D-Day for the Russians: "The Germans had it, we know how it ended"

D-Day for the Russians: "The Germans had it, we know how it ended"

Experts from the RAND Corporation, an American research organization, Rafael S. Cohen and Gian Gentile, believe that the position on the Ukrainian-Russian front is more reminiscent and has similarities with the battle in Normandy in July 1944, after the Allied landings, than with the trench battles of the First World War in the West front.

Supporters of the "Great War" analogy remind us that the Russians "studded" fortifications, "sowed" a huge number of minefields and built hundreds of kilometers of anti-tank "hedgehogs" so, according to them, it is difficult, if not impossible, to break such a defense.

According to Cohen and Gentile, this situation is more reminiscent of the war atmosphere of World War II. Namely, they state that, after landing on the beaches of Normandy, it took the allies more than six weeks, almost fifty days, to make a breakthrough of some thirty kilometers from the coast towards the small town of Saint-Lô. It's only around 26-27 of July (recall that the landing operation began on June 6, 1944) American General J. L Collins "felt that the German defense was giving way".

After two days of constant air attacks, on a small part of the German defenses northwest of Saint-Lô, General Collins ordered his infantry to attack, which penetrated very quickly, and the Germans gave way and began to retreat. Let us recall that Collins was one of the few American generals who also received the Soviet War Order - Suvorov of the second order.

So, when they finally managed to break through the German positions on that relatively small part of the front, there was no stopping for them, the Allies moved forward, and the Germans began to retreat and were no longer able to establish solid defensive lines.

"The defense of the Germans in Normandy was very strong, but they still suffered a defeat, despite a very well-built and dense defense line, bunkers, anti-tank fences, minefields, trenches. However, American analysts do not claim that the Ukrainians will in the next few weeks" achieve their Normandy", but the analogy with that battle is an argument in favor of "patience and perseverance".

Nearly 80 years ago, the U.S. military faced much the same problems as the Ukrainian military now, but American forces advanced slowly, daily wearing down German defenses, and eventually it worked, Cohen and Gentile said. They note that the Germans in Normandy had about a thousand soldiers per one km, and currently the Russians in the battalion have about 700 soldiers per one km. However, the Ukrainian counterattack is heating up and it is believed that in the second half of August it will be "decided" where it is going.