Behind the curve in the trench lay a Russian corpse the hand grenade had torn to pieces. Another man was crawling away wounded. Two more were coming down the trench to help him. In the blink of an eye, it was as if they had been frozen in place. They knew that enemy soldiers had made it into this end of the communication trench, but they were still stunned at the sight of this bare-headed boy standing before them with his submachine gun raised.
Trrrrrrrrrrt trrrt trrrrrrt…
Both died without a sound. Asumaniemi yelled backwards, ‘Fork in the trench! Somebody go check the other direction…’
‘He didn’t come,’ Vanhala gasped, but then saw Honkajoki flop down into the trench behind them.
‘Hurry. Hurry… come here!’
Honkajoki came, his eyes round, too out of breath to say a word.
‘There’s a fork in the trench over there… Remember… Whoever goes to the second bunker… Make sure that we can make it into range to take out the machine guns…’
‘Bam.’
‘Hand grenade.’
‘I’ll answer.’ Asumaniemi tossed another grenade. Right after the blast, he took off and made it to the fork in the trench. Three hand grenades in a row sailed toward them, and they leapt a few steps backwards. As they were lying there, Asumaniemi said, ‘I’m gonna go kill that wounded guy. So he doesn’t get us from behind.’
‘He wouldn’t be able to,’ Vanhala panted.
The grenades having gone off, they tried again. Asumaniemi took Vanhala’s grenade too, as Vanhala couldn’t throw very far at all. The boy sped up and threw hard. The grenade flew to just about the spot from which the three grenades had emerged.
‘What will be will be… ding ding ding!’ Asumaniemi ran to the next turn in the trench and shot from behind the corner.
Over the uninterrupted pounding of his submachine gun came Asumaniemi’s shouts of, ‘Guys!… Come here!… Four!… No, more!’
Vanhala and Honkajoki ran crouching after Asumaniemi, making it around the curve in the trench just in time to see the boy empty a drum into a heap of a body that was still moving slightly. They were at the fork in the trench. Vanhala threw two grenades, one after the other, in the direction of the second bunker, and commanded Honkajoki to stand at the head of the trench.
‘Just don’t let ’em through… keep your grenades ready… And if they throw, dodge – but don’t leave…’ Priha was panting with anxiety from the speed of their exertion. Honkajoki was just as frantic, but he nonetheless feigned an air of propriety and straightened up into shooting stance as he said breathlessly, ‘Shock trooper Honkajoki at your service…’
Then Priha threw his last grenade over Asumaniemi’s head, and as soon as it exploded, they headed around the next turn, stepping on the bodies obstructing the trench floor. Soft, limp flesh squished gruesomely underfoot. Asumaniemi was glowing with ecstasy and excitement, and Vanhala was starting to feel some of the same enthusiasm as well. He realized that the operation had succeeded, and this success, combined with his awareness of his own role in it, tickled Priha. He was already smiling.
Just as they both opened fire along the edge of the trench to hold back the enemies manning it, they heard Jalovaara shout from further back on their left. Vanhala glanced over and saw the Ensign running, with Sihvonen and a few of the new men behind him. The other section arrived from behind, coming by way of the same low stretch they had taken.
The two machine guns they had set out to silence sat mute on the bank of the trench. The soldiers manning them had already run by the time Vanhala threw his last grenade. The advancing platoon did encounter some fire from further off, but not enough to halt their attack.
Jalovaara was the first to leap down into the trench. He ordered Vanhala to head back and lead the second section down the trench to the second bunker. The men had received these instructions earlier, of course, but the Ensign still wanted to make sure. He also ordered Vanhala to remind Honkajoki that he was to wait at the fork until Määttä brought the machine gun. It had to be positioned so as to prevent the enemy soldiers from climbing out of the trench and escaping as they evacuated the positions.
‘All right, boys! Now we’re in and we are not letting go. Get to it! Guys in the back, make sure that not one nose peeps out over the edge of this trench. Men in the back, keep the hand grenades coming to the fellows up front. Asumaniemi… OK, here we go.’ Jalovaara was whipped up into a real battle rage. He stepped out in front, hoping to do his part in the whole mission. Watching Vanhala, Asumaniemi and Honkajoki carry out their hand-grenade operation, he had begun to wish he had gone himself and left the platoon to Määttä. He felt a bit ashamed of having sent the others out first – hence his desire to take part in the fighting personally.
They started clearing out the trench. The Ensign walked in front with his submachine gun tucked under his arm, and Asumaniemi threw hand grenades over his head. Some came flying at them from the opposite direction as well, but Asumaniemi easily overwhelmed them. The length and precision of his throws guaranteed that the men could move forward practically unobstructed.
Then the trench joined up with the main artery running along the riverbank. An intense exchange of hand grenades halted them there for a moment, until Jalovaara put a swift end to the skirmish by running boldly up to the turn in the trench and mowing down everything behind it. He brought down a Russian captain along with his three men. That cued the flight.
Then things began to clear up elsewhere too. They were able to retake the other stronghold position the enemy had seized by putting it under heavy fire from the position they’d attained. Jalovaara ordered Määttä and his machine gun to be brought to him as soon as they arrived with the second section, and as soon as they came, they started sending machine-gun and submachine-gun fire over to the neighboring position, over which some intense close-range combat was underway. A large percentage of that stronghold’s posts were practically laid out on a platter before them, and once Määttä got going they could watch the enemy soldiers abandoning the trench. The position had been lost for the very same reason. Once the invaders had taken over the hill that controlled it, they could just shoot their opponents out of their posts and force them to abandon the stronghold, just as the enemy soldiers were now compelled to do themselves, as Määttä shot belt after belt into the trench and the gun-nests.
The others immediately resumed pushing out the enemy. Then came the moment Jalovaara had been waiting for. Their opponents had to climb out of the trench and abandon the position. Hand grenades were still crashing down constantly over by the second bunker, but in front of them the first fugitive was already climbing up onto the parapet. He was trying to make it to the riverbank, but went down after a couple of strides.
Vanhala was behind Asumaniemi and yelled, ‘They’re leaving… Hey… at least ten…’ Several soldiers were climbing from the trench about thirty yards out in front of them. Their plight was hopeless, however.
Jalovaara’s men rushed to the nests and opened fire. Even the more timid men were in a wild frenzy, as the danger was not great and the targets were all the better for it. Enemy soldiers died all along the riverbank. A few made it to the river, but no sooner did they reach the water than it splashed up around them.
‘Aim sharp, boys… time to settle the score, boys… they asked for it…’ Jalovaara’s voice was hoarse as he yelled out brokenly, panting with fury and the rage of battle. Asumaniemi rose up carelessly and said, ‘Hey… I put a stop to that butterfly stroke… did all you bums see that?’