War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1680 The Only One Left
On the treetop watchtower, Wei Ran used a telescope to look at the two bodies that were moved away from the artillery position by Vlada and Olga, and then looked in the direction of the other two islands.

The last round of bombing seemed to have destroyed the artillery position on one of the islands. Although he could not see the specific situation of the other two anti-aircraft positions due to the obstruction of the trees, he could see the rising smoke and vaguely hear the huge noise of the artillery shells exploding.

He knew even more clearly that when the next round of air strikes came, it would be more difficult for them to hold on without the defense of an anti-aircraft artillery.

"boom!"

Just at this moment, another faint explosion was heard in the forest behind him.

Moving the telescope to look over, it was Vasily who had successfully detonated another butterfly bomb. Beside him were old Ivan and Ruslan, who were in charge of chopping wood.

There are only so many left, how many can survive?
Wei Ran looked again at the northwest direction where German planes often flew, then put down the telescope and replaced it with a gun-style camera, aimed at old Ivan, Ruslan and Vasily and pulled the trigger, then aimed at Vlada and Olga, the mother and daughter who were working together to carry the bodies.

Then he aimed at the artillery team led by Giannia and took a picture of them from above.

There were only so many of them left, and he was running low on film.

"Victor! Keep your eyes on the northwest!"

Yuri put his hands to his mouth and reminded loudly, "I put the pocket warmer and the whistle in the sack hanging on the tree trunk."

"Thank you!"

Wei Ran responded, slung the camera over his shoulder, then took out a whistle from the canvas bag hanging on the tree trunk and hung it around his neck, and then stuffed his own pocket warmer into his arms.

It was already lifeless, just like Sonya's body.

"Victor, keep an eye on it!"

Giannia also shouted, "We are going to change the position of the artillery. In the meantime, we are relying on you!"

"Don't worry!" Wei Ran shouted in response.

Under his gaze, Yuri called Old Ivan and others as well as Vlada and her daughter over, and together they rebuilt a new circular fortress using ice, snow, pine branches and cold lake water about a hundred meters away from the existing artillery position.

After taking another photo of them, Wei Ran took out a larger Schneider telescope from the metal book. The telescope had a clearer and sharper field of view, but was also heavier. He tied it to a tree branch with a rope and pointed it at the northwest sky.
As he was on guard, the sky gradually darkened and the new artillery position more than a hundred meters away had basically been built.

Not only that, under the leadership of Giannia, they even built an additional backup artillery position at the third point in an equilateral triangle connecting the two positions.

In the midst of such busyness, Olga also reported a piece of bad news that caught everyone off guard. Yulia died. She ultimately did not survive the amputation surgery.

But these living people just silently buried every dead person in the photos taken by the bystander on the treetop who pulled the trigger again and again, and then continued with the work assigned to them.

Seeing that the setting sun was about to be blocked by the horizon, Yuri brought Wei Ran a lunch box full of fish head soup and a lunch box lid full of fish jelly.

By the time he went down, Giannia and others had already dragged the cannon to the new artillery position.

But this was not the end. Giannia not only directed everyone to light a bonfire near the old artillery position, but also asked old Ivan to help saw a straight birch tree and place it on the edge of the old artillery position, and covered it with a camouflage net, leaving only a small section of the "gun barrel" exposed.

"Will this fool them?" Olga asked.

"As long as our artillery doesn't fire, they will definitely attack here."

Giannia pointed to the new position in front of her, which was located on the edge of the island and almost close to the lake surface. "That's our only chance. When they start attacking the old position, we may have a chance to shoot down a bomber."

"Let's give it a try." Yuri mindlessly supported the girl he liked.

“At least it can reduce some casualties.”

Old Ivan sighed, "I don't know when Seryosha will be able to come back. I don't know how to explain to him that so many children died."

“It’s not your fault”

Giannia said with all her strength, "Everyone, fill your stomach quickly, maybe."

"The German planes are coming again!"

Wei Ran had to blow the whistle, interrupting the meal plans of the people under the tree. "There are four planes, no, three. One of them seems to have been hit. They are flying towards us."

"Prepare!"

Giannia immediately issued an order and rushed to the position on the lakeshore with the newly formed artillery crew. This time, they covered the artillery tightly with camouflage cloth, leaving only a window in the middle for aiming.

As the distance shortened and time passed, the roar of the planes became clearer. Olga and Ruslan used the accumulated snow to extinguish the bonfire near the old position according to Joanya's plan, and then ran into the shack to hide.

Even Wei Ran put away his Schneider camera, held the rope tightly, and was ready to slide down at any time.

At a certain moment, the three bombers began to dive and scream. Immediately afterwards, dense bullets also hit the old position where the campfire had just been extinguished, and extended all the way to the depths of the forest.

Almost at the same time when the first plane pulled up and flew sideways, the second one dropped bombs, and the third one began to dive, the anti-aircraft artillery commanded by Giannia opened fire!

"Tum! Tum! Tum!"

Amid the dense artillery fire, the tail wing of the second plane was covered by the exploding artillery fire, and the cabin of the third plane was directly pierced by a shell!
"Good job!"

Wei Ran couldn't help but let out a shout that was completely drowned out by the explosion. His eyes followed the only plane that escaped, watching it fly in the direction of the ice road.

Under his gaze, the plane that was climbing with a damaged tail soon stalled and spun and crashed into the ice in the distance, while the plane whose cabin was directly pierced seemed to be fine and tried to return home, leaving a trail of black smoke.

The only undamaged plane climbed and began a new round of dive bombing towards the anti-aircraft artillery on another island that had also begun to fight back.

At the same time, Giannia also commanded the anti-aircraft artillery to start firing again, aiming at the Stuka that was pulling black smoke!

Amid the intensive artillery fire, the Stuka with black smoke luckily escaped the artillery's attack range. "Attention! Another bomber is coming back! Southeast! Southeast!"

Wei Ran shouted at the top of his lungs, and watched helplessly as the dive bomber, which had become more agile after completing the bombing, once again began to fire at the anti-aircraft artillery that was turning in the direction of its aircraft machine guns!

"Get out of the way!"

Wei Ran shouted at the top of his lungs. He had realized that it was too late for the people at the artillery position to turn their guns around and aim at the plane to fire!

He was sure that Giannia and the others had heard his reminder, but no one dodged, and finally the dense bullets covered the artillery position. Yuri, who had also realized that it was too late, only had time to stand up and knock down Giannia who was standing next to him, and then he and the others were completely covered by the dense barrage of bullets from the aircraft machine guns!
"grass!"

Wei Ran grabbed the rope and slid down, running towards the artillery position for his life.

But soon, he dived into the old artillery position and curled up along the edge of the bunker.

At the same time, the Stuka that had just dived and strafed Giannia and the others also completed its circle and started the second round of strafing right after them!
Under the indiscriminate strafing of the ground by the aviation machine guns, even the sentry tower where Wei Ran had just been on guard was turned into a floor full of wooden boards, and the area around the cannon received special attention.

Finally, the Stuka, which had run out of ammunition, swaggered into the sky again and flew in the direction it came from.

At the same time, Wei Ran also jumped out of the shelter and stumbled towards the cannon.

From a distance, he could hear Giannia's desperate cries and shouting of name after name in despair.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Finally, he ran to the edge of the position and saw Igor who was almost shot in half, Sasha whose chest was almost shattered, Giannia who was leaning against the bunker and crying, and Yuri who was held in her arms and had stopped breathing. His waist and hips were almost broken.

Looking at the young girl with a face full of despair, Wei Ran raised his camera expressionlessly, stood on the broken ice and snow shelter, and recorded the blood on the ground, the desperate girl, and the anti-aircraft gun on the silver halide film.

He never thought that in a group photo he took, there would be only one living person.

"I love him"

Jiao Niya raised her head and looked at Wei Ran who was standing on the bunker pleadingly, "I love Yuri, I wanted to agree since he first told me. Victor, please, save him, I haven't yet."

Before she could finish her words, Giannia burst into tears again and just hugged Yuri tightly in her arms.

"he died"

Wei Ran said with a hard heart, "If I can't save him, no one else can save him."

Kissing Yuri's lips once again, Giannia tried to wipe away the tears on her face in vain. Instead, she smeared Yuri's blood on her face. She stood up with difficulty and said while checking the anti-aircraft artillery, "Then... then help me carry them all away. I need a new gunner, a second gunner, and an ammunition carrier."

As she said this, Olga, who seemed to have just finished crying, came over, and old Ivan and Ruslan also came over.

"Let me do Yuri's job," Ruslan said as he picked up Sasha's broken body.

"Lisa and I learned how to be ammunition handlers, and I've been waiting for this day." Olga also said, wiping away tears.

"The kitchen where Vlada worked was hit by machine gun fire. The poor woman didn't survive and we didn't even have time to bury her."

Old Ivan explained, took off the blanket he was wearing, put Igor's broken body on it, wrapped it carefully, and carried it horizontally. As he walked, he said, "Let me do Igor's job. My eyes can't see clearly, but my feet can still step on the fire pedal."

"Is Vasily still alive?" Wei Ran asked almost cautiously.

"Alive"

Old Ivan replied, "He is hiding in your shack."

"Bury them as soon as possible."

With a hoarse voice, Giannia refused Olga's help and insisted on carrying Yuri's body alone. She staggered towards their cemetery and said, "Please help me get the ammunition box and tool box. Our artillery steering machine is stuck. I have to find a way to fix it before the German planes arrive."

"I'll bring you everything you need."

Wei Ran accepted Jiao Niya's request and watched them walk towards the desperate cemetery step by step, either carrying or hugging their companions and lovers. But all he could do was press the shutter to record their backs.

Putting away the camera, he dragged a small sled to the door of the shack that served as an operating room, moved boxes of ammunition from under the operating table, and picked up a toolbox to fill the small sled at the door.

Wei Ran brought these things back to the position as if he was escaping from something and checked the cannon.

The machine gun fire from that plane just now caused some damage to it after all. The most serious damage was that the steering mechanism of the anti-aircraft artillery was destroyed.

Fortunately, its elevation mechanism was still usable, and when I tried to push the anti-aircraft gun to rotate, it did not get stuck due to damage to the steering mechanism.

But looking at the damaged area again, Wei Ran shook his head weakly, turned and walked towards the watchtower.

Normally, such a cannon requires six people to serve, and four people are already the limit for operating this cannon.

He only hoped now that Vasily would not be allowed to participate in the work of the artillery crew no matter what.

He climbed up to the treetop with a worried look on his face. The small wooden platform here had been torn to pieces by aircraft machine guns. The only thing he could stand on was the fork at the top of the tree and two remaining wooden boards that were only a dozen centimeters larger than his shoes.

Tying his belt to the tree trunk with a rope, Wei Ran raised the telescope hanging around his neck and once again looked towards the northwest direction that was dyed red by the remaining sunset.

Fortunately, there were no planes coming from this direction yet, but he knew clearly that they would definitely come.

Turning her body to look in the direction of the cemetery in the woods, Olga was burying her mother Vlada alone.

He also saw that Ruslan held Vasily on his neck, stood up under the forked birch tree, and let him stuff the letters that were supposed to be put in once a week into the mailbox made of ammunition boxes with his own hands.

so.
Even Vasily was prepared to die here?
While muttering to himself, Wei Ran directed the telescope's lens away from the cemetery in the woods and toward the northwest again.

(End of this chapter)