171From the Soviet
Information Bureau...
It was the second half of June 1942. Suddenly one day, quite
unexpectedly, an unaccustomed silence descended on our
regiment’s sector. For over two days now this silence had delighted
us and, at the same time, put us on our guard. It seemed to be
putting pressure on our eardrums, which, right from the beginning
of the war, had managed to get used to sounds that never ceased
for a minute: the crashing of bombs and shells, the whine of
mortars and the rattle of exploding grenades, the hurried babble
of machine guns, the whistle of bullets pursuing one another, the
loud, clear curt commands of the officers, the cries of ‘Hurrah!’
and the groans of wounded comrades.
And now, in this unexpected silence, we discovered that we
had not forgotten, it seemed, how to talk quietly, to hear one
another distinctly. We even had some free time in which we could
write long letters home or simply sit and do nothing. In wearisome
expectation of something, we gazed at the boundless blue sky till
our eyes got sore and discovered that it was the same as it had been
before the war. We also noticed that the days were long, sunny and