The real war is much worse than our understanding of it. Advice from experienced people on how to act and how to live if a war breaks out. A real war.
I certainly hope sincerely and from the bottom of my heart that we will never have to survive the war. But, given how turbulent times are everywhere, and war is by no means an exceptional phenomenon in the history of mankind, but on the contrary - wars have been going on all the time, as long as there is historical memory, they are going on now, perhaps it makes sense to think about the worst risks for a while.
In this material, I have collected advice from experienced people found on the Internet on how to act if a war breaks out. A real war.
There is a common myth that these days the war can be watched live. In fact, where the carnage begins, there is never television. There was no television in Grozny in either of the two wars, in Sarajevo, in Srebrenica, in Kosovo, there was no television, and in Syrian Aleppo there was none either. Where it is truly bloody and dirty, television comes when everything is over to film mass graves or show from a safe distance how something burns and explodes. The real war is much worse than our (those who were not in the war) ideas about it.
So, how to behave if a war has started and you are in the city.
As always in life, there are different options. Today we will not consider the option that provides that you have decided to join the armed forces and participate in hostilities. Today, only about civilians.
The main advice in the event of a war is to get out of the city as soon as possible.
Already on the first day of hostilities in the city, most likely, there will be no electricity, no water, no gas, no heat, no mobile phone network, no wi-fi, nothing that supports city life. All these things, of course, will not disappear at the same time, but in any case it will happen rather quickly.
The problem of survival begins immediately. How many days will there be enough food in your home? That's right, a few. Shops and gas stations will stop working on the first day, and they will be looted around the same time.
Those who will have what to eat, what to drink, change for what is lacking, or, for example, for the right to pass through the checkpoint, will survive. If you go to the store, it is better to take your friends with you. Firstly, you can carry more products, and secondly, there is a hope that the loot will not be taken away from you on the way back. In the first days of the war, society still by inertia retains some signs of culture, and banditry, looting, and the permissiveness of degenerates are not yet so widespread, but everything is rapidly moving towards that, and therefore you need weapons.
One thing to understand. There is no such thing as private property in a war zone. No one is interested in what was recorded in the Land Register or registered in the register of enterprises before the war. Now everything has been canceled because of the war. You only own what you can protect.
If armed uncles enter your apartment and say that they will now have a machine gunner's nest or a sniper position here, do not argue.
Just get out of there, even if you are not required to. You don't want to be around when this machine gunner is "covered" by the enemy. Don't tell your uncles that this is private property or anything like that. Uncles are nervous, because they are being shot at, they have weapons, they are full of adrenaline and courage, do not quarrel with them.
The good news is that no one else also has private property, except those who have weapons and who can defend their own with weapons in hand. In other words, if the owner does not have a weapon, this is not his car, if the owner does not have a weapon, it is not his food supplies, and so on. A man with a weapon is always right. Never quarrel with a person who has a weapon. The cost of living in a war zone is getting very cheap. Remember this. Anyone can kill you, and he will get nothing for it. No one will ever look for a killer.
Therefore, you need a weapon, otherwise you will soon have no food, no drink, no wedding ring, no warm clothes, nothing that can help you survive.
Classically, weapons are obtained by robbing a police station. Usually, a black market immediately appears, soldiers earn money by selling something from army stocks, someone sells something from weapons legally obtained in peacetime. Remember you also need ammo.
If there is an opportunity to exchange your mom's jewelry for Kalashnikov, do it.
Best of all, if you manage to get some kind of pistol at the same time. If you run into a patrol, the Kalashnikov must be handed over right away, but you can hope that after you hand over the machine gun, they will no longer search you, and the pistol will remain with you.
If you are forward-thinking, you already have an arsenal legally obtained in peacetime. In wartime, this will immediately become a gold mine. I have friends who have an arsenal at home with which you can fight for a year and a half.
It is very important to decide where and how you go. Perhaps you still need to stay where you are.
Those with a battery-operated radio at home are in a much better situation than others. Some stations will definitely work, and some information about what is happening can be obtained.
You need to assess the geographic and strategic importance of your location. How important from the point of view of city control can be your street, your yard, your house, in which direction the fights will go, whether someone will control this area, whether there will be resistance here, what kind of character, and so on.
If there is a mortar position nearby, run away immediately, the enemy will definitely destroy it. And he will not shoot from a machine gun. If a sniper landed on the roof of your house, run from there. In Grozny, tanks worked in such houses. Nobody wants to hunt for a sniper. It is easier to demolish the two upper floors in such a house.
Understand that you do not want to be where the tanks will go and where the tank's barrel will be directed. The power of a tank shot is incredible. Only one fragments from a tank hitting a building inflict mortal wounds within a radius of a hundred meters or more to everyone who did not find shelter. In some conflicts, in order to stop the tanks, the city used powerful high-explosive charges to destroy houses in the path of the tanks and thus stop them, drive them to a dead end. Once again, you want to be very far from the tanks and those trying to stop them.
Remember, there is water in the toilet cistern that can survive for a week or longer.
Do not rinse it off under any circumstances. It is no different in quality from tap water, however, the water no longer flows from the tap, and the shops no longer work and are robbed. This water reserve is of great importance.
It is difficult to survive in the city. The areas of apartment buildings generally become a trap, among other things, the sewage system that does not work, waste, corpses in the summer increase the risk of various diseases, and in the winter, in turn, it is impossible to warm the apartments. It is very difficult to prepare warm food. The water brought from the Daugava or Mary's pond needs to be boiled, it cannot be drunk just like that in such conditions. If you manage to get kerosene from the army, you can make an improvised tile, you can burn furniture, but sooner or later it is better to leave.
If you hit the road, you need to understand the army mindset.
The most important thing that everyone confirms is to look civil. If for some reason you put on camouflage, dress like Rambo and go outside, enjoy this moment, because, in fact, you are already dead. You won't even know whether the sniper or the soldiers of which side will take you out. In war, the one who looks like a soldier is a soldier, and one who looks like a civilian is probably a soldier too.
You need to look as harmless as possible. Best of all, homeless people, with children in their hands and a white flag in a conspicuous place.
Hide the assault rifle under your jacket, if you got a Kalashnikov with a folding stock - ideally, if not, hide it anyway.
On the one hand, civilian soldiers are not interested. In Chechnya, even despite the intense fighting, those who did not suspect that they were soldiers in disguise - old men, women with children, etc., could almost calmly move around the city. Soldiers do not want to "shine" their position unnecessarily or waste ammunition to shoot a civilian who is simply fleeing the city. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, in the case of ethnic, religious conflicts, this is not always the case. This was not the case in Yugoslavia. In any case, if you run into a machine gunner's nest, which is still being made and dug in, a group of saboteurs, they may decide that you are a risk, or an enemy spy disguised as a civilian, and therefore begin to "work" for you.
Therefore, if you see a soldier in the yard or in an empty house, do not approach in any case. Even if they look friendly, even if they smile and invite you in, leave. It is very likely that they want to call you only in order to quietly silence you. This is a war, everyone is nervous, many are paranoid, many with a pathological propensity for violence, which they finally unleashed, in many conflicts experienced units tried to "work out" civilians who could open their position. Remember that once the war has started, the Geneva Convention is not a set of laws, but only a description of the desired behavior. During the war, all kinds of degenerates, moral monsters and psychopaths suddenly surface on the crest of the war and finally begin to live at their own discretion. You don't want to meet them and get in touch with them in any way, not even eye contact.
Do not go near hospitals, where all sides are taking their wounded, and the shooting can start at any moment, some side will want to seize this strategic object only for themselves, and the losers will decide that if not me, then no one, and call artillery or aviation. Avoid former government agencies, any important infrastructure facilities - stations, communication centers, television centers, etc. Don't go anywhere at night. The night is ruled by an army, bandits and marauders.
Army units in the city very often have a poor understanding of what is happening and where the enemy is now.
Almost always, at some point, their own people shoot at their own people, and everyone always shoots at unwary civilians.
Remember, while you are in the city, there is a chance to steal fuel.
Gas stations are not working. Fuel cannot be obtained otherwise than from the army, but you do not want to contact the army, and they do not seek to help you, but in the countryside there will not even be where to steal.
Go on the road in the daytime (many advise you to go at dawn, when the night posts are already tired, and the morning ones have not yet woken up, slowly and calmly, as civilians do. By your behavior, let everyone clearly understand that you are civilians who want Take your time. The principle of creating a route is simple. The fewer patrols, the fewer checkpoints, the fewer contacts, the better. It is clear that central streets, central intersections, bridges are better controlled, as they have strategic importance. Use what you know the city.
If you need to spend the night in the city because there is no longer your home, or you are stuck on the road, it is better to stay in the open air somewhere on the side of the road than to enter empty buildings in which there were battles or there was an army. Here each door can be equipped with a grenade.
In such places, do not open the refrigerator, do not lift the toilet lid, and if a kitten meows in the closet or behind a door, do not save him, this is a classic trap.
The streets are often safer. In the capture of cities, nothing else has been invented except for two eternal strategies. The first is to first demolish half the city with artillery and aircraft, and then the direct seizure of house after house, from the first house on one side to the last on the other, as was done in World War II, including in Berlin. The second option is that tanks and armored personnel carriers first try to seize strategic points, gain a foothold on them and thus create control over the city, as, for example, in Grozny during the first Chechen war. In the case of this strategy, there is a risk that the army units at these strategic points will be surrounded and destroyed, which the Chechens, by the way, did with the Russian army, turning the first capture of Grozny into perhaps the most shameful defeat of the Russian army in modern history. At the same time, the Americans in Baghdad acted that way. After the bombing, they simply drove into the city and began to fortify. Perhaps they knew that there would be no strong resistance or relied on their advantage in strength.
Be that as it may, in the first case, the cleaning of houses immediately begins. To make the attackers feel safe, they do not leave enemies behind, every house will be checked. And in the second case, too, sooner or later, the search for opponents will begin with a search of suspicious houses, districts and streets. It makes no difference whether it is Russians or Americans.
In cities where guerrilla warfare is going on, mopping-up operations are harsh. Clearing abandoned buildings is the most dangerous thing for soldiers, and they hate it, so it's best not to be in such a building. If not the instruction, then the army wisdom says that if you do not want surprises, first throw a grenade into the room and only then go to see who “lives” here. And it will not be a noise grenade like in peacetime operations. However, the grenade is not the most dangerous. Hurry up to jump back behind a good sofa, reducing your "area" facing the explosion to a minimum, stretch out on the floor or hide your head and body behind a large backpack, behind some kind of flower pot, and if you are not completely naked, there is a great chance to survive. Another thing is that you can never know which frostbitten idiots will now enter the room. Therefore, it is better to sit on the side of the street with a white rag and let everyone command you than to imagine that you will climb into some abandoned basement, hide in an abandoned house and be safe there.
If there are victims on the streets, remember that it is strictly forbidden to touch or turn them over. The grenade under the corpse, too, unfortunately, has become a sad classic in all recent conflicts. If you can remove the weapon or cartridges from the deceased without turning it over, do it, but you do not need to search it more thoroughly. If the dead man has a communication system, contrary to what was seen in the films, do not take it. Most likely, you will not hear anything understandable and useful for you here. Moreover, you are civilians. You have to look like a civilian. There will be a walkie-talkie, there will be a desire to tinker with it. A civilian with a walkie-talkie is no longer a civilian. And hide the weapon, of course.
All modern cities have a roundabout path. Usually there is the border of the environment. For motorized rifle brigades, the standard behavior is to disperse along the roundabout routes and block the city. There will be checkpoints, control and the like.
Approach them slowly and with your hands up. Do not think to somehow sneak through the forest, short dashes or something like that. In military conditions, every suspicious movement in the forest is a sufficient reason for a machine gun to start working. Pay attention to the soldiers' weapons visible in the photographs from Crimea. There are a lot of Pecheneg machine guns and a lot of modernized Dragunov sniper rifles with a short barrel and a folding stock, as well as "Vintorez" and classic Kalashnikov machine guns, as well as automatic rifles. Many examples of this weapon, as can be seen in the photographs of journalists, are equipped with the most modern sights (Aimpoint Micro T-1 and Eotech 512, which cost from $ 500 - $ 700 per copy). You don't want these people to start shooting in your direction.
Go to the checkpoint with your hands up. Most likely, they will simply rob you, take away everything valuable and let you pass.
Now you are out of town. They say that every Latvian has his own country house. Happy are those who really have it. If there is also a cellar in this house with potatoes, other foods, pickles and preserves, then you will most likely survive. The main task is to protect your home from bandits, looters who want to take all this away from you. It is not difficult to defend against one or two bandits, but it is already difficult to withstand a dozen. Moreover, they have already trained during this time. They know how to assess your strength, go around from the flanks, and so on. However, you have time at your disposal to prepare traps, obstacles, barricades for them and turn your family and friends into a small military squad. Again, weapons are very necessary, if they are not, we recall the Middle Ages and we will have different strategies. The bandit, on whom a bucket of gasoline was poured and who understands that he may now flare up, is likely to be "on pause" for a moment. Your defense must be aggressive and strong so that the marauders decide to go to another, easier target. The army, most likely, is not interested in your country house, so there is a chance to wait out the active hostilities and then see what happens next.
Now the most important thing
If in peacetime you make at least some elementary preparations for a rainy day, it will be very helpful if such a day comes.
First, consider all evacuation routes and methods, considering backup options. Best of all, make sure that there is a place in the village. If not for yourself, then with some friends, relatives, acquaintances. They do not need to object, together it will be easier to defend their place from bandits and marauders. Here it is necessary to store elementary supplies of food, fuel, medicines. Pasta is a great invention of mankind, unlike flour and various cereals, worms do not start in them, they have a long shelf life and high nutritional value. If you can find high-quality canned food, it's fine in general, they will be more expensive than money, and if there are chickens and a cow on your farm, and there is a river nearby where you can fish, then this is generally a five-star place to wait out the war. Don't forget to just arrange shifts. Someone needs to stay awake at night and so on.
While you are in the city - always try to keep the gas tank in the car as full as possible. During the Chechen war, Snickers was especially popular. Small, light, on four or six bars, a soldier can live a whole day. Will come in handy along the way.
Keep an emergency backpack with everything you need at home. If you can afford it, buy a bulletproof vest, it's not that expensive. One that can be worn under a jacket. He will save from shrapnel and ricochets, and, possibly, from a pistol or revolver shot from some idiot bandit.
A bulletproof vest will not save you from a Kalashnikov or a sniper. If the vest is good, it will stop the bullets, but the energy generated by them is still so great that the vest cannot extinguish it, and the injuries of internal organs resulting from a collision are usually incompatible with life. Of course, it depends on how far away they are shooting at you.
The topic of wounds is the most painful. Perhaps everyone should be able to distinguish venous from arterial bleeding. In the first case, you have several hours of time, in the second, you will lose consciousness after 20 seconds. It's good if someone has time to put on a tourniquet. It's good if the tourniquet is at hand.
Wounds change everything. You go back and trudge to the very hospital, which in other circumstances must be bypassed by a roundabout road.
We will not deepen these scenarios today. I hope I have outlined the main directions that need to be considered in such a situation.
War is blood and dirt. Real rubbish. Full ass. Much worse than described here. Let's hope that idiot politicians, extremists and degenerates of all sorts will never bring us to this.
