Red Moscow

  Chapter 1511 Advance to the Dnieper River (5)

  After obtaining Chuvashov's permission, the task of the 296th Guards Regiment was changed to rescue the commanders and fighters detained in the prisoner-of-war camp. Before they left, Dobrushin proposed: "Major Shamrih, I think the commanders and fighters in the prisoner-of-war camp are probably already weak due to long-term malnutrition. When you go, ask the soldiers to carry more dry food with them." , After these commanders and fighters are rescued, they can be distributed to them."

"Understood, Comrade Deputy Division Commander." After hearing Dobrushin's order, Shamrich grinned and replied, "I have already handed over this matter to the Chief of Staff of the regiment. I believe he will be ready enough." food."

After Shamrikh and Shapovalenko left, Uzakov reminded Chuvashov: "Comrade Commander, we found our army's prisoner-of-war camp near Kremenchug. For such an important matter, we need to inform him immediately. Report from the Army Group Headquarters to see if Comrade Commander has any instructions."

"You are right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Chuvashov agreed with Uzakov's proposal, "Immediately send a report to the headquarters, report the information here to Comrade Commander, and ask him what he has. instruct."

   A few minutes later, the telegram sent by the 98th Guards Division was placed in front of Sokov. After reading the telegram, he said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I really didn't expect that there were German prisoners of war in Klemenchug, and there were more than 2,000 people detained there. Supplementing them to the 98th Guards Division will greatly enhance their combat effectiveness."

Unexpectedly, Sameko shook his head after hearing this, and said with a wry smile: "Comrade commander, you are so optimistic. You must know that these commanders and fighters were all captured in the Battle of Uman. The commanders and fighters who survived two years of inhuman torture in the hospital are all strong and strong. However, due to their long-term malnutrition, it is estimated that everyone is skinny. Even if they are rescued, it will take a long time to recuperate It is impossible for the body to participate in the battle in a short period of time."

"That's true." Sokov also calmed down at this moment. He thought of the soldiers who were replenished in the Battle of Kharkov. They were only captured for about a year, but they had already been tortured in the German prisoner-of-war camp. Unlike humans and ghosts, although their hearts are full of hatred for the Germans and they are brave in battle, they cannot compare with ordinary commanders and fighters in terms of physical strength.

   "Rescue them first." Sokov said rather helplessly: "Then arrange their future whereabouts according to their physical condition."

  Besides, after Shamrih returned to his unit, he called a meeting of all commanders above the platoon level and explained the next combat mission to everyone.

As a result, the reaction of these commanders and fighters was even hotter than Shamrich imagined. After all, most of them had been in the German prisoner-of-war camps, and all the inhuman tortures they suffered there made their hatred for the Germans full. . At this moment, when they heard that they were going to save comrades in arms who were suffering from the same disease, everyone was as excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

  Under the leadership of Ye Liaoming, the troops arrived not far from the prisoner-of-war camp in just a quarter of an hour.

"Comrade Major," Ye Liaoming said to Shamrich in a low voice out of caution, although there are still hundreds of meters away from the prisoner-of-war camp. It's a prison camp."

  Shamrih quickly raised his binoculars and looked towards the prisoner-of-war camp in the distance, and found that it was just a temporary camp surrounded by barbed wire. There are several wooden houses on the edge of the camp, which should be the place where German soldiers lived, while countless Soviet commanders and fighters crowded in the open space.

  Shamrikh handed the binoculars to Shapovalenko and said to him: "Comrade Comrade Commissar, yes, this is the prisoner-of-war camp."

  Shapovalenko took the binoculars and looked in the direction of the prisoner-of-war camp. Seeing thousands of commanders and fighters huddled together in tattered linen to keep warm, he couldn't help but feel angry. He gritted his molars and said to Shamrih: "Comrade commander, fortunately, the weather is not cold now. If so many commanders and fighters stay in the open space in the middle of October, there will be as many as one night." Possibly half the population froze to death."

Shamrih nodded, and then called Yakuda, the battalion commander, to him, and told him, "First battalion commander, you take your people to the prisoner-of-war camp, and use the German uniforms on your body to get rid of the guards in the prisoner-of-war camp." garrison."

   "Comrade head," Yakuda tentatively asked after listening to Shamrih's order: "What if we are found out?"

"What else can I do, of course it's a sneak attack instead of a storm." After listening to Yakuda's question, Shamrih stared and said angrily: "You are also an old commander, how can you ask such a low-level officer?" What about the problem?"

"Comrade Captain, don't worry, you are not fighting alone." Seeing the tense atmosphere in front of him, Shapovalenko hurried out to smooth things over: "Aren't there still two battalions here? Once you encounter any danger, we will I'll be there in time to support you."

"That's right, the political commissar is right." Shamrih added on the sidelines: "The two battalions staying here are not for nothing. Once the sneak attack fails and becomes a strong attack, we will support you in time. "

  Yakuda and Shamrih have fought side by side for many years, and naturally understand his character. Since he said that he would come for reinforcements, he would definitely come for reinforcements, so he nodded and led his troops towards the prisoner-of-war camp.

  The sentinel in front of the prisoner-of-war camp saw an army appearing in the distance, and quickly woke up his companions on duty. After just one or two minutes, the machine gunners in the two sandbag fortifications on the left and right of the door had set up their MG42 machine guns and were ready to shoot. As long as they find that something is wrong with the approaching troops, they will shoot without hesitation.

   The second company, which is at the forefront, has reached the level of false ones because of the German level of the second company commander. Even if a German soldier talked to him, he would think he was a real German.

  When they came to a place more than ten meters away from the door, a German corporal came out from behind the sandbag fortifications, raised his right hand high, and signaled the second company commander to stop.

  Seeing the troops of unknown origin parked more than ten meters away from the sandbag fortifications, the corporal walked over with a gun in hand and asked loudly, "Which part are you from? What are you doing here?"

   "We are the 106th Infantry Division." The second company commander replied loudly, "We were ordered to come here to receive prisoners of war."

   "Accept prisoners of war?" The German corporal walked up to the second company commander and asked with a puzzled look: "Mr. Captain, what prisoners of war are you planning to accept?"

  The second company commander pointed at the Soviet commanders surrounded by the barbed wire, and said, "We are here to receive these people."

   "Mr. Captain, we have not received an order to hand over the prisoners of war." Hearing what the second company commander said, the sentinel immediately became vigilant: "Whose order did you take, and why did you appear here so late?"

"Whose order are we following?" The second company commander said with a sneer: "Of course it was the order of General William, the commander of the 11th Army. The Russians attacked the city very violently. The outer positions we built were basically destroyed by their artillery fire. , People are needed to rush to repair the fortifications. General William said that there is enough labor here, let us come here to receive them, and send them to Poltava to repair the fortifications immediately."

Hearing that the second company commander mentioned General William, the German corporal did not dare to continue the questioning, and could only murmur: "Okay, Mr. Captain, I can let you in. But I need to ask the commander for instructions first, and get him With your consent, the door will be opened for you."

   "Hurry up." The second company commander was secretly happy, but he still pretended to be fierce and said: "Hurry up and hand over the prisoners of war to us, and we can return to Poltava as soon as possible."

  The German corporal returned to the duty post, picked up the phone hanging there, and reported to the warden of the prisoner-of-war camp that there were troops receiving prisoners of war.

   After the chief warden was awakened by the ringing of the phone, he asked angrily, "What's the matter?"

  The corporal was startled by the warden's voice, and after a long silence, he said, "A unit from the 106th Infantry Division came outside. They said they were ordered to receive prisoners of war."

"Accepting prisoners of war?" Hearing what the corporal said, the chief warden said to himself in confusion: "Strange, why haven't I been notified?" He continued to ask, "Did the people who came say that they planned to take the prisoners Where are you going?"

  Corporal glanced at the second company commander standing not far away with his hands behind his back, and said cautiously: "The captain who led the team said that they plan to take these prisoners of war to Poltava to build fortifications."

  If the second company commander said that he would take the prisoners somewhere, the warden might still have doubts. But since it was going to be sent to Poltava, he took it for granted that the heavy work like building fortifications would naturally be left to the captured Russians to complete.

Thinking of this, he asked again: "How many people are there?" His purpose of asking this question was to find out whether he would need to send someone to help **** these Russians. After all, it was a distance of hundreds of kilometers. There are too few escorts, maybe someone will escape halfway.

"There is a company, no..." The corporal had just finished speaking, and found that there were more than one company standing outside the prisoner-of-war camp, and more troops were arriving one after another. He said with some hesitation: "There are still troops coming one after another. I think there's at least one battalion."

   Knowing that a battalion of troops came outside, the warden hurriedly got up from the camp bed, put on his clothes and left the cabin, preparing to meet the troops from Poltava in person.

   As soon as the warden arrived at the gate of the prisoner-of-war camp, the corporal greeted him and reported to him: "Sir, the officer from Poltava and his troops are waiting outside the camp."

"I saw it." Looking at the dark team outside the prisoner-of-war camp, the warden couldn't help but feel a little hairy. He blamed the corporal: "Corporal, since the chiefs of the friendly army have arrived, why don't you let them take a rest and let them wait in front of the camp?" Outside?"

  The corporal replied with a wry smile: "I'm sorry, sir, it's too dark, I dare not let people into the camp without authorization."

   Regarding the corporal's statement, the warden can't blame him, after all, the other party is thinking about the safety of the camp. He ordered people to open the gate of the prisoner-of-war camp and walked towards the location where Yakuda and the second company commander were located.

  He came to the two men and stood at attention, raised his hand in salute and said: "Mr. Major, Mr. Captain, hello, I am the warden of this prisoner-of-war camp. May I help you?"

"We are ordered by General William to take all the Russians here to Poltava and build fortifications inside and outside the city." The commander of the second company put on a haughty attitude and said to the chief guard: "You immediately take the The subordinates gather together and formally handle the handover procedures with us."

  The warden was just a lieutenant. How dare he say no to an officer with a higher rank than himself. He hurriedly turned around and said to the corporal, "Corporal, gather everyone together at the gate."

  The corporal agreed, ran into the camp quickly, picked up the whistle hanging around his neck, and blew vigorously. This is just a temporary prisoner-of-war camp, without any alarm system installed, and the only way to call people is by blowing whistles. It has to be said that the quality of the German officers and soldiers is very high. Within two minutes of the corporal blowing the whistle, the German officers and soldiers living in the wooden house were fully dressed and ran out of the house with their weapons.

  After they finished forming in the open space in front of the camp gate, the warden smiled and said to Yakuda: "Mr. Major, my troops have assembled, please give them orders."

  If the warden said this to the second company commander, the second company commander could handle it freely, but Yakov didn’t understand German at all, so the warden’s words were undoubtedly chicken and duck, and there was no response.

  The warden is also a smart man. Seeing that Yakuda didn't respond to what he said, he quickly reached out to his waist to feel for the gun. But as soon as his hand was on the holster, he felt something cold on his chin. He knew it must be the opponent's pistol, so he hurriedly removed his hand from the holster, and slowly raised his hands.

  The German officers and soldiers who lined up, before they figured out what was going on, saw the friendly soldiers standing outside the camp rushing into the camp, pointing their black muzzles at themselves. The second company commander stepped forward and shouted at them: "You have been captured by the Soviet Red Army, put down your weapons and surrender immediately."

   Facing the countless black gunpoints around them, the German officers and soldiers dared not resist. They obediently put down the weapons in their hands, and then stood there with their hands raised, not daring to move.

  The Soviet commanders and fighters who were imprisoned in the barbed wire were also alarmed by the movement here. Seeing a German army from outside the camp disarm the German army guarding the prisoner-of-war camp, they still felt quite puzzled: What happened? Why did the Germans fight with their own people?

   Before they could figure out what was going on, they saw a German major leading a group of people walking towards them. When he was five or six meters away from the barbed wire, the German major stopped, looked at the Soviet commanders and fighters standing in front of the barbed wire, then raised his voice, and said excitedly in proficient Russian: "Dear comrades, We are from the First Battalion of the 296th Regiment of the 98th Guards Division of the 27th Army. I am the battalion commander Yakuda Navy Lieutenant. I am here to rescue you under the order of the commander, General Sokov. Dear comrades-in-arms, detainees Your German guards have been captured and disarmed by us, and now you are free!"

  The Soviet commanders and fighters on the barbed wire were obviously stunned when they heard what Yakuda said. It took a long time before they realized what the other party's words meant. Several quick-response fighters cheered excitedly in the crowd: "Ula! Ula! Ula!!"

   Their shouts stimulated the other comrades around. They were so excited that they burst into tears, and they also cheered. For a moment, the cheers were earth-shattering, and could be heard clearly even in Shamrih, a few hundred meters away. He was still very satisfied that Yakov was able to take down the prisoner-of-war camp without bloodshed. He put down his binoculars, shook his head at Shapovalenko, and said, "Let's go, Comrade Political Commissar, let's go and see the rescued prisoners." Commander."

  (end of this chapter)