War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1337 War never spares the innocent

"Phil!"

Wei Ran waved to the other party equally enthusiastically, and then he picked up his bag and pushed the door open to get out of the car.

"Come to the second floor! I've already opened a room for you." Phil stuck his head and shouted, "Is the young man next to you your companion?"

"Be my guide"

Wei Ran raised his head and responded, then took out his wallet, pulled out another mark from it and handed it to Hans, who had just paid the fare, "Let's find a room for ourselves with the boss, and get three breakfasts."

"Leave it to me, sir!" Hans responded as he took the money and enthusiastically helped Wei Ran open the hotel door.

Leaving Hans to check in and buy breakfast, Wei Ran carried a few luggage upstairs and met Phil who had already walked to the stairs to greet him.

"Captain Victor, long time no see! I've been waiting for you these two days."

Before the unshaven Phil finished speaking, he had already given Wei Ran a warm bear hug that smelled of alcohol and tobacco, "Since we were rescued that time, you were transferred to North Africa. We finally meet again after so many years. "

"Yes!"

Wei Ran patted the other party's back equally hard, "Phil, it's true that we haven't seen each other for a long time, but no matter what, we all lived until the end of the war."

"This is probably the only thing worth celebrating." When Phil said this, his body trembled involuntarily.

Wei Ran, who felt this subtle change, did not rush to ask. He just asked after separating from the other party, "Where is my room? We can't chat at the stairs, right?"

"Come with me!"

Phil immediately greeted him warmly and led Wei Ran to an open room not far away. At the same time, he did not forget to say, "I have been living here waiting for you since I sent you the telegram. Come first." Your room is next to mine, this is it."

As he spoke, Phil knocked on the door of a room he was passing by, and while walking with Wei Ran to the room where he lived, he asked, "Where is your luggage? Did you bring such a small bag?"

"I'll be here as soon as I receive your telegram."

Wei Ran walked into the room filled with cigar smoke, threw the satchel in his hand on the sofa by the window and said, "Even for a change of clothes, I only brought a few pairs of underwear and socks."

"Sit down first"

Phil carried the clothes randomly discarded on the sofa to the messy bed, then rummaged in his suitcase and found an iron tube with a leather sheath, opened it, took out a cigar from it and gave it to Wei Ran , "Mr. Captain, do you remember this cigar tube?"

"Remember, why don't you remember?"

Wei Ran sat down and took the cigar and then the cigar cutter and cypress stick from the other party. "That's the cigar tube of the radio operator Nick. It was found in the mail bag he stole from his girlfriend."

"You have a really good memory."

Phil asked while Wei Ran was lighting up his cigar, "Captain first"

"Phil" Wei Ran waved his hand, "We are old friends, so call me Victor."

"Okay Victor"

Phil picked up the cigar from the ashtray on the table, took the cypress stick that was still burning in Wei Ran's hand and lit it, and then asked again, "Victor, are you still flying the plane now?"

"there is none left"

The gas emitted a thick blue cloud of smoke. "I have stopped flying airplanes since the end of the war. Now I am a photographer."

As he spoke, Wei Ran pulled the small bag that had just been thrown to the corner of the sofa, opened it, took out the Robert camera with a wide-angle lens and showed it to the other party, "Look, it's like you are keeping Nick's cigars." tube, I also kept the German navigator’s camera in the buoy, and I have been using this camera to take pictures of the scenery.”

"I didn't expect you to become a photographer." Phil looked at Wei Ran in shock and surprise, "If you have the chance in the future, you must take some photos for me."

"No problem at all"

Wei Ran smiled and agreed, then asked, "Phil, what about you? Are you still working as a navigator?"

"Navigator? No, no, no, he is no longer there a long time ago."

Phil spread his hands, returned the camera to Wei Ran and said, "After the war, I opened a clinic in London."

"Let me guess"

Wei Ran smiled and asked, "Your wife is your assistant nurse? Do you have children now?"

However, as this question was asked, Phil fell into a silence that made Wei Ran uneasy.

"she died"

Phil finally sighed and said, "On the night of May 41, 5, before our child was born, she..."

Seeing Phil covering his face with his hands and crying bitterly, Wei Ran also fell into silence, just smoking the cigar in his hand silently, patiently letting the light blue smoke fill the whole room.

"the second year"

菲尔压抑着内心的悲痛，仰头看着天花板上的花纹说道，“她离开之后的第二年，1942年的5月30号、6月1号和25号。我所在的机组全程参与了对科隆、埃森和不莱梅的千机轰炸。

I personally dropped those incendiary bombs into the urban areas of those three cities, in the urban areas that seemed to be the most densely populated. later."

Phil covered his face with both hands and said hoarsely, "Later, those smoke columns and flames of incendiary bombs became my nightmare. As long as I closed my eyes, those images would appear in my mind again and again. At the moment, I wonder if there are women like my wife who died in those cities that were set ablaze by the bombs and incendiary bombs I dropped."

Sniffing hard, Phil stared at Wei Ran with red eyes and smiled sadly, "There must be, right? I guess there must be, there must be many people who lost their lives and family members because of the bombs I dropped. Like.”

"Clang!"

Before Phil, who was blaming himself, could finish his words, Hans, the thief who had already walked to the door of the room with breakfast, dropped the metal tray in his hand and rushed towards Phil with a roar and anger.

"Executioner! You executioner!"

The thief Hans, who was grabbed by the quick-eyed and quick-hand Wei Ran, threw him over his shoulder and pinned him to the floor, struggled hard, and at the same time cursed loudly in German, "Executioner! You executioner! You blew me up." Mom and Dad! You killed my brothers and sisters! You murderer! Bah! Kill you! I’m going to kill you!”

As Hans cursed hoarsely, even though Wei Ran had pinned his whole body to the floor, the angry young man still carried out the revenge within his power - spitting on Phil's leather shoes.

"Do you understand English?"

Wei Ran pinned Thief Hans's hands on his lower back and held them down with one hand. At the same time, he took out the pistol again and put it against the back of his head.

"Kill me if you dare!"

The thief Hans no longer looked as weak as he did on the train, and shouted in German, "Shoot! You executioners! Quick! Shoot me! Are you afraid?"

"Young man, the war is over."

Phil suddenly said in German, which he did not know before, "The war is over. You have lost your family and I have lost mine. There are no winners in this war. We all lost. Losing means nothing to us." Talk about the most important family.”

Before he finished speaking, he had already taken out a P38 pistol from his arms, took off the magazine and fumbled in his pocket. He then stood up and walked to the suitcase not far away to rummage through it. Finally, he took out a few bullets and reloaded. Sitting in front of Hans, the thief with a look of hatred on his face, he pressed the bullets into the magazine and into the pistol one by one. Finally, he pulled the slide with a click and loaded a bullet.

"Victor, let him go."

While speaking, Phil had already gently pushed Wei Ran away, and then pulled up the thief Hans. When the other party looked slightly stunned, he put the loaded pistol in his hand. and helped him close his fingers to hold the handle of the gun.

"Come on boy"

Phil helped the other party lift the gun in his hand and put it against his forehead, "You are right, I am indeed an executioner. My crew dropped tons of burning bombs into the city of Bremen." The bomb burned an unknown number of people to death, and blew up an unknown number of people to death.

So shoot, avenge your mom, dad, brothers and sisters, just pull the trigger. Don’t worry, after you kill me, Victor will help you prove that I accidentally set off the fire and killed myself.

Shoot, young man, if killing me, the executioner, will make you feel better. "

After saying this, Phil closed his eyes calmly, and a gentle smile of relief even appeared on his unshaven face.

In contrast, Hans the Thief's breathing became heavier and heavier, his hand holding the gun became more and more shaky, and the barrel of the slightly rusty pistol shook more and more.

Finally, as the thief Hans sobbed, the P38 pistol slowly hung down, and finally he threw it on the table with a "clang".

Immediately afterwards, the young man who had just put on new clothes also knelt on the ground and leaned against the corner shaking his shoulders, making the expensive new clothes wet with tears that he thought had dried up long ago. .

"My wife is dead too"

Phil also sat on the floor leaning against the sofa, "She was already in labor, and then an incendiary bomb hit the roof of the hospital. My parents were also killed in Winchester. In a red brick building that was just built.

I once vowed to personally deliver bombs to the heads of the Germans so that they would also experience the loss of their families. I did it, but it didn't feel good. "

In the long silence, Hans the Thief stood up unsteadily, wiped away his tears, took a few deep breaths and then said with a forced smile, "You are right, the war is over, I will give it to you again." You guys buy some breakfast.”

After saying that, the young man turned around and walked towards the door, bit by bit picking up the breakfast that he had just overturned.

"Hans"

"Mr. Victor, what are your orders?" Hans, with tears streaming down his face, stood up, turned around and asked.

"Do you understand English?"

"My father was a translator for a publishing house, and my mother was a proofreader for a publishing house."

Hans wiped away tears and explained, "They knew five languages ​​except German and taught me all the languages ​​they knew."

"Please go buy another breakfast," Wei Ran sighed.

"Mr. Victor" Hans wiped his tears again, suppressing his tears and asked seriously, "Are my parents innocent in the war that has ended?"

"I don't know," Wei Ran said after a moment of silence, "War never spares the innocent."

"I'm going to buy breakfast again." Hans turned around before he finished speaking, carrying the breakfast he had just overturned and leaving the room without closing the door.

"Victor, are we participating in a just war?" Phil asked blankly, "Look what we did?"

"I don't know" Wei Ran repeated his previous answer, "War never spares the innocent."

Seeing that the other party fell into silence again, Wei Ran asked carefully, "Phil, why don't you tell me what happened since we were rescued from the buoy."

"it is good"

Phil sighed, "Do you remember that French woman?"

"Heidi?"

Phil nodded, "That's her, that poor woman is crazy, she has been crazy since she came ashore, maybe, maybe she was crazy before she came ashore, who knows?"

Anyway, she was in the hospital for about a week, the hospital where my wife worked at the time, and then she was found to be pregnant. "

Seeing that Wei Ran remained silent, Phil continued, "We visited my wife when she was still alive. At that time, she had been sent to a mental hospital and had given birth to a girl named Vanessa. .”

"It was Spier who gave the name," Wei Ran said firmly.

"yes."

Phil pulled the suitcase next to him, dug out a German kettle from a pile of clothes, opened it, unscrewed the cap and took a breath of strong brandy, "Before her Vanessa was born, she was the same as she was in the buoy. , the letter written in the book that Spear left for her is read out almost every day, and everyone knows what the name of her soon-to-be-born child should be."

"Where is she now?" Wei Ran asked after taking the kettle and taking a swig of brandy.

"She's French, crazy French."

Phil picked up his half of the cigar again, took a sip, and explained slowly, "A French person is not qualified to live in a British mental hospital for free, not to mention she has a completely normal child.

So after the war, before I decided to come here to deliver Mr. Julian's letter to his wife, I sent the French woman to my brother's farm. "

"Your brother? Mr. William?" Wei Ran asked curiously, "If I remember correctly, he seems to be a firefighter, right?"

"He is worried that continuing to be a firefighter will cause his children to lose their father one day." Phil spread his hands. "A father has to think about his children, right? I forgot to tell you that his child was born and is a healthy child." A lively boy."

"Then you sent Mrs. Heidi there too?" Wei Ran asked, pretending to be surprised, "Where is their farm?"

“Brighton”

Wei Ran read out the same address in his mind as Phil said, and then he heard the other person say, "That farm was inherited by my brother's wife from her father, and they just needed manpower.

It is not good? Although Mrs. Heidi is not in a very good state of mind most of the time, she is a very hard-working woman. It just so happens that my brother and the others really need manpower to help them complete the work on the farm. And since her Vanessa was born, she had hidden the book in which Spear's suicide note was written, and she couldn't even tell that she had any mental problems.

Oh, right!

And Mr. Spear, his body was also moved to his farm at my brother's suggestion. Mrs. Hattie even planted an oak tree beside his grave that day. "

“Sounds like a good arrangement indeed”

Wei Ran took a puff of his cigar and said, "If you have a chance, can I go visit Ms. Heidi?"

"sure"

Phil took the kettle again and took a big sip of brandy, pretending to be relaxed and said in a joking tone, "She might even recognize you."

"I hope so"

Wei Ran sighed secretly and asked, "Tell me about the matter at hand, Phil. Are you going to send the letter to Mr. Julian's wife for him?"

"right"

Phil nodded, "Her home should be nearby, but I haven't started looking for it yet. I want to wait for you to come over and let's be together. I...I don't even know if that woman is still alive."

"Then let's go together"

Wei Ran glanced at Hans who walked in with breakfast again, "I happen to have a dedicated guide here. If you don't mind, let him help us find out about the lady first."

"he?"

Phil glanced at Hans, the thief who was trying to keep calm, and finally nodded, "Then please leave it to this young man, if he is willing."

"What about you?"

Wei Ran turned to look at the thief Hans, "Are you willing to continue working for us?"

"As long as you are willing to pay the salary, I am willing," Hans pursed his lips and gave his answer.

"You need money?"

Wei Ran was keenly aware of something. If there wasn't some necessary reason, this young man wouldn't bear the humiliation like this.

"I still have a younger brother that I need to take care of," Hans took a deep breath and replied, "He is just five years old."

"Where is he?" Wei Ran asked.

"at home"

Hans paused, then added, "In a village not far from Rothenburg, in a house left by my grandparents."

"Where is he?" Phil asked with a frown.

"There is also a sheepdog and two sheep," Hans replied truthfully.

"First find a car to pick up your brother."

While Wei Ran was talking, he had already taken out two more marks from his wallet and handed them to Hans, "By the way, take him to buy a set of clothes and take a shower, and then ask him to come to the hotel to sleep in the same room with you. This will also make it easier for you to take care of him." He, if you feel necessary, can bring your dog with you.”

After a slight hesitation, Hans finally took the two marks, thanked him again and left the room.

"What's this?" Phil asked, looking in the direction of the door, "Atonement?"

"Atonement?"

Wei Ran smiled, looked at the town outside the window and murmured to himself, "I didn't do anything wrong, why should I atone? Even in that war, I didn't think I did anything wrong.

As for that kid, like you just said, the war is over, isn't it? "

"Don't you blame yourself?" After Phil finished speaking, he took another sip of wine.

"Blame yourself for the people who died because we dropped bombs from planes?"

Wei Ran shook his head, "I will not blame myself, let alone doubt the correctness of what I did, never, ever. Phil, from the moment they chose war, all the tragedies that have happened were at that time It's all doomed. It's not our fault, and it should never be our fault."

"My psychology is not as strong as yours." Phil smiled sadly, "Fortunately, the war is over."

"Now that the war is over, why don't we go out for a walk?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already picked up the Robert camera placed on the sofa, "We can have a nice stroll around this small town, and maybe find a place to have a drink."

“It’s really time to go out for a walk”

Phil rubbed his stubble-covered face vigorously, then dug out a British P44 backpack from the suitcase, put the bottle of brandy in it, and then put a German lunch box with a belt buckle inside.

Finally, he put the pistol into his bag, then held it in his hand and said, "Let's go."

"Then let's go"

As Wei Ran spoke, he hung the camera around his neck and asked as he walked out, "Speaking of which, what happened to the buoy we were riding on?"

"It's still on the beach on the east coast of the Isle of Wight. I just went there to see it when I came here."

Phil explained as he went downstairs, "The things inside were originally taken away by the police, but after learning that I had placed the crazy French woman, considering the end of the war, the police took the things in the buoy away again. They were all sent to me. I don’t know what those policemen who were obsessed with fish fry were thinking. Anyway, the buoy is still on the beach on the Isle of Wight, but the contents were all sent to my brother’s farm.”

“Let’s go take a look when we have time.”

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already pushed open the door to the first floor of the hotel, allowing the dazzling morning sun to shine on their faces, causing them to squint their eyes uncontrollably.

"It's my turn to ask."

Phil chose a direction at random and asked as he walked, "What's going on with your guide?"

"Just a little thief I met on the train."

Wei Ran briefly described what happened, "I happened to lack a guide. Although I wasted some money and time in the process, I wouldn't have been able to find this place so easily without the help of that young man."

"Are we friends with the Germans again?" Phil muttered to himself incoherently.

"yes"

As he spoke, Wei Ran raised his camera, put this beautiful town into the frame, and said while pressing the shutter, "We have become friends with the Germans again."

(End of this chapter)