War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1287 Building a bunker
Next to the tank wreckage, after some observation, Wei Ran leaned against the tank's road wheels, took out a notepad from his bag, and then took out a pen to draw the surrounding terrain. At the same time, he was also secretly thinking about how to fight this. An ambush battle.

There is no doubt that no matter how the fight is fought, the three tanks on duty at the intersection must be dealt with first.

Fortunately, both the two anti-tank guns that Vinia and others had or the anti-tank gun in the metal book were enough to tear through their armor - if there were not those sandbags used to thicken the armor.

On the other hand, the minefields laid by the Germans themselves were enough to stop the pursuers - as long as they did not attract the German fighter jets.

There are advantages but also disadvantages. The roadbed of the three-way highway is much higher than that in the forest, and the outside of the forest itself is also a slightly muddy depression. In this long and narrow depression, there are still some abandoned and burned objects. Soviet armored vehicles and apparently looted bodies.

He didn't even have time to map out the surrounding terrain. Political Commissar Vinya and Alyosha also followed the safe passage he had cleared.

"How is the situation?" Vinia lay on the side of the tank wreckage and carefully took out the telescope and asked.

"The edges of the forest are all minefields"

Wei Ran handed the unfinished terrain map to the other party, "The terrain here is relatively low, and the enemies on guard duty at the fork in the road look very relaxed. It seems that they are rarely ambushed here."

Taking over the terrain map drawn by Wei Ran, Weinia raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked at Wei Ran again. Then he handed the telescope over, raised his finger and pointed in the direction and said, "There is a small piece of high ground in that direction, far away from the three tanks." It’s also closer.”

"You seem to be familiar with this place?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he held up the telescope handed to him and looked in the direction of his finger.

Indeed, just as Political Commissar Vinia said, there is indeed a highland on the edge of the forest about 200 meters away that is not too big and looks like a peninsula extending into a depression. From his perspective, although the terrain there does not have another depression, The roadbed on one side is high, but not much different.

"Opposite the row of anti-tank cones was the battlefield where we and the Germans exchanged fire," Political Commissar Vinia also explained, leaning on the road wheels of the tank wreckage.

Hearing this, Wei Ran returned the telescope to the other party and carefully removed an iron box containing mines from the fender of the tank track.

Perhaps because he was overconfident that no one would pass through the minefield at the edge of the forest, the iron box not only contained several fuzes of different flavors and a three-connector parallel fuze device, but also a wrench and screwdriver for disassembling detonators.

While he was busy loading the newly dismantled mines into the iron box, Alyosha had already reached down and touched the front of the tank, and then whispered in surprise, "Political Commissar, Vic There seem to be a lot of mine boxes here!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Weniya looked at each other, and immediately leaned over, and then discovered that there were actually several boxes of mines stacked inside the observation window opened in the driver's seat of the tank!

"The Germans are lazy," Weinia whispered, causing Wei Ran to nod involuntarily.

Indeed, as he said, the German soldiers who laid mines here were lazy. Maybe they should have placed all these mines in the minefield on the other side of the barbed wire fence at the edge of the forest. Maybe they should have taken the remaining mines back with them. , wait until the mines here are triggered and then come over to replenish them.

But they chose the laziest and overly conceited way to hide these mines here - no one would risk crossing the minefield anyway, and even if someone did cross the minefield, they would be killed, and they would still have to carry the mines with them. Repair mines.

That being the case, why not hide backup mines nearby?This way you can pack a few extra things next time you come over.

The three of them looked at each other. There was no need for any discussion at all. After Wei Ran carefully checked to make sure there was no danger, he picked up the first box of land mines and handed it to Commissar Vinia, who in turn handed it to Alyosha. .

While these three people were busy, without the knowledge of the three tanks more than 12 meters away, a total of 36 boxes of [-] S-type mines were sent by relay to the forest on the other side of the barbed wire fence.

Next to the wreckage of the tank, Weiran carefully placed a red-tipped instant-explosion grenade on the inside of the cab observation window cover of the wreckage of the tank.

This was not over yet. He then dug a shallow pit at the front of the tank and buried the two wooden box mines he had dug previously.He even took the risk of climbing under the wreckage of the tank, climbed to the rear of the vehicle and planted an S-shaped mine.

After camouflaging the surface, Wei Ran walked backwards to the edge of the barbed wire fence, dug a shallow hole again, and buried the other two S-type mines he had dug out personally, and placed them under each mine. , were additionally loaded with an F1 grenade with the safety pin removed.

Of course, he did not remove the safety pins from these two landmines, but instead disguised them to avoid being discovered.

At the same time, Vinia also took off a piece of wood that was originally hung around the body's neck, wrote a warning slogan about landmines on the other side, and hung it on a pine tree trunk at the edge of the minefield to remind people who were trying to cross. Other guerrillas passed through the gap created by Wei Ran.

After returning to the forest along the way they came, until they were out of the killing range of the mines deployed by Weiran, Vinia said, "Alyosha, look for a place to hide our heavy machine gun nearby. If there is no If so, find a way to dig a shack that can hide a machine gun, and remember to make it a little concealed. Not only will the machine gun and ammunition be hidden inside, but also the mines we just picked up will be hidden inside."

"pass it to me!"

Alyosha patted his chest and agreed to the job, and watched as Wei Ran and Weniya each carried two iron boxes containing mines and walked towards the small high ground in the distance.

"Victor, are you really just an apprentice clockmaker?"

It wasn't until Alyosha behind him was blocked by trees and vegetation that Vinia stopped and asked seriously.

"Of course" Wei Ran responded matter-of-factly.

"A watchmaker's apprentice cannot draw such a professional topographic map"

Political Commissar Vigna frowned and reminded, "And I have never heard of any apprentice watchmaker who can clear mines and lay mines. He even has the talent to be a war reporter."

"Commissar Weinia" Wei Ran turned around with a smile, "No matter how many things I know, we all have a common enemy, right?"

Hearing this, Commissar Vinia smiled and said, "Let's go, we have to move quickly."

Seeing that the other party did not continue the topic, Wei Ran also breathed a sigh of relief. After following the other party cautiously through the edge of the forest for a while, he finally stood in the forest only a minefield wide from the highland.

"I'll do it this time"

As Political Commissar Vinia spoke, he handed Wei Ran his backpack and binoculars, and then pulled out a captured bayonet from his waist. Then, he chopped off a wooden stick and sharpened one end. Carefully entered the minefield.

After watching through a telescope in a safe area outside the minefield for a moment, Wei Ran quietly took out his camera and took a photo of the other party. Then he took Commissar Vinia's canvas pocket bag and stepped back a distance, hiding under a star. Behind a pine tree that was more than one meter thick, I opened the other party's canvas bag without any psychological burden.

There are not many things in this backpack. In addition to a palm-sized small photo frame with a metal shell, there is also a lunch box, a plastic notepad, and a tin jar filled with coarse salt. Inside the rough salt grains , a piece of bacon as big as a fist and several low-level medals in cloth bags were also buried.

Without further prying into the political commissar's secrets, Wei Ran restored his pocket bag to its original shape and put it aside.

After a somewhat long wait, at 12:40 noon, Vinia finally got through the minefield and crawled onto the small high ground.

This protruding highland area is really not big, and I'm afraid it won't be able to park two tanks even if it's full.Except for a birch tree that had lost all its leaves, there were only sparse shrubs and waist-high grass.

"We're going to dig an anti-tank bunker here," Wenia asked in a low voice after waiting for Wei Ran to crawl over, "Are you coming, or am I going to come?"

"How many anti-tank guns do you plan to place here?"

While Wei Ran asked in a low voice, he held up Vinia's telescope and looked at the intersection. From here, he could finally clearly see the three tank road wheels parked at the crotch of the intersection, as well as the other side of the road. The Soviet and German tanks and armored vehicles that were abandoned and damaged on the former battlefield were all parts that could not be seen in the depression due to the height difference. "One, of course one"

Political Commissar Vinia pointed to the side of the highland without thinking, "We also have a heavy machine gun and a German machine gun. When the time comes, we can place the German machine gun here as fire support to block possible emergencies on the south side. of enemies.

That heavy machine gun was placed right next to the wreckage of the tank to form a crossfire, our other anti-tank gun."

Having said this, Vinia pulled away the grass at the base of the shrubs, pointed to the north and asked, "Have you seen the forest that also protrudes into the depression? I plan to place another anti-tank gun there. .

Although the terrain there is very low and it is difficult to escape once besieged, there is a wreckage of a German tank there that can be used as a bunker and can form a perfect crossfire with here. "

"You stay here and dig a bunker," Wei Ran decided in a low voice, "I'll go over there and set up another position."

"Pay attention to safety, there are probably a lot of mines there." Political Commissar Vinia reminded.

"I'll be careful"

Wei Ran responded, crawled back a certain distance slowly, walked through the minefield and returned to the forest.

Quickly running back to the wreckage of the tank, Weiran paid no attention to Alyosha, who had gone somewhere, and continued to advance cautiously and sideways close to the edge of the minefield.

Soon, he arrived at the location guided by Political Commissar Vinia just now.

Although it is still a depression, it forms a protrusion on the edge of the forest like the highland, and if there is a line between this place and the three tanks guarding the intersection and the three points on the highland chosen by Vinia, there is almost no line. Forms a perfect equilateral triangle.

This also means that whether the enemy rushes here or towards Vinia's position, the fragile side and even tail armor will be exposed to the muzzle of another anti-tank gun.

Not only that, the heavy machine gun position located almost in the middle of the two anti-tank gun positions can also cover the infantry who may follow the tanks.

Correspondingly, the Germans also placed many mines and barbed wire hanging with rotting corpses in this slightly protruding forest.

And outside the barbed wire, there was the wreckage of a No. [-] tank whose turret had been blown away.

Under the influence of the stench of corpses that he had long been accustomed to, Wei Ran held the bayonet and slowly stabbed it into the soft soil at an angle, digging out bit by bit explosives arranged in various patterns, and used broken pine branches to Mark this safe passage, which is no more than one meter wide.

In his busy work, it was not until 03:30 in the afternoon that he finally touched the barbed wire again.

But this time, he took out his engineering shovel and started building a bunker without cutting the barbed wire.

While he was busy, the soft soil was dug out and thrown onto the spread cloak. When it was almost ready, he carried it deep into the forest and dumped it under a pine tree.

When the setting sun gave the three tanks in the distance a golden halo, Weiran finally dug out a pit one meter deep, just enough for people to squat down and hide in it.

The pit was covered with cut dead branches and shrubs. Wei Ran, who had been busy all day, was already hungry, but he still climbed to the edge of the barbed wire fence and carefully cut a hole that he could barely crawl through. Gap, taking advantage of the last ray of sunlight, carefully checked the ground, and finally touched the side of the wreckage of the No. [-] tank.

After some observation, he carefully climbed under the tank chassis, but he did not dare to delay at all. He first used a few shovels of soil to block the gap at the rear of the vehicle, and then continued to dig down hard to block the gap between the road wheels on both sides. gap.

When he was finally able to sit upright under the tank chassis without knocking his head, the sky outside had completely darkened, and the machine gun barrel of the No. [-] tank guarding the intersection also had a dazzling light hanging on it. kerosene gas lamp.

Obviously, no matter how bright the two gas lights were, they could not illuminate the forest more than [-] meters away, and the tank crew members who had lit a bonfire on the other side of the tank obviously did not think that anyone could sneak through the minefield. They have a few unimportant soldiers and generals and a fork in the road that cannot be stolen at all.

Precisely because of their optimism and relaxation, Wei Ran, who had dug a bunker under the chassis of the tank wreckage, quietly passed through the barbed wire fence and returned to the depths of the forest along the marked safe passage. They met up and were waiting. His commissar Vinya and Alyosha.

"You're finally back"

Alyosha breathed a sigh of relief immediately after seeing Wei Ran, "If political commissar Vinya hadn't stopped me, I wouldn't have been able to help but look for you. Victor, how is the digging of your bunker going?"

"We've dug it, what about you?" After Wei Ran finished speaking, his stomach grumbled in protest.

"Let's talk about this topic later," Vinia said with a smile, "Let's go back to the machine gun to get some food."

Naturally, no one would refuse this proposal. The disgraced three people immediately endured their hunger and began to walk back. After nearly two hours, they finally returned to the vicinity of the heavy machine gun.

What the three of them didn't expect was that when they came back, Sasha had already come back. With him were not only Yeremey, David, Fras and the two anti-tank guns, but also the Duofei Father Luo also came with him.

At this time, they had built a shelter out of pine branches, and Father Doferro also made two simple wooden sleds that were fixed on the steel wheels of the heavy machine gun.

"You are finally back"

When Father Dofero saw the three Wei Ran people, he said what Alyosha said not long ago, "Come here quickly, we have even prepared dinner and are waiting for you."

"When did you come here?"

Vinia sat down and asked, "Dad, why are you here too? Didn't I tell you to stay?"

"What's the use of me staying there alone?"

Father Doferro waved his hand nonchalantly, "Stop talking about those irrelevant things, Vinia, tell me what's going on now? What should we do next?"

"The bunker has been dug"

Vinia took the lunch box from Fras, took out a wooden spoon from her boot, and while putting food into her mouth, she explained vaguely, "We will allocate positions early tomorrow morning and wait until dusk. Knock out the Germans at the intersection outside the forest, and then take advantage of the darkness to ambush all passing German vehicles to create chaos and relieve the pressure on Taras and his side."

"This plan is too simple and crude."

Wei Ran, who was also allocated food, muttered to himself, but didn't say anything. Wenia's plan was indeed simple, but if they were going to do something, it was the only arrangement.

Obviously, the difficulty of this plan is not to knock out the three tanks guarding the road, but to how long you are prepared to hold on here after knocking out those tanks.

"Victor, why don't you take a picture of Dad and the others tomorrow?" Sasha, who had been on the road all day, said, "We have all taken pictures, so let's take one for them too. "

"Of course!"

Wei Ran swallowed a piece of Poria cocos filled with canned soup, "I'll shoot after dawn tomorrow, and I'll shoot next to the machine gun!"

(End of this chapter)