Red Moscow

  Chapter 2073 Defender of the Fortress

  The conversation between Zhukov and Rokossovsky was unknown to Sokov in Brest. At this moment, he was receiving a call from Major Sukharev, commander of the 109th Infantry Brigade: "Comrade Commander, I found something in the fortress west of the Brest Fortress. Can you come and have a look?"

When Sokov heard this, he guessed that the other party might have discovered the battle marks left by the defenders of the fortress, so he said straightforwardly: "Comrade Major, I will rush over as soon as possible, and you can send someone to pick me up at the door later." one time."

  After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Ponejielin: "Comrade Deputy Commander, Major Sukharev said that he found something special. I think we need to take a look."

   "Comrade Commander," Sidolin interjected without waiting for Pornegerin to speak: "Can I go?"

Sokov thought that every time he went out before, he asked Sidolin to stay as a housekeeper. This time, the fortress he went to was only a few kilometers away from the headquarters. He simply agreed to Sidolin's request: "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, you can go with us this time."

Although the fortress is only a few kilometers away from the city, Sokov still remembers that not long ago, two of his brigade commanders rushed to the fortress to inspect the battlefield just after the battle, but were beaten by wounded German soldiers. He shot coldly and lost his life in vain. So when he traveled, he specially asked Koshkin to bring a company of guards to **** the three of them to the fortress.

After the convoy entered the fortress and drove for a certain distance, a lieutenant with two soldiers appeared on the side of the road, who seemed to be here to greet him. Sokov quickly ordered to stop, and then asked Koshkin to ask if the other party came to pick him up. my own.

   Koshkin opened the door and got out of the car, walking towards the lieutenant. Still far away, he asked loudly: "Hey, Comrade Lieutenant, what department are you in?"

Seeing Koshkin walking towards him, the lieutenant quickly stood at attention and raised his hand to salute: "Hello, Comrade Captain. I am from the 109th Infantry Brigade. I am here to greet you under the order of the brigade commander, Major Sukharev. Commander's."

   After confirming the identity of the other party, Koshkin brought the lieutenant to the side of the car and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, this is the guide sent by Major Sukharev."

   Sokov pushed open the door, stepped forward to shake hands with the lieutenant, and asked politely: "Comrade lieutenant, where is Major Sukharev?"

   "Comrade commander, please follow me." The lieutenant said: "I will be your guide."

Sokov called Ponejielin and Sidolin in the car behind, and followed the lieutenant to a half-collapsed red building not far away, which was turned into a building due to bombing and shelling. In this way, the places where the walls were pierced, the exposed stairwells, the platforms of the remaining undamaged rooms and the preserved furniture can all be clearly seen.

  The lieutenant led them into the building, down a narrow escalator lit by a gas lamp hanging on the wall, and the chipped steps of the escalator were strewn with chippings and broken bricks.

  In the corridor below the escalator, next to an open metal door, stands a soldier. Seeing the lieutenant and several generals coming down the escalator, the soldier immediately stood at attention, straightened his back and saluted everyone.

   "Is Major Sukharev here?" Sokov asked.

"Yes, Comrade General." The soldier standing guard was obviously new to the job, and he didn't recognize the general in front of him who was asking questions, which was Sokov, commander of the army group, but he still added: "In addition to the brigade commander, the brigade chief of staff is also here .”

  Sokov nodded at the soldier and walked into the room.

  In this damp basement, Sokov saw Sukharev and another bald major without a hat squatting in front of a wall, shining a flashlight on the wall, as if checking something.

  Sokov stood for a while, seeing that Sukharev hadn't noticed him, he stepped over and asked in a raised voice, "comrades, commanders, what are you doing?" Due to the empty room, his voice echoed.

   Discovering Sokov's arrival, Sukharev quickly stood up and saluted: "Hello, Comrade Commander."

   After shaking hands with Sukharev and his chief of staff, Sokov repeated the question just now: "Major Sukharev, what are you looking at?"

   "Comrade Commander, please take a look at the writing on the wall." Sukharev led Sokov to the wall, pointed his flashlight at the wall and said, "I think you will be interested."

With the help of the flashlight, Sokov saw the words engraved on the wall, and he quickly bent over to examine them carefully, only to see that it read: "I am about to sacrifice, but I will never surrender. Farewell, motherland!" The signature has been blurred, but there is a clearly identifiable date at the bottom-"July 20, 1941".

Ponegerin, who followed in, also saw the writing on the wall clearly, and said in surprise: "Comrade Commander, according to the information captured by the German army, the German army occupied this fortress a few days after the war broke out. But If the inscription on the wall is true, it shows that the defenders in the fortress resisted for a much longer time than the Germans said."

"That's right." Sokov clearly remembered that Major Zavrilov, the defender of the fortress, was captured by the Germans only one month after the outbreak of the war, so he doubted the authenticity of the inscription on the wall. There is no doubt: "The German army only occupied this fortress in name, but the defenders of our fortress are still fighting desperately with the enemy in every corner."

   "I don't know what happened to the people in the fortress." Sidolin interjected.

"Does it need to be said, it must have been killed by the Germans." Sukharev said: "I heard that the defenders had no water and food, and in order not to let the women and children in the fortress suffer with themselves, they let them go to the Germans. Surrender. As a result, the Germans killed all these women and children in the next year."

"Comrade Major," Sidolin couldn't help interrupting Sukharev when he heard this: "If the defenders run out of food, I think it is still possible. When it comes to cutting off water, it is simply impossible, you know , Brest Fortress is a fortress surrounded by rivers, and it is very easy for the defenders to get water."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov felt that he had to come out and say something fair: "According to what I know, the defenders of those fortresses are trapped far away from the river, and the water supply system in the fortress has also been damaged. The destruction of the Germans, so it is entirely possible that they cut off the water."

   "Comrade Major," Ponejielin did not participate in the debate, but asked Sukharev curiously: "Are there any other inscriptions besides this one?"

   "In the next room, there are many places on the wall that have engraved words." Sukharev said with some regret: "It's a pity that I can't discern the content on it."

   "How could it be?" Pornegerin asked a little puzzled: "Even if three years have passed and the basement is damp, it will corrode the words carved on the wall, so it won't be unreadable."

"Comrade Deputy Commander, the situation is as follows." Sukharev explained to Ponedelin: "From the traces left, it can be seen that the Germans used a flamethrower in the next room, and the high temperature caused the fire on the wall. The lettering became blurred..."

"Damn the Germans," said Pornegering, gnashing his teeth when he heard this, "using a flamethrower in the basement means that there will be no survivors for the defenders in the next room. "

Listening to the conversation between Ponedelin and Sukharev, Sokov thought to himself: "Major Zavrilov is currently staying in a German prisoner-of-war camp. If he is rescued, then he can be appointed as regiment commander and let him take the troops to avenge his hatred and wash away the shame left to him by the Germans."

   "Comrade Commander," just as Sokov was thinking about it, Pornegerin touched him with his elbow and asked curiously, "What are you thinking?"

   "I was wondering," Sokov said casually, "are there any survivors among the defenders of these fortresses?"

   "There must be some survivors." Sidolin said: "No matter how tightly the Germans surround them, there will always be people who escape from the encirclement. As for whether they are still alive today, it is still unknown."

"Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the troops of the Western Front were defeated by the Germans." Ponegerin said slowly, "After Marshal Timoshenko took over the command of the troops, he successively accommodated the two soldiers who escaped from the German encirclement. More than 100,000 troops. Since other troops surrounded by the Germans were able to escape successfully, I think some of the defenders in the fortress should also be able to escape.”

   Several people came out of the basement and came to the gate of the Terespol Gate.

  Sokov remembered a movie he had seen before, where the defenders of the fortress stood firm to prevent the Germans from entering the fortress through the bridge. The despicable Germans escorted a group of captured wounded and medical personnel over, trying to let these people block bullets in front so that they could rush into the fortress smoothly.

   At the critical moment, Commissar Fuming came out alone to negotiate with the Germans. He took advantage of the fact that the Germans did not understand Russian, and when he approached the captured wounded and medical staff, he yelled for everyone to get down. The wounded and medical personnel immediately fell to the ground when they heard his shout, while the soldiers in the fortress behind Fuming immediately opened fire on the German troops exposed on the open ground. Although some wounded and medical personnel died, most people were rescued, and the German detachment that tried to capture the Terespol Gate was completely wiped out.

  Sidolin was not a roundworm in Sokov's stomach. Seeing Sokov staring at the river in a daze, he asked curiously, "Comrade Commander, I saw you staring at the river. I wonder what you were thinking?"

  Sokov pointed to the river and said, "I seem to have heard that the defenders of the fortress used gas masks to dive in order to break out of the siege, trying to escape from the fortress underwater."

"Diving with a gas mask?" Sukharev said with some surprise after hearing this: "Comrade commander, this is unlikely. You know, I am from the Navy and I am not familiar with gas masks, but I know very well that using Semi-enclosed gas masks will leak, even fully airtight gas masks will not work. Because the mouth and nose of the gas mask cannot balance the ear pressure, the ear will start to hurt at about 3 meters underwater, and the eardrum may be perforated if it continues to go deeper.”

  After listening to Sukharev's highly professional explanation, Sokov said with a smile: "Comrade Major, it is precisely because you were born in the Navy that you entered into a misunderstanding of thinking."

  Sukharev had a surprised expression on his face when he heard Sokov say this: "Comrade Commander, I don't quite understand what you mean, can you explain it to me?"

  Fortunately, the soldiers walking around were carrying gas masks, so Sokov ordered someone to bring one. Then he gave Sukharev a nod and said, "Major, I believe it is well sealed!"

"Yes, of course!" Although Sukharev did not understand the reason for Sokov's words, he replied truthfully: "It is used to prevent poisonous gas. If the airtightness is not good, it will not be effective anti-virus effect."

   "We can observe the outside situation through these two glasses." Sokov pointed to the two glasses on the gas mask where the eyes are and said: "I don't know what its exact name is."

   "The window," interrupted Ponegelin: "The round window!"

   "Yes, the window!" Sokov continued: "In addition to this kind of gas mask with a filter tank, there is also a gas mask with a long extension tube."

  Sukharev became more and more confused, thinking that the commander was not teaching himself how to make a gas mask, right? But he didn't dare to interrupt the other party, so he could only listen patiently.

  Sokov gestured with the gas mask and said: "Since the gas mask has good sealing and windows, as well as an extension tube, our soldiers can use it to breathe underwater."

Sidolin laughed when he heard this, and said to Sukharev: "Comrade major, you may not know that we used this tactic when we were crossing the river before. gas masks, approaching the enemy's position quietly from the bottom of the water."

  Sukharev was stunned for a while with his mouth half open, and finally figured out what was going on. He slapped his leg hard and said excitedly, "Genius, Comrade Commander, you are simply a genius."

  Although Sukharev wanted to understand what was going on, Ponejielin didn't understand what was going on. Sidolin explained to him: "Comrade Deputy Commander, we will take out the end of the extension tube and fix it on a wooden block, so that it will always float on the surface of the water, so that soldiers wearing gas masks can breathe underwater. There's air."

   After listening to Sidolin's explanation, Pornegerin finally realized it, but he still raised his own doubts: "What if the water is too deep, the length of the extension pipe may not be enough."

"This is not a problem." Sidolin explained: "We can extend the extension tube a little longer, so that we can ensure that the soldiers wearing gas masks can still breathe the outside air when they are in the water." Nedelin asked again, and he added, "Because the soldiers carry enough weight of weapons and equipment, there is no need to worry that they will not be able to maintain their balance in the water."

   "Comrade Commander, I don't understand." At this time Sukharev interjected again: "Since they can use gas masks to walk underwater, why can't they escape the encirclement of the Germans?"

"It is said that the Germans set up barbed wire at the bottom of the water." Sokov sighed softly, and said with a puzzled face, "This blocked the way for the defenders of the fortress to escape." After speaking, he waved his hand, "It's getting late, let's go back."

  (end of this chapter)