War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 244 German Journalists Italian Wounded and British Prisoners
The desert, which is enough to freeze people to death at night, also returned to temperature above zero after the sun rose.But after all, it is winter now, even at noon, the temperature is only [-] to [-] degrees.

But at least in the daytime, this is not a bad thing, at least the temperature is very suitable for traveling, and the burn on Pierre's leg is not easy to inflame.

But for Wei Ran and others, the real trouble was that the last sip of fresh water had been fed to Pierre who was still running a high fever in the morning, but until noon, they did not find the so-called 101st Armored Division. Haven't even come across any traces of humans left behind.

Glancing at the fuel gauge of the three-wheeled motorcycle, Wei Ran lightly stepped on the brakes and turned off the engine, "Carlo, Panettone, are you sure you'll meet the 101st Division if you go all the way south? We've already been running all morning. Why didn't I even see a rut mark?"

"Maybe it's because of the strong wind last night?" Panetone replied optimistically.

"Use your brain when you talk," Carlo said while twisting the two joyful beards on his lips, "A armored division with thousands of people, even if the wind was not strong last night, it shouldn't be all over the place." Not left."

"Could it be that we ran in the wrong direction?" Wei Ran asked again the question he had asked countless times along the way.

"Or the speed of the 101st division is too slow, and we have already crossed before we reached the position." Panettone said like a repeater, after Wei Ran said the same sentence a few times before. The lines that must be said.

"It's a pity we don't have a map in our hands." Carlo sighed, "Let's rest for a while."

"I knew we would get lost, we should have surrendered last night." Panetone's tone was filled with regret.

"It's too late to say this now." Carlo seemed to be regretting the same, and said while walking towards the sand dunes not far away with a submachine gun, "I'll go to the sand dunes ahead to see, maybe there is an oasis nearby."

"Do you want to eat?" Panetto asked, pulling out a tin can from the cargo bucket.

"Forget it, before you can't find fresh water, eating those cans is no different from poison."

Wei Ran was the first to reject the proposal to eat those canned food again. He carefully inspected the wound on Pierre's leg and saw that there was no sign of inflammation. Then he picked up an oil drum and filled up the three-wheeled motorcycle with fuel. .

"Victor, what do you think of us going back now?" Panettone asked in a low voice, "You must still remember the way, right?"

"You overestimate me"

Wei Ran screwed on the fuel tank cap, and was chased by the British armored reconnaissance vehicle for most of the night yesterday. If he could still run back the same way, he would probably have two humps on his back.

Hearing this, Panetto looked at Pierre, who was still running a high fever on the cargo bed, and suddenly thought, "If we use that fuel to light a fire, and then remove the tires of the motorcycle and throw them in and out Some black smoke, maybe someone will come to rescue us."

"I think we should throw you in." Carlo came back with a submachine gun and scolded, "Without this motorcycle, we are really dead."

"How's the situation?" Wei Ran leaned on the motorcycle and asked.

Carlo shook his head, "Not very good"

"Or let's go back," Panettone suggested again, gesturing with chicken paws, "Even if we can't get back to the vicinity of Gubi Well, as long as we keep going north, we can at least reach the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, as long as we can reach the seaside , at best they were captured by the British."

"It's also possible that he was caught by the British halfway," Wei Ran reminded, dumbfounded.

"Isn't that better?" Panetone asked back of course.

To Wei Ran's surprise, Carlo actually agreed to this ridiculous suggestion, "In this case, let's go back now, just like what Panettone said, if we meet the British People, we just surrender."

"Really go back?" Wei Ran asked in astonishment, did he run away for nothing last night?Why do these Italians like to surrender more than the French?
"I'm afraid Pierre won't last long"

Carlo said as he stepped on the motorcycle, "If it wasn't too dark yesterday for fear of being directly beaten to death by the British, I would have been ready to surrender by then."

"I"

Wei Ran suppressed the urge to slap the other party, took the submachine gun handed over by the other party, stepped on the wheels and turned into the cargo bucket. Since the two had already planned to surrender, he himself had no objection.

After Wei Ran and Panetone sat down firmly, the motorcycle that had been running for half a day was started again under the control of Carlo, pulling everyone's backs to the sun above them, and drove around the sand dunes to the north.

On the way back, Carlo obviously did not follow the ruts left by Wei Ran, but went straight north, making it clear that he wanted to go back as fast as possible.

The hungry and thirsty people rode this hard-working three-wheeled motorcycle from noon to sunset, but Carlo suddenly stepped on the brakes, and at the same time, Wei Ran also lifted the bicycle that was originally carried on his shoulders. The submachine gun, by the way, kicked Panetone beside him.

What made the two of them so vigilant was that there was a square-headed Italian-made CL39 light truck parked behind a sand dune directly in front of them.

At the same time Wei Ran was pointing a gun at the other party, in the shadow on the side of the front of the van-shaped truck, there was another man in a German uniform pointing a gun at them.

"It seems to be our people"

Carlo signaled Wei Ran to put away the submachine gun, raised his hands and shouted, "We belong to the Aries Armored Division, how about you?"

The man in the shadow of the "101st Armored Division" came out with a P38 pistol in his hand, pointed at the truck behind him, and said in blunt Italian, "At least this car and its driver are the 101st Armored Division." of."

"Aren't you?" Carlo put down his hands, stepped forward and asked.

"I am Pell, a war correspondent for the German Herald, and this is my ID."

While talking, the other party took out a document from his jacket pocket and handed it to Carlo, then looked at Wei Ran and Panetone who came over and asked strangely, "Why are you here? Isn't the 132 Armored Division sent Did you go to Guppy Well?"

"We were intercepted by the British when we were reconnaissance on the front line, and we lost our way in order to escape their pursuit." Carlo returned the ID to the reporter named Pell, and then handed his own ID to the other party, "How do you Also here? Isn’t the 101st Division also sent to Gubijing?”

Hearing this, the reporter Pell showed undisguised sarcasm, "The 101st division is going in the wrong direction, and if nothing else happens, the entire division is going in the wrong direction."

"The entire division?" Carlo's eyes widened, "So the 101st division is near here?"

Pell shook his head and returned Carlo's ID, "We also got separated from the main force, and in the early morning, we encountered a few British reconnaissance vehicles about a dozen kilometers away to the west, and had an incident with the other party. Firefight."

Pell didn't pay attention to the weird expressions on the faces of Wei Ran and the others. He turned around and took them to the side of the truck's cargo box, pointed to an Italian soldier lying inside and continued, "With the help of the armored vehicles protecting us, we wiped out the One of the reconnaissance vehicles, and captured a British soldier. But the truck driver was also injured and separated from the armored vehicle protecting us, and the fuel and water tanks are now empty."

"What's your name? How's your condition?" Carlo climbed into the bed of the truck and asked the wounded lying inside.

"Trento, I'm Trento from the 80th Transport Company."

The pale wounded man lifted the blanket covering his leg while speaking, and then everyone saw that his left leg was wrapped in gauze indiscriminately, and the dark red blood had soaked the gauze, even the blanket All were stained with blood.

"The bullet still seems to be stuck in his leg," Pell, who was standing at the rear of the car, reminded with a headache, "We need to find a doctor who can operate as soon as possible to help him remove the bullet."

Hearing this, Carlo and Panetone looked at Wei Ran, who was currently looking at the inventory in the truck compartment.

In addition to the wounded named Trento, there was also a Breda 35 20mm anti-aircraft gun in the carriage, several boxes for ammunition and cans, and two medical boxes with a cross printed on it. There is obviously a whole layer of wooden boxes under Rento's body, but they are all covered by thick canvas, so they don't know what they contain.

"Victor, will you have surgery?" Panettone couldn't help asking.

Hearing this, Wei Ran came back to his senses, grabbed the edge of the cargo bed and climbed into the car, "Let me see what's in the medical box first."

"Is he a doctor?" German reporter Pell asked Carlo, who jumped out of the truck.

"It's also a soldier of the transport company." Carlo pointed to the tricycle not far away, "but he was the one who cured our companion. He had a broken arm and healed it without surgery at all."

Reporter Pell looked suspiciously at Wei Ran, who was looking for the medical kit. Just as he was about to say something, Panettone asked, "Pell, you just said that you also captured an Englishman? where?"

"Under the car" Pell bent down and pointed to the chassis of the truck.

Carlo and Panetone looked in the direction he pointed, and then found a shirtless captive gagged under the truck, with his hands separated and tied to the chassis.

"How did the two of you do it?" Panetto straightened up and asked in surprise.

"That flak gun"

Pell proudly pointed at the weapon in the cargo box, "We turned off the engine and hid behind a sand dune. When the Britons were attracted by the armored vehicles protecting us, I blasted them with that anti-aircraft gun. The reconnaissance car, but when the prisoner was taken out, Trento was shot in the thigh by the opponent with a pistol."

"What about the armored vehicle that protects you?" Panetone asked after him.

"He lured the rest of the British reconnaissance vehicles to run in other directions." Pell spread his hands, "If they are not in danger, maybe they can come back to find us."

"Does he know the way?" Carlo asked, pointing to the prisoner under the truck chassis.

"Maybe." Reporter Pell spread his hands, "but I don't speak English, and the one under the chassis doesn't seem to speak German or Italian either."

"Oh!" Carlo and Panetun sighed together, and the little hope that had just been ignited suddenly turned into bubbles again.

(End of this chapter)