War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 39 The Unknown Hero

Amidst the crisp shutter sound, intense white light also filled Wei Ran's entire field of vision at the same time.When the line of sight returned to normal, the surrounding environment became a familiar studio again.

Wei Ran first looked at the pistol and magazine that he was still holding tightly, and hurriedly put them aside, then touched his chest nervously. Unfortunately, the letters wrapped in rainproof cloth did not turn out as he hoped. Bring it back together.

"Where are those letters?"

Wei Ran couldn't help but picked up his clothes and smelled them. Seeing that there was no smell of corpses and gunpowder smoke that had filled the sky over Position 19 a moment ago, he sat down on the cold floor, holding the anti-tank door Pao's assistant hoe looked at the cowhide notebook lying on the floor.

With the soft sound of "crash, la la", the cowhide book automatically turned to the third page, showing the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun that had been turned into a black and white photo.And directly below the photo, the metal quill also wrote a short obituary in the "swish, swish, swish" sound:

heroes no one knows

All the soldiers who stood firm on the Don River's No. 19 position were killed, and none survived.

Is this over?

Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, and watched the metal quill write on a new line: Correspondent Nikolai, on August 1942, 8, delivered the letters from the soldiers at the 1th position to the post office in the Don River on time. He was sent to the Suvorov Junior Military Academy to study.

In 1953, Nikolai was sent to the post office in East Berlin and was also responsible for intelligence collection. Retired on August 1989, 8 and now lives in Kazan.

Is that the boy who delivered the letter?he is still alive?

Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, looked at the detailed address that the metal quill continued to write, and couldn't help but have a crazy idea in his heart. He wanted to go to Nicholas and ask him if there was any address in his memory. "Postman Victor" this guy!

Just as he was distracted, the metal quill continued to write in a new line, "If there is only one negative left, should it be used to record war or happiness?"

Before Wei Ran could figure out the answer to this question, the pale yellow paper had been turned to the back, and the metal quill continued to write under the red swirl, "The last gift from a war photographer"

Full of anticipation, I gently picked up the suspended object from the red vortex. This is a Leica IIIB camera that can be regarded as a collection-level camera. On the brown cowhide protective cover wrapped around the body, you can still see the roughness. The words "Zoya" are branded, and the other two small bags of the same material fixed on the leather strap also contain a separate lens and a dedicated film filter.

Gently open the leather case, this camera not only has the DRP logo and the crisp eagle logo, but also a sickle and hammer logo that was hand-engraved later.Unfortunately, there was no film in the camera.

Is this Zoya's camera?Wei Ran frowned, how could this camera appear in his hand?Boldly, he reached into the red vortex and touched it. After a long time, he regretfully withdrew his hand.

There were no letters he expected in this vortex, let alone the crucial report on the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Disappointed, he put the camera back into the red vortex, Wei Ran ignored the metal quill pen that fell on the floor, and couldn't wait to turn the paper back, and took out the only one from the paper bag next to the black and white photo. Negatives.

Struggling to get up and run to the workbench, Wei Ran opened the copy board, clamped the negative on it and picked up the magnifying glass.

This negative film is a group photo of Captain Aleutian and Zoya. On the shield of the anti-tank gun in the background, there are nine combat achievements painted on with paint and a copper five-pointed star hung on it with wire. A little out of focus, but still barely visible.

"If only those letters could be brought back."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, he promised Aleutian and others to deliver the letter for them, but now not only the letter has not been delivered, even the crucial application report for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union is gone. This made him feel a deep sense of guilt.

"Hope their identity capsules are still there!"

Wei Ran threw down the magnifying glass in disappointment, picked up an oil pot from the corner of the studio, and carefully moistened the breech block, latch plate and linkage mechanism of the cannon.After that, he found a thick steel pipe and put it on the handle of the bolt for a little bit of force, and took out the shell casing that was still hidden in the barrel with difficulty.

After half a century of burial, the casing of this shell was already covered with rust, only the position of the primer was still as bright as new with the unique color of metal.

Turn it upside down and gently tap on the breech breech, as the wet soil slips from the shell casing, it really reveals the remaining solidified paint at the bottom!
After some observation, Wei Ran turned off the headlights, then found a small cutting machine, carefully cut the shell casing with a lot of rust in half, and took out a piece of dried paint that was as big as a fist.With the help of a wallpaper knife and small pliers, he peeled off pieces of gravel, dirt and even broken bone fragments covered in red paint.

Finally, when the piece of paint in his hand became the size of an egg, the three identity capsules preserved in it were revealed.

Without rushing to open it, Wei Ran put the cleaned up paint shavings and the few bone fragments, together with the large piece in his hand, into glass bottles, and then walked into the darkroom.

Under his skillful manipulation, more than ten minutes later, a black and white photo of Zoya and Captain Aleutian was developed and hung on the drying line.

Walking out of the darkroom, Wei Ran hesitated and finally took out his mobile phone and booked a flight ticket to Kazan the next morning.He still decided to talk to Nikolai before finding a client.

The reason why he made this decision was not only to know if he had any memories about himself, but also to see if he could get more clues about those people in his memory from the other party.

After arranging the itinerary plan for the next day and taking back the negatives and notebooks, Wei Ran couldn't wait to get into the bathroom. During the week or so in the 19th position, it was definitely not good to be accompanied by muddy, sewage and broken corpses every day. Memories, even if you have a vague understanding of those who are impossible to come back with you, but psychologically, you still need to take a hot bath to make yourself forget the experience of crawling in the trenches.

After a full hour, Wei Ran, whose fingers were already wrinkled, came out of the bathroom refreshed and changed into clean clothes.

Glancing at the pistol and magazines still on the workbench, he put them into his bag without hesitation for a long time, and drove straight to a restaurant not far away.

In the more than a week in the 19th position, the difficult days of only eating boiled potatoes made him feel that he had lost at least ten catties psychologically.So the most important thing now is to find a place where you can eat meat and have a big meal to make up for it!
　Thanks to Mu Xuetiankuang for rewarding 5000 points

　　Thanks to mfive, wearing white silk is not considered women's clothing, Alex is frozen, and rewarded 1500 points respectively

　　Thanks to Zhao Feiyu for rewarding 500 points

　　Thank you Flying Hands for rewarding 300 points

　　Thanks to Redondo in white, Lenin's old Mike, and book friends 20170207123240063 for rewarding 100 points

　　
　
(End of this chapter)