red moscow

Chapter 2739: Pilot in Prison Uniform

But Lieutenant Zhukov was more stubborn than Sokov had imagined. He shook his head slowly and said, "I'm sorry, Captain, I don't think I can accept your suggestion. My mission is to escort the prisoners to Moscow. I will not accept any other mission until I complete this mission."

Hearing Zhukov say this, Sokov wanted to slap him in the face, making his face full of peach blossoms. But considering that these two prisoners were the helpers he was eager to get, he could only patiently say: "Second Lieutenant, judging from the current situation, it will definitely not be that easy for you to return to Moscow smoothly. Why not temporarily join the guard unit of our 37th Army Headquarters. You can continue to stay with these two prisoners and just take care of them. After we defeat the Germans, you can send them to Moscow to report. Do you think this is okay?"

Seeing that Sokov lowered his posture and spoke to him, Lieutenant Zhukov thought for a long time, and finally nodded and agreed to Sokov's compromise.

After inspecting the 295th Division, when Sokov was about to leave with his guard platoon, he unexpectedly received a call about the arrival of Colonel Del.

"Captain Sokov, when are you going to leave the 295th Division headquarters?"

"Report to Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said respectfully, "My inspection here has ended. I plan to return to the right bank of the Dnieper River to inspect the defense areas of other divisions."

"Your mission has officially ended." Del said briefly: "Return immediately with your guard platoon."

"I understand, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov replied quickly, "I will return with the guard platoon immediately."

Sokov came out of the division headquarters and immediately sent someone to find Lieutenant Constantine and told him, "Comrade Lieutenant, I just received a call from the headquarters. Colonel Del canceled the next mission and asked us to return to the headquarters immediately."

Constantine was shocked when he heard this, and then asked, "Comrade Captain, what happened?"

"I don't know." Sokov shook his head and said, "The chief of staff didn't say anything. You should gather the troops quickly. We need to set off as soon as possible."

Ten minutes later, the convoy left the headquarters of the 295th Division and headed towards the city of Kiev.

Second Lieutenant Zhukov, who was sitting in the jeep, saw that the convoy was heading towards Kiev, and couldn't help asking curiously: "Captain Sokov, didn't you say that we were going to other places? Why do I see this car heading to Kiev?"

"I don't know the details either." Sokov shook his head and said, "Anyway, our superiors told us to return to Kiev, so we returned to Kiev. We just need to obey the superiors' orders and don't need to ask why."

Just when we were about to reach the city of Kiev in one or two kilometers, we suddenly heard the roar of an airplane engine in the air.

Hearing this sound, Sokov almost issued an air defense order, asking the convoy to hide in the forests on both sides of the road. But when he looked up, he found that it was a Soviet fighter plane that flew over his head.

Just as he relaxed his vigilance, he heard Zhu Kewen shouting, "Look, that fighter plane is about to crash."

Sokov looked towards the plane quickly, and saw that it was flying lower and lower, and its speed was getting slower and slower. It looked like the fuel had run out, and the pilot was looking for a place to make an emergency landing.

Upon seeing this, Sokov quickly issued an order for the motorcycle team to turn around and follow the fighter plane to see where the plane would make an emergency landing so as to rescue the pilot.

The fighter plane staggered forward and soon disappeared into a forest.

But fortunately, there was no explosion in the forest and no black smoke was seen rising, which means that the pilot may have successfully made an emergency landing.

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Sokov urged the driver loudly: "Our pilot may be injured, we have to rescue him as soon as possible."

Seven or eight minutes later, the motorcycle team found the fighter plane that had made an emergency landing in an open space in the middle of the forest. As Sokov had expected, the plane had made an emergency landing successfully and there was no explosion. From a distance, the pilot seemed to still be sitting in the cockpit, with his head tilted to one side, as if he had fainted.

The convoy stopped more than 20 meters away from the fighter plane, so that even if the plane exploded, the lives of the soldiers would not be endangered. After the motorcycle stopped, Lieutenant Constantine led five or six soldiers to rush to the plane, hurriedly opened the hatch, and dragged the pilot out.

When the pilot was brought to Sokov, he was stunned when he saw what he was wearing, because the pilot was not wearing a flight suit, but a prison uniform with horizontal stripes.

Seeing this situation, Sokov was stunned and thought, it's strange, why would the pilot wear prison uniform?
After a moment, Sokov turned around and asked Zhu Kewen beside him: "Comrade Lieutenant, do you think this person looks like a prisoner who escaped from some prison?"

Lieutenant Zhu Kewen stared at the other man for a long time, then slowly shook his head and said, "Inmates in Kiev prison rarely wear prison uniforms. And the ones he's wearing are obviously not our style. I think he may have escaped from the Germans."

A bold idea immediately popped up in Sokov's mind: the unconscious pilot might have been captured by the Germans. But he was unwilling to be a prisoner of the Germans, so he found an opportunity to rob a plane and escape back to the Soviet defense zone.

Just as Sokov was about to express his thoughts, he heard Konstantin say to Zhukov: "Comrade Lieutenant, this pilot is wearing prisoner uniforms and is flying our fighter plane. Do you think he is planning to defect to the Germans?"

"Don't talk nonsense." Sokov was worried that Zhukov really believed Konstantin's speculation and wrongly accused the pilot in front of him, so he interrupted him and said, "Without investigation, you have no right to speak. As for what happened, let's wait until the pilot wakes up and ask him in detail."

Constantine asked an old soldier for a canteen and poured a few sips of water into the unconscious pilot's mouth.

As soon as the water entered his throat, the pilot immediately started coughing violently and soon opened his tightly closed eyes. After seeing the people around him clearly, the pilot asked tremblingly: "Are you Soviet soldiers?"

"That's right." Sokov came to the pilot and squatted down, looking at him and said, "We are the guards of the 37th Army Headquarters. Who are you and why are you wearing prison uniforms?"

The pilot struggled to stand up with the help of the guards. After he stood firm, he raised his hand to salute Sokov and said respectfully: "Hello, Captain Comrade, I am Lieutenant Yegor of the Uman Flying Regiment. During the Battle of Uman, the airport where our flying regiment was located was attacked by the German army. After a fierce battle, almost all the officers and soldiers guarding the airport died, and the pilots who did not have time to take off became prisoners of the Germans."

When Zhu Kewen heard this, he couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "Then why don't you take off?"

Yegor glanced at Zhukov's blue hat and said with a bitter face, "Second Lieutenant, do you think we don't want to take off? But we can't. We just participated in an air battle and the fuel and ammunition on the plane were all used up. When we landed on the ground for resupply, the German armored forces broke into the airport and made us their prisoners."

"So, you all became prisoners of war of the German army?" Zhu Kewen asked.

"Yes, we became prisoners of the Germans." Yegor said with a painful expression, "We were locked up in a prisoner-of-war camp. We were hungry and cold every day, and we had to do heavy labor. We thought all the time about how to escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp."

"Lieutenant Yegor," Konstantin interrupted, "I'm very curious, how did you fly our fighter plane and appear in our defense zone?"

"After we became prisoners, the planes that had not been destroyed at the airport became the spoils of the Germans." Yegor said to everyone: "Although we became prisoners, we still have the opportunity to fly these planes into the air."

"What? What did you say?" Zhukov showed an expression of disbelief when he heard Yegor say this: "You have all become prisoners of the Germans, and they still allow you to fly our fighter planes frequently?"

"That's right. How could the Germans allow you to fly our fighter planes into the air?" Constantine asked in confusion, "Aren't they afraid that you can fly the plane and escape back to our defense zone?"

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Although Sokov thought what Yegor said sounded a little unbelievable, in order to figure out what was going on, he stopped Konstantin and Zhukov from interrupting him. He looked at Yegor eagerly and asked, "Lieutenant Yegor, can you explain why the Germans allowed you to fly the plane into the air? And since you can fly the plane into the air, why don't you return to our defense zone?"

"Comrade Captain," Yegor said with a complicated expression, "the planes we can fly have no ammunition except a small amount of fuel. The reason why the Germans let us take off is to let their new pilots use us as targets to improve their air combat skills. There were 24 pilots captured with me, but now there are only me and another friend left."

"Lieutenant Yegor, you flew back to our defense zone alone. Aren't you worried that they will kill your friend?"

Yegor heard Sokov's question, then slowly shook his head and said, "My friend is dead too. I don't have any scruples anymore. I knew the plane was running low on fuel, but I still chose to fly back. Even if I die, I want to die within our own defense line."

"Your friend is dead too?" Yegor surprised Sokov. He asked in surprise, "How did he die?"

"Today, the German commander suddenly said that one-on-one training is not very meaningful for his pilots, so he planned to let my friend and I take off at the same time, and then let a German pilot shoot us down like a target." Yegor continued, "Before boarding the plane, my friend told me that if there is a chance, I should try to fly in the direction of our defense line and try to get rid of the German planes that use us as targets.

Unexpectedly, the pilot today was an old hand. Soon after taking off, before we flew towards our army, he locked onto us and shot at us with a machine gun. Fortunately, we were lucky and successfully avoided the bullets of the German pilot.

We split into two groups, trying to increase our chances of escape. Unexpectedly, at this moment, my friend's plane was hit by a machine gun from a German plane, and blood spurted from the wound, splattering all over the cockpit. The German pilot saw that he had hit my friend, so he did not fire again, but turned around to deal with me, trying to make me taste the taste of machine gun bullets as well. "

Zhu Kewen heard this and interrupted, "Since the German pilot hit your friend, why didn't he just shoot him down instead of turning around to attack you?"

"Lieutenant, I think I may know the reason." Sokov said, "You have seen a cat catching a mouse, right? After catching a mouse, a cat does not eat it immediately, but plays with it repeatedly, honing and perfecting its hunting skills in this way. I think the German pilot probably received instructions from his instructor before taking off to deal with Yegor and his friends in this way. Lieutenant Yegor, go on, how did you escape in the end?"

Yegor nodded and continued, "When I saw the enemy plane rushing towards me, I thought to myself, 'Oh no!' There are some problems with the planes we fly. If we are targeted by an enemy plane, it will be very difficult to get rid of it. Seeing the enemy plane getting closer and closer to me, I was about to fall into despair. Suddenly, my friend rushed over from the side in a fighter plane and directly clashed with the enemy plane, thus saving me from danger."

After listening to Yegor's story, Sokov finally understood how the other party escaped. If it weren't for his friend who flew his plane and crashed into the enemy plane, perhaps Yegor and his friend would have died today.

"Lieutenant Yegor, you have returned to our defense zone. At least you are safe now." Sokov knew very well that people like Yegor who escaped from the enemy's prisoner-of-war camp would be strictly examined after returning to the army. Therefore, he felt it necessary to explain the matter to Yegor first so that he could be mentally prepared: "But I still want to remind you of one thing. Although you have returned to our defense zone, you have escaped from the enemy's prisoner-of-war camp after all. After you return, you will definitely be strictly examined and screened. I hope you are mentally prepared."

"Don't worry, Comrade Captain." Yegor nodded and said, "I know very well that after returning to our army, I will face strict scrutiny and screening. I still say that no matter what the final review result is, I have no complaints. Even if I die, I will die in my own defense zone."

Sokov nodded and gave an order to Konstantin: "Comrade Lieutenant, since the pilot has been rescued, we must return to the road as soon as possible and return to Kiev according to the original plan to accept the new mission."

In this way, the motorcycle team returned to the road and headed towards Kiev.

Second Lieutenant Zhu Kewen, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, turned around and handed a cigarette to Yegor in the back seat, and asked curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant, would you like one?"

"Thank you, I don't smoke." But Yegor waved his hand and refused: "I want to keep a clear mind at all times, so I not only don't smoke, but I don't even drink."

Zhu Kewen took back the cigarette and said to Yegor: "I will take you to the internal affairs department later. If possible, I will say a few good words for you."

(End of this chapter)