commander is told very briefly what the groups are capable of, and they are
then handed over to his command. They are dropped behind enemy lines and,
while they are carrying out the operation, they maintain direct contact with
their divisional headquarters. After the strike on the target the spetsnaz
group -- if it has survived -- returns immediately to the direct control of
the front headquarters, to remain there until it needs to be put under the
command of some other force as decided by the front commander.
___
Direct co-operation is a cornerstone of Soviet strategy and practised
widely on manoeuvres, especially at the strategic level, when spetsnaz
groups from regiments of professional athletes are subordinated to
commanders of, for example, the strategic missile troops or the strategic
(long-range) aviation.
^1 See Appendix D for the organisation of spetsnaz at strategic level.
For the main principle governing Soviet strategy is the concentration
of colossal forces against the enemy's most vulnerable spot. Soviet troops
will strike a super-powerful, sudden blow and then force their way rapidly
ahead. In this situation, or immediately before it, a mass drop of spetsnaz
units will be carried out ahead of and on the flanks of the advancing force,
or in places that have to be neutralised for the success of the operation on
the main line of advance.
Spetsnaz units at army level , on the other hand, are dropped in the
areas of operations of their own armies at a depth of 100 to 500 kilometres;
and spetsnaz units under the command of the fronts are dropped in the area
of operations of their fronts at a depth of between 500 and 1000 kilometres.
The headquarters to which the group is subordinated tries not to
interfere in the operations of the spetsnaz group, reckoning that the
commander on the spot can see and understand the situation better than can
people at headquarters far from where the events are taking place. The
headquarters will intervene if it becomes necessary to redirect it to attack
a more important target or if a strike is to take place where it is located.
But a warning may not be given if the group is not going to have time to get
away from the strike area, since all such warnings carry the risk of
revealing Soviet intentions to the enemy.
Co-operation between different groups of spetsnaz is carried out by
means of a distribution of territories for operations by different groups,
so that simultaneous blows can be struck in different areas if need be.
Co-operation can also be carried out by forward headquarters at battalion,
regiment and brigade level, dropped behind the lines to co-ordinate major
spetsnaz forces in an area. Because spetsnaz organisation is so flexible, a
group which has landed by chance in another group's operational area can
quickly be brought under the latter's command by an order from a superior
headquarters.
___
In the course of a war other Soviet units apart from spetsnaz will be
operating in enemy territory:
Deep reconnaissance companies from the reconnaissance battalions of the
motor-rifle and tank divisions. Both in their function and the tactics they
adopt, these companies are practically indistinguishable from regular
spetsnaz. The difference lies in the fact that these companies do not use
parachutes but penetrate behind the enemy's lines in helicopters, jeeps and
armoured reconnaissance vehicles. Deep reconnaissance units do not usually
co-operate with spetsnaz. But their operations, up to 100 kilometres behind
the front line, make it possible to concentrate spetsnaz activity deeper in
the enemy's rear without having to divert it to operations in the zone
nearer the front.
Air-assault brigades at front level operate independently, but in some
cases spetsnaz units may direct the combat helicopters to their targets. It
is sometimes possible to have joint operations conducted by men dropped from
helicopters and to use helicopters from an air-assault brigade for
evacuating the wounded and prisoners.
Airborne divisions operate in accordance with the plans of the
commander-in-chief. If difficulties arise with the delivery of supplies to
their units, they switch to partisan combat tactics. Co-operation between
airborne divisions and spetsnaz units is not normally organised, although
large-scale drops in the enemy's rear create a favourable situation for
operations by all spetsnaz units.
Naval infantry are commanded by the same commander as naval spetsnaz:
every fleet commander has one brigade of the latter and a brigade (or
regiment) of infantry. Consequently these two formations, both intended for
operations in the enemy's rear, co-operate very closely. Normally when the
naval infantry makes a landing on an enemy coastline, their operation is
preceded by, or accompanied by, spetsnaz operations in the same area. Groups
of naval spetsnaz can, of course, operate independently of the naval
infantry if they need to, especially in cases where the operations are
expected to be in remote areas requiring special skills of survival or
concealment.
There are two specific sets of circumstances in which superior
headquarters organises direct co-operation between all units operating in
the enemy rear. The first is when a combined attack offers the only
possibility of destroying or capturing the target, and the second is when
Soviet units in the enemy rear have suffered substantial losses and the
Soviet command decides to make up improvised groups out of the remnants of
the ragged units that are left.
___
In the course of an advance spetsnaz groups, as might be expected,
co-operate very closely with the forward detachments.
A Soviet advance -- a sudden break through the defences of the enemy in
several places and the rapid forward movement of masses of troops, supported
by an equal mass of aircraft and helicopters -- is always co-ordinated with
a simultaneous strike in the rear of the enemy by spetsnaz forces, airborne
troops and naval infantry.
In other armies different criteria are applied to measure a commander's
success -- for example, what percentage of the enemy's forces have been
destroyed by his troops. In the Soviet Army this is of secondary importance,
and may be of no importance at all, because a commander's value is judged by
one criterion only: the speed with which his troops advance.
To take the speed of advance as the sole measure of a commander's
abilities is not so stupid as it might seem at first glance. As a guiding
principle it forces all commanders to seek, find and exploit the weakest
spots in the enemy's defences. It obliges the commander to turn the enemy's
flank and to avoid getting caught up in unnecessary skirmishes. It also
makes commanders make use of theoretically impassable areas to get to the
rear of the enemy, instead of battering at his defences.
To find the enemy's weak spots a commander will send reconnaissance
groups ahead, and forward detachments which he has assembled for the
duration of the advance. Every commander of a regiment, division, army and,
in some cases, of a front will form his own forward detachment. In a
regiment the detachment normally includes a motor-rifle company with a tank
platoon (or a tank company with a motor-rifle platoon); a battery of
self-propelled howitzers; an anti-aircraft platoon; and an anti-tank platoon
and sapper and chemical warfare units. In a division it will consist of a
motor-rifle or tank battalion, with a tank or motor-rifle company as
appropriate; an artillery battalion; anti-aircraft and anti-tank batteries;
and a company of sappers and some support units. In an army the scale is
correspondingly greater: two or three motor-rifle battalions; one or two
tank battalions; two or three artillery battalions, a battalion of
multi-barrelled rocket launchers; a few anti-aircraft batteries; an
anti-tank battalion; and sappers and chemical warfare troops. Where a front
makes up its own forward detachment it will consist of several regiments,
most of them tank regiments. The success of each general (i.e. the speed at
which he advances) is determined by the speed of his very best units. In
practice this means that it is determined by the operations of the forward
detachment which he sends into battle. Thus every general assembles his best
units for that crucial detachment, puts his most determined officers in
command, and puts at their disposal a large slice of his reinforcements. All
this makes the forward detachment into a concentration of the strength of
the main forces.
It often happens that very high-ranking generals are put in command of
relatively small detachments. For example, the forward detachment of the 3rd
Guards Tank Army in the Prague operation was commanded by General I. G.
Ziberov, who was deputy chief of staff. (The detachment consisted of the
69th mechanised brigade, the 16th self-propelled artillery brigade, the 50th
motorcycle regiment, and the 253rd independent penal company).
Every forward detachment is certainly very vulnerable. Let us imagine
what the first day of a war in Europe would be like, when the main
concentration of Soviet troops has succeeded in some places in making very
small breaches in the defences of the forces of the Western powers. Taking
advantage of these breaches, and of any other opportunities offered --
blunders by the enemy, unoccupied sectors and the like -- about a hundred
forward detachments of regiments, about twenty-five more powerful forward
detachments of divisions, and about eight even more powerful forward
detachments from armies have penetrated into the rear of the NATO forces.
None of them has got involved in the fighting. They are not in the least
concerned about their rear or their flanks. They are simply racing ahead
without looking back.
This is very similar to the Vistula-Oder operation of 1945, on the eve
of which Marshal G. K. Zhukov assembled all sixty-seven commanders of the
forward detachments and demanded of each one: 100 kilometres forward
progress on the first day of the operation. A hundred kilometres,
irrespective of how the main forces were operating, and irrespective of
whether the main forces succeeded in breaking through the enemy's defences.
Every commander who advanced a hundred kilometres on the first day or
averaged seventy kilometres a day for the first four days would receive the
highest award -- the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union. Everybody in
the detachment would receive a decoration, and all the men undergoing
punishment (every forward detachment has on its strength anything from a
company to a battalion's worth of such men riding on the outside of the
tanks) would have their offences struck out.
Say what you like about the lack of initiative in Soviet soldiers and
officers. Just imagine giving men from a penal battalion such a task. If you
succeed in not getting involved in the fighting, and if you manage to
outflank the enemy and keep moving, we will strike out all your offences.
Get involved in fighting and you will not only shed your blood, you will die
a criminal too.
Operations by Soviet forward detachments are not restrained by any
limitations. `The operations of forward detachments must be independent and
not restricted by the dividing lines,' the Soviet Military Encyclopaedia
declares. The fact that the forward detachments may be cut off from the main
force should not deter them. For example, on the advance in Manchuria in
1945 the 6th Guards Tank Army advanced rapidly towards the ocean, having
crossed the desert, the apparently impregnable Khingan mountain range and
the rice fields, and covering 810 kilometres in eleven days. But ahead of it
were forward detachments, operating continually, which had rushed 150 to 200
kilometres ahead of the main force. When the officer in command of the front
learnt of this spurt ahead (by quite unprotected detachments, which really
had not a single support vehicle with them), he did not order the
detachments to slow down; on the contrary, he ordered them to increase their
speed still further, and not to worry about the distance separating them,
however great it was. The more the forward detachments were separated from
the main force, the better. The more unsuspected and strange the appearance
of Soviet troops seems to the enemy, the greater the panic and the more
successful the operations of both the forward detachments and the main
Soviet troops.
Forward detachments were of enormous importance in the last war. The
speed at which our troops advanced reached at times eighty to a hundred
kilometres a day. Such a speed of advance in operations on such an enormous
scale causes surprise even today. But it must always be remembered that this
terrible rate of advance was to a great extent made possible by the
operations of the forward detachments. These are the words of Army-General
I.I. Gusakovsky, the same general who from January to April 1945, from the
Vistula to Berlin itself, commanded the forward detachment of the 11th
Guards Tank Corps and the whole of the 1st Guards Tank Army.
In the last war the forward detachments pierced the enemy's defences
with dozens of spearheads at the same time, and the main body of troops
followed in their tracks. The forward detachments then destroyed in the
enemy's rear only targets that were easy to destroy, and in many cases moved
forward quickly enough to capture bridges before they were blown up. The
reason the enemy had not blown them up was because his main forces were
still wholly engaged against the main forces of the Red Army.
The role played by forward detachments has greatly increased in modern
warfare. All Soviet military exercises are aimed at improving the operations
of forward detachments. There are two very good reasons why the role of the
forward detachments has grown in importance. The first is, predictably, that
war has acquired a nuclear dimension. Nuclear weapons (and other modern
means of fighting) need to be discovered and destroyed at the earliest
possible opportunity. And the more Soviet troops there are on enemy<
br />
territories, the less likelihood there is of their being destroyed by
nuclear weapons. It will always be difficult for the enemy to make a nuclear
strike against his own rear where not only are his own forces operating, and
which are inhabited but where a strike would also be against his own
civilian population.
A forward detachment, rushing far ahead and seeking out and destroying
missile batteries, airfields, headquarters and communication lines resembles
spetsnaz both in character and in spirit. It usually has no transport
vehicles at all. It carries only what can be found room for in the tanks and
armoured transporters, and its operations may last only a short time, until
the fuel in the tanks gives out. All the same, the daring and dashing
actions of the detachments will break up the enemy's defences, producing
chaos and panic in his rear, and creating conditions in which the main force
can operate with far greater chances of success.
In principle spetsnaz does exactly the same. The difference is that
spetsnaz groups have greater opportunities for discovering important
targets, whereas forward detachments have greater opportunities than
spetsnaz for destroying them. Which is why the forward detachment of each
regiment is closely linked up with the regiment's reconnaissance company
secretly operating deep inside the enemy's defences. Similarly, the forward
detachments of divisions are linked directly with divisional reconnaissance
battalions, receiving a great deal of information from them and, by their
swift reactions, creating better operating conditions for the reconnaissance
battalions.
The forward detachment of an army, usually led by the deputy army
commander, will be operating at the same time as the army's spetsnaz groups
who will have been dropped 100 to 500 kilometres ahead. This means that the
forward detachment may find itself in the same operational area as the
army's spetsnaz groups as early as forty-eight hours after the start of the
operation. At that point the deputy army commander will establish direct
contact with the spetsnaz groups, receiving information from them, sometimes
redirecting groups to more important targets and areas, helping the groups
and receiving help from them. The spetsnaz group may, for example, capture a
bridge and hold it for a very short time. The forward detachment simply has
Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces Page 21
