Chapter 461

"Don't panic, don't panic! Calm down, everyone Just as I was scared out of my mind by the sudden emergence of the enemy plane, like the soldiers around me, there came the shouting of kokunov.

With his cry, the chaos in the cabin gradually calmed down, and all the officers and men were staring askew at the enemy plane circling in the air. When I saw the enemy plane skimming over the ferry, I also took a special look at the ferry with seven company. Although the ferry carried more people, it was faster than us. Now it has pulled us down more than 100 meters.

I pushed to kokunov's side, looked at the enemy plane circling in the sky, and asked with some worry: "Comrade instructor I, do you think the enemy has a chance to bomb us?"

Kokunov's facial muscles twitched violently, and then pretended to reply calmly: "Comrade commander, you are the commander, the soldiers are watching you, if you are panic, then the morale of the army will be affected." At this point, he whispered in a low voice: "at this time, we can only let fate decide. We hope that the ferry can successfully reach the left bank before the enemy plane blows us down."

When I heard what he said, my heart suddenly cooled. Looking at the surging river outside, I thought that if our ferry was bombed, it would be all over. You know, this is the center of the Don river, the deepest part of the water. If the ferry was sunk, all the people on board would have to go to the bottom.

After circling in the air for several times, the enemy plane dived down to our ferry. The machine guns on board were blazing wildly. A long string of bullets penetrated the ceiling of the ferry and ploughed through the crowd. In a cry of surprise, seven or eight soldiers fell into the cabin with blood all over them without a snort.

Seeing this, the cabin was in chaos again. Just as I was scared out of my mind by this emergency, kokunov's voice rang again: "comrades, calm down, calm down, don't panic! Don't panic! " I turned to look, and found that he climbed onto the ammunition box, stood with his hands on the ceiling, and yelled at everyone: "comrades, don't panic, stay where you are. As long as the ship berths, the enemy plane can't take us."

In the critical situation of being strafed by enemy planes, it takes courage and tact to dare to stand on the most dangerous ammunition box and calm the morale of the army. Although I have never liked any political workers, many of them deserve our respect and admiration. Kokunov is undoubtedly one of them.

Seeing kokunov standing on the ammunition box calmly giving orders, the soldiers in the cabin were no longer in a panic, but began to help the health workers rescue the wounded soldiers. The bodies of several soldiers who died on the spot were carried to one side, and the health workers squatted beside the wounded. After a simple debridement, they began to bandage the wound.

The order on board had just been restored. Before we could catch our breath, the flying enemy plane circled in the air and dived down from the right side again, shooting our ferry with airborne machine guns. Fortunately, this time, the bullet missed. It flew over the ceiling and hit the river on the left side of the boat.

Looking at the climbing enemy plane, my heart beat faster. I felt that my throat was dry and my sweat was pouring out. In my heart, I prayed secretly that the enemy plane would leave and stop turning around to attack us. Otherwise, the torrential Don river would be our burial ground.

In a short time, the enemy plane turned around again in the air and dived down to our ferry for the third time. This time, instead of strafing with the machine gun, the enemy plane dropped a bomb directly. The bomb didn't hit the ferry, but exploded near the boat, raising a water column more than ten meters high, and the cold water poured all over us. Kokunov, standing on the ammunition box, might have been lifted down by the air wave if he had not grasped the iron pipe of the ceiling tightly.

I stared at the enemy plane which was pulled up again after the bomb was dropped, and thought bitterly: "if only there were some anti-aircraft machine guns on the ship, then the enemy plane would not dare to attack the ferry so recklessly."

Seeing the enemy plane turning around and diving down again, I couldn't help asking aloud, "Comrade kokunov, the enemy plane is coming again. What should we do?" At this time, I don't care to maintain any image, and I don't care whether it will cause panic among the officers and soldiers on board, because at this moment, we are just a bunch of lambs to be slaughtered.

Kokunov did not answer me, but looked at the enemy plane with his eyes on fire. If his eyes were lethal, the enemy plane would have been blown up in the air. A moment later, I heard him curse fiercely: "damn German, you'd better fall into the river."

But the enemy plane didn't fall into the river. On the contrary, the bomb dropped on the front of the ferry and exploded, smashing the bow of the ferry. In front of the powerful blast wave, I fell back together with the officers and men in the cabin and fell heavily in the cabin. Soon, the ferry began to lean forward, and the cold water quickly poured into the cabin.

I just got up from the deck of the cabin, most of my body was submerged in the water. At this time, I didn't care about others, and I tried to swim out of the ferry. Everyone who has studied physics knows that when a ship sinks, it will form a vortex. If it is involved in the vortex, I am afraid it will not have a chance to escape.

Just after leaving the ferry, the ferry was hit by another bomb, which accelerated the sinking speed of the ferry. In less than two minutes, the boat completely disappeared under the water. Only the ship debris scattered on the water was still burning, and there were some officers and soldiers who were lucky to escape, just like me, struggling to float and sink on the river. I didn't expect that the ferry sank, and the damned Krauts would not let us go. They dived down again to shoot the officers and men floating on the river. I held my breath and dived to the bottom. Bullet after bullet came back and forth, drawing water lines under the water, which scared me to dive as deep as possible to the bottom of the river. If I didn't dive deep enough, I felt I couldn't hold it. If I stayed underwater, maybe the bullets of the enemy plane didn't kill me. I had drowned because of lack of oxygen. I used both hands and feet to pull on the ground first, and my body quickly ran to the surface of the water. When I float on the water, I deeply realize that when you breathe normally, you don't seem to feel the air. But once we lose the possibility of breathing, we immediately realize the significance of a breath of fresh air to us. After the enemy's successive strafing, there are few living people on the river. The enemy may not want to waste bullets any more and fly to the distance. I looked in the direction and swam to the left bank of the river. Swimming in the pool and swimming in the river are two completely different concepts. I can swim hundreds of meters in the swimming pool, not to mention in the turbulent Don river. Not long after I swam forward, I felt that I was not strong enough and moved more and more slowly. Then I felt that my body began to sink slowly. I thought sadly: am I going to drown in the river today? When the river drowned my ears and nose, suddenly someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to swim forward. I turned to the right, and the first thing I saw was the familiar face of kokunov. On the left, there is a young sailor. With their help, I swung my legs as hard as I could, following them across the river. More than ten minutes later, kokunov and the sailors dragged me ashore in a deserted place. I feel weak all over. As soon as I step on the solid ground, I will collapse on the ground. I looked up at kokunov and the sailors sitting next to me and expressed my thanks to them: "Comrade kokunov, thank you. If it wasn't for you, I would have been drowned in the Don river. I didn't expect that your water is so good. " Kokunov replied with a smile: "Comrade commander, you are welcome. Fortunately, we are still alive." I turned my face to the other side and said to the young and handsome sailor, "and you, comrade sailor, I sincerely thank you. If it wasn't for your help and Comrade first-class instructor, I would sink at the bottom of the river now." Unexpectedly, the sailor blushed and said, "Comrade commander, don't be so polite. You know I've met you. How can I let someone I know sink to the bottom of the river beside me?" I gazed at the face of the sailor and tried to recall where I had met him. But after thinking for a long time, I still had no impression. Since there were thousands of people I had met, it was impossible for me to remember everyone's appearance and name, so I couldn't help asking, "have we met before? But I have no impression at all The sailor said sheepishly, "Comrade commander, I'm from the 192nd infantry division. I once participated in counterattack with you. You will never remember me. But I happened to meet you one night when I was dating my girlfriend, Natasha, the health worker. At that time, because you would criticize me, I didn't expect that you just said lightly that you would fight tomorrow, so I left. " When the sailors said this, I immediately remembered the numb dialogue I heard outside the headquarters of the 62nd army that night. Women are men's sky, moon and indispensable air, while men are women's sea and sun. Thinking of this, I couldn't help smiling and asked curiously, "Comrade mariner, how can you be here?" The sailor replied, "Comrade commander of the report, in order to escort the personnel of the political department across the river safely, the superior has transferred some personnel from our sailor brigade, and I am one of them." I said, "where is your Natasha?" The sailor replied, "she is still in the health team of the 192nd division, but we haven't seen each other since the recent fierce fighting." Just then, kokunov suddenly said: "it seems that some troops are coming towards us. They should be looking for us." With that, he stood up, waved his hands desperately, and cried out: "Hello! Come here, we are here. "