For almost a week now, the Russian army has been increasing its bombardment of the area around Bakhmut in Ukraine. Apparently, this is intended to form a new pocket to enclose the Ukrainian defenders. The Russian army is relentlessly advancing on the city in eastern Ukraine, reducing everything to rubble with carpet bombing.
The Ukrainian defenders are trying to compensate for the numerical inferiority of the artillery systems with modern Western equipment. BILD was able to cover the combat use of a Panzerhaubitze 2000 on the front near Bakhmut.
In addition to Polish artillery pieces of the Krab type, the Ukrainians also rely on the German make in the defense of Bakhmut.
For 45 days, German soldiers trained Ukrainian artillerymen on the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000), which achieved significantly higher precision than the older Russian or Soviet artillery systems.
Exhausted from action but highly motivated: The crew of a Panzerhaubitze 2000 is waiting for the next command to be deployed during the Battle of Bakhmut
In a hiding place, the five-man crew of a PzH 2000 is waiting for the order to be deployed. Some of the Ukrainian soldiers are wearing combat fatigues in German army camouflage. “We got that during training,” says an artilleryman codenamed “Alpha.”
The training period was very intensive, and the biggest difficulty was the language barrier, explains the soldier, who has operated various artillery systems in the Ukrainian army since 2014.
“We are very grateful to our trainers and the German government”
However, the ability of the PzH 2000 to quickly change position following quick and precise shots is a decisive advantage: “We are very grateful to our trainers and the German government that we have this weapon system for defense,” he explains, while few Russian rockets and artillery shells hit kilometers away.
Move out to fire: The PzH 2000 moves into position to stop the Russian attackers
Then the message comes over the radio: Move out. The crew is in the vehicle in a flash, puts the almost 60-tonne vehicle into operation and moves out of cover into position.
Hidden from view behind a row of trees, the soldiers line up the gun barrel and fire five DM121 artillery shells (30 km range, more than 10 kg of high-performance explosives) at the Russian attackers. Then it immediately goes into hiding once more before a Russian counterstrike can ensue, the entire attack process lasting only a few minutes.
In the hiding place, the soldiers begin to camouflage the vehicle once more with branches in order to make reconnaissance by Russian drones more difficult. The battle is particularly emotional for artilleryman Maxim: “Bakhmut is my hometown,” says the young soldier. “My mother and my little sister are safe in Germany, I’m defending our city here.”
The track pads, which are already badly worn, also show how intensively the self-propelled howitzer is used: the vehicle has obviously already covered many kilometers in the few weeks of use.
In a short time, the crew fires several artillery shells at the Russian troops
Another advantage of the PzH 2000 is its relatively strong armor. This model also has hedgehog armor, which offers additional protection once morest cluster munitions, which are used extensively by the Russian rocket artillery. “We already had an impact in close proximity,” says artilleryman “Alpha”.
The shards of the projectile hit the self-propelled howitzer, but only caused minor damage to the tracks.
While the soldiers are just regarding to take a cigarette break, the next operational order comes: once more they move out of hiding with the self-propelled howitzer into another position, this time fire three projectiles and retreat once more.
However, it is questionable whether the use of the few modern weapon systems will be sufficient to compensate for the enormous numerical superiority of the Russian army: On the same day, the first Russian advance units reached the city limits of Bakhmut.