Photo by Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J31391 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5665346
As I’ve said many times, history does not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.
As the Soviets approached Berlin near the end of the Second World War, much of the defense was expected to be from the Hitler Youth, the very young—early to mid-teens. The Soviets had no competition from the Americans, British, etc. because to do so had a great chance of placing allies in each other’s crossfires.
The Nazis, not the Wehrmacht, created the Volkssturm (Peoples Storm) by conscripting those from 16-60 who were not already in a combat unit. With teenagers in the Hitler Youth, this left the old men. The Soviets slaughtered many while Hitler was committing suicide in the Fuhrerbunker.
Today, in similar fashion, Vladimir Putin removed the upper age limit for military service. In the meantime, a number of reserve units have apparently refused to go to Ukraine. This is not surprising for a variety of reasons, including the fact that many of those already deployed to Ukraine were not told where they were going or why.
In the meantime, Russia is sending T-62 tanks, first introduced in 1962, to fight in Ukraine. These were a modest improvement of the T-60 tanks used in World War II.
Incidentally Ukrainian military have examined many downed Russian weapons and have found common purpose (not military specific) US computer chips. With current sanctions, these are no longer available, so allegedly, they are scavenging computer chips from washing machines and other appliances.
I hope and pray that, like in the Second World War, the end of this war is near.
sfnowak 