This was exactly the incident I thought of when you mentioned the Spanish American War in regard to the Chinese anchor dragging event. My sometimes fallible memory is that the Brits had a similar op against the Germans on the Belgian coast in WWI. Do I have that right?
Saying it again, the SmartestPeopleInTheRoom never seem to remember that the enemy always gets a vote. Wouldn't it be really great if we had a dedicated Red Team in DoD whose sole task was to identify all of the assymetric/hybrid means by which we could be screwed? My recommendation would be a group of O5s and junior O6s from across all of our service branches (to include our USCG brethren and sisters) who would make regular direct reports to JCS, the service secretaries, and SecDef.
Putting a few E7-E9 from our various "special" communities on that commission could be a good idea as well. We must have several hundred years of experience from the dirty-tricks departments available for some thought experiments.
The text seems to indicate receiving fire from both 150 feet and pistol range. It also indicates Mausers with smokeless powder, IMHO likely the Model 1893 which had a 7mm bore and bolt action with a fixed 5 round mag. Our M1903 of USMC fame was a copy.
Given those facts, the fire might have been deadly. Apparently the Spanish weren't great shots.
In George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" he attributes his continued existence to several instances of less-than-effective fire on the part of both Spanish allies and enemies.
Apparently Wellington's Anglo-Porto Army had 6 later 12 Bns of Caçadores. The Portuguese version of the 95th Rifles. He was quite happy with their shooting
"I had no further orders as regards the fitting out of the expedition, the details being left entirely to my own judgment."
Imagine that! Today, every aspect of this operation would be planned at the unified commander level, briefed in the White House situation room, and...it would probably fail.
Like the old "Cheerios" reboot of a few years back..."Taste them again for the first time". Back then is was degrading comms, then became C2, C4I, suspect "inducing AI schizophrenia" in the near future if not already a "thing". Trying to degrade the adversary's command and control is a Sun Tzu axiom of war...the "what" you're trying to do". Perhaps something like a "Red Team" at the OSD level would help us anticipate someone doing things like this to us? Just spitballn' here...
"My own individual orders were very brief. I was simply to cut the cables as directed above, and under no circumstances to land. The orders were quite sufficient, and I was glad to escape being hampered by more explicit instructions."
Simplicity. Something under appreciated by those who insist it necessary to pen a dozen page Rules of Engagement document.
Great FBF choice. Iron men in little ships. We hopefully still have some sailors left with that mettle- probably keeping their head down and waiting for sanity to return.
The physical attacks on cables will not be the only thing. You'll end up with zero-days to BGP that takes down the internet for days, followed by zero-days to DNS that takes down the internet for days, followed by DDOS attacks that take down DNS and/or BGP and the internet for days. And mysterious explosions and/or devastating fires at the NAPs and possible ViaSats operation center, Starlinks operation center, etc.
This was exactly the incident I thought of when you mentioned the Spanish American War in regard to the Chinese anchor dragging event. My sometimes fallible memory is that the Brits had a similar op against the Germans on the Belgian coast in WWI. Do I have that right?
Saying it again, the SmartestPeopleInTheRoom never seem to remember that the enemy always gets a vote. Wouldn't it be really great if we had a dedicated Red Team in DoD whose sole task was to identify all of the assymetric/hybrid means by which we could be screwed? My recommendation would be a group of O5s and junior O6s from across all of our service branches (to include our USCG brethren and sisters) who would make regular direct reports to JCS, the service secretaries, and SecDef.
Putting a few E7-E9 from our various "special" communities on that commission could be a good idea as well. We must have several hundred years of experience from the dirty-tricks departments available for some thought experiments.
seem to recall that all of this cable cutting routine was accomplished......under fire from shore. Full Bore.
The text seems to indicate receiving fire from both 150 feet and pistol range. It also indicates Mausers with smokeless powder, IMHO likely the Model 1893 which had a 7mm bore and bolt action with a fixed 5 round mag. Our M1903 of USMC fame was a copy.
Given those facts, the fire might have been deadly. Apparently the Spanish weren't great shots.
In George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" he attributes his continued existence to several instances of less-than-effective fire on the part of both Spanish allies and enemies.
Apparently Wellington's Anglo-Porto Army had 6 later 12 Bns of Caçadores. The Portuguese version of the 95th Rifles. He was quite happy with their shooting
One of the first things the British did at the outbreak of WWI was to cut the German cables. See my post Comm Check:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/64898.html
"I had no further orders as regards the fitting out of the expedition, the details being left entirely to my own judgment."
Imagine that! Today, every aspect of this operation would be planned at the unified commander level, briefed in the White House situation room, and...it would probably fail.
Like the old "Cheerios" reboot of a few years back..."Taste them again for the first time". Back then is was degrading comms, then became C2, C4I, suspect "inducing AI schizophrenia" in the near future if not already a "thing". Trying to degrade the adversary's command and control is a Sun Tzu axiom of war...the "what" you're trying to do". Perhaps something like a "Red Team" at the OSD level would help us anticipate someone doing things like this to us? Just spitballn' here...
"My own individual orders were very brief. I was simply to cut the cables as directed above, and under no circumstances to land. The orders were quite sufficient, and I was glad to escape being hampered by more explicit instructions."
Simplicity. Something under appreciated by those who insist it necessary to pen a dozen page Rules of Engagement document.
"Mission Orders"
Great FBF choice. Iron men in little ships. We hopefully still have some sailors left with that mettle- probably keeping their head down and waiting for sanity to return.
A much simpler and low risk mission today when you can merely drag an anchor for 100 miles and then feign ignorance.
Nasty Idea: During peacetime, use covert platforms and systems to equip enemy cables for instant destruction.
It's like my own nightmare...a merchantman steaming out of Hampton Roads, laying a minefield en route.
The physical attacks on cables will not be the only thing. You'll end up with zero-days to BGP that takes down the internet for days, followed by zero-days to DNS that takes down the internet for days, followed by DDOS attacks that take down DNS and/or BGP and the internet for days. And mysterious explosions and/or devastating fires at the NAPs and possible ViaSats operation center, Starlinks operation center, etc.