"The 8th defense zone is located east of Berlin, the Soviets have captured the crossing on the Oder the night before, a large number of armored forces have not yet crossed the river, and only a few infantry detachments have entered our 7th and 8th defense areas. They gradually took control of the buildings and traffic intersections on the periphery, and directed the artillery fire in the rear by radio, posing a great threat to our ring defenses! ”

In the absence of a map, Jonas drew a sketch with a pencil behind Lynn's mandate document and gave a brief introduction based on his own knowledge of the battle.

From this sketch, Berlin's city defense is divided into a "nine-square grid", and each defense area is numbered according to 1-9, which seems to be clear at a glance, but the actual defense is obviously much more complicated than imagined.

"Chengdong? Tut! ”

Lynn did not personally measure the size of the city of Berlin, but knew that it had a total population of 5 million at the outbreak of the war, making it a true metropolis. If you only look at the map, many of Berlin's neighborhoods are well-shaped, but in fact, only the east-west Charlottenburg Strasse and Unter den Linden are the main axis that runs through the city, and the rest of the streets are long or short, and few of them go all the way to the end. As for the Army Library, which they were currently in, it was located in the north of the city, and it would take at least two hours to walk to the east of the city without enemy artillery fire.

These two hours may not have been much for a long night, but they were contrary to Lynn's idea of escaping the battlefield before Berlin fell completely, and his plan was to get a few Soviet uniforms, grab a Soviet truck, deceive the Soviet outposts in Wolfrum's Russian, and escape from the west or south of the city to the south of Germany, which had not yet been occupied by the Soviets or the Allies. It would be better to stay in hiding and find an opportunity to flee to Switzerland than to become a prisoner of war.

Jonas saw Lynn frowning, but he didn't know what the young boss was worried about, so he immediately drew a crooked diagonal line on the sketch and whispered: "We set out from Unter den den Linden last night, entered the sewers near the Friedrichstrasse station, walked about 5 kilometers inside, and then returned to the ground at the Carten Street entrance of the 8th Defense Zone!" ”

Lynn didn't bother to study the sketch, but looked up and thought about it, and asked, "Sergeant Enrique...... Also killed in last night's battle? ”

"Alas!" Jonas sighed helplessly, "Last night's battle was supposed to be very smooth, we eliminated more than forty Russian soldiers, pulled out a new stronghold of theirs, and destroyed two armored vehicles, all of which were ready to retreat, but we didn't expect to be sniped by the Soviet army when crossing the road, and then we met head-on with a combat detachment of the enemy!" After Ensign Eric was wounded, Sergeant Enrique volunteered to act as a rearguard, and the result was never to return! ”

Lynn looked down at Jonas, swept the faces of the other four in turn, and deliberately hinted: "After a day, I am afraid that the number of Soviet soldiers entering that defense area has increased a lot!" ”

Jonas frowned, presumably acquiescing to the speculation. Frings and Brück looked dazed, as if they had resigned themselves to the brutality of the war. Wolfrum was equally furrowed, looking more worried and depressed than Jonas. As for Brewer, he is calm on the surface, but he is also paying attention to the people around him, so he is the only one who notices Lynn's gaze and meets him.

Facing Brewer's eyes, Lynn nodded slightly, and then deliberately lowered his voice, looking mysterious: "Everyone, you are all comrades-in-arms whom I trust very much, and you are more important partners than brothers...... Berlin will definitely not be able to hold it! ”

Of course, this does not distort the facts, but the more critical the situation, the more severe the military's punishment of deserters. Executed deserters hung from trees and telephone poles on the roads leading to Berlin at this time, and the various SS contingents and field courts tasked with the task roamed the chaotic battlefield - not unique to the German SS, some Wehrmacht units also set up field courts, although their punishment of deserters might be a little softer. As for the Soviets, they adopted a similar staging approach in the autumn and winter of 1941 to deter soldiers who tried to escape.

Without speaking, all five of them cast different stares at Lynn. There is fear, apprehension and amazement, despair, frustration and confusion.

Planning the way back early, but being at the forefront of the war for a long time, Lynn did not have much chance to really start preparing, and the various documents, certificates and necessary materials needed to run away were still utopian, and there was not even the most basic funds. Because of this, he is also deeply worried about the road ahead.

After a moment of silence, Jonas said to the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, the current situation has indeed reached the point of no return, as the sergeant said. We must be ready to die at any time, and of course, we should obey the orders of the commander out of duty! ”

This is a kind of implicit neutrality, Lynn understands it.

Immediately afterwards, Brewer, who had similar ideas to Lynn at the beginning, tried to dominate the crowd: "In my personal opinion, if we have the opportunity, we should still think about our own future!" ”

"It's too dangerous!" Brück, who was always straight, muttered dissatisfiedly, and the atmosphere changed abruptly.

There was another terrible silence, and the first to break the ice was Lynn's other training camp companion, Frins.

"It's hard to get into Berlin right now, it's hard to get out of Berlin, and it depends on the situation...... The Soviets will soon be able to encircle Berlin! Lynn turned his head to look at the cadet officer, who still vividly remembered that the battle on the outskirts of the village of Capoca that night had been carried all the way down the hill by Fringe.

The last person who did not speak, Wolfrum, finally said: "I don't have any ideas, I will do what the chief says, I trust the judgment of the chief!" ”

In the case of some support, some neutral, and some opposed, it is not good for Lynn to further persuade, after all, everyone has their own ideas, especially the traditional thinking of the more virtuous [***] people, it is difficult to make them accept the plan of becoming deserters at once, if they are forced to join the gang, maybe something will go wrong halfway. Therefore, it is only through the right situation and gradual persuasion that they can really get involved.

"All right, guys! As soldiers, we should fulfill the reasonable instructions of our superiors to the letter. Tonight, we are going to the 8th Defense Zone, and we are going to do everything we can to kill the Russians! But if nothing else, we will encounter a large number of enemy troops, the situation is unpredictable, and Berlin can hold out for a week at most, so you should be mentally prepared in advance! ”

With that, Lynn announced its disbandment. After dinner, and it was completely dark outside, he took up his full infrared night vision equipment and ordered all the soldiers of the 11th Night Task Force in a clear but not high-pitched voice: "All go!" ”

It is said that when the Soviets besieged Berlin, there were still 3 million residents in the city who were reluctant to evacuate, but when night fell, there was no light in the huge city, and the dark night showed an eerie bright color against the background of the Soviet artillery fire, and there was no need for flashlights to walk on the streets - such a visual environment made Lynn very worried. Ordinary sniper scopes can see targets across the street, and the unique advantages of infrared night vision devices are undoubtedly greatly weakened. Thinking of what Jonas said that they had been sniped and intercepted by the Soviets on the road last night, Lynn had to make up her mind in advance: this trip must avoid street crossings and roads.

About two kilometres east along a street near the River Spree, the group arrived at the Friedrichstraße station, a modern art station now a huge, well-guarded fortress with a majestic structure that had collapsed in Allied bombardment, and looked even more rugged at night. After informing the defenders of the troop numbers and combat missions, Lynn and the others were allowed to enter the station and were guided by a Wehrmacht soldier into the underground bunker, through narrow corridors and doorways, and finally into Berlin's sewers at what appeared to be a maintenance port.

Wet, dark, and filled with a strange smell of bad smell, this is the real sewer. It is indeed as portrayed in some films and televisions, crisscrossing and extending in all directions, as if it constitutes an underground world. Lynn had only walked a short distance when they encountered German soldiers stationed at the intersection of several sewers, who had built bunkers out of sandbags and stones, and deployed anti-tank rocket launchers and small-caliber anti-tank guns in addition to machine guns. Considering that the sewer was not wide enough for armored vehicles to enter, the German defenders appeared to be trying to turn the sewer into a foolproof concealment.

The group navigated the labyrinth of sewers in the dark, without the need for a map or compass, as they were able to find the German soldiers stationed at each intersection and learn from them the directions to their destination. After walking like this for more than an hour, according to the plot of the commercial movie, Lynn and the others should climb down the shaft to a place similar to a boiler room, but after all, this is a fierce offensive and defensive battle around the city, and the air, ground and underground are all battlefields. Before they reached their destination, they heard gunshots coming from the sewers ahead - the sound of submachine guns and assault rifles sounded so loud in the cramped space that it was difficult to tell the real distance.

"Damn, a few hundred meters further on, we'll be at the entrance of Carten Street!" Jonas said indignantly.

"You went out yesterday from the manhole cover at the corner of the street?" Lynn asks for details.

Jonas replied: "We have carefully chosen the mouth of a well, which is located in a remote alley, blocked by collapsed houses in front and back, but we can pass through a badly damaged building to get out. ”

"It's been a day, and it may have become a temporary headquarters of the Soviet army!" Lynn whispered, but before Jonas could say anything, an extremely loud explosion struck, almost like throwing a grenade at his side, and instantly shook his ears. Lynn subconsciously opened her mouth wide and beckoned everyone to hide along the terrain - but it was so dark that the soldiers couldn't see the commander's movements unless they were using infrared night vision devices.

Lynn quickly realized this, and when the explosion died down, he told Jonas to send a message back to everyone to prepare for battle, and he turned on the infrared night vision device to move forward, and when he approached an intersection, he saw three curved figures crouching in the corner in the scope, and he also knew that they were German soldiers stationed here. In case they hit by mistake, he called out early: "Hey, guys, my own people!" What's going on? ”

One of the soldiers turned and replied: "It must be the sewer through which sewer the Russians came in, but it is not clear how many of them and how they are fighting!" ”

Lynn thought about it, the dark environment in the sewers seemed to be conducive to the role of night combat troops at first glance, but except for the corner of the junction, the relatively straight sewers lacked combat cover, so there was no technical content in such a counterfire, and flashlights, flares, and grenades could provide light at any time. So, he asked, "Is there a way up to the ground in this area?" ”

"There's a shaft right above our heads!" The soldier replied, "It's safe to go up to the headquarters of the 9th Paratrooper Destroyer Division and the newly established headquarters of the 8th Defense Zone!" ”

As soon as he heard this "very safe", Lynn also relaxed a little, turned back and beckoned, "Guys, let's get out of here!" ”

Before he finished speaking, he heard an extremely heavy muffled sound overhead, and it felt like someone had smashed his steel helmet with a heavy hammer, and he suddenly had a splitting headache and nausea and wanted to vomit.

(To be continued)