Chapter 2146

  Although mortars cannot be used to avoid accidentally injuring comrades in the prisoners of war, for the battalion commanders participating in the battle, it is not a big problem to suppress the enemy's few machine guns. They used machine gun fire to suppress and sharpshooters to kill, and quickly killed the watchtower and several machine guns on the front.

  Seeing that the enemy's machine guns had misfired, the commanders and fighters who had been suppressed by the firepower got up from the ground one after another, raised their guns and rushed to the prisoner-of-war camp.

  The German guards who reacted at this time rushed to the barbed wire fence one after another, raised the weapons in their hands, and shot wildly towards the outside of the barbed wire fence. Some soldiers who were charging were knocked to the ground by the oncoming bullets. The uninjured soldiers jumped over the comrades who fell on the ground and continued to rush towards the barbed wire.

  The soldiers rushing to the front, when they were still about 20 meters away from the barbed wire, took out a grenade, pulled the string and threw it out. After the sound of "boom", several German guards inside the barbed wire fell down immediately.

  The exploding grenade startled the German guards. In order to avoid the oncoming bullets and the shrapnel of the flying grenade, they had to lie on the ground and continue to shoot at the Soviet commanders.

  Seeing that the German guards were lying on the ground and shooting with the guns in their hands, it was difficult to cause any harm to them. Those commanders and fighters who were close to the barbed wire threw grenades at the position of the barbed wire. Amid a series of explosions, gunpowder smoke and shrapnel flew everywhere, even if several unlucky guards lay on the ground, they still did not escape the fate of being killed by the grenade.

  After two rounds of grenades were thrown, the Soviet commanders, under the cover of machine gun fire, attacked the position of the barbed wire again. With the combined firepower of the machine guns, the covering infantry continued to approach the barbed wire fence. With the help of the illumination of the fire, rows of small mud pillars could be seen inside and outside the barbed wire fence. The German muzzles that were flashing not long ago basically failed to fire.

  The grenade that just exploded had blown gaps in the barbed wire. From these gaps, Soviet commanders and fighters poured into the gaps continuously, and started hand-to-hand combat with the surviving German guards.

   These pampered German guards were no match for the Soviet commanders. After being picked over a few times in a row, the rest threw away their guns and ran towards the camp.

  When the battle started, the prisoners living in the wooden house watched the movement outside through the gaps in the wooden boards. After watching for a long time, in the room full of people, only low cheers sounded sporadically: "It seems to be our army!"

   "It's to rescue our troops!"

   When they saw the troops outside rushing into the prisoner-of-war camp through the gap in the barbed wire, the cheers in the room became enthusiastic: "Yes, it is our people, they have already entered!"

   "By God, we are saved!"

   A few minutes later, the closed wooden door was opened from the outside, and an officer led a group of soldiers to rush in, saying loudly in familiar Russian: "We are the Soviet Red Army, you are saved!"

  After the officer finished speaking, the whole room fell into silence.

  When the officer saw this situation, he couldn't help being taken aback, and wondered to himself, could it be that the prisoners of war held here couldn't understand Russian? Just when he was about to repeat what he said just now, there was suddenly a roar of cheers like a tsunami in the room.

   Soon, those skinny prisoners of war in prison uniforms rushed to the door from all directions, surrounding the officer and his subordinates. Just when the officer thought that the group of prisoners were preparing to riot, he heard a man say in a choked voice: "Comrades, we have been waiting for you for three years, and finally we are here."

  After the man finished speaking, he gave the officer a warm hug.

   After a while, when the room became quiet again, the officer asked loudly, "Are there any officers present? If so, come to my place."

Hearing the officer's shout, soon a middle-aged man with gray hair and staggering walk came to the officer and said to the officer, "Comrade Lieutenant, my name is Xiefu Moxiang. I was a mechanized man before I was captured." A battalion commander of the 20th Tank Division of the 99th Army, with the rank of major.”

"What, you belong to the Ninth Mechanized Army?" As a subordinate of Rokossovsky, the officer naturally knew that the Soviet Marshal, who was the commander of the front army, was the commander of the Ninth Mechanized Army at the beginning of the war: " Marshal Rokossovsky's old troops?"

"Marshal Rokossovsky?!" Xie Fumoxiang was imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp for more than three years, and the news was blocked. Naturally, his former army commander, Major General Rokossovsky, has now become a He was appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union and also served as the commander of the Second Belarusian Front. Hearing what the officer said at this moment, he tentatively asked: "Comrade Lieutenant, are you talking about Major General Rokossovsky, who served as the commander of the Ninth Mechanized Army at the beginning of the war?"

   "Yes, Comrade Shavmo." The officer nodded vigorously, and said in an affirmative tone: "Of course it is him. But now he is no longer a general, but a marshal."

When the Soviet-German War broke out, Rokossovsky, the commander of the 9th Mechanized Army, who served as the commander of the Zhitomir Garrison, led his troops to Lutsk and Rovno at a rapid march, where they stubbornly blocked German attack. Originally, the area he was in charge of could still control the situation, but due to the impracticality of his superiors, he launched a Dubno counterattack. This unprepared and uncooperative counterattack caused heavy losses to his troops, and he had to abandon the original defense zone and retreat.

  In July, he was transferred from the 9th Mechanized Army to command a combat group in the Yartsevo area to block the German attack on Smolensk. This transfer enabled him to avoid the fate of being captured or sacrificed in the Battle of Kiev, otherwise the Soviet Union would lose a wartime marshal.

   Knowing that his former superior has now become a marshal, Xie Fumo couldn't help crying with joy. Wiping his tears with his hands, he said to the officer: "Comrade lieutenant, I thought I would die in a prisoner-of-war camp. I didn't expect to see the sun again. It's really surprising."

   "Major Xie Fumoxiang." The officer asked Xiefumoxiang tentatively: "Is there any original mechanized 9th Army in the prisoner-of-war camp?"

"No more." Xie Fumo replied without hesitation: "Originally there were more than 200 people captured with me, but they all died one after another during the heavy labor in the past few years. Now only Myself."

  The officer couldn't help sighing after hearing this, and then asked: "Are there any other commanders in the prisoner-of-war camp besides you?"

  He was just asking casually, and didn't expect to get any answers. But to his surprise, Xie Fumoxiang nodded and said, "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant."

   "Oh," Xie Fumoxiang's words aroused the officer's interest, and he quickly asked, "Who is it?"

   "Major General Potapov, former commander of the 5th Army."

   "Where is he?"

"I'll take you."

The officers and soldiers of the    army did not immediately follow Sevmosang to find Potapov, but took him to see his superior, Colonel Dimitri, the head of the regiment.

"Comrade Commander," after seeing Dimitri, he immediately reported the situation of Shevmoxiang to the other party, and then said: "According to the former major, the former prisoner-of-war camp is still closed. Major General Potapov, commander of the 5th Army."

  Hearing what the officer said, Dimitri's first reaction was: I found a treasure, and rescued a former army commander from a prisoner-of-war camp. This is a great achievement, and a medal will definitely not escape.

  He originally wanted the radio operator to report to the division headquarters immediately, but after thinking about it, he didn't know whether the information provided by the prisoner of war was true or not, so he decided to verify it himself before considering whether to report it to his superiors.

   "Major Movsche." Dimitri looked at Movsche and asked, "Where is General Potapov? Take me there to meet him."

  Movshezhan was imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp for three years. The news was kept secret, and people were somewhat stupid, so that they didn't see Dimitri's obvious intentions at all.

   Under the leadership of Movshesian, Dimitri and others came to a nearby wooden house. From the outside, this is a small wooden house with only a dozen square meters, which is far away from the kind of sleepy big wooden house where ordinary prisoners of war live.

Movshessian went to the door, saw that the door was locked with a padlock, turned to Dmitry and said: "Comrade Colonel, the door is locked, it seems that we have to go to the guard to get the key." .”

   "No need." Dimitri shook his head, and then ordered the officer: "Lieutenant, unlock the door."

  The lieutenant nodded, and said to Movshezhan who was standing by the door: "Comrade Major, please stand back a little bit." Then he took out his pistol.

   Prime Minister Movshe didn’t know what the officer meant at first, but when he saw the other party pull out a pistol, he immediately understood that he wanted to break the lock with the gun, so he quickly took two steps back to avoid being injured by the ricochet.

  After the officer broke the padlock with two shots, he immediately opened the door and walked in.

  The room was pitch black, so he quickly took out a lighter to light it up. Seeing a bed not far away, there seemed to be a person sitting on the bed, so he walked over and asked the other person, "Who are you?"

  In the dark night, even the light of the lighter was still dazzling, the man tilted his head, raised his hand to cover his face, and said, "I am Potapov, and who are you?"

Dimitri, who was standing at the door, heard Potapov say his name, hurried into the room, and quickly came to Potapov. First, he motioned for the officer to find a candle, and he pointed at "I am Colonel Dmitry, commander of the 334th Regiment of the 120th Guards Division," Potapov said.

  At this time, the officer had already found the candle on the box next to him, so he lit the candle with the lighter in his hand, and the room gradually became brighter. Dimitri could also see clearly that the person sitting by the bed looked haggard and had a beard all over his face, which hadn't been shaved for some time.

   "Comrade Potapov," Dimitri really felt a bit worried about addressing him, calling him a general. The other party is now just a prisoner of war in a German prisoner-of-war camp. After thinking about it again and again, he felt that it would be more appropriate to call the other party by his surname: "We have liberated the prisoner-of-war camp, and all the commanders and fighters detained here have been rescued. Now please let us go. We will take you home to a safe place. The place."

  Hearing what Dimitri said, Potapov stood up slowly and murmured: "Go home, go home, I have been looking forward to it for three years, and finally I have the opportunity to go home."

  Because there are many infirm and sick among the prisoners of war, if they march with the troops on foot, they will definitely slow down their speed. If the Germans take the opportunity to catch up, they may cause a lot of casualties. Dimitri arranged all the prisoners who had difficulty walking in the trucks they had just captured, and drove back to the defense zone.

  Before the troops set off, the chief of staff of the regiment also asked Dimitri for instructions: "Comrade commander, which division's defense area should we go to? The 3rd Infantry Division or the 211th Division?"

  Unexpectedly, Dmitry stared at him after hearing this, and said angrily: "What are you doing in other people's defense areas? If you want to go home, naturally you must return to our division's defense area."

  Before boarding the car, Dimitri still remembered an important matter, so he ordered the chief of staff: "Remember to send a telegram to the division headquarters and report our situation to the division commander."

   "I have already sent a report to the division commander." The chief of staff of the regiment replied, "I also told the division commander about the rescue of General Potapov."

   "You did the right thing." Dimitri felt that this kind of thing needs to be greeted in advance with the teacher, so as not to surprise him in time: "We will set off immediately."

  When Dimitri led his troops back to his own defense zone along the gap in the German army's junction, the telegram sent by the chief of staff of the regiment had already begun to ferment in the division headquarters.

  After reading the telegram, Nikitin was shocked: "What, the former commander of the 5th Army, General Potapov, was rescued in the prisoner-of-war camp? This is simply incredible."

  After reading the telegram, the chief of staff of the division approached Nikitin and reminded him: "Comrade commander, this matter is of great importance. I think it is necessary to report to the headquarters immediately and listen to the commander's opinion."

   "That's right, the results of this operation to liberate the prisoner-of-war camp have really exceeded my expectations." Nikitin said, "We should report to the commander immediately."

  After Nikitin answered the phone, when he recognized that the person answering the phone was Sidolin, he hurriedly asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I wonder if the commander is at the headquarters?"

   "Yes." Sidolin glanced at Sokov who was chatting with Ponejielin, nodded, and then asked, "Is there anything you can do with him?"

   "Yes, I have something very important and I need to report to him personally."

  Sidorin was used to the behavior of the division commanders stepping over him and directly reporting to Sokov, so after hearing what Nikitin said, he handed over the microphone to Sokov.

   "I'm Sokov." Sokov took the microphone from Sidolin's hand: "General Nikitin, what do you want to tell me?"

   "Colonel Dimitri, who I sent to liberate the prisoner-of-war camp, just sent me a telegram saying that they found a big man when they rescued the prisoners of war."

   "Big man, what big man?" Sokov thought that the other party had captured an important task of the German army when they captured the prisoner-of-war camp, so he tentatively asked, "Is it the commander of the German army?"

Nikitin was taken aback for a moment, realizing that Sokov and himself were chatting across channels, so that they misunderstood what he meant, and quickly explained: "Comrade Commander, it is not the commander of the German army that was captured, but the rescue of a group of soldiers." A senior officer of our army."

   "A senior officer in our army?!" Sokov asked eagerly, "Who is it?"

  (end of this chapter)