Soul to the Rhine

Chapter 110 Christmas

More than 20 days passed quickly.

Walking in Stalingrad now, you can see the shadow of war everywhere.

Every part of this place has been hit by artillery fire, and every inch has experienced the flames of war.The air is filled with gunpowder smoke. In the words of the soldiers who participated in the war here, even the mouth smells like gunpowder.

The number of soldiers from both armies stationed in the city has reached hundreds of thousands, and changes in the situation have caused the results of the confrontation between the two armies to constantly change.

For Hitler, Stalingrad was an extremely important strategic location. As long as he controlled this city, he could cut off the supply of the Soviet army, control the Volga River Basin, and expand further north.As for Stalin, he would never allow the city named after him to fall into Hitler's hands, and ordered the Soviet Red Army to defend it tightly and defend the city at any cost.

This is no longer a simple battle between the two armies, but a confrontation between the leaders of the two parties. They used millions of soldiers to compete in the ice and snow of the Soviet Union.

At this time, Stalingrad has become the grave of the German Wehrmacht.

The German front in the southern Soviet Union, starting from Kursk and Voronezh, passing through Smolinsk to Mozdok, has reached more than 2000 miles.Neither Germany's troops nor resources were sufficient to maintain such a long front. This was a fact that any soldier with some common sense could see, but Hitler still persisted in his own way.

He did not allow General Paulus of the Sixth Army to surrender or withdraw from the army, and these soldiers who strictly abided by military rules and regulations could only continue to fire desperately when they lost all hope.

On December 12, the German army, whose defeat was already very obvious, launched a winter storm counterattack in Stalingrad. This counterattack also became the beginning of the German army's devastating defeat.

From the beginning, the German army had insufficient support and supplies. After this war, the German Sixth Army was on the verge of running out of ammunition and food.

Not only was there a lack of food, ammunition, but even water.

Ration distribution was reduced below subsistence standards, artillery barrels could no longer be filled with shells, medicines and fuel were exhausted, and thousands of German soldiers throughout Stalingrad fell ill with typhoid fever and dysentery.Countless soldiers died of hunger, cold, and malnutrition every day.

And Heinrich's promise to Rosia that he would send her back to Smolinsk never came true, because the entire Stalingrad was surrounded by the Soviet army, and they had become the turtle in the middle.

The original number of 300 people has been greatly reduced so far. About [-] people are huddled in a workshop, surrounding a brazier in the middle to keep warm. There is no charcoal in the brazier, and the flames are trembling and about to go out. .

Now the weather in the Soviet Union has reached minus [-] to [-] degrees. The once-in-a-century Siberian cold current has hit this vast and barren land. It is these German troops who have lost all support that are facing the snow.

When nothing happens, no one wants to talk, because as soon as they open their mouth, the breath they exhale will turn into ice slag immediately.They couldn't move in the cold, but they didn't have the slightest strength to move, because they hadn't had a grain of rice in their stomachs for two days, and each of them only drank two bowls of water on average.

"I hate war!"

A soldier suddenly spoke in the endless silence.

The others looked up at him, then lowered their heads silently.

"I hate being hungry, I hate having no clothes on such a cold day, I hate not having hot water to drink, I hate this gray Stalingrad, all of this, I hate war." He shouted hysterically, but his voice was It was unprecedentedly low. He no longer had the strength to speak sonorous words. Hunger had consumed all his strength.

"Oh, I don't feel anything right now." Paul smiled weakly, straightened one leg and pointed: "I just feel like I can't feel my foot, but it hurts a lot."

Sitting next to him was Bos. After hearing this, he moved slowly, then stretched out his hands from his sleeves and pulled up Paul's legs: "Let me take a look."

"Ah."

Paul's face was very strange, like crying and laughing, he stretched his legs to Boss, Boss carefully took off his boots little by little, then everyone around gasped, and Rosia had already Totally stunned.

Paul looked at his bloody feet and suddenly shed tears. Bowes slowly shook his boots, and two toes fell out of them.

"Wow, woo..."

The scene was quite horrifying, Rosia just stood there in a daze, until Heinrich asked and looked over, she shook her head helplessly, and whispered: "No more."

The previous 20-odd days of consumption was too much, she had been sparing, and now there is almost nothing left, except for a little antibiotic in her interlayer, all other medicines are gone, and the gauze is also used up, and now they suffer After the injury, there was no other way but to endure it hard.

"When will Berlin airdrop supplies to us?"

"Don't think about it. The planes won't come. They were all blocked from Stalingrad by Soviet planes. We will starve to death and freeze to death. We will stay in this terrible land forever, waiting to be turned into ashes. .”

"Boss, don't get excited, at least now, now, we are still alive, you can still sit here and complain, can't you?"

"No, I've had enough of this, I want to go back, I miss my wife, I long for her to kiss me every morning instead of Ivan's Katyusha." Boss hugged tightly His head was buried in his knees, his voice was painful and tortured.

Situations like this have become commonplace here. The dangerous environment of the Soviet Union and the continuous wars, cold, and hunger made these once brave and capable soldiers no longer able to hold on. They watched their comrades around them die due to various reasons every day. It was they who The most painful moment.The lack of supplies led to successive failures in the war, and the blow to them was even more cruel.

The morale of the German army was declining. At first, Heinrich would do some ideological work, but soon he found that it was all in vain, because even he did not know when he would be able to leave this dark place. To escape from this hell.

The Soviet female soldier they captured was a little bit worse than them. They had nothing to eat for several days and only drank a little ice water every day, and they kept leaning against the wall weakly. Stay in the workshop like this, waiting for a new round of war outside.

One morning passed, and just when they were about to cut some ice to make hot water for drinking, a gunshot suddenly rang out outside. Everyone jumped up immediately, and the people who were staggering just now rushed out.No matter how hungry and exhausted they are, the responsibility and mission buried deep in their bones will still drain all their strength and drive them to fight the enemy bravely.

Compared to them, Bettina, as a female sniper, is a bit unable to hold on. No matter how strong she is, she can't compare to a man's endurance. Without water and rice for two days, her sniper accuracy is no longer as good as before.Therefore, whenever there is an emergency like this, she will sit in the workshop and guard her. She will only go out with a gun when the war is very fierce.

Rosia and her were next to each other, and the gunfire outside stopped shortly after.

This time it was not that the Soviet army was deliberately launching an attack, but rather the stupid German logistics personnel ran up to the Soviet position carrying rice, and happened to bump into them while they were eating. The two sides stared at each other for a while. Then the Soviet troops opened fire.

This area was the territory of the German army three days ago, but was taken away by the Soviet army in a hot battle.The logistics personnel were so blind that they ran in without even looking at the flags on the position. No wonder they were killed.

When the German army came back from the battlefield, Rosia saw two German logistics personnel running over carrying two large buckets and a large iron box. The contents of the buckets were still steaming, and a group of Germans behind them Soldiers also swarmed in, scrambling to surround him.

"Let go, let go of your dirty hands, this time the food is enough, there is no need to grab it." The logistician kept shouting, but was quickly pushed aside by the soldiers.

The soldiers' physical strength had dropped to zero, and they had no time to care what he was yelling about.After opening the bucket, they all took their lunch boxes to pack their meals and ate hungrily for a while before opening another bucket.At first glance, I couldn't help but exclaim.

The logistics staff looked a little proud: "Today is Christmas, so the food has been doubled. You must know that what you have eaten is most of the savings of the entire canteen."

"Damn, it's Christmas today, it's actually Christmas?" A soldier stared and almost dropped the bread in his hand.

They had been here for so long, in the hellish city of Stalingrad, since the war started in June.Even Rosia felt a little dazed.

"What on earth did you do? It's only been two days since you brought us food. Do you know? It's been two days. Are you just letting us eat ice cubes to fight?"

"We wanted to come too, but every time we come a few people die, and this time we have to bring you a message, so we put them together."

"Letter? What letter?"

"A letter from your family." The logistics staff turned around and took the big iron box over. They took out a key from their waist to open the lock, and then took out a thick stack of envelopes inside. , there are even a few small packages inside.

"Come on, Bos's, this is Paul's, Steve's...well, this is Lieutenant Colonel Bolton's." The logistics staff distributed the letters inside one by one, clapped their hands and put the box on the ground.

When they saw the envelope, the expressions of these newly fed soldiers were unusually soft. Their families were their only concerns on the battlefield. They opened it carefully and read every word devoutly. This was the only thing they had in despair. of warmth.Several soldiers looked at it and couldn't help but blush. When tears were about to fall, they quickly raised their sleeves to wipe their faces.

It must be said that Hitler was very good at winning people's hearts. He knew very well what these soldiers needed most, so during the meeting, he strictly requested the logistics department to do their best to send each soldier's home letter to the battlefield so that they could send it to the battlefield. Letter sent home.

In addition to letters, several people received very small packages, all of which were a scarf or a pair of gloves and socks.

Everyone present except Rosia and Bettina was holding the letter paper to read. Bettina looked around eagerly, flattened her mouth, stretched out her arm and slapped Heinrich next to her: "I don't want to read your letter." ?"

In this team, probably no one except Bettina dared to talk to him so relaxedly. Heinrich glanced here, with no expression on his face, and slowly tore open the outer envelope.

Heinrich had few relatives in this world, and the only letters that could be sent to him were either military notices or Aunt Mesa.

The letter came from Paris. After it was torn open, there was no paper inside. There were only two photos. One was a photo of Rosia and Aunt Meisha’s family, and the other was put together by Pino. I don’t know where to find the photo of Heinrich. Judging by the clothes and the background, it seems to be at a large banquet. He seems to be greeting with others, with a smile on his face, and two dimples on his cheeks. .

Pino abruptly pulled him out of other photos and pasted them next to Werner. The five people's clothing and auras were obviously different, but there was a strange sense of integration, as if he should have been standing there. There.

The envelope contained only these two photos and no words, but that was enough. Aunt Mesa and Pino were safe, and they also wished Heinrich peace.

Rosia then remembered that Aunt Mesa didn't know she was staying with Heinrich. She had never dared to send a letter home because the Soviet address on it would definitely scare Aunt Mesa out of her mind, but now she thought It was time for her to write a letter, firstly to report that she was safe, and secondly, to be with Heinrich so that Aunt Mesa could feel relieved.

Rosia looked at the two photos back and forth for a long time, and suddenly felt a little warmth in her heart. She couldn't help but raise the corners of her mouth, showing a smile.After a while, she stacked the two photos together and was about to hand them back, but she found that there seemed to be writing on the back of the photos.

She quickly retracted her hand and turned around to see that it was Pino's handwriting.

He wrote a note behind each of them, from left to right: the most beautiful, elegant and noble Ms. Mesa Philinos in the world; the cutest, handsome and charming little gentleman Pinot; like to wear white clothes The weird Rosia sister who is close to the dead...

Seeing this, Rosia almost spit out the water in her mouth. Why does she like to be close to dead people? It's weird. Is this what she looks like in Pino's mind?

Going up further, the remark is Brother Werner with the coolest marksmanship and the best marksmanship, but the sentence next to it is weird.

This person is a scoundrel who doesn't like washing his hands but likes to grab food.

Is this over?

Pino's problem with holding grudges is as powerful as his lovable trait. Remembering a small flaw for a lifetime is probably a trivial matter, but a scoundrel?Did Heinrich do anything to him?

(End of this chapter)