Infantry Unit Tactics, Tasks, Weapons, and Organization

[Fuchs]

More important in winter than means of transport is logistics. You better always have a heated hut and better not operate far away from such necessities.


Military bicycles appeared in army exercises in the late 19th century, especially folding bikes are quite well-documented (as if carrying a 25+ kg bike on the back was somehow an advantage). It's difficult to pin down the first wide-spread use to me, and it surely wasn't a primarily defensive tactic in German use.
Germans used bicycle troops mostly as cheap cavalry and motorcycle infantry substitute, for example in the battalion plus-sized reconnaissance detachments.

[ganulv]

I’ll beat Ken to the METT-TC punch here. Any Inuit hunter knows the trade-off between snowmobiles and dog teams. Snowmobiles are always better, except when they break down or run out of gas. Then sleeping with them won’t keep you warm and they the parts can’t be used as emergency rations.

My guess is that those Finns don’t go out with on those snowmobiles without skis as part of their survival gear to this day. Also to give them an option of moving without being heard from miles away (snowmobiles are one of the most goddamn noisy things per unit of weight in the world).

More important in winter than means of transport is logistics. You better always have a heated hut and better not operate far away from such necessities.

You can do without in a pinch. Speaking from experience, a snowcave might not keep you warm but it will keep you alive.

[Fuchs]

Speaking from experience, a snowcave might not keep you warm but it will keep you alive.

That's not good enough if you face a tenfold numerical superiority of Russians.

[ganulv]

That's not good enough if you face a tenfold numerical superiority of Russians.

You can only hunker down so many nights in a row, sure, but someone who knows what they are doing and who went out with the right kit and provisions should be just fine for two or three nights. I don’t know a ton about the Winter or Continuation wars (I’ve tried on and off to find stuff as it is of interest to me but it’s not clear to me that there is that much on it in English) but my understanding is that fieldcraft did play a role.

[jmm99]

Where to bury the tenfold number of Russians.

Regards

Mike

[kaur]

If i do understand Finnish solution right, then they are trying to solve the longe range firepower/teeth problem (that once was done by longe range recce skiers) and tenfold Russians with this kind of moves.

http://www.dsca.mil/PressReleases/36...land_12-25.pdf

... and Russians understand this point well if you can read comments here in Russian

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/252280.html

Snowmobiles are within aroured formations that screen the noise

It's all about Ken's METT-TC of course.

PS you can't ignore also this point, than can compensate some comfort deprivation.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Fin.../1135245022270

[davidbfpo]

Kaur,

What a find, that last link! Just one example:

During the Winter War a ridiculous amount of drugs came to Finland. By the end of 1940, 1,511 kg. of opium alone was delivered to the military pharmacy in Helsinki. It was supplied mainly by the American Red Cross and the Swedish state.