‘Elves’ weirdest drone killers.
Are back in action.
In their 50-year-old.
Propeller-driven training plane.
Adding two aerial kills.
To their already impressive tally.
In the span of.
Just a few days.
A capture from the video.
Feed of an ‘orcs’.
Unmanned aerial vehicle.
Circulated online on Saturday.
Seems to depict.
Two ‘elves’ aviators.
Staring down.
Their latest target.
—the drone itself—
From the open cockpit.
Of their 1970s-vintage.
Yakovlev Yak-52 trainer.
The Yak-52.
And the ‘orcs’ drone.
Are only a few yards.
Apart.
It appears.
The Yakovlev’s back-seat passenger.
—who has reportedly wielded.
A drone-destroying shotgun—
Is aiming something.
At the drone.
Possibly the shotgun.
That has made him famous.
In mid-April.
Videos circulated online.
Depicting the 120-mile-per-hour.
Yak-52.
Apparently belonging to.
An ‘elf’ volunteer flying club.
But clearly fighting on behalf of.
The ‘elves’ air force.
Engaging an ‘orcs’.
Orlan surveillance drone over.
Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine.
And reportedly shooting it down.
Six weeks later.
In early June.
A similar video.
Appeared online.
—this one captured by the ‘orcs’—
It depicts.
The Yak-52 engaging.
An ‘orcs’ ZALA surveillance drone.
In that video.
The back-seat gunner can be.
Seen reaching for something.
Possibly his weapon.
Photos that briefly appeared.
On social media on Tuesday.
Reveal the kill markings on the side.
Of the propeller-driven Yakovlev:
At least six Orlan.
And two ZALA.
Unmanned aerial vehicles.
Additional markings are ambiguous.
The video capture from Saturday.
Seems to depict.
An additional pair.
Of kill markings.
Meaning the ‘elves’ drone hunters.
Have had a busy week.
An additional pair.
Of kill markings.
‘Elves’ weirdest drone killers.
Are back in action.
In their 50-year-old.
Propeller-driven training plane.
Adding two aerial kills.
To their already impressive tally.
In the span of.
Just a few days.
A capture from the video.
Feed of an ‘orcs’.
Unmanned aerial vehicle.
Circulated online on Saturday.
Seems to depict.
Two ‘elves’ aviators.
Staring down.
Their latest target.
—the drone itself—
From the open cockpit.
Of their 1970s-vintage.
Yakovlev Yak-52 trainer.
The Yak-52.
And the ‘orcs’ drone.
Are only a few yards.
Apart.
It appears.
The Yakovlev’s back-seat passenger.
—who has reportedly wielded.
A drone-destroying shotgun—
Is aiming something.
At the drone.
Possibly the shotgun.
That has made him famous.
When the first videos of.
The Yak-52-versus-drone.
Dogfights appeared.
On social media.
Some observers speculated that.
The crew of the one-ton training plane.
Was firing at the drones with.
Underwing guns or rocket pods.
But as one expert noted.
Very few Yak-52s were.
Ever modified to carry.
Underwing weapons.
So it should have come.
As no surprise when it came to light.
That the ‘elves’ were firing.
A shotgun from the plane’s back seat.
At a time when.
The ‘elves’ air force is trying to.
Save its most expensive.
Surface-to-air missiles.
For the most dangerous ‘orcs’ targets.
—ballistic and cruise missiles.
As well as manned fighter-bombers.
Lobbing powerful glide bombs—
A guy with a shotgun.
Riding in a slow propeller plane.
Is an inexpensive way.
To shoot down.
Intruding ‘orcs’ drones.
Far from the front line.
But that doesn’t mean.
It’s easy for the ‘elves’.
Both the Yak-52’s pilot.
And the back-seat gunner must be.
Skilled and patient to get.
A clean shot at a small drone.
Again, this isn’t dissimilar.
From a World War I dogfight.
At what close ranges.
It was necessary to shoot.
If the ‘elves’ crew of.
That Yak-52 suffered through.
A similar learning process.
It happened months ago.
In all the recent aerial skirmishes.
The Yakovlev pilot apparently maneuvered.
To within tens of feet of his target.
Before the back-seater opened fire.
‘Elves’ weirdest drone killers.
Are back in action.
In their 50-year-old.
Propeller-driven training plane.
Adding two aerial kills.
To their already impressive tally.
In the span of.
Just a few days.
A capture from the video.
Feed of an ‘orcs’.
Unmanned aerial vehicle.
Circulated online on Saturday.
Seems to depict.
Two ‘elves’ aviators.
Staring down.
Their latest target.
—the drone itself—
From the open cockpit.
Of their 1970s-vintage.
Yakovlev Yak-52 trainer.
The Yak-52.
And the ‘orcs’ drone.
Are only a few yards.
Apart.
It appears.
The Yakovlev’s back-seat passenger.
—who has reportedly wielded.
A drone-destroying shotgun—
Is aiming something.
At the drone.
Possibly the shotgun.
That has made him famous.
*Because I read “Ukraine’s World War I-Style Dogfighters Have Shot Down More Russian Drones” by David Axe on 29 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:
Ukraine’s World War I-Style Dogfighters Shot Down More Russian Drones (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.
