—— Day-to-Day Life on the Front Line ——55Again some blunt object landed on the ground and something
heavy struck me on the head and rolled onto my shoulders... Then
there was total silence, darkness descended, and I could think no
more.
* * *I came to in our company command post, in a vast concrete
pipe laid across the tramline and right under it. I was sitting on
a stool with my back leaning against the pipe. Everything on me
was unbuttoned, my arms hung loosely like string, my legs were
wide apart and there was a buzzing in my head. Some people were
walking around me. I sort of recognised them and didn’t recognise
them – everything was in a fog. They were talking to me – I could
see that – but the voices didn’t reach my consciousness. ‘Maybe I’ve
gone deaf,’ I thought.
And so I sat there, obtusely staring at the floor, which had
water flowing across it; the floor comprised freshlycut boards laid
at intervals. I could see my officers, a telephonist with a receiver
attached to his head and ear, and I could see an oil lamp smoking
away on a shell box, which was being used as a table. I was sitting
and trembling ever so slightly. There were no conscious thoughts
in my head. Then somebody familiar dropped down onto his knees
beside me. ‘Who does he remind me of? I know him well!’ Finally,
it dawned on me that it was my friend and fellowtownsman,
medical assistant Ivan Vasilyev. Near him on the floor lay an open
firstaid bag. For some reason I remember it particularly clearly
- it was green with a red cross on the lid. I was trying to gather
my thoughts, but nothing came of it, and I closed my eyes and
collapsed...
After a while I opened my eyes again, but there was nobody
around; the scenery was just the same except that the oil lamp was
smoking dreadfully and I was choking.
As they told me later, I slept at the command post for eighteen
hours uninterrupted, slept as I sat there. Nobody disturbed me.