War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 525 People in Two Stories

In the brightly lit bedroom, Wei Ran took the group photo on the tank and looked at it for a long time, finally put it aside, and continued to take things out of the camera bag.

In addition to the main body of the Robert II camera and the standard lens mounted on it, the bag also contained a wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens, and an ultra-telephoto lens that can be called a spy-only one.

As briefly mentioned in the course of Hongqi Forest Farm, this camera was used for military reconnaissance and espionage activities behind enemy lines during World War II, and even for a long time after World War II, it was the mainstream of hidden front shooting tool.

But in fact, it is not easy for Wei Ran to operate this outdated wind-up camera.It can even be said that in the film age, shooting was originally a "technical activity", but after entering the digital age, the required technical requirements are getting lower and lower.

"It seems that in the future, I need to find a place where I can systematically master the operation of various old-fashioned cameras."

Wei Ran, who was fiddling with the camera, muttered to himself. When he was still a part-time tour guide, he put in a lot of effort to learn how to use the Rollei dual-camera. Later, he got a metal notebook. I have a lot of film cameras, but they are all using methods I found out on the spot.

On the other hand, in this digital age, even the "outdated" Hongqi Forest Farm will not focus on teaching the use of various film cameras. At most, it is just a simple film camera like "Kyiv 30" for experience. .What's more, it mainly focuses on the latest production of various pinhole shooting equipment.

As for where to study, he immediately had a goal. When he followed Jima to Kirov to complete the assessment task, the one-armed veteran named Leva ran an old-fashioned film camera store.

Although I didn't communicate with him much at the time, I could tell that the old guy, who was not in good health, was very good at taking pictures.Keeping this matter in mind, Wei Ran picked up the small PPK pistol and fiddled with it again.

Even if you don't mention the 007 in the movie with fancy pick-ups, even the mustache that you want to open in the bunker, the account was canceled with this weapon in the end.At the same time, for Wei Ran, this is already the third pistol in the metal book.

"Why can't you play tricks on a T-34?"

Wei Ran complained dissatisfiedly, put the small pistol back into the camera bag, and took back the metal book together.

After copying down the three sets of coordinates mentioned in the metal book and the medal numbers obtained by Vajim and others, Wei Ran began to think about the solution to this matter.

No doubt Mrs. Valentina, who was terminally ill, would not be able to wait long, but she must have a reasonable excuse.And the most important thing is that some reliable people need to help a cameo digging party to find and bring back Vajim's body.

After thinking about it, Wei Ran first checked the medals obtained by the tank driver Vajim replaced through the serial number.

In the medal that Vajim received, it is recorded in detail that he and Roman lurked on the front line of the battlefield to repair the tank, and risked their lives to attack the German tank to rescue the wounded.It even lists the approximate location of their burial.Moreover, both he and Roman were posthumously awarded the medal, and both the certifier and the applicant were Commissar Trossa.

According to the full name of Commissar Trosha mentioned in the medal file, Wei Ran also showed a smile on his face as he continued to search.

In the archives of Commissar Trosha, the details of the battle on the outskirts of Tomarovka were also recorded. , the application report and approval process of the Tank Driver Vajim Identity Certificate".

And just like the records in the metal book, the report was not approved because of the lack of crucial certification due to the death of Commissar Trosa.

"Same as Don 19 position"

Wei Ran sighed. He clearly remembered that the application report for the Hero of the Soviet Union at the No. 19 Don River position was also approved as "not approved" because of the lack of witnesses. I finally let go of my heart and returned to "Stalingrad", which has been renamed.

After downloading the file and the application form, Wei Ran returned to the previous web page and saved the medal file of the tank driver Grigory who Vajim replaced.

In addition, he retrieved more than a dozen soldiers named "Vajim" through the search function of the website, and then he turned off the computer, got up and went into the bathroom.

The time spent on the battlefield this time was less than 24 hours, but behind that short combat experience, Mrs. Valentina waited for a whole lifetime.

After taking a scalding hot bath, Wei Ran came out again, hesitated for a moment and took out his mobile phone to call Teacher Dalia.

"Have you found it?" As soon as the phone was connected, Teacher Dalia asked directly.

"It's not that simple"

Wei Ran denied it in a flat tone, and then said, "Teacher Dalia, I plan to go to Egypt later, I don't know if it will affect Karp's filming work."

"It won't be affected." Teacher Dalia replied immediately, "How long do you need? I'll help you change the ticket."

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran decided to set aside a week for this matter, "If possible, I will go to Egypt again on July 7th."

"Then No. 5." Dalia readily agreed, "Is there anything else I need to do?"

"I don't need it now," Wei Ran said bluntly, "If I find anything in the past few days, I will contact you in time."

Before he finished speaking, Teacher Dalia on the other end of the phone simply hung up the phone.

Weighing the phone, Wei Ran lay on the bed again, and bought a plane ticket by the way, then continued to think about when to go to Kirov, and visit the one-armed veteran Leva again, to see if he could get some money from the other party. Learn some outdated knowledge about film cameras.

In the early morning of the next day, Wei Ran bid farewell to his aunt who was thinking about planting something in the yard, and drove teacher Dalia's car to the airport, and took the earliest flight to Kursk.

Such a highly purposeful itinerary is naturally for Teacher Dalia.Even after he arrived, he didn't even go to the hotel, so he took a taxi directly to the local Kursk Battle Military History Exhibition Hall.

The city is less than 500 kilometers away from Kiev, the capital of Ukrainian, but in 1943, in order to recover the land seized by Frances, the tragic Battle of Cuzco broke out here.

In contrast, the Battle of Belgorod may only be regarded as a continuation and side branch of the Battle of Kursk, and that battle may not be comparable to the latter in terms of scale, popularity, and even tragedy.

But the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army who died in that battle were actually ordinary people with flesh and blood like those heroes in the Battle of Cuzco. The difference may be that they are nameless.

It took a whole day to carefully browse through this not too big exhibition hall. When Wei Ran was going to find a hotel to rest and then rush to Belgorod, Katenka, who was on vacation, found Here comes an email.

After carefully checking the hotel room, Wei Ran took out the food box in the metal book under the blanket, and found out that the authenticator inside was linked to the computer.

After a while, a text document appeared on the desktop, followed by a download page.

"What is this?" Wei Ran put on the wired headset connected to the computer and asked, "If it's convenient, let's communicate directly by voice, I'm a little busy now."

"good boss"

Kajianka's voice came from the earphone immediately, "I am currently in Lille, France, and I have already been to the address you asked me to investigate."

The speed is quite fast.
Wei Ran glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen, it was only the third day since he notified the other party of the holiday.

"Did you find anything?" Wei Ran asked with a normal expression.

"That address is a furniture store"

Katenka, who was also wearing earphones, walked to the bed, hid most of his body behind the heavy curtains, held a binoculars in one hand and looked at the furniture store across the street from the window, paused for a moment and said, "The size of this store is It’s not too big, but the location is very good. The owner is an old man named Dorian, who looks very old, and he should be around 90 years old by visual estimation.”

Closing his eyes and letting his memory go back to those French prisoners on the Finnish battlefield, Wei Ran matched the name mentioned by Katenka with the young French prisoner, and then asked, "What else? Did you find it?"

"When I went to this store, the old man named Dorian was writing his memoirs. Through dictation, there were many children who were not too old around him. If nothing else, they should be his great-grandchildren. .”

Katenka put down the binoculars, sat back on the sofa in the hotel room and continued, "It should be his grandson who helped him type the content of the memoir into the computer. I managed to hack into his computer. The one who just copied it into your computer is The contents of the memoir.

I have probably read it. It is divided into two volumes. The first half is about Dorian’s experience as a prisoner of war when he was young. It's the second volume, and it's not over yet. The content is basically about various things after the end of World War II. "

At this point, Kajianka paused, opened his mouth to take a grape stuffed into his mouth by a girl, and then continued to ask, "Boss, do you need me to translate or summarize the contents of these two memoirs? They are both Written in French."

"No, I'll leave this to someone else."

Wei Ran thought for a while, and continued, "If it's convenient, help me keep an eye on that unfinished memoir. Remember to send me a copy when you finish writing it."

"No problem." Katenka ate the second grape and continued, "Is there anything else to do?"

"Take a good vacation, these are enough." After speaking, Wei Ran unplugged the authenticator.

"Didn't you tell the boss?" asked the girl in the hotel room with a bunch of grapes in her hand.

"I was just about to say that he has disconnected." Kajianka spread his arms and said with a relaxed expression, "It's not my fault."

"Then look for another chance later"

The girl with the grapes spread out on the soft sofa, "Where shall we go next?"

"Let's go back to Paris!"

Kajianka took out a bank card, shook it, and asked expectantly, "How about we spend all the bonus that the boss gave last time?"

"I have no opinion!"

The girl eating grapes said enthusiastically, "But before that, let's play all the amusement parks in Paris!"

"You can still go to this place, there is bungee jumping here." Katenka shook the phone screen and came up with a new idea.

At the same time, in a hotel room in Kursk, Wei Ran disconnected his laptop from the Internet and opened the memoir sent by Katenka.

In the first volume of his memoirs, Dorian, a French prisoner of war, described in detail his experience of cleaning chimneys for rich people when he was a child, and by the way, he also introduced his parents’ participation in the French guerrillas.

After a fairly happy childhood, Dorian was sent to Finland by the Germans. In his subsequent memories, everything that happened in the polar night in northern Finland also appeared in Wei Ran's mind again.

The cold hands and feet, the low temperature, the smelly bear den, the underground shelter that got better a little bit, and the bear meat that is getting less and less appetizing, all these descriptions are not too different from Wei Ran's memory.

It took him more than two hours to finish reading this memoir. When he turned to the last page, it finally recorded the tragedy of the shoemaker Kantan who committed suicide after the war.

Squeezing between his eyebrows, Wei Ran opened the unfinished second half of the book.This half-volume memoir records Dorian's post-war experience, from returning to his hometown to reunite with his parents, to running a fur business with the help of Gail and Quentin, and even meeting a beautiful girl.

When the experience recorded in this half-volume of unfinished memoirs reaches 1958, Wei Ran finally knows what happened at that time.

This year, Quentin, a Jewish chef who settled in Finland, killed his two main competitors and their families in order to seize more market share!

It is precisely because of this incident that Dorian and Gale have terminated their cooperation with Quentin successively, and the friendship between the three of them for more than ten years also immediately fell apart.

In the time since, Gail has switched to running a restaurant, and Dorian has given up his fur business and started a furniture business.

Continuing to turn back, this half-book of memoirs has not had time to write about the avalanche of the three of Quentin's family, but the memories and regrets of the three people's friendship between the lines make people feel sad.

Wei Ran lost interest in what happened afterwards, and after sighing, he even deleted the two memoirs that almost recorded Dorian's life.

Compared with those unknown soldiers who used their lives to fill the battlefield and regain their homeland like Vajim in the Battle of Belgorod.People like Quentin who were lucky enough to survive to the end of the war have a kind of absurdity of a young dragon slayer eventually becoming a dragon.

Is it wrong?
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with it. In order to pursue the right to live, the space to live, and the resources to live, war and conspiracy seem to be eternal topics.

As small as the interest disputes between a few fur traders, as large as the differences between races and beliefs between countries, the essence is nothing more than living and living better.

But there are always some people who stick to their inner beliefs until their death, even if they are forgotten by future generations.

Similarly, some people will eventually forget the scars on their bodies, even if they abandon more precious friendships, even if their former friends unreservedly write their evil deeds in their memoirs, they will not hesitate.

(End of this chapter)