Henschel's forces were wiped out, and he himself was a prisoner of war. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info With the renegades, only seven of the 500-plus team survived. They were all Germans, and they were not immediately executed because they were still useful.

As a result, they completely lost contact with their superiors.

The German 715th Infantry Division took over the heavy losses of the 707th Division. In order to avoid a tragedy for his colleagues, the division commander Rudolf Schultz took the initiative.

"We can't sit still. Fighting in winter, the Soviets were better at this than we were. That Schneider was killed by the enemy, and it was with us. We must remain vigilant to avoid a recurrence of tragedy. ”

He held a small meeting with the officers at the division headquarters and gave the order to "keep your eyes open and be vigilant."

He also knew that it was not possible to sit idly by, and that the enemy was likely to be in the swamps of the south. So after discussing this with the divisional chief of staff, Felix Swagger, it was decided to send a small detachment to investigate.

Swagger, as his last name suggests, is a shorter, older man, so he thanked him. He also had his own glory, and the Iron Cross on his chest did not have a swastika mark, because this medal was awarded during the First World War, just like Hitler.

Schultz and Swagger were both veterans of the First World War, and today they are no longer ordinary non-commissioned officers, but have become divisional commanders.

Because the two cherish their current positions, they are satisfied with being responsible for the security of the occupied areas even as second-line troops.

Swagger did not choose to take the risk, "There are now many signs that in the area where the Pripet River meets the Dnieper River, that swamp hides a large Soviet force. We have to scout where they are in the first place, which will facilitate our future defense. So we can send a small team to scout. ”

Defending the road from Mozyr to Lechitsa and even to Gomel was the task of the 707th Division, as well as the 715th Division.

Schultz is well aware that this path is becoming increasingly important for front-line troops. Therefore, a large number of trucks and mule wagons were transporting supplies to the front line every day, and horse-drawn rollers pressed the snow roads in the forest very solidly, so that after the roads became better, the Germans paid more attention to this feeder line of communication.

However, the previous large-scale attack of the Soviet army led to the destruction of two towns on the road, and the loss of personnel and materials was very huge, and even objectively affected the supply to the front line.

Scholz was under a lot of pressure, and his predecessor imposed a three-light policy on the villages around the road in order to deal with the frequent guerrillas, and the villages were burned and smashed, and the Soviets were either killed or fled. It's a pity that that Schneider has already been killed by the enemy, and the division headquarters has also been destroyed.

Now that Scholz has taken over the task, his first task is to strengthen the patrol force and avoid sudden attacks by the guerrillas. However, the attacks were still happening, and German patrols were frequently attacked by cold guns, or "armed robbery"

The patrols always managed to achieve some success, they did not capture the prisoners of the partisans, but they recorded the battle in detail.

Schultz and Swagge discussed.

"Judging from the current situation, these guerrillas are just stragglers, who are short of clothes and armed with rudimentary weapons to fight us." Swagger has some admiration for these people, these partisans are simply in their death throes.

"Soviet soldiers are patriotic, and such a plot as a soldier is good. But they're trapped beasts, and they're not the enemies I'm most afraid of. It's in the swamps of the south, and that's probably where we're in trouble. Now we have to send people to investigate. Schultz said.

"Scouting? However, the area is very large, and we have to defend the road, and if we divide our forces, the weakness of the insufficient troops will be easily discovered by the enemy. But Swagge did not deny the commander's decision. In my opinion, we only need to send a small number of people. If there are not enough personnel, we still have some Soviets who will work with us. ”

Collaborator of the occupied territories, Schultz quickly agreed with the staff officer. German lives were very valuable, and those who had defected to the Soviet Union were now engaged in this reconnaissance operation to minimize German casualties in case of danger.

That's why Henschel led his troops.

The German reconnaissance operation involved three companies, each with a battalion of renegades.

In the minds of the Germans, these renegades had little fighting power. They were not worried about these people rebelling against Germany again, because the selected people were basically people who had a grudge against the Bolsheviks, who were persecuted during the Great Purge, and who were supporters of the White Army during the Civil War. Germany painted a big pie for them, that is, the creation of a new Belarus after the defeat of the Soviet Union.

But if they had known that the real intention of the German army was to slowly exterminate the Slavic peoples over a period of time, they would probably not have chosen to cooperate.

So, three reconnaissance troops advanced at the moment when the cold snap was raging, and one force went all the way south, and this was Henschel. The other two, one southeasterly and one southwesterly. The latter two were too far from the barracks in the swamp for Soviet sentries to spot.

It had been several days since the reconnaissance unit had set out, and the search in the heavy snow had yielded no results, and there was only food left for the return journey, and some people were suffering from frostbite. The latter two armies began to retreat, and only Henschel did not report the information to the division headquarters.

A bad premonition came to the mind of division commander Scholz, because Scholz had not reported for several days, and the rest of the troops had begun to return.

The meeting was immediately convened, and Scholz simply expressed his concerns: "I think that the troops who have been lost from us for a long time have been completely wiped out. ”

Many staff officers, headed by Chief of Staff Schwagger, did not believe that the troops would disappear in vain.

"I know it's cold outside right now and they've done a really good job of keeping out the cold. But they lost contact! Schultz intensified his words, his eyes involuntarily looking at the map of the area hanging on the wall.

"Maybe the battery is frozen out, so the station can't send us a message anymore."

"That's right! It must be the case, and now the temperature is around minus 10 degrees every night. Batteries freeze easily. ”

"However, why did the other two units report to us intact, the last communication was two hours ago, and Scholz's troops have not been in contact for three days!"

There are many staff officers who are talking about it, and what you say seems to have made sense.

Why did you lose contact? The battery broke, the radio was lost, the soldier in charge of the telegraph froze to death, and finally the attack was encountered.

Schultz slapped the table hard, and everyone fell silent. He looked at the staff officers present, "Gentlemen, the occupied area we are in is not peaceful. Our plan this time is to explore the forces behind the attack on the 707th Division, the town of Kuta, the town of Luvanka, the town of Moziri, the city of Cherobi, all of which are surrounded by the swamp. Our Schultz troops were also lost on the outskirts of the swamp, and the last communication they were almost about to enter the swamp, but they were not heard from. ”

Schultz cleared his throat: "Now we have to continue to investigate." The snow has stopped, and we can send reconnaissance planes. ”

"Reconnaissance aircraft?! Is it taking off in the snow? Swagger felt it was a great adventure.

"That's it. Order the 756th Regiment to immediately open up a snow airfield, and I want the reconnaissance plane to take off immediately. That's right! Have the pilot bring a radio station and report it immediately if he finds an enemy. Now, get into the action. ”

As a division commander, an order is an order, and Swagge, including the chief of staff, has to honestly hold back one piece.

The German 756th Infantry Regiment was subordinate to the 715th Infantry Division, which was still the second-line unit responsible for law and order. They had no tanks, only five half-tracked armoured vehicles, and the trucks they attached were requisitioned by friendly forces to transport supplies.

The German soldiers immediately began to level the land, and several horse-drawn rollers made airstrips.

In this era, airplanes were relatively rudimentary, and reconnaissance planes were even more rudimentary. It did not need a flat field as a runway, and the runway that the German soldiers quickly repaired was already very suitable for the take-off of reconnaissance aircraft.

A pilot, a radio operator, and a radio operator, they even carried cameras, and if they found a Soviet military camp or residential area, they immediately took pictures from high altitudes. (To be continued.) )