Russian commanders issued one rifle and a few rounds of ammunition to one Russian soldier and then handed a club or no weapon at all to a number of other Russian soldiers. Any Russian soldier who tried to turn around to face the rear, failed to continue moving forward, or moved to slowly and carefully to satisfy the commander was ordered to be mown down with machinegun fire from behind. When the Russian soldier who was armed with a rifle and a few bullets was shot down, an unarmed Russian soldier was expected to pick up the rifle and ammunition and move forward towards the objective of the attack. When he was shot down too, the next Russian soldier was to continue on until all were killed. This is one of many means by which the Russian commanders managed to kill about ten Russian soldiers for every one German soldier they killed. The Russian commanders helped the Germans to kill the Russian soldiers by also shooting the Russian soldiers. The same was also true with regard to Russian POWs who escaped the German captivity or were later repatriated from the German POW camps. The Russian commanders took former Russian POWs to a wall or a grave and shot them to death.