War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 774 The name is the fearless Stalingrad man
At dusk, the cabins on the edge of Goronid Island also fell into darkness.

For the blind girl Sasha, the lamps for lighting are obviously the least important thing in her life.

This girl who had long been accustomed to the darkness and had never seen the light, after a not-so-pleasant dinner, held on to the handrail of the stairs leading to the attic with one hand, and hugged little Neva who was already asleep on her shoulder with the other. Fumbling, she climbed up to her room in the attic, and by the way, locked the wooden door leading to the attic.

At the stairs, a dog named Neva stretched his body, blocking the way to the upstairs. With dark eyes, he also looked warily at the two pilots standing side by side at the door.It was as if they were all looking up at the sky that was dyed red by dusk and blackened by gunpowder smoke, and the fireballs that exploded after the collision of the barrage splashed by the anti-aircraft guns and the planes.

"That's a Junker 88"

Felix said hoarsely, "It's a very beautiful bomber. It's also very easy to drive and maneuverable. It's far more comfortable than the trainer planes we've flown. Especially its brakes are very impressive. , it was a joy to land with it."

"Have you ever driven?" Ninel asked in a low voice, almost to himself.

"drove"

Felix also responded in a low voice, followed by a panicked explanation, "It's in Poland, I just recently joined the Eighth Battalion of the Romanian Servant Army"

"It's ok"

Ninel shook his head, squinted his eyes and watched the sunset that was about to recede, looked at the seemingly endless planes in the sky, and the smoke puffs blasted by dense anti-aircraft guns, and comforted him in a raving manner, "It's okay, I don't blame you the meaning of."

"Ninelle I'm sorry"

Felix said with a trembling tone, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have participated in this war, I was worried when I was flying the plane into Poland, I..."

"Isn't this what we expected a long time ago?"

Ninel forced a smile on his face and interrupted Felix's words, "The best situation we expected was that everyone was driving an A35 postal plane to be a postman. But since the day the war started, I'm ready to meet you in the air."

"Let the friendship from the sky continue on the ground," Felix muttered to himself.

"Let the hatred from the ground go to the sky to resolve it," Niner, who was holding a German cigarette in his hand, also muttered, but the expression on his face was extraordinarily complicated at this time.

"It's not as easy as we thought at the time." Felix sighed. "The war is far more cruel than we thought."

"You are just a soldier, and your only choice is to obey orders." Ninel's tone became more and more erratic.

"What about you?" Felix, who was also looking at the battlefield in the air, asked back.

"I?"

Ninel smiled bleakly, "I, Mr. Noble, I'm just a Stalingrader, an ordinary person who must defend his hometown."

"My wife was taken away," Felix said abruptly.

"Why?" Ninel responded immediately after asking, "Because she is a Jew?"

Felix nodded with difficulty, "She, and our child, were taken away, by those damn leash dogs more than a year ago, and I haven't seen them since then"

"them."

"I do not know"

Felix shook his head helplessly and blankly, and the expression on his face became more ferocious as he spoke, "I don't know, I don't know where they were sent, whether they are still alive, let alone where they should go. Where can I find them, even me... I dare not publicly express my miss for them, dare not hide a photo of them, I am a coward, a coward who drives a fighter jet and invades a friend's house!"

"It would have been better if there hadn't been this war"

Ninel sighed, but didn't say anything else, just silently watching the planes in the sky, watching them being shot down, watching them either explode in mid-air, or drag the thick clouds dyed red by the setting sun. The smoke pierced towards the cities on the surface like moths to a flame.

Inside the room, Wei Ran, who finished clearing the dining table, silently took out the Rollei SLR from the metal book, took the door frame as the photo frame, and took the air battle under the setting sun as the background, and quietly photographed the two melancholy and contradictory friendships against the light silhouette.

Outside the room, the battle between the enemy and the enemy continued for a long time under the setting sun. The sound of artillery near and far almost never stopped, and the explosions from the opposite bank were also particularly clear and dense.

In the attic window facing the Volga River, Sasha was gently shaking the birch hammock on which the baby Neva was lying, while worryingly singing the song Katyusha, which brought infinite courage and fighting spirit to the Soviets.

At the same time, her big dull eyes were always looking towards the distant Volgograd on the opposite bank, trying to find even a trace of news about her sister Lana amidst the rumbling gunfire and explosions.

Under the window, Ninel also sat down against the log wall at an unknown time, and sang the Katyusha with a hoarse voice that seemed to have a magical power to comfort people.

After a long time, the little Neva lay in a small hammock and fell asleep. The Katyusha also stopped one after another. Only the competition in the night sky continued under the command of the searchlight. The explosions, flames, and gunpowder on the other side still did not stop, and only Felix was left, standing at the door weakly watching the fleeting fires in the night sky.

That night, Wei Ran was the only person sleeping on the only big bed on the first floor of the wooden house, while Felix and Ninel sat on the steps of the door from the beginning to the end, talking in low voices, or talking about nothing at all. .

In the blink of an eye, the next morning, four people, including Wei Ran, sat around the dining table again. This breakfast was no different from last night's dinner, except that there was less fish and more people. Just a boiled potato.

"Sasha, this is for you."

After breakfast, Felix took the only gold ring from his hand and put it on the hand of the blind girl Sasha, "Sell it, it might make your life better for some money."

"Is this a ring?" Sasha touched the metal ring in his hand, "I can't take it, it must belong to you and your wife"

"I think I've run out of use for it."

Felix took a deep breath without waiting for Sasha to finish speaking, picked up the TT33 pistol on the windowsill and pushed it to Ninel who was sitting opposite, and said calmly, "Niniel, let's find a place to talk alone. Let's talk."

Hearing this, Ninel took a deep breath, stretched out his trembling hand and pressed it on the pistol with padding, nodded weakly, and responded with a difficult "yes".

"How about waiting a moment?"

Wei Ran stood up while speaking, walked to the head of the bed, lifted the pillow stuffed with straw, and took out a Rollei SLR camera under the cover of his body, "Before that, let me take a picture for you How about a photo, for...to commemorate your friendship?"

Ninel and Felix glanced at each other, each with a look of relief on their faces, they didn't ask about the origin of the camera at all, they just nodded in tacit agreement.

"Sasha, can we borrow your brother-in-law's clothes to wear?" While speaking, Ninere also took off his wedding ring, and put it on the table in front of Sasha silently.

"Yes, of course"

Sasha immediately said, "His clothes are in the wooden box under the bed. My sister has never been willing to throw them away, but you can only borrow them to take pictures. Those clothes are the only ones my brother-in-law left for my sister." Relic."

"We were just taking pictures"

While speaking, Ninel had already walked to the side of the bed, bent down and pulled out a wooden box from under the bed, inside were several sets of coarse cloth clothes that were neatly folded after washing.

"Originally there was a set of my brother-in-law's Red Army uniform in there," Sasha said proudly, "but it was worn by my sister to fight in the city."

"I believe that she will wear that uniform and come back with the news of victory." Niel said with a forced smile.

"She will definitely come back!" Sasha clenched her fists with great confidence, her big dull eyes seemed to have a strange brilliance.

Ninel, Felix and Wei Ran exchanged glances, finally sighed silently, and put on the coarse cloth clothes that were a little too big for him.

"I'll forget it"

Felix looked at the set of clothes on the bed, symbolically tightened the parachute cloth wrapped around his body, "That's it, I'm going to be this way, it's fine."

"so be it"

At this moment, Ninel seemed not to want the clean coarse clothes to be worn by his good friend.

Under the command of Wei Ran, the pilot Niniel, who put on civilian clothes, and the German pilot Felix, who was only wrapped in a white parachute, supported each other, walked to the door with difficulty, and sat down facing the rising sun. , leaning his back against the log wall.

"Have a cigarette"

Niel opened the silver cigarette case that was found from Felix yesterday, took out the remaining three cigarettes, and distributed them to Wei Ran and Felix, then took out a lighter, Help the two of them go up one by one.

"Niniel, I'm going back soon, I want to know, what kind of plane do you want to fly in the future?" Felix leaned his back covered with burns and scalds against the rough log wall, smoking a cigarette and looking relieved. asked coolly.

"Post machine, the fastest post machine!"

Ninel also leaned his back against the log wall, took a deep breath, and said loudly in a more determined tone, "But if there is a war in my country, I will fly a fighter jet, even if it is the slowest flying, The fighter with the worst firepower!"

After a short pause, Ninel had a hearty smile on his face and asked loudly, "What about you? My noble friend Felix? What kind of plane do you want to fly after you return home?"

"Post machine! The fastest post machine! I want to be the fastest postman! Faster postman than you!"

Tears welled up in the corners of Felix's eyes, and he said loudly in a resolute tone, "But if there is a war in my country, I will still fly a fighter, even if it is the slowest flying fighter with the worst firepower!"

"I hope we will never meet in the air!" Ninel showed a big smile on his face, and at the same time stretched out his hand towards Felix.

"Hope we are forever friends in the sky!"

Felix, also with a big smile, stretched out his hand and took the former's hand firmly.At the same time, Wei Ran was allowed to freeze this fleeting moment with the film.

"My friend, you still have." Ninere said halfway, but he choked up without warning, and asked with difficulty, "Do you have any last wishes?"

"Niel"

Felix patted the former's shoulder hard, stood up with difficulty while leaning on the wall, and said with a smile as he walked to the edge of the forest in the distance, "Before I returned to China, you said that when I came next time, I would send I have a set of nesting dolls that you made by yourself.

My friend, I'm sorry that our meeting again is in heaven.I'm sorry I didn't bring the gift my friend should bring.If you'll forgive my faux pas, a poor boy pretending to be aristocrat, send me a set of nesting dolls after the war.I want red, red like Goethe's lantern. "

Ninel rubbed his face vigorously, tremblingly picked up the TT33 pistol at hand, and took a piece of white umbrella cloth that was cleaned yesterday, refused Wei Ran's support, and limped to catch up with Yue Yue Far Felix.

Behind the two of them, Wei Ran pressed the extremely heavy shutter button again.Once again, the backs of the two of them were imprinted on the film.

"Is Felix a German?" Sasha held the shotgun in one hand, groped to the door, and asked tremblingly in Wei Ran's weak sigh.

"You know?" Wei Ran asked ambiguously.

"Comrade Victor, I'm just blind, not stupid."

While Sasha was speaking, he took out a shotgun bullet from the pocket of his apron and stuffed it into the chamber, and then closed the chamber with a click, "My parents were killed by the bombs dropped by the Germans. .

My two younger brothers, and my sister's first child, were all killed by bombs dropped by the Germans. "

Sasha, who had already raised his gun, trembled more and more, "My brother-in-law, he died in Kyiv last year, and it was also a good thing for the Germans! There are also many people in the village, including my sister, who went to the other side I have had no news of them for nearly three months, and no one knows if they are dead or alive."

"Bang!" The clear gunshot interrupted what Sasha wanted to say.

"Sasha"

Wei Ran stretched out his hand and gently pressed down Sasha's raised shotgun, looked at Felix who fell on his back not far away, and Ninel who dropped his pistol and knelt on the ground, and said in a tired tone, "Just now , the German pilot Felix von Goethe is dead. Comrade Niner, a fighter pilot of the 102th Regiment of the 439nd Division of the Soviet Red Army Air Defense Fighter Aviation, killed the German fighter pilot Felix von Goethe with his own hands."

Taking a deep breath with extra difficulty, Wei Ran said again, "Niel, killed his good friend Felix with his own hands."

Hearing this, Sasha slowly relaxed the muzzle of the draw, and slowly sat down on the floor at the door, holding the shotgun in his arms, weeping and crying, but trying not to let himself make any sound.

"Sasha, yes, can you lend me that stove that was converted from an oil drum?"

Ninel, with red eyes, limped back, "I need a coffin."

"take it"

Sasha wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes in a panic, stood up with a shotgun and said, "There is an oil barrel in the storage room, that oil barrel is better, it is used by my sister to smoke fish, it can be sealed Very strict."

"Thank you, Sasha, thank you."

While speaking, Ninel emptied the TT33 pistol in his hand, reloaded the bullet in the magazine, and then stuffed it into Sasha's hand, "I will give you this gun, it is better than yours. Shotguns are more convenient to use, do you know how to use them?"

"Really. Can you give me it?" Sasha clenched the pistol handed over by the other party. "I know how to use it. My sister taught me."

"Send it to you"

Ninel waved his hand wearily, and after realizing that Sasha couldn't see at all, he limped straight to the storage room next to the wooden house.

Declining Wei Ran's help, Ninel moved out the dusty 200-liter iron bucket from the storage room by himself, fetched another bucket of water by himself, and carefully cleaned the oily smoke accumulated inside with a brush.

"Let me do it myself"

Neil ignored the blood oozing from the wound on his thigh, took the shovel found by Wei Ran and pestered it, pushed the cleaned iron bucket alone, and walked to Felix in the distance, silently in an open space next to him Digging graves for friends.

"Did I do something wrong?" Sasha, who was clutching the TT33 pistol tightly, asked uneasily after hearing Wei Ran's footsteps.

"you are right"

Wei Ran, who had just taken another photo of Ninel, sighed, and shot the shutter again at Sasha, who held a gun in his hand but had tears in his eyes, "The one who started this war is at fault. They would have been very good friends without this war. But because of this war, Ninel had to kill Felix."

"why."

"Maybe it's because they are all soldiers, and they are all qualified soldiers," Wei Ran muttered to himself.

"Why is there a war?" Sasha rubbed the TT33 pistol in his hand blankly, trying to think clearly about this question that she should not be thinking about.

"Yes." Wei Ran looked at the pilot who was busy alone in the distance, "Why is there a war? It would be nice if there was no war."

"Victor, will this war continue?" Sasha asked a little at a loss, "Even if you want to kill your friends?"

"As long as the war continues, even if you want to kill your friends." Wei Ran took a deep breath and answered this question with difficulty.

Sasha clenched his fists subconsciously, "We will definitely win this war, right?"

"Correct!"

Wei Ran responded to this question with a very positive tone, "We will definitely defeat those magic suckers in the end, and we will definitely find out the bastards who started the war!"

"I don't know if my sister was still alive at that time"

Sasha sighed, fumbled to return the bullet in the shotgun, then fumbled back to the room, stepped on the creaking wooden stairs, and returned to her room in the attic without making a sound.

A moment later, from the small window in the attic, the gentle yet strong Katyusha came out again.

I don't know how long it took, and Ninel, who was not far away, wrapped his good friend Felix tightly with a white parachute cloth, carefully sent him into the iron bucket and closed the lid, and moved into it little by little. In the dug grave.

With shovel after shovel of soil covering it again, in this forest that no one cares about, there is also a small grave that no one cares about.

Under the watchful eye of Wei Ran, Ninel took out the paratrooper gravity knife that belonged to Felix from his pocket, and carved an epitaph that Wei Ran was very familiar with on the birch tree next to the small grave: here Buried is an adversary worthy of respect and an enemy who must be shot down.

"Aren't you friends?" Wei Ran couldn't help asking.

"Yes"

Ninel pulled a bleak smile with difficulty, picked up the shovel again, and replied as he limped towards the direction of the wooden house, "But friendship is enough to keep in your heart. Before the end of the war, he first The enemy of the Soviet Union, the enemy of Stalingrad, and then my friend."

"I also have a friend." Wei Ran who was following behind couldn't help looking towards the direction of the other side of the river, "She's in the city."

"Her? Your girlfriend?" Ninel looked back at Wei Ran.

"No"

Wei Ran also shook his head sadly and regretfully, "She is a hero, a hero no one knows. I don't even know her name, but she saved my life, use... her life."

Ninel was stunned for a moment, then stopped and patted Wei Ran's shoulder, "I know, I know her name, does everyone know her name?"

"You know?" Wei Ran looked at the other party in surprise, "Everyone knows?"

"Of course I know!"

Ninel's tone seemed to be filled with infinite motivation and confidence in an instant, and he said with extra certainty and taking it for granted, "Her name is the Fearless Stalingrader!"

"Fearless Stalingraders?"

Wei Ran wiped the corners of his eyes, and nodded with relief, "Yes! Her name is the Fearless Stalingrader!"

(End of this chapter)