Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
The Russians have long understood that their topography and climate are key to their defence, and they have used it, quite deliberately, to great advantage.
Napoleon, unlike Hitler, got all the way to Moscow, but the nation’s leadership evacuated the city and burned it down, then waited for the French to get too cold and hungry to stay any longer. In the event Napoleon waited too long for a Russian delegation to come and face him. By the time he and his army tried to retreat, they were hungry, demoralised and the weather was turning against them.
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Absolutely! Russia has very narrow windows of vulnerability due to weather. They even have a word for for the 'off seasons' of Spring and Autumn, where the mud makes mechanised travel very difficult off paved roads-
Rasputitsa. Russian armament is often designed with this in mind. Their main battle tank, the T90 is some 15 tonnes lighter than its' US equivalent, the M1 for example.
Interestingly, this winter has been very mild in Ukraine which has forced the Russian advance to use roads rather than steaming across frozen ground. This has very much worked to the advantage of the Ukrainians.