Told by A. Pankratoff
Translated from the Russian for Current History
I—GERMANS HANGED COSSACKS ON TREES
The other day, quite unexpectedly, I ran into Lieutenant X., better known as the Junior Subaltern.
This was the fourth time I had run across him since the beginning of the war—at Insterburg, where the Junior Subaltern was leading his company toward Königsberg; then in the trenches beyond Tarnovo; then in the vicinity of Lublin, during the great retreat; and now, the fourth time.
"I am stationed twelve versts from Czernowitz," he went on to explain. The Junior Subaltern is really so young that you can't help envying him. His face shines with health. His eyes are always laughing. His speech is very simple, but impressive; but he does not like to talk; he would rather listen, and laugh responsively with his eyes.
Fortune had brought us together; several men sitting down to a common meal. We talked freely about everything. The conversation turned to the German habit of finishing all the wounded enemies they find after a successful battle. During the forest fighting last August one of us had come across sixty Cossacks who had been but slightly wounded, and whom the Germans had hanged on the trees.
"We avenged them, however; the Germans got something to remember!" said the narrator.
Lieutenant X.'s eyes sparkled with animation.