Chapter 1781 Exchange

  The prisoner-of-war camp in Shebinka was built next to forests and swamps. Today, more than 3,200 captured Soviet commanders and fighters are held in it, guarded by a company of SS troops.

   After being captured, there were 30,000 Soviet commanders and fighters who entered this prisoner-of-war camp. After entering the prisoner-of-war camp, the SS will screen them. All officers, political workers and Jews will be taken to the nearby forest and let them dig holes. After the pits are dug, all these commanders and fighters will be shot.

  The surviving prisoners of war have to do heavy labor every day. Due to the harsh working and living environment, many weak prisoners of war were exhausted to death; some prisoners of war were ruthlessly killed by the SS because they violated the camp regulations.

This morning, the sun was rising from the east. Thousands of prisoners of war in prison uniforms were standing in an open field surrounded by SS soldiers with guns. An SS officer was standing on a wooden stilt. On the completed stage, he held up a trumpet and spoke loudly.

   It turned out that five prisoners of war had used the opportunity of shoveling snow a few days ago to dig a small hole for people to pass under the barbed wire fence on one side of the camp. After digging, they covered it with snow, so the SS guards didn't notice it at all.

  Last night they sneaked out of the barracks, scraped away the snow with their hands, got out of the hole through the barbed wire, and then fled towards the distant forest. But just as they approached the forest, a laggard prisoner accidentally stepped on a mine and was blown to pieces on the spot.

  The explosion alarmed the SS in the camp, and they immediately dispatched police dogs to the forest to hunt down the escaped prisoners of war. But at dawn, among the five prisoners who escaped from the prison, one was killed by a landmine, two were shot to death by random gunfire, and the remaining two were captured and were kneeling in front of the wooden platform at this moment.

  After announcing the crimes of the two prisoners of war in public, the SS officer stepped off the stage quickly, came behind the two, drew his pistol and shot them in the back of the head. The two prisoners of war didn't even hum, and fell directly to the ground.

  But the SS officer was still angry, took the MP40 submachine gun from a soldier next to him, and fired at the two corpses, making them twitch on the ground and kicking up countless dust.

The officer emptied all the bullets in the magazine at one go, threw them back to the soldiers, then walked up to the prisoners, grabbed an old prisoner, and asked sharply: "What about their escape at night? do you know?"

   "No, I don't know, Mr. Officer." The old prisoner of war replied hastily, "I don't know anything."

  Unexpectedly, just as the old prisoner finished speaking, there was a crisp gunshot, and then a hole appeared in his forehead, which was fired by an angry officer.

  The officer threw the body of the elderly prisoner aside, grabbed another middle-aged prisoner, and asked sharply, "Do you know about their escape?"

  The middle-aged prisoner of war saw the gun pointed at him and knew that no matter what he said, he would die, so he raised his head and said in a contemptuous tone: "I don't know. Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."

  The words of the middle-aged prisoner of war completely angered the officer. He put the pistol on the opponent's forehead and pulled the trigger violently. But the gun didn't go off. He was taken aback for a moment, and then pulled the trigger again and again, but still didn't go off. It turned out that the gun had jammed.

Just when the officer was about to change the gun, there was a roar of a car motor. He turned his head and saw that it was a convoy of twenty covered trucks, following a barrel truck, slowly Slowly entered the camp.

Seeing this, the officer thought it was a troop coming to change defenses, so he temporarily gave up his plan to shoot the middle-aged prisoner of war, turned the handle of the gun around, and hit the opponent twice on the forehead, then put away the pistol, and walked towards the convoy .

  The middle-aged prisoner of war who had narrowly escaped death stood still, letting the blood from the wound flow down his cheeks. He stared at the officer's back with angry eyes, wishing he could rush over and kill him.

  After the convoy stopped, the tarpaulin behind the truck was lifted, and the soldiers who jumped out were greeted by the officer and lined up beside the truck. When the SS officer approached the barrel cart, the rear door opened and a Wehrmacht major stepped out.

  The SS officer is only the first-level commando squadron leader, which is equivalent to the rank of captain. Although the Wehrmacht he never looked at came, but the opponent's rank is higher than his own, he can only salute the opponent first.

After the major waited for the SS officer to salute, he said slowly: "I am Major Dürer, Marshal Manstein's adjutant, and I have been ordered to take away all the Russian prisoners of war in the camp. This is the Marshal's order!" A piece of paper was pulled out of the bag and handed to the SS officer.

  The SS officer took Manstein's order, read it carefully, and asked in puzzlement: "Mr. Major, I would like to ask, why did the Marshal take away these Russian prisoners of war?"

  Dürer snorted softly, and said displeasedly: "Captain, what is your Excellency the Marshal, do you still need to report to you?"

"Don't dare." The SS officer was domineering in the prisoner-of-war camp, but in the eyes of Manstein, he was just an inconspicuous little captain. If he wanted to deal with him, he didn't have to take action himself. As long as this meaning is revealed, other officers will naturally clean up this SS officer. Therefore, he was extremely respectful in front of Major Dürer: "Mr. Major, I just want to ask if there is anything I and my subordinates need help with?"

Dürer came here this time and only brought more than 300 people. It was indeed a bit difficult to **** more than 3,000 prisoners of war on foot for several kilometers to the exchange place. Since the SS officer offered to help, such free labor is naturally No need for nothing. He nodded and said, "We are going to **** these Russian prisoners of war near the Russian defense line. In order to ensure that they arrive at the designated place one by one, you will take half of the guards to assist us in this escort. "

  The SS officer originally wanted to ask, what is the purpose of taking all the prisoners of war to the vicinity of the Russian army's defense zone, and whether they should all be shot there. But after thinking about it, he just raised a question and was met with retort from the other party, so he shut his mouth wisely and hid the question in his heart.

Under the **** of the officers and soldiers of the National Defense Forces, the prisoners of war all had numb expressions when they set off along the road. For them, even if they were shot, there was nothing terrible. It was better than staying in this **** prisoner-of-war camp and living Life is better than the days of death.

  On the road, weak prisoners of war fell down from time to time. In the past, when encountering such situations, the German soldiers responsible for escorting usually shot at the fallen prisoners of war to prevent them from being rescued by the guerrillas and becoming a member of the guerrillas in the future. But today, not only did those soldiers not shoot, but they asked the prisoners next to them to help them up and move on.

   This abnormal behavior of the German army made the prisoners of war puzzled. But they dare not speak, they can only make eye contact, trying to figure out what happened. But not to mention the prisoners of war, even the SS guards who escorted them were also confused. When they saw a prisoner of war fell to the ground and were about to step forward to kill him, they were stopped by the Wehrmacht soldiers around them.

   The SS soldiers were puzzled, and secretly found their chief, reported the abnormal situation to him, and finally asked: "Mr. Commando Squadron Captain, what should we do?"

The officer narrowed his eyes and said angrily: "Our task is to assist the soldiers of the Wehrmacht and **** these damned Russian prisoners of war to the vicinity of the Russian defense zone. As for why we can't kill those Russians who hinder the journey, I will How do you know what's going on. Go back quickly and perform your duties."

  After an hour of difficult marching, they finally approached the defense zone of the Soviet Army's 5th Mechanized Army.

   Major Dürer, who led the team, quickly issued an order: "Stop advancing! Everyone stay put!"

  After issuing this order, Major Dürer ordered his driver to speed up and rush to the Soviet defense line to communicate.

The SS officer who was staying behind heard the report from his subordinates that Major Dürer had gone to the Soviet defense line by car to negotiate, and suddenly a terrible thought came to his mind: Major Dürer is not planning to rebel. So deliberately use the Russian prisoners of war in this prisoner of war camp as a meeting ceremony?

  He felt that if his guess was correct, it would be an opportunity to make meritorious service. Regardless of the large number of Wehrmacht troops and their proximity to the Russian defense line, as long as you expose Major Dürer's conspiracy, you will be able to control all the troops. As for the Russian prisoners of war making trouble during the process of controlling the troops, just kill them all.

   Before deciding to take action, he took out Manstein's order again, looked it over carefully, and tried to find any flaws in it. But no matter how he looked at it, he found that the order did not look like a forgery, which made him feel awkward.

The subordinate standing in front of him, seeing that his chief had stopped talking, urged him: "Mr. Captain of the first-level commando squadron, you have to make a decision early. Otherwise, when the major of the National Defense Forces comes back with the Russians, we will be too late." gone."

"Where are the officers leading the Wehrmacht?" The SS officers felt that to control the Wehrmacht, which outnumbered them, they had to start with their chief. Now that Major Dürer is not around, the only one who can command the Wehrmacht is the captain of the Wehrmacht : "Go and invite them over!"

   A few minutes later, the captain of the Wehrmacht appeared in front of the SS officer. He was obviously not interested in the SS, and asked coldly, "Mr. First Commando Squadron Leader, what can you do with me?"

   "Mr. Captain," the SS officer spoke very politely because the captain was relying on the captain to control the troops: "Do you know where Major Dürer has gone?"

"Yes, I know." The captain replied unexpectedly: "We have contacted the Russians. According to the order of His Excellency the Marshal, these prisoners of war are to be exchanged for a batch of wounded soldiers of our army, as well as General Stemmelmann. remains."

The captain's answer surprised the SS officer. After a brief absence, he tentatively asked: "Mr. Captain, are you sure you brought these Russian prisoners of war here just to exchange the wounded of our army, as well as Shiter?" Wasn't the body of General Merman intended to surrender to the Russians?"

"How is this possible, Mr. Captain of the First Commando Squadron." The captain said dissatisfiedly: "We are Marshal Manstein's guards, how could we surrender to the Russians? Even if Major Dürer ordered us to surrender, we would not surrender." Absolutely will not obey this order."

  The SS officer was still dubious about the captain's explanation. In any case, the exchange of more than 3,000 Russian prisoners of war was beyond his comprehension. He began to ponder in his mind whether to control the Wehrmacht that escorted the Russian prisoners of war according to the original plan, and return to the original camp after killing all the prisoners of war.

   Before the SS officer could make a decision, his subordinates suddenly exclaimed: "Mr. Captain of the First Class Assault Squadron, look, there is a convoy over there."

  Looking in the direction of his subordinate's fingers, the SS officer saw a convoy of dozens of ambulances and nearly a hundred trucks with a covered car driving along an urgent road not far away.

   "Did you see it, Mr. First Class Commando Squadron Leader." The captain sneered and said to the SS officer, "This is the convoy that came to pick up the wounded. Do you have any questions?"

   "No, no," the SS officer said with a dry smile, "I just asked casually, it's all right."

  The person in charge sent by the German army to exchange prisoners of war was Major Dürer, Manstein's adjutant. Since the German army had come forward as a major, Sokov, as the commander of the group army, naturally had no need to come forward. He handed the matter over to Lieutenant Colonel Ponegerin, who had just returned from Lieutenant General Fumin.

The handover ceremony went smoothly. First, the captured Soviet commanders and fighters returned to the Soviet defense zone. After counting the number of people, Ukrainian civilians were recruited to carry the wounded German wounded and Stemmerman's coffin to the German side. .

  The prisoners of war who returned to the Soviet positions are still confused at this moment. They don't know why they became the bargaining chips used by the Germans in exchange. But when they saw Ponegerin appearing in front of everyone, many soldiers who were captured in the Battle of Uman suddenly burst into tears. They were all Bonegerin's subordinates. After three years, they saw their own When the commander appeared in front of him, he was naturally overjoyed and weeping.

"Comrades, you have suffered!" Ponegelin, who was standing in front of the queue, saw a group of commanders and fighters in prison uniforms. Naturally, he couldn't recognize the old subordinates standing in the crowd. He said emotionally: " Perhaps you wonder why the Germans would exchange you for their wounded?"

   This was indeed a question that troubled all the prisoners of war. Everyone did not speak, but stared intently at Pornegerin, waiting for him to give the final answer.

"Before I tell you the truth, let me introduce my identity to you." Ponejielin said: "My name is Ponejielin. At the beginning of the war, I was the commander of the 12th Army of the Southwest Front Army. I was captured during the battle and spent two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Only half a year ago, when the troops of the 27th Army liberated Klemenchug, I was rescued from the prisoner-of-war camp by my own people. Today, I am An advisor to the 53rd Army Command."

"The reason why you were rescued was the reason why the new commander of the 53rd Army, General Sokov." Ponejielin continued: "Not long ago, we gave the Germans a hard lesson and wiped out nearly ten thousand of them. People, even General Stemmelmann, commander of the 11th Army, died indirectly because of us...

   It is precisely because of our good record that the Germans had to put down their faces and beg us in a low voice. It was under such circumstances that General Sokov proposed to the German army to exchange the wounded and Stammerman's remains for the captured commanders and fighters of our army. And you are the chosen lucky ones. "

  (end of this chapter)