Page 13 - Excerpts from the diary

It is three hundred meters from here to the Germans, no more. I looked for a long time toward the enemy, but I did not notice a single
Fritz, although they should be clearly visible from here. They are camouflaged.

I decided to reveal the enemy firing points by firing a submachine gun, but in vain—I fired a whole magazine and used up my
ammunition. The enemy did not answer. He became quiet in his animal hatred and hid treacherously in the earth.

Beside me are replacements. To my left, right, and behind me. They were sent here only yesterday. They are in civilian clothes. Was it not
to them that I dedicated my poem yesterday?

Yesterday I took over the platoon and decided to move closer to it, although the dugout in which I was staying was covered with [illegible
one word], spacious and deep—I worked on arranging it for three days or so.

Second Lieutenant Chernyavsky, by order of the company commander, remained in reserve, and I took over his “platoon.” I write
“platoon” in quotation marks because the number of men in it is smaller than in a normal mortar crew. I have five soldiers and one mortar
on the rolls.

At night the company commander, Senior Lieutenant ..., sent word through his orderly that I should move forward to the rifle-company
commander and observe the places from which the enemy firing points were operating. I went today before sunrise. I arrived, and the
rifle-company commander said that nothing could be seen from his position because the enemy [illegible one word] was located. From
the platoon positions the enemy can be seen well, even his infantry: how they walk, where they fire from. But all this can be seen only at
night or in the evening, and now the Germans are inactive.

“Can I get there, and is it far to the platoon trenches?”

He pointed out to me a barely visible little hill to the left, ahead of him, but warned me several times that it was dangerous now, in
daytime, and risky to life to go there; even crawling it was difficult to get through. For the tree belt was full of snipers who, watching
every movement, opened hurricane fire on the place where anything was noticed. In this way the Germans had put many soldiers out of
action. But there was no way to go except by crawling.

He advised me to wait until the sun rose, which was already preparing to look upon God's world, waking from its short night's sleep.

I waited a little, about thirty minutes, and set out. It was a risk, but a noble risk. And I love risk if it is needed for the good of the cause. I
managed to run at full height to the middle of the space between the little hill and the separate trees where the company command post
was located, when the Fritzes opened fire, and I had to crawl the rest of the way, only occasionally making short dashes. From the little
hill less than half the distance remained to the trenches, and I covered that distance safely.

Here I met two second lieutenants from the courses. One was commander of a machine-gun platoon, the other of a rifle platoon. Their
beards had grown out, [illegible one line and one word] they were dirty [illegible one word] generally [illegible two words] to the last
possibility. Their tunics and breeches were clean, unlike the condition of my clothes—I had managed to smear myself so badly with
watermelons that it was hard to recognize fresh material in my uniform, because I had received the uniform only recently, about two
months ago.

The fellows talk about death, about the fact that their life is a constant risk.

The enemy has just shelled our territory—a tree belt two or three kilometers from here—with mortars. I roughly fixed the direction. It
remains only to determine their actual location at night from the flashes of flame when they fire, because the Germans fire from moving
firing points, most probably mortars. How many there are is hard to determine, but no fewer than four are behind the nearby tree belt in
the direction of the separate trees.

That shelling of our position ended safely for us. After the first shots the fellows ran to the tree belt, while I began to dress, because I had
been lying naked: much earth and dust had fallen into my trousers, boots, and under my shirt. But, paying no attention, I prepared
[illegible one line and one word] to retre[illegible] while I still could.

Several more shells exploded two or three meters from my dugout. Three of us remained at the position: I and two soldiers—Panov and
... A huge fragment, having pierced the lid of a box of mines with which I had covered my trench, with a howl buried itself in the earth,
by some miracle not touching me.

The shelling did not stop, and the shells thudded and roared, breaking to pieces on contact with the earth. Everything around hummed and
trembled; I was showered with still more earth and deafened. Finally the last soldiers ran, and I remained alone. Quickly grabbing my bag
with the diaries and some notebooks, I took to my heels from the place that now seemed to me hell.

The German did not see us. Apparently our firing position was betrayed by the “Rama” that had flown over us the day before. Even when
we were running away, he continued to shell our positions, and only when we were already reaching the tree belt did the Fritzes shift their
aim. The shells threw up the earth not [illegible] [illegible two lines].