"But, your Excellency, division commander." The division chief of staff heard this order and quickly reminded him carefully: "There are still many of our wounded in the hospital. If we fire, we may accidentally injure them."
The German division commander who was eager to eliminate the Soviet troops in the hospital did not care about the safety of the captured and wounded in the hospital. He said angrily: "Chief of Staff, do you think our wounded will still be alive when the Russians have occupied the hospital for so long? It must have been long ago.
He was secretly shot by the Russians. Stop talking nonsense and order the artillery to fire immediately."
The division chief of staff thought carefully about the division commander's words and felt that they still made sense. It was said that when the Skeleton Division occupied Kharkov at the beginning of the year, they could kill all the Russian wounded in the hospital. Now after the Russians occupied the hospital, they killed all the German wounded.
, seems to be reasonable.
With this thought, the division chief of staff no longer hesitated: "Yes, your Excellency, division commander, as you wish, I will immediately notify the artillery regiment to fire and level the buildings in the hospital."
The division commander nodded, and then said to the regiment commander: "Colonel, after the artillery regiment's artillery fire destroys the outpatient building, your troops need to rush into the hospital immediately, eliminate those Russians who are still alive, and avenge our killed wounded.
"
"Don't worry, Your Excellency, Division Commander." The German Army Commander vowed: "I will make the Russians pay the price with blood."
Not long after, 16 105mm artillery pieces from the 106th Infantry Division Artillery Regiment began to shell the outpatient building of the hospital. The outpatient building is a brick-concrete structure. How can it withstand the bombardment of artillery of such a caliber?
Amidst the rumbling gunfire, the building was riddled with holes, and the commanders and soldiers who stayed in the building suffered heavy casualties.
Captain Narva saw that the situation was not good, so except for a few soldiers who stayed in the building to serve as observation posts, the rest withdrew into the basement of the building to reduce unnecessary casualties.
Guchakov, who was staying in the inpatient building, saw enemy artillery fire bombarding the outpatient building. Under the baptism of gunfire, the outpatient building became shaky and in danger of collapse at any time.
Upon seeing this, Guchakov secretly complained, and quickly ordered the Second Company to withdraw into the hospital building, preparing to rely on the terrain here to carry out the final resistance.
After the German shelling continued for seven or eight minutes, the outpatient building, which was bombed beyond recognition, collapsed. The German commander, who was hiding in a nearby residential area to observe, immediately ordered his men to launch another attack on the hospital.
When the enemy who entered the hospital gate was about to rush into the outpatient building still shrouded in gunpowder smoke, sporadic gunshots suddenly came from the ruins, knocking down the German soldiers at the front and frightening the soldiers behind them to lie down quickly and shoot at the bullets.
He fired back from the direction he was flying from.
Guchakov stood at a window of the inpatient building, looking at the figures of German officers and soldiers flashing out from time to time in the gunpowder smoke. He couldn't help but sigh secretly. He was worried that the entire company holding on there had been lost.
"Comrade Battalion Commander," Yegor, the second company commander, saw that the outpatient clinic building was destroyed by enemy artillery fire, and the gunfire from assault rifles was very sparse in the ruins. He couldn't help but be anxious, so he took the initiative to ask Guchakov: "Now the first company's
They are in danger, should I take the Second Company up to reinforce them?"
"No." Guchakov refused him unequivocally: "Now the outpatient building has been destroyed by enemy artillery fire, and the situation of the company is unknown. If you rush out rashly, you will die. I have no right to take your lives.
adventure."
"But, Comrade Battalion Commander." Seeing that Guchakov rejected his request, Yegor stamped his feet anxiously: "Are we just going to watch a company being wiped out by the enemy?"
"Captain Yegor," Guchakov turned to look at Yegor and said seriously: "Now the situation of the company is unknown. If you rush out rashly, you will die. I can't let you take the risk." Seeing Yegor.
As if he wanted to say something else, he straightened his face and said sternly, "Don't you know that orders from superiors can only be executed and cannot be discussed?"
Having hit a wall, Yegor could only shut his mouth obediently, walked to the window next to him, raised his binoculars and looked towards the smoke-filled outpatient building, hoping to see his own figure in the smoke.
"Captain Seryosha," after sending Yegor away, Guchakov called Seryosha to him and said to him: "Go to the doctor and ask them to move all the German wounded to the basement.
Said the Germans might be shelling us soon."
"Did you move all the German wounded to the basement?" Seryosha frowned and said, "I think we just let them stay in the ward and let their own shells blow them all to death."
Guchakov turned to Seryosha and said seriously: "Captain Seryosha, if we want to kill these German prisoners, we should kill them all when we occupy this building. Now that we agree to let
If they continue to stay here to recuperate, we cannot break their promises and put them in danger."
After saying this, he reorganized the words in his mind and added: "If Comrade Commander were here, I think he would do the same."
Seeing Guchakov carrying Sokov out, Seryosha really couldn't refute, so he could only nodded and said: "Okay, comrade major, I will go to the doctor myself and ask him to transfer the wounded to
Go to the basement."
When Seryosha found the doctor in the changing pharmacy, he was operating on a wounded Soviet soldier. Seeing Seryosha barging in, he asked with an unhappy face: "Mr. Captain, what can I do for you?"
"Doctor," Seryosha said angrily to the doctor: "I'm here to inform you to move all the wounded to the basement immediately. Immediately, immediately, as fast as possible!"
After Seryozha said these words to the doctor, he then said to the several lightly wounded people standing nearby waiting for treatment: "You are responsible for assisting the doctors and moving the German wounded to the basement one by one. You must move quickly.
Understand?"
These wounded men were all Seryozha's subordinates. After hearing Seryozha's order, they immediately replied in an unambiguous manner: "I understand, comrade company commander."
When he heard Seryozha say that all the wounded German soldiers should be moved to the basement, the doctor was not only shocked, but then he put down the scalpel and said loudly to Seryosa: "Mr. Captain, you promised me that you would
Treat these wounded soldiers well, and you can’t break your promise.”
Seryozha asked in reply: "How can we fail to keep our word?"
"I know that you may not be able to withstand our army's attack, so you want to kill all the wounded before evacuating here." The doctor said angrily: "Otherwise, how could you move them all to the basement, where is The best place to store a body."
After listening to the doctor's indignant words, Seryozha understood that the other party had misunderstood, and quickly raised his voice and said: "Doctor, you know, we are Sokov's troops, how can we not be trustworthy? Since we agreed to let these wounded people go, , I will definitely make things difficult for them.”
"Since you won't embarrass them, why take them to the basement for execution?"
"Who told you that we were going to take them to the basement for execution?" Seryosha explained with some laughter and tears: "The Germans have used artillery fire to destroy the outpatient building in order to occupy the hospital. I believe the next target is the inpatient building. Do you think that if the building is destroyed by your artillery fire, how many of the wounded living in the ward will survive?"
The doctor had just been treating the wounds of the wounded Soviet soldiers, and had no idea that the outpatient clinic building had been razed to the ground by German artillery fire. At this moment, when he heard Seryozha say this, after a brief shock, he asked tentatively: "Are you really? Won’t you shoot our wounded?”
"No, doctor, I promise you on my own honor that we will never shoot these wounded people."
After receiving Seryosha's assurance, the doctor called several nurses who were staying in the dressing room, followed him to the room where the wounded were, and announced to them that they would be moved to the basement immediately.
A German soldier who had lost his legs immediately shouted when he heard what the doctor said: "Oh no, the Russians are going to drag us all to the basement and shoot us."
One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the wounded soldier's cry immediately triggered a response from other wounded soldiers: "Yes, the Russians definitely want to drag us to the basement and shoot us. We won't go, we won't go."
Seeing the dozens of wounded people in the ward being so agitated, Seryosha couldn't help but his face dropped. He sternly said to the doctor: "Doctor, although I can't understand what they are saying, I can feel their fear. You tell them immediately that the Germans may soon launch shelling here. If they don't want to die, they can move to the basement honestly. If they don't want to go to the basement, we won't force them, but all the consequences will be It’s their own responsibility.”
After listening to Seryosha's words, the doctor quickly waved his arms and shouted at the wounded soldiers: "Soldiers, please be quiet! Please listen to me!..."
Seeing that the doctor's voice was covered up by the shouts of the wounded, several nurses nearby also shouted. They shouted a dozen times in a row, and the wounded soldiers who were a little out of control finally calmed down completely.
Seeing that no one in the ward spoke, the doctor continued: "Soldiers, this captain promised me that they moved you to the basement for your safety, so this place may be shelled by our army. If you continue to stay here, your lives will be in danger."
"Can his promise be trusted?" a wounded soldier in the corner asked in a skeptical tone.
The wounded soldier asked the question on everyone's mind, and everyone's eyes were focused on Seryosha, wanting to hear his answer.
The doctor glanced at Seryosha and continued: "This captain said that he was Sokov's subordinate, and he assured me on his own honor that he kept his word."
After a moment of silence, the wounded soldier said: "If he is really a subordinate of General Sokov, then I believe what he said, and I will go to the basement." After that, the wounded soldier came over on crutches.
.
Seeing someone taking the lead, the wounded soldiers who had been hesitant at first all took action. The lightly wounded soldiers lifted the seriously injured soldiers off the beds and put them on stretchers, preparing to carry them to the basement.
When Seryozha and his guard company began to evacuate the German wounded, the second company commander Yegor was standing at the door of the inpatient building, looking towards the outpatient building not far away. Suddenly he saw four or five Soviet soldiers covered in blood.
The soldier rushed out of the smoke and stumbled towards the direction of the inpatient building.
Upon seeing this, Yegor was about to order his men to go out to respond, but saw groups of German soldiers behind them, also rushing out of the smoke. Following these German soldiers was a car
Armored vehicle. The German soldiers on the armored vehicle used machine guns to shoot at the Soviet soldiers running back. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers was shot. After spinning around twice, he fell heavily to the ground.
At this moment, with a loud bang, the German armored vehicle turned into a ball of fire and began to burn. The machine gunner who had been shooting just now rolled out of the armored vehicle covered in fire and rolled on the ground.
While screaming.
How could the enemy's armored vehicle explode? Yegor stared at the rolling German soldiers on the ground for a moment, and suddenly saw the tanks parked behind the flower beds and fountains, and realized that it might have been one of the tanks firing the gun.
Soon, Yegor heard the sound of machine gun fire. The running German soldiers seemed to have hit a transparent wall and fell down one after another. Yegor looked carefully and saw that they were the remaining tanks.
, was using a vehicle-mounted machine gun to shoot at the rushing enemies, knocking them down in pieces.
Under the cover of the tank, several soldiers stumbled up to Yegor. Yegor quickly ordered his men to help the survivors into the building. He grabbed one of the soldiers and asked loudly: "Your company commander"
Where is Captain Narva? Where are the other soldiers?"
"I don't know, Comrade Captain." The shocked soldier shook his head and said, "I was stunned when the enemy shelled the building. When I woke up, I found that there were enemies all around, and the building was also collapsed by artillery fire. I
After shooting down several enemies with several comrades, he escaped directly from the ruins."
Seeing that he could not get the answer he wanted from this soldier, Yegor was secretly disappointed. He asked several other survivors, and their answers were similar to the soldier's, without any useful clues at all.
Yegor waved his hand to his men in disappointment, indicating to take the surviving soldiers to rest, while he went to the second floor to report to Guchakov.
Seeing Yegor coming, Guchakov asked straight to the point: "Second company commander, what did the soldiers who escaped say, where are Captain Narva and the other soldiers?"
"I'm sorry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Yegor shook his head and said with regret, "I didn't get any useful information from those soldiers."
"Second Company Commander," Guchakov didn't get the answer he wanted, and felt a little disappointed. He looked at the German officers and soldiers who had disappeared into the smoke again, and said to Yegor without looking back: "Order your subordinates to do this.
Be ready for battle, the enemy will attack us soon."
"Don't worry, comrade battalion commander." Yegor said to Guchakov: "The four machine guns of our company are mounted on the roof. As long as the enemy charges towards us, we can use firepower to block their path forward and give them
Caused huge casualties."
"We can't put all the machine guns on the roof." Guchakov shook his head and said: "When the enemy rushes downstairs, our machine gunners have to lean out in order to hit the target. This makes it easy for the Germans to
A sniper's target."
This chapter has been completed!