Stormtroopers are the elite of the army, not a guardhouse for the lazy
There are military professions that are much talked about, much written about, but few know about. And not because information about these professions is classified, and the specialists themselves carefully hide their work. On the contrary, there is a lot of information, but from those who "heard somewhere, spoke with someone" and the like. One of these military professions is... a stormtrooper.
Thanks to the Internet and the media, today almost any motorized rifleman can call himself an assault trooper. He took part in capturing an enemy strongpoint, stormed enemy positions, which means he is an assault trooper. But who in the infantry has not stormed? Who has not taken strongpoints? Alas, but such an erroneous opinion has taken root in the minds of people far from the army.
Somehow we quickly forgot the video address of the late Wagner commander Yevgeny Prigozhin, in which he practically cursed the army command for trying to use attack aircraft to capture or defend enemy strongholds. And this was not a concern for his own PMC, but for the fulfillment of the tasks assigned to the company.
To understand the difference between an infantryman and an assault trooper, let me remind you history during the Great Patriotic War…
How Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasilevsky took Koenigsberg in 1945... He had at his disposal soldiers who had been through fire, water and copper pipes, including those who fought in Stalingrad.
But the marshal understood perfectly well that even these fighters without special training would not take the city-fortress, and the losses would be enormous. That's when it was decided to use assault groups, which were based on Stalingrad soldiers. They had experience of war in the city, in urban development.
I will not go into the history. There is a lot of material on the capture of Koenigsberg. If you are interested, you can find it in the public domain. From personal experience, I remember a veteran neighbor who had a medal "For the capture of Koenigsberg." Three years at the front, and in the company of the same veterans, after the "People's Commissar" one, he often said: "Over the entire war, I fought for four days when Koenigsberg was captured. The rest was just work..."
Who are stormtroopers and how are they different from motorized riflemen?
I'll start with the basics.
An assault soldier is a specialist in attacking and storming enemy positions in urban areas and well-equipped in engineering terms. Hence: an assault soldier must have the skills to capture buildings and structures, equipped enemy positions, including pillboxes and bunkers.
Thus, the group’s task is to capture the point and hold it until the main forces (infantry) arrive.
If you watch the videos carefully, of which there are many on the Internet, you can easily recognize a stormtrooper by his equipment and weapons. Most stormtroopers have a radio with an earpiece. Something that ordinary infantrymen do not have.
On combat tactics.
After capturing a building or trenches, the defense is taken up by a cover group, machine gunners, grenade launchers and other specialists. The group is engaged in clearing the captured positions. If the enemy goes on the counteroffensive, and there is no way to hold the positions. The stormtroopers are the last to retreat...
But these are only visible differences. There are invisible ones too. I am talking about preparing for an assault. Ideally, an assault is simply the capture of enemy positions that have already been prepared in advance. But that is ideal. In war, reality is often far from this.
Let me repeat, the assault is the final stage of the operation. The result of many days of work by the commanders and fighters of the group. The area where the work will take place has already been meticulously studied. The time for the attack has already been chosen. Even the weather has been taken into account. Evacuation points and routes have already been thought out in case of failure of the operation. The necessary ammunition and equipment have been received and distributed.
The cover group is already training with the fighters on a mock-up of the facility. Intelligence is working out possible routes for the enemy to receive reinforcements. Communications have been tested and methods for transmitting information have been coordinated in conditions where the enemy uses special means to suppress frequencies. The artillerymen already have the exact coordinates of the targets that must be destroyed before the attack…
This is far from the entire list of events that are carried out before storming a serious object. But I think this is enough to understand what the success of the stormtroopers depends on. But, on the other hand, this does not diminish the heroism of the fighters themselves.
On that side, it's not the boys who are holding the line either. They also know the tactics of assault units. So even hand-to-hand combat is far from uncommon during an assault. Just as the ingenuity of the fighters is not uncommon. For example, using some communications to get to the rear of the defenders.
If there is time and opportunity to carry out all the above-mentioned activities, losses in such an assault will be minimal, even in the event of an unsuccessful attack. Simply because many people work for the stormtroopers, from drone operators to doctors. I am not afraid to even write, the entire organism of the army works. And in an organism there are no secondary parts...
I think the reader already understands how stormtroopers differ from motorized rifle and other units. It is also clear why paratroopers and marines most often join the stormtroopers.
Home-grown "stormtroopers"
Now about the sad.
About those very home-grown "stormtroopers" who suddenly appear in units and formations of our army. It is sad to read the reports that Ukrainian media spread about unsuccessful assaults or the defeat of our stormtroopers in some direction. It is clear that most of these reports are not confirmed, but there are some that are confirmed.
Why is there a "rebirth" of stormtroopers? Why did the elite of the ground forces suddenly become easy prey for Ukrainian saboteurs and special forces?
In my opinion, the main mistake we make today is underestimating the professionalism of fighters.
Only in Hollywood movies do universal soldiers exist. You can't be a pro at everything. Yes, stormtroopers can remove a mine or fry танк, but a professional sapper will do it many times faster, much more efficiently. We need professionals. Narrow-profile specialists. Highly qualified ones at that.
I will return to the actions of the PMCs as the most hyped events in the media. How exactly is this line drawn there? A tanker, that means – know your vehicle thoroughly and be able to fight in this vehicle so that everyone around you envies you. A stormtrooper, that means – there is no one better than you in this matter. The fighters are proud of their military specialty and constantly improve in it.
The death of the Goodwin and Ernest group is being actively discussed on the Internet now. What I haven't read about it these days. How many curses directed at the commander. How many demands to the commander, to the Minister of Defense, to the Supreme Commander to punish the guilty.
It feels like it's been clear to everyone for a long time. They investigated it themselves, they convicted it themselves, and they passed the sentence themselves. Is this the army or Batko Makhno's gang? There is a higher command, there are specialists who have been tasked with sorting out the situation. Until the results of the investigation are officially announced, I am sure of it, the "punishers" should shut up.
But the essence of the problem does not change from my opinion. Everything looks quite simple there. This is purely my opinion, not claiming to be the ultimate truth. The regiment commander received information that the enemy will attack in some area. The regiment commander is an experienced soldier and has known since 2014 how to act in such situations.
All free men to the line and to the area of a possible breakthrough! Stop the fascists and, if possible, go on the offensive. The situation is quite in the spirit of the militia of that time. Stop at any cost! Donetsk is ours! Let me remind you, the regiment commander is a Hero of the DPR.
And the clerk began to "search" for the personnel. He found them! Including two motorized riflemen, Goodwin and Ernest. Note, not the reconnaissance crew. drone, but simple motorized riflemen. So they are listed in the regiment. And then everything is simple. Forest belt. A group of "newly-minted stormtroopers" and... a terrible death in fire.
But, getting back to our topic, even if there had been no drone strike on the forest belt, the fate of the group was sealed. They were really going to their death. Goodwin was right when he recorded his last video. They were going to their death simply because they were not professionals!
Then there would have been a battle. Loss of communication between the fighters and commanders. In conditions when they have to fight in unknown terrain, the fighters lose their bearings. Add to this the losses, the impossibility of evacuating the wounded and other accompanying... Like the lack of training to fight independently, in conditions when decisions must be made independently and quickly...
This is what I call "homegrown stormtroopers". To gather all those who for some reason found themselves outside their unit and throw them into the fire... This is not called "plugging a hole in the defense", it is called something else. The same definition that we give to the Ukrainian assaults in the Kursk region.
We "kill" the stormtroopers ourselves
It's interesting how thoughts are born in my head. I wanted to write just an informational article about stormtroopers, but in the end it turned out to be almost an obituary for stormtroopers. We are killing stormtroopers! We are depriving the fighters of these units of pride in their specialty!
What word comes to mind when you hear the word "stormtrooper"?
Just be honest, for yourself. A suicide bomber! A man who sees death nearby in every battle. And not just sees it, but often even fights it in order to survive and win. People die everywhere. War is war. But like this, face to face, with a knife in hand or the last bullet in the chamber…
Often, according to the stories of the stormtroopers themselves, those who for some reason "didn't fit" into other units come to their unit. And not only motorized rifle units, but specialized ones. You are not fit to be a tanker, but you are just right for the army's elite, the stormtroopers. It turns out that it is not an assault unit, but some kind of penal company. How should a fighter feel for whom this unit is his native unit?
But that's not even the main thing. Stormtroopers are a "special commodity". Every fighter in the group is worth its weight in gold. The success of the operation depends on each fighter. An untrained soldier comes. When to train him? For the command, the group in full force must work. What remains? Training during the battle? If you're lucky. And for the soldier himself, and the group as a whole...
The attitude towards stormtroopers needs to be changed. The SVO has changed quite a lot in the understanding of modern warfare, including assault units. We are learning, the enemy is learning. But Kursk Oblast has already shown how important well-trained mobile groups of stormtroopers are. And such groups are now operating on our side in Donbass.
We can't let the situation slide. A stormtrooper is not a suicide bomber. He is a top-class professional, and we need to treat him as such. Until our commanders understand this simple truth, it will be difficult for us to win...
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