Only then did they realize that they had been under continual fire from the village. Wild with excitement, one guy rose up on his knees shouting, ‘I got at least four for sure! Almost got the fif—’
A bullet struck. The others heard it clearly, followed by the man’s weak cry, right in its wake.
‘Medics!’
‘It’s no use. He’s done for.’
Faces grave, they crawled to cover and grimly answered fire.
A deluge of explosives descended upon the village. Six-inchers shook the ground. The roof of some hay barn went catapulting into the air.
‘Are we attacking?’
‘Of course. Everybody quiet!’
When the barrage was over, they were surprised to hear the crashing of combat coming from behind the village, but any wondering about what it might be was cut short as Kariluoto shouted, ‘Advance!’
They received only weak fire in response. It wasn’t a question of an organized opposition line, but rather the remnants of the village’s local defense forces, fighting for their existence with neither direction nor organization. They were cornered behind the village, trying to retreat through the trees in a scattered swarm. Heavy fighting had been taking place behind the village all day, as the Second Battalion had penetrated through to the main road that morning, racking up enemy positions as it made its way through the backwoods. The din of their own fighting had prevented the men in the First Battalion from hearing anything of it.
As they neared the closest building, they saw a courtyard with a team of horses that had been shot, a destroyed field kitchen and a grenade launcher, beside which lay several bodies.
A few men appeared in the village square, advancing at a crouch. Then a string of pistol shots rang out from here and there, ending the lives of at least a few unlucky souls. The clean up was underway.
Autio’s runner met up with Kariluoto’s platoon and notified them that the Second Battalion was behind the village, so they should be careful not to shoot their own men. The news broke the tension, as it meant that things were beginning to improve. Many men disappeared in search of booty, and the officers had their hands full trying to get even a few of the men to scour the terrain that hadn’t yet been searched.
Rahikainen staggered out of one of the buildings with a huge sack on his back.
‘What did you find?’
‘Sugar. Whole blocks the size of your fist.’
‘Gimme a little.’
‘Gimme, gimme. No sooner do I find something and go get it than I got the whole regiment on my back. This here’s for me and my squad. The rest of you can go find your own sugar.’
‘What’s up?’ Koskela asked, looking interested but just sort of gawking since he still couldn’t really hear when people spoke softly.
‘Bag full of sugar,’ Hietanen yelled into Koskela’s ear. ‘But he’s only sharing with his own squad.’
‘Well, the way it goes is basically that you’re not allowed to scrounge. So these don’t really belong to anybody. So, just keep your mouths shut and eat quietly. In any case they have to be shared amongst the whole platoon.’
‘Well, okey-doke! But I’m not luggin’ this whole thing around by my—’
Rahikainen’s sentence was cut short as he and his sack thumped to the ground. As did the others. A stream of light-machine-gun fire whistled over them.
‘Little bugger’s tryin’ to get his share, too.’ Rahikainen raised his head behind his sack. ‘There, he’s runnin’ over there. Disappeared into that thicket.’
There was a low willow thicket growing out of the stony field of rubble, with mounds of haystacks rotting along its edge.
‘Don’t shoot! Let’s take him prisoner.’
They dispersed into a half-circle around the thicket. ‘Make sure he doesn’t escape.’
‘Rookee veer! Hands up!’
A shower of submachine-gun fire answered back.
‘Idzii surdaa! Idzii surdaa! Come out! We’ll give you some sugar. Tovarisch, idzii surdaa!’
The thicket was quiet. Then they started hearing noises, which, dumbfounded, they realized were sobs. The men looked at one another. Somebody burst out, an unnatural harshness in his voice, ‘Give it to ’im. Even the goddamn devil couldn’t listen to that.’
Bolts clicked and weapons rose, but just then a hand grenade thumped in the thicket.
‘Who threw that?’
‘Nobody.’
‘He blew himself up, guys.’
‘Good God!’ somebody said in shock. Cautiously, they approached the thicket.
‘There he is. Guts all splayed out. Blew up right under his gut.’
Some of them lingered, but most of them went straight back to the village, stealing a furtive backward glance or two as they left.
‘Nice image.’
‘War’s brutal.’
‘—and fighting the cavalry’s futile.’
‘When Lapua’s glorious day was done, von Döbeln rode to see the brave ranks had been sadly thinned…’
‘Got something to chew on there, have you?’ Hietanen said, petulantly. ‘All right, now stop gawking at the guts and get going! We need to get in contact with the Second Battalion. I’ll carry the sugar.’
They scoured the edge of the village. Here and there a shot would go off somewhere, as the enemy were still refusing to give themselves up. Even in this hopeless state of affairs, they just kept trying to shoot, almost without even aiming, blasting away desperately to the end, in whatever direction. These desperate deeds garnered not one word of admiration from the men. When somebody commented on them, Salo said, ‘They’re scared. Wouldn’t you be, if you knew they were going to shoot your relatives if you surrendered?’
‘Yeah, that’s obviously the case,’ Sihvonen confirmed.
The others weren’t at all sure about this theory, but in any case they didn’t start any arguments over it.
Behind the village, they heard somebody cry, ‘Don’t shoot! We’re Finns.’
‘What unit?’
‘Fourth Company.’
The men were lying on the ground, silent and morose. They’d been having a pretty rough time of it the whole day, resisting the enemy’s breakaway attempts as well as its efforts to get reinforcements in from the rear. Even the end of the fighting hadn’t raised their spirits – they just responded irritably to the others’ questioning.
‘Did you guys break through the main road?’
‘Yup.’
‘How’d you get up to the road?’
‘Uh, from the roadside.’
‘We broke through the bunker line.’
‘That so.’
‘Nearly one in three guys knocked off.’
‘Well, thank lady luck you made it through. No use crowing about dead guys round here. We got ours over there, lined up by the root of that spruce. The wounded’ve been lying there since morning. Can’t do anything for ’em but stick needles in their arms.’
‘Got any bread?’
‘Nope.’
‘Neither do we.’
‘What’s Sarge got in his sack there?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing? You scrounged something. I can see it.’
‘Wouldja listen to this guy? First he asks and then he says that he knows. If a guy says he knows something, then why’s he gotta ask? Pre-tty strange if you ask me.’
‘Oh spare yourself, Sarge.’
‘I’m pretty pleased I was spared, now that you mention it! And if you keep askin’ for it, it might be more than I can say for you!’ Hietanen was wound up and the argument might well have continued if Kariluoto hadn’t turned up.
‘Whoa, whoa, there. What’s to get all worked up about? Look, it’s all over now. Food’s on its way.’
‘Well, Jesus! What’s he pickin’ a fight for, then? What’d I ever do to him?’