—— I Become a Sniper ——27‘Ivan, take a look? I can see some Nazis to the right!’ I cried out
joyfully, completely forgetting that I was only about eighty metres
from the enemy front line and could become a target myself.
‘I’ll take the last one, then the first one.’
Dobrik had spotted the Nazis too.
‘Don’t let them get away, Yevgeni!’
Making the usual adjustments to allow for crosswind and the
movement of the target, I set my sights on the head of the last
of the three Nazis and, holding my breath, smoothly pressed the
trigger. The sound of a sniper’s bullet is not loud, but its sting
is lethal. I barely caught the sound of my shot – my own heart
was thumping much more loudly, it seemed to me! I saw the last
of the Germans sink down under the weight of the heavy sack.
The other two continued on their way without noticing what had
happened. Cheered by my success, I decided to shoot the second
Nazi. With a wellpractised motion, I instantly reloaded the rifle.
The second ‘conqueror’ also fell, as if he had tripped. However, he
must have had time to yell something, because the first soldier,
who had taken two of three further steps forward, stopped, looked
around and went back up to his fallen companion. He stood over
him, gesticulating with his hands and saying something to the
solder lying immobile. He was possibly ticking him off for his
clumsiness or, more likely, suggesting that he get back on his feet,
still failing to guess what had actually happened and certainly not
expecting what would happen a second later. But I had more than
enough time to reload the rifle and take another shot. It made a
sharp ‘crack’ – as if a woodpecker had struck a dry fir tree with
its sturdy beak. And felled by my bullet, the third Nazi collapsed
dead on top of the second.
‘Well done! Three at once! With three shots!’ Ivan summed up
the results of my marksmanship. ‘Now it’s my turn. ‘And he got
himself ready to fire, excited by our initial success.
Without letting my own sector out of my sight, I began to pay
more attention to Dobrik’s sector. But the Germans did not come
that close again. And, as illluck would have it, so much snow fell