Although he knew that these Yugoslav soldiers were sent by the headquarters, Kirillov's heart was still full of dissatisfaction. After he glanced at the neatly lined up opponent in front, he lowered his voice and said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think you
It's better to hand them over to other troops, I don't need them here."
"Comrade Kirillov." Seeing Kirillov's indifference, Ponedelin's expression suddenly changed: "Are you going to disobey your superiors' orders?"
Logically speaking, Kirillov and Ponejelin are life-and-death friends, so there is no threat to him at all. But precisely because of his experience in a prisoner of war camp, Kirillov has become cautious now. Hearing Ponejelin
When Lin asked whether he wanted to disobey the order, he couldn't help but tremble.
Seeing Kirillov's silence, Ponedelin raised his hand and patted him lightly on the shoulder twice, explaining in a low voice: "Kirilov, don't look at them looking at the title of guerrillas, but they are
They are the regular army of Yugoslavia. I heard from Chief of Staff Bogolyubov that many of these people have participated in the Battle of Sutjeska and have made military exploits. They are a group of veterans with rich combat experience. Even if they are assigned to your division, if they are organized into
If you join the grassroots combat unit, you can become the backbone of the unit in a very short period of time. To be honest, you have earned it."
Hearing what Ponedelin said, Kirillov suddenly felt more balanced, but he still asked with concern: "How should I use them?"
"Before coming here, Comrade Commander and I studied it." Ponejelin said: "After these commanders and fighters are integrated into your army, you cannot dismantle them. If you want to conduct reconnaissance behind the enemy's rear, remember to start from among them.
Bring a few people over, after all they have fought guerrilla warfare for many years and know how to operate behind enemy lines."
"Okay." Kirillov reluctantly agreed to keep this unit, but he still vaccinated Ponedelin: "If their performance cannot satisfy me, I will have to let them go.
"
"No problem." After Ponedelin said this, he called Velimir over and introduced him: "Comrade Captain, this is Major General Kirillov, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. From now on,
You and your men are under his command."
"Yes, Comrade General." After Velimir answered resoundingly, he turned around and saluted Kirillov, and said respectfully: "Hello, Comrade Division Commander, I am Captain Velimir, and my men and I are willing to accept you.
Commander, please give the order."
"Hello, Captain Velimir." Kirillov raised his hand in return, and then said: "I will arrange for you to rest first, and I will assign you tasks another day."
"Comrade Commander, thank you for your kindness." But Velimir rejected Kirillov's kindness: "We have rested long enough and don't need any more rest. You can assign tasks to us now.
."
Kirillov pouted at the team not far away and asked: "Comrade Captain, can all your subordinates understand Russian?"
"This is natural, Comrade Division Commander." Velimir replied: "When selecting personnel, knowing Russian was a basic condition."
"It would be great if you understand Russian. At least you won't encounter language barriers when communicating with our soldiers." Since there are people who understand Russian among the group of people who came here, it will be much easier to communicate with them. Take
After coming down, Kirillov began to assign tasks: "Comrade Captain, I am preparing to send a reconnaissance team to conduct reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines. Do you have any suitable candidates that you can recommend to me?"
Velimir misunderstood Kirillov's meaning and quickly explained to him: "Comrade division commander, my people have just arrived here and are not familiar with the surrounding environment. I think it is inappropriate to send them out on a reconnaissance mission."
.”
After hearing what the other party said, Kirillov turned to look at Ponedelin next to him. Ponedelin also turned to look over. The two looked at each other, and then laughed, making Velimir laugh so hard.
It was Monk Zhanger who was confused and looked at the two of them in a daze.
"Comrade Captain," Ponedelin said to Velimir after he finished laughing: "I think you have misunderstood what Kirillov meant. He did not ask you to send someone to carry out the reconnaissance mission alone, but to send a capable person to carry out the reconnaissance mission."
manpower to participate in the reconnaissance team he formed. Do you understand now?"
Velimir's face turned red. He realized that he had misunderstood the other party's meaning and quickly replied: "Understood, Comrade General. I will immediately mobilize capable people to participate in this reconnaissance team that goes deep behind enemy lines."
"Comrade Captain, when you select your personnel, remember to look for experienced ones. Otherwise, you will easily make mistakes when conducting reconnaissance behind enemy lines."
"Comrade General, you can rest assured that I will definitely send the most capable subordinates to participate in this reconnaissance operation together with comrades from friendly forces."
Now that the words had come to this, Kirillov called Chief of Staff Miyakov and asked him to incorporate the men sent by Velimir into the reconnaissance team that was about to set off. He also specifically told the other party: "Chief of Staff
, you tell the leader of the reconnaissance team to take good care of these comrades from Yugoslavia and never let any accidents happen to them."
While the chief of staff was executing his orders, Kirillov took Ponedelin into the division headquarters next door and sat down at the table by the wall.
After Ponedelin waited for Kirillov to pour himself a glass of water, he asked tentatively: "How do you feel here?"
"I'm fine." Kirillov nodded and replied: "It can be said that I have never been better. After all, I am the division commander, and I have the final say in everything in the division."
"That's good." Ponejelin said, "I was worried that if you were here, you would be ignored by the original division commanders. It seems that I was overly worried."
"I have been seizing the time to train the troops recently," Kirillov said: "This way, when the new offensive campaign begins, our division will have the opportunity to assume the main offensive mission."
"I discussed it with the commander some time ago and feel that it is impossible for us to launch an attack on the enemy before the New Year of 2045." Ponejelin said: "In other words, you have a few months to carry out the attack.
Rest. But don’t waste such a long time. Send more reconnaissance teams deep into the enemy’s defense areas to find out the deployment of German troops. The better you understand the enemy’s defense lines, the more likely you will be to pay when an offensive campaign begins in the future.
will be smaller."
The two chatted for a while, and just when Ponedelin was about to stand up and leave, he suddenly heard Kirillov saying: "We are attacking East Prussia in the north, while the First Ukrainian Front is launching an offensive in the south. Both sides
It’s getting further and further apart.”
Hearing Kirillov suddenly mention the 1st Ukrainian Front, Ponedelin couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat, and then asked tentatively: "Kirilov, why did you suddenly mention Marshal Konev's troops?"
Kirillov looked at Ponedelin and said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I have been feeling panicked these past two days, and I keep having nightmares at night."
"What did you dream about?"
"I dreamed that you, me, and Muzichenko were in a German prisoner-of-war camp and suffered inhuman torture." Kirillov said bitterly: "The Germans even sent Muzichenko to
gas chamber."
"Kirillov, the experience in the prisoner of war camp was a nightmare for us." Ponedelin sighed and said, "But everything is fine now, we have regained our freedom.
, and has returned to the army, which means that we have the ability to repay the blood debt from the Germans."
"I haven't contacted Muzichenko for a long time." Kirillov said: "I don't know how he is doing now."
When Kirillov mentioned Muzichenko, Ponedelin's scalp couldn't help but feel numb. He didn't know whether he should tell Kirillov the news of Muzichenko's sacrifice truthfully. After all, the three of them
In the German prisoner-of-war camp, we were friends of life and death.
Just listen to Kirillov continue: "It's strange to say that for so long after arriving at the 48th Army, Muzichenko didn't even think of calling me. What's even more outrageous is that I wrote him seven or eight letters.
I wrote letters, but he didn’t reply to any of them. I wonder if he has forgotten that we were friends who shared the same hardships.”
Ponedelin said nothing, but listened silently to Kirillov's words.
After Kirillov talked for a while, he found his old friend Ponedelin, but he remained silent and did not speak. He felt a little strange. You know, since the two of them came to the 48th Army, every time they talked about
When Muzychenko was there, there were countless topics to talk about, but today the other party seemed to be a different person and became silent.
Kirillov, who had doubts in his heart, looked at Ponedelin and asked: "Comrade Deputy Commander, are you worried about something?"
"No, no, I don't have anything on my mind." Ponejelin quickly said to cover up: "I was just listening to you, and I was fascinated."
"No, you are definitely not listening with rapt attention, but you are worried." Kirillov said: "We knew each other before the war, and we also stayed together in the prisoner of war camp for such a long time. We have a very close relationship with each other.
Shen. He didn’t reply to me for such a long time, which made me very worried. I was worried that something might happen to him. Although at his level, the chance of something happening is slim, but I’m not afraid of just in case..."
Hearing Kirillov chattering incessantly, Ponedelin finally couldn't help it: "That's enough, stop talking!"
Perhaps Ponejelin's voice was too loud, which alerted the staff officers working nearby. They all stopped their work in unison and cast a surprised look at Ponejelin.
"You continue to work." Ponejelin waved his hands to the staff officers, "I am talking to your division commander about something."
When the staff members lowered their heads to work again, Ponedelin said to Kirillov in a solemn tone: "Kirilov, I want to tell you some bad news. I hope you can be mentally prepared in advance."
Kirillov raised his eyebrows and then asked tentatively: "Did something really happen to Muzichenko?"
Ponijelin sighed softly and said, "Yes."
"He is injured?!" Kirillov asked tentatively.
"He died!"
"What, sacrificed?!" When Kirillov heard the bad news, he stood up suddenly and asked Ponedelin: "What on earth is going on? How could he sacrifice?"
Ponejelin did not answer the question immediately, but asked instead: "Do you still remember how your predecessor died?"
"My predecessor?!" When Kirillov heard what Ponedelin said, he looked confused at first, but soon understood what the other party meant: "You mean the original commander of the 3rd Division?"
"Yes, that's him I'm talking about."
"During the battle to seize the Triangle, when he led the division to move to the front, he was unfortunately concentrated by German artillery fire and died heroically." After briefly talking about the sacrifice of his predecessor, Kirillov asked tentatively.
: "Did Muzichenko also die like this?"
Ponejelin nodded and said: "Two days ago, the commander called Smirnov, the chief of staff of the 53rd Army, and specifically asked about Muzichenko. Unexpectedly, the other party told the commander that in
During the battle to capture Lviv, due to insufficient artillery preparations, many German fortifications were not destroyed. As Muzichenko moved forward with the division, he was suddenly attacked when passing these German fortifications.
.Although they fought tenaciously, most of the commanders and fighters died in the battle, and Muzichenko was one of them."
Kirillov's eyes were red. He raised his hand to wipe away the tears that came from his eyes, and asked with a choked voice: "Where is his body buried? I want to wait for the war to end and go to his grave to see him."
"The specific location is unclear." Ponejelin said: "But don't worry, once the war is over, I will go with you to pay homage to him. After all, we are friends of life and death."
"By the way, there is one more thing. I am considering whether I should report it to the commander."
"whats the matter?"
"I sent a reconnaissance team some time ago to conduct reconnaissance behind enemy lines." Kirillov said: "In the reconnaissance report I received, the scouts discovered a prisoner of war camp in which more than 2,000 of our prisoners were detained.
Army commanders and combatants."
When Ponijelin heard this, he immediately became interested: "We found a prisoner of war camp holding more than 2,000 commanders and combatants? I wonder when these commanders and combatants were captured?"
Kirillov knew that the purpose of Ponedelin's question was to find out whether these captured commanders and fighters could be directly incorporated into the army if the prisoner of war camp was liberated. He shook his head slowly and said: "Deputy
Comrade Commander, I think I am going to disappoint you. These commanders and fighters were not captured when our army liberated Belarus, nor were they captured after our army entered Poland. They were captured during the Battle of Kiev in September 1941.
Captured by the Germans."
"What, captured in the Battle of Kiev?" You know, the Battle of Kiev is known as the largest battle of annihilation in human military history. The Soviet army lost 700,000 people, and more than 600,000 others were captured. But Ponedelin
Still raised his own question: "Since he was captured in the Battle of Kiev, why was he imprisoned by the Germans in East Prussia?"
"I think the Germans may have wanted to use this group of prisoners to help them do some work, so they sent a group of prisoners of war to the East Prussia area." Kirillov analyzed to Ponedelin: "I think they were sent to
There may be tens of thousands of prisoners of war who came, and most of them died due to various reasons during the labor process, leaving only a few of them."
"Your analysis makes sense." Ponedelin agreed with Kirillov's guess: "Many of our captured commanders and fighters continued to die in prisoner-of-war camps due to hunger, disease and overwork.
I think the prisoner-of-war camp discovered by the scouts should be the survivors of those captured at that time."
This chapter has been completed!