Chapter 157 Tooth for Tooth and Blood for Blood (Part 2)
Vasily, who led three platoons to attack from the east, was blocked by the Germans, but their situation was better than that of the troops attacking from the front. The Germans did not dig trenches in this direction, but hid in the original village Soviet
House, shot from the window.
Upon seeing this, Vasily quickly ordered three rows of eight MG34 machine guns to line up and aim at the wooden house more than 200 meters away. Under the fire of the MG34 machine guns, the seemingly solid wooden walls were destroyed inch by inch by dense bullets.
Smashed into pieces, splinters of wood flew up like feathers. As long as the German soldiers who were hiding behind the window and shooting were hit by bullets, if they were lucky, they would be cut into two pieces; if they were unlucky, they would be beaten directly into pieces.
minced meat.
There were only about twenty people in the room. In less than five minutes, half of them were sent to see God by the German-made MG34. The remaining soldiers knew that if they continued to resist, they could only follow in the footsteps of these people and act decisively immediately.
The land chose to surrender.
Seeing that the German troops had waved the white flag and surrendered, Vasily left two machine guns behind and continued to monitor. He rushed forward with the remaining soldiers to capture the prisoners. When a platoon leader and his men came from the south of the village, he saw the surrendering German troops.
Walking out of the house with hands raised.
Seeing a platoon leader appear here, Vasily knew in his heart that the fighting on the other side of the village was over, but he still asked habitually: "Is the fighting on the south side of the village over? What are the casualties of our company?"
"
"The battle is over," the platoon leader replied in a somewhat serious tone: "There were more than thirty casualties, including seventeen dead, three seriously injured, and a machine gun lost."
"Where's the battalion commander?" Although the casualties were less than he thought, Vasily's heart was still uneasy. He then asked: "He is not injured, is he?"
"No, Comrade Battalion Commander didn't hurt a single hair!" A platoon leader shook his head and said in an admiring tone: "Although he is rushing to the front of the team, the German bullets seem to be going around him. Yes.
He was the first to rush to the trench and used grenades to blow up the German soldiers hiding inside until they could no longer hold up and had no choice but to surrender!"
After learning that Sokov was safe and sound, the stone hanging in Vasily's heart finally fell to the ground. He knew very well that once the battalion commander was injured in the battle, no matter what the reason was, he would not be able to escape the blame.
."Where is the battalion commander?"
"The battalion commander took people to the church and prepared to rescue all the villagers detained there."
"Third platoon leader," Vasily waited for the first platoon leader to finish speaking, and then shouted to the third platoon leader standing not far away: "Come to me!"
After the third platoon leader came to him, Vasily told him: "I'm going to the church to see the battalion commander. I'll leave the aftermath here to you."
When Vasily was observing the terrain before the attack, he saw a church built of logs in the middle of the village. He guessed that Sokov should be there at the moment, so he led a soldier in that direction.
When he came to the square near the church, he saw Sokov being surrounded by hundreds of villagers. One of them, a well-proportioned, plump middle-aged woman wearing a headscarf, was holding Sokov's hand, feeling emotional.
He was talking excitedly. Vasily walked over and stood outside the crowd. He vaguely heard the middle-aged woman saying: "...My good brother, thank you for saving the lives of our whole village. If you had come a little later,
, we will all be killed by the Germans..."
"Comrade women," Sokov quickly interrupted when he waited for the nagging woman to finish speaking: "Actually, if you want to thank, just thank Varodya and Anton. If they hadn't come to report to us in time,
, we didn’t know you were in danger yet!”
"Volodya, my dear son," the middle-aged woman let go of Sokov's hand, leaned over and kissed Volodya who was standing next to him twice on the face, "You are
Well done, both you and Anton are well done, you saved the lives of the whole village."
"Comrade Battalion Commander," Vasily, who was standing behind the crowd, felt that he should take advantage of Volodya's mother and child to come to the rescue, so he raised his voice and shouted: "I have something to report to you.
"The villagers surrounding Sokov, after hearing Vasily's voice, quickly moved to both sides to make way for Sokov.
Sokov walked out of the crowd, came to Vasily, and asked: "Comrade Captain, how is the situation there? Are there many casualties?"
"Two soldiers were sacrificed and five were wounded." Vasily replied truthfully: "We killed fifteen German soldiers and captured eleven alive."
Not long ago, Sokov learned from Volodya's mother that it was the SS who massacred the villagers, and the German soldiers he captured were all Wehrmacht soldiers, not even one SS, so he took a chance.
Asked: "Comrade Captain, are there any SS soldiers among the prisoners you captured?"
"Yes, there were three or four, I can't remember clearly." Vasily turned around and ordered the soldiers who came to him: "Go back and tell the third platoon leader to bring the captured SS soldiers here."
After the soldiers left, Sokov asked Vasily: "Do you understand German?"
"No." Vasily blushed and said, "I only know two or three words, and I learned them from Asya. By the way, comrade battalion commander, why are you asking this?"
"What else can be done, of course, is to interrogate the prisoners and ask them why they massacred the villagers." After learning that Vasily did not understand German, Sokov said with some disappointment: "It is a pity that Asya and Ernst are not here.
Here, if we are in charge, we can let them help interrogate the prisoners."
The German officers and soldiers captured in the battle were quickly escorted over. When they approached the square, someone shouted: "Kill them and avenge our relatives!" Then snowballs and mud fell.
It rained down on the prisoners.
The mud blocks and snowballs thrown by the villagers certainly hit the prisoners and forced them to turn sideways, but some of them accidentally injured the soldiers holding the prisoners. Sokov was afraid that the situation would get out of control, so he quickly shouted: "
Comrades, calm down, please stay calm!" But the shouts were drowned out by the voices of the excited villagers. Fortunately, Vasily next to him shouted twice, and the excited villagers stopped.
The prisoners were brought in front of Sokov. A German sergeant walked out of the queue and said in broken Russian: "Mr. Major, we have laid down our weapons and stopped resisting. I ask you to give us the treatment that a prisoner of war deserves."
"
Hearing that the German sergeant in front of him actually understood Russian, Sokov couldn't help showing a surprised expression on his face. He looked at him and asked in surprise: "You speak Russian?"
"Yes, I am Lian Li's translator."
Although the sergeant's Russian grammar was full of mistakes and the words he used were not accurate enough, Sokov could still understand what he meant. He nodded and asked: "Sergeant, I can treat the prisoners preferentially and give you a prisoner of war."
They deserve the treatment they deserve, but please tell me why you massacre the villagers?"
"Mr. Major, we did not massacre the villagers. We are the National Defense Forces. According to military regulations, we cannot massacre unarmed peaceful residents casually." After the sergeant glanced at the angry crowd in front of him, he replied tremblingly: "Carry out massacre.
It's the SS, it has nothing to do with us."
"It's him, it's him!" A short old woman with a stooped back rushed out from the crowd and pulled out a German soldier wearing a steel helmet from the third row of prisoners.
He cried and said: "He was the one who took my husband to the outside of the village and killed him. Comrade commander, do you want to make the decision for us?"
"Tell me," Sokov saw from the other man's collar badge that he was a commando team leader, so he walked up to him and asked through gritted teeth: "Why are you massacring the villagers?" After that, he gestured to stand.
The German sergeant next to him helped him translate.
Unexpectedly, before the sergeant could translate, the commando team leader said rebelliously: "I am also following orders!"
"It's great that you understand Russian." Sokov stared at him and asked coldly: "What order?"
"An order to clear out the Jews." The team leader glanced at the villagers next to him and said with a sneer: "The Jews are the lowest ethnic group and should be completely wiped out from this world. The order I received is to clear out the occupied areas.
of all Jews.”
"You bastard," the old woman heard the squad leader say, and while hitting the other party with her fist, she cursed: "Are you still human? You will definitely be punished for doing so many bad things."
"They are not human beings," Sokov gritted his teeth and said, "They are just two-legged beasts. We must treat beasts the same way we treat beasts." At this point, he said to Vasily, "Vasily
Captain Seely, lock up all the prisoners of the National Defense Force in the church."
"What about these SS prisoners?" When the soldiers escorted the Wehrmacht prisoners to the church, Vasily pointed to the three SS prisoners standing alone and asked Sokov: "
What should they do with it?"
Sokov glanced at Vasily and said with a normal expression: "Leave them to the villagers for disposal. The blood debt must be paid with blood."
When Vasily heard what Sokov said, he was stunned for a moment, and then he understood. He waved his hand to his subordinates and led them to the other side.
When the squad leader saw the villagers surrounding him, he immediately realized something was wrong. He rushed forward and grabbed Sokov's arm, begging and pleading: "Mr. Major, please, don't hand me over to them. Please."
you!"
Sokov raised his hand, broke away from the team leader's hand, and walked aside expressionlessly. Behind him, the villagers who had lost their loved ones yelled and cursed and rushed towards the three henchmen who had lost the ability to resist.
Amidst the banging sounds of their bodies being punched and kicked, the screams of the SS prisoners gradually weakened until finally they were completely silent.