War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 138 The war is over, pack your bags and start a new life!

Time came to May 5nd in a blink of an eye, and the battle in the Capitol finally came to an end. In the temporary emergency facility not far from the building, the work of Wei Ran and others gradually became less busy.

After helping Captain Katya bandage the wound on his collarbone with two dark circles under his eyes, Wei Ran followed the stretcher team back to the building of the Ministry of the Interior.When he walked into that strange operating room, Father Hans and others were leaning against the wall and sharing a bottle of wine that he didn't know where he got it. On the table next to him, there was even a plate of boiled potatoes .

"Victor, you are finally back!" Dr. Rocky was the first to find Wei Ran standing at the door, and said cheerfully, "We thought you were there."

"I thought you would be a deserter." Father Hans took over the conversation without waiting for Doctor Lodge to finish, and poured Wei Ran a large glass of wine at the same time, "Come! Have a drink!"

Taking the cup, Wei Ran took a sip and asked, "Where's Mario? Where are the other children?"

"They're all in the conference room next door," Nurse Lainee explained.

"How about we go see them and take a group photo?" Wei Ran shook the camera in his hand and asked.

"That's a good suggestion!" Dr. Rocky was the first to stand up, "But let me change into clean clothes first."

"That's it! This is very good." Wei Ran urged, "It's just a group photo."

"That's right." Dr. Lodge hesitated for a moment, then buttoned his white coat again, and followed the crowd to the meeting room next door where the wounded were lying.

In this meeting room full of wounded, several children headed by Mario and Mora also got their respective jobs. They are carrying baskets and distributing the wounded people who don't know where they got it. What about food?

With the help of these little guys, Wei Ran led everyone to find Ivan and Mikhail who were lying side by side by the window. Mikhail next to him was a little sluggish.

"Why are you here?" Ivan put down the wine bottle and asked curiously.

Wei Ran explained with a smile, "I'm looking for you to take a group photo together, after all we all survived."

"I heard that the Capitol has already planted a flag." Ivan shook Mikhail, whose face was flushed, "I heard that our battalion planted the flag."

"En." Mikhail replied in a daze.

"What's wrong with him?" Dr. Lodge was the first to realize something was wrong, and reached out to touch Mikhail's forehead. "I have a fever, Leni, go get a penicillin!"

"Okay!" Nurse Leni hurried out of the meeting room, and soon after brought the syringe and penicillin.

Pushing the liquid medicine into Mikhail's body, Dr. Lodge said worriedly, "His condition is not very good, Leni, you should pay attention to his condition in the past two days."

"Don't waste your time you two"

Father Hans didn't care about Mikhail's life or death, "Didn't you come to take a group photo? Hurry up and finish the shooting, maybe some wounded will be sent back later."

Upon hearing this, Dr. Lodge quickly put away the syringe, and together with several nurses and the children who were called over, sat around Ivan and Mikhail who was lifted up.

"Victor, just ask someone for help, come here quickly!" Father Hans urged Mario, holding Mario in his arms.

"Immediately! I'll take a picture for you first!" Wei Ran pressed the shutter involuntarily before he finished speaking.

However, the expected white light did not appear.Wei Ran was stunned for a while, and then, under the greeting of Hans' father and others, he quickly handed over the camera to a wounded man who seemed to be in good condition, and then joined the group of people taking pictures.

Taking a group photo with everyone, Wei Ran put away his camera and asked the soldier, "Comrade, what time is it?"

The soldier rolled up his sleeves showing off, revealing a full six or seven watches, and generously took one off and gave it to Wei Ran, "54:54, doctor, these watches all show that it is [-]:[-] in the morning." Minute."

"So that's how it is!" Wei Ran suddenly realized that he had roughly guessed the reason why he hadn't gone back yet.

"What's wrong?" Father Hans and the others all looked at Wei Ran.

"Nothing, I'll go out first!"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he took the camera and the watch given to him by the soldier, stepped on the bullet casings all over the floor and the documents that had not been burned in time, and climbed up the bullet-scarred stairs all the way to the top floor of the Ministry of the Interior building.

Glancing at the large watch in his hand, the time displayed on it was already 57:3 in the morning.In other words, there are only 3 minutes left before the commander of the Berlin City Defense, Admiral Weidling, surrendered to the Soviet army!Mario and the Jewish girl Mora are completely safe, and there are only [-] minutes left!

He hurriedly placed the camera on the window sill and aimed it in the direction of the Capitol. After focusing, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, but moved the camera slightly, aiming at the abandoned tanks on the King's Square in the distance and only the outlines left around. The buildings, as well as the few German soldiers holding white flags.

"Kacha" the crisp shutter sounded, and the dazzling white light came as promised. When the sight was restored, Wei Ran found that he had returned to his own room in the studio.

With a soft clattering sound, the cowhide book automatically turned to the sixth page. Under the black and white photo of the two Boys League knives, the metal quill wrote:

"The Battle of the Curtain"

Dr. Lodge, together with Nurse Leni and others, continued to run the clinic at the original site after the war. In 1961, he died of a heart attack.

Father Hans, on the night of May 1945, 5, committed suicide by injecting cyanide in the basement of the clinic.

Mario and Mora were adopted by Dr. Lodge and Nurse Leni after the war. They married in 1955 and had a son after their marriage.

Captain Ivan, after the Battle of Berlin, was awarded the Second Class Patriotic War Medal, the Medal for Conquering Berlin, and the Medal for Victory over Germany. After the war, he retired due to disability and settled in Kiev. On the night of April 1988, 4, he died in a house robbery. A book of memoirs.

Second Lieutenant Mikhail, after the Battle of Berlin, was awarded the Second Class Patriotic War Medal, the Medal for Conquering Berlin, and the Medal for Victory over Germany. After the war, he retired due to injuries and settled in Belgorod. On September 1946, 9, due to organ failure died of illness.

Looking at the medal numbers listed in detail by the metal quill, as well as the detailed addresses of Ivan and Mikhail after the war, Wei Ran closed his eyes wearily, and let the quill write on a new line, "War As cruel as it is, war is as stupid as it is."

Wei Ran didn't open his eyes until the metal quill pen hit the desk with a "clang" sound, and then saw the writing under the slowly rotating red vortex, "The war is over, pack your bags and start a new life !"

However, before Wei Ran raised his hand to take out the contents in the vortex, he found that the metal quill floated up again, and started drawing again on the blank seventh page!

"Bang Dang!" Wei Ran stood up violently, letting the chair under his buttocks hit the floor heavily.All attention was on the tip of the metal quill.

Under his surprised gaze, he saw a metal quill drawing a colorful pattern the size of a teacup on the page. The main body of this pattern was a crossed silver-white scalpel and a hemostat, surrounded by a circle of wounds. Dark red thorns stained with blood gauze.But the most conspicuous thing is a double snake wrapped staff with a pair of white wings that runs straight up and down through the intersection point.But at the tip of the needle at the bottom of the stick, there was a drop of bright red blood that seemed to be dripping at any moment!
When the drawing is completed, the metal quill continues to write under this pattern, "Junior Field Angel Medal: awarded to medical workers who have saved more than 100 wounded on the battlefield."

Just as the metal quill fell to the table again, a new red vortex appeared directly below the so-called Junior Battlefield Angel Medal.

Reaching out to grab the floating object in the vortex, to his surprise, the thing in the vortex seemed to be relatively large this time, and it seemed to be stuck, only a metal handle wrapped in leather was exposed!
Simply letting go, Wei Ran looked at the red swirl on the back of the page in front of him, and stretched his hand in again.Fortunately, this time it was easily picked up.

Looking at the horse fur camera bag and the gold melee assault badge inlaid on it, Wei Ran laughed dumbly, but he didn't expect to get another camera this time.

Gently opening the buckle on the camera bag, Wei Ran took out the almost brand new camera inside.Like the camera I got last time in the Don River, there was no film in it at all, but in the accessory bag of the camera bag, there was a bakelite sealed barrel with matching film.

Finally, after looking at the serial number on the camera, Wei Ran finally showed a satisfied smile. Just this Rollei SLR with a sports viewfinder is worth a lot of money, not to mention the gold melee assault badge on the camera bag. Even more so.

"When you really run out of money, sell the camera or the assault badge!" Wei Ran played with the camera in his hand, sent it back to the red whirlpool with satisfaction, and then put away the cowhide notebook.

"Let's see what's in the vortex under the Battle Angel Medal now!"

Wei Ran stood beside the bed and muttered something, and then a wooden box that was one size bigger than a microwave oven and extraordinarily heavy appeared in his hand!Caught off guard, he lost his footing and was carried by the heavy box in his hand and fell onto the bed.

"No wonder there is no way to take it out directly." Wei Ran got up and looked at the box on the bed. No matter which side of this thing, it was much bigger than the whirlpool itself.

Except for an extra bowl-sized Angel of the Battle medal pattern on the lid, and a red cross logo on a white background of the same size, this box is no different from the large medical first aid kit used by German medical staff in World War II. It's just a circle bigger than the metal first aid kit used in Dr. Lodge's clinic.

But when he opened the buckles on both sides and lifted the box cover, Wei Ran immediately denied the judgment just now. Although the box is made of wood on the outside, it has a relatively clean stainless steel lining inside, which is not in the original version.

There is even a slightly smaller stainless steel cover on the 180-degree open box cover. When the cover is gently opened, it is filled with various medical instruments that are common on operating tables.

In the main body of the box, which is also lined with stainless steel, it is filled with various medicines needed for first aid just like the first aid kit used at the beginning.In addition to these medicines and medical equipment that can fully support the first aid in the field, in the center of the box, there is also a thick stack of letter paper full of Russian writing.

"I am Ivan Sergeyevich Molchanov, commander of the 79th division of the 150th Rifle Corps of the USSR, company commander of the 756th regiment, February 1940."

Just looking at the beginning, Wei Ran put the thick stack of letter paper on the bed. There is no doubt that this is the manuscript of the memoirs that Ivan, who settled in Kyiv after the war, did not finish until his death.

Gently snapping the lid of the medical box to the buckle, he put it back in the leather notebook.Then he lay on the bed, flipping through the contents of the memoir manuscript one by one.

In this memoir, Ivan recorded in detail the whole process from his joining the army in February 1940 to the end of the Battle of Berlin. The process of fishing out.

Unsurprisingly, Ivan didn't remember the doctor named Victor at all, but was replaced by Marko who had learned Russian.In addition, the person who buried Marco also became Papa Hans.This would explain why Papa Hans would return to the basement to commit suicide shortly afterwards.

Even, this unfinished manuscript also records various details of his participation in the wedding of Mario and Mora in 1955. Even the children of Mario and Mora are named by Ivan.But unfortunately, shortly after that, the two sides completely lost contact because of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Putting this unfinished manuscript into the file bag, Wei Ran closed his eyes, thinking about the harvest this time.

With that manuscript, I can easily get a reward of 1000 taels million rubles. Even after deducting the introduction fee of 1 million, my income is definitely not low.With this money, not only will I not have to worry about next year's tuition fees, but I will also be able to live a very comfortable life when I go home at the end of the year, or even come back after the year.

On the other hand, the fully mastered German, the First Aid kit that came with the Battle Angel Medal, and the large amount of clinical experience accumulated in that clinic are even more valuable.Even compared to these, the perfect-looking Rollei double-lens reflex camera and the gold melee assault badge on the camera case have become the most insignificant additions.

"Although there is no me in history, I have also won the honor this time."

Wei Ran summoned the cowhide notebook again, admired the painted Junior Battlefield Angel Medal, then walked downstairs contentedly, and took out dozens of negatives from the bulging paper bag next to the photo of the Youth League knife.

Turn on the power of the copy board, and stick these negatives one by one on it. Wei Ran held up the magnifying glass to carefully observe the captured content. A large part of these negatives were not taken by himself. Artwork left by the previous owner of the camera.

But fortunately, after a serious search, he finally found the photo he took with the light of the flare while rescuing the wounded near the Capitol!
(End of this chapter)