Chapter 1697

By nightfall of the first day, the troops searching in the forest should have captured nearly 4000 enemies and their personal weapons. Submachine guns, rifles, machine guns, ammunition boxes and helmets piled up on the edge of the forest.

The order of the German prisoners was better than we thought. We thought it would take at least 20 soldiers to escort 100 prisoners. As a result, we were surprised by what we saw outside the forest. The prisoners were divided into groups of 100 or 200, while the soldiers escorting them had only one incomplete squad.

Seeing this situation, Kuragin could not help saying to himself, "our soldiers are not so much escorting prisoners as serving as guides for them, lest they get lost in the forest."

Kuragin's words immediately caused a roar of laughter from the commanders and fighters around us, and the long captives passing by us, after hearing our laughter, just looked at us with confused eyes and went on.

After finishing laughing, marcenzo obviously saw his familiar subordinates, so he went out from among us, called his subordinates and talked in a low voice. Maybe he was understanding the specific situation in the forest.

When he came back, Kuragin asked aloud, "Comrade Colonel, what did your men say to you?"

"That soldier was a veteran just now. He has been in the army since the outbreak of the war." "He said that the Germans had completely lost their will to fight. When they saw our soldiers appear, they would give up their arms and surrender to our army without any resistance at all," malchenko told us. In the past, the German army would shout slogans like "long live Hitler" even when they were surrounded by our army. Now, after surrendering to our army, they are nagging that "Hitler is going to die.". In today's search operation, he captured more than 40 prisoners by himself. The battalion commander also wanted to lead the troops to continue to search deep in the forest, so he asked him to take a few soldiers and send out the German soldiers they captured. "

"The battalion commander did the right thing," Kuragin agreed with the decision made by the battalion commander of the search battalion. "The front of the forest is too big. It will take at least a week to complete the search task."

But I was thinking of another thing, so I asked malchenko, "Comrade Colonel, what's the rank of the soldier just now?"

"Sergeant, comrade deputy commander!" Malchenko replied: "when the war broke out, he was a corporal."

After hearing this, I shook my head and said to marchenko, "Comrade Colonel, this rank is too low for a veteran who has been in the army for three years and participated in numerous battles. He deserves a higher rank. "

Kuragin immediately agreed with my proposal. He said to marchenko: "Comrade Colonel, you are so mean. Such veterans, in my army, are at least above the rank of lieutenant, but in your division, they are ordinary sergeants, not even officers. "

After listening to what we both said, malchenko replied with a wry smile: "in fact, he used to be a company commander several times, but he was dismissed again and again because he was greedy for wine and drink. Last month, the division was going to promote him to battalion commander, but he got drunk in the battle and let the enemy break through from his defensive zone. For this, he was demoted from captain to sergeant. He has made a lot of achievements on the battlefield, but he has also made a lot of mistakes. It's really a headache. "

After listening to marchenko's introduction of the staff sergeant, I gave up the promotion proposal. If a man who likes drinking and drinking is just a soldier or a low-level commander, he will do little harm on the battlefield. But if he is allowed to occupy an important position, it is bound to bring disastrous consequences to the army. Therefore, let him continue to be his staff sergeant. Maybe this is the best arrangement for him.

After the three of us returned to the tent, I asked the two division commanders with concern, "it seems that our troops are going to spend the night in the forest. Have we prepared enough tents for them?"

"Don't worry, comrade deputy commander." Kuragin assured me, "we've already sent logistics troops to send tents to the search forces, and we've driven all the cooking trucks into the forest to solve their food and housing problems on the spot."

When I saw Kuragin and they had taken all the issues into consideration, I was relieved. Then I picked up the phone and called trakov to tell him what had happened here. After hearing this, trakov said anxiously, "Rita, if there are so many prisoners of war, it will be a trouble for us. If there are only a few thousand prisoners, the camp can barely accept them, but if there are tens of thousands of them, they may even have to eat. "

Just as I was thinking about how to solve this problem, I just heard trakov continue to say: "Rita, although the problem of prisoners of war is a headache for me, it's nothing to you. After all, you are the deputy commander of the front army. Some things will be easier if you come forward. "

Trekov's words gave me a wake-up call. After I finished the call with him, I quickly dialed the headquarters of the front army. As Zhukov was busy, I went to malining, chief of staff, and told him about the possible capture of tens of thousands of Germans in the near future. Then I asked him for help and said, "chief of staff, you have to help me find a way. Tens of thousands of German prisoners, if locked up in the open-air prison camp, are expected to be frozen to death on a cold night. "

Malining was silent for a long time. Then he said to me, "Rita, there is a prison camp near the city. It used to be about our army, Anglo American and Italian prisoners of war. We liberated there not long ago. If you can capture tens of thousands of prisoners of war, you can keep them all there, under the care of our soldiers and the Allied prisoners who have just been rescued. "

After I told malining's words to the two teachers, they were also very happy. Therefore, no matter how many prisoners of war were captured, they would not worry about having no place to be held. Marchenko even took the initiative to say to me: "Comrade deputy commander, I will go to the prison camp without delay, establish contact with the commander in charge of the prison camp, and then detain the prisoners captured today."

I didn't need to contact the person in charge of the prison camp. When I was just thinking about who should be sent to carry out such an important contact task, marchenko volunteered. So I nodded and said, "well, comrade Colonel, since you are willing to undertake this important task, you should go to the prison camp as soon as possible to establish contact with the person in charge there and see how to detain the German prisoners of war captured by our army."

Shortly after marchenko left, Zhukov called me in person. He said on the phone, "Rita, I heard marinin say that you are worried that there is no place for prisoners of war?"

"Yes, comrade marshal." Hearing Zhukov's voice, I said respectfully: "today, the search troops of two divisions captured nearly 4000 prisoners in the forest. According to the confession of the prisoners, there are more scattered soldiers in the deep forest, so our search operation in the forest may last for a few days, and there may be tens of thousands of prisoners of war by then, so I will contact the chief of staff with the place where the prisoners of war are held. "

"Four thousand captives?" After repeating this figure, Zhukov asked in a puzzled way, "are so many enemies all laying down their arms and surrendering to our army without firing a single shot?"

"That's right, comrade marshal. That's exactly what happened." If I said that I had seen thousands of prisoners of war and had been escorted out of the forest by a very small number of soldiers of our army, I would not believe it. I would probably think that what I met was a fake German, an army sweeping Europe. How could I surrender without firing a shot when facing the enemy? But facts speak louder than words. Seeing the prisoners who are as honest as sheep, I think it is entirely feasible that they did not resist. So I explained to Zhukov, "German prisoners of war are organized into a team of one or two hundred, escorted out of the forest by four or five soldiers. If they had resisted stubbornly, our commanders and fighters would never have been so confident and bold with them. "

"Well, I see." After listening to my report, Zhukov specially added: "although great achievements have been made in the current search work, don't take it lightly. Rabbits will bite when they are anxious. Moreover, they are the most cunning animals."

"Please rest assured, marshal. We are always on high alert." I assured Zhukov, "no matter how many prisoners we capture, we will never let our guard down."

In the next three days, thousands of prisoners of war, led by our soldiers, walked out of the forest, piled up their weapons on the edge of the forest, and went on foot to the prison camp near the city.

Seeing such gratifying results, Kuragin said to me with a smile: "Comrade deputy commander, we have captured nearly 15000 German soldiers in four days. Such a large number of troops, as long as they make a weak resistance, will certainly cause certain casualties to our army, but they put down their arms and surrendered to our army without firing a shot. It seems that Germany has run out of steam, and Hitler is not far away from the end. "

Looking at these German soldiers who came out of the forest in an orderly way, I suddenly thought of the Soviet commanders and fighters who were captured in the early days of the war. When they were found out from the forest by the German army, did they, like the Germans, put down their weapons and come out of their hiding place without any decent resistance?

I shook my head hard and drove the idea out of my mind. Then I looked at Kuragin and asked, "general Kuragin, how long will it take for our troops to search the whole forest?"

"It's going to take another day at the earliest." Kulagin said excitedly: "with the efforts of our commanders and fighters, we have completed the search of three quarters of the area."

Just as we all relaxed our vigilance, suddenly a soldier standing at a high place nearby called out: "look, there is black smoke in the forest!"

The cries of the soldiers immediately attracted everyone's attention. I followed the direction of the soldier's fingers and saw a faint black smoke rising in the middle of the forest in the distance. Seeing this situation, I immediately realized that something might have happened and asked Kuragin, "general Kuragin, which army is the smoking area?"

"I need to check this." Kuragin answered me in a flustered way: "only in this way can we find out which army is responsible for the area. There is a problem."

We went back to the headquarters, and Kuragin asked the signalmen to call the troops in the forest, while he and marchenko found out which troops were responsible for the smoking area.

Maybe it's because the trees are big and the forest is dense, and the troops far away in the forest can't be contacted all the time, or Kuragin, they found out which army had the problem through the map. Kuragin looked at me and said, "Comrade deputy commander, it's clear that it's the area where the second battalion of the 101st regiment of the guards is located. I think they may have had an exchange of fire with the German army." As for his analysis, I nodded to agree. Although we did not hear the sound of gunfire and explosion, there was a black smoke, which was obviously the smoke of gunpowder produced by the fighting. I immediately told him to say, "general Kuragin, send a message to the head of the 101st regiment of the guards, and let him immediately direct the two battalions on the left and right to detour from the two wings to encircle the recalcitrant enemy." After another half an hour, we finally got in touch with the 101st guard regiment. The commander reported in the telegram that the troops encountered a small group of enemies during the search. As the search operations in recent days have been very smooth, the soldiers of the battalion have taken it lightly. They think that the enemy will lay down their arms and surrender when they see themselves, and then they swagger forward to surrender. As a result, as soon as he walked past, he was shot by the German machine gun. All the five or six soldiers in front of him were knocked down, and the leader of the team hurt his leg. He hid behind a big tree and threw several grenades at the location of the enemy's machine gun. The smoke from the explosion is the black smoke we see. After the exchange of fire with us, the German army attempted to break through the encirclement from the front, but it was tenaciously blocked by our army. Then two battalions of the 101st regiment of the guards went up from behind and cut off their retreat. The desperate enemy, seeing that there was no point in resisting any more, obediently laid down his arms and surrendered to us. Seeing the report of the commander of the guards, I solemnly said to the two division commanders: "comrades, although our work has been going very smoothly in recent days, we think that the enemy has completely lost its combat effectiveness, resulting in the paralysis thought of belittling the enemy. Fortunately, we only met a small German army today, and we did not pay much for the casualties. If we met the same number of enemies, maybe this battalion would be in danger of being destroyed. "“ We remember The two teachers nodded their heads and said, "we will never make similar mistakes again."