war of logistics services

The war in Ukraine has not only been a confrontation between two armies with unequal conditions in terms of the number of troops and war material; This is a war where ingenuity, technology, logistical and supply skills have been the true protagonists. Any land army, to fulfill the functions imposed by combat, has human and material resources structured in groups that, according to their preponderance in teams, are organized into "Arms", which are usually called Infantry, Cavalry (without horses, with armored vehicles) Artillery, Engineers (to build and destroy) and Communications. These weapons and the men who operate them could not function more than a few days without the continuous and constant support of the services of the same army.

Depending on the culture and the place, the support services are generally called Arsenals, Intendance, Constructions, Transportation, Religious, Legal, Postal, Band (musicians), Health and Finance. The names sufficiently explain the functions and activities carried out by each of these groups to help achieve the objective set for the main body or Weapons already mentioned, this means that on the shoulders of the men and women that make up these working groups; that the troops in the field be supplied with everything necessary to keep them comfortable, healthy and fed; also that after each confrontation their wounds will be treated as well as their bodies and spirits restored (hot food and a dry bed to rest and affective comfort) and above all confident that they are part of a battle force that takes care of their human resources, the manages them well and doesn't treat them like disposable tokens.

Together all these groups of Services are called Army Logistics, also called with contempt as “phlogistics” alluding to the absence of its members in direct combat operations and their ability to sleep regularly in a bed. That has to end, because this war has shown that logistics is key to the development of an effective war campaign. It is no longer enough to have numerical superiority or team superiority, both have basic needs to continue functioning and someone must supply them. It is not a matter of giving a backpack with two sardine cans and 100 ammunition to each soldier to win a war or conquer an empire. That has never happened nor will it happen. The soldier and the army of which they are a part must be fed and supplied with ammunition daily and in constant flow. That will be a success factor in war campaigns that last more than two days.

There is a film set at the end of the Second World War, in Europe, where a German army officer who checks the contents of the postal truck recently captured from the enemy, sees with astonishment that among the packages addressed to the American soldiers by their relatives one of them contains a cake; while eating and distributing among his troops the precious food that is eaten with avidity, he reflects and affirms that they are going to lose the war, not because the cake had magical powers, it was because, if the logistics of his enemies were so powerful as to make it possible for a boy to receive his birthday cake, transporting ammunition, gasoline and supplying war items to the army on the move was just routine. That cake was used to demonstrate that the supply chain not only sends what is necessary for food and combat to the war front, it also transports the necessary items to keep the morale of the troops high, remember what they are fighting for and that, positive motivation to goal achievement is more important than bullets.

A very important aspect regarding logistics is that it becomes the only element that prevents the troops from becoming miserable thieves, scavengers, invading rats, because if they don't have to eat they start to steal and whoever steals stops being a soldier, they become soldiers. they become a uniformed thief, a miserable bandit. One cannot even call these individuals mercenary, capable of robbing families of their survival food, they are something worse, they are sad scum of the earth that only responds to the orders given by their stomachs and guts.