Out on the right flank of our positions—towards the mountains—the rifles crackled merrily.
“Listen now! Isn’t there heavy fighting up on the mountain in the Schwerer Zug’s sector?” we exclaimed.
We listened intently. A trick of the senses—it was only the echo of machine-gun bursts being thrown a hundredfold back by the forest and the cliffs, but extremely vivid and misleading.
To an inexperienced observer it sounded like a violent clash between large forces. Even several times later, after I had become familiar with the strange echoes in the mountains, I caught myself thinking that firing had started again when the groups tested their machine guns—it sounded so natural.
The unit was at the highest state of alert, and the excitement was intense; partisans seemed to be seen behind every bush and mound.
The group was at the highest state of alert, and excitement was intense—partisans seemed to be seen behind every bush and mound!
B… conducted an interrogation: had anyone fired on them?
“No!” they thought not! No—apparently not! But it was quite clear that there was fighting up near the Schwerer Zug’s positions!
“Rubbish!” said B…, “when you fire in a forest, there is something called an echo. Remember that!”
“Has anyone seen or heard anything suspicious?”
They all had! One had seen a knife glint in the darkness—another had noticed some dark figures disappearing between the bushes—and a third had heard stealthy footsteps!
“Now I’m going to tell you something,” B… remarked when the reports were finished. “It is excellent that you are alert and observant, but don’t let your imagination run away with you. You must learn to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal. I am not going to run around being a babysitter for you! I want my night’s rest!
I have nothing against you testing the machine guns from time to time, but conducting a manhunt for shadows and other fanciful creatures—we simply don’t have the ammunition for that. Understood!”
The First Punic War had ended, painlessly and bloodlessly, and peace had once again made its entry into Rastovichza.
Later we learned to distinguish the many sounds of the night from one another and acquired that instinct of warning, which is the front-line soldier’s best protection against surprises and danger.