The border guard patrol left the shore on time, and the Sweinbach detachment began final operational preparations. The SS unfurled inflatable rubber boats in the open space on the shore and then filled the standard equipment with compressed gas cylinders they had brought with them.

The Type 34 rubber assault boat is the standard equipment of the German combat engineers, divided into two models: large and small, the current one is large, and can carry ten fully armed German soldiers at a time.

In general, the Germans preferred to use small rubber boats with three people, because they were small and easy to carry, and small targets were easier to conceal. This time, because it was necessary to ensure the speed of the operation and not waste too much time in the process of crossing the river, a large rubber boat that could transport 10 people at a time was chosen.

The Sweinbach detachment consisted of eight members, three non-commissioned officers and five privates, all of whom had participated in at least one or two actual battles, which was relatively rare in the Wehrmacht at this time.

The SS threw their bulging duffel bags into the dinghy, and then boarded the boat in order with their weapons on their shoulders.

The machine gunners mounted the machine guns on the bow of the boat, and the four strongest members of the team paddled hard with wooden oars, and the inflatable boat full of SS special forces left the shore, and then rowed quickly against the slow-flowing waters of the Bug River towards the spruce forest on the opposite bank.

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"Sir, the RED team replied, the operation has begun." In the awning, the communications corps reported to Lieutenant Max.

"Everything will be fine, because God is always there for us." The lieutenant sat folded on the edge of a folding table lined with maps and photographs, his fingers quickly drawing circles on one of the maps.

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"You two hide the boat, and the others change their clothes." Sweinbach commanded as he quickly unbuttoned the SS fur coat, revealing the taupe uniform underneath.

The SS took out the prepared Soviet overcoats and military caps from their duffel bags and put the replaced German uniforms inside.

"Hide everything in the bushes, no one will pass by in four hours." The sergeant took a large blue brimmed hat from his subordinate and fastened it to his head.

Long riding boots and dark blue breeches, a brownish-green woolen coat and a blue-brimmed hat were the attire of the Soviet Internal Affairs Troops at this time.

Sweinbach wore a second lieutenant's square rank badge on the collar of his coat, and a red rank armband sewn into the sleeve. By the year 40, the ranks of the Soviet Internal Affairs Forces had been largely unified with the Army, and there were only minor differences between the two.

The weapons they carried were, of course, all Soviet-made, four Mosin Nagant Type 30 rifles, two Tokarev pistols, and three PPD34/38 submachine guns.

The PPD34 is the most advanced individual automatic weapon in the Red Army's current arsenal. A classic of Deg Galev, the disadvantage of this weapon is that most of the parts are ground and cut, although it has excellent performance, it is extremely unsuitable for large-scale processing.

Because of the relatively high requirements for the accuracy of parts processing, the output has not been raised, from three or four years to three or eight years, a total of only 5,084 guns were produced.

The price of the PD34 was relatively expensive, about 880 roubles in 1938, which was equivalent to more than 80 US dollars at that time. The Thomson submachine gun, which has always been known for its high price, was only sold for $70 a piece in the international arms market. In contrast, the German MP40 is simply cheap, and it only costs twenty-four dollars to take it.

Combining the above shortcomings, this gun was almost forcibly retired by the Red Army Equipment Department in 39 years, but fortunately, the Soviet-Finnish Winter War broke out, which gave this gun a turnaround, in order to counter the Suomi submachine gun equipped with the Finnish army, the Soviet army began to improve the PPD34 on the hand.

The improved PPD40 simplified the machining process and used an improved 71-round drum, resulting in a direct increase in production that year by more than ten times, but in terms of performance, it was far less than the original meticulously crafted PPD34. Most of the PPD34 produced in the early days were distributed to the border guards and internal affairs troops under the People's Internal Affairs Committee, and almost became the signature equipment of these troops.

Sweinbach carried no other weapons, only an army-standard Tokarev pistol at his waist, because he was playing the role of the commander of the Soviet Internal Affairs Forces, so he did not have the shield and sword logo of the General Directorate of State Security on his sleeve, and certainly did not wear the Nagant revolver that was customary for state security officers.

After the whole body was cleaned up and no loopholes were found after the inspection, Sweinbach ordered loudly in fluent Russian: "All in line!" ”。

The well-trained special operators immediately entered the role, greeting each other in Russian and forming a horizontal line on the embankment in accordance with the training regulations of the Soviet army.

"Lizheng.... At ease! Sweinbach began to scrutinize the appearance of each of his men.

"Very well, comrades." The sergeant was pleased with his men's disguise, and he strode to the front of the line.

"We still have a long way to go." He shouted.

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"There is a distance of fifteen kilometers from the embankment to the village where the target is located, and it could be much better if they could find transportation along the way." Ensign Cole said with a frown.

At this moment, SS Second Lieutenant Kohl had already accepted his fate, and his previous education and training had repeatedly emphasized that the duty of a soldier is obedience, and the honor of the SS is loyalty. If the lieutenant's decision makes him feel that something is wrong, he can appeal to his superiors afterwards, but after the order is clear, all he can do is obey.

"The battalion hasn't replied yet, sir." Seeing a white light reflected from the lieutenant's spectacle lenses, the signal soldier hurriedly shook his head and reported loudly.

"We've got time and I'm sure Sweinbach can do it, he's the kind of man who people say is good at doing miracles." Lieutenant Max stood up, swept the crowd under the shed, and strode out of the awning.

The Werewolf Battalion consists of three assault squadrons, each with a full strength of 175 men, including company units and a motorized transport platoon of six trucks.

The 3rd Squadron dispatched only 57 officers and men belonging to two platoons this time, and the rest continued to stay in the base camp, and now a large amount of logistics materials are stored in the village, which are reserved for the entire squadron to survive the winter, at this time central Poland has entered the snow season, it is said that this winter will be particularly cold this year, and the next two months will be the most difficult season.

The regular uniform of the SS special operations battalion is no different from that of an ordinary SS, except for a silver alloy shield on the left arm, on which the relief pattern is a gray wolf roaring with its head up. In the margin at the lower end of the coat of arms is engraved the Roman numeral IX, the number of the SS (9th) Assault Brigade.

Because they are not part of the Waffen-SS formation, they are theoretically not allowed to wear army-style gray-green field uniforms, but the werewolves have no complaints, because they wear special tricolor spotted camouflage combat uniforms when fighting.

The SS's interest in camouflage should have been influenced by the Italian Black Shirts, who were ahead of the world in the history of the development of camouflage uniforms. It's just that at this time in history, the SS was only equipped with blocky camouflage, and now because of the presence of His Excellency the Führer, it directly took out the tricolor despot.

It's not yet time for snow camouflage to make its debut, and Deban can still play a role in this environment.

SS special operators in spotted camouflage combat uniforms were lining up at the side of field cooking cars to receive freshly boiled hot coffee. It's a treat to be able to drink a cup of hot water in these weather, let alone a cup of coffee made with pure South American coffee beans.

"The morale of the comrades is very high, sir." A young sergeant with a mustache walked up to the squadron leader with an unlit filter cigarette in his mouth.

"Patience, Sergeant Alhambra." Max smiled and patted the sergeant on the shoulder.

"Go and inform the other squad leaders, Alhambra, and let everyone gather in front of the tent."

"Do you obey orders, do you want to act? Sir! Abraham asked excitedly.

"Be patient, sergeant, be patient." Max kept a smile on his face.

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"Stop, rest in place for two minutes!" Sweinbach stood at the intersection and looked up at the signposts erected by the side of the road.

The original yellow Polish sign was painted with white paint, and the place name was rewritten in Russian. Probably, the Poles had written some slogan on it at that time to stimulate the Red Army, and Sweinbach counted it casually, and there were at least twenty bullet holes in the iron sheet.

"It's unbelievable that after walking a few kilometers, not to mention a truck, I didn't even encounter a horse-drawn carriage." The squad deputy took off his military hat and fanned his head.

"It's a sparsely populated place, so it's normal not to see a car for a day. Moreover, the intelligence says that the city government of Brest requisitioned a large number of civilian means of transport. Sweinbach pulled out a miniature map from his shirt and looked up at the sun.

"We're going in the right direction, and if we go three kilometers to the southeast, we can see the target village over the low slope in front of us." The sergeant took the map back into his arms, and then untied the kettle from his waist.

"Look, there's a car coming over there." Sergeant Krent shouted, pointing to the road to the right.

"Stopping it down, it will save us at least half of our time." Sweinbach gave a loud order, and then took the lead in the middle of the road.