Evening star., 1941-11-13

NJlldSc I1C Ouit lllt W ''it'A'
officer who spoke Russian then came
back with a squad Of four men
with rifles. While he had been Just
his guards had simply held
pistols in their hands. He said that
he and his three companions did
not speak to each other They all
knew that the four Germans were
A firing squad. The German officer
told them to march down a street
that led from the square. They went
off slowly. The Germans followed.
The Germans did not hurry them.
They walked to the edge of the
village into a field beyond a farm
house. There was rye growing in
the field. The German officer said.
walk in line and stop when YOU
are told and turn around
Some one of the Russians said.
I'VE might as well run for it." The
lieutenant said he did not feel any,
thing particular during all this time
except that he was depressed. The
thought went through his head as
" "lltlIlCl " a. NOl III WILLIE.
But then the idea Of running made
him feel better. He thought these
things while he was limping out into
the rye field. He was conscious that
the Germans behind him had
stopped. He heard an order being
given them in their own language
They Bolt.
When the German officer said
stop, the four Russians bolted. They
ran many steps before the shots
came. The lieutenant did not even
hear them. He was on his face in
the mud feeling as though he had
been slapped down by a giant fly
sWatter. He was not unconscious
and he remembers the feel of the
boot that kicked him to see if he
was dead. A long time later he
found out that two of the men who
had been with him were already
dead. This news had been brought
by the third, who had made a clean
getaway. The Germens had not pur-
sued him beyond the field.
MY friend heard the firing squad
walking about, their boots squash
ing in the damp earth. After a
while they went away. When it was
quiet the lieutenant began to feel
conscious Of his body again and he
knew that he had been hit twice in
the back. He showed me the
wounds. He had been hit on either
side just below the shoulder blades.
They were very lucky shots for him.
While he was lying there in the mud
in the rye field he did not feel they
were lucky. They were bleeding.
Crawled Most Of Night.
1t was dark and he began to
crawl. He did not even try to stand
up. He craWled across the field.
through a stream on the far side
and when the light came in the
morning he was in a wood. He Law
there all day and sometimes in the
afternoon he heard children walking
near him. He knew they were chill
dren by the lightness of their steps,
He thought that if they were chill
dren they must be Russian children.
so he called out. His cries fright
ened them and they ran away. But
presently they came back and he
was able to reassure them. He sent
them for some food, any kind of
food. They came back with milk
and some cigarettes. He told them
to go away and not to tell any one
but their parents that they had seen
him.
The milk and the tobacco made
him feel much better and he went
on crawling through the woods be-
fore it was dark. By now he was too
stiff to stand up. He thinks he
craWled most of the night. The next
morning, the second, he was in open
country at the foot of a hill. He
thought that such hill would be
fortified, that there might be Rus
slams there, and that anyway if they
were Germans instead it would not
matter, because he could not go
much farther. He got up the hill.
There was Russian machine gun
emplacement at the top.
He remembers trying to explain
to the commander why he had no
papers, but he doesn't know what
the commander said nor how they
took him out of there. When he
regained consciousness he was being
carried on a stretcher. He had Eeen
to a base dressing station in the
meantime, for there were new band
ages on ali four Of his wounds.
Germans and Flowers.
He was taken to a field hospital
There were several German officers
in the field hospital and it made him
angry to see them. After he had
been in the field hospital for a few
days the order came that it must
be evacuated. The Germans hao
passed it on two sides. All the
wounded went out of the hospita
on stretchers. They had to be car
ried a long way to the trucks. The
German officers went along with the
Russians. They were all in white
nightgowns - and bandages - Ger
mans as we'll as Russians.
On their way to the trucks they
were met by a delegation of loca
peasants who stopped them anc
whose leader made speech. There
were children among them, and each
child carried a bouquet. After tht
speech they brought the flowers to
the men on the stretchers. My
lieutenant said he wanted to SEE
what the Germans would do wher
they got the flowers. He sat up in hi!
stretcher to see. The children, o.
course, did not know which wert
Germans and which were Russians
The first German took his bouquet
and threw it in the mud. The sec.
ond German took his and looked a.
1t and began to cry. He could no.
see what the others did. except tha'