How to survive artillery fire

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Our reader, under the pseudonym Brother Rabbit, who lived for three years on the territory of hostilities, tells how to behave during shelling in order to remain unharmed.

Instead of a preface

Any modern war is primarily artillery ping-pong, from which civilians suffer to a greater extent. They are reluctant actors for newscasts, a human shield, and an argument for political debate. Civilians are not told when to hide in bomb shelters, their lives and housing are not worth anything, and the chances of surviving during shelling are much less than those of the military. Therefore, if you find yourself in a war zone, it is important to know how to behave.

Brief vocabulary:

• Minus, flights, outgoing - artillery volleys.
• Plus, arrivals, gifts - shell hits.
• Ping-pong - mutual shelling.

How do shots sound?

Some of the most popular sounds of shelling in the news, especially when reporters openly flaunt their full height to the sounds on camera, are the outgoing volleys of anti-aircraft guns, which are used mainly to destroy drones. And not the arrival of enemy shells, as journalists say.

The sounds of real arrivals are heavy, with a characteristic crackling sound when hitting houses, and more muffled when a projectile hits the ground.

82mm mines, the smallest of those used, emit a characteristic whistle during flight, 120mm mines hiss, tank rockets an incomparable howl.

"Grads" and other rockets are not audible at all during the flight. The outgoing salvo of the Grad resembles the sound of peas pouring out onto the table.

Many people, having lived in a war zone for more than one year, still confuse volleys and arrivals, relying only on ideological preferences when assessing.

What to do at the first sound of shells?

Fall where you are and wait out the shelling there. Change your location only as a last resort. Listen and look for a hiding place at the same time. You need to catch the rhythm: the sound of the volley, the flight time of the projectile and the fall. Count the seconds from the volley to the fall and start running immediately after arrival. You need to fall a couple of seconds before the estimated time of the next hit. If two or more guns are working, count from the last one.

Open your mouth and cover your ears with your hands. This will avoid concussion and will preserve hearing in case of particularly close explosions. If it happened that after the arrival you stopped hearing, do not be alarmed. Usually, if there is no physical damage, hearing is restored within 3-7 days. Close your eyes to keep out dust and debris.

Where to hide?

The lower you are in relation to the surface of the earth, the better. Underground passages, basements, collector hatches (provided that there is no steam coming from there), ditches, trenches and even just a high curb. Any terrain that can protect you from debris will do. During the explosion, the fragments fly up and to the sides tangentially, so the lower you lie in relation to the ground level, the higher the chances of remaining unharmed.

Never hide near the walls of buildings. If you hit a wall, you can be injured by fragments of bricks, concrete, or completely fill up.

The same applies to windows and shop windows: after an explosion, one small window turns into a bucket of small fragments, some of which fly out into the street and can seriously injure you.

Avoid various heaps of boxes, containers and other objects that can fill you up even from the shock wave. Do not go under the cars either: they will not save you in any way and will not protect you from shrapnel.

What if the military is nearby?

If your city is on the line of contact and the military has moved to a kindergarten, school or warehouse in front of your house - pack your things and leave. Perhaps the first shells will arrive at your house within a day after leaving.

Do the same when a checkpoint or military equipment appears near the house. The faster you leave, the faster you adapt to a new place and the higher your chances of staying alive. Say goodbye to housing: you will no longer see it as a whole.

What if I can't leave now?

If you live in a private house and shelling of the area is becoming regular, fill the window openings with sandbags. This, of course, will not save you from direct hits, but it will save you from shrapnel and bullets.

In the apartment, you can rearrange the furniture and close the windows with wardrobes, stuffing the shelves at the window level with books or other things. The denser the better.

Cover the window panes with tape - this will prevent them from falling apart into many small fragments. The main thing is, do not forget to tear off the adhesive tape at least once a year and glue a new one, otherwise over time it will bake tightly, tearing it off will be a serious problem.

Where is it safer indoors?

The safest place during shelling (this is the place where you sleep) should be an inner room, preferably with load-bearing walls, no windows, or with windows facing the wall of another house. Take care of the rug or cushion on the floor.

It is often written on the Internet that shelling does not last more than 20 minutes. This is nonsense of people far from the war. Sometimes you have to spend all night on the floor.

If possible, cover yourself with a thick blanket on top - this is additional protection from both fragments at the end, and from stone chips and glass.

Don't waste time going down to the basement if you live on higher floors. It is better to lie down in the doorway or on the landing. The shell with the same probability can hit both the ninth and the third floors at the moment when you run up the stairs. Don't take risks with useless moves.

What to do if the shooting is found on the road?

If you are driving a car along the line of contact, do not close the windows. This will allow you to control the situation, in which case you can quickly stop and get out of the car.

Even if there is severe frost outside, keep the car windows open until you leave the shelling area.

Usually, drivers who drive to such places and live on the front-line territory are very understanding and instantly responsive to everything. Don't panic or give advice to stop the car or press the pedal to the floor, especially if you are visiting. The driver will decide for himself how best to act according to the situation.

I'm so scared. How to deal with emotions?

Try to calm down. Atheists can count to a hundred, believers can pray. Both those and others - try to breathe evenly and deeply.

Whatever happens around, the main thing is not to panic. No need to run, especially if there are people around. Someone may follow your foolish example. Very often women in such situations get lost, they can freeze in place or run. Drop them to the ground (spit on dirt, puddles and debris under your feet) and don't let them move.

If you come under fire with a girl or child, hold their hand firmly and do not let them straighten up and run. Don't be afraid to get a couple of slaps in the face to bring you to your senses.

If you are completely unbearable, you can shout. Everyone is scared under the shelling, there are no exceptions.

A typical reaction of the body during a shelling is the instantaneous release of a crazy dose of adrenaline into the blood. An effect that cannot be obtained either when jumping with a parachute, or while rafting down mountain rivers. Palpitations, high pulse, pressure surges and numbness. At these moments, your body burns resources at an accelerated rate, living the years allotted to you in minutes.

What to do when the volleys have died down?

Carefully examine yourself and your loved ones after the shelling in case there were arrivals nearby. Perhaps someone was injured, but from the excess of adrenaline, the person did not immediately feel it.

Make sure there are no fires in your home, apartment or neighbors. If there were direct hits, call the fire department and ambulance. Emergency services are prohibited from leaving until the end of the shelling, but your signal will be recorded.

Try to help people nearby, even if you are very scared. If only because tomorrow you may find yourself in similar trouble.

Never touch unexploded ordnance. Despite the fact that this is a fairly common phenomenon - to shoot at residential areas with blanks (they say that this is how the military shows conscience towards civilians), the projectile may turn out to be quite combat, but not explode for some reason. If you saw one, fence it off and report it to law enforcement agencies or the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Shelling is the quintessence of modern wars, the apogee of negative emotions and the hardest test for the human psyche. Even if you, your loved ones and your home do not suffer during the next game of ping-pong, your nervous system and psyche each time, without exception, receive invisible wounds for the time being. It is impossible to avoid them. Then they will manifest themselves as an exacerbation of chronic diseases, sleep disturbances, psychological trauma or serious problems with the nervous and cardiovascular systems.