Sashiko's words reminded Lakuri, and he nodded and said: "Yes, if the Germans want to build a large-scale prisoner of war camp in the forest, they will definitely choose to build it near a water source. Even if it is not next to a stream, it is not far away. It will be too far. Comrades, let’s set out and search along this creek to see if we can find the target we are looking for.”
Sergeant Lakuri's orders were like the sound of heaven to every scout. When marching in the forest at night, it is difficult to see clearly. In addition, in summer, the forest is full of shrubs and weeds, which seriously affects the speed of marching. Now moving along the stream, the goals and reference objects are much clearer, which can greatly increase the marching speed.
The reconnaissance team walked forward for about half an hour, and the scout who was opening the way suddenly stopped.
"What's going on?" When Lakuri saw the scout who opened the way stopped, he guessed that the other scout might have discovered some target. He quickly whispered to the other scouts to stop, then trotted over and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Sergeant," the scout said to LaCourry, pointing to a place ahead: "There seems to be a light in the clearing in the woods ahead."
Lakuri looked in the direction of the scout's finger and saw that there was indeed a light in the forest clearing in the distance. Although it was blocked by trees, he could still vaguely see that it was the light of a searchlight because his back was turned to him. Here, so I can’t see it clearly.
"It seems that that's the target we're looking for." After Lakuri finished speaking, he turned around and waved to the scouts who stopped behind, motioning for them to follow.
After Sashiko came over, he asked Lakuri in a low voice: "Comrade Sergeant, have you found the place we are looking for?"
"Yes." Lakuri nodded and replied affirmatively: "We found the light of the searchlight in the forest glade in the distance. It looked like a prisoner-of-war camp built by the enemy. But to be safe, we must get closer reconnaissance."
The glade looked not far away, but the actual distance was two or three kilometers. It took the reconnaissance team a full hour to pass through the forest and reach the edge of the forest glade.
Here, Lakuri saw a camp surrounded by barbed wire. Surrounding the camp, there were wooden watchtowers with sandbags on them and machine guns mounted on them. Soldiers were using searchlights to check for any movement in the camp. .
Lacoury did not take his reconnaissance team to get close to the camp, because with the character of the Germans, they would definitely plant mines around the camp. If they led the reconnaissance team there in the dark, they would undoubtedly die. So he left and lay in the grass at the edge of the forest, using binoculars to observe the movement of the camp a few hundred meters away.
Under the light of the searchlight, Lakuri could see clearly that there was a barbed wire fence in the middle of the camp, with hundreds of figures inside, who should be captured Soviet commanders and fighters. In addition to several sentries standing guard at the entrance of the barbed wire fence, there are also several patrol teams of five people, constantly moving around the barbed wire fence.
"The guards are really tight." Sashiko whispered to Lakuri: "Comrade Sergeant, we have no way to rescue our comrades from such a tightly guarded prisoner of war camp."
"Sashiko, our task is to find out the location of the prisoner of war camp and report it to our superiors. The task of rescuing prisoners of war will be handed over to other troops by our superiors."
Seeing that Lakuri was about to climb aside and notify the operator to send a report, Sahiko stopped him: "Comrade Sergeant, can you lend me your telescope?"
Lakuri thought that he was going to the forest and notified the telegraph operator to send a telegram to the Army Reconnaissance Office. He really didn't need a telescope, so he took it off and handed it to Sashiko.
Unexpectedly, before Lakuri had finished sending the telegram, he heard a rush of footsteps. He quickly clenched the weapon in his hand and got ready to shoot. Fortunately, Sashiko's voice came at this time: "Comrade Sergeant, I am Sashiko. I have important information and I want to report to you immediately."
"It turns out to be Sashiko." Lakuri lowered the muzzle of his gun and said toward the place where Sashiko was hiding: "Come here, if you are a second later, I might shoot."
When Sashiko came to him, Lakuri asked: "Sashiko, tell me, what did you find? It was so surprising."
"Comrade Sergeant, didn't you just lend me the telescope?" Sahiko said: "As a result, I found something wrong with the helmet worn by the sentry on the watchtower."
"There's something wrong with the helmets?" Lacuri asked in surprise, "Are they wearing our helmets?"
"How is this possible?" Sashiko replied with a wry smile: "I found that the sentry on the watchtower wore an Italian helmet. In other words, the defenders guarding the camp may not be Germans, but Italian."
"What, the people who guard the prisoner of war camp are not Germans, but Italians?" Lacuri felt in his heart that Sashiko was talking nonsense. Since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, there have been almost no Italian soldiers on the battlefield. How could traces of him come out from here? Sahiko must have seen it wrong. He took the telescope from the other party and said, "Let's find out what's going on now."
Lakuri quickly returned to the hiding place just now, raised his binoculars and looked at the soldiers on the watchtower. When he was checking the camp just now, he only noticed where the captured Soviet commanders and fighters were being held and how many enemies were patrolling. He didn't even notice that the helmets worn by the enemies were different from the helmets worn by the Germans.
After this targeted observation, Lakuri soon discovered that Sashiko was not lying, and there was indeed something wrong with the soldiers guarding the camp. Not only do the soldiers on the watchtower wear helmets that are different from the German helmets, but the machine gun mounted on the sandbag is not the MG34 or MG42 general-purpose machine gun commonly used by the German army, but a side-fixed magazine-fed machine gun. .
After seeing these differences clearly, Lacouri suddenly understood that the enemies guarding this prisoner of war camp were not the Germans, but their Italian allies. Such important information needs to be reported immediately to the Army Reconnaissance Division.
A quarter of an hour later, the information from Lakuri's reconnaissance team was placed on the table of the army headquarters.
Seeing such a reconnaissance report, Sameko said with some surprise: "I didn't expect that since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans felt that the Italian army's combat effectiveness was too weak and would hinder them on the battlefield, so they Withdrew them all from the front line. I really didn't expect that they are now asked to take care of the prisoner of war camp. I think those Italian officers and soldiers must be very depressed."
Sokov did not agree with the other party's statement, but asked unexpectedly: "What's today's date?"
"Today is July 19, Comrade Commander." After answering Sokov's question, Samyko asked curiously: "Why do you ask this?"
"It's nothing, I'm just asking." Sokov said it was nothing, but he was thinking: in real history, because the British and American coalition forces landed in Sicily. On July 24, the Italian Parliament passed a motion for Mussolini's resignation by a majority vote; the next day, Mussolini was arrested when he met with the king. It seems that the relationship between Germany and Italy will soon change.
However, Italy had to wait until mid-October to withdraw from the Axis Alliance, join the Allies, and declare war on Germany. Sokov did not have so much time to wait, so he was ready to cut the knot quickly, quickly capture the prisoner of war camp, and remove the prisoners of war inside. They were all rescued: "Chief of Staff, which of our troops is closest to the prisoner of war camp?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov's 46th Infantry Brigade."
"Order Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov to lead his troops to this area immediately." After Sokov figured out which troops were closest to there, he decisively issued the order: "Let them rescue all the commanders and fighters detained in the prisoner of war camp." come out."
"Comrade Commander," Samyko quickly reminded him after hearing Sokov's order: "After the battles of the past few days, Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov's troops only have less than two battalions left. Troops, is it possible to let them rescue their captured comrades with this small amount of troops?"
"Nothing is wrong, my comrade chief of staff." Sokov said confidently: "The Italian army has little combat effectiveness. Two battalions are more than enough to deal with them." He finally added, "By the way, remember to tell Lieutenant Colonel. After the people are rescued, we can give them priority to supply them."
