—— Red Army Sniper ——176Political Instructor Dmitry Martynovich Yerofeyev, who was in
our trenches during this battle. Again and again he telephoned his
battalion commander that the Germans were gathering beyond
the embankment for a new assault. But the battery commander
himself could already see through his binoculars what was
happening in our sector. All it took was a brief order, and the fire
of the antiaircraft guns again descended on the Nazis. Once again
the company machine gunners would not let the Nazis raise their
heads; again I put their officers and their more zealous soldiers out
of action.
With the aid of the AA gunners the second attempt by the
enemy infantry to attack our trenches also fizzled out. And yet the
situation remained critical; we did not have enough troops, almost
all the officers had been disabled, and the enemy were capable of
repeating their attacks. Of the two Nazi battalions a good half were
now left lying eternally in this gully. But what if this assault was
only for reconnaissance? To test their forces and ours? What if they
suddenly throw a whole regiment at us? In such a case we could
not hold our ground, even with artillery support. But no soldier
even conceived of abandoning his position and handing trenches
over to the enemy. That would mean letting the Nazis through to
Leningrad! Left as we were, devoid of communication with the
regiment, we were not sure that the commanders were aware of
our developing situation and already taking measures to render
assistance to the thin ranks of the garrison. In fact, the assistance
arrived almost in good time. But while we waited we again tidied
up our trenches and got ready to repel fresh enemy attacks, which
were not slow in being renewed.
Within half an hour or so the replenished Nazi ranks, urged
on by their officers, charged at our defences for the third time.
And once again they got right up close to us, pelting our trenches
with their longhandled grenades. But few of them produced the
result desired by the Germans; we contrived to catch the grenades
in the air or pick them up from the trench floor and toss them
back.