—— Red Army Sniper ——54stopped observing the enemy. I settled down into my deep little
foxhole. There’s was not much room in there and I was terribly
thirsty; I felt the urge for a little sleep – the extra nervous tension
had seemingly had an effect. ‘So what, I can relax for a little bit.’
But I had scarcely closed my eyes before a shell whistled past and
exploded somewhere nearby. Leaping up immediately, I looked
out of the trench and saw 300 metres away huge clumps of earth
settling back from on high.
‘Oho, they’re chucking the heavy stuff at us! Sounds like long
range artillery – it was barely audible!’ I was pleased that the enemy
gunners were firing so poorly – they were clearly a long way away,
about five kilometres. I was pleased that the shell had exploded not
in Leningrad but in an empty field, albeit near our own trenches.
Several minutes later I once again heard the whistle of a flying
shell. It grew in volume. The explosion forced me to stoop down
lower in my foxhole. This shell fell about 100 metres away from me
and closer to the tramlines. Clearly, the gunners were aiming for
me! But I never got to hear the next explosion; I only felt the earth
shake under my feet, as the third shell landed somewhere nearby.
‘Well, come on, come on, you Nazi scum, shell the whole road.
Let the Leningraders rejoice at your “accuracy”!’ There was only
one problem – my tiny nook was crumbling little by little, loose
earth was pouring in, my foxhole was growing smaller. It was
simply impossible to use a spade now; the Germans would notice.
But another exploding shell somewhere behind me and to the left
of the tramline forced me to reconsider: ‘They’re trying to pick
off the tram! It’s the tram, or rather me, that they’re aiming at!
This conclusion made me hot under the collar. ‘Bastards! They’ve
guessed, the rats! It’s too late for me.. .’ The next exploding shell
tossed up fresh tons of earth. A huge clump, the size of a cauldron
lid, covered me in my firing niche, landing heavily on my back. ‘It’s
all over,’ the thought raced through my mind. ‘I’ll never dig my
way out: I’ve got no more strength left, and something’s weighing
down heavily on my back, and there’s earth everywhere – in my
ears, in my mouth, up my nose.’