The sinking of The Moskva
Ukrainian forces – equipped with the newest anti-ship weaponry – sank The Moskva (Moscow), the flagship of the Russian Navy. It was such a spectacular event that I was instantly reminded of the sinking of The Bismarck in the early days of World War II. Not at the time, however – but from the movie.
The sinking of the Bismarck was such a spectacular event that it was memorialized in a Johnny Horton song, books, and movies.
There are a lot of similarities between the sinking of The Bismarck and the sinking of The Moscow. Both were flagships of their respective navies. That means that they were not only impressive in their own right – in their advanced technology – but they were the command center for the rest of the fleet. They were ships personally commanded by the top admirals.
They were arguably the most modern and most dangerous warships on the high seas – equipped with the most impressive weapons of their day. They were meant to attack – not be attacked. They were considered as virtually indestructible – unsinkable.
The Moscow has been described as having the most advanced anti-aircraft and anti-torpedo defense systems in the world. Why they failed is a mystery. Its loss was a serious blow to Russia.
In addition to the military implications, the loss of The Bismarck and The Moscow were psychological and morale blows. It was a humiliating event. Both ships carried the most prestigious names in their respective fleets. Given Vladimir Putin’s puffed-up ego and hyper nationalism, one can only image his reaction when he learned that the Moscow was at the bottom of the Black Sea.
And as was the case with Hitler and The Bismarck, Putin suffered this humiliating loss at the hands of a military that he expected to crush in a few days. It must have been inconceivable that the Ukrainian forces could actually put Putin’s pride into Neptune’s locker so easily. It took only two missiles.
Of course, Putin responded in classic propaganda bullstuff. It was an accidental fire that sunk The Moscow, not the Ukrainians. But like all of Putin’s lies, it just does not hold water (pardon the pun).
Kicking Russia’s butt in battle is one thing. But humiliating Putin in the process is quite another. I am not sure which bothers Putin more. War is serious business and rarely produces a good laugh. But sinking The Moscow has produced one hardy mocking laugh at Putin’s expense.
So, there ‘tis.
God has His hand on Ukraine
A $750M loss before you add in munitions and fuel, probably well over $1B. And the losses ain’t over yet……
Think about it…..Don’t you think our divers are prepping for a run at seizing technology from the wreck? Doesn’t Putin have to expend even more resources and money to quickly either guard or salvage the wreck before we do? Remember, in war we just do it and figure the accounting out later. That’s always more expensive.
Then there’s the cost of failure: the Moscov has radar detection systems, missile avoidance systems, how could it be hit, much less sunk by a couple of missiles? Putin has to be really questioning his technology and his people processes for this massive failure. How does he dare send his next best warship to the front? The dog has got to be gun shy.
Although Joe G. seems to believe in Putin-the-genius, the Ukrainian aggression seems to have bad planning, mismanaged operations, faulty equipment, and less-than-motivated conscripts. Seems almost like a bad WWII strategy in 2022. Big iron, big steel, against small groups of back-pack, smart-weaponed motivated patriots. The Russian carpet terror attacks against civilians as opposed to our modern strategy of strategic bombing attacks against military targets and infrastructure. I mean could you imagine if we attacked a country for 60 days that the power, water, and internet would still be available in much of the country? While Larry may have ill-founded hawkish opinions, his reporting on Putin’s embarrassments is spot on, IMO.
Larry, I remember reading “Sink The Bismark,” by CS Forrester before I saw the movie and it was a real page turner. Believe it was lights-on after lights-out those nights. But that was about the journey, we have yet to hear that story here and, I, for one, can’t wait to hear how they pulled this one off. Rumor has it there were drone distractions that may have helped them sneak the Neptune’s on by. But two missiles bring the ship down? That’s some fine shooting.
For the Ukrainians, this is a major morale booster. Not so much so for the Russians who have pulled their remaining attack ships back 50 miles for fear of losing them. This news has to trickle in to Russia and the people have to be shaking their heads, at minimum. This dog has got to be gun shy after this and everything else. And this message has to trickle into Russia even with the news blackout.
Certainly this ain’t Crimea and you have to credit Biden and Trump for their part in where the Ukrainians stand today. And that is, they stand. Who would have thought it? (Certainly not Joe, the great meat-grinder, Zelenskyy-has-been-bought, prognosticator :>)
And here come more US arms and now, US training on said arms. That oughta tweak Vlad in his already very tiny and getting more shriveled each day private parts.
One last thing from all this. Don’t you think our Generals are working round the clock to reformulate strategies and war game planning based on all the new info and knowledge they are getting?
Don’t you think deep in the Pentagon there’s a Dr. Strangelove and General Buck Turgidson pushing for our all-out nuclear attack on Russia: “If…we were to immediately launch an all-out and coordinated attack on all their airfields and missile bases we’d stand a damn good chance of catchin ’em with their pants down. Hell, we got five to one missile superiority as it is. We could easily assign three missiles to every target and still have a very effective reserve force for any other contingency…An unofficial study [he rifles through the binder entitled World Targets in Megadeaths], which we undertook of this eventuality, indicate that we would destroy ninety percent of their nuclear capabilities. We would therefore prevail and suffer only modest and acceptable civilian casualties from the remaining force which would be badly damaged and uncoordinated.”
He might be right. There may be no better time.