Tag #156959 - Interview #78231 (yakov voloshyn)

I kept the cigarette case my colleagues from the editorial office had given to me before I went to the army in the left pocket of my uniform shirt. I didn't use it: I had a pouch for makhorka tobacco. I kept my cigarette case there as a keepsake and with the secret hope that a bullet targeting at my heart would ricochet. I also kept photographs of my wife and son.

I grew a moustache: we shaved with knives or sharpened axes. We had soap and toothpaste supplies, but no razors. Many men had beards and a moustache. But I only wore a moustache. I had a khaki backpack tying on the top. I kept a towel, soap, toothbrush, dried bread, tinned meat, a spoon and a fork in it. Later I got a trophy backpack made from a calf or colt skin with fur on the outside. I remember that it was signed Hans Kofman in ink or ink pencil. When I was wounded this backpack disappeared.

There were medical facilities in every unit. There were medical units in all subdivisions. There were medical attendants to provide first aid and take the wounded from the battlefields. They walked the fields looking for the wounded and provided first aid to the severely wounded before they were moved to hospitals in the rear. The wounded were transported on sanitary trains. Although international conventions banned the bombing of sanitary trains many of them became targets for German planes.