Chapter 112: A Christmas Story in World War III (8)

Meanwhile, in a wooden cabin in the Petropavlovsk prisoner of war camp, a group of former American GIs wrapped in overcoats also roasted by the brick fireplace, throwing a few pieces of chopping wood into it from time to time, or plucking charcoal with long tongs, and sharing their share of the Christmas special. At the same time www.biquge.info he also reads the local newspaper in the port of Petropavlovsk...... Well, to be exact, a group of American prisoners of war who did not know Russian, listening to Sergeant Major Cecil, the only one among them who knew some Russian, stumbling through the newspaper - after all, how could it be possible to find an English version of a Russian newspaper in a place like Kamchatka?

At this time, they were not wearing military uniforms, but wearing a variety of civilian clothes, or zebra-print prison uniforms issued by the prisoner of war camp, and a Soviet military overcoat on the outside, at first glance they looked like ordinary people, and they did not recognize this as a group of soldiers - although the United States had participated in this world war for five years, there was no trace of the fierceness of the iron-blooded men in these American GIs in the Petropavlovsk prisoner of war camp.

On the contrary, they all looked so depressed and depressed, and they were simply sluggish and unloved.

- If we say that the Kamchatka Peninsula, which is secluded in the ice and snow, is the pure land of the farthest away from the war on the Eurasian continent; Well, at this moment, they are in the Petropavlovsk prisoner of war camp, and they are the group of people who are the farthest away from the war in the entire American army.

Because, throughout the beacon years of the Second World War, they spent time in different prisoner of war camps from beginning to end......

They were U.S. Marines stationed in China's Pingjin region before the war in accordance with the Treaty of Xincho.

(Since the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion and the entry of the Eight-Nation Coalition into Beijing, the Great Powers have obtained the right to garrison troops in Beijing and Tianjin from the Qing court.) Later, with the change of years, the troops of the defeated countries in World War I were withdrawn from China, and the Russian troops stationed in China also collapsed by themselves after the October Revolution, but Britain, France, the United States and Japan still maintained the power of garrisoning troops in North China, but the other three countries did not have many troops, and only Japan really stationed a large army. ）

It is conceivable that when the United States and Japan declared war, these unprepared US Marines in China suddenly discovered almost overnight that they were under the encirclement of the enemy, and the disparity in strength was so great that it was desperate -- at that time, the US Marines stranded in North China had only 262 men in total, even counting the handymen, and they were scattered in Beijing, Tianjin, and Qinhuangdao.

What is even more desperate is that Japan started this war with a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, so the Americans did not have time to evacuate their overseas Chinese and withdraw their troops at all (before the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese government very calmly evacuated all the expatriates from Lushun and Liaodong). As a result, these US Marines stationed in China were barged into the garrison early in the morning by heavily armed and vicious Japanese military police, without taking the slightest precautions in advance and without even having time to grab their guns...... At that time, Sergeant Major Cecil was wearing a pair of pants all over his body, and he was hugging an equally defenseless White Russian warbler next to him......

So, unprepared, they naturally raised their hands and became the first American prisoners of war after the outbreak of the Pacific War.

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Initially, the U.S. Marines, who had been taken prisoner on the second day of the war, were held by the Japanese in their own old U.S. Marine barracks in Tianjin, a typical American-style building with three floors, decent bathing facilities and kitchens, and ample supplies. The Marines continued to eat the food they had stored in the barracks before the war, and there was enough medicine, clothing, and blankets to not need anything from the Japanese.

Since the relationship between the US military stationed in China and the Japanese army stationed in China had always been good before the war, the local Japanese army treated them very politely. Even after being reduced to prisoners of war, these former U.S. Marines continued to send and receive letters freely in Tianjin, were allowed to receive visitors twice a week, were not required to work by the Japanese, and at first glance seemed to be no different from their pre-war life, except that they were not allowed to go out.

During this period, the Japanese even continued to pay them military salaries: the salaries of officers were the same as those of Japanese officers of the same rank: 70.83 yen per month for ensign, 85 yen per month for lieutenant, 122.5 yen per month for captain, 170 yen per month for major, 230 yen per month for lieutenant colonel, and 312.5 yen per month for colonel. However, you will need to deduct 60 yen per person for living expenses, including 42 yen for food, 15 yen for clothing, and 3 yen for equipment and electricity. Ordinary soldiers receive 5 days of pocket money per day. Since they only ate and didn't bother to train during this time, almost all of them gained a lot of weight than before the war.

- Look at the treatment of prisoners of war enjoyed by these Yankees, those Chinese prisoners who were buried in mass graves by the Japanese army, I am afraid they should all burst into tears......

A year later, the stockpiles in the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Tianjin were almost depleted, and the barracks building itself was intended for other purposes by the Japanese. As a result, more than 200 U.S. Marines were arranged by the Japanese army to take a train and transfer to a special prisoner of war camp on the outskirts of Shenyang. The conditions there are naturally not as good as the Marine Corps barracks in Tianjin, but in general they are okay, and the living environment is relatively good. The newspapers of Japan and the puppet state of Manchukuo referred to it as a model prisoner of war camp, and sometimes representatives of the Red Cross came to visit and offer condolences.

The American POW camp itself on the outskirts of Shenyang was converted from a small, abandoned factory, and the POWs were housed in three two-story buildings, each divided into six dormitories, with bunk beds that looked like ordinary student dormitories. Officers and soldiers among the prisoners of war were housed separately. All the buildings have electric lights, but the power of the bulbs is only 10 watts, which is difficult for people to read. Heating is provided by a Russian stove, each of which heats two rooms. In winter, the camp is not very warm, and fuel is rationed, and only a fixed amount of coal is used every day.

In addition to the living quarters, the camp also contained a hospital, a dining room, a bathhouse, a boiling water room and a workshop. Every soldier can take a bath every two days, and an officer can take a bath every day. The sewers in the POW camp were connected to the city's sewer system, and the POWs' daily water was initially supplied by a well in the camp, which was not of very good quality and had to be boiled before drinking. Soon, however, a water tower was built after the POWs had lived there for a while, making the POW camp water-ready. The entire POW camp was surrounded by brick walls and power grids. There are watchtowers at the four corners of the wall, and Japanese guards are on duty twenty-four hours a day.

The canteen in the Shenyang POW camp was in a separate building, with only a kitchen and a bakery, and no seats for dining. The food was prepared by the POWs themselves in turn, supervised by the Japanese. The head of each dormitory is a representative who receives food from a wooden barrel and brings it back to the dormitory to share. American prisoners of war were served three meals a day, but the menu was the same every day, with cereal porridge for breakfast, soybean, corn and vegetable broth for lunch and dinner, plus a small amount of pastry made from flour and soybeans. There is basically no rice, no bread, and meat is only served once every two months. Vegetables mainly come from the gardens cultivated by the POWs themselves, mainly onions, potatoes, cabbage, turnips and Chinese cabbage. In this way, the daily nutritional intake of prisoners of war is between 2,000 and 2,400 calories per person. If you are a prisoner of war who is out on the job, you can also get some extra food from the company you serve. In addition, the Shenyang prisoner of war camp receives food parcels from the International Red Cross every two days, containing soap, canned food, candy and biscuits. However, before being distributed to prisoners of war, the canned food in the package was perforated by Japanese guards to prevent them from hoarding it as dry food for escapees, so it had to be eaten quickly.

- Although such a standard of food is certainly not comparable to the standard of living in China before the American prisoners of war. But in East Asia during World War II, it was absolutely preferential! You must know that at that time, even in Japan, the staple food rationed by each Japanese person every day was only 330 grams of rice, and the supply of non-staple food was even more shabby, only enough to eat two meals a day, and the average daily nutrient intake per person was only 1,800 calories, and the supply of edible oil and sugar in the market was almost zero, which was much worse than that of these American Marines in the Shenyang prisoner of war camp. As for those locals in Northeast China who were stipulated by the Japanese puppet authorities to only eat "mixed noodles" and acorn noodles, and secretly ate a few bites of rice to be regarded as "economic criminals", it is even more difficult to mention......

In winter, the camps distributed ample blankets and padded jackets, which were withdrawn in the spring. In the summer, mats and mosquito nets are distributed. In general, in terms of clothing and housing, American prisoners of war at least enjoyed the treatment of ordinary soldiers of Japan's miscellaneous troops.

In terms of medical care, the treatment enjoyed by these American prisoners of war was even envied by Japanese soldiers - there was a special hospital in the prisoner of war camp in Shenyang, which could accommodate 150 patients at the same time. The hospital has separate patient rooms and recreation rooms, as well as X-ray rooms, consultation rooms, pharmacies and morgues. The medical equipment was similar to that of the Japanese army hospital, but it was possible to obtain additional supplies of medicines and equipment from the Red Cross. As soon as they moved in, each prisoner of war was given a mass vaccination against smallpox, dysentery, cholera, and typhoid, followed by a system of regular medical check-ups.

As a result, these US Marines remained basically healthy during their captivity, and the number of deaths from malnutrition and infectious diseases was only in single digits, and the heaviest casualties during their captivity actually came from their own people -- because they did not expect the US Air Force to bomb the POW camps, the Japanese authorities did not take any precautions against air raids at first, but they were attacked by a formation of US bombers that came to aid China from a long distance, and the Japanese guards in the Shenyang POW camp were all safe and sound, but the American POWs were killed and wounded 50 on the spot. It was only afterwards that the Japanese allowed the POWs to dig bomb shelters in their vegetable gardens.

Then, unlike the leisurely days in Tianjin, the POWs were finally sent to work in various factories in Shenyang. The job includes manufacturing parts, tools, dyes, etc. The work is not hard and the working environment is good. 8 hours per weekday, closed on Sundays. They had one hour to eat lunch, which was delivered from the prisoner of war camp in wooden barrels. Officers do not work, but are responsible for the supervision and management of the prisoner of war camps.

Ordinary soldiers who participate in the work can receive 20 cents of their salary per day, 25 cents per day for non-commissioned officers, 60 cents per day for technical non-commissioned officers, and 55 cents per day for technical soldiers, and the officers have a separate allowance, which is paid on the 15th of each month, and is directly deposited into a postal savings account, and is only allowed to receive a maximum of 50 yen at a time, which can be used to buy things at the commissary in the prisoner-of-war camp, but there is almost nothing except cigarettes, tooth powder, and fried beans. So, when the Shenyang POW camp closed and the accounts were settled, many U.S. Marines found themselves saving a small sum of money.

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The U.S. Marines were then allowed to communicate with their American relatives in the Shenyang prisoner of war camp with restrictions. Soldiers could write three postcards a year and send a telegram once in a while. An officer can write three letters and three postcards per year. These messages rely on the International Committee of the Red Cross for transit and are subject to heavy scrutiny, often taking three to six months to reach their destination. But despite this, for U.S. Marines in the POW camps, receiving packages from their parents or wives is still the happiest thing for them.

However, the reason why the Japanese so "mercifully" allowed American prisoners of war to communicate with their families was naturally not out of humanitarian considerations, but in an attempt to gather intelligence from them -- after the outbreak of World War II, Japan and the United States completely cut off personnel exchanges, and in addition, after the start of the war, the United States concentrated Japanese overseas Chinese living in the United States into concentration camps, and it was almost impossible for the Japanese authorities to learn about the military movements and military production of the United States from the United States. As a result, in addition to listening to broadcasts in the United States, Japan's intelligence collection of the US military during World War II mainly relied on Japanese strategic intelligence personnel scattered in neutral countries and other places to obtain military intelligence indirectly.

But the problem is that the wartime propaganda content of any country cannot be taken completely seriously. Second-hand information obtained from neutral countries is often unreliable and problematic - in times of war, all sorts of strange rumors are constantly emerging.

As a result, after being forced to do so, the Japanese army, who was thirsty for information, actually came up with the idea of writing letters to the families of prisoners of war -- after each batch of mail from the families of prisoners of war arrived at the Shenyang prisoner of war camp, the Japanese army would organize a mail inspection team for the families of prisoners of war to analyze and study the mail, newspapers, and packages from the families of American prisoners of war, and organize them into written materials and send them to the military police headquarters of the Kwantung Army, the Shenyang secret service and other departments for their reference.

Of course, the mail of the families of the prisoners of war had been reviewed in advance by the security and intelligence departments in the United States before they were sent, and some of the illegal content was smeared and covered. Despite this, the Japanese were able to recover some of the smeared words with great difficulty, and through other words, pictures, and instructions for various items in the parcel, they were able to gather a lot of comprehensive military strategic information about the United States. For example, the attitude of the American people towards the war, whether the American people actively participated in the military and the war, as well as the prices and economic living conditions of the American people......

In this way, the exchange of letters and parcels between prisoners of war, which should have been normal, was also regarded as a battlefield of "secret war" by the US and Japanese camps. The U.S. military did its best to avoid leaking military secrets in letters and packages sent to prisoner of war camps; The Japanese army, on the other hand, showed the earnest energy of "dissecting sparrows" and did not let go of every thing that passed through it, but simply tried to see the big from the small, and analyzed a large amount of information from these inconspicuous mail and parcel items.

Of course, the battle of wits and courage between the intelligence services of the United States and Japan in the delivery of mail is a little too far away from the former Marines in the Shenyang prisoner of war camp who did not let a single shot on the battlefield. For them, it just feels like their prisoner of war life is okay.

Although in the prisoner of war camps, they were not less slapped and locked up by the Japanese, but no matter how tired these American cowboys were, they were not the kind of strange Taiwanese strawberry soldiers who could do push-ups and make themselves to death, and their psychological endurance was not so fragile - otherwise they would not have survived the previous Great Depression era. After admitting to the Japanese, the hard days of the prisoner of war camp in the past few years have been overcome.

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Finally, in the autumn of four or five years, the U.S. military bombed Tokyo, the old Japanese imperial government was destroyed, and the remaining Japanese troops were forced to abandon the occupied areas of North China and Manchuria and withdraw to the Japanese archipelago to defend the mainland. The former marines in the Shenyang POW camp were also handed over to the Chinese Red Army when the Japanese army retreated and the POW camp was closed, and then sent to the Soviet Union...... These Yankees, who had spent four years in prisoner of war camps, escaped from the clutches of the Japanese and came to Siberia with a longing for them, thinking that they could finally go home. And in the following months, because the United States and the Soviet Union had not completely torn their faces, it was indeed many American prisoners of war who were repatriated by the Soviets in batches through the North Pacific route.

However, the problem is that as the saying goes, there are unforeseen circumstances, and before the repatriation of these US POWs was completed, US-Soviet relations deteriorated further and sharply, and the repatriation of US POWs was stopped or abruptly stopped. Sergeant Major Cecil and more than 100 of his companions, who had been arranged to return to China in the second group and were waiting for the return cruise ship in the Kamchatka Peninsula, were stranded in the detention center in Petropavlovsk...... After the outbreak of World War III, the Soviets directly changed the Petropavlovsk detention center into a prisoner of war camp.

Sergeant Major Cecil, who had been a prisoner of war for five years, and his more than 100 fellow U.S. Marines in China who had not had time to be repatriated, had to admit the reality with their heads down: they had just changed places, and then they had to continue their prisoner of war careers...... What can you do if you don't accept reality? After so many years of enduring the Japanese prisoner of war camps, could it be that if they were replaced by Soviet prisoner of war camps, they would have to seek death and life?

Compared with the previous Japanese prisoner of war camps, the Soviet prisoner of war camps in Kamchatka are naturally much colder, and it is only in October, and there is already a light snow in the sky. Fortunately, each prisoner of war was given a thick fur coat, and there was plenty of firewood for heating - the firewood was cut by Soviet soldiers in the suburbs under the supervision of American prisoners of war before the snowfall, and although there were few people in Kamchatka, there were many trees.

Then, in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp in Kamchatka, Sergeant Major Cecil finally ate the bread he had not seen for a long time—albeit a distinctly sour Russian black leba; The supply of meat in the diet is also much more abundant than on the Japanese side – although there are often strange things like horse meat sausages; Kamchatka is also home to a variety of rare and high-end seafood – Alaskan king crab, fresh sea urchin, salmon and salmon, which are often priceless in American cities, are sold at extremely cheap prices in the markets here. Although the Soviet guards were not so kind to provide such food to the prisoners of war, Sergeant Cecil was able to buy some with his belongings to satisfy his hunger. In addition, the management system of the prisoner of war camp here is relatively relaxed, and after winter, prisoners of war are sometimes even allowed to leave the camp and go to the city for a stroll - anyway, as long as the port freezes, even the Soviets themselves are trapped in this place by the harsh nature. Where can these American POWs go?

Moreover, in these days, the whole world is burning in the flames of war, and compared with those people outside who spend their days in bombing, gun battles, forced labor, hunger, epidemics, escapes, and even nuclear pollution, and do not know whether there will be tomorrow after today, they have food, drink, and shelter in the prisoner of war camps, and there is not much work to do, so it can be said that they are enjoying a long vacation, and what is there to be wronged?

As long as you think about it, relax your mind, and stop complaining, the life in the prisoner of war camp will feel much better. After all, as the generals of the defeated army, they should not have had too many illusions about life in the prisoner of war camp from the beginning, and they should thank God for not being tortured.

The only regret for these former U.S. Marines in China is that since the outbreak of World War III, they have never received letters and parcels from their families - when they were in the Japanese prisoner of war camps, they could also go through the channel of the Red Cross, transit through Switzerland, and barely maintain communication with their families in their homeland in the United States, but with the outbreak of World War III, Switzerland, a theoretically permanently neutral country, was also hit by a nuclear bomb, and was immediately destroyed by the Soviet Union, and the Red Cross was paralyzed. As a result, all the countries of the world were divided into two camps by the fire curtain of war, and there was no longer any real neutral country, and the warring parties were cut off from the channels of communication, much to the frustration of these prisoners of war who were eager to get news of their homeland.

It's Christmas for the Russians, and even the POWs get a special Christmas ration, with each American soldier getting a bottle of wine and a box of pastries. As for the officers...... Those officers had already taken advantage of the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union had not completely torn their faces, and all of them had taken a step forward on the cruise ship back home. Among these unlucky bastards who didn't make it and were left behind, Sergeant Major Cecil was already the highest in rank and seniority.

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In this way, on the Orthodox Christmas of January 7, the former US Marines in the Petropavlovsk prisoner of war camp, a group of "model prisoners of war" who had been honestly squatting in the prisoner of war camp for five years, were roasting the fire in the wooden house, drinking wine, eating pastries, looking at the falling snow outside the window, listening to Sergeant Major Cecil stumbling to translate the war news in the Russian newspaper.

“…… The main forces of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet broke through the Turkish straits, entered the Mediterranean Sea in a big way, shelled the ports of Haifa and Beirut. The Syrian insurgents have entered Palmyra, and U.S. forces in the Middle East are fleeing into Iraq...... Stalin made a public speech in which he called on Arabs and black Africans to cooperate with the Red Army in launching an anti-colonial uprising...... The back is full of clichés, empty words, and official articles, and there are a lot of awkward professional words, so I won't translate them......"

“…… After the initial cleaning of the ruins after the bombing of Paris, the French government is preparing to hold a national memorial to mourn the millions of victims......"

“…… According to expert assessments, the Dutch seawall destroyed by the atomic bomb will be difficult to repair in a short period of time, and the reconstruction project in Amsterdam has to be postponed. ”

“…… The IRA and the U.S. Army fought fiercely in Galway, and the Soviets provided Ireland with 50,000 rifles. ”

“…… Istanbul, Turkey, was directly annexed to the territory of the Soviet Union and was restored to its former name of Constantinople during the Eastern Roman Empire......"

“…… After the surrender, mainland Britain fell into anarchy and mass famine broke out. The Scottish government in Edinburgh sent a delegation to Moscow to plead with the Soviets to send troops there. At the same time, Queen Elizabeth II also met with Stalin and publicly pleaded with the Red Army to cross the sea into Britain, help restore order in Britain, and provide a batch of humanitarian aid...... Stalin said that this issue needs to be studied......"

“…… A U.S. fleet appeared in the waters off the Faroe Islands, suspected of attempting a sneak attack on Murmansk, and has now been driven back by the Red Navy......"

“…… The State Planning Committee of the USSR issued a public statement refuting the rumors in society that wartime food ration standards were going to be lowered, declaring that the Soviet government was capable of providing enough food to every hardworking citizen, even with the outbreak of World War III and the widespread drought in Eastern Europe......"

“…… The Chinese Red Army announced that it had liberated the whole province of Fujian and was actively preparing for crossing the sea to attack Taiwan......"

“…… The Second Battle of Saigon launched by the Viet Cong was frustrated, and the South Vietnamese authorities, supported by Thai reinforcements, once again held the temporary capital of Saigon. ”

“…… The CPP announced a major victory in Baguio in northern Luzon and prepared to launch a counteroffensive against Manila, the capital of the Philippines. ”

“…… In the aftermath of the Jakarta bombing, chaos in the former Dutch Indonesian colony continued, and a new government that was widely recognized had not been formed. Armed clashes frequently erupt in various cities. There is a possibility that the Indonesian region will be divided into many small countries in the future......"

“…… On the battlefield of India, the battle of Bangalore, which lasted for three months, came to an end. Bose's Indian National Army won a crushing victory, but its own losses were also very heavy. Gandhi, the leader of the Indian reactionaries, was assassinated in Calcutta, and the exact circumstances of his injuries are not known for the time being......"

“…… The Soviets dropped an atomic bomb on an Allied fort in Tokyo Bay, Japan, and wiped out the Australian forces stationed there. At this point, the last Allied forces on the Japanese battlefield were also annihilated. The Japanese army base camp issued a good news, announcing the successful end of the land reconquest operation......"

……

Listening to the news of this victory in the Russian newspapers, the mood of the American prisoners of war became more and more depressed. Especially after learning that the Allied forces on the Japanese archipelago had been completely annihilated, everyone could not help but lament - it seemed that there was no hope for the motherland to avenge itself.

Seeing that everyone was in such a depressed mood, Sergeant Major Cecil had to laugh a few times and fold the newspaper, "...... Don't be so frustrated! From the day of surrender, the war that belongs to us is over. It is not up to us to decide how well our compatriots on the various fronts fight...... In any case, from the point of view of benefits, with the end of the Japanese battlefield, the war is getting farther and farther away from us after all—at least we don't have to worry about being bombed by our own planes to bomb the prisoner of war camp, and the chances of us being able to return home alive are estimated to increase somewhat......"

When you think about it, you American prisoners of war are relieved - since they entered the prisoner of war camp, this war has little to do with them, and the only thing in their hearts is how to survive in the prisoner of war camp and hope that one day they will be able to return home. As for the glory of being a soldier and the dream of being rewarded for meritorious service...... Since the day they became prisoners of war, they did not dare to daydream such things anymore.

It is frustrating that the United States of America has been beaten so badly in three wars, one defeat after another, but from another point of view, does it not mean that the war will soon end with the United States suing for peace, and they will not have to stay in Kamchatka for too long?

So, after a moment of silence, the prisoners of war became active again, and began to push and change glasses and play again.

However, just when these "model prisoners of war" of the U.S. Marine Corps were having fun and laughing, thinking that they could wait for the end of the troubled times in this wild place on the edge of the world, the haze that represented war and destruction was actually quietly approaching them......

-- In the midst of the flames of the Third World War, the entire Eurasian continent can no longer find a true pure land of peace. (To be continued.) )