The German army seemed to have a must for our position. Heavy artillery and mortar shells rained down on our position. I can see from the observation hole that the front position has been submerged in a thick smoke of gunpowder.
I raised my telescope, trying to see the movement of the German army on the opposite side, to see if they sent infantry or tanks when they were shelling,. But everything was covered by smoke and nothing could be seen.
The German shells landed on the positions one after another, exploding with flashing fire, deafening explosion, and shrapnel flying everywhere. Although the place I stayed in was quite safe, I was still scared to death. My legs were shaking like chaff. Fortunately, I was the only one in the command post, otherwise my positive image of fearing death in the face of danger would be completely destroyed.
At this time, a shell exploded a few meters away from the command post, and the shock wave rushed directly into the command post from the observation hole, and the raised soil came to me like raindrops. I closed my eyes in time, so as not to be lost by the dust. Rao, I was still disheartened.
I was worried that the command post would be collapsed by the shell, so I grabbed my rifle and bent down to run out of the command post.
When we ran out of the command post, shells were exploding everywhere, and the smoke and dust were blocking the sky, as if night had suddenly come. Just when I didn't know where to go, a shell exploded in front of the trench, which scared me to lie down on the ground and let the collapsing soil fall on me.
I got up, bent down and continued to run along the trench. Suddenly another shell exploded in the trench not far in front of me. The huge air wave overturned me head-on, and the trenches on both sides collapsed in the explosion for a long time. Before I knew what was going on, half of my body had been buried in the soil.
Before I struggled to climb out, another shell exploded nearby, and the soil fell down again, burying me tightly. After a whirl, I lost consciousness.
I don't know how long later, I felt someone shaking my body hard. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the person shaking me in front of me. It seemed like the soldier I reunited with my husband and wife last time. What's his name? Vassili, Andre, Amis or other names? I can't remember. But why didn't he make a sound when he opened his mouth so wide?
The soldier saw that I opened my eyes, surprised my face, and opened my mouth. This time I vaguely heard his voice: "Comrade major, you wake up. It's very good!" I don't know if it's because he talks less or someone has put a wad of cotton in my ear, which makes me unable to hear others clearly.
After a while, I heard a faint sound of gunfire nearby. I had a violent cold war. I immediately realized that I was on the battlefield. I couldn't hear the soldiers clearly just now, because I was injured by the shock wave of the shell explosion and my hearing was affected. At this time, I also remembered the name of the soldier in front of me, so I asked, "Ivan, what's the situation in the position?"
Ivan anxiously replied, "Comrade major, all the people in the position are dead. Let's withdraw!"
Hearing this, my heart sank and I asked, "where's lieutenant ugad?"
Ivan bowed his head and replied in a low voice, "Comrade Lieutenant has died. He was blown to pieces by the cannonball. He didn't even leave a complete corpse. "
"What about Lieutenant miducci?"
"And sacrificed." Ivan continued: "immediately after the German artillery attack, hundreds of infantry attacked our positions under the cover of three tanks. Under the command of artillery, Lieutenant miducci bombarded the enemy infantry, once cutting off their contact with tanks and destroying many Germans. But our shells soon ran out, and the second lieutenant, holding a flask in his hand, rushed towards the enemy tanks and died with one of them. "
"And then?" I continued.
"After our first attack, the Germans retreated to their starting positions and fired again at our positions. This time, our surviving officers and soldiers were killed. Comrade major, the German infantry has begun a second attack. Let's withdraw quickly. Otherwise, when they attack the position, we will be prisoners. " He said while trying to dig the soil, trying to dig me out of the soil as soon as possible.
When I learned that almost all the officers and men who held the position had died, it was no longer meaningful for me to stay here. What I could do now was to find ways to get out of danger as soon as possible, so I quickly cooperated with Ivan to dig out the soil.
When we fled the position, we could see the German helmets shaking in the trench. When I rushed down the hillside, I saw that there were no moving objects in the passage, and there were bloody bodies everywhere, some of them were officers and soldiers, and some of them were civilians who moved with the troops.
I wonder if Ivan had already figured out that we would lose the battle, so he explored the way ahead of time. No, as soon as I got down from the position, he led me quickly into the boundless forest in the East. I followed him, running deep and shallow in the forest, out of breath, and the scenery in front of me gradually became blurred.
When Ivan stopped, he told me, "Comrade major, come on! It should be safe here. Let's have a rest. "
I sat on the ground with my back against a big tree, gasping for breath.
Before I could even out my breath, I suddenly heard a thunderous voice beside me: "who? No one's going to move. Hands up
I went to grab the rifle and found that when I ran away with Ivan just now, I didn't care to get the gun. Fortunately, the pistol was still there. I quickly reached out to my back, opened the holster, pulled out the pistol and aimed at the position where the sound came from. And the unarmed Ivan, even a little resistance plan, obediently raised his hands.
From behind the tree turned out two soldiers with rifles, a look at their helmets, wearing uniforms and wearing a hat on the body of the raincoat, you know it is their own people. I quickly dropped the muzzle of the gun, stood up and asked aloud, "what part of you are?"
The other side saw that I put down my gun and lowered the muzzle of the gun, and replied, "we are the guard class of the editorial department of bravery."
"The editorial department of bravery?" I thought of the political worker who had just stood up with me, and quickly asked, "is your person in charge a battalion political instructor, zalilov?"
"Yes, comrade commander." The two soldiers listened to my command from the head of the editorial department, and their faces showed joyful expressions. They quickly asked, "when we were bombarded by the German just now, we ran away from the instructor. Do you know where they are? "
I shook my head and said, "I'm sorry, comrade soldier. My soldiers and I just withdrew from the position and came here by mistake. I don't know the whereabouts of instructor zarilov."
Seeing the disappointed expression on the faces of the two soldiers, and looking at the disheartened face of Ivan and I, I suddenly felt that we should form a team with them, and then try to escape from the German encirclement to find the troops of the front army. So I asked tentatively, "Comrade soldier, since you are separated from the comrades in the editorial department, why don't you come with us. When we get out of danger, it's not too late to ask about the whereabouts of zarilov instructor
"Yes, two friends." Ivan helped me and said, "the Germans have occupied the highlands on both sides of the passage now. If we go back, we will either be killed or captured. It's better to find a way in the forest to escape from the German encirclement. When we get back to the army, we can ask for other people's information."
After listening to our words, the two soldiers hesitated and stood in the same place without making a statement. Ivan came forward, took them by the shoulders and said, "OK, don't think about it. Come with us." In this way, in Ivan's persuasion, the two soldiers finally agreed to accompany us.
We rested for half an hour and went on. Without compass and other tools, we soon lost our way in the dense forest. Although it's still sunny outside, the light in the dense forest is like night. Looking around at the dark jungle, I can't help feeling hairy. I quickly reached out and grabbed Ivan's belt in front of me, so that he wouldn't walk too fast and leave me here alone.
I don't know how long we walked, we finally came out of the dark and came to a section with sparse trees. Ivan took the lead to a big tree, sat down with his back against the trunk, and said, "I'm tired of walking. Let's all sit down and have a rest. Let's eat and drink some water before we go on." Seeing that the three of us sat down next to him quietly, he patted the shoulder of the soldier who was nearest to him, just like chatting with an old friend and said, "Hey, comrade soldier, do you have anything to eat? Give it to us. Comrade major and I haven't eaten for a day. "
The soldier took a small piece of bread wrapped in paper from his bag and handed it to him. Ivan is not polite, opened the paper package, picked up a piece of bread to me, and then he put the rest in his mouth. Although I was so hungry at the moment that my chest was close to my back, I politely asked the two soldiers, "after walking for such a long time, I guess you are also hungry. You should eat this bread!" With that, he handed the bread to them, but he secretly swallowed his saliva.
Two soldiers waved their hands and said, "Comrade commander, you'd better eat this bread. We still have it here."
Just as we were trying to push each other off, a faint voice came from nearby: "Hey, who's there? Are you one of your own
"Who is it?" Ivan roared, grabbed a rifle from a soldier's arms and rushed in the direction of the sound. We were afraid that he would suffer, so we followed closely. While I stood up, I stuffed the piece of bread into my mouth.
Behind a tree not far from where we were, an officer in a cornice hat was sitting with his back against the tree trunk, holding a pistol in his hand, nervously pointing at us“ Comrade political instructor, is that you? " Two soldiers ran past me to help the commander.
I heard their names and knew that the person lying on the ground was zalilov who had just had a conflict with me in the passage. So I said very impolitely, "Comrade political instructor, what are you doing here? You know, the Germans are not too far away from here. If you don't go any further, if they find you, you will be a prisoner. "
Zarilov looked me up and down, obviously recognized me, with a bitter smile on his face, and said, "it's you, comrade major. My leg is injured. I've been injured by shrapnel. I can't walk here. " At this point, he stopped for a moment, and then added: "you were right when you were in the passage just now. In order to ensure the marching speed of the troops, some unnecessary things can be discarded when breaking through the encirclement. I'm sorry Originally, I was still in a tight face, but when I heard zarilov apologizing to me, I felt a little softer. I quickly changed my smiling face and asked in a friendly way, "Comrade instructor, can you still walk?" Zarilov replied with a wry smile, "maybe not. You should go first. I'll have a rest and go after you“ Comrade instructor, what are you saying Although the Soviet army did not have the tradition of not abandoning and not giving up, since I saw that there were wounded people lying here, I would never leave. Besides, there were two soldiers with us who were his subordinates, so they could be free labor. I turned and told the two soldiers, "comrades of the two soldiers, go and chop down two small trees, make a stretcher and carry the political instructor."“ Yes, comrade commander. " The two soldiers agreed and quickly ran to the side to cut down trees. Zarilov said to me gratefully, "thank you, comrade major." I went to him, squatted down, held his hand and said, "Comrade instructor, please rest assured that we will carry you out of the bag." After that, we had a much more harmonious conversation. Through chatting, I realized that this zarilov instructor was actually a poet. Originally, he had been working in Moscow. Later, because the editor in chief of bravery, the second shock group army, was killed in the winter battle. In order not to leave the post vacant for a long time, zarilov was sent from Moscow to the political office of the second shock group army as the chief editor of the newspaper. Two soldiers came carrying a simple stretcher and put zarilov on it. Because they wanted to carry people, their rifles were carried by Ivan and me. We don't know where we are going, we can only go straight ahead in the forest, hoping to reach a safe place at last. After walking aimlessly for two days, I ate up all the food I had with me. As a result, I wandered in the boundless forest. And because we don't have enough to eat and sleep well, we are extremely tired, and our steps are getting smaller and smaller. Just when we were on the verge of despair, zarilov on the stretcher suddenly pointed to the front and said in surprise: "Comrade major, there is a road ahead. You can get to the station of the 59th army by crossing it." Hearing what he said, everyone immediately raised their spirits and quickened the March. After walking for five or six minutes, a simple road appeared ahead. I saw the hope of getting out of danger. My tense nerves relaxed. I sat down on the ground and said to them, "we are getting out of danger soon. Let's have a rest before we go."“ No way. " Zarilov attitude firmly said: "wait to pass the road and rest, there may be German here."“ I can't walk any more. You go first. Ivan, stay I feel really tired. I don't want to move when I sit down. When zarilov saw that I really didn't want to leave, he had no choice but to say, "well, let's go first. You can come as soon as possible." Then he urged his soldiers to speed up the March. Just as they set foot on the road, there was the roar of motors not far away. Soon, a German armored car appeared. Seeing that there were people on the road, the machine guns on the armored vehicles opened fire, and the bullets flew to them, knocking down the stretcher bearers. They fell to the ground and threw zarilov on the stretcher far away“ No, there's an ambush. Ivan, run I got up, turned around and ran back.