importance, to identify it, and to know how to distinguish real targets from
false ones, become the most important tasks for spetsnaz, more important
even than the destruction of the targets. Once a target has been discovered
it can be destroyed by other forces -- missiles, aircraft, marines, airborne
troops. But a target that has not been discovered cannot be destroyed by
anyone.
Because the business of identifying targets is the most important task
for spetsnaz it cannot be a separate and independent organisation. It can
carry out this task only if it relies on all the resources of the GRU, and
only if it can make use of information obtained by agents and from all the
various kinds of razvedka -- satellite, aircraft, naval, electronic, and so
forth.
Every form of razvedka has its good and its bad side. A complete
picture of what is happening can be obtained only by making use of all forms
of razvedka in close interaction one with another, compensating for the
weaknesses of some forms with the advantages of the others.
Every officer in charge of razvedka uses spetsnaz only where its use
can give the very best result. When he sends a spetsnaz group behind enemy
lines the officer in command already knows a good deal about the enemy from
other sources. He knows exactly what the unit is to look for and roughly
where it has to look. The information obtained by spetsnaz groups (sometimes
only fragmentary and uncertain) can in turn be of exceptional value to the
other forms of razvedka and be the starting point for more attentive work in
those areas by agents and other services.
Only with a union of all forces and resources is it possible to reveal
the plans and intentions of the enemy, the strength and organisation of his
forces, and to inflict defeat on him.
But let us return to the commander of the spetsnaz group who,
despatching it to a particular area, already knows a good deal about the
area, the specially important targets that may be found there, and even
their approximate location. This information (or as much of it as concerns
him) is passed on to the commander of the group and his deputy. The group
has landed safely, covered its tracks, established a base and started its
search. How should it set about it?
There are several tried and tested methods. Each target of special
importance must have a communications centre and lines of communication
leading to it. The group may include experts at radio razvedka. Let us not
forget that spetsnaz is the 3rd department and radio razvedka the 5th
department of the same Directorate (the Second) at the headquarters of every
front, fleet, group of forces and military district. Spetsnaz and radio
razvedka are very closely connected and often help each other, even to the
point of having radio razvedka experts in spetsnaz groups. By monitoring
radio transmissions in the area of important targets it is possible to
determine quite accurately their whereabouts.
But it is also possible to discover the target without the aid of radio
razvedka. The direction of receiving and transmitting aerials of
tropospheric, radio-relay and other communication lines provides a lot of
information about the location of the terminal points on lines of
communication. This in turn leads us right up to the command posts and other
targets of great importance.
Sometimes before a search begins the commander of the group will decide
by the map which, in his opinion, are the most likely locations for
particular targets. His group will examine those areas first of all.
If the targets are moved, then the roads, bridges, tunnels and mountain
passes where they may be seen are put under observation.
The search for a particular target can be carried out simultaneously by
several groups. In that case the officer in charge divides the territory
being searched into squares in each of which one group operates.
Each group searching a square usually spreads out into a long line with
tens or even hundreds of metres between each man. Each man moves by the
compass, trying to keep in sight of his neighbours. They advance in complete
silence. They choose suitable observation points and carefully examine the
areas ahead of them, and if they discover nothing they move on to another
hiding place. In this way relatively small groups of well trained soldiers
can keep quite extensive areas under observation. Unlike razvedka conducted
from outer space or the air, spetsnaz can get right up to targets and view
them, not from above, but from the ground. Experience shows that it is much
more difficult to deceive a spetsnaz man with false targets than it is a man
operating an electronic intelligence station or an expert at interpreting
pictures taken from the air or from space.
Spetsnaz groups have recently begun to make ever greater use of
electronic apparatus for seeking their targets. They now carry portable
radar, infra-red and acoustic equipment, night-vision sights, and so forth.
But whatever new electronic devices are invented, they will never replace
the simplest and most reliable method of establishing the location of
important targets: questioning a prisoner.
It may be claimed that not every prisoner will agree to answer the
questions put to him, or that some prisoners will answer the questions put
by spetsnaz but give wrong answers and lead their interrogators astray. To
which my reply is categorical. Everybody answers questions from spetsnaz.
There are no exceptions. I have been asked how long a very strong person can
hold out against questioning by spetsnaz, without replying to questions. The
answer is: one second. If you don't believe this, just try the following
experiment. Get one of your friends who considers himself a strong character
to write on a piece of paper a number known only to himself and seal the
paper in an envelope. Then tie your friend to a post or a tree and ask him
what number he wrote on the paper. If he refuses to answer, file his teeth
down with a big file and count the time. Having received the answer, open
the envelope and check that he has given you the number written on the
paper. I guarantee the answer will be correct.
If you perform such an experiment, you will have an idea of one of
spetsnaz's milder ways of questioning people. But there are more effective
and reliable ways of making a person talk. Everyone who falls into the hands
of spetsnaz knows he is going to be killed. But people exert themselves to
give correct and precise answers. They are not fighting for their lives but
for an easy death. Prisoners are generally interrogated in twos or larger
groups. If one seems to know less than the others, he can be used for
demonstration purposes to encourage them to talk. If the questioning is
being done in a town the prisoner may have a heated iron placed on his body,
or have his ears pierced with an electric drill, or be cut to pieces with an
electric saw. A man's fingers are particularly sensitive. If the finger of a
man being questioned is simply bent back and the end of the finger squashed
&
nbsp; as it is bent, the pain is unendurable. One method considered very effective
is a form of torture known as `the bicycle'. A man is bound and laid on his
back. Pieces of paper (or cotton wool or rags) soaked in spirit,
eau-de-cologne, etc., are stuck between his fingers and set alight.
Spetsnaz has a special passion for the sexual organs. If the conditions
permit, a very old and simple method is used to demonstrate the power of
spetsnaz. The captors drive a big wedge into the trunk of a tree, then force
the victim's sexual organs into the opening and knock out the wedge. They
then proceed to question the other prisoners. At the same time, in order to
make them more talkative, the principal spetsnaz weapon -- the little
infantryman's spade -- is used. As spetsnaz asks its questions the blade of
the spade is used to cut off ears and fingers, to hit the victims in the
liver and perform a whole catalogue of unpleasant operations on the person
under interrogation.
One very simple way of making a man talk is known as the `swallow',
well known in Soviet concentration camps. It does not require any weapons or
other instruments, and if it is used with discretion it does not leave any
traces on the victim's body. He is laid face down on the ground and his legs
are bent back to bring his heels as close as possible to the back of his
neck. The `swallow' generally produces a straight answer in a matter of
seconds.
Of course, every method has its shortcomings. That is why a commander
uses several methods at the same time. The `swallow' is not usually employed
in the early stages of an operation. Immediately after a landing, the
commander of a spetsnaz group tries to use one really blood-thirsty device
out of his arsenal: cutting a man's lips with a razor, or breaking his neck
by twisting his head round. These methods are used even when a prisoner
obviously has no information, the aim being to prevent any possibility of
any of the men in the group going over to the enemy. Everyone, including
those who have not taken part in the torture, knows that after this he has
no choice: he is bound to his group by a bloody understanding and must
either come out on top or die with his group. In case of surrender he may
have to suffer the same torture as his friends have just used.
In recent years the KGB, GRU and spetsnaz have had the benefit of an
enormous training ground in which to try out the effectiveness of their
methods of questioning: Afghanistan. The information received from there
describes things which greatly exceed in skill and inventiveness anything I
have described here. I am quite deliberately not quoting here interrogation
methods used by the Soviet forces, including spetsnaz, in Afghanistan, which
have been reported by thoroughly reliable sources. Western journalists have
access to that material and to living witnesses.
Once it has obtained the information it needs about the targets of
interest to it, the spetsnaz group checks the facts and then kills the
prisoners. It should be particularly noted that those who have told the
truth do have an easy death. They may be shot, hanged, have their throats
cut or be drowned. Spetsnaz does not torture anybody for the sake of
torture. You come across practically no sadists in spetsnaz. If they find
one they quickly get rid of him. Both the easier and the tougher forms of
questioning in spetsnaz are an unavoidable evil that the fighting men have
to accept. They use these methods, not out of a love of torturing people,
but as the simplest and most reliable way of obtaining information essential
to their purpose.
___
Having discovered the target and reported on it to their command,
spetsnaz will in most cases leave the target area as quickly as possible.
Very soon afterwards, the target will come under attack by missiles,
aircraft or other weapons. In a number of cases, however, the spetsnaz group
will destroy the target it has discovered itself. They are often given the
mission in that form: `Find and destroy'. But there are also situations when
the task is given as `Find and report', and the group commander takes an
independent decision about destroying the target. He may do so when, having
found the target, he discovers suddenly that he cannot report to his
superior officers about it; and he may also do so when he comes across a
missile ready for firing.
Robbed of the chance or the time to transmit a report, the commander
has to take all possible steps to destroy the target, including ordering a
suicide attack on it. Readiness to carry out a suicide mission is maintained
in spetsnaz by many methods. One of them is to expose obvious sadists and
have them transferred immediately to other branches of the forces, because
experience shows that in the overwhelming majority of cases the sadist is a
coward, incapable of sacrificing himself.
The actual destruction of targets is perhaps the most ordinary and
prosaic part of the entire operation. VIPs are usually killed as they are
being transported from one place to another, when they are at their most
vulnerable. The weapons include snipers' rifles, grenade-launchers or mines
laid in the roadway. If a VIP enjoys travelling by helicopter it is a very
simple matter. For one thing, a single helicopter is a better target than a
number of cars, when the terrorists do not know exactly which car their
victim is travelling in. Secondly, even minor damage to a helicopter will
bring it down and almost certainly kill the VIP.
Missiles and aircraft are also attacked with snipers' rifles and
grenade-launchers of various kinds. One bullet hole in a missile or an
aircraft can put it out of action. If he cannot hit his target from a
distance the commander of the group will attack, usually from two sides. His
deputy will attack with one group of men from one side, trying to make as
much noise and gunfire as possible, while the other group led by the
commander will move, noiselessly, as close to the target as it can. It is
obvious that an attack by a small spetsnaz group on a well defended target
is suicide. But spetsnaz will do it. The fact is that even an unsuccessful
attack on a missile ready for firing will force the enemy to re-check the
whole missile and all its supporting equipment for faults. This may delay
the firing for valuable hours, which in a nuclear war might be long enough
to alter the course of the conflict.
--------
Chapter 12. Control and Combined Operations
If we describe the modern infantryman in battle and leave it at that,
then, however accurate the description, the picture will be incomplete. The
modern infantryman should never just be described independently, because he
never operates independently. He operates in the closest co-operation with
tanks; his way forward is laid by sappers; the artillery and air force work
in his interests; he may be helped in his fighting by helicopter gunships;
ahead of him there are reconnaissance and parachute units; and behind him is
an enormous organisation to support and service him, from supplying
> ammunition to evacuating the wounded quickly.
To understand the strength of spetsnaz one has to remember that
spetsnaz is primarily reconnaissance, forces which gather and transmit
information to their commanders to which their commanders immediately react.
The strength of those reconaissance forces lies in the fact that they have
behind them the whole of the nuclear might of the USSR. It may be that
before the appearance of spetsnaz on enemy territory, a nuclear blow will
already have been made, and despite the attendant dangers, this greatly
improves the position of the fighting groups, because the enemy is clearly
not going to bother with them. In other circumstances the groups will appear
on enemy territory and obtain information required by the Soviet command or
amplify it, enabling an immediate nuclear strike to follow. A nuclear strike
close to where a spetsnaz group is operating is theoretically regarded as
the salvation of the group. When there are ruins and fires all round, a
state of panic and the usual links and standards have broken down, a group
can operate almost openly without any fear of capture.
Similarly, Soviet command may choose to deploy other weapons before
spetsnaz begins operations or immediately after a group makes its landing:
chemical weapons, air attacks or bombardment of the coastline with naval
artillery. There is a co-operative principle at work here. Such actions will
give the spetsnaz groups enormous moral and physical support. And the
reverse is also true -- the operations of a group in a particular area and
the information it provides will make the strike by Soviet forces more
accurate and effective.
In the course of a war direct co-operation is the most dependable form
of co-operation. For example, the military commander of a front has learnt
through his network of agents (the second department of the 2nd Directorate
at front headquarters) or from other sources that there is in a certain area
a very important but mobile target which keeps changing its position. He
appoints one of his air force divisions to destroy the target. A spetsnaz
group (or groups) is appointed to direct the division to the target. The
liaison between the groups and the air force division is better not
conducted through the front headquarters, but directly. The air division
Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces Page 20
