Deception in War – I

Numerous boats are charging towards Omaha beach in Normandy. Each boat contains 20-30 soldiers. On one of the boats is Captain J H Miller, in-charge of the platoon, his hands are shaking but he keeps the morale of his platoon high. As they approach the beach they face artillery fire. Many die under this heavy blow but many others continued to move on. This is the opening scene in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ which shows Normandy invasion by Allied troops during World War II. The invasion was a successful one, but a great part in its victorious execution lies in the extreme network of deception laid out by the Allied powers.

Deception as a war strategy is used by forces when facing their belligerents from a very long time. This series of blog posts will deal with deception in war, how one army tricked another and used this advantage to emerge victorious.

Let’s start the blog with a few quotes by Sun Tzu (a Chinese General and military strategist), author of Art of War, regarding deception.

Sun Tzu’s Art Of War is considered as a definitive  work on military strategy and tactics  

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

A little background

After Dunkirk evacuation (watch out for Christopher Nolan’s film Dunkirk), in which Britain had to call back BEF (British Expeditionary Forces) from France beaches, this had significantly lowered the confidence of Britain in planning any direct attack on Europe where Hitler had stronghold. In short, they feared to challenge Hitler in Europe, and Hitler had virtually created a ‘Fortress Europe’ which Britain believed was almost impossible to invade.

But gradually, America and British reached a common agreement that in order to weaken Hitler they had to attack his ‘Fortress Europe’. The gist of the plan was deception, not letting Germany know from where they are going to attack, at what time and in what numbers. This was essential because Germany already had a firm position in Europe, having knowledge of attack from Allied powers, they would concentrate all their resources towards it and will be successful in driving them away.

Many historians agree that Normandy invasion wouldn’t have been a successful one if deception wasn’t used correctly.

Comparison

Above graph depicts the strength and casualties of armies on both sides. Germany lost about 28% of its army whereas Allied troops lost only 9%. Germany was a formidable force during World War II, the casualties on both sides were almost same in number but due to deception tactics Germany employed far less force providing an edge to the Allied troops.

The Operation

Codenamed ‘Bodyguard’, Allies developed an intricate plan, of what is now known as the greatest deception operations in war history. The idea was to confuse the Germans about the destination of invasion and the strength of the armies. The plan was divided into two parts- Fortitude South and Fortitude North

German forces believed that the attack from Allied powers could either come from Normandy or Pas de Calais as mentioned in the map below. Allied powers chose Normandy over Pas de Calais mainly because of two reasons – Pas de Calais was the location for launch of rockets, Germans could easily target incoming offensive and it was a heavily fortified region bounded by numerous rives and canals.

The two areas where allied troops were planning an invasion

Fortitude North was planned to persuade the German High command that a diversionary attack on Norway was planned using forces stationed in Scotland.

Fortitude South was designed to make it appear that the major invasion force was stationed in southeast England ready to attack through Pas de Calais.

Fortitude North was least likely to succeed over Fortitude South as Hitler was always worried about an invasion through Norway and kept a large garrison there. Much rested on the success of Fortitude South.

The green arrow shows the “fake” attack points, Allied powers that they wanted the Germans to believe. The black concentric circle denote the real point of the attack.

A phantom army

A bogus army was created under the name First United States Army group (FUSAG). Allied powers wanted to convince Germans that FUSAG was created just for the attack on Pas de Calais. To facilitate the deception, dummy aircrafts and tanks were created (made from wood and fabric). The photographs of these slipped through German intelligence as Allied powers wanted it to be, and Germans became more and more convinced that attack on Pas de Calais was imminent. Although Germans had tracked Allied troops movement in Normandy but information through double agents convinced them that Normandy would a diversionary attack and real attack will be through Pas de Calais.

The image above shows a dummy tank created which could be easily lifted by soldiers.

The dotted lines shows the fake invasion plans led by the imaginary FUSAG group. The real attack was led by the 21st army group on Normandy denoted by black arrow.

A web of deceit

Trail of misinformation being fed to Germans wasn’t an easy task. Double agents were extremely crucial at this point of time. Fake radio traffic was being intercepted by Germans which re-inforced their deception plan.

Juan Pujol Garcia was one of the double agents. He created a network of 27 agents to feed false information to the Germans. Contrarily he was awarded both Iron Cross and MBE, highest honor from both Britain and Germany.

‘Eye of the Needle’ book by Ken Follet is a great read on this topic. A fictional spy thriller, the books account the details of a spy in Operation Fortitude

Rise of the Underdogs -2

:: This is the second article in Rise of the Underdogs series. Click for Part 1.

The Battle of Longewala was fought between Indian and Pakistani forces during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. This battle is the story of brave Indian soldiers who less in numerical superiority withstood against a larger Pakistani Army in the deserts of Rajasthan.

Longewala is a area located around the Thar desert in Rajasthan, India

A little background

1971 war was for liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan (as after 1947, it was East Pakistan) led by India. Most of the battles were to to be concentrated along the Eastern sector but Pakistan High command thought otherwise.

Pakistan’s President thought of a plan to somehow capture areas in the Western Areas and used them as a bargaining tool to gain dominance in East. His agenda was “The defense of East Pakistan lies in the West”.

The plan was to establish ground forces deep into the western sector with the help of PAF (Pakistan Air Force). PAF launched pre-emptive strikes along the Indian borders. Pakistani ground soldiers were able to campaign and dug trenches along the western Indian border. To them the town of Rahim Yar Khan was of crucial importance. This town formed an important link for logistics and communication for the Pakistan Army.

India’s main defense tactic was to capture this town and therefore destabilize the Pakistani Army. Although Pakistan intelligence was strong enough in operational areas in Punjab regarding Indian Army’s movements but there was one loophole in it. The loophole was the Longewala’s post. Longewala was originally a BSF (Border Security Force) post but after tensions mounting during the war, it was held under Indian Army’s Punjab Regiment. Pakistan attacked Longewala with the intention that it would be guarded by the BSF guards, not the Indian Army.

The attack

On December 4, 1971, a lieutenant of the Punjab Regiment was conducting a patrol when he detected noises across the border that suggested a large number of armored vehicles approaching. The Pakistani forces began their attack at 12:30 am. As the offensive approached the lone outpost, Pakistani artillery opened up with medium artillery guns, killing five of the ten camels from the 14 battalion BSF detachment.

Pakistan Army with 2000 in strength started closing in at Indian positions who were just 120 in number. To make matters worse Pakistan had 45 tanks in their possession while India had none.

India just had M40 recoilless rifle which could be mounted on a jeep (as depicted above) to combat Pakistani’s tanks.

Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, commanding officer of the Punjab regiment requested reinforcements after sensing the situation but was informed that reinforcements would not arrive before dawn. Major Chandpuri was left with two options: one, to attempt and hold out until reinforced, or, two, to command a tactile on foot retreat of his company. Displaying exceptional courage at the time he decided to maintain defensive position at the post and not fall back.

Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri who commanded the Indian soldiers, was awarded Maha Vir Chakra for his bravery at the battlefield.

Edge for Indians and downside for Pakistanis

An advantage Indian Army had was, Longewala was a strong defensive position. The post was located on a height from the ground level which gave Indian forces a clear vision of the ground beneath and hence a definite advantage over their enemy. This helped the soliders to point the M40 recoil-less rifle directly at the thinner top armour of Pakistani tanks thus destroying them instantly.

Pakistani made may blunders during this war which resulted in their defeat. One of them was that, they misjudged the terrain. Area surrounding Longewala was covered with thick sand thus hindering the movement of tanks. This gave Indian army plenty of time to properly aim at tanks as they got bogged down in the sand.

 

Pakistan took some hasty descions during the war. On discovering barbed wires near the Indian outpost they quickly concluded it to be a minefield and halted their advance. After 2 hours of battle, they realized that there was no minefield. This delay led to Indian Army solidifying their positions. The spare fuel tanks carried by the Pakistani Army, intended to supplement their advance, exploded during the battle providing ample light for Indians located on higher ground, and creating a dense acrid smoke screen at ground level for the Pakistani infantry.

Throughout the engagement Major Chandpuri continued to direct the supporting artillery fire, running from bunker to bunker, he inspired his men to beat back the enemy. Indian defenders were able to hold out Longewala post against Pakistan through the whole night.

At the crack of dawn, India Air Force came into action. With no air support from Pakistan Air Force, the Pakistani tanks and other armoured vehicles were sitting ducks to shoot at for the IAF.

HF-24 Marut was one of the fighter bomber aircraft deployed to defend the Longewala position and attack enemy’s tanks and bunkers.

Indian soldiers rejoicing after capturing a Pakistani tank.

By the end after reinforcements had arrived, Pakistan lost 200 of its soldiers during the battle and 34 of its tanks were destroyed. On the other hand Indian Army comparatively only lost 2 of its soldiers.

In all, Longewala’s win was a combination of bravery of Indian soldiers, taking advantage of Pakistani’s blunders, maintaining a strong defensive position and finally a swift action by the Indian Air Force.

 

 

 

Cold War – Unrest among the Reds

:: This is part five in the Cold War Series. Click for previous parts Part 1 , Part 2, Part3, Part 4. Keep following the blog to know about Cold War as it happened

Communism was starting to fall apart. What Karl Marx preached and wrote in his book The Communist Manifesto was not all implemented practically.

A look at the Soviet sphere of influence. Reds denote Soviet satellite states and the overall Soviet Empire.

A war of theories

Cold War was a war of ideologies. It was a war of propaganda. It was a war of whose system is better.  As history dictates communism had mostly led to an authoritarian government. Paradoxically countries who said they were communist were infact not communist, if going by Karl Marx standards. Stalin created a God like personality for himself in USSR and purged any opposition. So much so was the fear that even after the end of World War II, the Soviet prisoners of war in Germany refused to go to their homeland to face the wrath of Stalin and preferred death at German concentration camps. Stalin tried to instill same fear in satellite states and was successful.

America needed to demonstrate that their system was better. They needed to show that people would have greater freedom and capitalist system would stand the test of time. To combat communist influence America had come up with a plan. The plan was to revive economies of Western Germany and Japan so as to secure the future of capitalism in these countries and make them democratic.

It is now easy to see why capitalist system worked and communism did not. But back in the days it was convoluted. Why so? Let’s look at Soviet Union. Battered and devastated by World War II, it still remained a superpower. Torn out yet powerful. Within a year or so after America, they were able to develop atomic bombs. On the other hand USA was least affected by the war. The Great Depression of 1929 in the US had planted doubts into the minds of people regarding the future of capitalism. So there wasn’t an easy distinction on which system was better and which one will be used in future.

March 1953, Stalin dies. Speculation arose as to who will be his successor. Among four prospectus candidates, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the winner. America also had new leadership with Dwight Eisenhower as the President.

Nikita Khrushchev tried to overcome the terror of Stalin. He freed thousands of political prisoners from gulag (concentration camps).  He exposed the cruelty of Stalin through his speech which thousands of Russians were unaware of and treated him God-like.  The speech was a nucleus for de-stalinization process which was carried out by him in the next few years.

Satellites uprising

East Germany came under the control of Walter Ulbricht, a staunch Stalin supporter, he mirrored Stalin repression tactics in the East. He initiated a plan of re-developing the East by rapid industrialization.  This required the workers to work relentlessly and also neglecting their way of living. The living standards were dropped down and everything was rationed. This led to the deflection of thousands of people from East to West. Anger among the crowd grew and people took to streets. Soviet command ordered Red Army to take control of the situation.

The above image shows Nikita Khrushchev (left) with Walter Ulbricht, communist leader of East Germany (right).

Following protests in East Germany and Khrushchev’s speech, Communist party in Poland began releasing political prisoners and removing Stalinists in power. This was all done under the leadership of Władysław Gomułka. Gomulka was a victim of Stalin purges and became the de-facto leader of Poland. This angered Khrushchev and he went to Poland to show who the boss is. But after much negotiations Gomulka regained power in Poland and at the same time complying with Khrushchev demands of being loyal to Moscow.

Hungarian rebellion

Under Soviet Union influence, Stalin installed Matayas Rakosi to head matters in Hungary. Much like Stalin, his puppets were alike. From Ulbricht to Rakosi, their ruthless nature were no different from one another. Khruschev disliked Rakosi and ordered his dismissal. Hungarian people now sought a leader which was more independent from Moscow and understood their plight and problem. Imre Nagy emerged out of popular public support. The rebels lion groups ordered Soviet expulsion from Hungary and freedom to their country on all matters from Soviets. People wanted their country to be free in every aspect. Clashes began between the Red Army and Hungarian protesters in Budapest. Slowly Khrushchev began to believe that Hungary should be given autonomy and ordered Red Army withdrawal.

TIME magazine named Hungarian freedom fighter as the man of the year. Rebel groups rode their national flags with symbol of communism (hammer and sickle) torn off to show defiance to Soviet Union. The flag can be seen in the background.

But then Mao Zedong pressurized Khrushchev to re-send Red Army troops and preserve Hungary under Soviet influence.  Khrushchev complied.  This time Imre Nagy sought help from the western powers. But US and other nations didn’t reach out to their help. Why? Because if America intervened in matters regarding one satellite state then others would place similar demands. This would mean America’s intervention in all countries coming under Soviet sphere of influence which would be definitely a trigger for World War III. Thousands of rebels were killed and Imre Nagy was executed.

The above cartoon shows Nikita Khrushchev with hammer and sickle in his hand trying to suppress the Hungarian revolution, while the UN as a mere spectator offering no military support but sympathy.

Imre Nagy  who led the Hungarian revolution was seen by many as a formidable freedom fighter.  Nikita Khrushchev had Nagy executed, “as a lesson to all other leaders in socialist countries”. Western democracies saw his death as “an episode of unparalleled infamy”.

Above episodes of Soviet controlled satellite countries can be seen as fall of communism and rise of anger among the people in these countries to achieve a democratic government which will give them more freedom. Although Soviet Union had controlled the uprising but these events implanted a seed in people’s minds of what communism and capitalism had to offer.

Cold War – ‘Hot’ War in Asia

:: This is part four in the Cold War Series. Click for previous parts Part 1 , Part 2, Part3. Keep following the blog to know about Cold War as it happened

Besides a lot going on in Europe during Cold War Era, Asia wasn’t far behind. There was a term called domino theory being talked about during these years – It primarily said if one country fell under the influence of communism, neighboring countries would follow the trend and eventually world would fall under communism.

Domino theory was also one of the reasons in shaping US foreign policy. The above image shows hand (denoting Soviet Union) titling one domino (Laos, which had communist regime) which would eventually topple other dominos (countries).

China: Mao rises to power

Before and after World War II, there was occurrence of civil war in China between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists. Communists won under Mao Zedong. Now the question arose in American officials’ mind. Will China fall under Soviet leadership? Or will it follow Tito’s example and be independent(See part 3)? They were skeptical and waited until Mao took some decision. Eventually Mao decided to join Stalin. This was a big blow to America as suddenly one of the biggest country in Asia fell under communism and much worse under Soviet hands. What motivated Mao to take this step despite the fact that Chinese Communists had won the civil war all by themselves with little help from the Soviet Union?

First was Mao’s deep belief in Marxist-Leninist ideology. He was heavily inspired by the Bolshevik revolution led by Lenin. He thought of allying all the countries under one communist umbrella. Mao said, “with the Soviet Union..and with the proletariat and broad masses in all other countries and form an united international front. We must lean to one side”

Secondly, Mao was envious of the US. US had supported Chinese nationalists during the civil war. Mao became suspicious that US might enter into China to help their nationalists ally. But eventually US did no such thing.

China needed peace and war- free country so that it could boost its economy. For this they needed Soviet Union’s aid, as they couldn’t ask it from the US.

Here is the link of conversations between Mao and Stalin during 1949 – http://china.usc.edu/conversation-between-soviet-unions-joseph-stalin-and-chinas-mao-zedong-1949

Mao, dictator of China, came under the league of Hitler and Stalin as being the most ruthless. Under his regime there were an estimate 40 to 70 million deaths through starvation, forced labour and executions, ranking his tenure as the top incidence of democide in human history.

North versus South

For the first time Cold War became Hot, arms and ammunition were gathered and full scale fighting was taking place in Korea. Let’s find out the origin on why did the war happened.

Korea was occupied by Japanese from 1910, but in World War II Japan was defeated and suddenly Korea became free from the foothold of Japan. But that did not remain for long as Allied nation winners occupied Korea, and like Germany, Korea was divided into two zones one occupied by Soviet Union and the other by the US. Both agreed to mind their own business along the 38^th parallel.

Division of Korea along the 38^th parallel. The red area occupied by Soviets while the green was occupied by the US.

North Korea became a communist state under the leadership of Kim Il-Sung while the South backed by US came under Syngman Rhee. Both the leaders had one goal – to unify Korea under their administration. To achieve their goals they sought help from their respective allies. America refused to station their army in South Korea as it might drag them into another war which they didn’t want. On the counterpart Kim Il-Sung repeatedly sought support from Moscow in his campaign to unify Korea. Stalin preoccupied with matters in Berlin and in elsewhere Europe, stalled Kim but eventually gave him the nod to carry out his plan. January 1950, North invades South.

The above image shows two leaders during the Korean War. Syngman Rhee (left) and Kim Il- Sung (right). Both leaders committed atrocities on prisoners of war of either side.

What Soviet leaders did not anticipate was America’s participation in the war. America had previously not helped Chinese nationalists in their war against communist so Soviets believed America was least likely to involve themselves in Asian matters.

Why did America intervene?

US President Harry Truman presented to the world the “Truman Doctrine” which was as quoted, “set a precedent for American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union.” More generally, the Truman doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Soviet communism. So partly defined by Truman Doctrine and partly to conserve its world dominance, America backed South Korea.

New York Times Front edition featuring the Truman speech which established the Truman doctrine.

If they helped South Korea, then why they didn’t help Chinese Nationalists in civil war and drive out communists from China and prevent China to become a communist state according to Truman Doctrine? The reasons was Chinese Nationalists were itself incompetent and corrupt and that the arms and support given to them more often would wound up in the hands of the communists. Even if they formed government it would be a very unstable one. At least Chinese communists had a strong leadership to guide them.

Moreover it was a blatant opposition to UN (United Nations). UN had sanctioned the boundary along 38^th parallel. If one would remember World War II had started when Hitler openly refused warnings from Britain and France and went on to occupy Poland. The structure of UN was created to avoid these kinds of circumstances. But the invasion boldly defied it.  It wasn’t after much time that UN decided to send forces into South Korea.

Korean War was the first case of proxy war in the Cold War Era which involved heavy fighting that led to the death of 2.5 million people.

China comes into picture

Before US participated in the war, North Korea entered South and went as far as capturing Seoul (South’s capital). As soon as UN forces, primarily Americans, joined the war, North Koreans were pushed back. UN forces were comparably strong as it was formed of World War II veterans. They drew back North Korean Army as far back as Pyongyang (North’s capital). Problem started to arise when they reached Yalu River (China-North Korean border).

China decided to send in forces to help North. What was the motivation behind it? What was Mao thinking?

Points in the above image indicates the course of the war.

America had reached the border. Mao already with anti-American thinking in his mind grew paranoid over the thought that Americans were just right around the corner. America might grow ambitious and enter China or even if they didn’t enter, skirmishes were bound to happen between them over the years. The idea of having America as neighbors gripped Mao with fear.

Chinese and American forces met at Yalu River. Chinese army unconventional tactics pushed back American troops.

During 1900’s China was considered as the underdog of Asia. Initially it was under the repression of Japanese and later civil war marked an era of economic chaos, hunger and savagery. Chinese involvement in Korean War was in part to show the world what the Chinese are capable of. It was no longer the underdog.

After much fighting, an armistice was signed in 1953 and borders drawn then haven’t much changed till present.

The above image shows the 38^th parallel border between South and North Korea in present day.  Several tunnels were built as an invasion route by North Koreans to enter into South.

 

Smart Move!

Through this blog and the next series of blogs I would like to address some effective military strategies that changed the course of history.

Let’s start the topic with great words by Sun Tzu, a military strategist and author of the book Art of War.

Thus, what is of supreme importance in a war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.

 

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

The Battle of Cannae

The belligerents in this case were Carthaginian and Roman Empire. The Carthage Army led by Hannibal Barca crushingly defeated a larger army under Roman Empire. This victory is often regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in the military history.

A map showing the areas under Carthaginian and Roman Empire in 215 B.C. Both sides were sworn enemies and led a series of battles under Punic Wars. The ever increasing desire of Romans to expand their territories was met by stiff resistance by the Carthaginians. Punic Wars was a bloody engagement between the two which was carried on for more than a hundred years.

Background

Hannibal led by his ambition marched his way towards Italy to confront the Romans. Through a series of successive battles, Carthage Army had captured most of the areas that were previously under the Roman Empire.

The route which Hannibal took to invade the Romans, shown by dotted lines.

On reaching Cannae, Italy, Hannibal had cut supplies of Romans leaving them food deficit. Romans were vexed by this, and decided to completely destroy Hannibal.

To learn just like the gist of any war, Wikipedia articles are always useful. Above is the image from the Wikipedia article, left side gives details about the Carthage Army under Hannibal while on the right, we have the Roman Empire. Obvious conclusion could be drawn that Romans had an upperhand in numerical superiority and also they had modern artillery compared to the Carthage Army. Looking under the casualties’ column, Romans losses were far greater than that of the Carthaginians, proving that they had a crushing defeat.

The tactics and eventual victory

Hannibal was an excellent tactician and an able leader. Despite differences in ethnicities in the Carthage Army (Spanish, Gallic and African), he was able to unite them and persuade them to fight together for a common cause.

Hannibal Barca, generally considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, led the Carthaginian Army during the Second Punic War.

Initial formation

The above two images shows the battle formation on both sides.

The Romans heavily relied on brute force tactics i.e. more the men the merrier. Hannibal on the other hand organized his army in a rather peculiar way.  Looking at the images, at the center we have Gallic and Spanish swordsmen forming a crescent like shape.  Behind these swordsmen we have the light infantry of Africans (basically slingers and spearmen). On either side we have heavy Carthaginian cavalry (soldiers on horses) which is organized to take on the Roman cavalry.  Romans didn’t spend time thinking about battle formations and deployed its troops in the regular old fashioned way, with the light infantry at the front followed by heavy infantry. Just to make it clear, light infantry was used to provide a screen and delaying enemy advance. Light infantry are the ones who take on the harassing fire from the enemy first and then allow heavy infantry to take charge.

Armies engage

Hannibal knew taking Roman Army head on in a battle would be futile, so he devised a plan. The army at the center consisting of swordsmen was told to retaliate back after engaging with the Romans after a short while. The Romans grew confident as they were able to successfully repel the Carthage Army unknown to the fact that Hannibal was luring them into a trap. The idea was to envelope the Roman Army.

The Romans (denoted by red) charged with full vigor (dotted red arrows) towards the Carthage Army. The Carthaginians (denoted by blue) acted as per Hannibal’s plan and retaliated (shown by small dotted blue arrows).  At the same time, Carthaginians cavalry (Spanish and Numidian) charged heavily on the Roman cavalry and were successful in driving them away (shown by large dotted blue arrows).

The Trap closes

As the Carthage Army retaliated more and more, Roman Army dwelled deeper and deeper.

With the passage of time the crescent of soldiers formed initially, buckled inwards more and more. This led to the tightening of the semi-circle formed (see figure below). The bulk of the Roman troops began to lose their cohesion, as they began crowding themselves into the growing gap. Soon they were compacted together so closely that they had little space to wield their weapons. The Carthaginian cavalry which was successful in driving out the Roman cavalry easily now attacked the Roman infantry from the back side (denoted by dotted blue lines in the below figure). At this time Hannibal also ordered the African light infantry which was at the rear end of the formation to attack the Romans from back-side. The Romans were enclosed in a pocket with no means of escape.

Encirclement of the Roman Army

One other reason for defeat was the Roman leadership. The Roman Army was commanded by two people namely, Varro and Paullus. So, either Varro or Paullus commanded the army on alternate days leading to a lot of confusion among the soldiers.

Hannibal was in turn able to completely annihilate the Roman Army without much loss of his own Army.

 

Rise of the Underdogs

Carl von Clausewitz, a great military theorist, published a book on military strategy called Vom Kriege (On War). His book was published in 1832 but his works are still discussed in affairs when we talk about any war. So let’s start with what Clausewitz said.

Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian general and a great thinker

Clausewitz said the numerical superiority (when one side has greater man power) is only a material factor. It wasn’t the decisive factor to win the war. Below is the image is taken from one the chapters of On War which discusses this.

Clausewitz also said what things made important to win a war were – skill of the commanding officer, experience and courage of troops and their patriotic spirit.

The moral elements as described by Clausewitz were the most important to win the war. These theories described forms the basics of discussion for the rest of the blog.

First let’s just clear up on the meaning of underdog. According to Merriam Webster, underdog means a person or a team that is expected to lose a contest or battle. The topic of the blog addresses those battles where one side had considerable disadvantage in terms of manpower, artillery etc compared to the other side but still has a decisive victory.

The Finnish defiant

Year 1939, small country of Finland is attacked by the mighty Russia. This war came to be commonly known as the Winter War. Outnumbered and low on arms they still managed to win.

Why Finland is denoted as an underdog?

The above image is of the world map in 1940’s. Finland looks miniature in front of the enormous Russia. Despite this they managed to defeat the Soviet Army.

Comparison

The above image is from the Wikipedia article. The left side denotes Soviet Union while the right side is Finland. From the picture one can deduce that Finland was outnumbered 2:1 initially but later Russia had send in more reinforcements amounting to a total of 900,000 men while the Finnish strength remained the same, that is approximately 300,000 men. Considering the army equipment large difference comes into play. The casualties for Soviet Union were in fact far larger than of Finland denoting brave attempts by the Finnish Army.

Let’s look at why Finland was attacked by Russia

In August 1939, Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non –aggression pact. Part of the agreement was that countries of Europe were to be divided into ‘spheres of influences’ of Germany and Russia and they wouldn’t intervene in each other’s act. The agreement signified that Germany and Soviet Russia wanted to be the only two major powers in Europe by expanding their territories through annexation of small countries. Soviet eyed Finland and wanted to annex it.

In the above image we see Stalin (left) and Molotov, German Foreign Minister, (right) shaking hands after the successful signing of the non aggression pact.

After the pact was signed, images like above began circulating in the press. Although Nazis and Soviets entered an agreement, the whole world was critical of how long this friendship would last?

Stalin (dictator of Russia at that time) demanded that some parts of Finland to cede to Russia, Finland declined. The areas Russia demanded contained fortifications (huge structures to form a defensive wall) in Finland. If Finland were to give away these areas then they would not be able to defend themselves effectively against a future attack. To meet its goals, Soviet Russia attacked Finland without a declaration of war.

Why did Finland won?

• The Soviets were confident of an easy victory. Just a few months ago, they had captured Poland easily and thought Finland would be much easier.
• Finland knew they were at a disadvantage with numbers and arms, so they made up for it by using an effective military strategy.
• Finland’s strategy was dictated by geography. Finland was an area with snow-capped mountains, lakes, forests; a very diverse area unlike Russia. The Finnish soldiers were skilled in skiing which made it easier for them to move around in snow capped terrains. Russia having no knowledge of this couldn’t effectively march Finland terrains.

Finnish soldiers were excellent at skiing, which made it easier for them to traverse snowy regions

• Finnish Army camouflaged in snow as they wore snow cape uniforms. Red Army (Russian Army) on the other hand wore red helmets with brown uniforms which made them distinguishable from the snow and easy to spot.

The uniforms of Finnish Army made it difficult for Red Army to distinguish them from the snow

• Finns had an easy-to-use and easy-to-make grenade known as ‘Molotov Cocktail’. It consisted of a flammable liquid inside a glass bottle which when ignited would act as a small scale grenade. It was highly effective against the Red Army as these could be produced on a large scale.

A Finnish Soldier with ‘Molotov Cocktail’ tied to its belt

• Finnish Army had an excellent leadership who commanded them. The sense of patriotism among the Finns was at all time high, they didn’t want their country to be subdued under the Russians.

The above image is of Aarne Edward Juutilainen. Juutilainen effectively used gurellia tactics in Battle of Kolla leading to crushing defeat of Russians. This war made him a national hero and showed Finland had outstanding leaders.

• motti tactics- Finnish Army would form small pockets and encircle Soviet soldiers, providing them no means of escape.
• In a nutshell we can say that even though Russia had power of numbers and artillery but the Finns used the advantage of speed, tactics and economy of force.

What mistakes did the Russians make?

• Great Purge from 1936-38 had weakened the Red Army. What is this Great Purge? Stalin was a ruthless dictator (I would consider him even below Hitler), suppressed any and every form of uprising. This led to arrest and killing of various people ranging from peasants to soldiers in Red Army. Lieutenants and Generals who didn’t meet the expectations of Stalin or who disagreed with him were killed instantly. This gap was filled by inexperienced Stalin puppets. These puppets were weak links in chain of commands, they never took effective decisions.

The above picture is of Stalin. It was estimated that approximately 10-15 million people died during The Great Purge. Almost 2-3 million were shot immediately while the others were sent to labor camps.

• Although Russians had modern weaponry but they were ill-equipped with warmer clothes and rations. Finnish weather conditions were harsh sometimes as low as -40 degree Celsius. As a result many soldiers of the Red Army died due to cold and hunger.
• Wrong calculations and overconfidence- Russians thought of an easy victory. They thought they could wrap up the war within two weeks.

Historian William Trotter described Soviet soldier’s ordeal- “The Soviet soldier had no choice. If he refused to fight, he would be shot. If he tried to sneak through the forest, he would freeze to death. And surrender was no option for him; Soviet propaganda had told him how the Finns would torture prisoners to death”

The cartoon depicts Stalin bound through ropes by the Finnish Army. This highlights the fact that Russia were not able to make significant advances during the initial phases of the war due to the strong defense of the Finns 

After the initial defeat, Russians had sent in more reinforcements making a total of 900,000 effectively who fought against the Finns. Russia changed his war plans built an effective strategy to combat the Finns. They were finally able to break through the defensive lines. Finnish Army was on the verge of collapse but until then a peace treaty was signed know as Treaty of Moscow. According to the treaty Finland had to let go many areas to Russia, it is estimated that about 1/8^th of Finland was ceded to Russia. In conclusion we can say that the war was a victory for Finland as they didn’t fully succumb to the whims of Russia.

Picture of Simo Häyhä with his sniper rifle

One badass to emerge out of all this is a man named Simo Häyhä. Nicknamed “White Death”, Häyhä was a Finnish sniper who has predicted to kill at least 500 men, that’s highest number of kills by any soldier during a war.  Surprisingly after killing so many men, Häyhä died at ripe age of 96 in 2002.

 

Proxy War

I ended my last blog with the statement that history helps to analyze the present with the knowledge from the past and also predict the future. Through this blog I would like to show you how. The end of World War II paved way for an ideological war that is commonly known as Cold War.

What was this ideological war?

We first need to understand three terms here: communism, socialism and capitalism. In simplest terms, capitalism is a system where means of production are privately owned and has a free market system for trade. Simply put, if you are better than your competitor then you earn more. On the other hand, communism in the most basic definition means when the means of production is equally owned by all the members of the state. In practice, communism is never achievable. So the so called communist countries are actually socialist. Socialism means when the means of production is controlled by the state.

The above two images show the effect of the two economic systems in the manufacturing sector and in the markets.

These definitions are quite complex and difficult to understand. I have listed down various sources in the Explore More section if you want more details. I just wanted to highlight the fact that the ideas on which the two superpowers, America (capitalism) and USSR (socialism) were built were strikingly opposite. This difference of ideas formed the basis of Cold War. Each of the powers wanted to align countries to their spheres of influence.

What does proxy war mean?

By the word “proxy war” I mean when two powers use third parties as a supplement or a substitute for fighting each other. Instead of having a direct head on conflict with each other they use their forces to support other groups in a conflict stricken country. There were many countries involved in this but I would like to state two examples that are somewhat relatable to each other.

 PAST:

Nicaraguan Revolution

First a little geography, where is Nicaragua?

Looking closely at Nicaragua’s situation

1. Nicaragua was under dictatorship from 1939, being ruled by the Somoza family. The Somoza family had a strong support from the US government.
2. Corruption and inequality under Somoza family’s rule steadily gave rise to anti-government elements. The main group to rise out of these was the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), its members more popularly known as Sandinistas. FSLN had socialist principles.
3. The party slowly gained popularity and was able to overthrow 46 years of dictatorship of Somoza family and establish its government in 1979.
4. This was all happening amidst the Cold War, wherein each of the superpower was trying to align countries to their respective ideologies (communism or capitalism).
5. The US was perturbed by the fact that a country on which it once had a stronghold, now succumbed to socialism. The US reacted to this by sending in counterrevolutionary forces known as contra. Contras were highly trained and well financed by CIA.

The above picture is from the front page of TIME magazine. The man depicted here is then Nicaragua’s president and FSLN leader. Red basically described here is a communist regime. Also if you look closely at his glasses, we can see the symbol of communism there, a hammer and a sickle. Reagan mentioned here was the president of the US at that time.

6. Sandinistas sought help from the Soviet Union to tackle the contras.

 PRESENT:

Syrian Crisis

Where does Syria lie on the world map?

Let’s begin analyzing the story of Syria and how it somewhat relates to Nicaraguan Revolution. Let’s start understanding Syrian conflict in a few steps

1. Syria was ruled by a dictator family, Assad. This rule was somewhat build on socialist ideals and had the support of Soviet Union. This was around 1970s and the ruler was Hafeez al-Assad.
2. In 2000, Hafeez al-Assad dies and his son Bashar al-Assad takes over. Everything went well until 2011, when Arab Spring started. Like in all the Arab countries, peaceful democratic protests were being held in Syria against the authoritarian regime.
3. But this peaceful protest was brutally brought down by the pro-government forces. This angered the Syrian public and they became more rebellious. Despite continuous interventions from the Arab League and the UN, Bashar al-Assad remained aggressive in his actions against the rebel groups.

During 2014, elections were held in Syria in which Bashar al-Assad won by a huge majority. This shows how the elections result were highly influenced and totally illegitimate.

4. Atrocities committed by this government were largely inhumane as considered by various institutions including the UN. These included use of chemical gas on rebel groups and civilians, killing of small children.
5. The rebel groups were funded by modern weaponry and financial aid from the US and some other countries whereas the Syrian Armed forces were being helped by Russia.

A cartoon depicting Russia helping Assad to keep his authoritarian government alive. The caption captures the sarcasm.

A flow chart to explain which countries were helping whom

6. These rebel groups also contained in themselves some groups with an Islamic agenda. They are the ISIS (Islamic State for Iraq and Syria). They have goals somewhat similar to rebel but they want to establish a caliphate (Islamic government) and are more brutal in their acts.

After talking about the two stories above, we can see we have a similar pattern. Firstly, the country was under dictatorship rule. Many people were disgruntled with this type of government and formed rebel groups. Either the rebel group or the government was backed by the two superpowers. This led to proxy wars.

What do we learn from this?

Despite the fact that World War 2 ended decades ago, US and Russia still fight for their supremacy over the world. Another thing to note here is that due this proxy war, the duration and casualties in these countries have risen. Also these wars lead to rise of terrorist groups like ISIS in Syria, Taliban in Afghanistan.

Questions to ponder over

1. Do you think a country could prosper under a dictatorship rule?
2. What steps would you take to put an end to Syrian Crisis if you were the head of the Syrian government/US/Russia?
3. Would you participate in rebel groups who take up ammunition to fight against the authoritarian government, if you lived under such rule?
4. Is a communist society good or bad?

Explore More:

Videos – Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Syrian conflict

Articles – Difference between socialism and communism, Syrian Civil War timeline, India’s role in Cold War :NCERT reference 

Juxtaposition of War

When you tell people what they think about war- they think war is destructive, they think war as loss of lives, and they think war as atrocities made by oppressor on the oppressed. All the above points are completely true but there is another side of the war that is unseen. If you had seen cassettes in late 90s they usually had two sides to them. The topic of war can be made analogous to this cassette tape where side A was which we had talked above.  Through this blog I wanted to explore the side B of the topic. These sides must not be confused to be binary i.e. if side A is negative side then side B will be absolute positive. The side B is just the “other” side. I would like cite examples from World War 2 for my claims.

Here is my interpretation of side B

During the second world war, countries like Britain, France and many other like them made it a compulsion for the their colonies to fight in the war. This brought the country and its colonies under one umbrella and fight against the enemy as one identity keeping aside their differences. War in sense created an existence of a group that really is something of a lie.

The above image depicts the British Army. We can see we have Canadian, Australian, Indian, African and of course Brits fighting for the British Army. They may be divided but they unite while fighting against the enemy.

War brings out the best and the worst in people. Take the case of Germany. Schindler and Hitler were completely contrasting characters.

Oskar Schindler  was an ethnic German industrialist, spy, and member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories. You can read more about the man on his Wikipedia Page or watch Schindler’s List movie (highly recommended).

Most people have heard of Schindler but there is one more man whose goodness receives recognition. He is Ho Feng-Shan. Ho Feng-Shan was the Chinese diplomat to Vienna. It was alleged that he helped 10,000 Jews get to Shanghai and into other places.

War is productive – I am sure many of you must have watched the movie The Imitation Game. The war propelled Germans to find a secret way of sending messages and thus Enigma was created. This invention in turn compelled Allies to find a way to break the unbreakable code. Turing’s machine hence developed proved to be a model for computers that were built henceforth.

War is about unity and cooperation- Able bodied were called upon for their participation in war. There was a sense of unity among people to help each other.

A poster calling for participation of women in the US Army.

War involves great amount of planning. When we talk about war we talk about bureaucracy, a hierarchal structure. Intricate and strategic planning is involved. It was survival of the fittest. Example- Germany used a very powerful and highly effective war strategy known as Blitzkrieg.

Blitzkrieg-  German for “lightning war”. It was a tactic used by the Germans to defeat their enemies. How did it work? Suppose Germans wanted to capture a area they would send tanks, dive bombers and infantry and bombard the whole place to ashes. This took the enemy by surprise and by the time they would react Germans would have completely demolished the place

“I become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” – J. Robert Oppenheimer, a scientist involved with the development of the atomic bomb  (July 16, 1945 quoting a Hindu Scripture after the detonation of the first atomic bomb)

There’s more to the topic and I would like to tell more in the coming blogs. As the name of the blog suggests, I would like to get into the insights of World War 2 and hopefully pique your interest towards history. Because a knowledge of history can provide valuable understanding of today and coming future generations.