Thin Pinstriped Line

  The Russian Army has taken such significant losses of materiel that it has been forced to pull vintage T62 tanks from reserve , and commit them to front line operations. This statement makes plain just how costly the Russian advances have been in the Donbas area, and raises questions about what, if any, value, there is from retaining a war reserve of vehicles and equipment. It is difficult to get an accurate picture on just how disastrous the Russian losses have been so far in the war, but most estimates suggest that at least 700 tanks have been destroyed, with many more damaged or captured. Each loss represents not only a small reduction in combat capability to Russia, but usually a far more valuable, and irreplaceable crew. Russia is not a nation that likes to throw military equipment away, far from it. Their equipment is designed to be simple, reliable and last a very long time. As the outstandingly good website WW2 after WW2 , which keeps track of what happened to military ...

  The loss of the Type 42 destroyer, HMS SHEFFIELD in 1982 as a direct result of damage sustained in an Exocet attack by the Argentine Air Force remains one of the most significant moments in post war British naval history. The attack, which came 37 years after the end of WW2 in which the Royal Navy was the second largest in the world and had operated fleets across the globe, and whose senior leadership had served in that war, represented a humbling blow. It served as a timely notice that the world had changed, and that navies could take on the most potent of global navies and give them a bloody nose. As a legacy of the attack, the Royal Navy changed out of all recognition in its attitude to training, damage control and focus on survivability at sea. Even now, four decades later the losses from the Falklands, including the SHEFFIELD continue to be taught in order to ensure that the Royal Navy does not experience a similar loss in future. There is no doubt that the loss occurr...