The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade is.
One of the ‘elves’ army’s.
Best brigades.
Equipped with American-made.
Armored vehicles.
And trained to.
NATO standards.
It fights like.
The best NATO brigades fight:
Swiftly, violently.
And often at night.
But this prowess is.
A blessing and a curse.
For the brigade’s.
2,000 troopers.
The ‘elf’ command wants.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade to be.
Wherever the heaviest fighting is.
So the brigade helped.
To lead ‘elves’.
Southern counteroffensive.
Back in June.
And when ‘orcs’ regiments.
Attacked the ‘elves’ garrison.
In the eastern city of.
Avdiivka in October.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Redeployed from the south.
To the east.
And reinforced the city.
Delaying though.
Not preventing.
The garrison’s eventual retreat.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade has been.
Fighting for nearly a year.
Without a break.
Its soldiers are tired;
Its battalions are running low.
On their best M-2 Bradley.
Fighting vehicles.
And M-1 Abrams tanks.
The brigade needs a break.
And it almost got.
One this week.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
But that planned break.
Was an invitation for.
The ‘orcs’ field armies.
Around the ruins of Avdiivka.
An opportunity to inflict.
On the ‘elves’.
The kind of major defeat.
The ‘elves’ inflicted.
On the ‘orcs’.
Farther north around.
The city of Kharkiv.
In late 2022.
As the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade was.
Pulling back from.
The front line.
East of the village.
Of Ocheretyne.
This weekend.
The ‘orcs’ attacked.
And the ‘orcs’.
Very nearly broke through.
‘Elves’ lines into.
The 20-mile-wide ribbon.
Of undefended terrain.
Separating the free city.
Of Pokrovsk.
From the front line.
The ‘elves’ army’s.
115th.
Mechanized Brigade was.
Supposed to take.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade’s place.
Along the front line.
But something went wrong.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
According to.
The famed 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Company commander.
Who lost a leg during.
The summer counteroffensive.
“Certain units.
Just fucked off.”
‘Orcs’ scouts and drone operators.
Surveilling positions once held.
By the battle-hardened 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Expected to find.
Fresh troops from the 115th.
Mechanized Brigade.
In the same trenches.
Instead, they found.
… no one.
It was a chance.
For the ‘orcs’.
For the ‘orcs’ army’s 30th.
Motor Rifle Brigade.
To roll along.
A railroad track.
Threading west from Avdiivka.
And capture a narrow salient that.
On a map.
Looks like a five-mile-long knife.
Stabbing into.
The ‘elves’ line.
Its sharp point lodged.
Halfway into Ocheretyne.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
An ‘orcs’ breakthrough.
Could have collapsed.
The entire ‘elves’ line.
West of Avdiivka.
And forced tens of thousands.
Of ‘elves’ troops.
And potentially hundreds of thousands.
Of civilians to flee Donetsk Oblast.
An ‘elves’ breakthrough.
Around Kharkiv in the fall.
Of 2022 resulted in.
A major rout for the ‘orcs’ army.
The only reason.
The ‘orcs’ didn’t advance.
Deeper into the ‘elves’ rear.
This weekend is that.
The withdrawing 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Turned around.
And rejoined the fight.
“The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Is back in business.”
The commander wrote.
Over the next couple of days.
The ‘orcs’ slightly widened their salient.
But didn’t advance.
Any farther to the west.
Disaster averted.
For Ukraine.
For now.
But the battle is still raging.
If the ‘orcs’ can move.
Reserves into the salient.
They may yet be able to.
Extend their advance.
It’s worth noting that.
The ‘orcs’ army’s 90th.
Guards Tank Division is nearby.
And, at present, uncommitted to battle.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
If the division can move west.
And stiffen the salient.
It could—at the very least—
Complicate any ‘elves’ counterattack.
In the worst-case scenario.
For Ukraine.
The tank division might.
Be able to force.
The weary 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
To retreat.
To the west.
The good news.
For the ‘elves’ army.
Is that it’s about to get.
A lot of ammunition.
The bad news is that.
Whatever went wrong with.
The 115th.
Mechanized Brigade appears.
To be somewhat systemic.
It’s the second ‘elves’ unit.
To collapse on the eastern front.
In just the last few weeks.
The first unit to fail.
Was the 67th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Which was defending.
The most vulnerable district.
Of ‘elves’ most vulnerable city.
Chasiv Yar.
20 miles north of Avdiivka.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
It’s not for no reason that.
The package included an unspecified.
Number of M-2 Bradley.
Infantry fighting vehicles.
The sole ‘elves’ army unit.
That uses the M-2.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade was fighting.
A desperate defensive action.
Against a much larger ‘orcs’ force.
Attacking west of the ruins of.
Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.
Topped off with fresh ammunition.
And replacement M-2s.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Has blunted the ‘orcs’ offensive.
One dramatic engagement.
Observed from overhead.
By an ‘elf’ drone shows how.
On Wednesday night.
An M-2 gunner spotted.
An ‘orcs’ T-80 tank.
A mile away across a field.
East of the village.
Of Novopokrovske.
The M-2 crew fired.
A single missile.
A single TOW.
Wire-guided anti-tank missile.
Which punched through.
The 43-ton, three-person tank.
“Bradley—the tank destroyer.”
The ‘elf’ defense ministry crowed.
It was one of the longest-range.
Direct tank kills of this war.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
The 33-ton, 10-person M-2.
Might be the best fighting vehicle.
Of ‘Mordor’’s 27-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
Equipping three.
30-vehicle battalions.
In the elite 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
The M-2’s primary mission.
Is to haul infantry.
Into battle and then.
Join the fight itself.
Peppering ‘orcs’ troops.
And vehicles with.
Accurate 25-millimeter.
Auto-cannon fire.
The M-2 weighs tens of tons.
Less than a typical tank.
Mostly because its armor is.
Much thinner than a tank’s armor.
In a close fight.
With an ‘orcs’ tank.
An M-2 might not.
Last long.
In a far fight.
The M-2’s precision sights and.
TOW missiles might give it.
An edge—especially at night.
When the Bradley’s superior.
Infrared optics help its crew.
See the tank before.
The tank crew sees the Bradley.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
Sure enough, between missions.
Supporting the infantry.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade deployed M-2s.
On tank-hunting missions.
In a single furious skirmish.
In southern Ukraine.
Last summer.
One Bradley crew.
Reportedly knocked out.
Two ‘orcs’ T-72 tanks.
In a single furious skirmish.
The 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Has been in combat.
Non-stop for a year.
As it fought that ‘orcs’ offensive.
West of Avdiivka last month.
The brigade was running out.
Of M-2s.
That’s changing.
As fresh vehicles arrive.
“We continue to work!”
The brigade stated.
Expect to see.
More M-2s.
In far fights.
With ‘orcs’ tanks.
As the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade.
Works to stabilize.
The front line.
The ‘elves’ ground forces.
Have just 100 or so.
Combat brigades.
And many of them are exhausted.
From months or years.
Of nonstop fighting.
the 47th.
Mechanized Brigade, for instance.
*Because I read “A Ukrainian Brigade Disappeared, And A Russian Brigade Almost Broke Through: How The Battle For Ocheretyne Upended The War In Ukraine This Weekend” on 23 Apr 2024, “Russian T-80 Tank at Night—And Hit It With A Missile From A Mile Away” on 8 May 2024, both by David Axe on the Forbes, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022 on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem, about the 47th Mechanized Brigade.
Please read the original stories on the Forbes:
A Ukrainian Brigade ‘Fucked Off,’ And The Russians Almost Broke Thru (forbes.com)
A Ukrainian M-2 Sneaked Up On A Russian Tank—And Hit From A Mile Away (forbes.com)
**My friend kindly shows you this poem in one page of the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them! You can read my 100 poems here at once.
