 The next day, Shanina wrote in a letter that she might be on the verge of being killed because her battalion had lost 72 out of 78 people.Her last diary entry reports that German fire had become so intense that the Soviet troops, including herself, had sheltered inside self-propelled guns.On 27 January Shanina was severely injured and was later found by two soldiers disemboweled, with her chest torn open by a shell fragment.