War Photographer's Notebook

In the glaring white light, Wei Ran, who already had a premonition that the matter was not over, patiently waited to recover his vision, and at the same time secretly analyzed the current situation.

However, even though he had been prepared for a long time, when his vision recovered and he saw everything in front of him again, he still subconsciously rubbed his eyes.

Looking around again, he became more and more sure that he was indeed in a four-wheeled carriage with a canvas shed. There were several square hay bales in this carriage, and there were several hay bales on two of them. A thick blanket.

Looking forward along the car body, although he could only see the back of the coachman, he could still recognize him. The man seemed to be the farmer De Winter.

Habitually, he looked down at his attire. Inside the black woolen coat was a set of brown overalls and a knitted sweater. On his feet were a pair of well-made leather boots. However, he was wearing a fake American style dress around his neck. Goggles, and US military pilot gloves on his hands.

He touched the top of his head subconsciously. Fortunately, he was not wearing that outdated flying leather cap, but even so, this warm attire was absolutely nondescript.

He took off his gloves and looked at the missing index finger of his right hand. The wound that had healed up allowed him to immediately figure out his side—now he was a German who escaped the war by a narrow margin.

Before he could open the suitcase at his feet to see what was inside, the farmer De Winter had already yelled at the two docile black draft horses to stop.

Immediately afterwards, a woman who was also wearing a woolen trench coat but exposed the hem of her skirt and black pointed leather shoes, wearing a top hat and a scarf on her head nimbly got into the carriage with a small bag.

"Qiqi!" Wei Ran recognized her immediately after the woman took off the scarf. Although he hadn't figured out what time it was, it was definitely good news that the girl was still alive.

"Victor!"

Qiqi immediately sent a warm hug, and then said excitedly, "I heard Uta and Boyi said that you are working in a clinic in Mons now? So you are a doctor now?"

"Ah...ah yes!"

Wei Ran waited for the girl to sit firmly on the hay bales, and simply followed the topic, "It seems normal to have a job after all. What about you? How have you been during this time?"

"I joined the G Group"

Qiqi lowered her voice, and said close to Wei Ran's ear, "Now I am their liaison officer in Aachen, and I am responsible for contacting Sophie."

"Where's Sophie?" Wei Ran asked, "How is she doing now?"

"not bad"

Qiqi picked up a grass root and held it in her mouth and explained, "Sophie successfully returned to the Ruhr industry area and met Dominique's parents
In Dingyou Xiaotuya District, Brother Naiqi arrived at Zhao Xima, who couldn't bear to die. "

Speaking of this, Qiqi sighed, and then continued, "However, Dominic's father is currently under surveillance, or in other words, many engineers similar to him are under surveillance. It may not be an easy task to bring them here. "At least they are still alive, which is good news." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, a young man had already thrown a bulging canvas bag into the car. At the same time, he stretched out his hand into the car and shouted, "Victor, give me a hand!"

It's Dominica!
Wei Ran recognized the other party immediately, and subconsciously reached out to hold the other party's hand, and easily dragged the young man into the car.

"Sister Qiqi!"

It wasn't until he stood firmly in the car that Dominic recognized Qiqi who was sitting in the innermost place, and immediately cheered and hugged her.

"Long time no see Dominic." Qiqi greeted happily, "How are you and Nadia's injuries?"

"Morning, early!"

Dominique answered this question with a little embarrassment, but the annoyance in that tone could be heard even by a man.

Of course, from the way they got into the car just now, they can also see that this poor guy has completely got rid of the pain in his crotch.
Tortured.

"Be happy, I brought you a good thing." Qiqi had already pulled her bag over while speaking.

"What good stuff?"

As Dominic said, he still pointed to the canvas bag that had just been thrown into the car, "Victor, I have bought all the things you asked me to buy for you, and they are all in that bag, as well as our breakfast. inside."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately opened the canvas bag, reached out and took out some hot bread wrapped in newspaper, and a few sausages wrapped in newspaper.

In addition, this bag actually contained a few cans of U.S. military soul meat, and a few cans of German pork, plus some common seasonings, a big mouthful of bacon, and a bottle of Belgian wine.

By the way, I glanced at the news on the newspaper wrapped in bacon. It published news about the Battle of Ardennes. I turned the bacon to find the time of publication. It was already February 1945, 2.

"Dominique, what date is it today?" Wei Ran asked while throwing the bacon into the bag.

"Number 3?" Dominique asked back uncertainly.

"The 4th, February 2th."

Qiqi gave a more accurate answer, and at the same time pulled out three bulging folders from her bag with difficulty and handed them to Dominic Yuan.

"What is this?" Dominic asked puzzled.

"Your father asked us to hand this over to you." Before Qiqi finished speaking, Dominic's face revealed surprise, "My father..."

"They haven't been able to come yet"

Qiqi tapped the folder in the other party's hand with regret, "We took a lot of effort and took a lot of risks to get these things out. Dominique, you have to protect them. "

"What is this?"

While Dominic was talking, he had already opened one of the folders, and right after that, Wei Ran who was sitting next to him saw that the folder contained folded blueprints one by one!
"It is said to be a blueprint of a castle"

Qiqi spread her hands, "It seems to be a gift for Uncle Lets. Speaking of this, have you found any clues about Uncle Lets?"

"No"

Dominic shook his head in disappointment, "Dr. Water tried to find a way to find an American to ask about the fort where Uncle Letts worked. It is said that the fort has been conquered long ago. The specific time is probably when we The next day after the escape, all the soldiers who were still alive in the fort also surrendered after that and were sent to prisoner-of-war camps.”

No word from Captain Letts?Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, and continued to collect useful information from the conversation between the two parties without compromising.

"Ok…"

Qiqi sighed, and turned to ask with a trace of complaint, "Don't talk about this, why didn't you reply every time I gave you power panels before?"

"Victor is going to work in the clinic"

Dominic spread his hands innocently, "Although he taught me and Nadia how to operate the radio, even if Nadia and I were together, we couldn't remember the sound of ticking at all."

Seeing Qiqi looking at him sadly, Wei Ran, who was cutting bread with a gravity knife, spread his hands imitating Dominique, weaving a natural excuse along the topic, "I can't watch the radio every day, and don't I know who sent the telegram, let alone the content of the telegram, and I don’t know what to reply even if I want to.”

"It can't be the telegram sent to you by that American"

Qiqi muttered something, took a bite of the sliced ​​sausage with bread clips from Wei Ran, took the initiative to change the subject and asked, "Let's not talk about this, why do you want to go back to the castle this time?"

"It's an invitation from American Timov"

Dominic took the breakfast delivered by Wei Ran and hurriedly replied, "He sent a telegram, hoping that we can help find Buck's body. In addition, we also want to find Horst, Heike, Okan, Bernd, Stefan's body, we want to send them back to the castle for temporary burial there."

"This time the electricity

How did you receive it? "Qiqi rolled her eyes angrily.

"Because when he sent the telegram, Miss G happened to be a guest at our place. She helped record the telegram, and then translated it after Victor came back at night."

Dominique helped answer this question desperately. As for Wei Ran, who took the blame for no reason, he was busy handing the third breakfast to Dewente who was busy driving.

Before he could say anything, De Winter shook the reins, yelled at the carriage to stop, and then he also turned to the carriage and said, "Children, we are going to enter Germany later, remember to bring your Documents ready."

Hearing this, Qiqi and Dominic immediately took out a passport from their respective pockets, and Wei Ran also fumbled in his pocket, and successfully found a French passport, plus a large roll of cash.

I don't know if it was a greeting in advance, or maybe it was because there was no decent inspection at this so-called border at all during the war years. Not only did the three of them not get out of the car, even the prepared documents were not used.

After entering Germany, De Winter also yelled at the carriage again and stopped.This time, it was American soldier Timov who got into the carriage!

Compared with two months ago, Timov's figure was slightly fatter, and he was actually leaning on a crutch that he didn't know where it came from. Obviously, there were some problems with his legs and feet.

However, when Wei Ran and Dominic pulled him into the car, the guy immediately threw the crutch behind the hay bales.

"You are finally here, I have been waiting for you in this ghost place for over an hour."

As Timov said, he opened his backpack, squeezed out a few glass bottles of Coke from inside, and then took out a bottle opener, skillfully opened it, and gave it to everyone, including Uncle Derwent who was driving. Everyone gets a bottle.

"My train is late," Qiqi said apologetically after taking a sip of Coke.

"It's ok"

While speaking, Timov took out three packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes from his bag and handed them to Wei Ran, Qiqi and Mr. De Winter respectively, and asked at the same time, "Is Sophie okay? There are others, everyone Are you okay? Oh, of course, and Mr. Letts, he must have joined you, right?"

The three of Wei Ran looked at each other, and Wei Ran, who knew almost all the truth, chose to shut up again.After a brief silence, Qiqi lit a cigarette with the lighter Timov extended, and then, in the smog, briefly described the tragedy that happened when she was about to cross the border.

"Are they...all three of them dead?"

Timov looked at Qiqi and Dominique with red eyes in astonishment, then at Wei Ran who was silently cutting sausages and bread with a paratrooper knife, and then asked uncertainly, "They...we placed mines Killed?"

"Indeed it is"

Qiqi wiped the corners of her eyes, held up the Coke and touched Timov, "But we don't blame you, this is not something you can decide."

"Feel sorry"

Timov took a sip of Coke and asked again, "Where's Mr. Letts? Have you got in touch with him? I handed him the radio address and half of Aesop's fables."

"What did you say?!" Qiqi and Dominique exclaimed.

"You didn't get in touch?" Timov was stunned, and quickly explained what happened before.

After some communication between the two parties, everyone realized a problem. Captain Letz who was hiding in the castle seemed to be missing!
"Where do we go first?" Timov, who realized the seriousness of the problem, asked first.

"castle!"

Everyone, including Wei Ran, immediately gave a unanimous answer, and even the girl Qiqi got out of the carport and sat side by side with De Winter, taking on the task of guiding the way.

And in Timov's introduction, everyone also learned that the mill and the surrounding area of ​​the castle are now behind the line of fire between the Americans and the Germans, belonging to the rear of the United States, or more precisely, the rear that has not been paid attention to.

Timov's
Lead, they can go there to have a look in the name of helping Timov collect the corpses of his teammates.

Driven by Qiqi's guidance and Mr. De Winter's continuous waving of the whip, the carriage ran along the bumpy dirt road for almost an hour, and then got into a lot of land along an inconspicuous forest logging road. Tegen Forest.

Now, the fighting in this forest is basically over. Even if you can see some German soldiers occasionally, they all lined up with their hands raised, and walked out of the forest silently under the escort of American soldiers.

As the lanes were changed again and again, the surroundings became quieter and quieter. Occasionally, some trenches where corpses were still lying had been covered with a thin layer of snow.

Not only that, even in this dense forest, there are now pieces of glade burned out for various reasons along the way.

Even when their carriage stopped beside the mill in the forest with difficulty, an American flag was planted on the roof of the mill, and a sentence "Take all The French suck silk is stuffed into the mustache's nipples." Such a sentence is a threat with a lot of work.

Before everyone got out of the car, Timov stopped them, reached out and took out two 1911 pistols from his bag and handed them to De Winter and Qiqi respectively, then took out two M3 submachine guns, and put One of them was given to Wei Ran.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Timov shrugged and said as a matter of course, "Take self-defense. There are still some guerrillas hiding in this forest that are not ready to surrender, so it is not particularly safe."

Hearing this, Wei Ran took over the submachine gun and loaded the bullet skillfully, "I'll walk in front, Timov, how about you walk behind?"

"The rangers are responsible for leading the way." Timov took the job of leading the way without hesitation, and was the first to jump out of the carriage and walk towards the mill.

"Is your leg okay?"

Dominic stared blankly at Timov, who was walking steadily, and then looked back at the forgotten crutch. His slightly immature face was already full of doubts.

"I pretended," said Timov, jumping back and forth.

Seeing that Wei Ran and others were waiting for him to explain, Timov just smiled, stepped into the mill full of shit, carefully lifted the floor, and was the first to get into the frozen waterway , and turned on the flashlight by the way.

It wasn't until Wei Ran, who was walking at the end, fastened the floor, that Timov, who was walking in front, explained, "The day after I separated from you, I joined Fort No. [-], which is where Mr. Letts is. The capture of a fortress.

That operation caused me some minor injuries to my legs, but fortunately, a military doctor kindly gave me a certificate that I can take leave until March this year. "

Speaking of this, Timov sighed, "I was lucky enough to hide in the hospital behind, but less than two days later, the Ranger unit I was in was almost canceled for attacking Height 400. "

"You are so lucky..." Wei Ran couldn't help muttering.

"My luck is really good"

Timov patted the cold wall, and said bitterly, "I can only continue to pretend to be lame with unhealed fractures, otherwise, maybe I will be sent to a military court and shot.

And I don't know where to go next. Rather than being a murderous hero, it's better to continue to heal the wound for a while. If I'm lucky enough to survive until the war is completely over, I can take Buck home.Victor, Dominic, can you help me find Buck's body?In fact, I have been looking for almost half a month. "

Seeing Dominique looking at him subconsciously, De Winter, the farmer who was walking in the middle, nodded confidently, "Don't worry, I will definitely find it. I almost guessed which one it was from what you and Nadia described earlier. It's the creek."

"Are you familiar with this forest?" Timov asked in surprise.

"certainly"

De Winter, the farmer, replied naturally, "I grew up outside this forest. If it weren't for the many landmines and crazy Germans, I would have helped you remove those forests two months ago. The poor guy brought it back."

"I'll leave the matter of Buck and those two children to you." Timov thanked gratefully, continued to stoop, and stepped on the thick ice to speed up his pace.

All the way through the waterway without any danger, when the group of them got out of the half-open sluice, they noticed at a glance that there were messy footprints left on the surrounding snow.

Looking at Wei Ran, Timov picked up the submachine gun in no particular order, and alternately covered with Wei Ran, and carefully touched the direction of the stone bridge across the moat.

As the distance got closer, they also gradually noticed that the Americans seemed to have opened up a forest passage obliquely, not only that, but even the dozens of barrels of fuel that they had hidden well seemed to have been pulled away up.

Seeing that everyone except Derwent was looking at him, Timov repeatedly promised, "Don't look at me like that, I didn't do this, I was in the rear hospital before today, and I I swear I didn't tell anyone about this place."

"Let's go see if Uncle Letts is here." Qiqi said before the young and impulsive Dominic could speak.

"Yes, it is more important to find someone first." De Winter also said.

Dominic finally nodded obediently, followed behind Wei Ran, crossed the stone bridge that was blown up in the middle, and once again set foot on the ruins of the once extremely lively castle.

Fortunately, although the fuel stored outside the moat is gone, the inside of the moat has not changed much—except for the lumps of shit left by the unknown poop in the corner of the collapsed church, and the freezing of the walls. Together, solid ice that smells like urine.

They walked into the room on the right side of the icon full of expectations, but everyone found that although everything in the room was still there, it had been ruined. Not only were there a lot of sheep bones discarded on the floor in front of the fireplace, but also various Cigarette butts and wine bottles can be seen almost everywhere, and even on the single bed in the room, there are some cans that have not been opened in time.

The room next door, which originally belonged to Sophie, looked like an aqua toilet that had been ruined. I didn't even know which chrysanthemum was growing on the chest, and there were three big bubbles on the bed like a tribute.

But the only thing is that there are no clues related to Mr. Letts in these two rooms.

"I'll go to the basement to look for it!" Dominic ran out before he finished speaking.

Seeing that Wei Ran and Qiqi were all looking at him, Timov hung the submachine gun in his hand on the door casually, "I'll go with him."

Watching the two go away, Qiqi immediately looked towards the ceiling, while Wei Ran stared at the wooden table with one leg missing.

As for the farmer De Winter, the old fellow was still outside, throwing his neck up and admiring the beautiful bronze holy statue.

With Qiqi's help, Wei Ran carefully stepped on the table with one leg missing, and lightly pushed up the wooden board above his head.Not surprisingly, this mezzanine was not found to be a man-made disaster.

Climbing up to the mezzanine with both hands, he found that on the table next to the wall, the BC1000 radio that had been dismantled into parts had been assembled together, and even connected to the hand generator with wires.

In addition, there are two American oil stoves, and a radiator converted from a gas mask can, plus a set of greasy Dutch ovens.

He opened the heavy cast iron pot lid and glanced in, Wei Ran immediately frowned. In addition to a frozen hard boiled potato, there was also a Sauer 38H gift pistol and a A gear ring!
Look at the single bed in the corner. Although there is no one lying on it, there is a silver-coated cane and a crudely made STG44 assault rifle!

"Qiqi! Come up and have a look!" Wei Ran stretched out his hand towards Qiqi who was looking up at him.

Hearing this, the latter immediately carefully climbed up to the three-legged table against the wall, and let Wei Ran drag her up.

"It's from Uncle Letz!"

Qiqi, holding a flashlight in her hand, exclaimed when she saw the cane, "Why is it here?!"

"It seems that Uncle Letz has indeed been here." Wei Ran frowned and muttered, and at the same time began to wonder where he went.

But when he was staring at these things, Qiqi said abruptly, "Brother Victor, do you still remember the letter I left you with Sophie last time?"

"Remember." Wei Ran nodded subconsciously.

"I have something important to tell you"

Kneeling on the floor, Qiqi took a deep breath, looked at Wei Ran through the beam of the flashlight with her big eyes, murmured for a long time, and finally said, "Brother Victor, I..."

"Bang!" Just as Qiqi was about to say something, there was a clear gunshot outside the church.

"Plop!"

There was less than a second between the gunshots, and accompanied by a dull impact, Mr. De Winter, the farmer who was praying towards the bronze idol outside the dilapidated church, also fell straight on the ground full of people. Freezing poop and snow on the floor!

"Uncle Derwent!"

Dominique's shrill screams followed, but soon, Wei Ran and Qiqi who were still in the mezzanine heard the unique noise of the M3 submachine gun firing!