—— Day-to-Day Life on the Front Line ——51I had been studying the enemy defences for a long time. I saw
the little mounds so familiar to me in detail – the German dugouts.
Now and again somebody would pass by near them, cautiously
stooped over. They did not need to worry – it wasn’t them that
interested me today. I took a look to the rear; according to what
our scouts had told me, their headquarters ought to be somewhere
there. I tried to locate it. Earlier on, any Nazi headquarters was
easy to distinguish by the telephone lines. Now the Germans had
become more careful; they had begun to run the wires along the
ground and cover them with snow.
I waited for those who were either running or walking
quickly. Within a couple of hours, I spotted some and, among
them, two or three men who, wherever they went and however
long they were absent, always returned to one and the same
dugout. I began to examine it – it stood out among the others
for its size and height. From the side I could see the door – a big
door, like in real houses. On the side facing our trenches there
was a window, which was also wide, but low. But the main thing
was the sentry walking back and forth by the dugout. ‘Looks like
that’s the headquarters,’ I thought to myself, and finally switched
all my attention to it.
I estimated out that it was roughly 700 metres away. The
human figures were small, but distinctly visible; my telescopic
sights magnified them fourfold. But estimating distance by
eye is one thing; it needed to be checked! I set my sights at 700
metres and loaded the rifle with a tracer cartridge. Apart from
the door I could not find any particularly notable marker. I chose
a moment when the machine guns were chattering on the edge
of the front line, and, covered by their noise, took a single shot –
the bullet left a clear trace to the door. Everything was precisely
worked out! Now it only remained to make a slight adjustment to
the sight’s drum – and await the kill. Today, apparently delivered
on order.
Yet my first shot was not at that dugout. Forty metres away
from it was another dugout – with no windows or doors on my