In early April.
An ‘orcs’ assault group.
Attacked positions.
Held by the ‘elves’.
12th Azov Brigade.
Outside Terny.
Just west of Kreminna.
In eastern Ukraine.
The assault ended.
In the usual way.
Blasted by mines and.
Harried by ‘elves’ FPV drones.
The ‘orcs’ survivors.
Abandoned their vehicles.
And fled back toward.
Their own lines.
A few hundred yards.
To the east.
What was special was.
What they left behind:
A nearly intact.
And brand-new.
T-72B3M tank sporting.
One of the bulkiest and.
In theory, most effective.
Anti-drone radio jammers.
Anyone had seen in.
‘Orcs’ wider war on Ukraine.
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
Two months later.
The two-year-old T-72.
Has been inspected.
Stripped of its jammers.
Fixed up, repainted.
With 12th Azov Brigade markings.
And assigned to the same tank.
Battalion that helped steal it.
It’s one of two.
Captured T-72B3Ms.
In service with.
The 12th Azov Brigade.
The ‘elves’ have nicknamed it.
“Tsar Tank” or.
“Tsar E.W.”
For “electronic warfare.”
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
The 12th Azov Brigade’s.
Famous tank commander.
Who lost an eye defending.
Mariupol in the war’s early months.
Filled in the details of.
The brigade’s epic tank heist.
Why is this tank famous?
The whole internet talks about it.
“It’s the first trophy.
Of this kind.
In the whole war.
It had a huge E.W. system.”
“With additional batteries.
On the sides.
Tied up with ropes like.
On a pirate ship.”
Why the ‘orcs’ piled.
So much jamming technology.
Onto a single tank.
Is obvious.
For six months.
Starting in October.
U.S. aid was further.
Blocked to Ukraine.
Starving ‘elves’ brigades of.
The artillery shells.
And anti-tank missiles.
They needed to repel ‘orcs’ assaults.
So the ‘elves’ launched.
A crash program to build.
In hundreds of tiny workshops.
As many as 100,000.
Explosive FPV drones.
As a firepower stopgap.
As tiny ‘elves’ drones.
Filled the sky.
The ‘orcs’ scrambled to deploy.
Anti-drone defenses.
Including jammers that could.
Block drones’ control signals.
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
The Tsar Tank may.
Have represented.
The zenith of ‘orcs’.
Battlefield drone jamming.
Or nadir.
If you judge.
The jammers by.
Their elegance.
Often crude, sloppily built.
And hastily assembled.
The jammers malfunctioned.
As often as they worked.
But they were always.
Subject to intensive scrutiny.
By ‘elves’ intelligence.
Hence the interest in.
The stuck Tsar Tank.
How the 12th Azov Brigade.
Fetched the tank is.
By now, well-known.
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
On the night of April 3.
Scouts sneaked out.
To the tank.
To inspect it.
They found it tangled.
In barbed wire and.
Resting atop an unexploded.
Anti-tank mine.
Its 150-pound.
Batteries dead after.
The three-man crew.
Bailed out without.
First switching off.
The fire-control system.
And then got killed.
By ‘elves’ drones.
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
On the night of April 4.
The brigade.
“Decided to act”.
And steal the tank.
A team of sappers.
And tank crew.
Sneaked back.
To the T-72.
To clear any live explosives.
Including the mine.
Underneath the tank.
And install fresh batteries.
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
All that was left.
On the night of April 5.
Was to drive the tank.
A mile or two to Terny.
Infantry and drone operators.
Watched from a safe distance.
Medics and an ambulance crew.
Were on standby.
The theft itself.
Came down to two men.
Two tankers.
Who scurried to the T-72.
Ignoring a nearby.
‘Orcs’ artillery barrage.
And crewed the tank without.
Switching on its headlights.
And giving away the heist.
The driver couldn’t see anything.
Another stood in the turret.
Wearing night-vision goggles.
And taking directions by radio.
From nearby troops.
With a clearer view.
Of the battlefield.
As the T-72 nosed into Terny.
The ‘orcs’ spotted it.
But they couldn’t tell.
If the tank was.
Driving away from them.
Or toward them.
Taking no chances.
They opened fire with artillery.
“The shelling was chaotic.”
As he throttled the tank.
To its top speed.
The driver didn’t notice.
The shell crater.
Directly ahead of him.
Until it was too late.
The T-72 toppled into the crater.
The impact knocked.
The driver out.
For three or four minutes.
He awoke concussed.
And bleeding—but immediately.
Began maneuvering the tank.
Out of the crater.
“They gradually managed to move out.”
Soon, they were safe behind.
‘Elves’ lines with.
Their precious war prize.
“All was fine—well.”
The 12th Azov Brigade mounted.
A daring three-night mission.
To inspect, repair and.
Recover the 51-ton T-72.
“Except for the driver.
Who hit his head.”
‘Elves’ intelligence snatched away.
The jammers for close inspection.
12th Azov Brigade crews fixed.
Some superficial damage.
Including shattered glass.
On the first-control optics.
And handed the T-72.
Over to the tank commander.
And the brigade’s.
Tank battalion.
Keenly aware that.
Most T-72B3Ms are ‘orcs’.
And friendly fire is.
An acute risk.
The tankers spray-painted.
“Azov” in big white letters.
On the side of.
Their prize.
*Because I read “In April, Ukrainian Troops Staged A Three-Night Raid To Steal A Special Russian Tank. Now The Tank Fights For Ukraine.” by David Axe on 5 Jun 2024 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.
Please read the original story on the Forbes:
Ukrainians Stole A Special Russian Tank. Now It Fights For Ukraine. (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.
