The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in AfghanistanLester W. Grau counterinsurgency punctuated by moments of heady excitement and terror. Colonel Grau, the editor and translator, has added his own commentary to produce a useful guide for commanders to meet the challenges of this kind of war and to help keep his fellow soldiers alive. This book will also be of interest to the historian and general reader, who will discover that advances in technology have had little impact on this kind of war, and that many of the same tactics the British Army used on the Northwest Frontier still apply today. |
Other editions - View all
The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan Lester W. Grau Limited preview - 1998 |
The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan Lester W. Grau Limited preview - 2012 |
The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan Lester W. Grau Limited preview - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
1st MRB 2nd MRB 7th MRC action Afghan air assault Air Assault Company airborne battalion ambush party artillery fire attack Baharak base camp battalion commander BMPs bronegruppa BTRs canyon captured caravan casualties commander decided company commander convoy coordination Dashtak defense destroy the enemy detachment dismounted division dominant terrain DShK EDITOR'S COMMENTARY fire support firing positions flank FRUNZE COMMENTARY green zone grenade launchers guerrilla forces helicopter gunships Jalalabad Kabul Kandahar Kandahar Province kill zone kilometers Kunar Province located Lowgar Province mander meters mission mortar motorized rifle battalion Motorized Rifle Brigade motorized rifle company mountain moved mujahideen night OKSVA operation Operation Magistral personnel platoon platoon leader Province radio recon platoon reconnaissance reconnaissance company route security outpost Separate Motorized Rifle small arms soldiers Soviet forces Soviet military Soviet Union SPETSNAZ squad subunits tactical tank trucks vehicles vignette village withdrawal
Popular passages
Page 124 - Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star and the Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR (Third Class), and many medals.
Page 66 - This Report shows that Zabotin successfully fulfilled many of the tasks assigned to him. His superiors in Moscow were obviously satisfied with his work in Canada, for in August, 1945, he was awarded two Orders or Decorations, the Order of the RED BANNER, and the Order of the RED STAR, which, as Gouzenko said, "are given for good organization work". The Chief of General Intelligence telegraphed Zabotin to congratulate him on these awards and added: "I wish you further success in your honourable work".
Page xix - Scott R. McMichael, Stumbling Bear: Soviet Military Performance in Afghanistan, London: Brassey's 1991, p. 10; and Boris Gromov, Ogranichennyy kontingent [Limited contingent], Moscow: Progress, 1994, p. 172. 2 Manuscript of Aleksandr Lyakhovskiy, Tragediya I doblest...
Page 5 - There were three types of dry rations. The first contained a can of meat, some crackers or toast, some jam and a tea bag. The second contained two cans of meat mixed with oatmeal. The third contained a can of meat and a can of vegetables or fruit (ed.).
Page xiv - Soviets who served during the 10-year war. Far more telling were the 469,685 other casualties, fully 73 percent of the overall force, who were wounded or incapacitated by serious illness. Some 415,932 troops fell victim to disease, of which 115,308 suffered from infectious hepatitis and 31,080 from typhoid fever. Beyond the sheer magnitude of these numbers is what the figures say about Soviet military hygiene and the conditions surrounding troop life. These numbers are unheard of in modern armies...
Page xiv - ... a microcosm for the internal weakness of the society as a whole. According to one study: The messages of doubt were military, political, ethnic, and social. In the end they were corrosive and destructive. One needs only review the recently released casualty figures to underscore the persuasiveness of the problem. Soviet dead and missing in Afghanistan amounted to almost 15,000 troops, a modest percent of the 642,000 Soviets who served during the 10-year war.
Page 42 - Afghan government and were responsible for detecting and eradicating domestic political opposition, subverting the mujahideen, penetrating opposition groups abroad and providing military intelligence to the armed forces through its military wing. The KHAD was patterned after the KGB and GRU and apparently reported to the KGB (ed.).
Page 40 - BTR or bronetransporter is an eight-wheeled armored personnel carrier that can carry up to an 11-man squad. It mounts 14.5mm and 7.62mm machine guns and can carry antitank weapons as well. The BTR and BMP were the most-common infantry carriers of the Soviet Forces (ed.).
Page 140 - BMD or boevaya mashìna desanta is an air-dropable, armored personnel carrier that carries up to nine men (usually a maximum of seven). It has the same turret as the BMP, so the BMD-1 has the 73mm cannon of the BMP-1, while the BMD-2 has the 30mm chain gun of the BMP-2.
Page xviii - Union reportedly killed 1.3 million people and forced five and a half million Afghans (a third of the prewar population) to leave the country as refugees. Another two million Afghans were forced to migrate within the country.