red moscow

Chapter 2800 Repeating the same trick

"Comrade Major," Alina thought for a moment and replied, "The action team is now under your command. You have the final say on what to do."

The corners of Sokov's mouth twitched, and he thought to himself that you were talking nicely, but at the critical moment, you would probably emphasize that you are the leader of the team. Basco and Sandor were both brought by you, and they would definitely support you unconditionally by then, so it would be useless for him to say anything.

"Since I have the final say, let the plane wait for us here." Sokov said casually, "This way, after we complete the rescue mission, we can escape from danger as soon as possible."

Just as Sokov was about to close his eyes to rest, Sandor came over and said to him, "Comrade Major, I found that the bullet hole on the right wing has not been repaired at all. Tell me, will it affect the flight?"

When Sokov heard what Sandor said, he looked out the window and saw seven or eight bullet holes on the right wing caused by anti-aircraft machine guns.

"Damn it, why haven't these bullet holes been repaired?" Sokov muttered to himself, then stood up and walked towards the cockpit, wanting to ask Yegor whether such bullet holes would cause problems for the subsequent flight.

Seeing Sokov coming to the cockpit, Yegor asked in surprise: "Comrade Major, what can I do for you?"

"I saw seven or eight bullet holes on the right wing." Sokov looked at Yegor and asked, "I want to know if these bullet holes have any effect on flight?"

Yegor saw Sokov rushing into the cockpit and thought something serious had happened. When he heard the question he asked, he shook his head and said, "Don't worry, Major. A few bullet holes won't cause any harm. Don't worry."

After chatting with Yegor for a while, Sokov stayed in the cockpit. He wanted to see the landing site as soon as possible. If he sat in the back cabin, he would not know where he was until the plane landed.

The maximum flight speed of the transport plane is 265 kilometers per hour, but according to the dashboard display, the plane's flight speed is 230 kilometers per hour. The distance from Mozhaysk to Mogilev is more than 500 kilometers, which means it will take more than two hours to fly.

When the sky in the distance began to brighten, Sokov was secretly surprised. He looked at his watch and said, "We have only been flying for less than an hour, how come it is already dawn?"

Yegor smiled faintly and explained to Sokov: "Comrade Major, we are flying above the clouds. Without the obstruction of the clouds, we can see the dawn more than an hour earlier than those on the ground."

"So that's how it is." Sokov said with an awkward smile: "Yegor, you are really experienced."

After a pause, Sokov continued, "By the way, now that you have returned to the Air Force, when can you restore your original rank?"

Sokov's question was like exposing Yegor's scar. He smiled bitterly and replied, "After I flew back to our army's defense zone and was re-incorporated into the Air Force, I once raised this issue with my superiors. But..."

"But what?" Sokov saw Yegor's expression and knew that he had asked something he shouldn't have asked. But since he had already asked, he could only continue asking: "Don't they agree to restore your military rank and position?"

"That's right, Comrade Major." Yegor nodded in agreement with Sokov's guess: "They said that I was once a prisoner of the Germans and escaped from the enemy-occupied area. My identity still needs to be reviewed and verified."

“When will the results be available?”

"It's hard to say. After all, the entire flight regiment I was in was lost in the war." Yegor continued with a bitter face: "Without my comrades who can prove my identity, it will definitely take them a long time to verify my true identity."

"If they don't trust you, then why do they want you to accompany us on such a dangerous mission?"

"I was able to carry out this mission thanks to you," Yegor explained. "The colonel saw that you knew me and that you were personally assigned by the front's chief of staff, so they temporarily lifted their suspicion of me and arranged for me to carry out this special mission alone."

Sokov had no doubts about Yegor's statement. After all, it was the front chief of staff Sokolovsky who arranged for him to meet the air force colonel. When the other party saw that he knew Yegor, he boldly arranged for him to carry out the mission alone without even an assistant.

After two hours of flying, as the sky grew brighter, Yegor gradually lowered the flight altitude. He looked out the window, carefully observing the ground conditions, and trying to find a suitable landing site.

Sokov saw the plane flying over a city and asked tentatively: "Have we reached Mogilev?"

Yegor turned his gaze to Sokov, nodded slightly, and replied: "Yes, Mogilev is below."

Since the flight destination was told to Yegor privately by Alina, Sokov didn't know the exact landing location, so he asked tentatively: "Yegor, where do you plan to land the plane?"

"The lieutenant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs told me that the prisoner-of-war camp is in a forest more than 20 kilometers northwest of Mogilev." Yegor said, "I plan to choose a landing site close to the prisoner-of-war camp."

Staring at the city where most of the city had been reduced to ruins, Sokov thought of two important figures.

One is Petrovsky, the commander of the 63rd Infantry Army. It was here that he received combat orders from Timoshenko and Voroshilov, and then launched a counterattack against the German army, and recaptured several cities occupied by the German army in one fell swoop. After learning of Petrovsky's achievements, Stalin directly promoted him from colonel to lieutenant general. Later, when the army was surrounded by the German army, Zhukov and Timoshenko directly appointed him as the commander of the 21st Army in order to save his life, and sent planes into the encirclement to pick him up, but he refused. If he had not sacrificed, after the war, even if he could not become a marshal, he should have no problem getting the rank of general.

Another was Major General Romanov, the commander of the 172nd Infantry Division. He led his troops to fight the Germans for days and nights. Finally, he was captured by the Germans because of his injuries during the breakout. After he recovered from his injuries, he escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp with some soldiers and entered the forest to form a guerrilla group. He himself became the leader of the guerrilla group. Unfortunately, in the subsequent battles, he was captured by the Germans again because he was outnumbered by the enemy and was hanged in a small city called Borisov.

There is not much information left in the files about this glorious division commander, so Sokov is not sure whether he is being held in a prisoner-of-war camp or has escaped from the camp and become a guerrilla leader commanding the guerrillas to fight the German army?

As the plane got closer and closer to the ground, Alina, who was sitting in the back cabin, couldn't sit still anymore and ran over to ask, "Are we going to land?"

"Yes, we are going to land." Yegor turned to Alina and said, "Go back and sit down quickly to avoid danger during landing."

Alina agreed and ran back to the cabin at the back, reminding Vasco and Sandor, "The plane is about to land, so you should all sit tight to avoid getting hurt during the landing."

The plane landed in an open space in the woods. The ground here was definitely not as good as the airport runway. The plane inevitably experienced bumps while taxiing. Fortunately, everyone was reminded by Yegor in advance and had made preparations in advance, so they were not thrown to the ground.

When the plane stopped taxiing and the propeller stopped spinning, Yegor breathed a sigh of relief and said to Sokov, "Comrade Major, we're here! It's no more than five kilometers from the prisoner-of-war camp. You have to walk the rest of the way." "No problem." Sokov thought this distance was just right. It would not be easy for the enemy to find us, and we could be transferred in time after the rescue work was completed. He said to Yegor, "Yegor, for safety reasons, you'd better not stay in the plane until we come back, so as not to be discovered by the occasional Germans passing by."

"Don't worry, Comrade Major." Yegor said confidently, "I plan to hide in a place where I can observe the aircraft nearby. This way I won't be discovered by the enemy, and I can also observe the situation of the aircraft at any time."

Sokov agreed and was about to return to the cabin to greet Alina and others to get off the plane, but he heard a scream from behind. Then Alina ran over. She said with a pale face: "Major, Comrade Major, something happened, something serious!"

"What happened?"

"We just looked out the porthole and found a small German force nearby." Alina said in a panic, "They have obviously discovered us and are retreating towards us."

"How many enemies are there?" Sokov asked.

"There are probably about 70 or 80 people." Alina asked, "What should we do next?"

When Sokov learned that there was a small German unit nearby, he thought it was just a small group of seven or eight people, so if he took action earlier, he might be able to escape unscathed. At this moment, he heard that there were about seventy or eighty enemies coming, and Sokov couldn't help but secretly complain in his heart: Don't say there are only five people on the plane, even if there are fifty people, they may not be a match for these people.

He quickly looked out the window and saw a group of German officers and soldiers spreading out in formation, heading towards the location of the plane. Behind them were motorcycles, barrel trucks, trucks, and even two armored vehicles.

Seeing that the Germans actually had armored vehicles, Sokov couldn't help but take a deep breath: his group of people were all lightly armed, and even without armored vehicles, it would be difficult to leave the plane safely. Now that the enemy had armored vehicles, it meant that escaping was basically impossible.

"Comrade Major, what should we do?" The situation at this moment was much more serious than the moment we saw the tanks rushing over yesterday. When the Germans surrounded the planes, we would be unable to escape. So Alina, with a pale face, said helplessly, "Are we just going to sit here until we become prisoners of the Germans?"

"Lieutenant Alina," Shandor spoke first, "even though our chances of successfully breaking out are low, we should still give it a try. When I fire to contain them, you open the hatch and leave immediately. Run as far as you can, and don't become their prisoners."

When Sokov came out of the cockpit, he heard what Sandor said and said, "No, we can't leave the plane now. Once we leave the plane, the Germans can kill us all like a moving target."

"Then what should we do?" Sandor looked at Sokov and asked, "Are we just going to surrender like this?"

Sokov did not say anything, but just stared at the German soldiers getting closer and closer outside the window, and began to think about how he should reverse the unfavorable situation.

Soon, the Germans surrounded the transport plane. Then, a German officer holding a loudspeaker shouted in awkward German: "Listen, people inside, you have been surrounded by us, raise your hands and surrender immediately, otherwise we will open fire immediately."

Yegor walked out of the cockpit, came to Sokov's side, looked at him and asked: "Comrade Major, what should we do now? The Germans have surrounded the plane. Even if we want to escape now, we can't."

"We'll fight them." Basco shouted, "Kill one and we'll break even. Kill two and we'll make another."

"Sergeant Basco," Sokov said to stop the impulsive Basco, "Isn't it easy? You just need to open the hatch and shoot outside. In less than a minute, you will be shot to pieces."

After hearing what Sokov said, Basco immediately shut up and stopped talking.

"Comrade Major," Yegor whispered to Sokov, "Is there any way for us to escape?"

"I have thought of a way, but it requires taking a risk."

"Comrade Major, then tell me, how can we escape from danger in the current situation?"

"It's very simple." Sokov saw that he and his men were in a desperate situation. If they didn't take a gamble, they would just sit there and wait for death. So he told Yegor, "Yegor, please open the hatch. I want to go down and talk to the German commander."

"You are going to see the German commander?" Yegor asked. "Is it safe?"

"There is definitely danger, but under the current circumstances, we can only take a gamble." Sokov said to Yegor: "Open the hatch now, I will go to see the German commander in person to see if I can convince him."

Hearing Sokov's order, Alina almost screamed: "Major Sokov, what are you going to do? Are you going to lay down your weapons and surrender to the enemy?"

"You are wrong, Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov shook his head and said, "How could I surrender to the enemy? I just went down to talk to their commander to see if I could turn the situation around."

After opening the cabin door and lowering the gangway, Yegor was the first to get off the plane and stood by, waiting for Sokov to get off the plane.

After getting off the plane, Sokov walked towards the German commander who was shouting in front of everyone and asked loudly: "Mr. Lieutenant, are you the supreme commander of this unit?"

The commander was surprised to hear Sokov speaking German: "You can speak German?"

"I'm German!" Sokov looked at the German commander and said calmly, "How can I not speak German?"

"What, you are German?" the commander asked in surprise.

"That's right." Before getting off the plane, Sokov had already made up his mind and was ready to repeat his old trick and pretend to be a member of the German Brandenburg Regiment to fool the enemy in front of him.

(End of this chapter)