this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
26 points (93.3% liked)
AskHistorians
1157 readers
1 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
At the battle of Stalingrad in Russia both sides sent waves of infantry charging toward fortified machine gunner positions, resulting in total or near total losses, again and again. Don't look for logic and efficient use of human resources in war.
Field Marshall Haigh would've loved Stalingrad to show how it's properly done - His ghost found the casualty rate laughably low.
"Field Marshal Haig is about to make yet another gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches close to Berlin."
-Edmund Blackadder
Allowing your troops to be encircled because GERMANY STRONK is a legitimate tactic, wdym?!?
A I recently learned that sacrificing large numbers of soldiers for little or no gain is a Russian tactic that goes back centuries. Apparently, in the Napoleonic wars, sending soldiers forward to die was known as "combat a la Russe".