[CCIP]

I also know a bit about two of my great-grandfathers in WWII, who were both officers. One of them was an engineer and served north of Leningrad during the siege, facing the relatively quiet Finnish lines. From my understanding, one day he went out to inspect barriers out in no man's land and was shot in the leg by a Finnish sniper - all signs point to this being done on purpose, to draw out other troops to his help. The Russian soldiers knew that trick, it seems, and so he lay there bleeding with his shattered leg until nightfall, just meters away from friendly lines. The leg was amputated and my great-grandfather never recovered from this psychologically - he turned into an abusive alcoholic who eventually lost his family and died alone in his 40s, only a few years after the war.

My other great-grandfather was already an older man when the war started - he was 45, and a well-respected doctor. He served through the war with the rank of Junior Lieutenant, from what I understand largely in the Western part of Russia, Belarus and the Baltics. (Side note, by the way, is that by his ethnicity he was basically Saami). His job was field surgeon - and field surgeon he certainly was; at one point, his "operating room" was caught up in a mortar barrage, and he was heavily wounded, spending the rest of his life with a piece of shrapnel embedded inside the back of his skull. After the war, he was awarded several medals and returned to his life as a doctor. He is remembered by all as a calm, jolly, intelligent guy who liked to smoke his pipe, drink vodka and tell stories - just not about the war - and was always great to his kids and grandkids.