Chapter 1296 Prisoner of War camp in the distance (Part 2)

Sahiko’s words reminded Rakury, he nodded and said: “That’s right, if the Germans want to build a large-scale prisoner-of-war camp in the forest, they will definitely choose to be near the water source, even if it is not by the creek, the distance is not far away. It will be too far. Comrades, let’s set off and search along this stream to see if we can find what we are looking for.”

  Sergeant La Currie's order is like a heavenly sound to every scout. When marching in the forest at night, it is difficult to see clearly. In addition, the forest in summer is full of shrubs and weeds, which seriously affects the speed of marching. Now marching along the stream, the target and reference are much clearer, which can greatly increase the speed of marching.

  The reconnaissance team walked forward for about half an hour, and the scouts who were opening the way in front suddenly stopped.

   "What's going on?" Seeing the scouts who opened the way stopped, La Curry guessed that the other party might have discovered something, and hurriedly whispered to the other scouts to stop, then trotted over and asked, "Did you find anything?"

   "Sergeant," the scout said to La Currie, pointing to a place ahead, "There seems to be a light in the clearing in the forest ahead."

Rakury looked in the direction of the scout's finger, and saw that there was indeed a light on the clearing in the distance. Although it was blocked by trees, he could still vaguely see that it was the light of a searchlight, because it was facing away from him Here, so I can't really see it.

   "It looks like that's the target we're looking for." After La Curry finished speaking, he turned around and waved to the scouts who stopped behind, signaling them to follow.

   After Sashiko came over, he asked La Curry in a low voice: "Comrade Sergeant, have you found the place we are looking for?"

"Yes." La Curry nodded, and replied affirmatively: "We found the lights of the searchlights in the clearing in the distance. It looks like a prisoner-of-war camp built by the enemy. But to be on the safe side, we must get closer reconnaissance."

  The glade looks not far away, but the actual distance is two or three kilometers. It took the scouting team an hour to pass through the forest and reach the edge of the glade.

Here, La Curry saw a camp surrounded by barbed wire. Around the camp, there were wooden watchtowers with sandbags and machine guns on them. Soldiers were using searchlights to see what was happening in the camp. .

  Lakuli did not bring his own reconnaissance team close to the reconnaissance, because with the character of the Germans, they would definitely plant landmines around the camp. So I left lying in the grass on the edge of the forest, and used a telescope to observe the movement of the camp hundreds of meters away.

  By the light of the searchlight, La Curry saw clearly that there was a circle of barbed wire in the middle of the camp, and there were hundreds of figures inside, who should be captured Soviet commanders and fighters. In addition to a few sentries standing guard at the entrance of the barbed wire, there were also several teams of five-member patrols constantly walking around the barbed wire.

   "The guards are really tight." Sahiko said to Rakury in a low voice: "Comrade Sergeant, there is no way for us to rescue our comrades from such a tightly guarded prisoner-of-war camp."

   "Sashiko, our task is to find out the location of the prisoner-of-war camp and report it to the superior. The task of rescuing the prisoners of war will be handed over to other troops to complete."

   Seeing that La Curry was about to climb aside and notify the operator to send a report, Sashiko stopped him: "Comrade Sergeant, can you lend me your telescope?"

  Lakuli thought that he was going to the forest, and informed the operator to send a telegram to the Army Reconnaissance Office. It was true that the telescope was not needed, so he took it off and handed it to Sashiko.

  Unexpectedly, La Curry hadn't finished sending the telegram yet, when he heard a rush of footsteps, he quickly clenched the weapon in his hand and was ready to shoot. Fortunately, Sashiko's voice came at this time: "Comrade Sergeant, this is Sashiko. I have an important situation and I need to report it to you immediately."

   "It turned out to be Sashiko." La Curry lowered his gun and said to Sashiko's hiding place: "Come here, if you are a second late, maybe I will shoot."

  When Sashiko came to him, La Curry asked: "Sashiko, tell me, what did you find, so surprised."

   "Comrade Sergeant, didn't you lend me the binoculars just now?" Sashiko said, "I found something wrong with the steel helmet worn by the sentinel on the watchtower."

   "The helmet is not right?" Rakury asked in amazement: "Could it be that they are wearing our steel helmet?"

"How is this possible?" Sashiko replied with a wry smile, "I found out that the steel helmets worn by the sentries on the watchtower were Italian. In other words, the guards guarding the camp may not be Germans, but Italian."

"What, it's not the Germans who guard the prisoner-of-war camp, but the Italians?" Rakury felt that Sahiko was talking nonsense. Since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, Italian soldiers have hardly been seen on the battlefield. How could it be possible to emerge from here? Sashiko must have misread it. He took the telescope in the other party's hand and said, "Let's find out what's going on now."

  Lakuli quickly returned to the hiding place just now, raised his binoculars and looked at the soldiers on the watchtower. When he was checking the situation in the camp just now, he only noticed where the captured Soviet commanders and fighters were being held and how many enemies were patrolling. He didn't pay attention to the helmets worn by the enemies at all, which were different from the helmets worn by the Germans.

   This targeted observation, La Curry soon discovered that Sashiko was not talking nonsense, and there was indeed something wrong with the soldiers guarding the camp. The soldiers on the watchtower not only wear helmets that are different from the German helmets, but also the machine guns on the sandbags are not the MG34 or MG42 general-purpose machine guns commonly used by the German army, but a side-mounted magazine-fed machine gun. .

  After seeing these differences clearly, La Curry suddenly understood in his heart that the enemy guarding the prisoner-of-war camp was not the Germans, but their allies, the Italians. Such important information needs to be reported to the Army Reconnaissance Office immediately.

   A quarter of an hour later, the intelligence of the La Curry reconnaissance team was placed on the table of the army headquarters.

Seeing such a reconnaissance report, Sameko said with some surprise: "I really didn't expect that since the end of the Stalingrad Defense War, the Germans felt that the Italian army's combat effectiveness was too weak and would hold them back on the battlefield, so they They were all withdrawn from the front line. I really didn't expect that now they are asked to take care of the prisoner-of-war camp. I think those Italian officers and soldiers must be very depressed."

  Sokov did not echo what the other party said, but asked unexpectedly: "What's the date today?"

   "Today is July 19, Comrade Commander." After answering Sokov's question, Sameko asked curiously, "Why are you asking this?"

   "It's nothing, I just asked casually." Sokov said it was nothing, but he was thinking in his heart: In real history, due to the British and American coalition forces landing in Sicily. The Italian parliament passed a motion for Mussolini's resignation by a majority vote on July 24; the next day, Mussolini was arrested during an audience with the king. It seems that the relationship between Germany and Italy will soon change.

However, Italy withdrew from the Axis Alliance, joined the Allies, and declared war on Germany. It would take until mid-October. Sokov did not have so much time to wait, so he was ready to quickly take down this prisoner-of-war camp and detain the prisoners inside. They were all rescued: "Chief of Staff, which of our troops is the closest to the POW camp?"

   "Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov's 46th Infantry Brigade."

"Order Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov to lead his troops to this area immediately." Sokov figured out which troops were closest to there, and decisively issued an order: "Let them rescue all the commanders and fighters detained in the prisoner-of-war camp. come out."

"Comrade Commander," Sameko hurriedly reminded him when he heard Sokov's order: "After the battles of the previous few days, Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov's troops have less than two battalions left. Troops, let them rescue captured comrades with this little force, can this be done?"

"There is nothing wrong, my comrade chief of staff." Sokov said confidently: "The Italian army has no combat effectiveness, and two battalions are more than enough to deal with them." He added at the end, "By the way, remember to tell Lieutenant Colonel. After people are rescued, they can be resupplied first."

  (end of this chapter)