War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 120 The Crazy Aunt

As night fell, the sound of explosions that had lasted almost a whole day in the city of Berlin finally eased up a bit.On the dark streets filled with the smell of gunpowder, panicked residents hurried back and forth, preparing for the next day's life.

At the entrance of the small clinic in the alley, Wei Ran started the sidecar motorcycle and headed towards the destination under the guidance of Marco.

Because of the darkness, although the Soviet artillery bombarding the city temporarily died down, there were not a few bombers circling overhead.The searchlight beams piercing the night sky and the barrage of anti-aircraft guns are also more conspicuous because of the curfew in the city.

But all of this does not seem to have the slightest impact on the residents of Berlin city. Almost all the people who came out of the shelter were busy fetching water, or wandering along the Spree River in the dark, trying to pick up some water caused by the explosion. Freshwater fish that float on the surface of the water.

Only if someone dared to light up a light, the people around would curse and avoid as quickly as possible, for fear that this little light would attract the bombers in the sky to drop an aerial bomb enough to send everyone away.

"Marco, where is your home?" Wei Ran, who was also afraid to turn on the car lights, asked the young man sitting in the sidecar.

Upon hearing this, Marco quickly replied, "It's not far, it's just on the edge of King's Square. Drive along this road, and you can get there in 10 minutes at most."

ten minutes?
Wei Ran silently looked at the large number of firepower points arranged along the street and the fortifications hidden in the houses. This is not a long road. In the near future, the Soviet Red Army took several days to advance almost meter by meter. Just stormed the Capitol.

If you exclude other factors and only consider the degree of tragedy, there will be almost no difference between the street battles in Berlin and the street battles in Stalingrad in the near future.The red-eyed soldiers, the numb residents who were devastated by the war, and the completely destroyed city, all of these were like karma, and they were returned to the Germans in a solid manner.

Relying on Marco's major uniform and the cover of the bomber overhead, the group of three successfully passed through the fire bunkers blocking the street, and finally stopped at the door of a small two-story house on the edge of King's Square.

Taking advantage of Marco's knock on the door, Wei Ran silently looked at the gallows erected on the edge of the square not far away, on which were hung a dozen corpses in various clothes.But without exception, a palm-sized six-pointed star logo hung on the most conspicuous position on their chests.

And on the several streets connecting this small square, a group of young soldiers in uniforms were busy running around, deploying the 88mm anti-aircraft artillery that had just been transported under the command of several ranks of troops.

Before Wei Ran could take a closer look, the heavy door was opened from the inside, and a middle-aged female soldier in a German uniform was watching the visitor vigilantly with a PPK pistol in her hand.

It's just that after Marco took off the big-brimmed hat on his head, the woman immediately put away the pistol, and hugged the young man in front of her in surprise, "Marco! That's great! You're still alive!"

Before Marco could say anything, the middle-aged woman directly pulled him into the room, and after Wei Ran closed the door at the end, she immediately lit the kerosene lamp on the table, and lighted it for herself by the way. Lighted a cigarette.

With the dim light of the oil lamp, Wei Ran who followed in also noticed that the windows that could be seen outside had been completely covered by thick woolen blankets, and even some of the windows had not only been covered with bricks and The wooden boards were blocked, and sandbags were even used to build fire shelters under the window sills. When necessary, as long as a machine gun was set up here, the King's Square outside could be blocked.

"Let me see!"

The woman walked around Marco, took the hat in his hand, touched the epaulettes on his shoulders, and asked suspiciously, "Why did you get promoted to major so quickly? I remember you were sent to The battlefield outside the city is less than half a month away."

Seeing that Marco was about to reveal his secrets, Father Hans hurriedly explained before he opened his mouth, "Marco led us to repel more than a dozen tanks that were about to attack. He was promoted exceptionally at the front line."

"A dozen cars?" The middle-aged woman's expression became more suspicious, "Mr. Hans, are you kidding me?"

"Why am I joking?"

Father Hans said solemnly, "Thanks to the heavy fog a few days ago, Marko and his rookies found the Soviet tanks hidden in the forest when they patrolled, and they used all their iron fists to destroy those tanks." , and sacrificed many members of the Youth League for this. You must know that those stupid Soviets are not high in combat effectiveness, they just have a lot of people.”

"Yes!" The middle-aged woman said angrily in an almost morbidly fanatical tone, "If they didn't have a large number of people, it would be impossible to fight outside of Berlin!"

Before she could say anything else, Marco finally said, "Auntie, where is my brother?"

"He's already asleep," the woman said proudly. "He helped distribute the posters all day today, but he exhausted this smart and loyal little guy."

"I'll go see him" Marco said and was about to go upstairs.

"No need to go up, he's in the basement"

Marko's aunt pointed to the door behind the stairs, "The recent bombings have become more and more frequent. The second floor is too dangerous. We all moved to the basement. Marko, have you eaten yet? I'll go and give you Prepare something to eat."

Before Marco could speak, the woman stubbed out her cigarette and rushed into the kitchen not far away.

Marko shook his head helplessly, took off the flashlight hanging on his belt, gently pushed open the door behind the stairs, and led Dr. Hans and Wei Ran into the basement.

With the wooden door closed behind him, Wei Ran was a little surprised to see the furnishings in the basement. The environment here is definitely not good, except for the two single beds placed against the wall and the two matching bedside tables, Only a few ammunition boxes were piled up in the middle to form a table and two chairs, high and low.

But on the surrounding walls, there are various posters promoting Germany's victory and a fragile flag that occupies half of the wall.And under the only wall in the basement with a narrow window open, a fire bunker was also built in advance with sandbags, and even an old Maxim machine gun and matching buckets had been set up in this bunker.

Wei Ran walked under the window, curiously lifted off the raincoat that covered most of the window, and then saw the street outside that was almost level with the window and the sidecar motorcycle tires that he had just parked at the door himself.

This is ready to fight to the end. Wei Ran muttered to himself, turned his head and looked at the small bed against the wall not far away.

On the wall next to the cot, also made out of ammunition boxes, hangs a set of the crisp Boys' khaki uniform and matching shorts on a wire hanger.Next to it is a lightning-shaped S flag on a black background, which is exactly the logo of the Youth League.

On the bedside table, which is the only normal furniture, there is a crude boy group dagger, neatly stacked black uniforms, a hat of the same color, and a clean belt. And a small black messenger bag.

In addition, there was a toy pistol made of tin in the little space left on this poor little bedside table, and a strange-looking bugle that was extremely clean.

And on that small bed, there was a child who was sleeping in underwear only. This kid was somewhat similar to Marco, but he was only ten years old at most.The corners of the slightly opened mouth were still dripping with brushed saliva, and by the way, a small white canine tooth and two front teeth that had just come to the fore were exposed.

Just when Marco reached out to touch the little kid's golden hair, he didn't think that the latter didn't know what dream he was having, so he straightened his right hand suddenly, and shouted indistinctly, "Hey! !"

This sudden movement startled Marco, who was about to raise his right hand almost reflexively.Fortunately, his reaction was fairly quick. His right hand, which was about to respond, supported the poster on the wall beside the bed, barely relieving the invisible embarrassment.

"Look! I'll say the little thing is a complete fool."

Father Hans whispered in Wei Ran's ear, the disgust in his tone was not concealed at all, "Why didn't that old Parkinson guy in the round head send such an idiot into the stove to make soap first?"

"A brainwashed middle school boy." Wei Ran sighed secretly, and became more and more disgusted with the huge banner on the wall.

"Marco, when do we take this idiot away?" Father Hans asked in a low voice.

"Wait until dawn"

Marco stood up straight, turned off the flashlight and said in a low voice, "Wait until my aunt is away, otherwise she will definitely not allow me to take Mario away."

"After dawn?!"

Father Hans was startled, but after thinking about the crazy woman upstairs, he could only grit his teeth and say, "Tomorrow will be tomorrow, but it's not safe during the day."

Marko shook his head helplessly. After realizing that Wei Ran and Hans couldn't see his expression in the dark basement, he could only open his mouth and explain in a low voice, "If my aunt knows that I am a deserter, I will kill you." Major Rudy, I'm afraid I'll call those nasty chain dogs all night to come and arrest us."

"Your aunt her."

"That stupid woman works in the propaganda department"

The disgust in Father Hans' tone became more and more obvious, "Her job is to brainwash more children at all costs, trying to turn them into idiots like Mario, so that when the Soviets come over, they will kill these little guys You won’t feel any guilt when you’re there.”

Marco in the dark didn't refute Papa Hans, but sighed again, muttering to himself, "Before I went to the battlefield, I was no different from Mario."

　Thanks ★God is me★ and Atu Xiaozhu for rewarding 100 points respectively

　　
　
(End of this chapter)