The battle to defend the 252nd Division had just begun when Sokov received an unexpected phone call.
After the call was connected, a familiar voice immediately came from inside: "Comrade Commander, who do you think I am?"
If Sokov answered the phone decades later and heard the other person asking him this question, he would be able to judge without hesitation that the other person was most likely a fraud. But now someone asked him this, and he couldn't help but start to think deeply.
, who is this person?
Seeing Sokov's delay in speaking, the other party was obviously disappointed: "Comrade Commander, I really didn't expect that not long after we separated, you actually forgot about me."
Although due to line problems, the caller's voice had become completely inaudible to Sokov, but from the tone of the caller's voice, he still guessed the person: "Is it Lunev?"
"That's right, Misha, it's me." Seeing that Sokov guessed his identity, Lunev said with a smile: "I thought you couldn't guess it was me."
"How could it be, Lunev." Sokov replied: "After all, we have been partners for such a long time. Even if your voice has completely changed on the phone, I can still guess it from the tone of your voice.
Your identity."
"Long time no see, how are you?"
"I am fine, and you?"
"I am fine too."
After Sokov said a few useless words to the other party, he turned to the topic: "Lunev, what do you want from me?"
"Yes, Misha, I have something very important to ask you." Lunev's tone suddenly became stern.
Sokov glanced at Shtemenko who was chatting with Ponedelin not far away, and asked in a low voice: "Lunev, are you calling about General Shtemenko?"
"General Shtemenko? Mischa, are you talking about our deputy chief of staff and chief of operations?"
"Yes, yes," Sokov nodded and said, "That's the deputy chief of staff who came to the hospital with you to visit me last time."
"I haven't seen him for a while. What happened to him?"
"Nothing has happened. He is currently staying at my forward headquarters, saying he wants to observe our offensive operations."
"Oh, that's it." After hearing this, Lunev said lightly: "I thought he had been staying at the General Staff Headquarters, and I really planned to ask him out for a drink one day, but I didn't expect him to come to your place.
"
"Lunev, anyway, General Shtemenko is here with me." Sokov said with a smile: "How about I give him the microphone and let him have a few words with you."
Unexpectedly, after Lunev heard this, he decisively refused: "Forget it, I'll talk to him slowly when he returns to Moscow. I called you today because I have something very important to tell you.
You understand."
"Commander of the German 11th Army, Stemmermann, do you still remember?"
"Remember, of course I remember." When Sokov heard Luniev asked about Stemmerman, he quickly replied in an affirmative tone: "I personally sent someone to return his body to the Germans."
"Then how did he die, do you know?"
Although he thought the question asked by Luniev was strange, Sokov still answered truthfully: "At that time, he and thousands of German wounded were surrounded by us. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, he negotiated with me, hoping that I would not hurt these groups.
Wounded. After obtaining my consent, he asked all the surrounded German officers and soldiers to put down their weapons, and then committed suicide in front of me."
"Is it really suicide?"
"Of course, of course it was suicide." In order to increase credibility, Sokov also emphasized: "Thousands of commanders and soldiers were present at the time, and they witnessed Stemmermann's suicide scene. By the way, my adjutant,
That is, your old subordinate, Lieutenant Koshkin, was by my side at the time, and he also saw it."
"Oh, so Stemerman committed suicide. He was not killed by their people, nor was he killed by our soldiers in the battle?"
"Yes, Lunev, it is true that he committed suicide." After Sokov said this, he asked curiously: "Why did you suddenly think of asking about this matter? Didn't I once write a detailed report to my superiors? Didn't I
Didn’t you see that?”
"Of course I saw it." Lunev said: "You were present when I found out that Stemmerman died, so I made this call to you."
"Now that you've seen my report, why do you still ask about it?"
"Misha, you and I are friends, and I won't talk to you in circles." Lunev was silent for a moment, and then said resolutely: "We seized a document not long ago, which mentioned the cause of Stemmerman's death.
It is completely different from what you wrote in your report. Some people suspect that you have falsely claimed military merit, so they are preparing to launch an investigation into you."
"What, launch an investigation into me?" Sokov couldn't help but raise his voice when he heard the news: "Lunev, are you kidding me?"
Shtemenko, Ponedelin and others who were talking on the side couldn't help but stop talking when they heard Sokov's voice, and turned to look at Sokov, trying to figure out what happened.
"Misha, don't get excited. Listen to my explanation." Lunev on the other end of the phone heard Sokov getting angry and quickly explained to him: "I might as well tell you the truth. In the documents we seized, it said
Stemmermann was killed by the SS when he was about to surrender to our army."
"Lunev, I can tell you responsibly," Sokov said with a serious expression: "General Stemerman committed suicide, and it was definitely not what was written in the document. He wanted to surrender to our army.
And he was beaten to death by the SS around him."
"Misha, I used to be your partner. I know very well what kind of person you are." Lunev said sincerely: "I also believe what you said is true, but do you know?
Since you were promoted to general at such a young age, some people are bound to be jealous. They happened to encounter this document again, and they took the opportunity to launch an investigation into you. I just argued with Comrade Beria not long ago.
After some discussion, he reluctantly agreed to hand over this investigation to me."
The war was about to happen, and something like this happened, which made Suo Kaifu feel very depressed. However, the person on the other side of the phone who was talking to him was his former partner Lunev. He was not easy to get angry, so he could only try to control his emotions.
Trying his best to ask in a calm tone: "Then how do you plan to investigate?"
"I'll take a plane to the front line later to meet you." Lunev guessed that Sokov must be in a bad mood at the moment, so he comforted him and said, "If you have anything, let's talk about it when I get there."
As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Shtemenko came over and asked with concern: "Comrade Sokov, what happened? I felt that you seemed quite angry when you just answered the phone."
But Sokov did not immediately answer the other party's question. Instead, he asked Ponedelin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how is the battle situation in Kirillov?"
When Sokov asked about the battle in the Vilishanka area, he quickly reported: "Comrade Commander, the Germans dispatched 15 tanks and two battalions of troops to launch an attack on the defense area of the 252nd Division. Because in
Before the battle began, the enemy carried out violent shelling on their position. In the minefield in front of the position, there were very few unexploded mines, so the next battle should be difficult."
"I believe in Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov, and I believe that his troops will be able to block the German attack." Sokov said with a normal expression; "Keep in touch with him, and remember to report to me in time if there is any latest battle situation.
"
After sending Ponedelin away, Sokov lowered his voice and said to Shtemenko: "Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, it was Lunev who just called me."
Hearing that the call was from Lunev, Shtemenko had a look of astonishment on his face: "You two used to be good partners. How could answering his call make you so excited?"
?”
"Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, do you know Stemmerman?"
"Why don't you know that he is the commander of the 11th German Army?" Shtemenko asked in surprise: "Why, does the call from Lunev have anything to do with Stemerman?"
"Yes, Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff." Sokov said aggrievedly: "Back then, Stemmermann and the remnants of the Walloon Assault Brigade, as well as more than two thousand wounded Germans, fell into our encirclement.
With no hope of breaking through, Stemmermann took the initiative to make a request to me. As long as I treated the wounded well, he was willing to order the remaining German troops to lay down their weapons and surrender to us."
"Yes, I have read the report you wrote, and it is indeed written like this." Shtemenko added: "After General Stemerman ordered the German troops to lay down their weapons, he resolutely committed suicide by shooting himself. I am right."
"Yes, Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, this is indeed the case." Sokov explained to Shtemenko; "Lunev just called me and said that he had seized a document from the German army not long ago.
The cause of Stemmermann's death mentioned is completely different from what I reported."
"What's the difference?" Shtemenko asked curiously.
"The document said that when Stemmermann saw that the troops had no hope of breaking through and did not want to let the soldiers continue to die, he planned to surrender to our army. However, his intention was discovered by the SS, and then an SS officer
I sneaked up to him and shot him to death."
"It's ridiculous, it's simply ridiculous." After hearing this, Shtemenko shook his head and said: "Stemerman is an old German soldier. He would not bother to order the troops to surrender. Otherwise, he would not do it.
After you meet his conditions, he chooses to shoot himself. I think this document from the Germans is entirely possible to be a forgery."
Seeing that Shtemenko did not agree with the document at all, Sokov was somewhat moved: "Someone reported to the superiors that I was pretending to claim military merit and wanted to investigate me. Fortunately, the person in charge of the investigation was
Lunev, he will fly here soon to investigate the matter."
After listening to this, Shtemenko picked up the cigarette case on the table, took out a cigarette from it, lit it in his mouth, took a puff, and said: "Comrade Sokov, why don't you have German cigarettes here?"
?Did you never seize German tobacco after the war?"
"Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff," Sokov quickly explained: "We seized a lot of German cigarettes on the battlefield, but the soldiers didn't like smoking them because they said they smelled like horse manure. So they seized them
I exchanged all my cigarettes with local comrades for domestic cigarettes."
"Oh, so that's it." After Shtemenko said casually, he suddenly turned the topic to Stemerman: "As for how Stemerman died, so far,
There are other ways to say it.”
"What, is there any other explanation?" Sokov asked in surprise: "What other explanation?"
"It is said that Stemerman was killed by our army's anti-tank gun." Shtemenko said: "According to the intelligence, Stemerman and his adjutant broke out with the troops. As a result, the car was stopped halfway.
A mechanical failure occurred and broke down. When they were advancing on foot, they unexpectedly saw Lieutenant Colonel Schoenfeld, chief of staff of the Viking Division, in front of them. When he was about to step forward to greet the other party, he saw the other party abandoning the ship with another officer.
He took the car and walked towards a hillside not far away.
Stemmermann and his adjutant came to the car and found that a tire had a puncture. Because he was in a hurry to escape from the encirclement of our army, Stemmermann did not bother to change the tire, so he asked his adjutant to drive away.
There. Unexpectedly, a vehicle with a blown tire was difficult to control. The car driven by the adjutant got stuck in a mud pit and could not be driven out. At this moment, a tank shell fired by our army hit the car. From behind
The troops tore it open, killing Stemmermann and his adjutant at the same time."
After hearing this, Sokov shook his head with a wry smile, thinking that when Stemmermann committed suicide, he was in front of him and naturally knew the true cause of his death. But the other two causes of death were too outrageous, especially because
The idea that someone who wanted to surrender to the Soviet army was shot dead by an SS officer sounds like a fantasy.
Don't look at Stemmerman's way of writing. It was written into the document, but it couldn't stand up to scrutiny. After Runev came, he only needed to understand the situation from a few insiders to completely overturn it.
The most troublesome thing now is the method Shtemenko said. In any case, when the German army broke through, there was chaos everywhere. I don’t know how many officers and soldiers died in the Soviet artillery fire and machine gun fire. If anyone really
If you want to make an article, you have to choose the theory that Stemmermann was killed by an anti-tank gun. It is really troublesome.
"Comrade Sokov," Shtemenko saw that Sokov was thinking about a question, so he interrupted him and asked: "Is there anyone in the forward headquarters who has ever seen Stemerman commit suicide?"
"My adjutant, Lieutenant Koshkin."
"Is he the only one?" Shtemenko asked with a frown.
Sokov's eyes quickly scanned the room and found that while at Stemmerman, Ponedelin was in General Fomin's artillery headquarters, and Kirillov was fighting the enemy in the 252nd Division. Even Mu
Zichenko was also the acting division commander of the cavalry division at the time. Other commanders in the forward command did not go to the scene with him at that time.
"Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff," Sokov replied with some embarrassment: "In my forward headquarters, besides me, only Lieutenant Koshkin witnessed what happened."
"What about the other witnesses?" Hearing that there were only two witnesses in the forward headquarters, Sokov and Koshkin, who were witnesses to Stemerman's suicide, Shtemenko felt it was inappropriate: "Sokov
Comrade Kove, I suggest you find more people to come over and serve as witnesses for you. Prove that Stemmerman is indeed who you said he was, and that he shot himself to death, so that you can clear yourself of the suspicion."
This chapter has been completed!