“She’s a girl, you need to know how to handle her”: the story of “Liuska”, a veteran of Vietnam

This exclusive report from our positions in the Zaporizhzhia direction was filmed by a TSN crew.

The American M-114 field howitzer is older than any of her gunners. She already fought in Vietnam. Now she is pounding the occupiers as part of the artillery battalion of the 141st Separate Mechanized Brigade — and the soldiers call her “Liuska”.

The segment on the 141st Brigade starts at 08:38. Video: © TSN

A road you cannot see

Getting to “Liuska” at her position is a task in itself, harder than the firing. The enemy remotely mines the approaches to the tree lines: what was a passable route yesterday may not be one today. That is why trips are planned around the weather. Snow and wind work in our favour — they hide the “Kozak” armoured vehicle from hostile eyes in the sky.

Where armour can go no further, they go on foot. The distance between people is three to four metres. This is not a formality: at that spacing, a single mine or a single drone does not take out the whole group.

The Christmas tree that flew in

In command at the position is “Maniiak”, an artilleryman whose experience goes back to the ATO. He started out in the infantry and says he would not trade the artillery for anything now.

Daily life here is arranged the military way — but in the corner of the dugout stands a Christmas tree. As it turned out, the New Year tree arrived by air. Tangerines and children’s champagne flew in along with it.

This is the part of the war that is rarely shown: logistics that deliver more than just shells to the front line.

Why she is “Liuska”

Here the gun is treated like a living being — and this is not a crew joke but a way of working with her. Old equipment has character: she does not forgive haste and does not like strangers’ hands.

Despite her age, the gunners adore the M-114 for the very thing others might write her off for: her simplicity. There is nothing complicated in her to break. She does her job.

200 shells in Vietnam, 500 here

The history of this particular howitzer can be read right on the metal. Markings preserved on the trails confirm that she went through the Vietnam War.

In other words, in our hands “Liuska” has already done more than twice as much as in her entire previous war. A gun that another army would long ago have put on a pedestal stands here at a firing position.

That night she spoke again: the Russians had massed manpower near one of the settlements. The American shells landed right on target.