Strike a blow: how the gunners work in the Red Army area
The forces of the Center group of forces are advancing in the Red Army direction — the enemy's statements that the Russian Armed Forces will not be able to continue the offensive in winter due to the weather proved to be untenable. Izvestia correspondents visited the positions of the Center group of forces gunners and saw the work of the 130-millimeter M-46 cannon crews. Created for the needs of the Soviet Army, they found their niche in the current conditions of their military operations, when the mobility of guns faded into the background, and their range became their most important parameter. But sometimes the enemy's UAVs even reach the M-46 positions far from the front line — the gunners told how one of the calculations shot down 22 UAVs with small arms during the day and defended his gun.
The road from Avdiivka to the front line
A couple of years ago, during the battles for Avdiivka, artillery positions from Donetsk could be reached in half an hour. Today, the road through the liberated territories takes hours and only lengthens after new "rollovers" — when the gunners move forward, following the line of contact. We are advancing to the positions of the 268th self-propelled artillery Regiment of the 27th Guards Motorized Rifle Division of the Center Group of Forces.
The roads are covered with rubble, but in some places there are patches of preserved asphalt. The most broken areas are repaired by pouring the same rubble and ramming it with heavy machinery. The traffic on the local roads is quite heavy in the early morning. Engineers are shutting down anti—drone corridors and moving them closer to the front line, where they are needed more. Riflemen and marines are cowering in the back of buggies and pickups.
At the next stage of the journey, we transfer to the artillery transport — an all-wheel-drive minibus with a platform for shooters and a trailer. Shells, water and food are now delivered to firing positions mainly in this way. When they are even closer to the front line or the situation in the air worsens, it happens that each shell is carried one at a time — on motorcycles. The car turns into a wooded area along the icy ruts and is instantly unloaded there. Just a couple of minutes, and the car leaves for the next flight, almost like after a race pit stop. If you stay too long, enemy reconnaissance drones can detect overly noticeable vehicles and realize that there is an artillery position somewhere nearby.
— I signed the contract because many of my friends joined the service, and I decided to join them too. I was a fuel tanker, I went to refuel fuel, then a storekeeper, and then I asked to transfer from the material support company to the artillery," says Private Sergey Golovin, the gunner of the 130-millimeter M-46 cannon, while waiting for targets.
Gunner Private Sergey Golovin
Before receiving this gun, he managed to work on a 152-millimeter Hyacinth for a couple of months, but after a lot of shooting, his first gun went into recovery.
The 130-millimeter Soviet M-46 cannons are an example of how, despite the active development of technology, those types of weapons that were previously considered obsolete are returning to the army. They just get new tactical tasks and occupy their niches. These long-range guns are now working under aerial correction from reconnaissance UAVs and hacking into strongholds with their extensive systems of passages and shelters. That's because they still remain one of the most long-range weapons in their class. This is one of the reasons why the M-46 is in demand today. The mobility of guns has receded into the background, and the firing range has become an important parameter due to the fact that the radius of search and destruction of guns by enemy UAVs is constantly growing.
How the gunners work on the identified targets
While we are discussing the nuances of using the M-46, several people are watching the threat from the air nearby. When it becomes clear that their long-range attack UAVs, the famous Geraniums, are flying over us, a leisurely discussion begins about different guns for fighting drones.
— We work most often on infantry, on air strikes, actively hitting manpower, less often on equipment. There is a lot of work both day and night, it doesn't matter, we work at any time 24/7," Sergey Golovin continues his story.
Heavy guns can be heard firing from various landings nearby. A few claps from one position — and a pause: the targeting goes to another gun in order to complicate the search for our artillery from the air. Soon the goal comes to us. While Sergei is aiming the M-46, we suddenly hear helicopters. A pair of Ka-52s is shown for a few seconds between the forest belts, passing along the ravine.
When the sound of the propellers subsides, our gun fires, receives adjustments and is ready for the second shot. But helicopters are heard flying over again, and the commander shouts: "Wait, don't shoot!". Taking advantage of the bad weather, not only artillery, but also aviation is activated.
One of the gunners is surprised that the helicopters are leaving so close to the line of contact. Another, between jokes about not hitting his own, respectfully comments that the cars went below the cannon barrels. Now many people no longer remember, but in 2022, during massive artillery training, when both howitzers and mortars were working simultaneously with whole batteries at different lines, they stopped firing in an organized manner during the flight of their assault aircraft. But since then, tactics have changed a lot in all branches of the armed forces. A few more shots, the crew refines the target and masks the cannon.
"We have worked on the enemy's stronghold, the task has been successfully completed," says Senior Sergeant Alexander Ermakov.
Gun commander Senior Sergeant Alexander Ermakov
In civilian life, he was a builder, and in the army he worked his way up from a self-propelled gun driver to a gun commander. A few minutes later, a message arrives saying that we can meet a transport that will pick us up on the way back.
"Once in a day, we shot down 22 enemy drones with machine guns and rifles, defending the cannon, we fought off several raids," says Alexander, saying goodbye before hastily loading onto the car. — It doesn't happen every day, of course.
The four-bladed Baba Yaga, which is called the granddaughter, has already flown to this position, Alexander added. She did not find the gun and dropped several bombs on the spent shell casings — the crew had just finished firing, and the UAV's thermal imager noticed the still-hot shell casings even under the anti-drone raincoat.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
