What is written on it? ”

Although he knew that no one in his company knew Japanese, Lieutenant Hank, commander of the 1st Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division, still asked Lieutenant Hank, the commander of the 1st Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Division of the German 1st Marine Division.

Several soldiers around shook their heads or stared at the crooked Japanese characters on the wooden board, judging from the shape and layout of this large earthen bag, this is very likely to be a newly built large tomb, and who is buried in the tomb, why is the scale of this tomb so large, the words on this wooden board should be the answer to the question.

"Maybe the people in the town are here, no wonder we can't see a single living person!" A thin-faced second-class soldier muttered that since this place was out of town, everyone had taken off the suffocating burden, the gas mask.

No one refuted this, no one laughed out loud, and more people just wanted to leave here sooner rather than later, leaving this uninhabited town shrouded in a strange atmosphere.

Hank was also reluctant to stay here any longer, but for the sake of duty, he decided to ask his superiors for advice first.

"Berlin, Berlin, this is Nimboldt 1 district 3rd street...... Yes, we find a large grave here...... It's huge, surprisingly big, it looks like it's big enough to bury hundreds of people, and there's a tombstone in front, but none of us here can read Japanese...... Yes, either blow it up to find out, or leave it alone, I don't have a third way to go...... Oh well, I see! ”

After the call, Hank looked around at the German soldiers, who had been around for a quarter of an hour since they discovered the tomb, and had been surrounded by most of the failed attempts to enter the town.

"Guys!" Hank shouted in his usual tone, but as soon as he said that, he felt that his voice was really a little loud, and the big one seemed to wake up the undead underground, so his next voice was obviously weakened by a level:

"The superiors are curious to know what is buried here, and the first task of our company is still to advance north! So, we need to leave some people behind to figure out what's buried inside with explosives and shovels, and keep watch around the town until the follow-up troops arrive! Now I wonder if anyone has volunteered to stay? ”

Soldiers, look at me, I look at you, when you enter the town, it is an order that cannot be chosen, so everyone basically did not hesitate, but volunteered to stay and dig graves......

No one made a sound in the middle of the ring.

"Could it be that the courage of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division was stolen?" Hank deliberately used this tone to motivate everyone.

Soon. Three younger soldiers stepped forward.

"It's good, but we need 20 people, 20 brave volunteers! Actually, I also know that digging other people's graves is a less honorable thing, but our superiors need this information! God will forgive us! "Hank knows what people are hesitating about, the traditional belief that digging up someone's grave is the work of low, lowly grave robbers, and that these people are cursed!

A few more people came forward, but many more were still weighing the importance of honorable Marines against despicable grave robbers.

"I also need an experienced non-commissioned officer to command this important operation, Second Rank Corporal Gentridge. Are you willing to take on this responsibility? Hank found a familiar face not far away.

I heard the chief call his name. The twenty-five-year-old corporal, who put the strap of the MP24 submachine gun on his left shoulder and held a German cigarette in his mouth, hurriedly took off the cigarette butt and threw it on the ground, "Sir, this is difficult, but I will try to do it well!" ”

"Good!" Hank silently counted the soldiers who had already stepped forward, "There are still 6 left, is anyone willing to join in?" ”

"Chief, this is a chore!" The tall second-class soldier standing behind Gentridge's side threw the cigarette butt and took a big step forward on his two long legs.

"yes, head. You'll have to treat us to a drink next time! The young private with a semi-automatic rifle at the end of his hand also took a step forward, his freckled face and white teeth looking incompatible.

In a few moments, 20 "volunteers", including Gentrich, were assembled. Two armoured vehicles also came from the side of the road to unload two boxes of explosives and a box of grenades. After this, the company commander Hank and the rest of the men continued north along the same road they had come, while Gentridge led the hapless men to work.

"Otto, you take two people to the east, Erwin, you take two to the north, Walter, you take two people to the west, Wolfe, you take two people to the south, and in two hours I will have someone take you! The rest of the people put down all the extra things on their bodies, leaving only helmets, sapper shovels and gas masks! ”

The soldier in charge of the guard left with his weapons with relief, and the others unloaded their weapons, backpacks, and water bottles as Gentridge had commanded, while he himself walked silently around the dirt bag.

"Circumference - 272 steps, about 120 meters! Height – about 3 meters by eye! Gentrich made a quick note in his little notebook with a pencil, and when the soldiers were ready, he pointed to the top of the mountain and said, "Gakob, take three men and start digging from the top!" ”

Although the tall man kept muttering something that only he could hear, he still took the lead in climbing up to the top of the dirt bag.

"Boss, the soil here is very loose, and it can be half an inch if you step down!" The tall man shouted as he climbed up and down.

"Is the mud dry or wet?" Gentridge asked, tilting his head.

The tall man twisted the soil beneath the surface of the mountain bag, "Half-dry!" ”

"Topsoil – soft, semi-dry."

Gentridge wrote down in his small notebook with a pencil, and according to special meteorological records, it had not rained on the island of Okinawa for a week, and if the soil had been filled before the rain, it would have been compacted by the rain, and the same effect could have been achieved if the grave builders had put more effort into compacting the soil.

"Boss, are you going to dig from here?" The tall man who had climbed to the top of the dirt bag pointed to his feet, and the other three soldiers quickly climbed to the top.

"You dig a pit every other meter, as deep as you can!" Gentridge turned to the remaining four. "Gott. William, you get a box of explosives up first! Alfred, George, get your wires and detonators ready! ”

Seeing that everyone was busy, Gentridge was a little idle, whether these explosives were enough to solve all the problems, he didn't know whether it was enough, if not, then he had to dig by hand, thinking about this. Gentridge felt that he might have sent too many men on guard duty.

Half an hour later, the first box of explosives went off, and about 1 meter of soil on the top of the mountain bag was removed, but it was still far from what Gentridge had expected.

Forty-five minutes later, the second box of explosives and a whole box of grenades were so powerful that the entire dirt bag was less than half a meter above the ground, and the explosion point directly exposed something beyond the dirt.

After removing the top bit of soil, the corpses covered with straw mats appear in front of people's eyes, such "coffin lids" are inevitably a little shabby, but when people lift those straw mats, what they see is an even more undesirable sight: corpses are well preserved, but their limbs are in various distorted postures. And the death of each corpse is also extremely hideous. It can be seen that every deceased here suffered greatly when they died.

Although they were accustomed to seeing scenes of life and death, the officers and men of the German Marine Corps could not bear to turn their heads in the face of such a scene, and some even ran to the side and retched.

"The number of graves - it is estimated that the dead were all killed in the chemical bombing - ......" Gentridge had mixed feelings, but he still wrote the information as calmly as possible, since the tomb was basically qualified, the next task was to find out the number of these corpses, but in the current situation, it would be difficult and painful to let anyone count them.

It was at this time. The soldiers in charge of guarding the eastern side of the town returned with an old Japanese man with a dull expression and a dirty cotton coat, and according to the soldiers' reports, the Japanese civilians were found in a cotton field about 3 kilometers from the town. They were huddled in a small hole in the ground covered with dry leaves, with two kitchen knives, a knife, and a few small sweet potatoes, and they tried to resist, but the able-bodied German marines easily subdued the old fellows.

After seeing the destruction of this dirt bag from a distance, several old Japanese people seemed extremely excited, they tried to break free from the shackles of the German soldiers at first, and after failing to sit on the ground and cried, even the German soldiers next to them pulled the bolt loudly to no avail, until Gentrich opened a few cans of meat and put them in front of them, they barely quieted down, after exchanging glances with each other, the youngest began to eat, and half a minute later, saw that the eater was safe and sound, The other three used their hands instead of chopsticks to send food to their mouths, and the faster they ate, the faster they ate, and finally they were simply gobbling up, and at the end they were still hungry and licked the remaining oil and water in the jar with their tongues.

After the four old Japanese men had finished eating, Gentridge began to look for answers to their questions, but unable to communicate verbally, Gentrich gave up the chicken-and-duck inquiry, and instead told them with his fingers and branches that he wanted to know how many people were buried in the tomb. After spending a long time trying to understand what the German officer in front of him wanted to know, several old Japanese men discussed in a whisper, saying that they needed more cans before they were willing to cooperate, and after this condition was met, one of the old men used a branch to draw a bunch of symbols on the ground: a circle represents 1, a triangle is equal to 10 circles, a square is equal to 10 triangles, and the number of people in this tomb is 7 squares, 7 triangles, and 3 circles!

"773 corpses!" After receiving this answer, Gentridge and his soldiers were all surprised, if it was indeed as the old Japanese man said, there were more than 700 corpses piled up under this shabby-looking earthen bag, it could be called a thousand graves! (Full Text)