Panserjeger

Operation Interflex (the training of UA troops in UK) is ongoing. I am enrolled in the Norwegian Heimevernet (Territorial Defense) and we recently were offered to volunteer for participation in the operation. Currently the norwegian instructors are from the Rapid Response Force of Brigade North, but now they are asking for more instructors from the reserves. 
https://www.forsvaret.no/heimevernet/aktuelt/operasjon-interflex
There will be two contingents, one January-April 2023 and one April-July 2023. The norwegian instructors will get a three weeks refresher course in Norway before leaving for UK, but there are of course requirements that they posses the required qualifications.
The UA troops will get 5 weeks of intensive training. No details about how many troops are to be trained, but 10.000 were trained in the initial phase of 120 days. Hopefully a lot more can be trained now that the number of instructors will increase.
Edit: There are rumours of gross salaries of 120k NOK a month (11.4k USD), so the pay is really good. But there will be work around the clock with very little leave.

Operation Interflex (the training of UA troops in UK) is ongoing. I am enrolled in the Norwegian Heimevernet (Territorial Defense) and we recently were offered to volunteer for participation in the operation. Currently the norwegian instructors are from the Rapid Response Force of Brigade North, but now they are asking for more instructors from the reserves. 
https://www.forsvaret.no/heimevernet/aktuelt/operasjon-interflex
There will be two contingents, one January-April 2023 and one April-July 2023. The norwegian instructors will get a three weeks refresher course in Norway before leaving for UK, but there are of course requirements that they posses the required qualifications.
The UA troops will get 5 weeks of intensive training. No details about how many troops are to be trained, but 10.000 were trained in the initial phase of 120 days. Hopefully a lot more can be trained now that the number of instructors will increase.
Edit: There are rumours of gross salaries of 120k NOK a month (11.4k USD), so the pay is really good. But there will be work around the clock with very little leave.

Operation Interflex (the training of UA troops in UK) is ongoing. I am enrolled in the Norwegian Heimevernet (Territorial Defense) and we recently were offered to volunteer for participation in the operation. Currently the norwegian instructors are from the Rapid Response Force of Brigade North, but now they are asking for more instructors from the reserves. 
https://www.forsvaret.no/heimevernet/aktuelt/operasjon-interflex
There will be two contingents, one January-April 2023 and one April-July 2023. The norwegian instructors will get a three weeks refresher course in Norway before leaving for UK, but there are of course requirements that they posses the required qualifications.
The UA troops will get 5 weeks of intensive training. No details about how many troops are to be trained, but 10.000 were trained in the initial phase of 120 days. Hopefully a lot more can be trained now that the number of instructors will increase.
Edit: There are rumours of gross salaries of 120k NOK a month (11.4k USD), so the pay is really good. But there will be work around the clock with very little leave.

Operation Interflex (the training of UA troops in UK) is ongoing. I am enrolled in the Norwegian Heimevernet (Territorial Defense) and we recently were offered to volunteer for participation in the operation. Currently the norwegian instructors are from the Rapid Response Force of Brigade North, but now they are asking for more instructors from the reserves. 
https://www.forsvaret.no/heimevernet/aktuelt/operasjon-interflex
There will be two contingents, one January-April 2023 and one April-July 2023. The norwegian instructors will get a three weeks refresher course in Norway before leaving for UK, but there are of course requirements that they posses the required qualifications.
The UA troops will get 5 weeks of intensive training. No details about how many troops are to be trained, but 10.000 were trained in the initial phase of 120 days. Hopefully a lot more can be trained now that the number of instructors will increase.
Edit: There are rumours of gross salaries of 120k NOK a month (11.4k USD), so the pay is really good. But there will be work around the clock with very little leave.

Operation Interflex (the training of UA troops in UK) is ongoing. I am enrolled in the Norwegian Heimevernet (Territorial Defense) and we recently were offered to volunteer for participation in the operation. Currently the norwegian instructors are from the Rapid Response Force of Brigade North, but now they are asking for more instructors from the reserves. 
https://www.forsvaret.no/heimevernet/aktuelt/operasjon-interflex
There will be two contingents, one January-April 2023 and one April-July 2023. The norwegian instructors will get a three weeks refresher course in Norway before leaving for UK, but there are of course requirements that they posses the required qualifications.
The UA troops will get 5 weeks of intensive training. No details about how many troops are to be trained, but 10.000 were trained in the initial phase of 120 days. Hopefully a lot more can be trained now that the number of instructors will increase.
Edit: There are rumours of gross salaries of 120k NOK a month (11.4k USD), so the pay is really good. But there will be work around the clock with very little leave.

Operation Interflex (the training of UA troops in UK) is ongoing. I am enrolled in the Norwegian Heimevernet (Territorial Defense) and we recently were offered to volunteer for participation in the operation. Currently the norwegian instructors are from the Rapid Response Force of Brigade North, but now they are asking for more instructors from the reserves. 
https://www.forsvaret.no/heimevernet/aktuelt/operasjon-interflex
There will be two contingents, one January-April 2023 and one April-July 2023. The norwegian instructors will get a three weeks refresher course in Norway before leaving for UK, but there are of course requirements that they posses the required qualifications.
The UA troops will get 5 weeks of intensive training. No details about how many troops are to be trained, but 10.000 were trained in the initial phase of 120 days. Hopefully a lot more can be trained now that the number of instructors will increase.
Edit: There are rumours of gross salaries of 120k NOK a month (11.4k USD), so the pay is really good. But there will be work around the clock with very little leave.

Found some great aerial pictures of Eastern Prussia. Very detailed. Like a kid in a candy store. 😀

Sorry, I have not heard about that book. Here in Norway the books by Zetterling and Tamelander are quite popular, but I have not read anything by Leandoer.

`That will come in very handy, Pål. It does look like a book that's worth the effort of translating. Thank you.
Also quite some good pictures I've never seen before.
It's been a  good week for book collecting actually. Not only found this great book, but also an affordable copy of Forsyth's Jagdverband 44, which I have been searching for many years. 🙂

No problem Aragorn. Since the Kjellander book is OCR-scanned I tried Google translate on it, but it is to large (max 10 mb). But copying text from the book and pasting it here does work quite well: https://translate.google.no/?hl=no&sl=sv&tl=en&op=translate 

A lot of the documents from https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/ are from the units fighting in East Prussia, but it is not very well indexed and difficult to navigate. That is why I have collected the url's and placed them under the different divisions. For the 5. Panzer I have the following:
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/14807-akte-264-unterlagen-der-ia-abteilung-des-i-bataillons-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-ktb-nr-iv-1944-des-i-bataillons-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-1-10-31-12-1944-einschlie-lich-anlagen#page/1/mode/grid/zoom/1
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/14951-akte-408-unterlagen-der-ia-abteilung-des-panzerregiments-31-regimentsbefehle-ausbildungshinweise-dienstpl-ne-befehle-der-8-panzerbrigade-und-der-5-panzerdivision-merkbl-tter-erfahrungsberichte#page/2/mode/grid/zoom/1
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/14965-akte-422-unterlagen-der-ia-abteilung-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-anlagen-zum-ktb-nr-12-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-lagekarten-regimentsbefehle-u-a#page/1/mode/grid/zoom/1
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/14966-akte-423-unterlagen-der-ia-abteilung-des-panzergrenadierregiment-14-ktb-nr-12-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-1-10-31-12-1944#page/1/mode/grid/zoom/1
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/14967-akte-424-unterlagen-der-ia-abteilung-des-ii-bataillons-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-ktb-nr-12-des-ii-bataillons-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-1-10-31-12-1944#page/1/mode/grid/zoom/1
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/14968-akte-425-unterlagen-der-ia-abteilung-des-ii-bataillons-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14-anlagen-zum-ktb-nr-12-des-ii-bataillons-des-panzergrenadierregiments-14#page/1/mode/grid/zoom/1
All these links can also be found in the folder "T-315 5. Panzerdivision (TSAMO)".

Hi Guys, glad you found the content interesting 🙂
@RockinHarry, did you try the list view (right under the log on button, top right corner)? This should give you the file sizes when you doubleclick the folder to see the contents.
@Artkin, difficult if you don't read German for sure. But the TOEs (Gliederung or Kriegsgliederung) are often schematic, the symbols are explained in english on this page:  http://niehorster.org/011_germany/symbols/_symbols_43.html. Zustandsberichte are status reports of units, they will give unit strength as Soll (Authorized strength) and Fehlstellen (Missing from authorized strength). So the actual strength (called Ist) is Soll minus Fehlstellen. The Zustandsbericht usually contains a Gliederung (TOE) chart as well, and often the strength of the subunits are given as a percentage of authorized strength. 
The attached image shows the TOE of the 90th Panzergrenadier-Division on 1st of May 44 as an example, here you can see that the 361st Grenadier Regiment had 92% of authorized strength and each of the companies of its 1st battalion had 1 HMG and 14 LMG. 1st and 3rd company in addition had 2 medium mortars, while the 4th (heavy) company had 8 HMG, 5 medium mortars, 2 75mm antitank guns and 2 50 mm antitank guns. The battalion was motorized (indicated by the small wheels below the battalion "box").   I'll be happy to help out answering questions or finding information on a particular unit.  T314R1266 55779-2 LI AK Ia KTB 2 Anlage Kriegsgliederung Mar-Jun 44 (dragged).pdf

Hi!
I thought I could share my collection of German source documents on this forum, hopefully it can be of use for Scenario designers and others who are just history buffs. Mostly from December 1943 up til the war's end but also several stray documents from earlier in the war.
The files can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17vIUP-Fjc69IoFIc0WepvMnTkngDRJQ9?usp=sharing
It is for the most part comprised of freely available NARA rolls, but I have made pdf-files out of them and named the files to make it easier to find the relevant information. In addition there are weblinks (.url-files) to the collection of captured documents in the russian archives (TSAMO,). Sadly I haven't found a way to open the directly from Google Drive, but you can download them and open them from your computer or go to https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/1-bestand-500 and search for the document in the search field using the numbered reference (eg. 12472-385).
I have also uploaded several pdf's of books found at http://prussia.online/, They are to be found in the folders English Books and German Books. 
Let me know and I will post a description of the naming convention used for the files if it is confusing.
Most of the files have been downloaded through http://wwiidigitalarchives.org/, files published by the National Archive at https://catalog.archives.gov/ and John Calvin's FTP site. The "Topographical Maps" section contains contemporary maps of the Eastern Front, most of them 1:50000 or 1:25000. If there is need I can post an explanation of how to find the correct map for the area you are working on.
A large number of the files have been compressed by me to save space. If there is a particular map or image that is too low quality it might be possible to get a higher quality version.
I hope some of you will find this interesting,
regards,
Pål 

Ah beautiful. These I can understand to a certain degree. Of course with Dr. Niehorster's symbols I can eventually work everything out. I appreciate the reply! I must have been looking at strength reports, because I was nowhere near page 588. 
It feels pretty good being able to read most of that image just from memory. I actually figured out it was a PzG division by the little halftrack with the division sign, and I also remembered that they usually came with one panzer battalion. Worthwhile stuff! If I ever dip my feet into late war again then these will be super important. I've grogged out hard for late 1942 lately.

Hi!
I thought I could share my collection of German source documents on this forum, hopefully it can be of use for Scenario designers and others who are just history buffs. Mostly from December 1943 up til the war's end but also several stray documents from earlier in the war.
The files can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17vIUP-Fjc69IoFIc0WepvMnTkngDRJQ9?usp=sharing
It is for the most part comprised of freely available NARA rolls, but I have made pdf-files out of them and named the files to make it easier to find the relevant information. In addition there are weblinks (.url-files) to the collection of captured documents in the russian archives (TSAMO,). Sadly I haven't found a way to open the directly from Google Drive, but you can download them and open them from your computer or go to https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/1-bestand-500 and search for the document in the search field using the numbered reference (eg. 12472-385).
I have also uploaded several pdf's of books found at http://prussia.online/, They are to be found in the folders English Books and German Books. 
Let me know and I will post a description of the naming convention used for the files if it is confusing.
Most of the files have been downloaded through http://wwiidigitalarchives.org/, files published by the National Archive at https://catalog.archives.gov/ and John Calvin's FTP site. The "Topographical Maps" section contains contemporary maps of the Eastern Front, most of them 1:50000 or 1:25000. If there is need I can post an explanation of how to find the correct map for the area you are working on.
A large number of the files have been compressed by me to save space. If there is a particular map or image that is too low quality it might be possible to get a higher quality version.
I hope some of you will find this interesting,
regards,
Pål 

Hi!
I thought I could share my collection of German source documents on this forum, hopefully it can be of use for Scenario designers and others who are just history buffs. Mostly from December 1943 up til the war's end but also several stray documents from earlier in the war.
The files can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17vIUP-Fjc69IoFIc0WepvMnTkngDRJQ9?usp=sharing
It is for the most part comprised of freely available NARA rolls, but I have made pdf-files out of them and named the files to make it easier to find the relevant information. In addition there are weblinks (.url-files) to the collection of captured documents in the russian archives (TSAMO,). Sadly I haven't found a way to open the directly from Google Drive, but you can download them and open them from your computer or go to https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/1-bestand-500 and search for the document in the search field using the numbered reference (eg. 12472-385).
I have also uploaded several pdf's of books found at http://prussia.online/, They are to be found in the folders English Books and German Books. 
Let me know and I will post a description of the naming convention used for the files if it is confusing.
Most of the files have been downloaded through http://wwiidigitalarchives.org/, files published by the National Archive at https://catalog.archives.gov/ and John Calvin's FTP site. The "Topographical Maps" section contains contemporary maps of the Eastern Front, most of them 1:50000 or 1:25000. If there is need I can post an explanation of how to find the correct map for the area you are working on.
A large number of the files have been compressed by me to save space. If there is a particular map or image that is too low quality it might be possible to get a higher quality version.
I hope some of you will find this interesting,
regards,
Pål 

The video that was aired last night on The NBA on TNT.  It may not be informative or add to this discussion, but maybe something we can each share with others to inform and remind them of what's at stake.  The simple fact that this very popular show carved out this much time to dedicate to this message is important, that the subject is important.
 

Ok since previous post about adventures of sergeant 'Krzysztof X" from foreign legion became quite popular, I summarized second interview which appeared on 14 october. This time he talks about Kharkiv offensive. Note, he serves in multinational "special detachment" size of of weak platoon (Brits would probably call it "stick"), serving as recon/assault force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEboMcDuojc&t=4s
Note I omitted some less relevant stuff, but it is still insenly detailed (in fact material for future recon campaign in CMBS...), so VERY long reading. But I think it is worth it, as we don't have too much first hand accounts and simply more people should hear story of these brave folks. Sorry for possible mistakes, I am treating this material as exercise in english and it took several days for half an hour each to compile. It may be slightly incoherent, but I hope it is undestandeable. Text in [] is my commentary.
 
Preparations:
-He claims Kherson offensive was real, but subsidiary from the start to northern one [ note- his personal opinion].
-Offensive in the north was set to begin on 1st September. There was not enough artillery ammo stocks though, so it was delayed for several days. Later they need to race with time, since Russians clearly started to sniff out something big is gonna happen and moved  reinforcments.
- They were called into different part of the front, and worked under new brigade along (in total) 5 special groups subordinated to it.
- His platoon attacked into Kupyansk direction, left of 80th Air Assault Bg. attacking Balaclava. They had insane schedule, with 3 consecutive days they were expected to be in: Vovkhyi Yar-Schevchenkove-Kupyansk. Guys did not believe when told about it and think it was a joke, as it was over 100 km and they barely moved hundred meters till now.

Breaking the front:
- His group was tasked with stealthy clearing paths though minefields for infantry, which they started day before. They worked whole day, get back for a supper, and worked again till middle of the night. Meanwhile assault infantry platoons started to arrive, which they hid in undisclosed space.
- Artillery and HImars started to work in the night "It felt like during WWII". At 4 AM they started to prepare attack, but were delayed again because of supporting tanks were stack for a while in some difficult marshy terrain- also Russians clearly were alarmed by that time, and one RU tank  randomly shoot at their location. Ukrianian tank engaged it.
-They modified plan, but thanks to elastic command it was easier to do [they are special platoon, accustomed to swift decision making unlike rest of common infantry- note how flexible are lower commanders there]. They used a dry gorge (ukr. yar) to get into enemy Observation Point on small hill over it. They pushed sentries back, made corridor and leave attack into infantrymen hands. Specials moved back to rest.
Breaking front lines:
-Russian lines started to crack very quickly in the night. They inexpectedly were awakaned and ordered to mov into breakththough by 5 cars. It was very chaotic environment- a lot of debris, detroyed bridges and sappers [it seems engineers followed special groups before mechanized infantry]. Russians prepared lots of false roads that lead into minefields [interesting detail- again important factor is good driver and spotters]. They somehow successfully passed Vovkhyi Yar roads in light pickups over uncleared roads, but 2 heavier BTR's following them were lost on mines.
-They stayed there for night. They had very vague orders to recon and destroy enemy where possible; platoon commander took decision on his own behalf to try more aggressive recon and thanks to this they reached Schevchenkove by midday. There were so many civilians greeting them, kissing and giving food they had obstructed the road. Guys moved so much forward they lost contact with main column and had no idea if they were followed by heavier forces or were in the town on their own, till they met another group of SSO. They together formed small detachment of 6 with a drone that started to penetrate town itself. Two of his soldiers (Czech and Italian) were so elevated by advance that they cleared several hundred meters of Russian trenches around the town by night(!), without NVG, and not even knowing if main UA force being present behind them [ "blitzkrieg rush" is evident here]
-By 3rd day they moved to Kupyanks road- there they witnessed Russian armour running, but were unable to lay proper ambush due to belts of mines being set along the main roads several kms sideways; they couldn't even shoot with Javelin [another curious aspect- since RU have no infantry to secure roads, they prepared deep obstacles for ambushers along routs of advance  escape].
-Then they moved directly into Kupyansk road, moving in column of several civilian cars and one Cossack armoured car. They passed several checkpoints with abandoned muscovite armour [note they had no knowledge if they will be defended. Extremely risky move]. They reached last checkpoint on hills before Kupyansk, there they fall into ambush on masked bunkers. Fortunatelly, their brigade commander observed it by drone [note they had direct connection to Brigade command] so after sharp firefight they managed to withdraw, their Cossack car being damaged. They laid Javelin ambush just in case and called for support from SSO. Then they participated in failed probing attack on Russian lines, during which SSO offcier was WIA and Russian armour successfully blocked their advance; supporting Ukrainian tank and BTR's run dry on ammo. Only by third attempt on 4 PM they finally cleared the hill and Russian bunkers, with the help of arriving infantry and one more BTR [they stormed it from 10 am and fortifications were probably made from concrete; it could be close to Blahodativka village perhaps?]. The guy was very surprised he survived those days.

-Russian soldiers they encountered there where better equipped than average muscovites; they used for example individually cut bullets "false dum-dum",  also fought very stubbornly. Then he laughingly thanks Russians for providing so much supplies, from excellent food [unusual statement...he means "Spetsnaz military ratios", perhaps better than average🤔] to ammo and equipment.
-Front was very porous by that time, forests and hills around the city far from cleared, and Ukrainian forces behind often fall into ambushes or pinned in meeting engagements. Overal sense of chaos was constant, but very high morale due to presence of cheering civilians pushed them constantly forward ("one more village" syndrome). The more stories they heared from locals, like all young males being arrested and kept for months in small cells,the more were motivated to push- they expected Russians to start killing them like in Bucha [correctly- note many victims from previous massacres were murdered just before liberation, so speed was essential].
-After one day of rest they crossed Oskil river. They did several crossings together with other special other special groups and Kraken unit; spearhead believed they were pushing forward, but were in fact turned back and crossed the river again at Kupyansk alone [clearly Ukrainian command wanted to fool RU as to where main crossing will be]. There endured very heavy bombings by aircraft with case ammunition.
Street battles:
-Battles in Eastern Kupyanks were extremely heavy and lasted several hellish days, with meters between combatants; Russians there were visibly better soldiers than average, truly professionals [visible respect for adversary not present before]. Numerous civilian casualties lied everywhere, especially around the bridge, with people murdered by small arms; probably Russians tried to disperse crowds. Many others died due to artillery and mortars, but they still met civilians trying to find some food [insane, but corroborated by other accounts- due to speed of offensive, Kupyansk was full of civilians during fighting].
-Lines were intermingled and subjected to constant barrage, so a lot of city infrastructure and housing was destroyed. Tactically it was "fire and movement" in urban maze, enforcing fast and constant change of position by small teams unlike anything Western armies did before, often jumping over high fences just to find their previous position being blown by mortars seconds later [clearly Russian had good view and zeroed fires on them, hunting eevry team and soldier they could find]. They could only find short rest in cellars, but these could turn into traps if Russians found them. At nights they let several times Russian tanks and wave of infantry to pass them, later armour being detroyed at close range in the city center. Russians were occassionaly so close their KIA lied directly over and behind Ukrainian positions.
-Russians were very keen on capturing the city, since they still had units left on western bank and only two avenues of escape. Active defense and movement is king of the game in war like this, with large spaces between positions. Thus any army, including Western ones, would fight war of manouvre in such conditions- fortunatelly in this war Russians lacked infantry to "grab and hold" terrain.

-More strategic thoughts- he doesn't think Russian soldier, despite being cruel and ruthless to civilians, is necessarly "mobilized peasant". Some are like that, but many he met were well led professionals knowing their job. Also people at home laughing about Putin's mobilization should consider the influx of infantry, even weak one, will have significant effect on RU ability to hold terrain (especially urban) and plug holes at the front, thus changing nature of war into more linear and static. Once they will be there in mass, It will be more and more difficult for UA special teams to infiltrate the lines, and even recruits with guns can turn any urban fight into nightmare. He generally warns against treating RU mobiks lightly, as disregard for enemy is what started this war in first place [ very good point, btw; I think we sligthly slipped into echo chamber laughing at examples of Russian mobiks being drunk or send into meatgrinder. In favourite conditions, even dying by hundreds, they can make a difference].

-After several days they started to push Russians out of the city toward forests, where they set their positions. Ukrainian assault groups needed to cross more open spaces there, meeting massive barrages of artillery fire. He refuses to tell what they did to avoid them [probably they had Russians tapped somehow, allowing them to "chase off" fire]- it was constant movement to avoid heavy fires and find some cover, with enemy trying to trap them between lines of progressing creeping barrages. In the end they managed to secure enemy positions, and were called off to R&R. All that time they slept very little and were extremely tired.

-Asked for casualties- refuse to tell real numbers, but grimly give Zelensky's number of magnitude of ca. 50 soldiers dying daily as roughly correct; his platoon also suffered combat lossess he refuse to elaborate on. Russian lossess are hard to tell, but were visibly higher than Ukrainian judging by numbers of left dead bodies. Some were lost in doomed Russian assaults that were conducted poorly due to lack of infantry [I suppose too many armour charging blindly forward]. There was also a lot of POW's that will be used as bargaining chip. Russians in turn seem to not taking foreign volunteers as prisoners, which every legionaire should be concious about before he joins [based on Russian nationalistic channels, it can be largely true].
-At the end, he laughs at Shoigu complaining at "Polish mercenaries from under Kharkiv"; there are barely several Poles on entire front, but during one particulary heavy barrage he started to nervously call somebody in native language by radio on open waves, which was intercepted by the enemy and started this legend of "two brigades of Poles" [entirely believeable; Russians and their complexes...😎]
-They spend some days behind the front, but now are again going into recon missions on northern front and hunting Russians. Despite casualties, spirits are very high, especially thanks to civilians they liberated. Many units participating in the offensive are very tired and have used equipment; for example, their 5 cars are junk demanding complex reapair. They are also in need of spare barrels for their carbines [he personaly use GROT but with longer barrel, unsuitable for close combats they often participate in] and exchange for broken NVG's. Still, volunteers and Ukrainians are optimistic as to how the war is going, especially compared to gloomy June.
 
Ok, end for now. If I see other interesting interviews I will try to post them.
 

A shameless plug for my latest scenario in which my designer notes pay tribute to the benefits of this thread and which I hope provides more input to the discussion point which @The_Capt has raised regarding the utility of light agile forces and a potential new paradigm in land warfare.  A link to the scenario is in the thread linked below:
 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcph9srHSw&t=4333s

There is an interesting interview with Polish volunteer sergeant fighting in Ukraine. It is one and a half month old and unfortunatelly no ENG subtitles are available, but there are interesting tactical and organizational details from the ground that are nevertheless relevant and worth to share here. Some are already known, but since he is unusually vocal (within Opsec) plus has a lot of practice it may be worth to bring them on this board:
1.The guy serves as platoon commander (practically down to 12 men + 5 absent) from April. His men are in Separate Special Battalion serving as "Battle Detachment" (re: all kind of missions including SF ones) subordinated to one of the regular brigades, probably mainly at Kharkiv front (undisclosed).

2. Those multinational experienced guys (US, Frenchmen, Poles, Ukrainians and several others) have clearly very different tasks than most common infantry fighting in the trenches- they serve as "fire brigade" in case Russians attacks will brake through. They see periods of very intense fighting, much more than most common soldiers. Interestingly, he claims it is common practice to form such ad hoc local QRF at the brigade and sometimes battalion level. After some time such units are treated as "specialists", taken out of regular order of battle and if having good reputation may be "borrowed" to other brigades for special tasks. Thus they are almost constantly in fight, experiencing problems with fatigue and lack of sleep.

3. Their equipment reflects that- he started with AK 74, but know uses Grot rifle and M14 for sniper tasks, good quality vests and uniforms. He claims many soldiers he served with, including Americans, will prefer those weapons to M4's that are also in use but have reputation of being too fragile in frontline conditions, difficult to keep clean and prone to jamming. He says US M67 granades are also used, but have 5-sec. delay that is way too long in battlefield conditions (mind- probably assaults), so most soldiers in line prefer old F1. It is interesting that he participated in some "water-environment" sabotage missions deep behind enemy lines (planting explosives) armed chiefly with his 9mm pistol.
Entire platoon also have two sets of NVG's for entire unit, which they found very lucky to have- common soldiers rarely have such items.

4. Battlefield effectiveness of AT weapons is also widely different from theoretical. AT-4's serve at max. 150 m but usually closer, NLAW's 6-800 m (platoon get a lot of NLAW's but they had no spare batteries, which shocked soldiers who considered it a sabotage on behalf of "unmentioned" provider state; it almost get them killed). Team's sole Javelin set is effective up to 1500m in practice, but only if line of vision is unobstructed, and similarly they have great problem possessing only pair of batteries- thus they need to allow armour get closer than theoretical range. Infantry is rather vulnarable to RU tanks, since they improved tactics to "shoot and scoot" from 2kms afar, behind practical range of a Javelin: "Unlike at early campaigns, they rarely go into open and creatively use cover and concealment now, preferring their famous carrousel tactics."

5. His and other platoons often do infiltration tactics; it is also visibly different between regular Ukrainians units and Territorial Defence that former prefer aggresive forms of defences- active patrolling, inflitrations, ambushes etc. while latter stick to their trenches, which they nonetheless hold valiantly. His platoon would penetrate several kms deep inside enemy lines on fairly regular basis. They usually move by pickups and technicals- after engagement they instantly mount them and drive at very high speeds, which is dangerous by itself [I also heard from several other accounts that number of common driving accidents due to enforced speed is very high in this war, especially directly behind the front]. Also despite many people demanding Ukrainians getting on the offensive (material was recorded before it) he says this small tactic is exteremely costly for Russians, so we should not expect in this war "massess of armour that will break the front, which will lead to nothing, them being sorrounded and suffering extra casualties". Instead they kill Russians at very high rate every day, devastate their logistics and only later will be able to penetrate the front [Nice practical translation of @TheCaptain theories about "attrition to manouvre" and internal fractures that lead to RU collapse].

6. As a rule they were often outnumbered and almost always outgunned; it stand out that front is often very thinly manned and soldiers dispersed, like a weak team solely holding even large village. Russians also visibly improved their tactic over time- they tried night infiltration, learned how to sneak over the minefields and tried to lure his team in the open. Still, his opinion on them as soldiers is low. There are very detailed desciptions of small unit actions, for example when his platoon defended a village against Russian assault for two sleepless nights, resulting only in 29 eliminated Russians and BMP.

7. Very high regard for Ukrainian determination- especially in June, he says army was basically holding only on its morale and sheer middle finger energy. Even "QRF" elite units in his sector lacked any heavy weapons except several rusty RPG's, they were constantly observed by several drones at once and subjected to constant artillery barrage. Still, they usually defeated muscovite assaults. In one such actions they were aided on flank with 7-man Ukrainian recon team from HQ, armed only with small weapons that successfully stand against armoured assault. Visible recogntition of morale as deciding factor here; for example cases of wounded soldiers leaving hospitals to join collegues at the front are common.

8.Very often they participated in "emergency" missions to plug the whole or counterattack; in one of such they have 17 men to stop expected massive assault of entire BTG and were suddenly joined by colonel, who took rifle and manned the trench with them (attack didn't came in the end). High opinion of Ukrainian officers, who usually share the same burden as common soldiers, in contrast to Russian practices. Also international troops who get this far are only crack volunteers with right psyche determined to stay in the fight- despite witnessing fires no NATO soldier ever ecnountered they get used to this situation and learned how to behave. He notes that other volunteers, not less professional, brave or skilled in direct combat, simply did not have nerves to be in this kind of war and left [another common thrope- even long wartime service in NATO armies did not provide them with adequate experience against heavy fires].

9. This soldier, just as many other volunteers and Ukrainians, is visibly shocked by bestiality of Russian way of war- it is beyond just Bucha and Irpien, but in every village and town atrocities are common, there are also often civilians lying dead in countryside or murdered on roads. He descibes a situation when Russians purposfully shoot passing cars but initially targeting only backseats. Drivers speed up to escape, they take the turn and meet a hidden defence point when they are frontally gunned down in group. This way many cars created a barricade from vehicles and dead civilians that blocked the road in case of Ukrainian advance. Such behaviour of course only stiffened Ukrainian morale.

Ok, sorry for long post. There is another interview with sgt. Krzysztof X that came out several days ago when he give details of offensive in Kharkiv, if you will be interested I may sum up his experiences.

I travelled a bit around for the weekend. Let's say at a place I went to I couldn't quite relax in silence due to all the Su-25s and Su-27s going back and forth nearby.

It's just that there's not much to post when nothing major happens daily apart from the usual things.
On Oct 10th when strikes happened in my district electricity was turned off only after missiles stopped coming (probably to do load balancing). It was off for 12 hrs and that's it, but it wasn't much of a problem, just an annoyance because I (just like many others) expected russians to do it, so I bought a portable power plant - which was enough for phones and a laptop - among other things like canned food and an oil eater. So in my case a large part of the evening was spent playing boardgames with my gf using candles and flashlights and watching neighbors using theirs too.
I just didn't expect them to do it too early, when it's 15C+. Crimean bridge certainly forced them to make stupid decisions.

Recidivism in Norway is very low. Especially when compared to rates in certain other Western nations. 

Main reason of my reduced activity is a work and some tiring from this 8-month information marathone Concerning to strike consequenses in our district of Kyiv - cell phones and internet still working. Main discomfort - there wasn't hot water for three days. Two days electricity was turning off at the morning for two hours and two days ago all our district has plunged into the darkness from 20:00 to 1:00 of next day. As I know Irpin' town was turning off completely on two days.  
Just a look from my balcony after the strike at the district thermal plant. There was two very loud booms. Most dense smoke is from missed missile. I don't know what could burn with such dark smoke. 
    

Yes, the “Russians suck” bandwagon has become about as much groupthink as “The Russians are giants” narratives were at the beginning of this thing.  The Russians are in bad shape and are experiencing multiple systemic failures at just about every level of warfare; however, that obstacle belt looks professionally sighted and constructed for purpose to me.  Now wether it will be part of a much larger effective defensive, is another question.
I would highlight, again, the Russians are fighting by the same playbook we use. The UA is playing by a new set of rules they have had to evolve to by necessity.  A real risk of “Russians suck” is the implied “Ya but in a real war we would do the same but correctly, because we do not suck”.  This is pretty much the exact same narratives coming out of European militaries before the First World War.