The war in Ukraine is a reminder that there is nothing new under the sun ( Ecc. 1:9). This is because warfare in the region of Ukraine has been nearly constant for centuries.
Few people know, for example, that the Mongols under Genghis Khan conquered the Kievan Rus (now Ukraine) in the 13th Century and seriously threatened Muscovy (Russia) to the point that Muscovy was a client state of the Golden Horde. The Golden Horde (sometimes called Tartars) was an off shoot of the Mongol armies that eventually established a huge empire ranging from China and Korea in the east, to the plains of Hungary in the West. The below map shows the Mongol Empire after it splintered into four individual Khanates.
Alexander Nevsky is a famous Russian\Ukrainian hero who fended off Swedish and Teutonic invaders but also paid tribute to the Golden Horde. That made Muscovy a client state of the Golden Horde for a long time.
This does not mean that the Russians and Ukrainians are one and the same people, but to show that for centuries these Slavic peoples had much in common and were no strangers to warring against foreign invaders and among themselves.
All that to say, knowing a little about Russian\Ukrainian history does help to put the current conflict into a bit of a historical perspective.
The Golden Horde background was the setting for our latest wargame. My friend (JZ) and I have an interest in the history of what we portray in a game; although the game is for fun and in no way glorifies the actual horrors of war. For us, painting and researching the model soldiers, building a terrain board, playing a game with easy to follow rules is a past-time that involves far more than an electronic wargame or PC simulation.
Our latest game involved my Muscovite\Kievan (Ukrainian-take your pick, medieval army versus an early Golden Horde army that consisted primarily of Mongol allies or subject peoples that included Koreans and Chinese. The game was remarkably colorful.
The armies of the time (post the original Mongol Invasion under Genghis) mostly consisted of cavalry of various types. For both sides, heavy cavalry were common, as well as horse archers, although the Mongols favored light horse archers more so than the Russians. Infantry were often present in the battles but took a secondary role. The Russians who were usually defending were more apt to field infantry drawn from their city militias.
As an added twist that says something about the politics of the time, you could find Russians on the Mongol side and Mongols on the Russian side, as each pursued their own interests at the expense of any kind of national unity, since little of that really existed. Loyalty had more to do with the local warlord than it did with princes, kings or khans. A rare leader could unify contingents in a loose alliance but once that battle was over it would be back to petty squabbling among themselves.
Our game was a bit of a hodgepodge in that regard as Russian units were present on both sides; although my force was exclusively Russian.
The general idea of the game was the Russians were constructing a watch post on a small fort with a watch tower in order to protect the the village that was part of a larger Russian city, not too far distant from the village. The garrison of city militia has managed to construct some light fortifications but have yet to erect the watch tower, although their scouts have been active patrolling the fluid border.
A Mongol led army consisting mostly of allied or coerced troops have been spotted. Their intent is to knock down the outpost and pillage the near-by village for loot and slaves. The Russians send for reinforcements that consist of the mustered levy of cavalry led by the local Dvor (nobles). The pictures below will tell some of the story. The rules we use are Lion Rampant (Osprey Publications) by Dan Mersey.
The Russian City Militia in the fort managed to hold out against the horse archers that nearly surrounded them. They finally broke having taken 2\3 casualties. The Russian right two units of Dvor and one of lesser Boyar) drove back the Russians on the Mongol left and nearly managed a breakthrough only to lose their leader causing an army morale check. Four of six units lost morale had to fall back and although rallied the pause was fatal. By then the fort at fallen and the center of the Russian line breached. The remaining Russian City Militia would be helpless from the horse archers. The Russian commander (me) who took over after the real leader was killed. I ordered the Dvor and remaining cavalry to abandon the infantry and village and retire to the walls of the city. It was a harsh decision but it was better than Dvor being captured and tortured by the Mongols and their allies!
The figures used in the game were 1\72 plastic. The manufacturer’s were Strelets, a Ukrainian company, Zvezda, a Russian company, Red Box (Ukrainian) and a few Italeri (Italy based but absorbing smaller companies of various origins).
History and Hobbies 
Billy Mitchell was Right (and still is).
I grew up in West Allis Wisconsin-a suburb of Milwaukee.
There was parkway and a well-to-do neighborhood (well-to-do in those days) near my school. Sometimes, rather than go right home after school, my friends and I would walk over to the parkway and imagine “playing army” or otherwise adventure around-all the things young boys would do in the early to mid 1960’s.
To get to the parkway we would travel through the well-to-do neighborhood and it was there that I first learned of General Billy Mitchell.
Mitchell was born in France, the son of John Mitchell, a US Senator from Wisconsin. John Mitchell was a lieutenant in the 24th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. He served alongside another resident of Wisconsin-Arthur MacArthur, the father of General Douglas MacArthur of World War Two and Korea fame.
John Mitchell owned an estate in Wisconsin, in the neighborhood we kids traveled through to get to the parkway. By the 1960’s it was not an estate and I think the only thing that was left was the mansion in the middle of the well-to-do neighborhood.
If memory serves me, there is plaque to Mitchell (at least there was) at the intersection of two roads in what was probably the midst of John Mitchell’s estate. Wisconsin clearly wanted to recognize Mitchell for his accomplishments. If you are familiar with Milwaukee you will recognize that the airport is named after Mitchell as well as least one park.
There is an excellent article about Mitchell on Wikipedia. The article will detail Mitchell’s remarkable record and the huge controversy that got Mitchell court-martialed.
Mitchell was an outspoken critic of the “Battleship clique” in the US Navy. During World War One, the battleship was still queen of the seas, whereas air power was in its infancy. As early as 1924 Mitchell began to argue that Japan could attack Hawaii with land based bomber aircraft. That was thought to be ridiculous given the distance, but also because air craft carriers were just being experimented with in 1924. Although some, like Mitchell, recognized the potential, few among the generals and admirals did.
Eventually, Mitchell went beyond being merely out spoken and became increasingly insubordinate-similar to an Old Testament prophet no one listens to. Mitchell was courtmartialed which at the time did not necessarily mean discharged. Mitchell did resign however and dedicated the rest of his life advocating for air power.
It’s interesting to note that later military tribunals said Mitchell’s views were vindicated but it did not matter since he violated the military code. This reminds me a little of Marine Lt. Colonel Stuart Scheller who resigned after publicly criticizing Biden’s unconscionable, bumbling withdrawal from Afghanistan which cost the lives of thirteen American service men and women. You have to wonder how many high ranking officers in the US Military agreed with Scheller but kept their mouths shut?
Mitchell died in 1936 and almost immediately his posthumous rehab began. Two battles in the early stages of WW2 vindicated Mitchell beyond the shadow of a doubt.
The first occurred in 1940 in the Mediterraen when British bi-plane torpedoe bombers flew from the HMS Illustrious (aircraft carrier) and torpedoed the Italian Fleet in Taranto Harbor. The British planes (obsolete Fairey Fulmars) did considerable damage to two Italian Battleships thus taking them out of the war for a considerable amount of time. If you see some similarities to Pearl Harbor you would be spot on.
At that point many realized that the days of the battleship were numbered because the Battle of Taranto did not involve any ship-to-ship action as all the damage was done by obsolete torpedo bombers.
The second “proof” occurred in early 1942 during the Fall of Singapore, which at the time was a British Colony and major base in the Pacific.
Following Pearl Harbor in late 1941 the Japanese invaded the Philippines as well as British possessions in the Pacific. The Battle for Singapore proved to be a disaster for the British as they were ill prepared like we were at Pearl Harbor.
The battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse (and four destroyers) were on station near Singapore. All were sunk by Japanese land based bombers, the British having little air power in Singapore to counter the bombers. What did they have were second rate fighters easily out classed by the Japanese Zero.
The sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse was the final nail in the coffin of the battleship. Aircraft Carriers would become queen of the seas and land based bombers with long ranges would eventually devastate Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany.
Billy Mitchell would be promoted posthumously to Brigadier General for being right. Today, outside of Billy Mitchell Airport there is a B-25 Mitchell Bomber.
So, Billy Mitchell was right but he continues to be right.
I was never a particular fan of Donald Trump but I did recognize the soundness of some of his policies. Compare Trump to the current occupant of the White House and Trump looks like a genius.
Trump sought to establish Space Force probably a take off on President’s Reagan “Star Wars” initiative in the 1980’s that was so widely mocked. Space Force was established in 2019 and became the eighth uniformed service of the United States. I think Billy Mitchell would be at the forefront recognizing the potential.
(Footnote: The biggest threat to our national security is not Putin’s Russia although he is ambitious. The biggest threat to the United States is the CCP-Communist China. The CCP will eclipse the US economy and their technology is not far behind, if at all. Their plans are world domination. Any honest analyst gets that. Someone once said that generals and admirals tend to fight the last war during the current war. What that usually means is the military is slow to plan for the next war. Billy Mitchell was a prophet as he planned for the next war. I hope we learned something, but at present, I doubt it.)