—— Red Army Sniper ——42‘Loktyev!’ Vladimirov stopped the scout bringing up the rear.
‘You stay with me! Tell the others to take cover in the trenches. It’ll
go up any minute now. We’re back safe and sound, despite messing
things up! Well, shall we view the fruits of our labours?’
He settled down beside me in the crater. After passing on the
officer’s order, Loktyev lay down beside Vladimirov and from habit
quickly got ready to fire.
Valentin Loktyev and I had been at school together in Tambov.
True, he was two classes below me, but his sister Lida was in my
class and nearly all the boys strove to win her favour. Val himself
- a broadshouldered, sturdy lad – singled me out above the others
because I was often at their home; Lida and I shared textbooks,
which were in short supply at that time. Val was a sniper now and
had wiped out more than a few Nazis.
‘Well thank you to the fire,’ said Loktyev. ‘That’s why the
Germans retreated so quickly.’
‘Oh yes! I’d say you made extra work for me,’ said I, seeing
three Nazis going down to the unfrozen stream carrying buckets.
‘Well, thank you! Otherwise I would have darn near frozen,
sitting here with nothing to do!’ And I set my sights on one of
the soldiers.
‘What are they doing – firefighting? Off to fetch water? Shoot
the firefighters, Yevgeni,’ shouted Maximov.
But I didn’t need to be told – one Nazi was already in my sights.
I gave them all the chance to collect water, knowing that, with
heavy buckets, it would be much harder for them to move and they
would walk more slowly.
‘Don’t get in my way, Val! You’ve done your job! Let me do
mine now,’ I told Loktyev, who was also getting ready to open fire
on the Germans.
After pausing to think, he agreed, but kept looking through his
sights. The firefighters, as Maximov had christened them, had filled
their buckets and were already coming up along the slippery path
to the crest of the gully. Their black figures were clearly outlined
against the snow. My first shot rang out and the Nazi who had