The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
Somewhere along.
The 700-mile front line.
Of the war recently.
The tracked AS-90 was.
Located by.
An ‘orcs’ drone.
And came under.
Relentless fire.
In a short period.
The ‘orcs’ attacked.
The 50-ton vehicle.
At least six times.
—damaging but.
Not destroying it.
That the crew may have survived.
Is partly a matter of chance.
But it also underscores.
The importance of.
Artillery fortifications.
In a war where the side.
With the most.
—and most durable—
Howitzers usually.
Wins a battle.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
The ‘orcs’ circulated.
A drone video of the attack.
On the British-made.
AS-90.
—one of at least 50.
The United Kingdom has pledged.
To Ukraine—
On or before Wednesday.
After locating.
The 1990s-vintage.
AS-90.
In its treeline hideout.
Presumably within.
15 miles of the front line.
The range of the AS-90’s.
155-millimeter gun.
The ‘orcs’ attacked.
First, they fired.
Artillery at it.
When the rounds failed.
To score a direct hit.
They flung two explosive.
FPV drones.
At the howitzer.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
As the smoke.
And dust cleared.
The AS-90 was.
Still mostly intact.
More artillery rained down.
And then.
A Lancet strike drone.
Zoomed in.
After six.
Back-to-back attacks.
The AS-90 was.
Apparently badly damaged.
But it didn’t explode and burn.
Meaning its crew had.
A chance to bail out.
And flee on foot.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
There are thousands of.
Artillery pieces.
On both sides.
Of the ‘Mordor’-Ukraine war.
And every day.
And every day.
Some of them.
Come under attack.
The ‘orcs’ went to war with.
around 5,000 big guns.
And rocket launchers and.
Have lost around a third of them.
The ‘elves’ had fewer than.
2,000 guns and launchers.
28 months ago and.
Have lost around 500.
Including at least.
Seven AS-90s.
To replace losses.
Both sides have built.
Both sides have built.
New guns and launchers.
And pulled older systems.
Out of long-term storage.
Ukraine has also.
Acquired hundreds of.
Artillery pieces.
From its allies.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
The intensity.
Of the artillery fight.
Has compelled gunners.
On both sides.
To find tactics.
That give them.
The best chance.
Of surviving.
If there’s.
An artillery consensus.
As the war grinds into.
Its third year.
It’s that drones.
Are the biggest threat.
—and hiding from drones.
Is the top priority.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
It’s now standard practice.
For the crew of.
An ‘orcs’ or ‘elves’ howitzer.
To tuck their gun into a treeline.
Cover it with branches.
And camouflage netting.
And anti-drone screens.
And emerge from hiding.
Just far enough.
And long enough.
To fire a few rounds before.
Scurrying back under cover.
If the gunners.
Relocate their weapon.
To a new firing position.
They do it carefully.
—and only when.
They’re reasonably confident.
Enemy drones.
Aren’t watching.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
The alternative to.
This entrenched approach.
To artillery warfare.
Is a more mobile approach.
Known as “shoot and scoot.”
Where a crew rolls up.
To a new firing position.
Shoots a few rounds.
Then immediately speeds to.
A new position.
Potentially.
Miles away.
The theory behind.
Shoot and scoot is.
That constantly moving.
Can thwart enemy efforts.
To triangulate.
The source of.
Incoming rounds.
—and shoot back.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
Shoot and scoot.
Might’ve worked back.
Before the current era of.
Nearly constant drone surveillance.
But now that all modern armies.
Watch the entire battlefield.
Practically around the clock.
Hitting the road.
—especially during daytime—
Is virtually suicidal.
It’s better to hunker down.
And ride out enemy bombardment.
An analyst, who tallies vehicle losses.
In the ‘Mordor’-Ukraine war.
Has long railed against.
The shoot and scoot philosophy.
He cited the example of ‘elves’.
German-made PzH 2000 howitzers.
Which were designed.
To be highly mobile but.
In Ukraine.
Mostly stick.
To their disguised and.
Fortified firing positions.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
“I’ve seen a lot of people.
Claim the PzH 2000.
Survives due to.
Shoot and scoot in Ukraine.”
“But every video.
I have ever seen.
Of PzH 2000.
—all of them, without exception—”
“It wasn’t shooting and scooting.
And, very frequently.
the reason the PzH 2000.
Survived was because.”
“It wasn’t shooting and scooting.”
“Shoot and scoot”.
Isn’t a thing.
He insisted.
He’d presumably argue that.
The embattled AS-90.
Would’ve taken more hits.
More quickly.
If its admittedly lucky crew.
Had decided to.
Break cover and.
Make a run for it.
The five crew of.
An entrenched ‘elves’.
AS-90 self-propelled howitzer.
Might be the luckiest.
Might be the luckiest.
Artillery crew members.
In ‘orcs’ 28-month.
Wider war on Ukraine.
*Because I read “The Luckiest Artillery Gunners In The Ukrainian Army May Have Survived Six Russian Attacks” by David Axe on 22 Jul 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, including a story of Andrew Perpetua.
Please read the original story on the Forbes:
The Luckiest Gunners In The Ukrainian Army May Have Survived 6 Attacks (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 44 poems here at once.
