—— Red Army Sniper ——190waking Germans saw that a new, inaccessible barrier had sprung
up before their very eyes. A streak of illluck had set in for the
enemy. But the fiendish enemy did not slacken. Deep into the night
our troops beat off attack after attack and the number of Nazi dead
rose. We had almost no casualties.
We spent the following night in relative calm. The Germans
were afraid of the dark; they would not fight at night. They sent
flares into the black sky one after another, in anticipation of an
assault from us. But we did not attempt to attack; we had to rest,
put our defences into order. Only the snipers were firing – at Nazi
silhouettes showing up against the glow of the flares.
On the third morning the Germans again attempted to restore
the situation. Their objective was now much more modest – to
chase us out of an advantageous site and return to their trenches.
The battlefield was filled with the sound of crashing and clanking –
enemy tanks had emerged from a ravine accompanied by infantry
and were heading for our front line. Their guns were belching out
shell after shell as they went, tossing up fountains of soil over our
heads. And again our dreaded orchestra of mortars and artillery
struck up. The fire of our riflemen and snipers cut off the infantry
from the tanks, and the armourplated juggernauts turned back,
pursued by the fire of our guns.
Their aircraft did not bring the Germans success either; as soon
as four Stukas appeared overhead, Yushin’s AA crew unleashed a
hurricane of fire. The German pilots hastened to drop their bombs
... on their own front line. One of the planes was shot down. It
exploded before it hit the ground and the fragments sprayed over
the Nazis. The Nazis failed to achieve anything on the third day
either. Their plans were frustrated by the steadfastness of our
troops, the skilful direction of our commanders, the activity of the
regimental political staff, and the personal example of those who
encouraged the Red Army men on to notable feats.
After a few days the battalion held a Party meeting at which the
results of the threeday engagement with the Nazis were summed
up. At the end of the meeting regimental commissar Tomlyonov