Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/135

Rh "Without a single suspicious sound, we approached the German position.  'Halt! Wer-da?'  was heard almost immediately. 'Friends,' answered we in German, and in the same instant our bayonets went into action. The Germans did not have a chance even to realize what was going on. One or two fired at random. It did not take us more than a few moments to dispatch them all

"Soon we approached the sleeping village. There was no difficulty in quietly dispatching the guards. It was then that the work began. We had taken along with us a considerable number of hand grenades, to the use of which our soldiers have now become quite accustomed. Our guides assured us that there was nobody in the village except the German soldiers, who occupied every available hut and cottage. Our task was made easier by the fact that the village stretched out in a long line The work consisted in approaching a window of a hut, breaking the glass with the elbow, and then throwing the grenade inside. Ten seconds later, which is sufficient time for the man throwing the grenade to run to a safe distance, the grenade would explode with a terrific force, shattering everything inside and setting the building on fire. There was no escape for those caught inside the huts.

"The work began. From every direction came the sounds of explosions, and hut after hut flared up. Most of the Germans were asleep, and they passed to the next world, never knowing what had sent them there There was a light in one hut, and through the window we could see a group of five or six officers playing cards around a table. Evidently they had had their supper only a short while before, and were now passing a pleasant hour before retiring. They had come to Nevel the day before, together with the staff of the 82nd Division, whose presence in the village was a welcome surprise to us. The officers evidently thought themselves in perfect safety and were in fine spirits. Suddenly the glass of the window-pane jingled to the floor, and, several seconds later a terrible explosion shook the place. Of the peaceful card-table scene nothing remained but the flaming hut, in whose ruins was burning the torn flesh of the German officers.

"The explosion and the conflagration made our presence in the village evident, of course, and the disturbed Germans began to rush out of the houses, firing at random. But they inevitably struck one of our bullets or bayonets.

"It did not take us long to destroy, in this manner, the whole