War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1258 Dangerous Explosives
Under the surging aurora, the old An-2 landed roughly on the Murmansk airport just as Weiyan was about to fall asleep holding his dog Beria.

Before the plane came to a complete stop, Saveli had already stood up and walked to the edge of the cabin door, and opened it as the plane stopped.

With the dog and luggage, he followed the young couple off the plane and off the tarmac. Wei Yan was led by them into a van that was shabby on the outside but exceptionally warm on the inside.

After leaving the city of Murmansk in this car, Saveli, who was in charge of driving, bought some food and drinks along the way and bought two additional barrels of fuel before driving straight to the southeast outside the city.

The further we went, the more desolate the road became. In the end, we had to wait for a long time before lights and buildings occasionally appeared on both sides. Finally, a not-so-big village appeared right in front of us.

"This is where I grew up"

Saveli pointed in a direction outside the window and introduced enthusiastically, "There is a town about 4 kilometers west of us, and the railway connecting Moscow and Murmansk passes through there."

After saying this, Saveli slowly stepped on the brakes and stopped in front of a wooden house with wooden walls.

In fact, as soon as he walked in, Wei Ran noticed that there were only about 20 households in this small village surrounded by coniferous forests.

On the east side of the village is a lake that is still frozen.Saveli's home is in the southeast corner of the village, a location where you can easily see the entire lake.

Following the couple into the yard, Saveli found the light switch and turned it on. Suddenly, the yard was illuminated by pale lights, allowing Wei Ran to easily see the piles of wood piled in the yard. There were garages full of debris, empty barns, and a row of firewood piles stacked against the wall that were almost as high as the wooden yard wall.

When Saveli opened the locked wooden door and turned on the lights, leading him into the low, cold wooden house, Wei Ran also realized that no one was probably living in this house at this time.

"My parents moved to Arkhangelsk with their luggage yesterday," Saveli said apologetically, "I will light up the fireplace later, and it will be warm here soon."

"Let me help you." Wei Ran put down his luggage and directed his dog Beria to find a place to lie down in the corner.

"This big guy is really obedient"

Saveli looked at Beria lying down with some envy, then stepped into a compartment. Soon after, he came over with an unpeeled deer leg, skillfully peeled off the skin with a knife and handed it over. To the dog's mouth.

It's a pity that Beria, even though he was an old man, turned his head directly.

"Let me do it"

Wei Ran put down the piece of firewood he had just brought in, took the deer leg and handed it to Beria. Beria, who had been greedy for a long time, immediately grabbed it in his mouth, lay down on the spot and began to chew.

"How did you train it? How about teaching me?"

As Saveli spoke, he took the work of chopping wood and lighting the fireplace from Wei Ran. At the same time, Zoya also brought in a bucket of cold water mixed with a large amount of ice cubes from outside the house.

"I can't teach you this." Wei Ran spread his hands, but he was telling the truth. Beria was not trained by him at all.

"We always wanted to have a smart hunting dog"

Zoya said while putting the smashed ice cubes into the kettle, "This will make it much easier for us when we go hunting."

"You guys like hunting very much?" Wei Ran asked in a hurry.

"Every break we go hunting"

Zoya said, having already placed the food she bought along the way on the table, "Sometimes I drive a snowmobile for more than ten kilometers and live outside for several days."

She had just finished speaking. Saveli had successfully lit the randomly chopped firewood with the help of kerosene. Then he clapped his hands and said impatiently, "Victor, do you want to go and see it first?" See that body?”

"Is he in the yard?" Wei Ran asked with raised eyebrows.

"Otherwise?" Saveli spread his hands, "I can't go to a hotel in town and open a room for him, right?"

"That makes sense," Wei Ran agreed in a fit of laughter, and then took out a strong flashlight from his backpack.

"No need to go to such trouble, come with me!"

As Zoya spoke, she had already unscrewed the bottle of liquor she had bought, filled the three glasses on the table, then picked up a glass and drank it in one gulp, smelling her sleeves, and walked out of the door.

Immediately afterwards, Saveli also picked up the cup and drank it in one gulp, then also smelled his sleeves and left the room.

After looking at the glass of wine left for him, Wei Ran reluctantly picked it up and poured it into his mouth, then put the bright flashlight into his pocket and followed him out.

Under the leadership of the two of them, they walked all the way to the deepest part of the yard. An ice coffin had been built into the open space with ice blocks, and there was also solid snow piled around it.

When the couple lifted up a tractor tire and a door panel that were pressed on it, Wei Ran immediately saw that in the middle of the circle of ice bricks was a folding bed commonly used outdoors. On this bed was lying the former The body I had seen in the photo.

Without waiting for him to speak, Zoya and Savelli carried out the body and the folding bed underneath it, and carried it into a wooden shed next to it.

What Wei Ran didn't expect was that an old-looking surgical shadowless lamp was installed on the top of this ventilated wooden shed.There is also the Soviet Union flag on the frame of the shadowless lamp.

After looking at Wei Ran, Zoya put down the body and explained with a smile, "When we docked at a polar port two years ago, Saveli bought it for 4000 rubles and gave it to me as a gift. According to reports, The person selling it said it had been torn down from an abandoned city hospital.”

Having said this, Zoya also turned on the switch. Suddenly, the shadowless lamp with three missing bulbs also lit up brightly, illuminating the body frozen in frost below.

Taking the rubber gloves handed by Zoya and putting them on, Wei Ran adjusted the shadowless lamp and asked, "Where is the box we found together?"

"I'll move it here for you!"

Before Saveli finished speaking, he ran into the garage full of debris and pulled over a German airdrop box that was almost intact and even the original paint could be seen.

Unlike the airdrop box that Weihan obtained on the outskirts of Leningrad, this box did not use a skid, but two relatively common rubber wheels.

Without rushing to touch the cold body, Wei Ran took out the bright flashlight in his pocket and looked around the airdrop box inside and out.

It can be distinguished from the remaining paint that the appearance of this box is not painted with conventional paint. It is just a layer of white paint with a few bright yellow horizontal stripes. Even he can vaguely see that these eight horizontal stripes Chengdu was painted by hand.

Lifting the half-hidden cover, there were only two parachute bags in addition to two pairs of tattered and cracked skis.

Interestingly, he could tell through the remaining parachute ropes, which were not so much two parachute bags as the broken baggage of two parachute cloth bags.After getting the couple's permission, Wei Ran untied the two umbrella cloths and took out everything inside.

The first one was filled with torn and broken umbrella cloth and rope, mixed with some tree branches and sticks.But inside the second umbrella cloth bag, there were a few tattered clothes.

Although these clothes were severely decayed, it was still easy to tell that they were not the standard military uniforms of any country during World War II, but just a set of civilian clothes that looked like hunters.

After rummaging around for a while but finding nothing, Wei Ran extinguished the flashlight and put it aside, then turned and walked to the side of the shadowless lamp.

Gently lifting the Soviet woolen coat, which was as cold as plate armor, to reveal the camouflage uniform underneath. With the help of Zoya and Saveli, Wei Ran carefully took off the coat, rummaged through the pockets and temporarily leaned against the wall. Put it away, and then took off the helmet on his head.

After looking at the ax embedded in the unfortunate man's face, Wei Ran then looked at the armband on his right arm, and then frowned.

"What's wrong?" Saveli came up and asked.

"The clothes are wrong"

Wei Ran carefully unbuttoned his camouflage uniform and said, "Looking at this outfit, it must have been winter when he died, but since it is winter, it stands to reason that he should wear the white underneath, so that at least the camouflage is better many."

After saying that, he carefully lifted off the unbuttoned camouflage uniform, and then frowned again. The corpse didn't even wear a shirt under the camouflage uniform, and was completely shirtless.

Carefully looking through the pockets inside and outside the camouflage jacket, Wei Ran found nothing. After trying to lift the left arm of the corpse to no avail, he called on Zoya and the others to help and took off half of the camouflage jacket.

After seeing the faintly visible blood type tattoo under the armpit of the corpse's left arm, Wei Ran motioned with satisfaction to the two men for help, and re-dressed the corpse in the half-removed camouflage uniform and woolen coat.

Finally, he rummaged in his pants pocket, and when he checked his thigh, he finally found the second wound.

This was a gunshot wound. The bullet grazed the inner side of his right thigh and tore open his camouflage pants.

Carefully opening the opening on the camouflage pants, you can still see the wound on the right knee of the corpse, as well as some exposed bones.

Finally, he took off one of his felt boots and took a look. Wei Ran already had a rough guess.

Seeing Saveli and the other two looking at him eagerly, he asked, "Where was that iron box found?"

"It was on a pine tree less than three meters away from him," Saveli said, "and it was entangled in the parachute rope."

"I took the photo," Zoya said, having already taken off her gloves, took out her phone, rummaged through it and handed it to Wei Ran.

He took off his gloves and took the phone. In the photo displayed on the screen, the airdrop box was hanging in the crown of a pine tree. The lower part was held up by a branch as thick as a thigh. It was also surrounded by other branches. The branches were wrapped tightly, and the top of the head was still wrapped with messy umbrella ropes and broken umbrella cloth.

"It took the two of us most of the time to get all these things down," Saveli replied as if he was taking credit.

"This body should have been looted a long time ago."

Wei Ran said, "I'm sure he is definitely a German, and he is most likely a bandit."

After a pause, he continued, "No matter what kind of clothes he wears, he has no weapons, no armed belts, and even the warm clothes and socks he wore underneath."

“We can also see this,” Zoya couldn’t help but say.

"But most importantly, his soldier card is gone."

Wei Ran smiled and continued, "Without the soldier tag, there is no way to find out his specific identity information, and his weapons are also missing. We have no way of knowing his specific 'position'. I'm afraid it won't be too big just to guess." historical value."

"So he's worthless?" Saveli asked, unable to hide his disappointment.

"maybe"

Wei Ran said with a smile, "Let's put him back in the ice cellar first. After he has had enough rest, how about taking me to the place where he was found?"

"No problem at all!"

Hearing that there was still hope, Saveli immediately agreed and greeted Wei Ran into the already much warmer wooden house. After washing his hands, he sat at the dining table.

Accompanied by the couple, they drank some wine and ate some food. After the stove in the sauna room next door was lit, Wei Ran, at Saveli's invitation, each went in with a small pine broom to have a good time. Steamed and steamed.

When he came out again, a folding bed had been set up by the fireplace, with a thick animal skin blanket spread on it, and under the bed, the dog Beria was lying.

"Just rest here for a while. This is the warmest place in the room."

Zoya said as she unpacked a sleeping bag that was still packed and placed it on the folding bed, "We bought this new in Arkhangelsk and haven't used it before."

"Thank you"

Wei Ran thanked her politely and waited for Zoya to get into the sauna with a small basin. Then he opened his suitcase and took out a set of pajamas, put them on, turned off the light and got into his sleeping bag.

Before he fell asleep, Zoya and Saveli also got out of the sauna and went to another room with a fireplace that was also lit.

There was nothing to say all night. When he woke up again, although he could barely see a ray of rays of light on the distant skyline, it was still as dim as night outside the window.

After putting on the thick clothes he brought specially, when Wei Ran walked out of the wooden house, he found that Saveli and Zoya were already awake, and they were refueling two snowmobiles.

"You're awake," Saveli greeted, "We'll set off after we have something to eat."

"How far is it from here?" Wei Ran asked while stretching.

"It's very close, less than ten kilometers away." Zoya pointed in the direction and replied, "We have to go around to the other side of the lake, where few people usually go and there are more prey."

Hearing this, Wei Ran was not in a hurry to enter the house, but instead looked at these two snowmobiles that looked very old.

The motorcycle itself was nothing, but the plastic sled buckets dragged behind each contained a lot of food and drink, as well as a pump-action shotgun and an SKS semi-automatic rifle wrapped in cloth strips.

From just these small details, he could tell that these loving dogs were probably two experienced hunters.

After eating a surprisingly caloric breakfast by the fireplace and drinking a cup of coffee, the three of them each left the house carrying a metal thermos filled with hot coffee.

Whether it was for laziness or because they trusted Wei Ran enough, Saveli and Zoya rode the same snowmobile as if they had agreed upon it.

Seeing this, Wei Ran happily rode on another motorcycle, and waited until Beria jumped into the plastic sled towed behind. He immediately turned the accelerator and was the first to drive out of the small yard.

After Saveli locked the courtyard gate, the snowmobile he drove also increased the speed, leading Wei Ran out of the village in the southwest direction, and circled along the edge of the lake to the other side.

The east bank of this lake, which we don't yet know the name of, is far more desolate than the other side. As far as the eye can see, there are only sparse coniferous forests and a relatively spacious forest clearing under a high-voltage transmission line.

After driving northeast along this forest glade for an unknown amount of time, Saveli, who was leading the way, first honked the horn, then turned right and plunged into the depths of the coniferous forest.When they got here, even without their cars leading the way, Wei Ran noticed the unique marks left by the snowmobiles that were clearly visible within the scope of the headlights.

As he walked deeper into the forest along these two marks, he also noticed that the terrain was gradually rising.

When the two snowmobiles finally reached the shady side of a hill, Saveli, who was walking in front, finally stopped, turned off the snowmobile and said, "The snowmobile can't go through now, so we can only walk." It’s over.”

"About how far?" Weiran asked, turning off the engine.

“Less than 200 meters”

As she spoke, Zoya had already jumped onto the tow truck of their car, sat on a box, and asked while putting on snowshoes, "Can you use a gun?"

"I don't need a gun." Wei Ran waved his hand, "Beria will protect me."

"Mind your Beria"

Saveli kindly reminded, "At this time, some early bears have already finished their hibernation, and they will eat everything now."

Hearing this, Wei Ran quickly took out the leash and hung it on Beria's collar.

After preparations, three people and one dog dragged two plastic sleds that were no bigger than a bathtub. They climbed up along the drag marks on the snow for half an hour, and finally ended up on a leeward side. He stopped at the mountain col.

This place is located between two low mountains, halfway up the shady side of the southern mountain. There is an open space the size of a basketball court. On the open space, large and small stones are scattered randomly.

The larger ones are about the size of a van, and the smaller ones are about the size of a stone roller.Among these gravels, there are still some old-looking pine trees growing here and there.

In the middle of the open space, slightly north, there are two heavily weathered boulders the size of a van.

The angle between these two boulders, which are placed close to each other at almost 90 degrees, is facing the hilltop in the south direction. As long as you stand here, you will not be affected by the wind at all, not to mention that the direction from the south is less than 5 meters. It is a thick pine tree.

"That's where the body was found."

Zoya pointed to the ground where the snow had been cleared away from the corner between the two boulders and said, "We originally wanted to set up a tent here, but we found the body after we worked hard to clear away the snow."

"Where's the airdrop box?"

Wei Ran asked, "Where was it found?"

"Right in the canopy of that tree"

Saveli tried the big tree not far away and said, "We were going to light a fire to melt the gravel ground, but after I cut down the dry branches, I saw the metal box."

First, he leaned under the big tree and looked up. Then he looked at the ground under the pine tree, and then at the clearly visible pits on the gravel between the two boulders, thinking. After a moment, he asked, "When you found the airdrop box, was its lid open or closed?"

"It's closed," Zoya replied, "it's closed very tightly."

"I'm also worried that there might be something missing around me."

Saveli said, having already pulled out a canvas bag from his sled bucket and opened it, and said proudly, "So I specifically asked my friend to borrow a metal detector."

"This can be regarded as a guest appearance as a digger, right?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and seeing that the other party had already begun to assemble the metal detector, he simply said, "In that case, I'll go around and see if there are any clues."

"take this"

As Zoya said, she had already picked up the shotgun and handed it to Wei Ran along with a headlamp. At the same time, she asked with concern, "Can you use it?"

"It's not a big problem. Alexei and I used to go hunting for wild ducks." Wei Ran answered as he took the shotgun and headlamp.

"I hope you can catch good prey," Zoya said without forgetting to touch Beria's dog head.

He took his dog around the gravel, and as expected, he didn't find anything of note here.

By the time he started walking back, Zoya had already chosen another stone of similar size, cleared the snow on the leeward side, and was setting up a tent alone.

Not far away, Saveli was also holding a metal detector and circling around the two boulders.

Seeing this, Wei Ran took the initiative to help Zoya set up the large inflatable tent that could accommodate all of them and the dog.

"I'll go get some firewood from the surroundings," Wei Ran said proactively.

"We brought a chainsaw." Zoya pointed to the plastic sled bucket not far away.

"give it to me"

As Wei Ran spoke, he tied the cleaned tow bucket to Beria's traction rope, then picked up the not-so-large electric saw, selected a nearby pine tree, and sawed off the dry branches at the bottom. Come down and throw it into the tow truck.

While the three of them were busy, Saveli had already scanned the five-meter radius around the two boulders with a metal detector, and Zoya had also lit the wood stove.

As for Wei Ran, he has already sawed down almost a full bucketful of firewood.

However, just when he was about to saw down a dead branch covered with attachments, he suddenly raised it and stopped when the saw chain was about to touch it.

After straightening his headlamp, Wei Ran used his gloves to pull out the attachments such as pine needles and dead branches accumulated on the dead branch.

When he saw the body of this "dead branch", he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

What kind of dead branch is this? This is clearly a hand drill issued by Germany to engineers and mountain hunters during World War II!
Nowadays, the drill bit and chuck of this hand drill have grown into the tree trunk. Although the hand wheel at the back is rusty, the red paint and black eagle emblem on it are still vaguely visible, but the three wooden handles have long been rusted. I don’t know where I went.

I looked back at the two boulders where the body had been buried. The straight-line distance between them was only 20 meters, but there were many large and small stones in between.

"Saveli!"

Wei Ran shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come here with your metal detector! I made some small discoveries!"

Hearing this, Saveli immediately ran over with a metal detector, and Zoya, who was setting up the tent, also ran over.

"see this"

Wei Ran used a tree branch to tap the hand drill fixed on the tree trunk. After a brief introduction, he said, "Use your metal detector to search around here!"

Hearing this, Saveli immediately excitedly turned on his metal detector. This time, almost as he put the detector plate on the snow under the tree, he immediately heard the rapid and almost continuous line of bees. song!
The three of them looked at each other, and Zoya turned around and ran towards the tent. Saveli waited for Wei Ran to insert a stick at the location where he was detecting, and then immediately began to detect other places.

Soon, Zoya fetched a snow shovel, an engineer shovel and an ice pick, but Saveli never let the metal detector in his hand make any abnormal noise.

"Be careful when digging, it might be a bomb."

Wei Ran kindly reminded her, and Zoya, who was working hard to clean up the snow, quickly made her movements a lot gentler.

Soon after, where the three swaying headlamps gathered together, the thick snow was dug up one after another.

The gravel and fallen leaves and branches frozen together by the ice are harder than cement at this low temperature. Even if Saveli took the risk and used all his strength to knock the ice pick up, he only left a small stone. Just build a small, limited pit that is bigger.

"There is no other choice but to make a fire like the last time we dug up the body." Saveli said, throwing aside the ice pick in his hand.

"I'll move the fire over here!" Zoya ran towards the tent again before she finished speaking.

"Victor, how did you discover this place?" Saveli asked with admiration.

"I'm collecting firewood"

Wei Ran pointed to the small electric saw he hung on the branch of the tree, "I almost saw it off."

"That makes sense. Should we saw it off?" Saveli asked, pointing to the hand drill above his head.

"Not urgent"

Wei Ran quickly stopped the other party, "It's best to leave this here for the time being. It will be meaningless if it is sawed off."

Obviously, Saveli didn't understand the meaning of Wei Ran's so-called "meaningless", but he did not refute it. Instead, he nodded happily, picked up the snow shovel, and cleared away the surrounding snow. Frozen surface.

After he finished his work, Zoya also brought over a small half bucket of red-hot charcoal in an iron bucket and poured it on the marked location. Wei Ran also immediately placed the firewood he had just collected on the charcoal fire.

Seeing that the fire was burning, for the sake of safety, the three people and the dog Akechi hid in a tent in the distance. They poured a cup of hot coffee around the lit wood stove and waited patiently.

In the various magical guesses of Zoya and Saveli, the faint glow on the skyline was once again replaced by the surging aurora, and the three people and one dog who had already warmed their whole bodies came to the big tree again. Next, remove the fire and dig out the melted gravel and mud bit by bit until you can't dig anymore, then move the bonfire back again.

They worked like this back and forth for almost two hours. As the ice ax dug out the first piece of frozen soil, they finally gained something.

However, what was dug out this time was not anything the three of them expected. Instead, it was just a crowbar, a crowbar that was about seventy centimeters long and covered in rust.

"There's something else in here"

Before she finished speaking, Zoya had already put her hand into the pit and tried to pull it, then retracted her hand and said, "It can't be pulled."

"Looks like a mortar ammunition box"

Wei Ran glanced at the metal handle vaguely exposed at the bottom of the pit, and said cautiously, "We can't use fire anymore. If there are really mortar shells inside, it will be dangerous."

"Is it difficult to wait until summer to come here?" Zoya asked unwillingly.

"Let's go, go back"

As Wei Ran spoke, he already turned back with the crowbar, "Heat some more hot water and find some stones to burn red. Let's wash them out!"

"That's a good idea!" Saveli's eyes lit up, and he obviously understood Wei Ran's plan.

It took almost another hour, as buckets of boiling water were poured down, and red-hot stones were thrown in. The pit finally softened, and smelly mud gushed out.

When the water temperature in the pit cooled down and the three men scooped it out, there was no need to dig at all this time, and the iron box was easily lifted out.

"You two stay away"

Saveli said before Weiran, "I have experience in handling explosives. If I get injured, Zoya, do you bring a medical kit with you?"

"Take it with you"

Zoya said firmly after hesitating for a moment, obviously trusting her husband and her husband, so she suppressed the worries in her heart.

With the same slight hesitation, Wei Ran followed Zoya and retreated some distance away, hiding behind a big rock.

Less than 10 minutes later, Saveri shouted, "Come here!"

"What is it?" Zoya asked impatiently.

"Looks like a grenade"

Saveli said, "Anyway, let Victor come over and take a look. These grenades should not be dangerous at the moment."

When he finished speaking, Wei Ran also came over, and then he saw the open metal box filled with holes and carrots, containing a full 30 oval grenades!

"M39 grenade"

Wei Ran frowned when he recognized the types of these grenades. The fuse caps of these M39 grenades were all conspicuously red!

Watching Zoya try to take one out for a look, Wei Ran and Saveli grabbed her arm in no particular order.

"Don't touch them"

Wei Ran reminded Gouzi as he walked further away, "Those grenades are very dangerous. Look at those red fuse caps. They all use instant-explosion fuses used to lay booby traps."

As soon as he said this, Saveli immediately pulled Zoya and ran away, hiding behind the boulder faster than Wei Ran and the dog he was holding. Then the two people began to urge Zouya, who was holding the dog. Wei Ran, who was walking back slowly, ran a little faster.

(End of this chapter)