—— Shoot the Firefighters! ——43reached the crest of the gully first kind of tripped, fell and rolled
back down under the feet of the other two. They also rolled back
down, the buckets clattering. I did not give them a chance to get
up again.
‘Well done!’ said Maximov and added,’ Hang on! There are
more coming.’
And indeed three more Nazis were already running towards
the gully from behind the house. Each of them had a couple of
buckets in his hands. Without looking round, the first of them slid
down the slope of the gully, perched on the folds of his overcoat.
The second one wanted to follow his example, but, after surveying
the scene before him, worked out what was going on and made
to turn back. However, the third one, who had been felled by my
bullet, bowled him off his feet and the two of them – both the
living and the dead – rolled downhill, overtaking their buckets.
Meanwhile I occupied myself with the first Nazi. He had also
quickly rolled down our Russian hillside. The second one, who had
begun screaming blue murder from fright, tried to dash uphill, but
failed to manage three steps before it was all over for him.
Up behind the house, which was even more alight, they had
decided to apply a different tactic: without waiting for water, they
began tossing snow on the fire. I saw a ladder appear on one side
that was slightly higher than the roof of the burning house. Two
soldiers were already climbing up onto the crest of the roof, towards
the chimney. What they wanted to do up there I had no idea, and it
wasn’t my concern. But following my shots first one, then the other
rolled down onto the ground.
The fire was raging all around the house. Explosions could be
heard, and muffled echoes in the storeroom itself.
‘Well, brothers,’ said Junior Lieutenant Vladimirov, ‘now it
looks as if it’s really going to go up. Let’s move farther down.’
We all made a quick dive down to the bottom of the crater.
And, mouths wide open, we barely had time to huddle together
before the air shook with an explosion of deafening power. There
was such a thump that the ground bucked beneath us and planks,