—— Red Army Sniper ——24drag two or three pots or other objects along the ground by a
long rope. They served as standins for the helmets and heads of
the Nazi forces. We also practised shooting rapidly; we strove to
fire ten to twelve targeted shots a minute. However difficult the
instruction was for us, we steadfastly endured it. Finally, the time
came for examinations. At the beginning of October, we emerged
as a group to take them right on the front line.
At that time the enemy had a patent advantage over us both in
manpower and in military technology. Nor did he stint himself
in the use of ammunition; to a single rifle shot the fascists would
respond with a hurricane of unaimed fire at our trenches. Their
dive bombers and other aircraft were constantly overhead,
‘working over’ the front line.
One day a frenzied Nazi ace who had been unable to get through
to Leningrad returned to base with an unused load of ordnance.
On the way he decided to rid himself of his bombs and dropped
them on our trenches, without, it is true, causing any particular
damage. Warned in good time by observers, the troops managed
to take cover in shelters.
‘Air attack!’ shouted the observers again, noticing that the
enemy aircraft was turning round. Our trenches emptied, except
for our pet cat Mureshka, who had made her home with us and
was now calmly crossing the highway in the direction of our
neighbouring mortar teams, who, according to their timetable,
were due to be serving dinner. Flying along the highway and not
noticing anything of interest apart from ‘a cat proceeding in single
file’, the Nazi pilot swooped down on her for his own amusement
and sprayed her with a scything burst of machinegun fire.
Crazed with fear, the cat sat down briefly with her tail beneath
her and then dashed along the highway. The pilot did not hesitate
to make a third attack and succeeded in killing our Mureshka.
The bastard was a deft marksman. However, this sortie proved to
be the last one for him too. One of our lads from Tambov, Yuri
Semyonov, fired a single shot at the plane from an ordinary rifle
and seemingly scored a direct hit on the pilot. Losing control, the