By May of 1940, Nazi Germany conquered most of Western Europe, except England.
Meanwhile, France's Third Republic was collapsing.
On the 10th of the same month and year, Winston Churchill became Enlgand's prime minister.
"The British Bulldog" rescued the British Army off of Dunkirk (in northern France) in late May. Subsequently, Adolf Hitler set his sights on England.
The Battle of Britain began on Wednesday July 10, 1940 with Nazi air attacks against British airfields.
As long as the Royal Air Force (RAF) was still powerful, the Nazis could not invade via crossing the English Channel, in what the Nazis code-named "Operation Sea Lion."
Thus, the Nazi’s initially attacked the RAF military airfields, in order to draw up the Royal Air Force, so the Luftwaffe could destroy it.
The effect was to wear down the RAF by bombing those airfields and forcing the RAF to challenge them, at terrible losses to the Royal Air Force.
However, on Sept. 7, 1940, the Germans changed their tactics and started bombing the British civilian population in London; then doing so in other English cities.
The attacks on civilians were horrific and began a tit-for-tat bombing of each other’s municipal areas.
Meanwhile, the reprieve from attacking airfields gave the RAF itself a break, thus allowing it to survive.
Winter approached; it became too late for a German across-the-channel incursion.
By attacking the civilian population, Hitler had made a fatal mistake, one which saved England, but it did so at terrible costs in the form of loss of civilian lives.
It's no coincidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been compared to Churchill. Churchill, at first, led his country as an underdog — standing up to Germany's military might.
Zelenskyy may be viewed in the same light also, by standing up to Russia; doing so with an appreciably smaller military force.
Germany was obviously led by an evil, authoritarian leader, one making military decisions based on both rage and ego; a deadly combination indeed.
The same is true of Russia today under Vladimir Putin.
Churchill had to motivate and inspire his country's population, and do so while standing strong against withering bombardments. The same is no less true for Zelenskyy.
The two Ukrainian military offensives in September of 2022, in Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the north, actually shocked and embarrassed the Russian military.
It wasn't long before Putin realized he could never take the offensive again.
By militarily partnering with the West, over the the summer of 2022, Ukraine had grown too strong. Russian offensive operations against precision-guided weapons and very accurate Ukrainian artillery fire were suicide missions, much like those in Bakhmut.
And so, commencing on Oct. 13, 2022, Putin took his rage out on the Ukrainian population, exactly as Hitler had done in September of 1940.
Thousands of cruise missiles were fired, and suicide drones were dispatched at civilian targets, as well as directed at targets such as power, infrastructure, and universities.
Children's hospitals and iconic symbols of Ukrainian culture weren't spared either.
These were not attempts at collateral damage; these sites were intentionally targeted by precision-guided weapons.
Rage.
An attempt to get Ukraine to negotiate, one which backfired.
Ukraine's and NATO’s resolve is stronger than ever.
Now, with improved air defense systems, training and experience — in Ukraine, most of the Russian and Iranian drones and the cruise missiles are being shot down, not reaching their intended targets.
Billions of dollars each week are being fired at Ukrainian cities and very few are now hitting their intended targets.
But now, just as in 1940, the Russian army does not have unlimited resources.
The Luftwaffe didn't either
By using limited resources against civilian targets, Russia has ignored what should have been their primary target: the Ukrainian military.
And the Ukrainian military has taken advantage of this, gaining incredible strength and skill. Russians on the front lines are now dying at an exponentially increasing rate.
Russians killed daily in action are now between 700-800.
The wounded are three times that amount.
In 10 months, the Russians have lost over 107,000 killed in action
Since Christmas, Russia has already lost more soldiers than the United States lost in 20 years — in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
As the Germans learned in World War II, and as Russia is learning now, attacking civilian populations only emboldens and unites the population being attacked.
Recent polls in Ukraine show 90% of the population would rather continue the war, at great Ukrainian sacrifice, until they win back all the territory lost in 2014 (Donbas and Crimea) than agree to negotiations for peace.
Atrocities, attacks against civilians, and war crimes motivate Ukraine to keep fighting on until an ultimate victory is achieved.
Because they, in reality, have no military value.
Attacking civilian targets will never win the war for Putin.
Vladimir Putin is losing on the battlefield. His army, if you can all it that, knows it.
Individual Russian soldiers are refusing to fight.
Some entire units are refusing to fight also.
Over half the army's junior officers, from the entire Russian army, have reportedly been killed or wounded. Russian leadership (from supposedly the best trained leaders) has proven inept. Many of them are dead.
As a command-and-control style army, it has lost most of its junior leaders who are trained in command and control. Russia has incurred 50,000 dead since Labor Day.
At this current rate they will lose another 50,000 dead by the spring of 2023.
It’s no wonder they are taking such heavy casualties.
They are a draftee army with poor leaders; many never trained to lead in this wartime environment. The recent Ukrainian HIMARS (multiple launch rocket system with a 50-mile range) attack on one building, killed over 400 Russians according to Ukraine.
Housing that large of a troop concentration, within easy range of the HIMARS system, co-located with an ammunition depot, shows a Russian army operating at the highest levels of incompetence.
And this is not the first mass casualty event the Russians have suffered.
Nor will it likely be the last.
Meanwhile a second mobilization is reportedly being planned in Russia.
The first mobilization went terribly.
Meanwhile, 300,000 draft age men scrambled to leave Russia, resulting in a massive brain drain. Protests were seen across Russia.
Much of Europe closed their borders and the draft dodgers went to other former Soviet satellites: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia.
Those countries are now saturated with Russian men, which is potentially destabilizing.
Those countries do not want to take in any more Russian draft-dodgers and are starting to tighten their immigration policies.
If the first mobilization went horribly, this next one will likely go much worse.
Dan Rice, special advisor to Ukraine commander in chief armed forces, and president Thayer Leadership at West Point.
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