As conversation about British deployment in Ukraine continues, soldiers are having to sharpen their skills in trench warfare. The war in Ukraine has shown that trenches haven’t gone away in the 21st century but the last time British forces got involved in trench-to-trench fighting was the Falklands war in 1982.
Then, in the 1990s, the focus in the Balkans was more on peacekeeping and intervention.
The campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq saw a push for troops to go out and win over the hearts and minds of a nation through patrolling and persuading the locals not to support the guerrillas.
As a result, there is a generation of British soldiers whose focus was on learning techniques of counter insurgency rather than major conflicts between states.
Now, off the back of the Ukrainian experience, they are rapidly refocusing on how to conduct trench warfare in an era when drones can provide airborne intel of the enemy’s location.
In February, British troops travelled to Eastern Romania for Exercise Steadfast Dart, a NATO rehearsal for war with Russia.
Trenches were dug into fields on NATO’s eastern flank and the soldiers from the UK and Romania formed platoons which then drilled how to “clear out” trenches, including an enormous trench, complete with interconnected positions, at points 5ft deep and with a frontage of 270 metres.
In this video, Danielle Sheridan, The Telegraph’s Defence Editor, digs into how British troops can get back up to speed in trench fighting.
Read more here:
#news #ukraine #war
Музыка
Фильмы
ТВ Шоу
Категории видео
