Chapter 2225

After receiving this order from Sidolin, the commanders of each division reacted differently. Many people feel that the road to the forest area is rough and difficult now that the ice and snow have melted, and it may be an empty trip. This order appears to be inactive.

The only one who cared about this matter was Major General Kirillov, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. He knew very well that he was able to live well and even become a division commander, thanks to Sokov. Having issued such an order, he must execute it unconditionally.

  However, he did not blindly send out reconnaissance troops to search the forest near Letzen. Such a blind search would not result in any search other than wasting a lot of manpower and time. He remembered Klein who led his troops to surrender not long ago, and quickly told Chief of Staff Miyakov: "Chief of Staff, go and invite Colonel Klein over."

  Miyakov was taken aback after hearing this, and then asked back, "Comrade commander, what did you ask him to come over for?"

Kirilov explained to Myakov: "Chief of staff, you should know the order given to us by Comrade Commander, let us send people into the nearby forest to search to see if there is a prisoner-of-war camp established by the German army. We Not long after occupying Letzen, he was not familiar with the surrounding environment, so sending people rashly to search in the forest may have little effect. As the garrison commander of Letzen, Colonel Klein must be more familiar with the surrounding environment than us. Familiar, so find him to understand the situation, you can avoid some detours."

  After listening to Kirillov's explanation, Miyakov nodded and said, "Comrade Commander, you are right. I will bring Colonel Klein here myself."

   Since Klein led his troops to surrender, he was not imprisoned in the barracks with his soldiers, but was placed under house arrest in his original room. Seeing that the Soviet army entertained him with good wine and good food every day, and no one came to interrogate him, he put his heart back into his stomach again, and realized that as long as he continued to stay here, at least his life safety could be guaranteed.

  When he saw Lieutenant Colonel Miyakov of the Soviet Army coming to his room, Klein couldn't help but thump in his heart. He wondered if the other party felt that he was worthless and was going to shoot him, right? He asked tremblingly, "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, what can I do for you?"

When the translator behind Miyakov translated Klein's words, Miyakov said with a smile: "Colonel Klein, don't be afraid, I'm here to see you today, and I'm going to invite you to Our division headquarters, our division commander would like to chat with you."

Although Miyakov behaved politely, Klein became uneasy again. He remembered that when he captured the Soviet commander and wanted to take him to be shot, he would appease him in advance, saying that he was just asking him to go talk. Now that the same thing happened to him, Klein couldn't help but feel weak in his legs. He was deeply afraid that he would be dragged to the execution ground and shot to death as soon as he left this room, so he said incoherently: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, I'm not feeling well, so I can't go to the place you mentioned for the time being, let's try another day."

After listening to the translation, Miyakov stared at Klein in surprise, thinking what was going on with this German guy. I just asked him to go to the division to have a chat. As if he was pulled out and shot? However, he was eager to ask Klein to go to the division headquarters, so he didn't pay attention to his details. Instead, he took a step back, turned his body to the side, and made a gesture of invitation: "Colonel Klein, please."

   Seeing this situation, Klein became more determined that the other party wanted to shoot him. But at this moment, he had already thought about it. Since he took the initiative to order the troops to put down their weapons, all the consequences that happened next should be borne by himself, the regiment leader. Thinking of this, he raised his head and walked towards the door with firm steps.

   When he came to the division headquarters and met General Kirillov, Klein was surprised by the other party's performance. Not only did he invite Klein to sit down, he even poured a cup of hot tea himself and placed it in front of Klein.

Looking at the steaming tea in front of him, Klein was puzzled again: "Could it be that they didn't call themselves here to shoot themselves, but for something else?" With such doubts, he He asked tentatively, "Your Excellency, I don't know if you asked me to come here. What's the matter?"

   "Colonel Klein," Kirillov did not immediately answer Klein's question, but asked politely, "I wonder how long your troops have been stationed here in Letzen?"

   "We have been stationed here since October 1944." Although he didn't understand why the other party asked about this, Klein still replied truthfully: "Mr. General, why are you asking this?"

"That's right. We received information that in the forest near Letzen, there seems to be a prisoner-of-war camp established by you, in which a large number of our army's commanders and fighters are detained." Kirilov looked at Klein and asked. : "Colonel Klein, can you tell me the exact location of this prisoner-of-war camp?"

Hearing Kirillov's question, Klein hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Your Excellency, I'm not very clear about what you said. I'm in charge of city defense. I'm in charge of the prisoners of war. It is in charge of other departments, they don't need to communicate with me at all."

  Kirillov originally thought that he could get useful information from Klein, but after hearing what the other party said, he immediately realized that he had thought the question too simply. At first, he was worried that Klein was lying to him, so he stared at the other party intently for a while, and found that the expression on Klein's face hadn't changed at all, so he shouldn't be lying to himself.

   But no matter what, Klein is definitely more familiar with the environment around Letzen than he, a newcomer. He didn't want to give up easily, so he took a chance and asked, "Colonel Klein, who do you think will know about this?"

  Klein frowned and thought for a while, then said: "Mr. General, if you want to know the situation, I suggest you ask the head of the Gestapo in the city. He should know this kind of thing better than me."

Kirilov was not very hopeful at first, but when Klein mentioned the Gestapo, he couldn't help feeling ecstatic: "Yeah, how could I forget about them? Mustache is using these **** Gestapo to rule Germany and Germany. The countries they occupy. They must know better than anyone else the prisoner-of-war camps and concentration camps near the city.” Thinking of this, he turned his head and asked Myakov, “Chief of Staff, where is the head of the Gestapo locked up?”

   "In prison," Myakov asked. "Do you want to bring him?"

   Soon, the head of the Gestapo was brought in. The once-mighty SS officer had grown emaciated after spending days in prison. At this moment, after he was taken to the division headquarters, seeing the room full of people, he suddenly thought that he might be pulled out and shot, and he was so scared that he peed, and the room was filled with a disgusting stench .

  Kirillov slapped his nose with his hand, and then asked displeasedly: "Are you the head of the Gestapo in Letzen City?"

"Yes, Your Excellency General." The officer said tremblingly, his legs shaking like chaff, "Although I am the head of the Gestapo in the city, I have never done anything bad, nor have I killed any good people. ..."

"Okay, don't talk about it." Kirillov was not interested in hearing him defend himself, but asked straight to the point: "Let me ask you, are there any concentration camps or prisoner-of-war camps near the city of Letzen? "

  Hearing Kirillov's question, the officer hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't know, I don't know."

But the expression on his face has long been seen by Kirillov. Kirillov knew that he was lying, so he slapped the table hard, and then said sharply: "If you don't tell the truth, I will Immediately have someone drag you out and shoot you."

   "Mr. General," the officer said, poking his neck, "I'm not lying, I really don't know."

  At this moment Myakov approached Kirillov's ear and whispered something. Kirillov smiled slightly after hearing this, and then said: "Since he doesn't want to confess, let's drag him out."

  Miyakov called two soldiers and asked them to drag the officer out. And Kirillov said to Klein: "Colonel Klein, are you interested in going with us to see how this officer confessed?"

  Klein thought to himself, the head of the Gestapo seems quite stubborn, how could he confess? But since the other party said to let me go together, this is not an invitation, but an order. If I don't obey, I'm afraid the end will be very miserable.

  Following Kirillov and others to the outside, Klein saw the officer tied to a tree. Seeing this, Klein couldn't help trembling, thinking that he should be shot like this?

  But what Kirillov and others did next surprised him. A soldier came to the tied officer with a bag of potatoes, dumped the potatoes on the ground, and stuffed a small explosive into the pile of potatoes. After doing all this, the soldier turned his head to look at Kirillov and Miakov. Seeing that Miyakov nodded, he took out the match in his pocket, lit the fuse of the small explosive pack, and then ran aside.

   And Klein looked at the burning fuse in surprise, and thought to himself: What are the Russians trying to do, stuffing explosives into the pile of potatoes?

After a loud "boom", the pile of potatoes was blown to pieces, and the smashed potatoes flew in all directions, some of them landed around Kirillov and the others, but more landed on the officers .

   Immediately, Miyakov ordered the soldiers to wrap another small explosive bag around the officer's waist. But the lead wire of this explosive package was very long and was dragged directly to the ground. But this time the soldiers didn't ignite the fuse immediately, but Miakov stepped forward and asked the officer, "Are you willing to share the information you know?"

  Unexpectedly, the officer, who was covered in cold sweat, still bit the bullet and continued to bear it: "I don't know, I don't know anything. No matter how many times you ask, I always have this answer."

  After hearing the officer's reply, Kirillov waved at Miakov and said: "Since he is so stubborn, let him go on his way. Light the fire!"

  When the soldier ignited the fuse, he followed Miakov and ran back to Kirillov, staring intently at the sparking fuse.

   Klein on the side raised his heart in his throat. He had experienced the power of the small explosive package just now. If it really exploded at the officer's waist, it would be enough to blow the opponent into two pieces. He looked nervously at Kirillov, hoping that he would give an order to stop this dangerous action, but found that the other party was looking at the sparking fuse with great interest at the moment. Klein was in despair. He couldn't bear to watch the officer being blown into two pieces, so he closed his eyes tightly.

   After waiting for an unknown amount of time, he opened his eyes and found that the lead wire had gone out at some point. When he was wondering, he heard the soldier who had just run over yelled, but he couldn't understand it, so he had the cheek to ask the translator next to him for advice.

The interpreter explained to him with a smile: "Mr. Colonel, our soldiers said that the head of the Gestapo was so frightened that he **** again and even extinguished the fuse. But don't worry, our soldiers will re-ignite the fuse soon. "

  When the soldier used a match to try to light the fuse again, the officer tied to the tree suddenly shouted loudly. The translator quickly said to Kirillov: "Mr. Comrade, the German said that he is willing to tell everything he knows."

   Kirillov sneered after hearing this, and then ordered: "Untie him and bring him to the division headquarters."

  The officer was carried in by two soldiers. As soon as he entered the door, he couldn't wait to say: "Mr. General, what do you want to know, just ask, and I will answer truthfully."

Seeing that the chief of the Gestapo was so intimidated, he immediately became honest, and Kirillov continued to ask: "Tell me, are there any concentration camps or prisoner-of-war camps built by you near the city of Letzen? What is the current situation in these places? gone?"

"In the northwest of Letzen City, about fifteen kilometers away, there is a concentration camp." The officer said with a sad face: "Three thousand Jews are held there all year round. But last week, we received an order from Himmler. , and executed all these Jews."

   "What about the prisoner-of-war camp?" Kirillov frowned: "Is there a prisoner-of-war camp nearby?"

   "Yes." The officer continued to reply, "In the forest just north of the city, there is a prisoner-of-war camp in which thousands of your officers and soldiers are detained..."

  Knowing that there was indeed a prisoner-of-war camp nearby, Kirillov couldn't help becoming a little nervous: "Have they been massacred by you?"

   "No, no." The officer shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, it's near the sea. These prisoners of war are used to build coastal fortifications for the navy, so they haven't been dealt with yet."

   "How many guards are there in the POW camp, and what kind of equipment is there?"

"There are more than 100 guards, of which Germans accounted for only one-third, and the rest were Poles." The officer continued: "As for weapons, the Poles are equipped with rifles, while the Germans use rifles." submachine guns and machine guns."

"Chief of Staff," Kirilov told Myakov after he had the officer mark the location of the prisoner-of-war camp on the map: "immediately dispatch a regiment of troops and rush to this area to find the prisoner-of-war camp. After eliminating all the guards , Rescue all our commanders and fighters."

  (end of this chapter)