"What, let all the prisoners go?" After receiving this order, Papuchenko couldn't believe his ears and quickly asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, did I hear you correctly?"
"No, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko, you heard it right." Sidorin replied: "This is the order of the division commander. Let the prisoners of war move the weapons and ammunition we captured to the square of Workers' New Village and then release them all."
Lose."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Papuchenko asked in confusion, "Why would the division commander issue such an order?"
"Didn't you capture thousands of prisoners?" Sidorin explained to Papuchenko: "Firstly, we don't have so much food to feed these prisoners, and secondly, we can't send them to the prisoner-of-war camp on the other side.
In this case, tell me, what should we do? Can't we just shoot them all?"
If he only shot a few dozen prisoners who had committed the most heinous crimes, Papuchenko could still accept it, but if he killed thousands of prisoners at once, what was the difference between that and inhuman animals? He was very resistant to such a thing in his heart. Listen.
After Sidorin's explanation, he immediately understood why the division commander made such a decision, and quickly replied: "Understood, Comrade Chief of Staff. I will release the prisoners immediately after they move the ammunition to the central square."
In order to avoid accidents, Papuchenko did not announce this order prematurely. He only urged the soldiers to take the prisoners and transport the captured weapons and ammunition back to the central square of the Workers' New Village as soon as possible.
Seeing that the prisoners had almost finished moving their things, he ordered people to call Vasily and the commander of the second battalion to them and said to them: "Comrades, two battalion commanders, wait until the prisoners have moved all the weapons and ammunition to the square.
Rush outside the residential area and let him go." He did not explain the specific reason, but in order to prevent the two of them from questioning his order, he finally emphasized, "This is an order personally issued by the division commander, go and execute it."
When Captain Vasily heard the order to release all the prisoners of war, he really wanted to argue with Papuchenko, but when he heard that it was Sokov who gave the order, he swallowed back what he was about to say.
He nodded and turned back to his troops.
After the prisoners had loaded the ammunition, they assembled in units of hundreds on the square in accordance with the orders of the Soviet commanders. While the assembly was still going on, some soldiers were thinking, will the Russians distribute food to themselves later?
You know, I haven't eaten anything since noon, and I'm so hungry that my chest is pressed against my back.
Unexpectedly, after completing the assembly, the Romanian officers and soldiers discovered that the Russians not only failed to distribute food to them, but also drove them westward. Although the Romanian army never massacred civilians or prisoners of war after entering the Soviet Union, they witnessed it with their own eyes.
I had seen those beasts of the SS do this kind of thing, and now I saw the Russians driving me out of the residential area, and my first reaction was to prepare myself to be driven out and shot.
A timid soldier was so frightened that he peed. He turned to the Soviet soldiers behind him and cried: "Please, please spare me. I have never done anything bad. Please, please let me go."
…”
The soldiers of the new battalion responsible for driving them away could not understand Romanian, so they just hit him on the waist with the submachine gun in their hands and said coldly: "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and move forward, hurry up!"
The rest of the Romanian soldiers who felt that something was wrong also began to cry to the soldiers of the new battalion, hoping that they would spare their lives. The Soviet commanders and soldiers, who were suffocating, did not bother to explain to them, so they pointed at them with the butts of their rifles.
The prisoners who screamed the loudest were smashed, making them shut up obediently.
When all the prisoners of war were driven outside the residential area, Captain Vasily, who was accompanied by an interpreter, walked in front of them with a straight face and said loudly to them: "Soldiers, you are free, now go back to your
Go to your own position."
When the translator translated Captain Vasily's words, all the Romanian officers and soldiers were stunned. They never imagined that the Russians would drive them outside the residential area and prepare to shoot them. Who knew that the Russians were going to release them?
.Some soldiers who were crying with joy quickly knelt down on the ground and began to cross themselves desperately on their chests to thank God for their grace.
Some of the prisoners were standing there in a daze, while others were kneeling on the ground and praying, but no one left. Captain Vasily became a little impatient. He repeated what he just said again, but still no one moved. Vasily
He turned around and winked at the soldier behind him, and the soldier who understood the situation quickly pulled the bolt of his gun.
Hearing the sound of the gun bolt, the prisoners immediately became alert. They looked at the soldier in horror to see what he would do next. The soldier raised his gun and hit the prisoners' heads with a "click, click, click"
, and then shouted at them: "Get out of here, or if you don't, I will shoot you."
Unexpectedly, his words had an unexpected effect. A Romanian soldier who knew a little Russian muttered a few words to his companions around him, and then imitated the soldiers and shouted: "Get out of here, do you hear me?
Get out of here, why don't you shoot!"
Hearing the shouts of their companions, the prisoners began to move. At first, a few people took a few steps forward slowly. Seeing that the soldiers of the New First Battalion around them showed no signs of shooting, they quickened their pace. Seeing their own
Their companions were not shot. The Romanian soldiers finally believed that the Soviet army was really preparing to release them, so they took action and walked quickly towards their positions.
The soldier was still waving his arms in the crowd and shouted excitedly in broken Russian: "Get out of here, don't you hear me? Get out of here, why not shoot!" I heard the grammatically incorrect German in his mouth.
, looking at his extremely exaggerated body movements, the soldiers standing around burst out laughing.
After releasing all the prisoners, Captain Vasily led his troops back to the central square. Papuchenko, who had been waiting here for a long time, immediately came up to shake hands with him and said politely: "Thank you for your hard work.
Comrade Captain."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!" Vasily stood straight in front of Papuchenko and asked respectfully: "What is our next task?"
Papuchenko turned around and pointed at the mountains of weapons and ammunition, and said: "According to the orders of superiors, except for these anti-tank guns and supporting ammunition, you will bring the rest of the weapons and ammunition back to Mamaye."
Fu Gang."
Vasily glanced at the ammunition boxes, and then asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I would like to ask, is this an order from the division commander?"
"That's right, it's really the division commander's order." Papuchenko also specifically explained to Vasily: "The division commander said that if we want to use these weapons and ammunition, we need to change equipment on a large scale, which will affect the troops in a short period of time.
It will have an adverse impact on its combat effectiveness. Therefore, the easiest way is to hand it over to the downsized regiment. After all, you have always been equipped with German weapons."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," faced with the mountain of ammunition, Vasily knew very well that he would have to rely on hundreds of soldiers under his command to carry it on their shoulders. It would take at least an entire night, and he pointed to the few tractors on the edge of the square.
He asked Papuchenko tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can we use those trucks to transport ammunition?"
"Oh, those trucks are no problem." Papuchenko reminded Vasily: "Comrade Captain, although we have released all the Romanian prisoners, they will not shell us in a short period of time. But the Germans said no.
Qing, maybe after they learn that the Romanian army has been completely destroyed, they will retaliate against us and cover this area with artillery fire, so you must move quickly."
"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." After hearing Papuchenko's worries, Vasily said confidently: "We will definitely be able to move all the weapons and ammunition in the square before the enemy's shelling begins."
In fact, their worries were unnecessary. The two battalions that attacked Workers' New Village were completely wiped out. Although the thousands of captured soldiers were released, they lost the equipment of the two battalions and eight German-style weapons.
Anti-tank gun. For such a shameful thing, the Romanian officers had no time to cover it up. How could they take the initiative to report it to the Germans?
It was precisely because the Romanian officers concealed their failure from the Germans, and because the Germans were troubled by the fact that all the ammunition stored in the town of Gorodishe was blown up by the Soviet army, they did not have the energy to ask the Romanians.
Moreover, they have always looked down upon the army of the slave country. Because of this, Captain Vasily and his men were able to successfully transport the captured ammunition back to Mamayev Heights.
Knowing that Vasily had transported all the ammunition back to Mamayev Heights, Sokov personally called Belgin and said to him: "Comrade Political Commissar, this is Sokov. I heard that Vasily has already
Did you bring the ammunition back?"
"Yes, Comrade Division Commander." Belkin, who had already served as regimental commander, felt warm in his heart when he heard Sokov still called himself political commissar. "How do you plan to distribute this batch of ammunition?"
"Captain Andrei's third battalion has been fighting the enemy in the old city." Sokov had already had a distribution plan in mind for this batch of ammunition, but when Belkin asked about it, he had no idea.
Reservation said: "You immediately arrange for manpower and send them some ammunition."
"Yes!" Belkin replied respectfully: "I will immediately arrange manpower to send ammunition to Captain Andre's troops."
"Also," Sokov added: "Although the number of soldiers in the third battalion sounds large, most of them are temporarily armed residents, and their combat effectiveness is still too weak. It just so happens that your regiment has not had any combat missions recently, so
We will transfer key combat personnel from the New First Battalion and the New Second Battalion to the Third Battalion to improve the combat effectiveness of the Third Battalion in the shortest possible time."
"Understood." After Belkin agreed, he asked cautiously: "Comrade division commander, I would like to ask, when will the Marine Corps Battalion be restored?"
"The Marine Battalion is currently assisting the 122nd Guards Regiment in defending the Workers' New Village," Sokov thought for a moment and replied, "I'm afraid it won't be able to return to construction before November."
"What about after November?" Belkin asked.
Sokov thought that the battle to defend Stalingrad would enter its most difficult days in November, and the troops stationed in Workers' New Village would probably be almost exhausted by then. Maybe he would also transfer Belgin's shrinking regiment there to strengthen it.
Defense, no matter how many people are left in the Marine Corps battalion, it will be able to return to the formation of the Marine Corps, so he simply replied: "Don't worry, Comrade Political Commissar, I will definitely let the Marine Corps Battalion return to the formation in November."
This chapter has been completed!