Sokov clearly remembers that German prisoners were paraded through the streets of Moscow on July 17, 1944. This parade, known as a special military parade, was named "The Great Waltz" by the Soviet Union, which was a mockery of its name.
These Germans.
But somehow, out of the 160,000 German officers and soldiers captured in Belarus, only 57,000 were left after arriving in Moscow. There is no accurate record of where the remaining prisoners of war went.
The prisoners of war who arrived in Moscow were divided into 90 square formations by the Soviet army. The formation stretched for more than 3 kilometers. At the front of the formation were 19 German generals. The medals they wore on their chests used to symbolize glory, but now they represent shame.
German officers and soldiers in tattered clothes and haggard faces followed them, their eyes full of fear, in sharp contrast to the Moscow people around them who looked happy with victory.
On the day of the parade, there was a rare high temperature in Moscow, which caused thousands of prisoners of war to suffer from heat exhaustion during the parade. It is not known whether it was accidental or deliberate, but there was something wrong with the food the prisoners had the day before, which caused many prisoners of war to suffer from heat exhaustion during the parade.
Diarrhea occurred during the parade. Without a chance to go to the toilet, they pooped directly on the asphalt road, completely destroying their dignity. The entire "military parade" lasted for nearly 6 hours, and filth was also accompanied all the way. In the end, this
The captured troops were disbanded not far from the Kremlin, and were loaded onto trains and transported to various prison camps.
As soon as the "Military Parade" ended, Moscow's sprinkler fleet was dispatched to clean the streets to prevent the city from being stinky. The filth symbolized the German aggression, which devastated the Soviet Union. The cleaning of the sprinkler trucks was not only
It is to tidy up the road surface, and it also means to wash away all the shame caused by the invaders.
The next day, the Soviets also publicized the matter in the newspapers and periodicals, with a very eye-catching headline: The Germans entered Moscow in this manner.
"Comrade Deputy Commander," Sokov no longer discussed with Ponedelin the relationship between the Soviet Union and Britain and the United States after the war. What he was most concerned about at the moment was how many prisoners could be captured and provided to the front army headquarters: "There are more prisoners nearby.
How many are the enemy of the establishment?”
When Ponedelin heard what Sokov said, he couldn't help but be stunned, and then asked: "Comrade Commander, why do you ask this?"
"I just said that the front army headquarters asked us to provide prisoners of war, probably to show our allies the results we have achieved." Sokov said to Ponedelin: "I want to know if there are any organized German troops nearby.
, after the chief of staff brings the remaining troops to join us, I plan to conduct an attack to try to capture more prisoners and provide them to the front army headquarters."
After figuring out Sokov's intentions, Ponedelin pointed to the map and said to him: "According to the information provided by the guerrillas, there are German troops stationed here, with about two regiments."
"There are only two regiments," Sokov said with a sneer: "I originally wanted to wait for the chief of staff to bring the remaining troops before attacking the nearby enemies. But I didn't expect that there would be a piece of fat right now.
There is no reason not to eat him before us."
"Comrade Commander, I think it's better to wait." Ponedelin waited for Sokov to finish and persuaded: "Whether the information provided by the guerrillas is accurate, we still need to send people to verify it. It is confirmed that the German army only has two
With the strength of a regiment, it will not be too late for us to launch an attack."
"Yes, Comrade Commander, I think the Deputy Commander is right." Kirillov echoed from the side: "Although the information was provided by the guerrillas, the degree of authenticity is very high. But we must also consider that the German army
We have suffered a heavy blow recently. Many troops were defeated, but they regrouped in a new place. Although there were only two regiments in this place some time ago, no one can guarantee whether there are defeated troops. Rush over and fight with them.
They meet up."
Seeing that Kirillov expressed his concerns, Ponedelin added: "If we do not understand the specific situation of the enemy and launch an attack rashly, we will have fewer troops and cannot defeat the enemy; if we have too many troops, we will not be able to defeat the enemy."
It will definitely affect our use of troops in other areas."
"Okay then." Sokov felt that what the two men said made sense, and nodded in agreement: "Immediately send out a reconnaissance team to conduct reconnaissance of the German deployment in the area, find out how many troops they have, and then decide how many to use.
Use your troops to destroy them."
Seeing that Sokov agreed to send a reconnaissance team to conduct reconnaissance and find out the true strength of the enemy, Kirillov then decided to send how many troops to attack. He faithfully performed his duties as acting chief of staff, picked up the phone and called the following
The troops issued an order to immediately send scouts to the location of the German army to conduct reconnaissance.
Besides, the 122nd Brigade led by Milesiev was already approaching the German prisoner-of-war camp.
Meresyev ordered the troops to stop, then called the translator and said to him: "Comrade translator, please take two soldiers over to take a look and find out how many enemies there are in the prisoner of war camp."
The translator, who was wearing the uniform of a German second lieutenant, heard the order given to him by Miresiev and said hesitantly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if the Germans ask us which part we are in, how should I answer?"
"Just say that the members of our 35th Army came here after going through a lot of hardships after being defeated by the Russians." Seeing that the translator was so timid, Milesiev felt a little more dissatisfied with him.
: "Just tell us to go in and change defenses and ask them to open the door for us."
"But Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what if they hear that we are here to change defenses and ask me for relevant documents?"
"It's all about me." Miresiev said impatiently: "Stop dawdling, hurry up and get there."
Looking at the backs of the translator and the two soldiers, Milesiev's dissatisfaction with him reached a high point. He regretted that when he met Sokov, he did not ask for two people who knew German, so that he would not be able to speak German.
He will be as passive as he is now.
Fortunately, what happened next was not as bad as Miresiev feared. Not long after, the translator who went to the prisoner of war camp came back with someone and reported to Miresiev: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel
, good news, I have already negotiated with the German commander, and he will lead his troops to greet you outside the camp gate."
"Oh, the German commander came out to greet me in person?"
"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I said it was the German commander who came out to greet you." The translator, who was still nervous when he went to the prisoner of war camp, was in high spirits now: "They got the news and knew that our army has obtained military equipment everywhere.
Having won the victory, some of the soldiers' morale was unavoidably shaken. Now that they saw someone willing to switch defenses with them and take over the job of guarding the prisoners of war, they simply couldn't ask for more. They didn't even bother to ask me for any documents. The commander of the prisoner of war camp even offered to lead someone in the camp.
We’ll greet you outside the door.”
Since the Germans had relaxed their vigilance against him, Milesiev naturally wanted what he wanted and immediately led his troops to rush over.
When we arrived at the place, we saw two to three hundred German troops lined up outside the prisoners of war. Standing at the front of the queue was a major. When he saw Milesiev's arrival, he hurriedly came up to him. After raising his hands in salute, he chirped.
Wala started talking. Milesiev could not understand what he was saying, so he could only turn to the translator for help.
Now the German commander was only two or three meters away from Milesiev. Even if he spoke close to Milesiev's ear, the German officer on the opposite side might hear him. For a moment, the situation seemed quite embarrassing.
Seeing that Milesiev ignored him, the German commander thought that the other party had not heard clearly, and charged loudly again. But not to mention that Milesiev did not understand, even if he did, he would not know what to do.
How to respond to the other party.
Meresiev looked over the shoulder of the German commander and looked into the prisoner of war camp. He saw a sandbag fortification with a machine gun near the door. After entering the door, there was a bungalow on the right side, with clothes hanging to dry outside.
From the looks of it, this should be the residence of the German guards. In the distance are the wooden houses where the prisoners of war camp lived, dotted in the middle of the prisoner of war camp.
After looking at the terrain, Miresiev found that except for the four guard towers that were on duty, the rest of the German troops should have been brought out by the German commander to greet him. "Let's do it," seeing that the enemy had no precautions and only had his own strength.
A quarter of the time, Miresyev ordered to the people around him: "Arrest them all!"
Upon hearing Miresiev's words, the soldiers immediately swarmed forward and pointed their weapons at the German guards who were lined up outside the prisoner of war camp. The German commanders realized this when they heard Miresiev giving orders in Russian.
Something was wrong. When I saw the other side's troops pointing their guns at themselves, I understood even more that there was something wrong with these soldiers wearing German uniforms.
Although most of the German troops were disarmed, the sentries at the sentry box noticed something was wrong. They pressed the alarm switch, picked up their weapons, and fired at the location of the 25th Guards Regiment.
Miresiev had known for a long time that even though most of the German guards followed their commanders out of the camp to greet him, the greatest threat to the troops was the sentries in the four sentry towers. Therefore, he controlled the enemy at the entrance of the camp.
Finally, Miresiev divided his troops into four groups and rushed to different guard towers.
The soldiers on the guard tower first disarmed the guards when they saw the incoming troops, and then rushed towards the guard tower where they were standing guard. They fired desperately. Although their bullets caused some commanders and soldiers to fall, the remaining people were still alive.
Boldly rushed towards the guard tower.
The battle ended quickly, and all the soldiers in the guard tower were killed, but the Soviet army also paid the price with 2 dead and 18 wounded.
The prisoners of war who were originally staying in the wooden house couldn't help but feel frightened when they saw the door being opened and a group of people wearing German uniforms rushing in from the outside. Based on their experience, another companion was going to suffer.
But what happened next shocked them. An officer wearing the uniform of a German lieutenant said loudly to them in Russian: "Comrades, you are trapped, we are here to rescue you!"
After the lieutenant finished speaking, the expected cheers did not appear. All the prisoners of war in the room looked at the lieutenant with numb expressions, as if they did not understand what he said at all.
Seeing this, the lieutenant could only order his subordinates to take all the prisoners of war out of the wooden house.
When they arrived at the open space outside the wooden house, when the prisoners were about to line up according to the previous queue, they were surprised to see the arrogant guards in the past standing dejectedly at the other end of the open space. They were surrounded by people who were also wearing German uniforms.
soldiers, whose guns were pointed at the guards of the prisoner of war camp.
A German lieutenant colonel walked into the queue and said to everyone through the loudspeaker: "Comrades, we are from the 25th Regiment of the 6th Guards Division. I am the commander of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Miresiev. We are from the 48th Regiment."
The order from Army Group Commander General Sokov came here to rescue you. Comrades, you have suffered!"
Although these prisoners of war were captured at different times, they had all heard of Sokov's name to some extent. At this moment, when Miresyev said that he had come to rescue them on Sokov's order, a courageous soldier asked tentatively:
"Is it the General Sokov who defeated the Imperial Division and the Skeleton Division?"
"Yes, it's him!"
Hearing Miresyev's affirmative answer, the soldier who asked the question suddenly cheered. He shouted to the prisoners who were still in a state of shock: "Comrades, this is one of our own people who was ordered to serve Sokov."
The general ordered us to come here to meet us."
The originally silent crowd, upon hearing the prisoner of war's words, understood what was going on and cheered immediately.
Miresiev did not interrupt the cheers of the prisoners of war, but quietly waited for them to quiet down.
But after the prisoners of war calmed down, Miresiev continued: "Comrades, this prisoner of war camp is still behind enemy lines. We must move immediately, otherwise when the large German troops surround us, we will not be able to leave if we want to.
.”
When the prisoners of war heard this, they thought, don't you see that your friendly forces have occupied the prisoner of war camp, but if a large German army comes around, it is still unknown how large-scale the two thousand people can withstand the German attack, so
If you can, transfer it as soon as possible.
The transfer started quickly. Since there were no seriously injured prisoners, the transfer was very fast. In less than half an hour, the entire prisoner of war camp was moving in the direction of Baranovich.
During the march, a battalion commander asked Miresyev for instructions: "Comrade Commander, it is basically impossible for such a large unit of ours to walk on the road without being discovered by the enemy. So I would like to ask a question
Ask, what should we do if we encounter the enemy?"
"Comrade Major," Milesiev answered simply to the battalion commander's question: "Needless to say, it goes without saying that I will fire directly at the enemy and eliminate them all before they can react."
"Understood, comrade commander." After the battalion commander figured out what was going on, he quickly said: "I will tell the soldiers that as soon as they see the Germans, they will fire immediately. They must kill them all before they react.
.”
Just after the battalion commander was sent away, another prisoner of war came over and curiously asked Miresiev: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I would like to ask how far we have to go?"
"It's not far," Milesiev said casually, "it's only a few dozen kilometers, so you don't have to worry."
"A few dozen kilometers is not close, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." The prisoner of war reminded Miresiev: "If we encounter the Germans halfway, if we have no weapons, we will not be the opponent of the Germans."
"Don't worry, comrade." Miresiev patted the other party's shoulder twice and comforted him and said: "Although you have no weapons, don't you still have us? We will protect you and return to our army safely.
