Machine Gunners

During the offensive, the machine gunners were at the very point of the attack; during the defense, they covered the infantry with fire. The attacking enemy’s first objective was to knock out the machine-gun crews. Enemy snipers constantly hunted them from behind their firing positions. Artillery fire, tank fire, self-propelled guns, bombardment and assault aviation—everything struck them first. Machine gunners at the front suffered such huge losses that they were often called suicide men. In the new book “Machine Gunners” from the series “War. I Remember. The Artem Drabkin Project,” the soldiers themselves—frontline fighters: soldiers, sergeants, and officers of the machine-gun troops—tell about service at the front line, about the trials that fell to them in the years of war.