War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 324 The Disappearing Song

At five o'clock in the morning, Wei Ran, who was sound asleep, was successfully awakened by the loudspeakers of the Germans on the opposite position.Cursing silently, he reluctantly sat up on the single bed made out of the ammunition box.

The shelling last night did not last long, and there was no further exchange of fire afterwards, but the light from the flares that the two sides hit the night sky from time to time can be blocked by the bunker, but the movement of the irregular shelling is not at all cotton balls stuffed into the ears can be blocked.

Because of this, almost everyone didn't sleep well that night.Now that he was woken up by the other party's loudspeaker full of obscenities, Wei Ran couldn't help but use the loudspeaker too, and cursed back in German.

He walked out of the bunker in a daze, and the thick fog in the morning made the viewing distance no more than ten meters at most.But in the tidal trenches, a platoon leader under Valentin had already organized several soldiers to climb out of the trenches.

"What are they going to do?" Wei Ran asked Company Commander Valentin who was standing not far away.

"Go pick off the boots of the Germans"

Valentin said as a matter of course, "There are more than a dozen soldiers in my company who don't have boots that are strong enough to withstand mud and water, which will seriously affect their combat effectiveness. It just happened that a gift was delivered to the opposite side last night, and now it's time to receive these time for presents."

While he was talking, the soldiers had already quietly climbed out of the trench with a submachine gun and two mines made of wooden boxes, and disappeared in the thick fog in an instant.The rest of the soldiers also climbed into the trenches, holding their weapons and vigilantly guarding against enemies that may appear at any time.

In the silent waiting, the time passed by every second, and the originally dark sky gradually became brighter, but the soldiers did not come back from the beginning to the end, but what made people feel a little relieved was that at least there was no one in the fog. There was no sound of gunfire.

Half an hour, an hour, an hour and a half, until seven o'clock in the morning, the regular yellow lights began to flash in the fog outside the trenches.

Soon, soldiers with boots or leather boots hanging on their shoulders came back from the fog one after another.

It wasn't until the soldiers inside and outside could clearly see each other's faces after the battle that the soldier in the lead turned off the flashlight he had been holding, and called his companions to return to the trench along the ladder.

"Company commander, a total of 22 pairs of boots have been obtained, and the mines have been buried."

The soldier in the lead finished speaking beamingly, then reached out and took off the potato bag hanging from his waist, "I also brought back a lot of cigarettes and the like."

"Divide it to everyone"

Valentin waved his hand, "You can each get a small glass of vodka, the vodka without water, this is a precious gift from our reporter comrades."

Watching the soldiers with boots running happily to the field kitchen not far away, Valentin shouted to the surroundings, "Okay, now that the Germans have woken us up, today we will continue to repair the trenches and bunkers. Before it gets dark, I don't want any water in the trenches to remain!"

The surrounding soldiers either responded enthusiastically, or sighed secretly, and then followed the squad leader and platoon leader to continue the unfinished work yesterday.

And Wei Ran also entered the command post at the invitation of Valentin, and enjoyed hot boiled potatoes and oatmeal together, as well as black bread hard enough to be used as a hammer.

"Victor, thank you for the vodka you shared yesterday." While speaking, Valentin took out a glass jar full of pickles from the wooden box behind him, "Come and taste it, this is my wife It was sent a few months ago, and I usually don’t want to eat it myself.”

"Thank you, just give me half of it." Wei Ran hurriedly said, this thing is dispensable to him, but it is very precious to the other party.

“It’s just pickles”

Valentin generously poked out the biggest one with a fork and handed it to Wei Ran, but he himself just took a sip of the soup in the glass jar, then screwed on the lid and put it back into the wooden box.

Break open the pickled cucumber handed by the other party and give half of it to the other party. Before Wei Ran could speak, the radio placed on the table against the wall rang.

"Russians across the way, let your singer continue to sing a few more songs, and then we turn off the horn?"

Seeing Wei Ran looking at him in surprise, Valentin said nonchalantly, "It's the Germans on the opposite side, we are not the only ones woken up by their horns."

"That"

"This small deal doesn't affect the battle situation, does it?"

Valentin stood up and shouted out of the bunker, "Where is our artist? Let him lead everyone to sing a few songs, remember not to get together."

"Will the Germans judge our position by singing, then."

"Relax Victor"

Valentin said indifferently, "It's up to them when we finish singing. No one will fire at this time."

As if to confirm his guess, after Tonya in the trench led everyone to sing "Farewell to the Slavic Woman", the Germans on the opposite position played the classic "Farewell to the Slavic Woman" on the loudspeaker, not to be outdone. The Girl Under the Streetlight (aka Lily Marlene).

If one ignores the trenches outside, the busy soldiers with weapons on their backs, and the stench-smelling corpses lying in the puddles outside the trenches, Wei Ran even has the illusion that this is actually just two groups of farmers busy in the fields. .

"Don't we have a trumpet?" Wei Ran waited until the other party finished singing before asking.

"Yes, but there is no need to use it in this kind of place."

Valentin cut up the black bread with a bayonet and threw it into the oatmeal, and while it was soaking soft, he explained very soberly while biting the soft boiled potatoes, "And we don't speak German here. There is no need to waste energy and precious soldiers on such matters. Besides, Tonya's singing is far more effective than their incompetent swearing."

Hearing this, Wei Ran burst into laughter.He thought that the Battle of Rzhev would be even more tragic than the battle on the Don River he had experienced, but in less than two days, what he saw was quite different from what he thought.

Whether it's Tonya's singing, or the singing played by the German army on the opposite side, whether it's the boots that were once worn on the feet of German soldiers and later on the feet of Soviet Red Army soldiers, whether it's the polluted water source or the A field hospital hidden deep in the birch forest.Or the soldiers who improved living conditions in the trenches by making stoves out of whatever materials they could find.Everything is more like a forced bitterness.

He could even guess that in the German position more than [-] meters away, apart from the commanders, those soldiers at the bottom, those de facto invaders, what they might be doing at this time, and The Soviet Red Army on this side of the position is doing no different work at this time.

Compared to the numbness of the battle itself, perhaps the muddy trench is what they worry about the most, maybe what they look forward to most is a letter from home, maybe what they want most is just alcoholic drinks that can temporarily anesthetize themselves and comfort themselves. singing.

When the German song stopped, the loudspeaker on the opposite side continued to hurl insults and provocations like hooligans.Before the fog cleared, the Germans on the opposite side also organized a tentative attack again.On the contrary, Company Commander Valentin, due to the lack of troops, could only organize the defense again and again.

When the sound of firefighting stopped again, there were more wounded and dead in this position. Wei Ran looked at these casualties who were still trying to pose vigorously under his camera yesterday, but all he could do was scream A sigh that belongs to the bystanders.

In the tireless busyness and torment of the living soldiers, two whole days passed little by little amid the sound of cursing, singing, gunfire and the screams of the wounded. At night, Nurse Lano would come as scheduled Front line, ask her fiancé Daniela if she's back.

Watching the petite nurse return disappointed, the people living in the trench became more and more silent.

Because on the afternoon of September 9th, Tonya, who has the title of artist, was unfortunately injured by the German shelling. A piece of stubble lifted by the shock wave passed through his cheek and chin, and was shot at the same time. A raised machine gun also broke his thigh.

Although his life and legs were saved under the treatment of Dr. Pasha and others in the rear, but according to Nurse Lano, he might not be able to sing with his good voice in the future, and he might even have to speak. affected.

For two consecutive days thereafter, there was no more singing in the trenches. Even on the evening of October 10, the Germans on the opposite side asked by radio why there was no singing.

Watching Valentin leave the trench in silence, Wei Ran picked up the radio and calmly explained what happened to Tonya in German.

After a while, the loudspeakers on the German positions stopped provoking and cursing, and the battlefield fell into a rare calm. Even after five o'clock in the morning of the next day, it remained quiet.

In the thick fog in the early morning, the political commissar with the rank of captain finally brought a group of reinforcements of less than 50 people.

Without saying a word, he handed over the group of soldiers who did not know where they were transferred to Company Commander Valentin. He walked to a corner and sat down by the trench alone, took out the group photo again, and then used a pen to write on the back of the photo. A line was drawn across Ya's name.

Seeing that only his own name remained on the back of the photo, the political commissar closed his eyes wearily, and hummed the aria from the opera "Rigolto" again.

At the same time, in the thick fog, a young Red Army soldier wearing a cloak and holding a Mosin Nagant sniper rifle also crawled a little closer to the trench, while anxiously sending signals with a flashlight .

Soon, he got a response from the soldiers in the trench, and then he immediately got up, trotted and jumped into the trench.

"Danila, you're finally back. Where's Pavel Pavel? Let me tell you some good news first, yours."

"Where's Comrade Company Commander? And Comrade Political Commissar, where are they?" Daniela asked urgently without waiting for his comrades to finish speaking.

"The new command post, I'll take you there!" The soldier lying on duty on the trench immediately realized the urgency of the situation, and ran to the command post hidden in the fog with Daniela.

(End of this chapter)