and going to the place where the pins and boxes were left and realizing there were more mines than on the minefield reports by the guys that put it in. Always interesting to things stressed in basic training, just being indicators he was talking about.

[sindrekolbotn]

Leave it to a German to go to a war zone and still complain about littering😂 All jokes of course, much respect to him for his service

[chriscw]

thank you very much ...the first time i have heard a vet talking about the hard facts of the work ....and the thought that has to go into "basic" infantry work

[rochrich]

I saw a clip from 2022 where a Russian who came under small arms fire got on the radio and got suppressive fire on the Ukrainian position. It was jolting to see basic coordination since I've gotten use to the routine lack of it. The Wagner unit that was wiped out was unusually well coordinated. Good radio chatter, fire being directed, supplies moving on order. I didn't need to speak the language to see that these guys could fight. Died anyway, but still....

[daredemontriple]

Let's say you've got a dozen anti-personnel mines and about a 300m 'front' to protect - it doesn't matter how you spread those mines you simply don't have enough to cover the whole area. If you do a good job hiding all your mines you might well hit someone, but an attacking unit that doesn't know it's in a minefield might as well not be until it hits one, and it's unlikely to hit one in such a sparse pattern. So you leave one or two visible - not blatant, but as if to indicate the sort of mistake a soldier might make after having hidden 1, 000 mines. If you've been burying mines all day every day for a week, then a few are bound to be not quite hidden enough. And that on it's own is enough to make your enemy question their every step - if they can see one or two, how many can't they see?

Mindgames and psychology play a huge part in warfare, and simple tactics like this are a good example of stretching your resources.

[austinevs]

One of the lessons in combat training and boot camp now that I think of it is being made to walk through a puddle of water. It’s not to make you wet as it is to get you used to walking through the harder paths. Less likely to step on something that will blow you up.

[duartesimoes]

Napoleon used to say "The weaker a unit is, the more fuss it makes..." 😀

[waart]

The trash point made me wonder if there are any cases where they put trash made in one minefield in another to make it look like they used more mines than they actually did in that minefield

[PG]

Very interesting topic as a civilian. A good friend of mine is a former career Marine with combat experience which he does not talk about. I asked him what is the best advice you can give a civilian stuck in a combat zone. He smiled and said: Look very uninteresting given someone is doing a cost benefit analysis on you.