Since the journey was a bit long, if there was no transportation, it would take at least five or six days to go back and forth. Sokov was afraid that the night would be long and the dream would be too long, so he ordered people to use the six military horses seized during the surprise attack on the transfer station to pull sleds.
Before leaving, he reminded Belkin: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, this mission is of great importance. Before we come back, no matter who asks you, you can't reveal any news. Do you understand?"
"Don't worry, Comrade Battalion Commander, I will keep the secret." When Belkin shook hands with Sokov and said goodbye, he specifically told him: "Be careful with safety and look forward to your triumphant return!"
"Don't worry, we will come back safely."
Sokov came to the gathering of the team, looked at the soldiers who were holding their heads and chests, nodded with satisfaction, then waved his hand, and announced with great majesty: "Everyone listens to my order: stand at attention! Turn back, get on the sled! Set off!"
Thirty-one officers and soldiers, including Liansokov, sat on sleds led by six German horses, heading towards Duminic dozens of kilometers away.
Selyossa, who was sitting on the same sled as Sokov, was eager to know what the specific task of the operation was, so he approached Sokov and asked, "Hey, I said Misha, since we have all set out, you always have to tell me what we are going to Duminic to do?"
Unexpectedly, Sokov snorted and said to him in an official voice: "Lieutenant Seryosha, you are also an officer now. Don't you know what to ask and what not to ask?" Seryosha didn't expect that he would hit a soft nail in Sokov, so he could only laugh dryly, leaned back, leaning against the feed pile on the sled to rest.
The route taken by the squad was rarely visited. The snow in the forest was very deep, and the sled led by horses only walked four or five kilometers per hour. Sokov couldn't help but secretly thankful that if there were no horses and sleds, the soldiers would be allowed to carry their own weapons and supporting ammunition and travel in the waist-deep snow, up to one or two kilometers per hour. It would take at least two days to complete these fifty kilometers. Even when they arrived at the destination, the soldiers would be unable to enter the battle immediately because they were exhausted.
When they arrived at the destination, it was already midnight. Fortunately, there was a moon in the sky, so Sokov and others discovered the location of the concentration camp in time.
Sokov looked at the small concentration camp in the distance with a telescope, which was no different from the ones he had seen before. The entire camp was surrounded by barbed double-layer wire. Near the entrance, there was a four or five-meter-high wooden guardhouse with machine guns on it and a searchlight swinging back and forth. He was scanning the wooden houses in the prisoner-of-war camp in case any prisoners of war sneak out of it.
"Comrade Valerian," Sokov put down his telescope and asked in confusion: "I don't understand what the significance of building such a prisoner of war camp in this place where the Germans do not have a shop in front of the village?"
"It is said that this is a place where the Germans specially built to detain officers," Although it is still five or six hundred meters away from the prisoner-of-war camp, Valerian still habitually lowered his voice when he spoke. "When I was imprisoned here, I had seen two generals."
"General, have we been imprisoned here?" Selyosha, who was lying on the other side of Sokov, was immediately excited when he heard that there was a captured general in the prisoner-of-war camp, "Misha, if we can rescue a general from here, we will make great contributions."
Hearing Selyosha say this, Sokov couldn't help laughing, thinking that even if there are ten generals in this prisoner-of-war camp, they are not as important as Yakov. He turned around and ordered Selyosha: "Shelyosha, you can lead two squads of soldiers to cut off the wire and enter the prisoner-of-war camp and kill the guards inside. Do you understand?"
After receiving the order, Selyosha asked habitually: "How many guards are there?"
"Only twenty." Valerian replied, "After darkness, except for the guards and sentries at the door, the rest of the guards sleep in the wooden house on the left side of the entrance."
When she learned that there were only twenty guards in the prisoner-of-war camp, Selyosha grinned and confidently said to Sokov: "Misha, don't worry, I will let these guards meet God in their sleep."
Selyosha and the soldiers approached the barbed wire smoothly. The two soldiers cut the barbed wire with their pliers, and then climbed in through the cut gap, preparing to cut the second barbed wire. Selyosha thought to himself that this action was so simple that the enemy had no idea at all, so we successfully entered the prisoner-of-war camp.
At this moment, a loud "boom" sound suddenly came, and a dazzling flame rose between the two barbed wire mesh. A soldier holding pliers flew into the air with his hands and feet dancing and fell heavily, causing a bigger explosion.
"Hey, it's a minefield!" Sheryossa never dreamed that the Germans would lay out minefields between two barbed wire mesh. According to his experience, the passage between the two barbed wire mesh should be a guard patrol area, so how can landmines be buried?
The explosion of the mine alarmed the sentry at the guardhouse and the door. The searchlight immediately swept towards the location where Selyoscis and the others were. The soldiers of the two squads were instantly exposed to the strong light of the searchlight. As soon as the target was locked, the machine gun at the guardhouse and the door were aimed at the location where Selyoscis and the others were fired.
Several soldiers who were caught off guard immediately fell under the dense machine gun fire. The remaining soldiers hurriedly lay down on the spot and fought back at the German machine guns. The gunshots alarmed the sleeping guards in the wooden house. They rushed out with guns and dressed in disorganized clothes. While firing, they approached the direction where Selyoshao and the others were.
Sokov, on the other side of the prisoner-of-war camp, saw this and immediately ordered the soldiers around him: "Snipers, remove the machine guns and searchlights; machine gunners, use firepower to block the German road ahead, and do not let them get close to Selyosha and the others."
With the order issued, the searchlight on the guardhouse was first knocked out. After the German army lost its shooting target, the gunshots immediately became sparse. The guards who were rushing towards Selyosha and the others were blocked by machine guns and had to lie down on the spot and fight back at Sokov and the others.
Seeing that the enemy's firepower was weak, Selyosha immediately ordered the soldiers to explode the wire with grenades, rushed into the prisoner's camp quickly, and detoured from the rear of the guards.
The battle lasted for more than ten minutes, and all the guards in the prisoner camp were eliminated. But the squad also paid a considerable price, with five people killed and seven people injured.
Sokov came to the gate of the prisoner-of-war camp and ordered Selyosha who was commanding the soldiers to open the door: "Prince Selyosha, the gunshots may have alarmed the nearby enemies. We need to transfer immediately and let all prisoners of war come out of the wooden house immediately."
Sokov's order was soon conveyed. When the prisoners who were staying in the wooden house heard the gunshots outside, they guessed that it might be their own troops to rescue them. When they saw the Soviet uniforms kicking open the closed wooden door and rushing in, they couldn't help but burst into tears.
But these soldiers didn't bother to greet them, but shouted loudly at them: "Comrades, leave here quickly, the enemy is coming soon!" After shouting, they walked to the wooden bed where the prisoners of war were sleeping and shouted the prisoners who were still asleep one by one.
Sokov stood at the entrance of the prisoner-of-war camp and saw his soldiers walking out of the prisoner-of-war camp with teams of vertically-printed prisoners one after another and heading towards the sled. He wanted Valerian to identify whether there were Yakov among these people, but there was no one around. He couldn't help but shout loudly: "Valerian, Valerian, where are you?"
"Comrade Battalion Commander," replied a sniper standing next to him, "He was dead. He had just been killed by a German machine gun, and the body was parked in the place where we had just lurked."
When Sokov heard that Valerian had died, he couldn't help but feel a headache. He thought to himself that I don't know Yakov, so I can't ask loudly here: Who is Stalin's son Yakov?
Selyosha and his men cleared the camp and confirmed that no prisoners of war were left out. Then he ran over to report to Sokov. Along the way, he shouted loudly: "Major Sokov, I have checked it, and there is no prisoner of war inside."
Chapter completed!