Koskela hurried over to Hietanen. ‘How are you doing? My God! They oughtta give you leave for that. I couldn’t watch when all that moss went flying up, I had to shut my eyes. And right at your feet!’
Hietanen couldn’t really make out what Koskela was saying, though he was able to hear his voice now. So he just said, ‘I have no idea. I haven’t got the slightest idea. I just hurled it. It was just the grace of God that that ensign managed to get it all ready to blow. But I was scared all right! Holy bejesus was I scared! I didn’t think I’d ever get that cigarette lit. It’s just mind-boggling that a person can have a scare like that. But hey, we better go check it out.’
‘That does it. I finished ’em off!’ Rahikainen announced, coming to join them. He may have succeeded in deceiving himself, but he certainly didn’t fool Koskela, who paid him no attention whatsoever. The three of them cautiously approached the vehicle.
It was silent, and when they had waited a moment, Hietanen banged on the side of it with the butt of his gun. He had shaken off his shock now, and gave himself up to a state of euphoria. In a voice that declared it belonged to the vehicle’s destroyer, he bellowed, ‘If anybody’s still in there, now’s the time to come out! Otherwise I’m gonna give this roof a blast that’ll send you all the way to America! From now on, this tank is mine and I decide who drives it. Idzii surdaa! Ruskee soldaat! Come on out! Well, damn. I’m popping the hatches.’
Hietanen climbed up onto the roof and pried open the heavy hatch door. When he got it open, he looked inside and then called out to the others, ‘These guys all got blood comin’ out their ears. All’s quiet.’
‘Say, the one I finished off’s a lieutenant!’ Rahikainen shouted from underneath the tank, where he was cutting off the dead man’s badges. ‘That makes me as good as captain of the Russian army from now on. Now that I took down this lieutenant here.’
Hietanen had already forgotten their recent spat. He looked over the tank and exclaimed in sincere amazement, ‘Jesus Christ, guys! Am I something or am I something! I’m pre-tty damn impressed! Say now, what does all this make me? Hero of Finland! If only this damn buzzing in my head would stop. Nothin’ swollen up there I hope.’
‘Oh it’s swollen all right, but don’t worry, it won’t hurt’cha,’ Rahikainen smiled. It was like an olive branch, the way he said it – and it made Hietanen laugh, as indeed everything made him laugh just then.
Then men and officers started gathering around the tank, bursting with congratulations. Even Lammio nodded approvingly and said, ‘That’s the way. That decisiveness was exemplary.’
The only remarkable thing about his congratulations was that nothing about them really felt congratulatory. The aloofness and expressionlessness of his thin voice always felt a little offputting, regardless of what he happened to be saying. Even Sarastie turned up. He took Hietanen by the hand, squeezed it and said pointedly, ‘Having been aware of the previous state of affairs, I might understand better than anyone here just what you have accomplished. So first, many thanks. You’ll be receiving a Liberty Cross at the next ceremony, and I’ll get the paperwork moving pronto for your promotion to sergeant.’
Hietanen was a little perplexed. He still couldn’t quite make out all the Major’s words, but he got the general drift. Even if he was sincerely amazed at himself, he still found it rather embarrassing to be congratulated by everybody else. So, he just smiled and looked uneasily at the officers.
Sarastie resumed his battalion commander stance and downshifted to the most general variety of small talk. Tapping the tank with his stick, he said, ‘Ought to be a very successful model, this new one. But it looks like even their most skilled engineers are no match for Finnish courage and conviction.’
A moment ago, the Major had been praising Hietanen, but with these words he was already moving on to congratulating himself. The Major, like so many military commanders, considered the feats of his troops feats of his own. Failures, however, were the fault of cowards and adverse circumstances. To be sure, the Major had actually been in a state of anxiety that exceeded even that of his men. They had at least been ignorant of how critical their position really was. Amongst other things, the battalion commanders as well as the advanced company commanders had received strict orders not to move back their command posts under any circumstances – meaning that, were it to come down to it, they were to go down at their posts.
Now, however, the situation was improving. The failed attack had shaken the enemy’s confidence, and on top of that, the division had just sent word of its advance, so the artillery would be able to back them up as soon as they’d taken over the firing positions.
But Sarastie had just lived through a critical couple of minutes. Several of the automatic weapons had started to run low on ammunition. Every last reservist had been put into combat, and the men positioned on the far side of the swamp had been left with virtually no cover at all.
Following such an experience, there was reason to indulge in a moment’s good spirits. Sarastie straightened himself up, feeling his energy return and his capabilities strengthen as he stretched out to his full, towering height. Power and potency seemed to surge through him with the blood pumping through his veins.
The importance of this operation guaranteed that it would be followed with great interest all the way up to General Headquarters. The Marshal himself might even be listening to the news at this very moment: ‘An enemy attempt to break through from the west has been put down after heavy fighting by Battalion Sarastie. Other battalions have also repelled the enemy’s slightly weaker attacks attempting to bring relief from the north and the east.’
The Major turned to his men. A joke came to mind, which Sarastie had actually come up with the day before, but decided to save for the appropriate occasion – which, it seemed to him, was now. ‘Well, boys. Caught your breath now, have you? We got them right in the jaw this time. Let’s go and give it to them in the seat of their pants next. They’re after that nickel up in Petsamo… Well, you’re all generous fellows, aren’t you? Let’s go give them all the nickel they want.’
The good cheer spawned by the successful thwarting of the enemy attack made the men laugh all the more heartily at the Major’s joke, and Salo, who was standing nearby, exclaimed just loud enough for the Major to hear – or rather, just so that the Major would hear, ‘Let’s give it to ’em, let’s give it to ’em! Ain’t got no penny-pinchers here!’
Lahtinen and Määttä didn’t have time to marvel over the tank. They were too busy scavenging ammunition from dead enemy soldiers, having nearly run out of their own in putting down the attack. Lahtinen was flipping a dead Russian onto his back so as to get at his pockets when he heard the Major shouting from across the road.
‘Oh, stop crowing,’ he grumbled. ‘We’re still here all right, but just barely. They’re a tough bunch, that’s for sure. Heading for us bolt upright, even after I sent four belts at ’em.’
Määttä was accustomed to Lahtinen’s grousing and didn’t ever take it too seriously. He just responded rather indifferently, ‘Seems pretty convenient to have ’em running upright if you’re tryin’ to shoot ’em down. Anyway, it’s a good thing we all got the same caliber weapons. They even thought of that.’
‘Humph… no. Nobody thought that far. The Whites stole weapons from the Russians back in the Civil War, that’s why they’re the same.’
‘Weren’t you the one who said it was the Germans who armed the Whites?’
‘Yeah, they armed ’em with the guns they stole from the Russians out here on the Eastern Front leading up to ’17. But hey, gimme that guy, the one still hangin’ onto his rifle there. Come on, buddy, let go, lemme see if you got any rounds left in that magazine a yours. God damn it. You’d think I’d be able to manage against a dead guy. Humph. Nothin’. Just one little sucker in there. But hey, let’s go over there behind that mound. That’s where their machine gun was.’