This is Lautruf. Will. Eric was a prisoner of war for the second time, after being captured by the Allies in May 1945 while lying in a German rear hospital, and this time by the Soviets while standing in an Allied field hospital.

Time and space passed, the battle situation changed, and the mentality changed, but the identity of the prisoner of war made him feel embarrassed from the bottom of his heart.

Captured along with Eric were many German volunteers who had shown tenacity in the arduous defensive battle and did not withdraw until they were wounded, as well as soldiers from the four Western allies: the United States, Britain, France, and Poland. Among the people who can name Eric, the highest rank is Major Brooke, a soldier under the command of the United States Army, who has lost more than seventy percent of his soldiers in continuous defensive battles, changing the subjective impression that people cannot hold on to the battle when the casualties of American troops reach 30-40%; The most tenacious is the Polish second lieutenant Novak, who was blown off a leg by a Soviet shell, and when the medical staff carried this bloody guy down, people thought he was hanging, but he not only survived the operation without medical treatment, but his recovery was quite optimistic; The most joyful was British Sergeant Henry, a young man with a freckled face and a head shaped like garlic, who liked Chaplin very much, and the injury on his arm did not prevent him from vividly imitating the world-famous British comedy star, in addition to the French second lieutenant Vincent, who could speak many Chinese, and the American Private Weir, who liked to read poetry, etc., these people turned the poor field hospital into a hobbydge of atmosphere, so that the wounded often left the bad situation behind. It was not until the main Allied forces on the southern front under Alexander's command were successfully withdrawn that the multinational forces acting as the "lagging center" finally surrendered to the Soviet army under heavy siege and fighting alone, and they were also collectively reduced to prisoners of war.

Contrary to the imaginary brutality, the Soviet officers and soldiers who captured the Allied wounded in a victorious posture were not gentle but also rude, and they let the Allied medics continue to treat the wounded soldiers who had performed well on the battlefield, and set up a temporary prisoner of war camp nearby, where conditions looked even better than the Allied prisoner of war camp after the end of World War II. After another snowstorm, the Soviets began to transport the prisoners of war in batches, and Eric's new leg wound was largely healed. That is, to be reclassified into the ranks of captured German volunteers. He soon discovered that American, British, and French prisoners of war were being sent to the north. Only the Germans and Poles remained. The suspicion did not last long, when a German colonel dressed in an old Wehrmacht uniform appeared in front of the German volunteers who were working for the Allied camp, and generously told the former robes about his experience in the Soviet camp, and informed them that the Soviet Union was organizing German prisoners of war to build a million-strong "German Liberation Army". This force would accompany the Soviet army in fighting the Allies, eventually expelling the Allied forces from German soil, and the Soviet government would guarantee the sovereignty, independence and integrity of Germany after the end of the war, and allow the "German Liberation Army" to remain as the only legitimate armed force of Germany.

The awkward name apparently comes from the "Russian Liberation Army" that attacked the Soviet Union during World War II, and it is ironic that the Soviets are now giving German prisoners of war to their own side, but within half an hour, most of the more than 6,000 German volunteers in the prisoner of war camp had made the same choice: to leave the camp of the Western allies and join the "German Liberation Army". A beautiful vision for the Soviet painting and calligraphy. Eric did not believe it, but felt that serving the Allies was an escape from the bleak life in the prisoner of war camps, and the same was true of fighting for the Soviets, who now offered more realistic conditions than the Western Allies - to be able to fight alongside their former comrades under the command of German generals. It was better than being driven by the Allies to play a supporting role in reconnaissance and engineering.

After joining the "German Liberation Army", Eric and his German volunteers who had previously served as the main defender of the Allied forces trekked more than 40 kilometers south to reach a Ukrainian town called Anoch, while the Polish soldiers who also chose to play for the Soviet camp went to other places in another formation. On the banks of the South Bug River outside the town of Anoche, German soldiers quickly set about building a barracks, and over the next week or so, several more units of German prisoners of war arrived, and the barracks grew in size. This ordinary and quiet town has become the barracks of the "German Liberation Army". These highly trained Germans did not have to repeat basic military training, and were under the direct supervision of Soviet officers. They quickly carried out detachments and reorganization, and Eric was assigned to the "244th Infantry Regiment". The new unit basically continued the Wehrmacht establishment, except that the regimental and battalion headquarters added posts in the typical Soviet style of political commissar and military discipline inspector -- both of which were held by Soviet officers and regimental commander by a German army colonel in his forties. Out of an abundance of caution, Eric omitted the fact that he had served as the commander of the "Vampire" night combat commando squad in his profile, and was assigned to a general infantry company as a deputy platoon leader, with a slightly younger second lieutenant in the German Army who graduated from a regular military academy. Although the supplies provided by the Soviets were very limited, and the rations of food could barely fill his stomach, in such a fighting force composed of German ** people, Eric's loneliness was greatly reduced, and when the familiar German-made weapons were issued to his hands, he gained a sense of steadiness for the first time since the defeat of the Empire. …,

The 244th Infantry Regiment and several other regimental units spent three weeks in Anoche, a three-week break from the fighting and killing, and after a series of bloody and brutal battles, Eric believed that many of his comrades would rather live like this all the time, but the time to go to the battlefield finally came. During the march, all kinds of news spread among the troops: the Soviet Union would launch an all-out offensive against the Western Allies with the victory of the winter war, this time the powerful Soviet armored forces would open the way, and the "German Liberation Army" with a total strength of more than one million troops would only need to follow the attack closely with the Soviet infantry - this is optimistic news; The Western allies, having failed in succession, have decided to use the atomic bomb. Before the Soviets crossed the Polish border, they would drop atomic bombs on the areas where the Soviets were heavily concentrated, and a single one would be enough to wipe out hundreds of thousands of troops - this was pessimistic news; The Allies also drove hundreds of thousands of Germans to guard the Polish border, and fratricidal tragedies were likely to occur on the battlefield - this is extremely contradictory news.

As the vast marching force headed east, countless tracks, wheels, and boots turned the snow-covered roads into a quagmire, and Eric remembered the first time he set foot on Soviet soil, a cool but distressing autumn day, when heavy rains turned Soviet roads into swamps, making even armoured vehicles impassable in the worst areas. However, neither the Wehrmacht nor the SS. Tired smiles spread across the faces of the officers and men, everyone looked forward to a certain victory, and many had even begun to talk about crossing the English Channel after defeating the Soviet Union. What a wonderful year it was, but now we have to take mechanical steps and wait for an unknown fate.

"Don't speak! Keep up the marching speed! Don't speak! ”

A foul shout came from the front, and Eric looked up to see the battalion's political commissar and the military discipline inspector, who was as strong as a brown bear and asked the soldiers to be silent in stiff German, and the political commissar who spoke fluent German was a full two years younger than him, fair-skinned and quiet-mannered, and only when he stood on the stage and spoke, he turned into a "hypnotic gramophone" - a nickname given to him by the German soldiers in private. He was good at telling those seemingly moving truths, which made people feel at first glance that they were indeed fighting for a just cause, and even a few stunned young people fell into the "trap of the Bolsheviks" -- they reported their ideas to the political commissar and even beat the small reports of their comrades, and it took a beating from their comrades to stop this foolish behavior.

Forced by strong authority and deterrence. The German soldiers had no choice but to keep their mouths shut, and after four days of continuous marching on foot, they were getting closer and closer to the Polish border, and Allied planes began to appear frequently. After a while, a sharp and rapid whistle and an exclamation of "air attack" came from the front of the team, and the officers immediately gave the order to evacuate and conceal. Compared with the inexperienced Soviet recruits, the German soldiers had long been helplessly accustomed to enemy air raids, and Eric and his comrades would not have run all the way to the woods fifty or sixty meters away. Instead, he quickly left the road and fell down in the field beside him. In the blink of an eye, a powerful engine roar could be heard in the sky - a beautiful note to some people's ears. In others' ears it's a loud noise or even a whimper of death. Anti-aircraft guns marching with the squad or deployed in advance near the road opened fire, and the bang sounded like a lot of buzz. It's far worse than when Eric squatted in an air raid bunker and listened to the vastness of the city's air defense battle. Under the bright sun, the incoming Allied warplanes swooped down with disdain for the anti-aircraft fire on the ground, and the rockets fired gorgeously at the heavy vehicles, artillery and rookies on the road that had no time to retreat, and the ground beneath the people began to shake in the deafening explosion, and the crisp explosion of fried beans was heard in the air. Unless they take refuge in well-conditioned bunkers, those who temporarily take refuge from air raids can only avoid the call of death by praying for good luck. Immediately afterward, several cunning Allied warplanes flew low through the nearby woods, dropping round bombs from under their bellies and flying away as if nothing had happened, and a moment later, fierce flames burst out of the woods with an astonishing momentum, the blazing light was even more dazzling than the sun's rays, and the area of the burning area was even larger than expected. Seeing this scene, the German soldiers who were lying in the snow to temporarily avoid the air raid could only feel happy and at the same time mourn for those ignorant Soviet recruits. Before the Soviet Yak fighters arrived, dozens of Allied fighters had already flown away, leaving the ground in shambles. …,

For this kind of "rubbing shoulders" with the god of death for at least ten meters, Eric has long been accustomed to it, he got up very calmly, and pulled his companion next to him. As far as the eye can see, many soldiers were killed in the air raids on and around the road, but they were much better than those who went into the woods and were attacked by incendiary bombs, and the baggage vehicles and towed artillery that were damaged by the rockets had to be temporarily brought to the side of the road for the maintenance troops behind to see if there was a way to repair them or use them.

"All go to the woods to save people! Go save people in the woods! ”

Once again, the voice of the "brown bear" was ringing in my ears. The funny thing is that there are one or two Russian words mixed in the sentence, although they can understand it, but most of the German soldiers stand in place with blank expressions, the fire in the woods is getting stronger and stronger, and the edge is full of the country of the god of fire except for a few dying voices.

Seeing such an indifferent reaction of the German soldiers, the Soviet military discipline inspector was furious and actually raised his whip and whipped it once, twice, three times, and the whip crackled on the two German soldiers. The sound of the wind and fire, the wailing and moaning seemed to have suddenly died down. All one could hear was the sound of whips beating their bodies. Although the hit was not critical, a large group of German ** people with weapons around them invariably turned around and stared, and the aura that erupted in an instant was extremely terrifying. "Brown Bear" was stunned, he obviously did not expect his unintentional action to cause such a strong reaction as expected. At this time, I also remembered the special discipline that had been repeatedly reiterated by my superiors before taking office, and it was impossible to continue to punish, but I had to apologize to the Germans, and I couldn't get over it psychologically, and the whip was not lost when I held it in my hand, and my face was even more red and white for a while.

At the critical moment, the political commissar who was injured a little in dodging the air raid came, and he shouted a little fiercely: "What are you doing in a daze? We do not distinguish between Germans and Soviets here. Some are just comrades-in-arms and comrades who pursue justice together and yearn for victory equally. It's really bad! ”

At this time, not only those wearing Soviet military uniforms joined the rescue ranks, but some figures wearing field gray military uniforms were also going to the burning woods, and it was impossible to save people from the depths of the fire. Those who barely escaped from the woods still had smoke on their buttocks, and some of them would have died if they could not be sent to the rear in time for treatment. When the political commissar approached, a German captain muttered "Let's go", and the angry German soldiers in the surrounding circle gave up the confrontation and turned away. They did not rush to the woods to save people, but only walked slowly towards the woods, and many soldiers walked up to the two flogged companions to express comfort and support by touching their heads and backs, and Eric did not squeak the whole time, and heard one of his companions whispering, "Sooner or later, that bastard will find an opportunity to take revenge on us." When we get to the battlefield, we have to find a chance to kill him first", he subconsciously turned his head. Seeing that the "brown bear" was indignantly saying something to the political commissar.

In the past, the two armies faced each other, and the fight on the battlefield was life-and-death. In just one year, can the hostility and hatred of both sides be soothed and turned into comrades-in-arms? Eric suddenly realized that the solid days had never really come.

On February 18, 1946, the battlefield in Eastern Europe, which had been silent for three weeks, staged a heavyweight duel again, the smoke of civil war ignited in Hungary, the Bolsheviks launched an armed uprising in the southeast near Romania, the Soviet troops stationed in Romania immediately crossed the border to support the insurgents, the Hungarian government army and the Allied forces stationed in Hungary were defeated in successive battles, the Soviet army was directed at Budapest, and an armed uprising led by Bolsheviks also occurred in southern Czechoslovakia. The insurgents quickly seized important passes and bridges in the Carpathians, the Czechoslovak government and the Allied garrisons tried to regain control of the passes and bridges before the arrival of Soviet troops, and more than 2,000 American and British paratroopers also cooperated in launching airborne operations, while the Soviet troops passing through eastern Hungary and heading north to Slovakia were slowed down by the Allies. Aware of the Soviet army's attempt to use Slovakia to bypass the southern tip of the Polish line, the Allies quickly mobilized troops to strengthen the defenses of Czechoslovakia, and Allied long-range bombers from Poland flew thousands of kilometers to launch a super-massive night bombardment of Leningrad and Moscow, and on the night of February 24, the main city of Moscow was covered in flames and the Kremlin was almost in ruins. Two days later, the Soviets finally launched a three-pronged assault on the Allied lines from Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, and at the beginning of the battle, the Northern Front under the command of Marshal Vasilevsky unexpectedly conquered the Allied fortress system in Kaliningrad - the second time the Soviet general had captured the area. In this fierce battle, which lasted less than 72 hours, the Soviet army's secretly deployed long-range heavy artillery and naval bomber units attacked the US and British fleets that were carrying out coastal support for Allied operations, damaged many Allied ships and forced the artillery fleet to retreat, and after reversing the battlefield firepower comparison, more than 400,000 Soviet officers and men launched a strong attack with overwhelming artillery fire and large-scale smoke screen cover, and broke through the direction of the Allied forces southeast of Kaliningrad on the same day, following the successful experience of the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. The main Soviet forces quickly crossed the Allied front to attack the city of Kaliningrad from the south, and the armored elite corps consisting of the 1st Guards Red Banner Don Tank Army and the 9th Guards Red Banner Uman Tank Army launched an overnight assault on Bravogne southwest of Kaliningrad under the cover of mechanized infantry. After completing the siege of Kaliningrad, the Soviet army continued to storm the city from the south of the city, and finally planted the red flag back on the top of the Kaliningrad municipal building after a day and a night of fierce fighting, and more than 60,000 Allied officers and soldiers who could not evacuate immediately surrendered to the Soviet army, including about 14,000 German volunteers