Bukeca Village is a small village. Before the war broke out, there were more than 200 villagers here.
They are all Ukrainians, and they all fled from Ukraine to this forest in Belarus during the civil war. They wanted to live a life without fighting against the world, but after the civil war, the village became a small collective.
farm.
The authorities arrested several White Russian bandits who had fled into the village, even though they declared they would not be loyal to the Tsar.
Since the end of the turbulent era in the early 1920s, the residents of this village have finally lived a quiet and peaceful life. Even the great purges that spread throughout the alliance in the 1930s did not affect this place. The authorities later cut a road in the forest.
In order to improve transportation, the village Soviet organized villagers to cut down wood and transport it out, and also transported out some products in the forest to exchange currency.
If there is no war, their life without fighting against the world will definitely continue.
The war changed everything.
The German army quickly occupied Ukraine and Belarus, but they could not deploy a large number of troops to guard non-important areas in the occupied areas, so in many villages, except for leaving a very small number of soldiers, they had puppet troops guarding them.
In terms of the administrative division of the occupied areas, the village of Bukcha fell under the jurisdiction of the "Ukrainian National Council". This puppet regime was a supporter of the German army. The reason was that a considerable number of Ukrainians resented the Great Famine in the early 1930s and
Seeing it as Stalin's conspiracy. Based on the principle that the enemy of the enemy is a friend, they are happy to serve the German army.
Some Ukrainians hope to establish a Ukrainian national government. Therefore, the German army's job of recruiting puppet troops in Ukraine is ten times better than in Belarus!
Turov Town is already a border area under the jurisdiction of the German 74th Division. As for Bukca Village, the German troops stationed here belong to the "Southern Army Group".
Belarus and Ukraine have a natural dividing line. In addition to the Pripet Swamp, there is a narrow forest area extending east-west derived from the upper reaches of the Pripet River.
In these virgin forests, there are actually more deer than people. The total number of villages counted by the German army is only fifteen! As for the residents, the total population is less than 10,000.
The German army occupied the village of Buktsa, arrested and killed all members of the village Soviet, and further searched for the Jews in the village but did not find them.
Because the villagers were all Ukrainians, the German army saw that they had no intention of resisting and did not harm them. They established a new village chief in the village and recruited more than a dozen villagers to become puppet soldiers of the "National Committee".
The German army did not believe that they would be absolutely compliant, so they stationed another platoon in the village.
Because the German army found a large amount of exposed rosin in the forest, and deliberately took advantage of the transportation advantage of the dirt road across the forest. After the village became important, the German army established a concentration camp nearby. Some Jews captured from other places were
Sent here as laborers, they were not only asked to cut down trees, but also collected rosin.
When the Soviet army suddenly attacked, there were still more than 100 prisoners in the concentration camp. Due to long-term hard labor and the sudden drop in temperature after the rain, the physical condition of the prisoners was very bad. The occupying army did not want to lose these labor forces. If
Prisoners died of exhaustion and disease on a large scale, and villagers were either forced to collect rosin, or they rolled up their sleeves and did it themselves.
The German platoon leader already knew that the town of Turov outside the forest was attacked by guerrillas. He did not know the details of the incident, but he also knew that guerrillas launched massacres in Gomel, Lechica and other areas more than a hundred kilometers away.
Fortunately, the heroic German army finally won the victory and recaptured all the cities once occupied by the guerrillas.
The platoon leader was in a good mood. He was also thinking about what good things he could have for dinner. Everyone was tired of eating canned beef. He heard that the villagers found a lot of mushrooms in the woods after the rain. Maybe he could add mushroom soup tonight?
However, he could not eat his last meal.
The battle broke out suddenly, without any warning!
The rain had just ended, and the defenders finally left the humid barracks. They lazily breathed some air at the door, smoked cigarettes, and chatted.
The sound of gunfire suddenly appeared, and bullets from unknown sources instantly knocked down several smoking soldiers.
In fact, before the battle began, the Soviet army had captured more than 20 villagers picking mushrooms in the woods. Vershygora himself was Ukrainian. He talked to the villagers in Ukrainian and quickly calmed the villagers' emotions.
In fact, these villagers were not at all resistant to the sudden arrival of the guerrillas. Anyway, the army of the motherland was coming. In any case, they must be much more merciful than the German army? They did not think that the forty German soldiers were scary.
No one alerted the defenders, and the Soviet pincer offensive caught the Germans by surprise.
The village built on a dirt road was surrounded by 400 people, and the strength of the two sides was ten to one.
The German army was too lazy to harm the villagers, and the Soviet army did not want to harm the villagers. However, most of the more than 200 villagers were still in the village. Outdoors, bullets were raining and grenades exploded one after another. It was really difficult not to be accidentally injured.
Frightened civilians hid in their homes, hiding under beds and hiding in storage boxes. Some picked up sticks and kitchen knives and huddled together, wary of anyone entering the door.
The defenders' firepower was poor. The entire platoon only had two ZB6s and not many bullets.
They quickly retreated and relied on a few wooden houses to resist. At this time, they did not hesitate to take a few civilians as hostages as a last-minute means to save their lives.
However, they didn't even have time to negotiate with the Soviet army. Kill the red-eyed guerrillas and check whether there are any hostages in the room. Anyway, the Germans are continuing to shoot through the window!
"RPG players, now is the time to try new weapons!"
Versigola ordered the wooden house to be blown up. They used the RPG produced by the Guerrilla Republic and hit it with a 70mm high-explosive warhead. The entire wooden house was blown up and collapsed, and all the people inside were killed indiscriminately.
In this way, the three wooden houses that resisted were destroyed one after another, and the battle was basically over.
The speed of the battle exceeded Versigola's imagination, and the attacking force won the victory, with only four of his own men suffering minor injuries.
"Brothers! Arrest all the villagers and escort them to where I am standing. Bring the surrendered German soldiers as well. I forbid you to execute them!"
After giving orders, the trembling male and female villagers were roughly gathered together.
Looking at their frightened looks, Versigola felt a strong sense of discomfort. Obviously they are Ukrainians, and we are all Ukrainians, why are you so frightened? I have liberated you!
Perhaps it was simply because the explosions of the battle petrified them.
Soldiers also found the bodies of civilians and even the bodies of two children in the destroyed buildings.
There were ten corpses of German soldiers collected, including one who was clearly dressed as an officer. There were thirty corpses of civilians. When he heard this report, Versigola understood the reason for the fear of the living villagers.
He coughed twice and shouted in Ukrainian in a high-pitched voice: "Citizens! We are the Soviet Red Army, and you have been liberated! Please don't be afraid! We will not hurt you!"
These words somewhat calmed people's hearts, and the next step was the arduous work of dealing with the aftermath.
There must be traitors among the villagers who work for the enemy. Who is a traitor needs to be interrogated and reported by the villagers themselves. Versigola estimated that these matters should be decided by the regiment commander and the political commissar of the regiment when the large army arrives. At the same time, Balzen of the 84th Division
The battalion commander's attitude is also very important.
He thought of the soldiers of the 84th Division, and suddenly realized that Tokov's men of the 84th Division, who were supposed to be outflanking and blocking the retreat of the escaping enemy, were missing.
Where did they go?
After some questioning, several soldiers pointed to the west: "I saw them running to the west because there were enemies shooting from the west." (To be continued)