War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 8 The basement guarded by the firefighters
The afternoon sun was covered by the smog rising from Stalingrad, and even the sky darkened a bit. In the ruins of a building that collapsed, the three of Wei Ran hid in the gaps of the collapsed ruins. In the hole, I secretly watched the German tanks rumbling past a few meters away and the infantry behind the tanks.

"let's go"

Lieutenant Lev finished speaking in a low voice, carefully lifted the blanket covering his head, and crawled cautiously along the collapsed ruins towards another building in the distance.

As the distance got closer, Wei Ran's heart jumped into his throat, because the two tanks that had just passed by them stopped not far away and were heading towards a certain place in the city. They were firing from different directions, and behind the two tanks, there was also a group of German infantry who raised their guns and fired from time to time.
"boom!"

A shell almost flew over the edge of the turret of one of the tanks, and slammed hard near the crack where they were hiding before. The collapsed ruins stirred up a lot of smoke and dust, and the German soldiers who followed the tank and Wei Ransan Everyone was taken aback.

Lieutenant Lev, who was at the front, breathed a sigh of relief, speeded up, led the two behind him forward for tens of meters, and then rolled into a trench full of corpses of Soviet soldiers.

"Stop aiming, hurry up and go."

Wei Ran stretched out his hand and pressed down the rifle that Oleg was just about to raise, urging in a low voice, this kid is looking for death, the distance between them and the German soldiers with their backs facing them is less than [-] meters in a straight line, what a shot No one can run away.

The three of them walked along the trench, bent over and moved forward quickly. Occasionally, a tank drove over, and they immediately lay down on the pile of corpses and pretended to be dead. The head is all over the face.But they didn't dare to move at all, because the German soldiers who followed the tanks also jumped over the trenches and rushed to the front line one by one.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, until there was no more movement above his head, Lieutenant Lev stood up carefully and took a look, then called Wei Ran and the two to move on.

Under the cover of this trench, the three of them finally got into a three-story building with dense bomb craters on the wall without any risk.However, just as the lead Lieutenant Lev passed through the damage on the wall, a submachine gun hit his head from the side.

Lieutenant Lev froze, and slowly raised his hands, and before Wei Ran and Oleg behind him raised their guns, they were pointed at by another man wrapped in a cloak.

"Come in," one of them whispered.

Lieutenant Lev glanced at the fireman's uniform on the opponent, finally let go of the submachine gun in his hand, and took a few steps forward to make way for the two behind him.

"Uncle Gorshi! Are you still alive?" Oleg suddenly exclaimed.

"Oleg? Are you alive too?" The middle-aged man who had pointed a gun at Lieutenant Lev responded in surprise, "Where's your father?"

"He died more than a month ago." Oleg, who suddenly met an acquaintance, already had a crying tone in his tone. After all, he was just a fifteen or sixteen-year-old child.

"Put your hands down"

The middle-aged man called Gorshi by Oleg held Oleg in his arms, and at the same time said flatly to Lieutenant Lev and Wei Ran.

Wei Ran's tense nerves finally relaxed along with his drooping hands, but at this moment the scene fell into a strange silence.

"Gorshi, let's go back first." Another person said hoarsely.

Gorshi nodded, but he didn't let go of Oleg's hand from the beginning to the end. He just walked forward and said, "Come with me, this building is safe for the time being."

Under the leadership of Gorshi, a group of five people walked to the stairwell before stopping. Wei Ran looked up and saw that the stairs leading to the upstairs had completely collapsed, leaving only a finger-thick rope Hanging quietly in the air.

But before his hand touched the rope, he was stopped by the man with a hoarse voice, "Don't touch that rope, there is a grenade tied to the other end."

Wei Ran quickly withdrew his hand when he heard the words, and at the same time, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.The Gorshi, on the other hand, lifted a dusty door panel from the floor to reveal a round manhole cover.

The man with a hoarse voice tapped the manhole cover lightly with the muzzle of his gun. After a while, the manhole cover was pushed away from the inside, revealing the dark wellhead.

"Come in!" Gorshi hadn't finished speaking, and Oleg was the first to get in along the ladder on the edge of the wellhead.

Lieutenant Lev hesitated for a moment, then climbed down the ladder.Wei Ran, who stayed at the end, naturally had no choice but to keep up honestly.After Gorshi got in, the manhole cover above his head was also covered again by the door panel, leaving only a gap less than ten centimeters high that seemed to be filled with bricks on both sides of the door panel.

Under the dark wellhead, as an oil lamp was lit in front of it, everyone finally saw the structure here clearly.

It is unimaginable that the space under the well mouth is unexpectedly spacious, and what surprised them even more is that there are at least seven or eight children who are not more than eight or nine years old and several children wrapped in clothes. wounded in bandages.

And among these quiet children and the wounded, there is a young woman who is constantly busy.

"This used to be the basement of the fire station. That beautiful lady is nurse Yuna. We rescued her and the wounded from the trenches outside."

Gorshi pointed to the man with a hoarse voice who came down with him, "He is Valery, and like me, he used to work here as a firefighter. The other one with the oil lamp is an electrician nearby." Sergey, now tell me about you, how did you come here with Oleg?"

"Uncle Gorshi, let me tell you."

With some excitement, Oleg first introduced the identities of Lieutenant Lev and Wei Ran, and then talked about what happened in his home and the tasks they were about to complete.

Gorshi frowned when he heard the words, and motioned for everyone to follow him to the innermost side of the basement, sat down against the wall and said in a low voice, "I know the artillery position you mentioned, the Germans placed several cannons there , and there are tanks around for protection, but with just the three of you, there is nothing you can do even in the past.”

Lieutenant Lev frowned upon hearing this, "How far is it from here?"

“Less than two kilometers”

Gorshi pointed to the top of his head, "Before the building was blown to only three floors, when the weather was good, you could even see the position clearly from the top of the building, but since the Germans found us here After the artillery spotters, the building became what it is now."

"Comrade Lieutenant, maybe I have a solution." A weak voice came from not far away, and then a wounded man with a bandage on his chest sat up with the help of the nurse.

"What way?" Lieutenant Lev hurriedly asked.

(End of this chapter)