War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 778
In the not-so-warm garage, under the gaze of Wei Ran, the metal quill wrote lines of text under the black and white photo without haste.

eagle guarding the nest
Felix, on August 1942, 8, during the Battle of Stalingrad, was injured when he forced to land on Goronid Island. The next day, he died at the gun of his friend Niniel.

Niner, on August 1942, 8, parachuted and landed on Goronid Island and was injured. The next day, he shot and killed his friend Felix. On the 23th, he was escorted by the local militia to the rear for recuperation.

After recovering from injury, he rejoined the combat order as a fighter pilot.

Accumulatively participated in the Battle of Kursk, the Second Battle of Minsk, the Battle of Liberating Poland, and the Battle of Berlin.Accumulatively won the Order of the Red Banner, the Second Class Patriotic War Medal, and other medals for defeating Germany.

After World War II, he returned to the Stalingrad Aviation School and continued to serve as a flight instructor.

After retiring in 1972, he settled in Lipetsk with his wife Sasha. On July 1984, 7, he died in a dream.

Sasha married Niner after the end of World War II. They had a daughter in 1946 and died of illness in the winter of the same year. In 1950, Sasha gave birth to a son named Felix Nignernovich Bondu.

On August 1984, 8, Sasha died of grief, and the two were buried together in the Lipetsk Cemetery.

Felix Ninelnovich Bondu, the son of Ninel and Sasha, was a fighter pilot. After retiring due to physical reasons in 1971, he devoted himself to formula racing and achieved excellent results many times.

In 1987, he passed away unexpectedly due to a track accident, leaving behind a son.

Neva, the adopted son of Niner, worked as an aviation mechanic when he was an adult. In 1972, at the invitation of Felix, he joined the motorsports as a mechanic and assisted Felix to achieve excellent results many times.

After Felix passed away unexpectedly in 1987, Neva returned to Golonid Island to settle down and raised Felix's son to adulthood. In the autumn of 2014, he passed away on Golonid Island.

As I write this, the metal quill, as always, lists the various medals and corresponding numbers that Ninel has won.Then another line was added, listing two extremely detailed addresses and their corresponding coordinates.

After a brief pause, the metal quill reads in a separate line, "I am an eagle over Stalingrad, an eagle that will do anything to protect its nest."

Is that the end?
Wei Ran sighed to himself, watched the metal book turn a page, and watched the metal quill casually write under the red swirl, "I hope we will never meet in the air, I hope we are Friends forever in the sky."

It wasn't until the metal quill fell on the paper that Wei Ran reached into the red vortex and took out the ups and downs inside.

Looking at the stainless steel paratrooper gravity knife with a wooden handle lying quietly in his palm, he couldn't help but smile. The two sides of the handle of this paratrooper knife were also inlaid with a line of Gothic script with gold wire.The only difference is that one side is in Russian and the other side is in German.

"Let the friendship from the sky continue on the ground." Wei Ran paused, changed to Russian and continued to read, "Let the hatred from the ground go to the sky to resolve it."

Gently flicking the handle of the knife to eject the blade, Wei Ran touched the sharp edge, and sent it directly back to the red swirl on the page, and turned the metal book one page forward, and wrote the two addresses recorded on it and The coordinates were copied down.

Of these two addresses, one is only in Lipetsk, and the other is located in the center of Volgograd today. Even just looking at the address, Wei Ran can be sure that this location is also located on the edge of Mamayev Gang. And the straight-line distance from my aunt's travel agency shouldn't be too far.

After taking a breath and smelling the strong alcohol smell remaining in his mouth, Wei Ran finally gave up the urge to go over and have a look.

It didn't take too long to enter the historical fragment this time, but it was considered to have seen most of Ninel's life.And the other party's sentence "Her name is the Fearless Stalingrader" also sort of untied Wei Ran's long-standing knot.

Waving his hand to put away the metal notebook that completed the task, Wei Ran got up unsteadily, left the garage and returned to the wooden house next door to sleep with his head covered.

When he was woken up by the sound of car horns outside the window, snowflakes had already fallen outside the window again.

Ruslan who opened the window and stood at the door waved his hand. Wei Ran yawned and got up from the bed, and went downstairs while wearing his coat. By the way, he dug out the gift he gave to the professor—the portable alcohol detector Instrument, blow hard a few times.

Satisfied with the value he had blown out, Wei Ran opened the thick wooden door.

"Mr. Victor, it seems that I interrupted your rest again?" Ruslan smiled and stretched out his hand towards Wei Ran.

"It's okay, you came just in time."

Wei Ran shook hands with the other party, glanced at the trailer parked behind the other party and the staff standing beside the car, and asked with a smile, "Come in and have a cup of coffee first, or load the plane first."

"If you can, load the car first!"

Ruslan said straightforwardly, "We rented the trailer, and they need to charge by the hour, and they dare to take the last ferry back."

"Let's go, I'll take you there." Wei Ran beckoned and led him to the garage door and opened the locked iron door.

Naturally, he didn't need to do the next thing himself, and that Ruslan from the museum also had the rare seriousness and carefulness of the Maozi. Not only did he take photos of each item carefully and register the number throughout the process, he even asked Wei Ran to check them one by one. signed.

"Take this Gravity Knife too."

Wei Ran also gave him the New Year's gift that Professor Alexei gave him, "They are together, so I don't think they should be separated."

"We'll keep them safe"

Ruslan, wearing cotton gloves, took the gravity knife with both hands, carefully put it into a sealed bag and marked it, and then put it together with the TT33 pistol and P38 pistol into a lockable In an aluminum alloy case.

The interview time was confirmed with the other party again. Wei Ran watched the other party take the wreckage of the plane to the direction of the pier under the crushed snow. Behind the car was another van that was a station wagon.

"Victor, I just saw the wreckage of that plane being taken away?" Professor Alexis, who had just greeted Ruslan when they met the car, asked Wei Ran to check before he got out of the car completely. Follow everything you see.

"right"

Wei Ran nodded, and replied as a matter of course, "Even the New Year's gift you gave me was taken away by the other party, so my good uncle, you may have to give me another gift."

"I am even my daughter"

"Forget it, I didn't say anything just now!" Wei Ran resolutely confessed, pretending that he didn't notice the white eyes of the aunt in the car.

Professor Alexey shook the phone proudly, "I'm lucky today, I found some valuable clues."

"What clue?" Wei Ran asked curiously following the other party's topic, and by the way helped Sui Sui and others in the other car to carry down two big geese with their mouths tied.

"On August 1942, 8, a German fighter plane crashed in the village next to us."

Professor Alexey showed off as he walked into the room, "This is a record I found in the museum in that town. The crash caused a lot of casualties to that village. I have reason to believe that, But the one that crashed was most likely the one that Ruslan just took away from the workshop."

"A German fighter plane that crashed and caused great damage to the village can still maintain such a complete outline?" Wei Ran asked suspiciously, "And is there anyone trying to repair it?"

"Forehead"

Professor Alexey put away his mobile phone and said confidently, "I haven't figured out this question yet, but this is a clue worth digging deeper, isn't it?"

"Yes yes yes" Wei Ran stood at the door and responded perfunctorily, then turned to Sui Sui and asked, "Will you kill it or not?"

"kill"

Rolling up her arms and sleeves, Sui Sui greeted Kajianka sisters for help, and took out a large Chinese-style cast iron black pot from the carriage, and at the same time did not forget to answer, "I have compared several recipes for stewing big goose in an iron pot at night. Let’s just do the most troublesome one, it’s definitely better than the stinky and tasteless Christmas goose.”

"Are you sure you can make it according to the recipe?" Zhou Shujin asked with great interest.

"Of course I'm sure!"

After Sui Sui finished speaking, she looked at the Katenka sisters who were eager to try, "As long as you arrange some jobs for the two of them that don't need to be close to the kitchen."

"It's a pity that these two girls are so good-looking, and they all traded for their cooking skills."

Zhou Shujin blatantly joked in Chinese with a smile, and arranged for the two girls a job of peeling garlic that was not necessary.

The activity of stewing big goose in an iron pot in full swing has aroused the interest of almost everyone. From boiling water to plucking hair, to moving bricks and building a stove, to starting a fire and burning oil, it is a joy to add firewood and fire.

Of course, the only one who couldn't participate was Professor Alexey who was still looking at the screen of the tablet, thinking about whether to use it or not, and how to make up a historical story.

Even when the old guy was blocked in his thinking, he cheerfully switched to the online shopping platform and picked up the search results for the keyword "dress for interview".

As it was getting dark, there were two large plates of stewed goose in an iron pot on the big round table. On each plate, there was even a oily picture scroll and a golden cornmeal pancake.

"Tomorrow I'm going back to the travel agency"

During the dinner, Zhou Shujin asked with a glass of low-alcohol sparkling wine to go with the meal, "I planned to leave this afternoon, but obviously I couldn't catch the last ferry, so which one of you will go back to the city with me tomorrow?"

"I won't go back"

Professor Alexey said, "Mr. Alexander and I took a week off to concentrate on investigating the plane on this island. Victor, you must also stay, right?"

"I'll forget it"

Wei Ran took a sip of the cold sparkling wine, "I'm going back to the city and going to the museum to see if there are any clues."

"You want to go back to the city?" Professor Alexis snorted dissatisfiedly, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Let's go back to the city too!"

Sui Sui, holding a big goose wing in her hand, raised her head and said with a smile, "I'll say it first, we will be in the city for the next few days."

"Are you going back too?" Alexei widened his eyes, "So I'm the only one staying?"

"We have business to do"

Sui Sui rolled her eyes, "Besides, we will stay and help you figure out how to hide the fact of drinking secretly."

"You will go back with me tomorrow too." Zhou Shujin made a decision for Professor Alexei without a doubt.

(End of this chapter)