Russia's Five-Day War, Elite 250, Osprey

RUSSIA'S FIVE-DAY WAR - The invasion of Georgia, August 2008

A fascinating account of Russia's Five-Day War against Georgia in 2008, notable for its strategic mistakes which prompted President Putin to undertake major military reforms.

After Georgia's independence from Russia in 1991, President Saakashvili invited NATO advisers to assist in military reforms. Separatist groups in Georgia's border provinces rebelled which led to fighting in South Ossetia during August 2008. The Russian Army invaded Georgia alongside these forces, stripped it of these rebellious provinces, and garrisoned them to maintain a threat over Georgia. But despite the inevitable outcome of this hugely unbalanced conflict, it revealed serious Russian military weaknesses and incompetence, and the NATO-trained and partly Western-equipped Georgian Army put up a much more successful local resistance than Russia had expected. The conflict also demonstrated the first use of Russian cyber-warfare, and its so-called 'hybrid warfare' doctrine.

Author Mark Galeotti is an expert in the field of international relations and a former Foreign Office adviser on Russian security affairs. In this book, he provides a vivid snapshot of the Russian, Georgian, Abkhazian and South Ossetian forces and gives an in-depth analysis of the conflict. Using meticulous color artwork for uniforms, insignia and equipment, rare photographs and detailed 'fact-boxes' for significant units and individuals, this book is a compelling guide to Russia's Five-Day War in Georgia.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION

- Background - Medvedev's War?

REFORMING THE GEORGIAN ARMY

- Expenditure - Contingents for multi-national forces and Western training - Rearmament

- Contradictory doctrine - Additional armed personnel - Organization of infantry brigades

- Georgian Army order of battle, August 2008

RUSSIAN & ALLIED FORCES

- Forces in readiness and in place - South Ossetian forces - Abkhazian forces

THE STRATEGY OF TENSION

THE WAR: DAY ONE, AUGUST 8

- The Georgian plan - Major-General Zaza Gogava - Initial bombardment - Confusion in Moscow

- The advance on Tskhinvali - Street fighting - The turning-point - The Russian ground advance

DAY TWO, AUGUST 9

- Moscow strikes back

DAYS THREE TO FIVE, AUGUST 10-12

- The South Ossetian front - Russian order of battle - Continuing Russian advance

- Georgian failures of command - Ceasefire

- The Abkhaz front - Russian order of battle - The Kodori Gorge

THE WAR IN THE AIR

- The combatants - Operations and losses

THE WAR AT SEA

- The naval combatants - Operations and losses

ANALYSIS

- Summary - Georgia - Russia

AFTERMATH

- Russian gains - Georgians in Afghanistan

FURTHER READING

INDEX

Tags: GEORGIA