How does an individual reconcile their basic humanity with being a disposable cog in a war machine? Guy Sajer explores this in his famous book “The Forgotten Soldier.” These memoirs from a German soldier on the Russian Front give us a terrifying glimpse into an experience very few of us can even imagine.
“Only happy people have nightmares, from overeating. For those who live a nightmare reality, sleep is a black hole, lost in time, like death.”
― Guy Sajer, The Forgotten Soldier
News from Ukraine
Guy Sajer fought in Ukraine 80 years ago, where today an eerily similar battle is playing out. In Sajer’s time, a vastly outnumbered German army was attempting to hold back a massive Russian horde, which threatened to overwhelm the entire front. The past few weeks have seen the same thing happening to the beleaguered Ukrainian army.
Russia captured the town of Avdiivka last month following a gruelling month-long slog for the ruins. It was reminiscent of last year’s capture of Bakhmut by Russian forces after nearly a year of attritional fighting. Avdiivka fell because the Ukrainian army was forced to retreat from the region. They were out of ammunition.
Ukraine does not have the industrial capacity to supply itself during a brutal war of attrition the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Korean War. They depend entirely on outside help, particularly munitions. This war has become an artillery war, and both sides go through an appalling number of shells every single day. Russia has a robust production industry and can sustain itself. Ukraine cannot.
Russian forces continued to press all along the front following the capture of Avdiivka, and managed to take two more oblasts around the town, expanding their bridgehead in the region. Ukrainian officials worry this will lead to much more significant Russian advances in the summer months, when the ground is dry and troops can move freely.
The only thing that could stop them is deadly artillery, but as we saw at Avdiivka, Ukraine is out of shells. The United States, Germany and France — so far the largest contributors to Ukrainian stockpiles — are holding back deliveries as they all run into political problems at home. Smaller nations, such as the Czech Republic, are trying to provide what they can, but they don’t have much themselves.
Things are looking grim this year if you’re Ukrainian. They’re looking a lot better if you’re Russian. Unless you’re a Russian sailor.
This video of Ukrainian marine drones attacking a Russian warship is mesmerizing:
The ship, Tsezar Kunikov, was sunk off the coast of southern Ukraine.
News from my own Facebook battle
I told you last month how Facebook has unpublished the Battlegrounds Plus page and taken away one of the more popular pages for us military history nerds. There’s no movement on that front. Meta seems to have no intention of ever letting us back.
But they have yet to shut down the Battlegrounds+ Facebook group. So we’ll continue to nerd-out there while we search for a good alternative that isn’t TikTok. Perhaps Reddit?
Australians at Rethymno
As I mentioned last month, I’ve been writing for History Guild, an Australian history site. My latest piece has been published with them. It’s all about the Australians who found themselves under airborne attack by German Fallschirmjaeger at the tiny airfield of Rethymno, Crete.
I also wrote about the Australian 6th Division, which was formed in 1939, went into action in North Africa in 1941, was hammered by the Waffen SS in Greece, and then found itself all split up, with elements landing in Crete and others in Egypt.
One key takeaway I learned from researching this article was that the Germans were absolutely terrified of the long Australian “Gallipoli” bayonet. A wall of charging Australian infantry would usually send the Germans running, rather than face those bayonets.
Hats off to our Australian friends!