One view: The Ukrainians exploited a known weakness in Moskva's combat systems suite.
Another view: The ship may have indeed caught fire and sank because massive corruption during overhaul and maintenance without any help from the Ukrainians. This information may be from Russian sources, so it could be suspect.
The truth may be a melange of both views: The Ukrainians did hit the ship and that corruption in the Russian navy ensured that the ship was unprepared to defend itself and cobat the damage.
I once served under a commanding officer who insisted that the last line of defense against a missile was damage control. To say that he harped on being ready in all aspects of damage control would be an understatement.
The other question is whether Putin is using Russia's abysmal performance in the war to remove senior officers. The Russian way has been to arrest (and presumably shoot) senior officers pour encourager les autres. On the other hand, such a system almost guarantees paralysis, as all but the most minor decisions tend to be passed up the chair of command.
A Slap On The Face Gets You A Slap On The Wrist
32 minutes ago
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Autocracies aren't good at damage control in their Navies.
Destruction of the Russian Pacific fleet
Japanese 11-inch howitzer firing; shell visible in flight
Pallada under fire as the Oil Depot burns
Pallada and Pobeda
With a spotter on a phone line at the vantage point on 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur harbor, Nogi could now bombard the Russian fleet by heavy 11-inch (280 mm) Howitzers with 500-pound (~220 kg) armor-piercing shells. He started systematically sinking the Russian ships within range.
On December 5, 1904, the battleship Poltava was sunk, followed by the battleship Retvizan on December 7, 1904, and the battleships Pobeda and Peresvet and the cruisers Pallada and Bayan on December 9, 1904. The battleship Sevastopol, although hit 5 times by the howitzer shells, managed to move out of range of the guns. Stung by the fact that the Russian Pacific Fleet had been sunk by the army and not by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and with a direct order from Tokyo that the Sevastopol was not to be allowed to escape, Admiral Togo sent in wave after wave of destroyers in six separate attacks on the sole remaining Russian battleship. After 3 weeks, the Sevastopol was still afloat, having survived 124 torpedoes fired at her while sinking two Japanese destroyers and damaging six other vessels. The Japanese had meanwhile lost the cruiser Takasago to a mine outside the harbor.
On the night of January 2, 1905, after Port Arthur surrendered, Captain Nikolai Essen of the Sevastopol had the crippled battleship scuttled in 30 fathoms (55 m) of water by opening the sea cocks on one side, so that the ship would sink on its side and could not be raised and salvaged by the Japanese. The other six ships were eventually raised and recommissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Port_Arthur
The problem with a kleptocracy are many. No percentage in doing real work (you won't get the credit or paid) or creating anything (it will be stolen). Everyone is busy figuring out their scams or trying to survive when everyone and everything is a con. After a while, all endeavor becomes a Potemkin fraud, glitzy surface or fancy numbers, but nothing inside of substance or worth.
Now if this just didn't characterize so much of what happens here as well...
The new Bofors gun?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2022/04/21/the-dutch-are-sending-huge-german-armored-howitzers-to-ukraine/?sh=382385f49380
I made loose reference to Port Arthur several years ago when a handful of cops in Texas bunched up on a street-corner and a crazed vet shot the shit out of them. Methodical comes to mind, as does Pearl Harbor. No doubt some Chinese guy wrote about not harboring your forces in box-canyons. That and taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.
We should probably be grateful the Japanese have reconsidered their war-like ways ...
FYI, there may have been a huge change in Russian fortunes with a recent chemical plant fire. Series of tweets by Spoonamore explains:
https://twitter.com/Spoonamore?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1517510440598843394%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pieandbovril.com%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fspoonamore%2Fstatus%2F1517510440598843394%3Fs%3D2126t%3DKrReV8lkbtKqeuafoxpcEw
CP88, thanks for that. I have a post up with that information.
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