Solid River: how Russian gunners are fighting on the Dnieper
An active counter-battery battle is currently underway on the Dnieper. Russian military personnel are attacking the enemy on the right bank day and night. Their targets are the temporary locations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, their boats and equipment. A correspondent of Izvestia visited the position of one of the artillery batteries.
The saboteurs were destroyed
As soon as the aerial reconnaissance of the Dnepr group of forces discovered the temporary deployment point where the enemy sabotage group was hiding, it promptly transmitted the coordinates to the command post of our gunners.
— The D-20 gun crew, who was on combat duty at the time, immediately moved to a previously prepared firing position. The first shot of the cannon hit a temporary deployment point of Ukrainian militants in one of the abandoned buildings on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The second, according to the specified coordinates, was the destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sabotage group," said the commander of the howitzer battery with the call sign Alex.
He has been on a special military operation since May 2023. He signed the contract voluntarily, leaving his family at home: his wife and two children.
As the commander of the gun with the call sign Shchur noted, this is far from the only such victory for his subordinates.
— My calculation is grandiose. The guys work smartly and competently, but the most important thing is that we accurately hit targets, using minimal ammunition," Shchur emphasizes.
According to him, the calculation has a lot of destroyed enemy facilities: temporary deployment points, locations of operators and drone launches, positions of M777 howitzers. In particular, an M113 armored personnel carrier was covered a couple of days ago, he noted. Shchur was on the special operation from the very beginning.
— One of the important combat missions is counter—battery warfare. This is when the enemy's artillery begins to work on our positions, our intelligence detects them, transmits the coordinates to us, and we begin firing back at them. At least they stop firing at Russian fighters. We destroy the enemy as much as possible," the commander explained.
We destroy the boats without any problems
At the other gun, I was met by its commander with the call sign Kot. He had just received a combat mission to destroy a drone control center located on the right bank of the Dnieper River.
— The D-20 cannon is reliable and very accurate. The algorithm is as follows: the first two, rarely three projectiles fall very close to the target, and the fourth one will fall exactly where it should. Recently, the Ukrainian MLRS installation was dismantled in this way," the officer recalls.
According to him, there are enemy combat boats in the piggy bank of the targets destroyed by his calculation.
— It happens that we are firing at their boats when they are trying to cross the Dnieper. Generally, we destroy such targets without any problems. The main thing is that the data is accurate, and we will answer for the rest," the gunner says confidently.
He has been on his own since November 2023. According to him, he watched a lot of videos on the Internet with the combat work of Russian troops, which prompted him to go on a special operation.
— In addition, two of my great-grandfathers died during the Great Patriotic War. It turns out that both went missing near Stalingrad. Of course, I'm proud of them. They gave their lives for the Victory! I am sure that we will win, too," the officer emphasizes.
His subordinate, the gunner with the call sign Eleventh, recalled that they used to work more intensively — they fired at 20-30 targets a day.
— It's less now. Targets: mortars, enemy artillery. The data has arrived, we aim and hit," the specialist explains briefly, returning to his weapon.
The D-20 hits at 17 km, the range of the M-46 is up to 27 km. This allows you to cover the entire area that the gunners are assigned to control.
Then I find myself in the position of the M-46 cannon. His gunner with the call sign Pechnik told about the process of aiming and adjusting the gun.
— This process is simple, developed and adopted back in Soviet times. Then the correction was revealed by the sighting shots. Taking into account this data, the targets of the assigned target, and weather data, we work almost without fail," the gunner said.
According to him, he has been on his OWN since the very beginning and during this time he has managed to work on various types of artillery systems.
I can identify "Birds" by their sound"
At the end of a short visit to the artillery battery, I managed to talk to the shooter of the air surveillance point with the call sign of Bekh. He described how he repels attacks from enemy drones while protecting fellow gunners.
—There are a lot of threats from the sky: FPV drones, Baba Yaga and other drones," the shooter began the conversation, armed with an automatic rifle with an optical sight and several thermal imagers.
"They help us detect their "birds" well," Baha continues, noting that he is already able to determine the type of flying drone by ear.
When the Baba Yaga flies, its sound is so characteristic, powerful, one might say, roaring. You immediately realize that something heavy and loaded is flying, he noted.
— By the way, I shot down such a thing quite recently. She came to the gun from a great height, circled, took aim. There is a moment when it freezes for a while before resetting. So I shoot them down at this time. It takes about half a store for one Baba Yaga," the warrior described the combat episode.
He also remembered his grandfather, who fought during the Great Patriotic War.
— My grandfather was also an artilleryman. He reached Prague and met Victory there. I wanted to get to Berlin, but the destination was different. I think he would be proud of me. I try to be worthy of his memory, of the feats he performed in the war," concluded the serviceman.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
