The Art of War: Mountain Warfare
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- čas přidán 22. 09. 2023
- Discover the untold history of mountain warfare, where terrain shapes battles and demands new strategies. From Hannibal's Alps crossing to modern-day Afghanistan, explore the challenges and advantages of fighting in the world's highest places. Join us in this episode of the Art of War series as we delve into the complexities of mountain warfare. Don't miss out on the critical insights that have shaped conflicts throughout history.
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Surprised the Kargil conflict was left out. It was fought at 18k feet and some tops taken were closer to 23k. I would rate the Indian army as the best mountain fighting force in the world with operating as well as war fighting experience spanning four decades if we include the ongoing Operation Meghdoot that began in the mid 80s and culminated in the winning of the Siachen glacier at 24k feet which is manned and held to this day.
It's not his fault, for people in Us world ends Europe. So there info is also limited.
For USA people USA=world.. the far you are the less significant you are
Use metric.
Dudes not a yank
Gorkha regiment which is troops made of guys from Nepal fought that war.
I'm particularly proud of this one. I served the Brazilian army and we specialized in Jungle and mountain warfare, often teaching fellow allies countries the nuances behind fighting in each biome. Congrats, Warographics.
Sounds awesome. Out of curiosity where the local/natives brought on as consults at one point to develop Amazonian jungle tactics?
@@goddoesnotexist5688💀💀💀
I had the chance to tramp through the jungle with some of you gents back in the early 2000s. Those jungkes are brutal glad yall were with us lol
Third world army
Brazil has mountains?
Where?
The Indian Army is deployed in the highest battlefield of the world throughout the year in the Siachen Glacier facing snow stroms, the risk of avalanches and freezing temperatures ranging from -50 to -70 C.. When it comes to Mountain Warfare the Indian Army is the best out there.
HAWS, Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir is one of the elite training institutes of Mountain Warfare..
Is India constantly at war? It is one thing to be deployed to guard a border and another to be fighting at war.
@@innocento.1552yes they have fought 5 major wars in last 70 years with last 40 years fighting terrorists. They have seen more action then any other branch
They had to raise a new regiment of Army to just do counter terrorism ops@@innocento.1552
Merica...😎🇺🇲
@@innocento.1552 its more than just passive defence
Italy vs Austria in the alps during the Ww1 was a brutal conflict too, visited those places. The ammount of tunnels dug trough the mountains is insane
Yeah, that was one of the worst places to fight back then. The temperatures, the cold & the altitude all made it extremely unpleasant.
@goldenageofdinosaurs7192
That sounds like a picnic compared to the island hopping in the Pacific against the Japanese.
@@christophermarkee5445both were very unpleasant in their own ways, I would say it was worse for the Italians in the alps but not just because of the terrible environmental conditions but the fact that Italy often had poor equipment, like for example they were known for having very unreliable gas masks that often didn’t really work. Also they didn’t have the benefit of being able to bomb the absolute life out of every piece of land right before they invaded, like the Americans did in the island hopping campaigns
@@christophermarkee5445New Guinea is pretty rough lol
I really don't have much affection for the idea of insects and creatures "invading my comfort zone" but my being in their environment makes me think the islands would be horrible,
But I'd feel so comfortable in those temperature and the wind, maybe half the time (the cooling aspect)
The mountains on the other hand outside the habitat of me. . .
Harsh choice
Only in the India/China kerfuffle does altitude sickness loom as a serious threat. Most other mountain engagements are mainly just terrain problems.
Which is why the Indian army likes to recruit Gurkhas. After Independence from the UK both the British and Indian armies had Gurkha regiments.
@@hectorsmommy1717The recruitment of Gorkhas in the Indian Army nowadays is more strategic and a remnant of the legacy of the history of the regiment(s) rather than a key operational requirement or a necessity; we recruit only 1200-1400 soldiers from Nepal every year, the rest (about 40,000-50,000) are all Indian soldiers from all over the country. Further, no matter what part of India a soldier is from, he/ she is put through a rigorous and systematic process of training and acclimatization to make them fit and ready to serve and *fight* in the highest of altitudes without any oxygen cylinders, unlike the PLA.
Altitude sickness occurs from an altitude of roughly 2000 meters and upwards. In world war 1, the forces of Austria-Hungary and Italy experienced problems with it. Armies have been confronted these issues for a long time in different areas, not only India and China.
“Mainly JUST terrain problems”? 😂 Those are major problems right there! Watch the video.
@@chrismath149 I meant currently but your point is well taken.
The Indian Army has the best mountain warfare wing.... They are called the Mountain strike corps and are one of the most modern and strongest wing in the Indian Army. Every year, even the US army does a workshop with The Indian Army on high Altitude warfare
Do they do mock battles?
@@grattimmy9937yes
@@grattimmy9937 Yep. They do integrated warfare exercises with both army and Indian Airforce Assets.... And both India and IS has an Yearly exersise between army level platooons, last year, it was in Alaska , I think ....
@@Foxy-if8pt Yep, the Gurkhas are actually native people of the Himalayas..... They are born and brought up in the mountains, so the Harsh Himalayan climate is not a big deal for them
@@Foxy-if8pt the gurkhas are a part of the indian army
Every soldier in the Indian Army is trained for mountain warfare regardless where the soldier is from
yeah sure buddy whatever you say
it seems someone here is ignorant about something called "logistics"
@@trffft2866 cool the pathetic chatgpt bud
@@ydid687🤡🤡
No they are not. Only a limited number of soldiers are trained in HAWS (High Altitude Warfare School).
@@ydid687that's why this logistics was main Focus to make every infantry man trained in mountain warfare every soilder in Indian army has to do mountain deployment
And for that logistics where already made in 1970s
I had a friend who fought in the Afghan mountains of Kandahar as a US paratrooper. According to him, just trying to survive the elements and the terrain was as nerve wacking as hearing bullets whistle past your face. He never liked the Taliban but respected their skills for waging mountain warefare. Most of his battle tactics and methods of caring for logistics, came from observing his enemies.
My brother was in the 173rd and said the same thing
A lot of people assume Taliban were just farmers with crappy old soviet AKs fixed up scrap.... oh no. Well trained and exceptionally good on the terrain. If ISAF didn't have air assets we'd have been humped in the mountain areas.
@@stuartronald9785Absolutely correct
@@abaddon4823 cool
@@stuartronald9785still despite ISAF numerous advantages and privileges the Taliban time and time again actually gave their enemies bloody noses and even jaw dropping experiences assassinating nato generals infiltrating entire bases and even Counter intelligence and killing field agents of the cia in the middle of their base 😂
The Italian campaign in WW1 is probably the best example of large-scale mountain warfare.
Everyone that watches this channel is probably extremely familiar with that example.
And the eleventy one battles of Izonzo?😂
Ah gives me vibes of a map of Battlefield 1 that was based on that.
Among the best well-known examples of how Mountain Warfare can and will force even a numerically superior force with artillery support can flounder and suffer the consequences against an enemy dug in on elevated terrain for months or years.
@@SonsOfLorgarIsonzo Is a river betwen Hills, so not realy the mountains. Italy never opted to do offensive on the mountains because of bad logistic and lack of artillery. That Is way they chose to cross the Isonzo
The alpine force of Denmark is named Otto. He once bought an climbing axe from a souvenir shop while visiting Norway, so. He also maintains very good relations with the dutch alpine forces, Werner. The two of them often goes Octoberfest-binge drinking in Germany around this time.
Talking about mountain warfare and no mention of highest battlefield in the world siachin - fought over and controlled by India. Or the highest airstrip in the world - again maintained by India. As someone rightly pointed out below, compared to the battlefields of Himalayas, where elements are your biggest enemy and claim way more lives than your enemy, others merely look like hilly terrains. Didn’t expect this from Simon
He likes to downplay indian stuff in most of his videos. Even try to portray things in negative ways which doesn't hv any negative angle to it🤣🤦
Good summary. Back in my “young and bulletproof” days, among the many schools I attended were the US Army’s Northern Warfare School (mountain and arctic training back when it was still at Ft. Greely, Alaska) and later the German Gebirgsjägerschule. It is one of two German Army badges I had the honor of being able to wear - the other being the Fällschirmjägerabzeichen. Mountain and cold weather warfare are incredibly demanding on the body. No matter how often one has been at high altitude or how fit they are, high altitude sickness is always a threat. Indian and Pakistani troops who endure weeks at high altitude have my respect. (I’ve worked with the Italian Alpini … they are crazy party animals!)
As a life-long mountain man, I loved this one! There is no better place to disappear than the hills. Nooks and crannies everywhere.
Kentucky?
@dsgdsg9764 there are no real mountains in Kentucky...
@@dsgdsg9764 Colorado
@@backcountry164Yes there are, just older. The oldest are Missouri/Arkansas. I wouldn’t suggest pissing off any of those folks.
@@thesixgunfighter288 yep
Talking about mountain warfare we should remember The Kargil war fought between India & pakistan at extreme altitude & unpredictable weather conditions in 1999. And Indian Operation Meghdoot in 1984 to take control of siachen glacier.
Excellent and informative presentation! I do feel that the Basque peoples in the Pyrenees Mountains along the Franco/Spanish border deserved a mention. They are well known for their mountain warfare tactics and, historically, won several major engagements against numerically and technically superior forces.
Whilst going through basic training in the French foreign legion, we were on exercise in the basque border region.The emphasis was on staying alert . There was a genuine concern amongst the officers that we may not be welcome
No mountain warfare quote like the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan.
CORE MEMORIES, SIMON.
A testament to the effectiveness of mountain warfare (and to the badassery of the mentioned individuals below):
In 1956, during and after the Hungarian revolution a group of armed Hungarian civilians lead by a doctor(!) and based in the Mecsek mountain range (which they knew every meters of) conducted successful guerilla warfare against the soviet forces in Southern Hungary. They managed to hold out for WEEKS after the fall of the revolution, waiting for western help (which we know never came). It was literally a Red Dawn scenario. They took oaths and everything. The few compatriots I'm proud of as a Hungarian.
This shows you can achieve a lot if you're determined and you have a mountain nearby.
I’m genuinely surprised and just a little disappointed you did not at all mention the Italian Alpine front in the First World War, which was almost entirely defined by alpine warfare.
Disastrous and pointless warfare.
Im sure if enough viewers request it he will probs do a video about alpine fighting
Or the carpathian campaign fought between the russians and austria-hungary + germans
Thank you! As someone who is living in this region, I too was quite surprised it was left out…
White Friday
I take the
Stairway to heaven...
During the reunification of Nepal led by Prithivi Narayan Shah, the hardest region to conquer were the kingdoms of mustang, lo manthang, manang and so on. They're all located on the other side of the Himalayas(north face) whereas the rest of Nepal is located on the south face. They used to be a vassal of tibet unitl they were conwuered. The crossings of the Himalayas is still regarded as one the very few successful military operations in the reguon even after centuries.
Well done! Now we know in details what challenges Indian army faces at 15000 feet and why China is afraid of well trained mountain divisions! Thanks a million 🙏
yes we have the best men who have the experience and capabilities to fight at such great altitudes. no other nation can come closer. maybe european and american peers have better equipment. but we have the men❤ jai hind
Tech and equipment have limits in the mountains. It's about grit and guts after
Actually
Afraid they kicked your asses numerous times 😂
@@firasajoury7813 ??
Another banger! Would the people behind the scenes consider grouping all the Art of War videos into a playlist on the channel's page?
Yeah, having a few playlists like that in the different broad areas covered would be really good.
That's a great idea! Simon take note.
I wish I had Simon's clout. He's the hardest working dude on CZcams. Nothing but respect.
I beg to differ, I think I’m the hardest working dude on CZcams!😅
You should have also mentioned numerous mountain warfares in Himalayas. They were fought in large numbers and are actually well documented too
I was surprised you didn't mention the Alpine front, between Italy and Austria, during the First World War.
Probably because its been covered to death. Seems like they were choosing lesser known examples.
Well done Simon and Team. This has become one of your best channels.
_Blaze has entered the chat_
Out of all of Simon's channels, this is certainly, without a doubt, hands down, one of his channels.
J/k, this one's turning into my fave, no knocks against the others.
I’ve seen it echoed in a lot of the videos in this Art of War series, but I really enjoy this series of videos. Simon and the team strike a superb balance between explanations that a layman can understand while still delving deep enough for more knowledgeable viewers to enjoy while still always touching on less obvious examples as well as the well used ones, as well as remembering to focus on human elements, avoiding the inadvertent war glorification trap that is easy to fall into.
Hannibals traverse through the Alps is legendary.
Can't wait for the space warfare episode
I was watching old videos of Simon lately. That badboy doesn't age I swear.
We Kurds have a saying, "No friends but the mountains". We have been betrayed by everyone but our mountains
I was hoping for a shoutout and was pleasantly surprised at the end!
Something i wanted to add that people from low elevation/flat terrain are not aware of: Weather changes can come very fast in mountains. Many a tourist gets surprised by bad weather even despite weather aps and people looking up weatherforecasts online.
Also about the physical fittness: Its a different kind of movement as well as thinner air.
You can have people who outrun you on flat ground, but uphill alpine paths they might get wrecked trying to keep up with people who are used to the inclines and the thin air.
What i was missing too in this video were the mentions of the italian front of WW1 or the land battle of Narvik.
Where the allies had around 5 times the number of troops than than germans.
Most of the allied troops were not trained and equipped in winter mountain fighting while on the german side there were 50% austrian mountain troops and 50% german sailors of the sunken german ships. So at least half of the german side was equipped and trained in winter mountain warfare.
And that's also the reason why the allies had such a hard time there, even thought they had supplies and artillery support from naval guns.
I'm really enjoying this Art of War series. Keep up the good work!
Hey Simon, would you consider doing one on navy warfare. From the first fighting vessels to modern sea warfare.
I was holding out hope Simon would do a Biographics vid on Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea til that channel's owner dropped the ball. Thanks for reminding its still possible here. That guys Naval record and story is surreal. And his usage of local currents, sails and oars to implement early usage of cannons and armored hulls is deserving of more coverage.
Another thing that can get you killed in the mountains, heat exhaustion. Heat exhaustion in the high mountains with 2' to 3' of snow on the ground? Happened to me. I dressed for the weather. But once our unit started moving, going iver rough terrain and deep snow, my body heated up fast. I could not stop to shed clothes so I heated up. We also was behind schedule so that didn't help. I basicalky toughed it out. The other guys did not know how bad I was because it was a night mission. This was new to me and I did not expect to heat up so much or recognize the signs quick enough. While I was sweating profisely, my feet, hands, and face was freezing. Lesson learned, but if it was actual combat, it could have been deadly.
sweating in the cold is very bad for you, you lose a lot of heat that way
@@legionofthedamned157
Yep. You are good till you slow down and then you freeze. Of course, you may be too exhausted to actually get moving again to warm up.
That was three decades ago. I remembered that lesson to this day, opening and even removing layers when I feel even the hint of being warm.
@@ycplum7062 working hard, but so hard that you start to sweat to mush .
That is a hard balance to make
@@legionofthedamned157
It takes experience to learn to know and pace yourself. You don't know what you don't know.
Back in 1976 I was a recon scout in a special forces artic mountain warfare unit. What I learned is that it was not about me, it was about moving large numbers of people who were unfamiliar with this harsh environment.
Could you do a video on Anti-Submarine Warfare? I'm really enjoying this Art of War series. I recently finished reading Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, and the submarine warfare portions of the book were absolutely fascinating. There don't seem to be a lot of well researched videos into the intricacies and nuances of submarine/ASW warfare.
May I suggest that you look up the Curiosity Stream miniseries called Wargamers. It is all about British efforts to defeat the German U-boats and the superb role of the Wrens in developing some of the first and most effective anti-submarine warfare tactics that played a decisive role in ending the reign of the U-boats across the Atlantic.
@@Jondiceful Thank you for the suggestion! I will check that out.
Excellent research and writing, Evan!
As always, great show.
I just started binging warographics a few days ago. Awesome to be here so early!
I was testing some new mountaineering gear during a fairly intense storm on Mt. Rainier years ago... Despite being in tip top shape and having world class gear, it took one sleepless night of constantly having to dig out the tent in 100mph winds say F-this.. If the conditions are right, you will have to dig out your tent every 30 minutes during a blizzard with 100mph wind. By the time you warm up from the last trip digging out the tent, its time to dig out the tent again. Storms like this can last for weeks in some cases... I'm honestly glad I tested to see I could hack it. Ideal mountaineering takes strength, endurance, and situational awareness which sleep deprivation robs from you in dangerous quantities...
I like this one! It was informative and historical.
It was a wonderful video introduced of Mountains ⛰️ warfare...thank you for sharing
That obi won knobie joke was just perfect 👌👏👏👏
I did a mountain warfare course and it was hard but i learned so much.
Served in the US Army Infantry. Stationed ar Fort Carson and Fort Benning. The mountains at Benning are one thing, but Carson is in the Rockies and that was a cold place in the winter to be doing Infantry training. I hate the cold to this day and alot of it has to do with my time in the Army .
Love this channel! Please do the battle of Agincourt
I won't be coming home
I won't be going anywhere
I will guard this post forever
Here on the alpine slope, where I did my final stand, I shall remain
Among the ice and snow that binds me to this mountain
A force of nature too strong, sent from above
Where spirits lead the way, the winds will never fade
During my time in the marines I did a lot of training in mountain and winter environments in both CA and Norway. I can’t think of anything worse than the thought of actually conducting combat operations in that environment.
Yeah nothing says "naval infantry" like fighting in the mountains and fucking deserts 🙄
Which country is CA? Is it Canada or Central America?
@@Steven-xc9qv By CA I had meant California not another country. Up at Mountain Warfare training center Bridgeport.
@@jffry890 Any clime and place amirite 😂
@@jffry890the royal marines do training in the jungles of Belize as well as winter training in Norway along side training with the use of fighting with naval forces.
Always doing an excellent job, Simon, you and your team. In your Art of War series, I would like to see submarine warfare and island. Another one, I know this is going to sound silly, but space warfare or the theories of it. Talking about the tactics and weapons that it would be used in that scenario. Thanks
Afghanistan is a really good example. The mountains, hills have long kept control of the region troublesome at best. The terrain promotes groups of people being sharply divided. It's so troublesome that even the Afghans themselves have had problems keeping it unified. Anyways, you can go back to Alexander the Great running around there on the way towards India. He was mired in Afghanistan dealing with the tribalism where the locals were at war with each other all the time.
It's also funny from strategy video games covering WWII where guys playing Germany go, "Just invade Turkey and attack the USSR from the south?" Realistically that's a laugh. Dudes have never taken a look at a topographical map of Anatolia / Asia Minor and the Caucasus.
I love the fact that you used allot of pics of Marines for this. I went to both Bridgeport and Norway. Mountains humble a man
The U.S. has a training facility 40 miles away from me in southwest Montana that trains sf guys for high altitude mountain warfare. The terrain and environment are the same as the mountains in Afghanistan.
The caucus mountains during the second Chechen war seen a lot of action and both Chechen/Arab Mujahideen and Russian fought each other at crazy heights
Apparently in the early stages of WWII Hitler considered an invasion of Switzerland but because the Swiss had been very public on the fact they’d prepared large portions of mountain territory to be literally impregnable fortresses, the German command realised it would require massive resources, take way too long to conclude, involve huge attrition and return comparatively little in gain, they just ignored Switzerland and accepted Swiss neutrality.
Whenever the concept of how tough mountain warfare is comes up, this is what I think of. Hitler was willing to invade and fight literally every opposed or unaligned nation in Europe on a whim, except Switzerland because of how much the mountain war would’ve cost.
00:02 Mountain warfare is fundamentally different than warfare in other terrains.
02:04 Holding high ground is crucial in mountain warfare.
03:52 Preparation in mountain warfare is crucial for survival.
05:43 Operating in mountain warfare requires self-sufficiency and adaptability.
07:36 The Second Punic War showcases how Hannibal turned Rome's natural mountain defenses into a liability.
09:36 Mountains can be a dangerous enemy in warfare.
11:28 Nepal and Argentina showcased effective mountain warfare tactics in the 1700s and 1800s.
13:17 Mountain Warfare has played a significant role in historical conflicts.
15:15 Mountain warfare poses significant challenges for technology-dependent militaries.
17:01 Mountains have been used as strongholds by local militias and ethnic groups to launch successful attacks against government forces.
18:39 Mountain warfare is crucial for Kurdish forces in resisting Turkey and many other nations invest in maintaining robust mountain warfare capabilities.
20:20 Mountains are a double-edged sword in warfare
Crafted by Merlin AI.
This Art of War series is getting better and better, next please consider doing amphibious assaults or airborne!
During Dogra-tibet war, dogra general zorawar Singh led Jammu dogra forces to wage wa against gilgit, ladakh and Tibet who has support of Qing army.
Happy to see a video on this especially since I grew up on the edge of the Cascades and the town I live in is completely surrounded by hills and mountains and some of my ancestors in a native tribe used caves, hills and mountains to fight the u.s for nearly a year
I don't know if I have the standing to apologize for my ancestors when I don't have the ability to make up for it, but fwiw, F the Treaty of 1864 and extraspecial-F the Klamath Termination Act.
I wish I could be as proud of my cultural history as you should be of yours. Thank you for caring for the mountains that I have had the privilege to grow up in the shadow of.
How do you know what region I was talking about
@@HavecksOR
I made assumptions based on your name, apologies if I was incorrect.
You're correct
Mountain warfare was one of the areas I got to specialize in getting stationed at MWTC to train Marines. My knees pay for it every day now....
Thanks team ! This post fits nicely with one that I watched earlier today about a WW campqign in the Dolomites. Think I'll stick to photography and other less bloody pursuits, when in the mountains ( I live in B.C. , Canada, btw . I seen results of what can happen when you fuck up on these slopes.
Excellent 👍
I really wanted to get into the 10th Mountain Division after I had finished my time as an Airman but things didnt go as planned. Wish we still had the 6th Division which were our very own skii Soldier's similar to the German and Finnish one's.
If you want to get into 10th Mountain make sure you pick the correct MOS. You're going to need to be 11Bravo. That's a straight leg Infantryman. That's the only MOS that I'm aware of that 10th Mountain consists of but I could be wrong. 11 Charlie is a mortar men and they might be in 10th. But I can assure you both 11 Mike and 11Hotel aren't. 11 Mike is Mechanized Infantryman with the Bradley's and 11 Hotel is like mobilized Infantryman with hummers and stuff. Make sure you get whatever you want IN YOUR CONTRACT BEFORE YOU SIGN UP. I CAN NOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH. GOOD LUCK
@@JAlucard77 unfortunately my military day's are done for I was gonna originally serve 4 years as an Airman and another 4 in the Army but I ended up getting Crohn's disease my second year as an Airman. Does the 10th Mountain have 19D Cav Scout's or 13B Cannon Crewman though? Those were the MOS's I was planning on choosing had things went as planned.
My grandfather was in the 10th Mountain Infantry in WWII. Given your interest in them, I assume you are already aware of their more famous feats. My grandfather was not involved in those, but he had some wild stories, which I know is practically a cliche for anyone who survived the war.
There are 11C's in the 10th, and a LOT of POG mos's too. There are NO real mountains around Ft Drum...just butt cold!
@@Jondiceful hope you wrote some of those stories down stuff like that should always be preserved. A guy I did some farm work for back in highschool was in the 6th Division during the Korean War and I wrote the stories he told me into a book that I'm working on.
Well Done!!! The mountain always wins!
Excellent video - well done. 🇨🇭
I was part of the 10th MTN Div from 1999 until 2004. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and I just know that people were like “Afghanistan has mountains, let’s send the 10th, not knowing that we didn’t actually train in mountain warfare, there are some foothills of the Adirondack range but that’s it. Now if they wanted to send us to the arctic we definitely could have beaten some penguins. I did learn to break trail in snowshoes and cross country skiing though.
The 10th Mountain Division should be relocated to Colorado as a home. Have training rotations to Alaska and India. Reorganize the Modified Tables of Organization and Equipment for mountain units to better specialize in mountain warfare. Everyone that wears the tab should go through a mountain warfare school.
Similar organizational specialization should be done with the Arctic units forming up in Alaska and there may be some crossover of equipment and training with mountain units.
Organizationally the 4th Infantry Division and 10th Mountain Division could swap their positions in the force structure and their bases. Move 4th ID to Fort Drum and 10th Mountain to Fort Carson.
4-31, 10th Mtn 1998-2001
What Battalion?
i just so love incompetent office ass kissers getting jobs wherein they make WiSE decisions like these
let's send the submarine nuclear engineers to fight the tropical rainforest jungle nurses divisions because why not?
Every battle is shaped by the terrain it is fought on, but the best kind of battle is an unfair one.
Always wondered why the 10th Mountain Division is headquartered in Fort Drum (590’ elevation) when we have the Rocky Mountains. Alaska seems like it would make sense. Or even Fort Carson in Colorado (5,814’ elevation, or nearly ten times higher).
I came looking for the angry Marines watching this video lol.
When the US was invaded by a combined Russian/Cuban army in the 1980s, the Wolverines were able to take to the mountains and conduct partisan operations, giving the US time to conduct a counteroffensive…
Fortunately everyone of the annoying brats got kld
Moral of the story: don't mess with Dirty dancers, tiger-blooded cokeheads, or Mrs. McFly.
Hoo Rah! My unit was a cold weather Engineering Battalion assigned to Fort Richardson, Alaska. Being a Combat Engineer in cold weather, high elevation unit was even more difficult than our 11B Infantry brothers as we had heavy equipment to contend with. Our platoons were roughly 33-35 men. I loved every minute doing that.😊😊😊
Good on ya !
Could the mountains around Nepal etc be the only reason why China and India don't have many flashpoints? I am curious
They have skirmishes at the few passes but nothing anywhere else because there anywhere else is inaccessible.
This is a misconception; we have multiple flashpoints where our army and the PLA square off, and these are scattered all across the LAC, which is approximately 3500 kms in length. Out of that, the areas of Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and some areas of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh too fall into the high/ super high altitude classification. The altitude doesn't deter the PLA from trying to encroach and similarly it doesn't deter us from giving them a whopping every time the PLA conscripts turn up with their sticks and rods.
@@shrithikkothari8220 fair enough. I hope it doesn't lead to war since that would be a lot of loss of life.....
@@bnorris8625 War is inevitable, unfortunately. But we are ready for the PLA, anytime, anywhere.
To be honest there shouldn't be any border conflict between india and china, as india share border with tibet ,not with china,
Historically there is no any war between old india and old china,
Conflict only started when PRCchina occupied tibet
I disagree with the final assessment. The rise of cheap drones has dramatically rewritten the books on naval, ground and air warfare. Similarly, they will change the books in future mountain warfare, by being able to quicky and easily surveil mountains and drop explosive charges at a distance. It's much harder to see an incoming drone in the sky than a platoon of soldiers coming up the foothills.
Only good for surveillance purposes and weather permitting. You need to understand the people holding heights are dug in to withstand artillery shells and ordinance from jets. Whatever a drone could carry would not even come close.
@@johndoe-vc1we good point. I'm gonna disagree though - drones provide a smaller platform that can squeeze into places traditional aircraft has had no chance of getting into. A drone doesn't need to be that big to drop a grenade into a port hole.
@@hieronymusbutts7349 if it got that close it would get taken out. Drones are not the game changers they are made out to be. Also keep in mind the altitude they take off at limits how much they can carry. A drone taking off at 16k feet can't carry as much as it would at lower altitudes
Well said. Thats what Turks did in their eastern borders.
Went to Machu Picchu and got sick the first morning we stayed at Cusco…It was 11,000 ft, highest I’ve ever been and don’t fancy doing it again😳
There was a guy once who would run multiple laps around me during my lunch break walks, every day for several weeks, all while wearing one of those breathing restrictor masks. Basically breathing through a drinking straw, and he sounded legitimately like he was dying. I never got to speak with him, but I suspect he was preparing for a high mountain climb. That's the kind of physical preparation you need, and anything less will kill you slowly and painfully.
Unless you’re that friend of Simon’s from one of his anecdotes whose only preparation for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro was to continue smoking. 😂 Meanwhile the friend who was preparing had to tap out.
in austria we still have NATIONAL SERVICE, i was drafted in the Gebirgsjäger (mountain hunter) in Tirol where i am born and growed up, i did my service in the winter and it was no bullshitting
During World War I, Austria-Hungarian defence repelled Italian attacks by taking advantage of the terrain in the Julian Alps and the Dolomites, where frostbite and avalanches proved deadlier than bullets. During the summer of 1918, the Battle of San Matteo took place on the Italian front and was fought at the highest elevation of during the war. In December 1914, another offensive was launched by the Ottoman supreme commander Enver Pasha with 95,000--190,000 troops against the Russians in the Caucasus. Insisting on a frontal attack against Russian positions in the mountains in the heart of winter, the result was devastating, and Enver lost 86% of his forces.
Sarikamish is probably the deadliest idiot offensive of the a war defined by idiot offensives. It's a shame it isn't better known. The entire Caucasus/Anatolian front is frequently excluded from narratives about WW1.
You should do this type of video on logistics.
on of the modern battle on mountains was of kargil. where indian army suffered many times more losses against pak army.
Honestly I wasn't expecting a mention of the Crossing of the Andes. I was thinking about it, and assumed it wouldn't be included since the southern part of the Independance Wars across Latin America is often overshadowed by Simon Bolivars advance from Colombia. Glad I was wrong!
Awesome. Salute to them. And RIP to the fallen; on both sides.
16:20 Lol...And I was just about to tell you how our technology worked to mitigate the sneakiness of the Tally-whackers. It was like they had no concept of ultraviolet light...lol
Episode idea (as if there was any shortage of these😂)
A speculative review of space warfare. I like to contemplate this because it is utterly foreign to any theater of conflict humanity has ever waged war in. On any scale (Earth orbit or interplanetary), the orbits of any fighting forces and those of the places they are defending/attacking as well as those of neutral forces/territories cause their relative positions to be in constant change. It's a bit like island hopping warfare, but where all the islands are moving about. And if you don't see that as confusing enough, just look at a map of the orbits of known asteroids. Tens of thousands of them have orbits that loop inside the orbits of the inner planets and back out past Mars creating a vast chaotic swarm. Some ideas for creating space colonies suggest hollowing out asteroids and placing colonies inside them. There is no question that the same can be said of military installations, bases, or weapons platforms. Adding to all of that is the complicating factor that a two-dimensional map of those obits obscures- those orbits operate in three-dimensional space rising above and dipping below the plane of the ecliptic. Forgetting weapons for a moment, simply computing how one defines the battlespace, and manages the logistics of resupply, and how mid-long term shifts in the relative positions of strategic colonies, stations or whatever could alter the strategic alignments of participants in any conflict makes for an environment that is as foreign to human experience as vacuum and microgravity.
In fact, I have long dreamed of a Risk like game where the territories keep moving around every turn as a fun way to try and wargame the kinds of tactics needed to adapt to the challenge.
It would have been cool if switzerland wouldve been in the video too, it would be nice to see more exposure for swiss military history
Going from lejeune to 29 palms and oki was a culture shock. Going home small-medium sized mountains kicked my ass. Patrols that were relatively easy on the east coast were now so much more exhausting
Anybody here been to MWTC Bridgeport?? That training event was BRUTAL.
I’m really happy to see you include Trudeau’s dad. He’d be proud.😂
0:40 That's absolutely correct, Brain Boy. But the truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter What you do to prepare, because the mountains just don't care. They'll get you; The best for which you can hope is for it to be...interesting.
😂
I was expecting at least a review of what makes a mountain warfare unit equipped for, well, mountain warefare!
Oh yes, Italian and Swiss units can ski, but with what do they fight? Is drone surveillance going to change recon in the mountains or are small quadcopter rotors insufficient in the thinner air?
This video was basically 'mountain warfare is hard, especially against people who live in mountain regions'
Simon please do a video on the Aztecs and Mayans.
We all know Simon had a tangent after the obi-Wan Kenobi reference
Remember the Pashtuns also known as Pakhtuns, Pashteens or Pathans, an an Eastern Iranian ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan but fought well in WWII for the Indian Army.
I served in Alaska and as a not so light infantryman 11b and went to 15,000ft on Mt Hayes. We took everything with us in the akio. We used skis and snow shoes and crampons for Glacier and ice axes. We never got the recognition though like the 10th Mountain in New York 🤔😝
Two comments here
Firstly, I am disappointed that you didn't mention Simon Bolivar's march across the Andes as it was definitely an impressive feat and a wild story. But I suspect that including it and others like it would have made this video far too long and had to be cut.
Secondly, thank you for doing a video on this subject. My grandfather was in the US 10th Mountain Infantry during WWII. He was not involved in some of their more famous exploits, but he was in Sicily, North Africa, and Italy and saw action in all three places. Like most soldiers who had seen action and lived to tell the tale, he had some amazing stories. I know you didn't make this as a tribute to my grandfather or anyone else's grandfather for that matter, but by covering this topic as you have you have, in a way, paid tribute to everyone who made mountain warfare worthy of mention. So, again, thank you.
My Dad, who passed away at 99 last August, was in the 10th Mountain. Participated in the first -- & only -- patrol on skis, climbed the cliffs at Mt Belvedere with his rifle unloaded, fought across the Po valley. He also won a medal for rescuing his sergeant under enemy gunfire (which included machine gun fire), but never talked about it.
As someone with a cursory knowledge and no opinion for starwars i can say with full confidence that obi is not the master of the high ground but a master of the low ground, he baits characters to take the high ground and just shreds them.
I am no expert just a guy with an internet connection and an opinion
One instructive campaign in the mountains is actually the US North Africa campaign during WWII. Specifically, the fighting in Tunisia around Kasserine Pass and following fighting.
If I had to call the next likely mountain war - I’d probably pick India vs China over their disputed border in the Himalayas.
I learned during arctic warfare and mountain warfare training, I'll take 130° in the desert.
Very surprised you didn’t mention the Chechens in either the Caucasian war or the Chechen wars. Absolute masters of the mountains. They deserve much more than a passing mention of ww2.
Spent time in thd 90s being trained by RM MLs in norway. some of the hardest and fiterst fighting men i ever met. Back then SBS was made up of a lot of ML2 and 3s.
Oh yes, much respect to Royal Marines Mountain Leaders and Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS) in particular. Some of the finest mountain troops there is, seen with my Norwegian Arctic LRRP eyes.
As the topic is Mountain warfare, expected the mention (more than a running note) of Ind Pak wars/conflicts on Kargil and Siachen.
What sucked for Hannibal in the Alps was he lost over half of his war elephants just getting there. His biggest battlefield advantage cuz he went thru an seemingly impossible route.