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Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
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quote:
Originally posted by SgtGold:
During WWII the Army created a truck mounted motorized infantry division. It never saw combat because it took up the transport footprint of an armored division while having the combat power of a leg infantry unit.


There were 5 motorized infantry divisions in the US Army in 1942 - the 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 90th. They were all reorganized into standard infantry divisions by mid-1943, before they saw combat, for the very reason you mentioned.

The 4th Infantry Division was the first to be fully motorized, and was motorized the longest, from August 1940 until August 1943. The others were only classified as motorized divisions from mid-1942 through mid-1943.

There were numerous times throughout the war when American infantry units were loaned motorized transportation, but after 1943, there were no full-time motorized infantry divisions in the US Army.

However, mechanized infantry battalions continued to be put to good use, as part of American armored divisions.
 
Posts: 32428 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by IrishWind:
I had a 'light infantry' guy on my team in Iraq who was singing the Stryker's praises, including it went from 18 months(or less) from a proposal to a working Brigade, which he was a part of. He was brow beating a guy who came from the M2/M3 Bradley community, and was saying how much better his platform was over the Bradley in every way. It got to a point I chimed in that the reason why the R&D was so short is because the US Marines have been doing it for over 20 years as the LAV-25, and our NATO friends use the same hull in their APCs too.

And the Marines were smart enough to put a 25mm auto cannon and turret on top.
 
Posts: 4547 | Location: Where ever Uncle Sam Sends Me | Registered: March 05, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Step by step walk the thousand mile road
Picture of Sig2340
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The only thing the US should deploy in Syria is a a few hundred W87s or B53s.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 31382 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Mosul, Iraq is n infantry fight right now. I suspect that the rationale for Rangers or other Special Forces is that it is more acceptable.

In essence, US troops are giving the Iraqis backbone.
 
Posts: 702 | Location: Gatesville, TX | Registered: January 07, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Info Guru
Picture of BamaJeepster
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...-assault-troops.html

The Pentagon plans to 'significantly increase the number of special forces in Syria in preparation for an assault on Islamic State capital Raqqa

A Pentagon plan for an assault on Islamic State capital Raqqa will see major US army deployment.

The proposal, which Donald Trump saw on Monday, is banking on reduced restrictions on US activities in the region that were ordered under Barack Obama, the Washington Post reported.
A major part of the proposal would be to increase the number of US Special Operations trainers and advisers, which currently number around 500.

It does not call for putting Americans on the front lines but does call for greater American decision-making powers.

The plan comes as a major battle to liberate the Islamic State group's stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria looms after victories on the battlefields of Mosul and Palmyra.

Questions remain as to who exactly will lead the operation to kick ISIS out of its de facto capital.

Syrian government forces, Turkish troops and their Syrian militia allies, and US-backed Kurdish forces all have their eye on Raqqa.

Each vehemently rejects letting the others capture the city and would likely react in anger should the United States support the others, and it is not clear that any has the resources to take the city on its own.

The fall of Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital and largest remaining stronghold, would be the biggest defeat for the militants in Syria since they captured the northern city on the banks of the Euphrates River in January 2014.

Since October, US-backed coalition forces have been advancing on Mosul in an attempt to re-capture it from the terror group's control.

Civilians have been evacuated and ISIS have been driven out of the city one village and area at a time.

Saturday morning, an Iraqi military commander says forces have taken control of another neighborhood in western Mosul.

Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, spokesman of the Joint Military Operations Command said despite bad weather, Iraqi special operations forces have completely retaken the Wadi Hajjar area from militants.

However, commanders on the ground say that clearing operations are still continuing.
Wadi Hajjar lies just northwest of the city's international airport.

Iraqi forces, including special operations forces and federal police units, launched an attack on the western part of Mosul nearly two weeks ago to dislodge the extremists.
Since the offensive began, more than 28,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the UN.

Across the border in Syria, army units were clearing land mines and explosives left behind by ISIS in the historic town of Palmyra on Friday, a day after government troops and allied militiamen recaptured it from the extremists.
The military expects the process to be long and difficult due to the large number of mines planted by the terror group.

Syrian troops fully recaptured Palmyra on Thursday after a push that saw the militants' defenses crumble and ISIS fighters flee in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.

Now, all eyes turn to Raqqa.

Faysal Itani, an analyst at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said: 'Raqqa is more of an abstract goal: everyone wants it in principle, but no one is willing to commit the resources and bear the risks necessary.'

President Donald Trump has vowed to 'obliterate' the group.

'We will work with our allies, including our friends and allies in the Muslim world, to extinguish this vile enemy from our planet,' he told Congress on Tuesday.

The top US commander in the campaign against IS, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, has said he believes Raqqa and Mosul will be taken within six months.

So far, the offensive on Mosul has been underway four months, with only half the city captured from the militants in ferocious street-to-street urban combat.

And that is using a relatively intensively trained and united military, backed by heavy U.S. firepower and commandos on the ground - a contrast to the comparatively undisciplined and fragmented forces the US has to choose from as allies in Syria.

Raqqa is a smaller city than Mosul, but the militants are believed to have dug in with powerful fortifications there.

In Syria, US-backed predominantly Kurdish fighters known as the Syria Democratic Forces, or SDF, remain Trump's best bet.

Aided by US-led coalition airstrikes and some 500 US special forces troops deployed in an advisory role, the force has been marching toward Raqqa since November.

Closing in on the city from different directions, it is now stationed some eight kilometers (five miles) north of the city.

The US military recently provided a small number of armored vehicles to the US-backed force to give better protection from small arms fire and roadside bombs as they get closer to Raqqa.

Further aid to the rag-tag group, however, raises sensitive questions over how to deal with Turkey, a NATO ally with much at stake in Syria.

Turkey considers the main Kurdish militia in Syria - known as the YPG, and an affiliate of the US-backed SDF - a terrorist organization, and has vowed to work with Syrian opposition fighters known as the Free Syrian Army to liberate Raqqa.

In a dramatic reversal of years of the Obama administration's calls for the ouster of President Bashar Assad, Trump has hinted he might be willing to work with Assad's army and Russia, whose year-and-a-half military intervention has propped up Assad's government.

Assad's forces are preoccupied with other battles, however, and would likely need significant US military involvement to take on Raqqa.

On Wednesday, the Syrian military recaptured the central town of Palmyra, a city located in the desert south of Raqqa that has gone back and forth between control of the military and the extremists several times.

The government forces have also clashed with the Turkish-backed Syrian fighters, who block their path to Raqqa.

Syrians are sharply divided over who should enter Raqqa.

Many opposition supporters consider the SDF, which maintains a tacit non-aggression pact with Assad's forces, to be a hostile group.

There are also fears of tensions if Raqqa, home to a nearly 200,000 mainly Arab population, is taken by the SDF, a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters.

'Let us be frank that any force that will liberate Raqqa, other than the Free Syrian Army, is going to be a new occupation force with different flags and banners,' said Mohammed Khodor of Sound and Picture Organization, which tracks atrocities by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim was even more blunt, warning that if the SDF enters Raqqa, it will hurt relations between Ankara and Washington.

'We have said that a terror organization cannot be used against another terror organization,' the Turkish leader told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

The Kurds reject that notion and insist that only forces fighting under the SDF banner will liberate Raqqa.

'Turkey is an occupation force and has no legitimate right to enter Raqqa,' said SDF spokeswoman Cihan Sheikh Ehmed.

In a text message exchange from northern Syria, she said the SDF has the experience in fighting IS to finish the operation.

Battlefield victories by the SDF against the Islamic State group have brought growing Western support.

Asked if adding more US troops or better arming Syria's Kurds were options, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he will 'accommodate any request' from his field commanders.

In Mosul, the US-led coalition is playing a greater role than ever before in the fight against IS and coalition forces have moved closer to front-line fighting.

U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian says the increased support is an effort to 'accelerate the campaign' against the Islamic State group, noting that launching simultaneous operations in both Mosul and Raqqa 'puts further strain on the enemy's command and control.'

'It is a complicating factor when you don't have a partner government to work with,' conceded Dorrian, adding that whoever the coalition partners with in the fight for Raqqa is 'a subject of ongoing discussions.'

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a Middle East analyst at the Jamestown Foundation who closely follows Kurdish affairs, says the US-led coalition wants to have a quick end to IS in Raqqa, from which external operations against the West are planned.

That means it would prefer to work with the Kurdish-led SDF forces 'since they are able to mobilize manpower unlike the Turks,' he said.

In any case, the battle for Raqqa is sure to be a long and deadly one. It took the SDF nearly 10 weeks to capture the northern Syrian town of Manbij from IS last year.

It took Turkish forces and allied groups more than three months to retake the town of al-Bab, a costly battle that killed dozens of Turkish soldiers and many civilians.

Raqqa is much larger than either Manbij or al-Bab.

Some Syrian opposition activists say the extremists dug a trench around it to make it difficult for attackers to storm it.

'It would be difficult for any troops,' said Itani of the Atlantic Council.

'Witness the slow and ugly progress in Mosul as well. Raqqa would be tough,' he said.



“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams
 
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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