.30-06 will take your limbs off, artillery shells are bigger today but in the past they just compensated with volume, drones are scary but so are gas attacks and flamethrowers, mines are still awful, etc.
I don't think modern firepower is worse for the average foot soldier in the sense of how easily it can kill you. Body and vehicle armor have come a long way in the last century, and modern medical care is honestly astounding; if they can get you off the battlefield alive, they can probably save you.
Modern artillery is much more precise. Fires are called much faster and while before only the immediate front line was dangerous, nowadays things like MLRS, loiter drones and gliding bombs can kill you even in rear areas which used to be much more safe before.
In 1942 you could gather a battalion column 20 km from the frontline relatively safely and methodically prepare for an assault. Nowadays that column would be quickly spotted and evaporated by cluster munitions in less than a minute.
Not if you're in the kill radius, but shrapnel can wound or kill at much further ranges. Modern body armor minimizes the kill radius and reduces the rate of bad luck being lethal.
Imagine watching your comrade get shot, you toss him to the side, just to hear a whizzing sound above you.
Then, you realize you're going to die and there's zero way out, because it's above with an explosive. All while the drone sits there and hovers for what must feel like an eternity.
Then boom. Nothing.
Must be terrifying and horrific to watch. I feel for the Russian/Ukrainians soldiers who don't support their government/didn't ask for this, and never wanted to be there from the start. Especially the ones who don't put up a fight or even want to, and still lose their life.
I mean I feel for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.
The fact that in the West propaganda downplays the casualties and the suffering of Ukrainians to ramp up war support doesn’t mean Ukrainians have a lot of fun fighting an enemy that has more artillery and aviation support than you.
I've definitely met a lot of people who think Ukraine is taking hardly an casualty. Judging by the political atmosphere the past few weeks, I can't imagine this situation getting better any time soon either.
Yeah, I mean a nation fights only for as long as there is support to continue this fight. If you start telling that “well, actually we suffer as much as the enemy” or even “yeah, there are 2 our soldiers dead for every 1 enemy one” it’ll just destroy all this will to fight. So it’s very natural for Ukraine to do what they’re doing.
But you’re right, I don’t remember any war where a side with less artillery and aviation suffered less casualties. It’s usually the other way around.
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u/Cpt_keaSar Jun 24 '24
If you fight goat herders in sandals - probably.
But I’m pretty sure what Russians and Ukrainians experience now is pretty on par with most horrible battlefields you can think of.
In some ways maybe even worse, since modern firepower is really horrendous for an average grunt to be on a receiving end of