Running out of ammunition 50 meters from the enemy – NRK Urix – Foreign Documentary News

“Ammo, ammo!” , Paul Smith shouted from the machine gun turret down to his fellow soldiers in the armored car.

In the voice you hear that he is serious.

Because the enemy called them.

The Russians are only 50 meters away from the Ukrainian force, which belongs to the American Paul Smith.

There is an imminent danger that they are preparing weapons that could destroy the car in which Smith and everyone on board is sitting.

He ran out of ammunition.

fast and brutal

At the beginning of September came an important turning point in the war. The Russians were pushed farther and farther from the areas they occupied. The Ukrainians advanced violently. It was fast and brutal.

Since then, Ukrainian forces have recaptured several thousand square kilometers from the occupied territories.

Lieutenant-Colonel Palle Ydstebø is the Chief Instructor for the Land Forces Department at the Norwegian Military Academy and is following the situation closely. He watched Smith’s video posted on Youtube.

He believes that such swift attacks as the one that Paul Smith was a part of on the morning of September 8 were very important to Ukraine’s advance on the ground.

– They remove enemy security forces and outposts so the main force can penetrate and attack the main enemy forces, he tells NRK.

We take what happened on September 8th from the start.

assignment

It’s sunrise where Paul Smith turns on the helmet camera.

Sitting in a machine gun turret in one Armored car. Several cars of the same type race across an open field. On the other side is a group of houses. Smith has intelligence that there is an armored personnel carrier inside the village. In addition, there is a danger that the Russian forces will have hand-held anti-tank weapons.

It’s a risk to Smith and his fellow soldiers.

Although they are in an armored Humvee, it is not strong enough to protect them from anti-tank weapons. That is why it is so important that they can take the enemy before they have time to resist.

Smith takes a firm grip on both handles of the powerful weapon. Each shot is the size of a cigar. He has one job. To keep the Russians in trouble until they get home. The mission is to destroy the armored personnel carrier which was seen inside the village.

Withdraws.

It is launched again

Smith focuses first on one house. He controls it and then discovers that shots were fired from one of the neighboring houses.

– You can see flashes of light from the windows, Smith says, or “Nucking Futs Yuri” as he calls himself on social media. If you switch N and F, you will get crazy Yuri.

He changes his focus and starts shooting.

The weapon he uses, a Browning M2 . submachine gunIt can fire between 400 and 600 rounds per minute. It won’t be long before the last bullet leaves the room.

With nothing to shoot with, Smith is defenseless in the armored car. The enemy is now only 50 meters away.

– Ammo, ammo! Yelling at others in the car.

The drama is clearly visible in the video of the incident:

Comrades send soldiers one Close-up anti-tank missile. Bazooka, if we speak the language of cartoons. A long thick tube with a rocket inside. He shot and hit a house.

The shooting is still going on. he is must have Machine gun ammunition.

– Ammo, ammo! shouts again.

– I need .50 caliber ammunition!

They send another bazooka. Maybe they think he saw an armored personnel carrier.

You can hear shots hitting the car. Someone hit the car window. White rose on the square but the bullet does not pass. Several shots hit the tower he was sitting in.

– We’re shooting at us! Shout.

He shot the other, before falling back again. He finally got ammunition for the machine gun.

– He says I get frustrated when I recharge.

– Mostly because I was shot. Perhaps this was the closest to the enemy in battle.

It is narrow in the tower. Adrenaline pumps.

Every second that passes gives the enemy time to respond. Smith hasn’t seen any anti-tank weapons yet. This does not mean that the Russians do not have it.

He tinkered with the ammo a bit before loading the machine gun.

Then he is ready to respond.

I love Ukraine

The 36-year-old Afghan warrior from California in the United States has enjoyed a close personal relationship with Ukraine for several years. He’s been there a lot and many of his friends live there.

In 2015-2016, he fought with the Ukrainians in the Donbass region.

– I promised to come back to defend Ukraine if war broke out, he says via webcam from the front.

At the start of the war, nearly 20,000 men and women from 52 countries came to Ukraine to fight, according to Ukrainian authorities. Smith was one of them.

Now he sits in the turret of the machine gun in the armored car every day.

near death experience

The bullets hit the car Smith was sitting in.

He reloaded it and with the help of a crank rotated the turret of the machine gun in position. Aiming the weapon. It doesn’t take several seconds, but if you watch the video and get immersed in what Smith is in the middle of it, you’ll feel like it’s taking forever.

He is ready in time to see a Russian soldier around the corner of the house.

When Smith shot him, he realized they were very lucky.

It goes incredibly fast. But when you slow down the video, you can watch it:

The soldier had a combat armor weapon that could destroy them.

Instead of hitting, he went up in the air.

– He says this is one of the times I came close to being killed.

mission accomplished

As they exit the village, all the soldiers and vehicles are safe.

They did not find the armored personnel carrier seen in the village, but Smith still believed the attack was a success.

– He says that we inflicted the Russians with a heavy defeat.

He doesn’t know how many Russian soldiers were killed or injured on Thursday, but based on videos of the attack, he presumes there is more.

Washington Post Check out the video and locate the fighting in the village of Ternovybody, located between Kherson and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

He says the Russians fled the village that day, but returned two days later. Then they repeated the attack.

– important job

Lieutenant Colonel Pale Ydestibo at the Military School says the job Paul Smith and others in his squad do is called “illustrating with violence.”.

It’s about trying to keep up with where the enemy is and getting an overview of a blurred and sometimes chaotic picture, he tells NRK.

He also says that these forces, of which Paul Smith is a part, are used to lure hidden enemies.

– They take a risk and drive to an area where they suspect the enemy is, to get them to shoot them. It’s fatal, but it’s a way to do it.

When the enemy is defending themselves, they reveal their position and make themselves targets for attack.

– What we’re seeing is part of a larger attack. You have to know where the enemy is and how strong he is, says Ydstebø.

the future

NRK maintained contact with Paul Smith in the weeks following the attack. He talks about new missions and that they are being shot Artillery.

A video he sends to us from the front entitled: “Funny little video.. Artillery is falling all around us.”

In the video, they drive over a bump in the road while the Russians bomb nearby. One of his comrades drops his rifle from the car. They have to stop and backup to restore it. Despite the seriousness of the situation, they laugh.

– Smith says that people who have never seen a fight before do not understand that if we have nothing to laugh at, dark thoughts will come.

All this is happening as Putin begins to mobilize the great forces that are heading towards them.

Smith doesn’t seem to be overly concerned about this. He thinks it will take some time before they arrive. They must receive equipment, be taken to the front and, not least, receive training.

– You can’t just give a gun to a hundred thousand people and tell them, “Run in that direction and shoot whatever you see.” They will kill.

– What do you think the future holds?

– I visited Crimea once. I have visited Donetsk, Luhansk. I have visited all the capitals of all the provinces of Ukraine. I have seen these cities in peacetime, without bombing and destruction. I really hope that Russia understands that Ukraine has its own identity and its people. He says they don’t want to be part of Russia.