War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 764 Footprints That Shouldn't Appear

In the relatively warm garage, Wei Ran sat on an upside-down wooden box, carefully inspecting the matryoshka he found not long ago, from big to small, from inside to outside, layer by layer.

However, neither the set of nesting dolls nor the gas mask tank in which the nesting dolls were stored, he did not find any valuable clues.

Unwilling to give up, he checked the wreckage of the main body of the fighter jet and even the two dismantled wings. He still didn't have any clues about the text except that he could confirm that the paint job of the plane was hand-painted later.Even the number that should have existed on the plane was not found.

However, during this inspection, he noticed that the plane seemed to have been burned, and the key item to prove this was a thumb-sized piece of glass that was found in the cracks of the cockpit and was melted at high temperature and re-cooled to shape piece.

Putting this piece of glass and the doll together, Wei Ran's doubts became even more. Since this plane has been burned, why did it repaint it?Who repainted it in the first place, and what was the purpose of the painting?
After typing the accumulated questions into the memo on the mobile phone, Wei Ran put these things away, then turned off the grill that served as a heat source, and left the garage with Beria, the dog who had been messing around, and locked the whitewashed room. iron gate.

When he walked back into the house, several women were still sitting around Kolawa making various attempts. As for Mr. Nicholas and Professor Alexei, they were busy at this time with the information provided by Sui Sui. Fighting on the flying chess board.

Patting the dog's head squatting at his feet, Wei Ran went upstairs and entered the room alone, pulled out his laptop and began to check the relevant records about Goronid Island and the air battle during the Stalingrad period.

Compared with the mystery on the wreckage of the plane, these things are easy to find.According to historical records, at that time, in order to strengthen the city's air defense force, in June 1942, the Soviet army expanded the Stalingrad military-level air defense area on the basis of the original division-level air defense area.

在这片防空地域中，下辖了7个中口径高炮团、2个小口径高炮团、7个独立高炮营、6列防空装甲列车、2个独立高机营、7个独立高机连、19个独立高机排、1个气球营、1个探照灯团、6个独立对空情报营和1个独立情报无线电连。

In addition, there is the crucial 1941nd Fighter Aviation Division, which was established in Stalingrad in November 11.

这个师初期只有第439和第788两个团，装备的战机中更有差不多一半是老旧的伊-153和伊-16歼击机。可即便如此，这个师仅仅在1942年的7月到9月份期间，就累计执行10000架次作战任务！

It is also because of this brilliant record that this division was given a new designation as soon as the Battle of Stalingrad ended - the 2nd Air Defense Guard Fighter Aviation Division!
This is just the anti-aircraft unit in Stalingrad. If you consider the huge and complicated fighter jets of the 8th Army of the Air Force that also participated in the battle, you want to find out who flew down the German ME109 fighter jet. , its difficulty is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.

And don't forget, it's not necessarily just the plane that shoots down the fighter jets, but also the anti-aircraft firepower deployed on the ground.

Also according to historical records, the 85th Battalion of the Independent Anti-Aircraft Artillery of the Seventh Air Defense Division was stationed on the northernmost side of Golonid Island at that time.On the south side of the island, the 6nd Regiment of Anti-aircraft Artillery of the 1082th Division of Air Defense is stationed.

If the scope is expanded a little bit, on the west and southwest sides of the Volga River, the 4th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment of the 748th Air Defense Division and the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment of the 1080th Air Defense Division are also stationed.

According to the situation at the time, the anti-aircraft artillery units stationed in these air defense divisions also had the opportunity to shoot down the German aircraft and let it crash on the island.

However, even though he wasted most of the afternoon following this clue, he still didn't find any records mentioning it.

"Either it was shot down by a plane, or shot down by an anti-aircraft gun. But no matter which one, the scope is too large." Wei Ran muttered to himself, and he began to regret in his heart that he had provoked him so much on this big festival day. A nuisance.

Saved some of the effective information found in the computer, Wei Ran touched the tattoo on the tiger's mouth, then decisively flicked his cuffs, and put all his hopes on Professor Alexey, hoping that the other party could get out of the village. Ask for something useful.

Time came to the next day in a blink of an eye. Early in the morning, my aunt greeted the girls except Katenka sisters and the young genius Kolava, as well as Wei Ran and Professor Alexey to help, and hurriedly finished the baking Pie after pie.

Around ten o'clock in the morning, Master Zhou, who had been busy all morning, took off his apron, took the girls to the pier in the car driven by Professor Alexei, and was about to take the ferry back to the city for shopping. Prepare for Christmas, which people really care about, and by the way, buy some training items for Kolawa that they find useful--dice, a lot of dice.

Watching these girls board the ferry that started operating, Professor Alexey took a bite of a corner of the pie that was still warm, turned the car around and headed to a village not far away, in the name of meeting new neighbors, and started his lead-gathering work.

Wei Ran was also not idle. Almost at the same time as Alexei and the others went out, he also went out with his dog Beria, and walked into the not-so-big forest over there again, trying to find something else from inside. clue.

In contrast, Mr. Nicholas was very leisurely with his three big-eared foxes, enjoying the rocking chair in front of the fireplace while watching TV.

In the snow-covered forest, Wei Ran walked slowly with his dog.Speaking of which, this forest is not that big, less than three or four hectares in total, of which less than one hectare belongs to the land bought by Professor Alexei, and the remaining large patch of miscellaneous woods is The land of no man, and according to Professor Alec, because the terrain of the land of no man is relatively low, in summer, due to the converging rainfall and even the occasional water poured in by the Volga River, it becomes a pregnant land. A swamp of all kinds of mosquitoes.

Leading the dog and walking in the depths of this small forest, the most common sight is the footprints left by small animals such as rabbits, foxes or wild boars on the snow. And the rut marks left over from yesterday.As for the other relics related to that war that he tried to find, there was no trace of them at all.

When he slowly returned to the place where the tail wreckage was dug out yesterday, Wei Ran frowned. Although he did not have the terrifying memory ability of Korava.But I noticed at a glance, a series of footprints extending from the direction of the Volga River to here, and then returning.

He looked at the surrounding environment vigilantly, and then chose the clearest footprint to observe carefully. Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, reached out and took off the dog's barbed wire muzzle and hung it around his waist, and then tightened his grip. Pulling the rope, he cautiously chased after the footprints at a distance of at least three meters.

It can be seen that this series of footprints has a very strong purpose. They came from the direction of the river bank, took a look at the excavation site, and then immediately returned the same way.

Following the footprints to the shore, Wei Ran reached out and picked up three cigarette butts after a careful search.Then he took out his mobile phone, selected a few footprints and took pictures.

Looking at a long scratch on the river bank and the traces that seemed to be pulled out by hand, and finally looking at the series of footprints extending north along the river bank, Wei Ran already had a rough guess in his mind.

According to those footprints, it can be completely analyzed that after they excavated the tail wreckage yesterday, someone came here by boat and went ashore, and then went to see the excavation site.

One of these people seems to have slipped out of the boat when he got on the boat.The other one of them stayed behind and walked towards the north along the river bank.

Isn't that the village to the north where Professor Alexis is going to find clues?

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and after a little hesitation, he simply led the dog and continued to follow the footprints unhurriedly.

However, what he didn't expect was that he didn't go very far, and the string of footprints disappeared, replaced by a tire mark about four fingers wide.

"Motocross"

After Wei Ran made a judgment, he looked at the surrounding situation. This place was already located at the other end of the small forest, which happened to be the edge of the depression.Moreover, under a crooked pine tree not far away, he also saw obvious signs of camping.

He picked up a branch and picked up a stinky sock hanging on the branch of the trunk, and gave it to Beria to smell it. Unfortunately, the latter didn't wait for the stinky sock with a hole to approach, so he shook the hair on his body vigorously. , relying on the swinging traction rope, easily knocked off the socks.

"Except for eating, drinking, and sleeping, you really can't expect anything."

Wei Ran muttered dissatisfiedly, completely extinguished the possibility of this dog being a police dog, dropped the branch in his hand and followed the tire marks step by step.

What made him dumbfounded was that this tire track was extremely cautious, and before leaving the forest, it went around in circles and turned to the northeast.

When he followed the marks and left the forest, he found that there happened to be a road with a lot of ruts outside.

After hesitating for a while, Wei Ran turned and walked towards home, while paying attention to the snow on both sides of the road, looking for possible ruts that might appear again.It's a pity that he didn't find any clues until he dragged the dog back to stand in front of the house.

"Could it be that you have already left by the first ferry this morning?" Wei Ran shook his head secretly, suppressing the doubts in his heart, and pushed open the heavy door.

(End of this chapter)