ThomasP
Senior Master Sergeant
The road in the video is on a raised roadbed and is typical of the area. Once off road it is problematic as to getting a heavy tracked or wheeled vehicle back on the road like that - not even counting if the the ground is still soft.
Also, depending on what the RF prior experience has been so far, they may have standing orders not to leave the road immediately. Standard training back in the early 1980s was (if possible) to lay mines off the road in the area where the ambush (whether by artillery or direct fire) was to take place. Depending on what material you had, if you could you might place a mine or 2 on the road, and a bunch off the road in the areas where you figured they would go off-road. Once the front of the column is stopped the rest of the column slows down or stops, making it easier to target them with artillery. Precision large artillery rounds can take the place of the mines on the road as a goad to move off-road.
Being inside a buttoned-up tank (after the first 1 or 2 artillery rounds anyway) under artillery fire makes it very difficult to know what the tactical situation is - the visibility from inside most tanks is atrocious. My understanding is that the majority (80%-90%) of the RF tanks and APC/IFVs do not have thermal sights/observation sets. With the smoke and dust from the explosions you may not even be able to see the road in front of you. Deploying smoke in a direct fire engagement would nearly always make sense. Deploying smoke in the situation in the video might make the tanker's situational awareness even worse (unless the intent was to abandon the vehicle and run away or find cover).
It appears to me that their only options were to advance down the road or retreat back up the road. And in fact the one IFV/APC at first tried to speed up the road in the lower left part of the screen, later appearing going back the way it came. Did anyone else notice the rear units in the column speeding back the way they had come (upper right area toward the end of the video)?
I counted as least 6 destroyed vehicles in the still shots at the end of the video.
Also, depending on what the RF prior experience has been so far, they may have standing orders not to leave the road immediately. Standard training back in the early 1980s was (if possible) to lay mines off the road in the area where the ambush (whether by artillery or direct fire) was to take place. Depending on what material you had, if you could you might place a mine or 2 on the road, and a bunch off the road in the areas where you figured they would go off-road. Once the front of the column is stopped the rest of the column slows down or stops, making it easier to target them with artillery. Precision large artillery rounds can take the place of the mines on the road as a goad to move off-road.
Being inside a buttoned-up tank (after the first 1 or 2 artillery rounds anyway) under artillery fire makes it very difficult to know what the tactical situation is - the visibility from inside most tanks is atrocious. My understanding is that the majority (80%-90%) of the RF tanks and APC/IFVs do not have thermal sights/observation sets. With the smoke and dust from the explosions you may not even be able to see the road in front of you. Deploying smoke in a direct fire engagement would nearly always make sense. Deploying smoke in the situation in the video might make the tanker's situational awareness even worse (unless the intent was to abandon the vehicle and run away or find cover).
It appears to me that their only options were to advance down the road or retreat back up the road. And in fact the one IFV/APC at first tried to speed up the road in the lower left part of the screen, later appearing going back the way it came. Did anyone else notice the rear units in the column speeding back the way they had come (upper right area toward the end of the video)?
I counted as least 6 destroyed vehicles in the still shots at the end of the video.
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