Ukraine and Taiwan

The Tactical Notebook
The Big Push
The position warfare so closely tied to our understanding of the First World War served a multitude of purposes. In the autumn of 1914, for example, some French and German armies dug trenches in order to free other friendly formations for mobile operations. The Germans did the same in 1915 and 1917, when they defended in the west so that they might attack in the east. After the mutinies of the spring of 1917, the French forces held their positions so that factories might build tanks, America might raise an army, German civilians might feel the effects of the naval blockade, and German soldiers might die…
Read more
5 days ago · 7 likes · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
The Problem with Prediction
Recently, a minor mea culpa from Glenn Harlan Reynolds got me thinking about the problem of prediction. In particular, it sparked thoughts about the many predictions made about the ongoing war in Ukraine over the course of the past year or so, and how many turned out to be wrong…
Read more
24 days ago · 6 likes · 4 comments · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Special Unit Kraken (I)
The story of the Kraken Special Unit begins with the founding of a community center in the city of Kharkiv. Located in the city of Kharkiv, in what had previously been a Lada dealership, the First Nationalist Hub offered a range activities that resembled those found in a YMCA of the middle years of the twentieth century…
Read more
2 months ago · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Raid, Parade, or Bungled Blitz?
During the last week of February of 2022, Russian forces moved rapidly through the part of Ukraine that connects the Crimean Peninsula to the Dnipro River. In a maneuver that resembled the many “rapid occupation” campaigns conducted by Soviet forces in 1939 and 1940, they quickly took control of an area…
Read more
2 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Old Man's War
Of all of the novelties I have noticed in the course of observing the present war in Ukraine, the most surprising is the relatively advanced age of the combatants who appear in images from the battlefield. Even after making allowance for the way that war makes men grow old before their time, I find myself concluding that many, if not most, of the comba…
Read more
3 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I. Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Verdun 2.0
In a post on his indispensable blog, French Marine and scholar of the First World War Michel Goya compares the tactics used by Russian forces in Ukraine to those used by the Germans during the first few days of their offensive at Verdun. In particular, Colonel Goya notes that the Russian “assault detachments” (of fifty or so men) “serve mostly show th…
Read more
3 months ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Bruce I. Gudmundsson
Marine Corps Compass Points
Compass Points – Secrets from Ukraine
Compass Points – Secrets from Ukraine Bridging, mortars, and UAS must be available at scaleThanks for reading Marine Corps Compass Points! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. As part of the broader discussion of the best way forward for the Marine Corps, those advocating either FD 2030 or Vision 2035 should absorb lessons, both old and new, from this…
Read more
3 months ago · 8 likes · Marine Corps Compass Points
The Tactical Notebook
152 or 155?
The ongoing war in Ukraine has increased awareness of the fact that NATO-standard 155mm projectiles cannot be fired from artillery pieces built to use Soviet-style shells with a caliber of 152mm. Few, if any, of the stories that make mention of this matter, explain the reason for this crucial difference, with stems from decisions made over a century ag…
Read more
3 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Battalion Tactical Groups
In the course of the century that passed between the battle of Waterloo (1815) and the start of the First World War (1914), many European countries adopted what might be called “the school of the nation” approach to military organization. Under this system, the peacetime arm…
Read more
3 months ago · 3 likes · Bruce I. Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
And the winner is ...
… Türkiye Years ago, when George Friedman argued that Turkey (as it was then known) would become a major player on the world stage, I filed his prediction in the same three-ring binder where I kept the prophecies of Nostradamus. Today, I find myself obliged to admit that he was right and that I was wrong…
Read more
3 months ago · 5 likes · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Intermarium 2.0
Since the start of the current phase of the war in Ukraine, the newer members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have displayed much more enthusiasm for the Alliance than the founding states. This suggests the possibility of a near future in which most of the states of “O…
Read more
3 months ago · 4 likes · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Wargaming a Chinese Invasion
A war game cannot predict the future. What it can do, however, is offer food for thought. The following article, from Compass Points, provides a summary of a recent table-top exercise in which US forces assisted Free China (as it is still known here at the Old Headquarters Building) to defend itself against a full-scale (everything but nukes, bugs, an…
Read more
3 months ago · 2 likes · Bruce I Gudmundsson