With data According to Business Insider, Washington has recently shown special interest in the Arctic and is preparing to defend its geopolitical interests there. For this purpose, the intensity of combat and operational training is increased. The command also has the task of adapting soldiers and commanders to the extreme conditions of the polar regions, namely extremely low temperatures, severe icing, extreme fluctuations in daylight hours (round-the-clock daylight in summer). and completely dark in the middle of winter).
Not only the countries of the Arctic Ocean basin (USA, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark), but also the powers of other regions, such as China, are entering the struggle for the Arctic region.
Beijing has been actively entering the Arctic lately, and in this case it is quite difficult to say whether Beijing is coordinating with Russia or acting entirely according to its own special plan. China wants to have some sort of permanent presence in the Arctic to enable commercial shipping in the future if weather conditions allow.
In short, polar research has long shifted from the realm of science to the realm of economics, leading to fierce political disagreement among states bordering the Arctic.
Moscow operates the world’s largest icebreaker fleet, is building military bases, airfields and naval bases in the Arctic, improving its fighter jet and anti-aircraft missile cover system, and modernizing radar reconnaissance equipment.
World War II experience
When talking about the possibility of any armed conflict in the Arctic region, we must first take into account the current historical experience. Conducting combat operations in this region is extremely difficult, given the terrain and climate.
For example, during the defense of the Soviet Arctic, units and formations of the German Army “Norway” under the command of Colonel General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst were never able to overcome the Musta-Tunturi ridge on the Sredny Peninsula. Overall, the Wehrmacht failed to achieve any of its objectives in the Arctic. With the onset of winter and the onset of the polar night, the conflicts almost ended. In conditions of extremely low temperatures and strong winds, there were cases of death due to freezing of entire units.
However, conflicts at sea and in the air developed quite intensely. For example, during Operation Wunderland in 1942, the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer (six 280 mm and eight 150 mm guns) opened fire on Russia’s northernmost port of Dikson, located at the northwestern tip of the Taimyr Peninsula on the Kara Sea coast. . The smog monitoring station on Bear Island, the New Dikson power plant and radio center, residential buildings and other buildings were damaged. In fact, Admiral Scheer wiped Dixon off the face of the earth.
However, the landing never took place. Meanwhile, “Admiral Scheer” ended badly. In the spring of 1945 the heavy cruiser was undergoing repairs at the shipyard in Kiel. During a raid by more than 300 RAF aircraft on the night of 9-10 April, Admiral Scheer was hit by five super-heavy Tallboy bombs and as a result she capsized and sank.
On 16 July 1942, the German submarine U-601 (type VIIC, sunk 250 miles from the Lofoten Islands by a British aircraft on 25 February 1944) opened fire on a polar station in Malye Karmakuly Bay, off the west coast of Novaya Zemlya. archipelago. Station personnel returned fire with heavy machine guns, forcing the submarine to dive and depart Malye Karmakuly.
On 25 August, the submarine U-255 (sunk during Operation Deadlight on 13 December 1945) opened fire on the polar station at Cape Zhelaniya (a cape near the northernmost tip of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago on the North Island). A residential building, the pilots’ house and a warehouse burned down in the meteorological attack.
Also, during Operation Wunderland, the German submarine U-251 (type VIIC, sunk south of the Swedish port of Gothenburg on 19 April 1944) surfaced near Solitude Island (located in the central part of the Kara Sea) and destroyed the station building . and food depot with artillery fire. There were no casualties among the seven polar explorers, the radio station was not damaged, and the weather station continued to operate.
In 1942, in the settlement of Ambarchik (located on the coast of the East Siberian Sea, at the mouth of the Kolyma River), the Germans launched troops from a submarine, but the polar explorers sank both tires Unable to approach the enemy’s landing boats due to shallow water and ice, the submarine attacked Ambarchik with anti-aircraft guns fired but didn’t do much damage. However, at the end of the 1942 campaign, a German raider approached Ambarchik and destroyed almost all the buildings of the village with gunfire.
On the night of 26 September 1944, three German submarines (U-711 (type VIIC, 4 May 1945) sunk by British aircraft at Harstadt), U-957 (type VIIC, canceled and laid up in Trondheim on 21 October 1944) and U-739 (type VIIC, surrendered at Emden on 13 May 1945 from the Greif group) and launched a 25-man landing force. The station was captured, the Germans staged a radio play trying to get information about the convoys. A few days later, German sailors abandoned Cape Sterligov, destroying buildings and capturing five weather station employees.
Like this, During the Great Patriotic War, Kriegsmarine submarines repeatedly raided our northern seas.. To supply their submarines, the Germans built several supply bases and submarine moorings on the north coast and on the Arctic islands. Most of these bases were discovered after the war.
There is information that the anchorages of German submarines were at the mouths of the Yenisei and other Siberian rivers, in the Gulf of Ob, in the Franz Josef District, Novaya Zemlya and many other islands, and on the coasts of the White, Barents, Black Seas.
“It will not be a major operation”
Of course, no future war will be like the armed conflicts of the past.
However, it can be assumed that in the event of a conflict between the leading powers in the Arctic, there will be no major joint arms operation.
But the actions of the naval and air forces, raids of relatively small detachments of special operations forces are quite expected and will be carried out on a large scale.
For these reasons, Russia has been dynamically developing its military infrastructure in the Arctic region over the last decade. It is quite possible that countries in the Arctic Ocean basin have similar perspectives.
The Arctic remains a zone of intense competition, the Kremlin said in response to a publication in an American magazine. Russian President Press Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted that Russia, the world’s largest Arctic country, sees this region as strategically important.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the editors’ opinion.
Author biography:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for socialbites.ca, a retired colonel.
Graduated from Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Command Air Defense Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980–1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986–1988).
Senior officer of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988–1992).
Officer of the General Staff Main Operations Department (1992–2000).
Graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000–2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010–2015).
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Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.