‘This was face-to-face battle,’ said a gun-layer called Trofim Karpovich Teplenko. ‘It was like a duel, anti-tank gun against tank. Sergeant Smirnov’s head and legs were torn off. We brought the head back, and also the legs, and put them all into a little ditch, and covered them over.’ Dust from the black earth and cordite smoke turned their food dark grey, assuming the rations arrived. And during the odd lulls in the battle, the men found it hard to sleep in the silence. ‘The quieter it is, the more tense it feels,’ Lieutenant Colonel Chevola explained.
