War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1921 The Doctor Who Surrendered

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

After the deafening explosion, Dragan poked his submachine gun out the door and began firing in a barrage to suppress the enemy.

With less than a second between them, Wei Ran also darted out and began firing his pistol in quick succession.

With their combined efforts, the German soldiers huddled at the stairwell also lay down on the ground, almost completely blocking the stairwell.

"boom!"

Just then, a single gunshot rang out from upstairs, followed by a voice shouting in Serbian, "Gentlemen, the chained dog upstairs has been killed. Now there are only doctors and wounded on the second floor."

"What a coincidence!"

Wei Ran sighed, glanced at Dragan who had instinctively raised his gun, cleared his throat, and asked in Serbian, "Is this Dr. Gerhard Schäfer?"

"Who are you?" the person upstairs asked after a moment of silence.

"Please come down."

Wei Ran glanced at Dragan again, "Please come down with your hands up, we won't hurt you."

"I understand," came the helpless reply from the person upstairs.

A moment later, the German medic who had treated Dragan's wounds on the outskirts of the Kozara battlefield came down with a young soldier who looked to be in his early twenties, their hands raised.

"You are"

Dr. Gerhard looked at Wei Ran and the other two with a puzzled expression and asked in Serbian, "How do you know me? Have we met before?"

"seen"

As Dragan spoke, he handed the submachine gun to Wei Ran. Then, while untying the wooden stick from his arm to reveal his mutilated right hand, he walked over to the two of them and took the P38 pistol that Gerhard was holding with his little finger, as well as the submachine gun hanging around the young soldier's neck.

"Is it you?"

After seeing Dragan's wounds, Gerhard still thought for a while before recognizing them.

"haven't seen you for a long time"

As Wei Ran spoke, he carefully carried his submachine gun and walked up to the second floor of the building.

Small-scale collapses have occurred at both ends of the corridor on this floor. In the middle section, less than ten meters long, lie more than a dozen seriously injured people.

In addition, the body of a chained dog lay at the bottom of the stairs—it had been shot in the back of the head.

After cautiously looking around the two remaining rooms, Wei Ran stepped onto the remaining third floor.

All that remained was an open, exposed layer of wreckage, along with a few mutilated German corpses.

Back on the first floor, Wei Ran shook his head and said, "There are no more enemies up there who are capable of fighting; they are all wounded."

"Gentlemen, what do you intend to do with us?" Dr. Gerhard asked.

"Did you recognize us back then?" Dragan asked.

“I don’t remember,” Gerhard denied outright.

“You saw the tattoo on my hand,” Dragan reminded her, “and you even spoke to me in Spanish.”

"Sir, as I said, I don't remember."

Gerhard shook his head. "I don't speak any Spanish either. You must be mistaken."

"Take good care of your wounded," Dragan said, handing the P38 pistol back to the other man.

Looking at the gun in his hand, at Dragan turning and walking towards the other side of the corridor, and at Milos and Wei Ran who were about to follow, Dr. Gerhard asked, "Aren't you afraid I'll shoot right now?"

"Shoot!"

Dragan stopped and answered calmly, "Just like when you killed that chained dog."

"That's different"

Gerhard sighed and put his pistol back in its holster. "I killed him because he was planning to send this young man down to make a pointless sacrifice, and he was also planning to have the wounded I was taking care of take up arms. By killing him, I could save the others."

“Killing me will save many German soldiers,” Dragan said, turning around.

“That’s different,” Dragan sighed. “This war of aggression should have ended, it should have ended long ago.”

"We don't have that much time to discuss these things with you."

Dragan said, taking another step forward, "If you're not going to fire, we're going to end this war."

"Once the war is over, we'll have plenty of time to talk, if we both survive."

"I look forward to sitting down and talking with you after the war is over."

As Gerhard spoke, he stepped over, pulled out the P38 again, and handed it to Dragan. "Take it. We have surrendered. You can send someone over to take over this place at any time."

Someone will take you in.

After a moment's hesitation, Dragan finally accepted the pistol offered to him. "I'll return it to you after the war is over."

Let's take a group photo!

Wei Ran suddenly spoke up, "After the war is over, when you're chatting casually, I'll take another picture of you."

"Let's take a picture then."

Dragan smiled, took off the Robert camera hanging around his neck—the one he had seized from the chained dog shortly after meeting Dr. Gerhard—and handed it to the young soldier who had just been captured with him. “Please have him take a picture of us together, right here.”

“Take a group photo for us,” Gerhard said in German to the young soldier next to him.

Will we be killed?

The soldier's voice was filled with panic, and his hands were trembling violently as he took the camera.

"No, please take a picture for us."

Gerhard gently reassured him, then switched to his much more fluent Serbian and asked, "Where are we filming?"

“Let’s do it here, we don’t have much time,” Dragan urged.

Deliberately avoiding the corpses on the ground, Dr. Gerhard and Wei Ran stood side by side in front of the wall illuminated by the sunlight streaming in from the stairwell window, while the young soldier held up a camera and snapped a few photos of them.

After taking the camera, Dragan said nothing more and hurriedly led Wei Ran and Milos to the other side of the corridor, through the blasted-open wall, and into the next building.

"Will we survive until the end of the war?"

Milos, who hadn't said anything from beginning to end, suddenly asked a question.

"do not know"

Dragan said, "If I don't survive, then you..."

“I’ll wait until the war is over and send your suitcase and that letter back,” Milos replied quickly. “You’ve said that so many times.”

"It's good that you remember," Dragan smiled.

"If I die, you must send me back to my family's mill."

Young Milos said earnestly, "You must help me find my parents' bodies and bury me with them, using the millstone from the mill as a tombstone."

"Can't you guys stop saying these things at a time like this?" Wei Ran, walking between the two, asked with a hint of helplessness.

“This will calm us both down,” Dragan said frankly.

"Being prepared to die will prevent you from being afraid."

Milos added that he was clearly not much older than the German soldier they had just captured.

"Da da da!"

Wei Ran reacted swiftly, raising his submachine gun and pulling the trigger, accurately hitting an enemy who was peeking out from a dilapidated house directly in front of him, holding a submachine gun.

A second or two later, Dragan threw in a smoking grenade as well.

"boom!"

The moment the explosion rang out, Wei Ran rushed to the door, dodging the smoke and debris that spewed out with the shockwave, stepped out into the doorway, and continued to pull the trigger towards the inside.

Not daring to linger in the dilapidated house, the three quickly climbed out the window and ran across an intersection, covering each other as they finally reached the building they had their eye on.

Walk behind me.

As Wei Ran replaced the magazine on his submachine gun, he seized the front position.

"Watch out behind you," Dragan said, stepping behind Wei Ran with his gun also raised.

After carefully making his way up the broken stairs to the second floor, Wei Ran stopped after a few steps, pointed upstairs, and slowly squatted down to carefully examine a corpse lying face down on the stairs. The civilian's body was lying at a 45-degree angle to the stairs, with one hand seemingly casually resting on the stair railing.

Wei Ran, however, did not let his guard down. Instead, he lay down on the steps as if doing push-ups, carefully observing the situation.

He quickly discovered the clue: hidden in the sleeve of the corpse's arm, which was maintaining a delicate balance, was a Soviet-made F1 lemon grenade.

The safety clip of the grenade was stuck in a loosely tied wire attached to it, with a thin sewing thread the same color as the soil tied to the wire.

The sewing thread first went around the stair railing, then almost hugged the edge of the other side of the corpse, obliquely blocking the staircase, and finally got stuck under a brick.

It's almost certain that even just leaning hard against the handrail could detonate the grenade.

Wei Ran carefully reached out and pressed the shrapnel of the grenade. He gave a signal, and Dragan and Milos immediately stepped over the corpse with extra caution and dodged the thin wire.

Once the two of them were ready, Wei Ran gently restored the balance of the wire, sewing thread, safety clips, corpse, and railing, and then carefully stepped across, holding onto the other side of the wall.

Wei Ran gestured for Dragan to keep an eye on the stairs leading to the third floor. Following his memory, he checked each room and finally found a sniper position that was clearly a backup in one of the rooms.

The reason it's called a backup is that the firing ports that were already drilled in the room are still blocked with bricks, but a firing platform and chairs have already been set up next to the firing ports.

Following his memory, Wei Ran walked towards the building next door. He glanced at the wooden plank between the windows of the two buildings, pondered for a moment, but did not go over. Instead, he picked up a glass bottle and placed it between the plank and the windowsill.

Immediately afterwards, he pulled out a grenade from his waist and tied it to the bottom of the wooden plank.

That wasn't all. He then tied a brick to the detonation wire of the grenade and used a chair he found to support it, maintaining its delicate balance.

After taking one last look at the building across the street, Wei Ran turned around and caught up with Dragan and the other man, walking ahead of them once more, avoiding another warning mine as he ascended to the third floor.

"boom"

Before Wei Ran, who was at the back, could reach the third floor, a gunshot suddenly rang out from one of the rooms.

Stopping Dragan from instinctively raising his gun, Wei Ran pointed to the stairs leading to the fourth floor, then to both sides, before handing the submachine gun in his hand to Milos.

Once the two of them were ready, Wei Ran drew the P38 pistol he had picked up not long ago from his waist and cautiously walked toward the room where the gunshot had just rang out.

"Bang!" Just then, a second gunshot rang out from the room.

"I hit that woman," a voice said in German from inside the room. "She seems to be carrying a box of grenades."

"Shoot the kid next to her carrying the ammunition box, but don't kill him," another voice in the room said.

"Which leg should we hit?" the voice that started asked.

"laugh!"

Instead of the observer beside him, he was met with a sharp entrenching tool riddled with bullet holes.

Just as the shovel was spinning and striking the sniper sitting at the table in the neck, Wei Ran had already rushed to the side of the spotter.

The observer reacted quickly and picked up a P38 pistol from the table.

However, before his finger could even reach into the trigger guard, Wei Ran grabbed his head and twisted it forcefully.

"Click!"

With a sharp crack, the observer's body went limp, and the pistol he had just picked up slammed back onto the table.

They really know how to enjoy life.
As Wei Ran released the other person, he didn't forget to glance at them.

On a table next to the two people, there was a pot of coffee and two cups with coffee left on them.

Besides the coffee, there were quite a few other things on the table.

Inside were the essential Perfitting cigarettes for the Hans, a small box of chocolates, a tin can of cigarettes, two water bottles, two German mess kits, and even a 10-liter water jug ​​that appeared out of nowhere and a Gemstone brand oil stove.

For a sniper position, these things are definitely a luxury.

Without rushing to search him, Wei Ran pulled out his entrenching tool, wiped away the blood, and retrieved the metal notebook. He then left the room, roughly surveyed each room on the floor, took the submachine gun from Milos, and once again took the lead as he went up to the third floor.

Perhaps to facilitate close-range sniping of Soviet Red Army or Yugoslav partisan fighters on the street, there were no German snipers on this floor, but he did see four sleeping bags against the wall in the corridor, as well as four German backpacks.

After carefully inspecting the floor again, Wei Ran, under Dragan's cover, continued climbing to the top floor of the building.

The part of this floor facing out of the city has mostly collapsed and been destroyed, while the part facing inwards from the city has remained largely intact.

He looked up at the sky, then turned and went downstairs to the second-floor stairwell. He briefly described the situation upstairs and called to the two men to help him carry the personal belongings of the two German snipers, as well as all the food and drink items on the table except for Bertigin's, up to the third floor.

Using two grenades seized on the way, Wei Ran also set up several concealed warning mines on the stairs before following them up to the third floor.

In just a short while, Dragan and Milos had chiseled three not-so-large firing holes in the wall of one of the rooms.

Wei Ran placed the rifle on a reclining chair and aimed the muzzle at the outside of the firing port.

By aiming, he could clearly see the barricades set up by the Germans on the opposite street and the crossfire machine gun positions in the buildings on both sides.

“Should we fire?” Milos asked. “I saw a direct-fire anti-aircraft gun.”

"We can't fire yet."

Dragan, holding up his binoculars, said, "It's not time to attack yet. We need to find out where the German bugs are hiding before that happens. Firing now will only alert them."

"left"

At this moment, Wei Ran spoke up, "Red roof building, 150 meters away, firing ports on the second floor wall, not sure if it's a sniper or a machine gun."

"Saw it"

Dragan moved the binoculars slightly to take a look, then took a plastic-covered notebook out of his pocket.

“Wei, can I borrow your pen again?” Dragan asked, turning his head.

"no problem"

Wei Ran reached into his pocket as a cover and took out a pen, handing it to the other person.

I found one too.

Milos said, "On the right, that three-story house with the collapsed roof, there seems to be a firing port near the second-floor window."

"Saw it"

Dragan glanced through the binoculars, then continued writing and drawing in his notebook with his left hand.

As the three men observed, they marked out the snipers and firing positions that might be present on both sides of the street.

As time passed and the sun gradually set, the three of them marked all the possible enemy strongholds within their firing range.

"You guys keep watch, I'll go get some food," Wei Ran said in a low voice, putting down his gun.

Dragan didn't say anything, he just picked up the submachine gun next to him and handed it over.

After taking the submachine gun, Wei Ran left the room, went downstairs to check things out, and then returned to the third floor. There, he lit the captured miniature oil stove in the hallway and began to work.

The two mess kits he found next to the sniper already contained a lot of stewed meat and vegetables, and he also found some bread in the German soldiers' backpacks, which was enough for them to eat and drink.

However, just as he took out his long bag of horsehair and brewed three cups of proper coffee to refresh himself, a burst of gunfire suddenly erupted from the street they had come from.

With a wave of his hand, Wei Ran put away the coffee maker and the long bag of horsehair, and immediately ran into the room facing that direction.

At the same time, he took out his gas mask kit, pulled out binoculars, hid by the window, and looked out using the curtains as cover.

However, when he saw the location of the firefight, he couldn't help but catch his breath.

That's the building where the German doctor Gerhard worked!

Strangely, it wasn't the Southern Partisans besieging the building; it was the Germans!
Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then quickly took out his Rolleiflex double-lens reflex camera, adjusted it, and aimed it at the outside of the window.

Just then, Dragan ran in.

He glanced at it briefly, then silently raised the small camera hanging around his neck.

We can't help him.

Dragan said, "We can't help him to end this war."

"I know"

With a sigh, Wei Ran repeatedly pressed the shutter button, advanced the film, and then pressed the shutter button again.

During this process where they could only watch from the sidelines, both he and Dragan clearly saw the white flag waving on the second floor of the building.

They also saw the German doctor standing at the window shouting loudly, the German soldiers firing at him, and the body and the white coat he was holding as a white flag falling from the second floor, landing in front of his compatriots.

"I hope this war ends soon."

Dragan, who had put down his camera, sighed in a hoarse voice, pleading and urging.