Chapter 1346 Verification of authenticity

  Paul, who was supported by two soldiers to sit up, was originally dying, but when he saw the Order of the Red Banner worn by Samoilov for him, his face immediately glowed red, and his whole body became energetic.

  After Samoilov put on the medal for Paul, he immediately took two steps back to make room for Sokov. Sokov stepped forward to hold Paul's hand, smiled and said to him: "Comrade Paul, congratulations on your award of the Order of the Red Banner. In addition, I would like to tell you a piece of good news, you have been officially promoted to the rank of captain. You go to the rear to recover from your injuries, and when you return to the team from your injuries, I plan to let you be the battalion commander."

"Serve the motherland of the Soviet Union!" Paul finished the cliché that should be said after receiving the medal with red eyes, then held Sukov's hand tightly, and said excitedly: "Comrade commander, thank you. If it wasn't arranged by you I entered the army brigade, so I guess I have no chance of getting medals and promotions.”

   Sokov understood Paul's mood very well. No matter how outstanding you were in the past, as long as you become a prisoner of the German army, you will be sent to another book, and it is very difficult to have a chance to stand up again. However, in his own army, Paul could enjoy equal treatment and be promoted and awarded like other commanders and fighters. This is simply unimaginable in other troops.

  Sokov knew that too much talk would lead to failure, so he didn't say much, but only encouraged Paul a few words, and then let go of the other party's hand. And Lunev and Sameko waited for Sokov to retreat, and they also stepped forward to shake hands with Paul, and said a few words of comfort to him.

  After the short and simple awarding ceremony, Sokov and others walked out of the tent.

Seeing a military doctor standing not far away, Sokov walked over to him and said, "Comrade military doctor, I think Captain Paul's injury is not serious. I'm afraid it will be difficult to get ideal treatment here. We should send him to the hospital as soon as possible." Go to the military hospital in Moscow."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Commander." The military doctor nodded to Sokov, "A group of seriously wounded will be sent back to Moscow tonight. I can arrange for Captain Paul to leave with these wounded."

Sokov thought that this place is about 600 kilometers away from Moscow, and then thought about the poor road conditions in Russia, he couldn't help but asked worriedly: "It will take more than ten hours to drive from here to Moscow at the fastest. The wounded are on such a bumpy road Can you last that long?"

"You don't have to worry, Comrade Commander." The doctor explained to Sokov: "We just need to take the wounded to the railway station in Oboyan by ambulance, and from there take the wounded to Moscow by train. The suffering of bumps along the way will reduce unnecessary casualties on the way.”

"I really didn't expect that Oboyan's railway station would be put into use again so soon." Lunev said with emotion: "But this is also good, the wounded can take the train back to Moscow. You know, many wounded did not die On the battlefield, they were all unfortunately sacrificed because they could not bear the bumps during the transfer, which aggravated their injuries."

  The three returned to the headquarters.

   Lunev asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, will our screening and review of rescued officers and fighters continue?"

"Of course, Comrade Military Commissar, this is a task entrusted to us by our superiors, and it must be completed without compromise." After Sokov said this righteously, he slowed down and said to Lunev: "But these Commanders and fighters have not been captured for a long time, so there should be no major problems. You can relax some standards appropriately when screening and reviewing. Do you understand?"

   "Understood." Lunev knew that the war is tense now, and there is an urgent need for a large number of commanders and fighters to supplement the severely reduced troops. If the original standard is still followed, it will take at least one or two months to complete the screening and review of more than 30,000 commanders and fighters. "I'll get this done as quickly as possible."

  Sokov nodded, and turned to Sameko again: "Chief of Staff, how is the battle on the front line, and how much time is left before we can wipe out the besieged 255th Infantry Division?"

"Our army has rushed into the residential area from different directions, and is fighting for the building with the enemy who is sticking to the building." Sameko replied, "I estimate that the battle can be resolved within two hours at most. "

   "I don't need your estimate, I'd like to hear an affirmative answer."

  Sameko quickly straightened his body and replied: "Report to Comrade Commander, our army can completely solve the 255th Infantry Division besieged by us within two hours."

  The basement where the chief of staff of the German army was defending, blocked the entrance with firepower, so that the Soviet army could not rush into the basement for a long time, but fifty or sixty people were killed or injured.

   After hearing the news, Shamrih came to the building in person. He stood not far from the entrance and looked at it, and then told the soldiers: "There is no need to rush in, just throw the grenade in. Since they don't surrender, then we will completely wipe them out."

"Comrade Battalion Commander," Yakuda heard Shamrih give such an order, and quickly reminded him: "According to the information we have, the division commander and chief of staff of the German army are all below. If you directly throw a grenade in, I worry that none of them will survive."

"Deputy Battalion Commander, not long ago, I had the idea of ​​capturing them alive, so that when I saw the commander, I would also have a bright face." Shamrih shook his head and said, "But look now, we Dozens of soldiers were sacrificed, but we didn’t even break through the basement door. If we insisted on capturing the enemy commander alive, we still don’t know how many casualties we would have to pay.”

"Execute the order, Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander." After Shamrikh finished speaking, seeing Yakov still standing in a daze, he raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder: "The last thing is to use cluster grenades to blow up the basement. Collapse, and bury these damned German bandits alive in it."

  As the order was issued, Yakuda organized soldiers to tie the grenades together to make cluster grenades, and threw them into them after pulling the string.

   After bursts of shaking explosions, thick smoke billowed from the basement door. Shamrih felt that the whole building was shaking, and immediately realized that something was wrong, and quickly shouted: "Everyone listen to my order, quickly evacuate the building, the building will collapse immediately."

  Amid Shamrih's shouts, the commanders and fighters who threw grenades into the basement ran out of the building in a panic. There were also individual soldiers who ran upstairs along the stairs to greet the comrades upstairs to retreat together.

  When most of the commanders and fighters escaped from the building, the already overwhelmed building shook a few times before collapsing, and huge clouds of dust rose into the air.

After the disheartened Shamrih and others withdrew from the range of dust, Yakuda said with lingering fear: "Comrade battalion commander, fortunately, you gave the order to retreat decisively, otherwise at least half of us would be crushed in the collapsed area." In the building."

Shamrich looked at the looming buildings in the dust, and felt that even if the people in the German Army Command were still alive, it was absolutely impossible to crawl out of the ruins, so he turned and said to his subordinates: "Comrades, let's go to other places. to the building."

  At this moment, a soldier not far away shouted loudly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, hurry up and take a look!"

   "What's the matter?" Shamrih walked up to the soldier and asked a little unhappy, "It's worth your shouting."

   "Comrade Battalion Commander, come and have a look." The soldier pulled Shamrih to the side of a pile of scattered corpses, and said to him, "Here is something you didn't expect."

"An unexpected harvest?" Shamrih looked at the corpses underground, and remembered that when they were trying to pass through the open land and ran to another building, they were hit by machine guns and mortars on the roof not far away. dead. After staring at the corpse for a while, he knelt down next to a corpse and asked, "What did you find?"

   "Here, this is the corpse," the soldier pointed to a corpse and said to Shamrih, "Don't you see that he is wearing the military uniform of an ordinary soldier, but he is an important person."

Shamrih stared at the face of the corpse, and found that it was an elderly man, who looked a bit out of place with the soldier's uniform on him. He felt that this must be an important person, so he continued to ask the soldier: "Did you find anything useful on him?"

"Comrade battalion commander, this was found on his body." The soldier handed a certificate to Shamrih: "Although I can't understand the text on it, but looking at the big-brimmed hat he is wearing, it must be It's a big guy!"

Fortunately, Shamrich knew a few Germans. After he carefully checked the documents of the corpse, he excitedly patted the soldier's shoulder with his hands and said to him excitedly: "Comrade soldier, you have done meritorious service. The corpse is really not simple, he is not an ordinary soldier, but the commander of the 255th Infantry Division."

   "What, the commander of the 255th Division of the German Army was killed by us?" When the surrounding commanders heard what Shamrich said, they rushed over one after another, wanting to see what the commander of the German Army was like.

After confirming the identity of the German division commander, Shamrich's emotions became agitated. He hurriedly handed over the radio operator and told him: "Connect to the brigade headquarters immediately, and I will report to the brigade commander in person that we are fighting. We killed the German division commander and other members of the division headquarters, and we buried them in the ruins of the building."

After receiving Shamrich's report, Chuvashov was taken aback for a moment, and then asked in an unbelievable tone: "Major Shamrich, are you really sure that the commander of the German 255th Infantry Division has been killed by you? "

"Yes, Comrade Brigadier." Shamrich replied in an affirmative tone: "His certificate is in my hand. I have learned German from an interpreter in the army for a while. Based on the certificate, I can Recognize the identity and position of the other party."

Although Shamrich had already talked about this, Chuvashov still felt that the matter was like a dream, so he immediately ordered him to say: "Then you immediately arrange for people to send over the body of the German division commander and give it to the acquaintance." His people came to identify."

   Regarding Chuvashov's order, Shamrih agreed very readily: "Understood, Comrade Brigadier Commander, I will immediately send two trusted soldiers to send the division commander's body to you."

   "Hurry up," Chuvashov urged, "Once I confirm that the person killed by you is the commander of the 255th Infantry Division, I need to report to the Army Command immediately."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Shamrich assured Chuvashov on the phone: "The corpse I gave you must be the body of the German division commander."

After finishing the conversation with Chuvashov, Shamrih told Yakuda: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, I think you should take a few people and carry the body of the German army to the brigade headquarters. I guess if the brigade commander If you are in a good mood, you may be awarded a medal when the battle is over."

  For honor-loving Russians, getting a medal is something to show off. Yakuda has been fighting non-stop since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War. However, except for winning a medal when defending Stalingrad, the rest of the time, it has no luck with all the medals. Every time because of Missed by all kinds of accidents.

   At this time, when I heard Shamrich say that he sent the body of the German division commander to the brigade headquarters, he would have a chance to win a medal. With such an opportunity, the fool would not know how to seize it. He quickly agreed, called a few soldiers to come over, carried them on a simple stretcher, and rushed to the place where the brigade headquarters was.

When Chuvashov saw the body of the German division commander, he was also a little uncertain. After all, German commanders were afraid of death and often set up their headquarters tens of kilometers away from the battlefield. He had never seen the other party at all. Naturally, I don't know if the owner of this corpse is the commander of the German army.

"Comrade Commander," just when Chuvashov was in a dilemma, the chief of staff leaned into his ear and said, "Although none of us know what the German division commander looks like, the German officers and soldiers do. We can call two prisoners Come here and let them identify it for themselves to confirm whether it is their teacher."

   "This is a good way." Chuvashov hurriedly shouted to the outside: "Come here!"

  A captain came in from the outside after hearing the shout. He stopped in front of Chuvashov and asked respectfully, "Comrade Brigadier, what instructions do you have?"

  Chuvashov pointed at the other party and ordered: "Comrade Captain, you immediately go to the two captured German officers and ask them to come over and identify who is this corpse?"

   When the captain went out to take the prisoners, the impatient chief of staff asked tentatively: "Comrade brigade commander, look, do you need to report this news to comrade commander immediately?"

"Wait a little longer," Chuvashov said, waving his hands, "Although we have obtained the ID of the German division commander and the body of a suspected German division commander. But these are not enough, we still have to let the German officers and soldiers to verify Now, confirm whether this corpse is the commander of the German army. It will not be too late to report to the comrade commander after we have fully figured it out."

   Soon, the captain walked in with two German officers. Yakuda looked at the military ranks of the two men. The younger one was a second lieutenant, and the older one was a lieutenant. Given their rank, they should know their division commander.

  (end of this chapter)