War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1313 Tailor Apprentice
In the rescue buoy that was shaking more and more violently, the two people lying on the bed lost sleep amidst the unignorable sound of the waves - they were almost vomited from the shaking.

"Urian, how long until dawn?" After lying tossing and turning for a while, Wei Ran simply sat up.

"It's 04:30 in the morning, French time."

Julian said, and simply took out his aviation watch and handed it to Wei Ran, "Take it."

"It's time to change your dressing"

Wei Ran moved over with the edge of the bed, took the heavy pilot watch and put it casually into his pocket. Then he took out the medical kit from the cabinet under the other person's bed, and while shaking like a cloud, he changed the medicine for the wounds on the other person's hands and feet.

"Victor, you should become a military doctor."

Julian looked at the gauze wrapped around the wound and said, "You shouldn't waste your life in the cabin of a bomber."

"If I survive this time, I will consider your suggestions."

Wei Ran said nonchalantly, he was "away from home", his identity was given by the metal book, how could he make a decision?
When Julian heard this, he didn't say much. He just pointed in the direction of the stairs and said, "The lights in the watchtower seem to have gone out."

"I'll deal with it right away"

While Wei Ran was talking, he stuffed the medical kit back into the cabinet, then held on to the things around him and walked to the stairs while shaking. He tied a rope around his waist first, and then climbed up the ladder little by little.

At this time, the rain outside the window had stopped long ago, but the fog on the sea had not dissipated, and the waves that did not know how to be tired would rush onto the small and pitiful deck from time to time, threatening the people in the buoy.

Looking at the white steam he had blown out, Wei Ran reached out and took off the oil lamp that had been extinguished at some point. After getting it down carefully, he refilled it with kerosene with great difficulty, lit it up and adjusted it to the maximum brightness. Finally, it was hung in the watchtower overhead again.

Unable to sleep, and it was probably not long before dawn, Wei Ran simply hid in the watchtower holding the ladder, using the light of the oil lamp to try to see clearly what was happening outside.

Unfortunately, apart from seeing that the body of the pilot who had been tied to the railing had been taken away by the waves, the only thing he found was a few seabirds resting on the railing.

You won’t have to survive at sea again, right?
Wei Ran couldn't help but swallow when he saw those seabirds, then he took out the wine bottle and took a sip of the little wine left in it in an attempt to dispel the fear of hunger, physical chill, and seasickness that came with it. discomfort.

After he finished drinking all the wine in the flask, although the sky outside was getting a little brighter, it was only a little brighter. Not only did the thick fog on the sea not dissipate, even drizzle started to fall in the sky again. Fortunately, the sea surface finally returned to calm, and the buoy finally stopped shaking so much that it made people want to vomit.

Knowing that in such weather, there was a high probability that no one would come to look for the buoy, which was probably unanchored, so Weiran simply temporarily opened the two iron doors of the watchtower to allow the wind to circulate and at the same time take away the dirty water in the buoy. The air and the warmth accumulated through hard work.

Taking out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one, Wei Ran walked out of the watchtower, drove away the annoying seabirds, and leaned against the railing alone, observing the sea shrouded in thick fog.

Unfortunately, even if he walked around the deck, there was nothing but thick fog within his sight, and he couldn't see anything else at all.

Not only that, even the rubber raft that was originally tied to the ladder was hit by the waves.

With nothing to do, he simply took out Robert's camera bag from the metal book, opened it, and checked the contents inside.

Since the last episode about the history of the love letter apartment, the small PPK pistol in this bag has disappeared, but fortunately, all kinds of lenses are still there. Not only that, this bag also contains two large boxes and a dozen of them in sealed tubes. of film.

At this moment, the roar of the aircraft engine was faintly heard overhead.

"Victor! It's our plane! Hurry! Flare!"

In the rescue buoy, Julian shouted a reminder, and at the same time limped to the side of the radio distress device and started to send a manual message.

While he was shouting, Wei Ran also put away his camera bag as quickly as possible, ran into the watchtower quickly, took out the flare gun inside, loaded the red flare and got ready.

A moment later, seeing the roar of the plane getting louder and louder, Weiran immediately and decisively pulled the trigger overhead!
It was obvious that the roar of the planes this time was much less intense than last night. He even suspected that what just flew overhead might just be a few DO17s on a reconnaissance and photography mission.

"boom!"

Unwilling to give up, Wei Ran fired a second red flare, then raised his neck and looked helplessly at the night sky shrouded in mist.

However, these two flares still did not elicit any response. Through the thick fog, all he and Julian in the buoy could hear was the roar of the plane getting closer and closer without stopping. the further away.

"Do not be discouraged!"

Julian said confidently, "They will be back soon. Then we will try firing out a few more flares."

"Urian, do you still have your compass?" Wei Ran put the flare gun aside and asked as he lay beside the ladder.

"Yes, it's on my flight suit. What's wrong?" Dorian, who was still sending the message, looked up and asked.

However, Wei Ran was not in a hurry to explain. Instead, he came down as quickly as possible, carried the one-piece flight suits that the two of them had taken off before, and hung them in the corner of the observation tower. Then he took off Dorian's flight suit. The watch-style compass fixed to it with a strap was removed from the sleeves of the suit.

Taking the compass and walking to the deck for observation, Wei Ran looked at the calm sea outside the deck.

After a moment's hesitation, he took off the oil lamp, extinguished it, unscrewed the lid, moved the edge of the deck, pressed against the iron sheet on the edge, and poured some kerosene into the clear seawater.

Soon, a pool of oil film reflecting strange brilliance appeared on the sea. In the blink of an eye, this oil film was slowly stretched by the force of the water flow, slowly throwing out a long tail, and finally left the rescue completely. The buoy disappeared into the thick fog.

Wei Ran lowered his head and glanced at the compass still in his hand, and even subconsciously tapped it on the railing. But even so, when he reset the horizontal bubble to the axis of the pointer, the magnetized pointer was still consistent with Pointing in the same direction as before.

"its not right"

Wei Ran muttered secretly, then put the compass into his pocket, and took out the camera bag again. After casually pulling out a lens from it, he first glanced at the time on his watch, and then let the axis of the lens align with the The sea level is almost horizontal, and the direction is turning little by little on the palm of your hand.

After a while, there was a ball of light in his hand that was not conspicuous, but was indeed brighter than the surroundings.

Using the lens to determine the direction of the sun, Wei Ran couldn't help but take out the compass again and take a look.

"No, the compass is not broken."

Wei Ran couldn't help but murmured. Based on what he learned in the topography course of Hongqi Forestry, he could be sure that the strait between England and France was located in the prevailing westerly wind zone, and the ocean currents also flowed from southwest to northeast.

But according to what he just measured using kerosene as a beacon, the current is flowing from northeast to southwest!

"Julian, I have a question for you." Wei Ran asked loudly, leaning against the door frame of the watchtower after putting away his camera and other items.

"Is it about the nobles again?" Julian asked, putting down the radio that had no response.

“It’s about the strait”

Wei Ran paused and asked, "Urian, where did our plane take off from? I mean the geographical location."

"If you are interested in geography, you can come down. I remember there is a map in the buoy." Julian replied unhurriedly.

Upon hearing this, Wei Ran immediately climbed down the ladder, and under Julian's guidance, pulled out a waterproof map from the bottom of a cabinet.

"This is where we take off"

Julian used the red and blue pencils he found with the waterproof map to draw a circle the size of a ping pong ball at a location called "Ypres" on the map.

In the history of war, Ypres can be said to be a testing ground for new weapons in the crossfire between Britain, France and Germany.

Of course, if you change the explanation, it may be more intuitive to describe the geographical location of this place - it is southeast of Dunkirk, and there is only less than 50 kilometers of straight-line distance between the two sides.

"So this is our flight path for bombing Britain, right?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he took the pencil away from the other person's hand, changed the color, and drew an arc from Ypres to London.

"We need to bypass Kent County in the UK, especially Canterbury, where there are British air defense positions." As he said this, Julian took away the pencil that was not warm in Wei Ran's hand, and took Ypres as a starting point. , first drew a line northwest, and waited until the line was almost in the middle of the strait, then headed southwest toward London.

"What did you find?" It wasn't until he drew this rough aviation route that Julian put down his pencil and asked Wei Ran.

"second question"

Wei Ran did not rush to explain. Instead, he pointed at the map and asked, "Do you know the direction of the sea water in this strait?"

"Generally, seawater flows from the North Atlantic through the strait to the northeast." Julian replied without thinking.

"General circumstances?" Wei Ran was stunned, "Are there any special circumstances?"

"Of course there is"

Julian pointed to the map between the two of them and said, "Continuous northeasterly winds will reverse the current."

"No wonder." Wei Ran muttered to himself.

"What did you find?" Julian asked.

"Special circumstances arise"

Wei Ran looked at the other party and said, "Now the sea water is flowing to the southwest, and"

"And the anchor chain of this rescue buoy is probably broken." Julian was the first to tell the bad news that Weiran was about to tell.

"It seems you know what I'm going to say."

While Wei Ran was talking, he had already taken off the oil lamp hanging between the two beds, dimmed it a little brighter, and placed it on the table between the two of them.

"Although there was no pilot when we returned yesterday, I'm sure our plane had flown over the center line of the strait because I could already see the coastline."

Julian said, picking up the pen again, starting from Dunkirk, and drew a red line that was only two centimeters away from the coastline, almost parallel and extending about five centimeters to the northeast.

"Last night's persistent strong winds and the broken anchor chain made it difficult to say where the buoy floated."

Wei Ran knocked on the narrowest part of the coastline and said, "Remember those waves? Julian, do you think it is possible that we have crossed the Channel of Calais (Dover) on a buoy?

This is the only reason I can think of why the planes flying overhead ignored our flares. "

"Not too possible"

Julian shook his head, "The speed of the buoy is not that fast, and there were planes flying overhead not long ago, which shows that we are still below the route. But if the northeast wind continues to blow today, I'm afraid your guess will come true sooner or later. real."

"Do you have any ideas?" Wei Ran looked at the other person and asked.

"We can only hope for good weather over the next few days and let the currents push us back to where we were."

Julian said worriedly, but his eyes never left the map between the two of them.

This buoy finally appeared in Brighton.
Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then heard Julian say, "Victor, we can't put all our hopes in praying for good weather."

"What do you want to do?" Wei Ran raised his head and asked.

"I need you to go to the deck and keep an eye on it."

Julian said, "Always pay attention to changes in the weather, and also pay attention to whether the coastline or transport ships can be seen on both sides. If we don't want to be prisoners, we must find a way to save ourselves."

"I quite want to be a prisoner."

Wei Ran muttered secretly in his heart, but he agreed very beautifully. And he simply stood up, climbed the ladder and climbed up to the watchtower.

This is undoubtedly a boring job, but one that requires constant tension, especially with two soaked flight suits hanging on it, and being in a drafty observation tower that is not really warm.

After tying his flight suit to the railing outside, Wei Ran closed the two iron doors and stared boredly at the misty sea outside through the window, hoping that a ship would appear or a rescue plane or something. appear in view.

However, as time passed by, the fog on the sea became much lighter, but the sky above the head was always gray and gloomy, and from time to time, it would float for a while. A lot of heavy rain.

By eight o'clock in the evening, as the sky became darker and darker, the waves became larger, and some of the remaining fog was blown away.

He took out his compass and observed that the wind was still blowing from the northeast. Wei Ran could only light the bright oil lamp again and hang it by the window. Then he returned to the buoy and checked Julian's wounds. And prepare to get some food and hot water as soon as possible before the buoy starts to get bumpy.

However, almost as soon as Weiran had heated up the canned beef, the faint roar of the plane was heard overhead again.

This time, without waiting for Julian's greeting, Wei Ran quickly climbed up the ladder to the rescue buoy and picked up the flare gun.

However, this time, before he could turn on the safety of the flare gun, he heard Julian shouting hurriedly from below, "Victor! Stop! That's a British bomber!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran's hand froze, he immediately put down the signal gun, extinguished the kerosene lamp by the window as quickly as possible and pushed open the iron door.

Stepping out of the observation tower, Wei Ran took out his compass and quickly glanced to confirm the north and south direction. He looked up at the dim sky full of clouds. He took out his camera as quickly as possible and replaced it with The telephoto lens waited patiently.

Not long after, he vaguely saw British bombers one after another, flying from the west to the east at low altitude over the sea from a position about a few kilometers away from the south side of the buoy.

Are the British preparing to fight back? Wei Ran muttered as he pressed the shutter button to take one photo after another.

Why do the British designate September 9th as the Battle of Britain Memorial Day?
Not only because of the brilliant results they achieved on this day, but also because this day was a turning point in the air battle over Britain.

Because starting from September 9th, which is the time in the time and space where Weiran is now, the British Air Force finally had the strength to fight back, and the first thing they had to attack was the mustaches placed on the beach, those who were watching eagerly. Ships and troops ready to cross the sea and land at any time!
Of course, while the history books boasted about this day, they also mentioned in passing that from the 16th to the 19th, due to bad weather, the Germans basically did not dispatch many bombers, and they achieved no results.

Seeing those bombers flying further and further away, and seemingly not noticing the rescue buoy floating on the sea, Wei Ran also secretly breathed a sigh of relief and put away the camera in his hand leisurely.

"Victor, tell me what you saw?" Julian in the buoy shouted and asked when he couldn't hear the roar of the plane.

"I saw fuck!"

Wei Ran, who only said a few words, couldn't help but be stunned, and cursed lightly in the white light that appeared without warning.

When the white light faded, he found himself back in the rescue buoy—more than half a century after the war ended.

While he was stunned, the metal quill pen wrote on the page:
Second act

Role identity: Tailor Apprentice Victor
Return mission: Kill at least two chain dogs with cold weapons and seize weapons, successfully escape from the roundup, and take at least two single photos and one group photo.

Language Task 1: Steal cash of any denomination from the wallets of at least three customers without being discovered

Language Task 2: Steal no less than ten kilograms of stolen goods and at least one weapon from Reno Grocery Store without being discovered.

Tailor apprentice? A language task for two people to steal something? Are there any other languages ​​I don’t know?
Wei Ran couldn't help but feel confused for a moment. Although he had long been accustomed to the finishing work of that crappy book, the problem was that every time the crappy book did the finishing work, he could not expect it.

Before he could figure out the irrelevant question, his eyes were once again shrouded in white light, and immediately after, he saw the props that could be used this time.

What he didn't expect was that the items he was given this time were still pitiful. Apart from the Rolleiflex mirrors, the only thing he had was the gas mask bag from the USS Johnston destroyer.

I hope the contents of the gas mask bag are still there. Wei Ran prayed secretly in the gradually dissipating white light, but before the white light dissipated, he vaguely heard a sound of "Hey! It sucks!" and a "pop!" The sound of heels.

(End of this chapter)