Wartime puzzle

“A report in a national newspaper of a recent reunion of aircrew veterans had me puzzled,” writes a Craigie regular.

“A former flight engineer who survived the ‘Long March’ west of British prisoners herded by German guards in the closing months of the Second World War said many did not survive.

‘You were simply shot by a Russian if you fell back,’ he said. I’ve never heard that one before – Russians shooting British prisoners.

“Surely the RAF man meant that the prisoners who could not continue were shot by the German guards. Can any reader shed light on this subject?”