Red Moscow

When the chief of staff issued this order, he never thought about who called him and what the purpose of the call was. He only knew that if the headquarters was not moved as soon as possible, the enemy's tanks might rush to the door, and he didn't want the entire headquarters to become the result of the German army's battle.

What the chief of staff never dreamed of was that the person who called him was the director of the army field hospital. Seeing that he hadn't finished speaking, the phone was cut off, and the dean quickly ordered the communication soldier: "Check the line immediately, and we must restore the communication with the headquarters in the shortest possible time."

The political commissar of the hospital waited for the communications soldiers to leave, and asked the director: "Comrade director, you said that our army is leaving Kharkov. Is this news reliable?"

"Absolutely reliable." The dean replied: "Half an hour ago, I heard from the head nurse that the 19th Infantry Brigade sent a squad of soldiers to pick up their political commissar who was recuperating here."

"Even if the comrades of the infantry brigade took their political commissar away, it wouldn't explain anything." The hospital's political commissar asked in bewilderment, "How could it be related to the breakout?"

"Comrade Political Commissar," the director of the hospital said with a serious expression, "Although I have been staying in the hospital, judging from the sudden increase in the number of wounded in the past two days, the battle outside was brutal, and our army suffered heavy casualties. And the political commissar of the 19th Infantry Brigade had just had surgery the day before yesterday and was still unable to walk on the ground. If the situation was not critical, how could the soldiers of the brigade take him back?"

Hearing what the dean said, the political commissar also realized the seriousness of the problem, and he asked in a panic, "Then what should we do?"

"That's why I called the headquarters." The dean sighed softly, and said, "There are more than 1,500 wounded in the hospital now. If they are not transferred as soon as possible, I am worried that they will die." fell into the hands of the Germans."

Although the director did not say what would happen if the wounded fell into the hands of the Germans, the political commissar knew very well that the Germans would not waste precious medicine to treat their enemies. Either they were killed, or they died in pain due to lack of medical treatment.

"Comrade dean!" The political commissar asked anxiously: "Then what should we do, how can we transfer all the wounded in the hospital?"

"There are only more than 100 medical staff in the hospital, plus a guard company, the total number is no more than 200." The dean said with a serious expression: "With our small number of people, we can't transfer all the wounded. The only way is to ask the army headquarters for help and ask them to send troops to assist us in transferring the wounded."

After the communicators restored the line, the dean called the army headquarters again, but the phone could not be connected. At this moment, the army headquarters, already under the cover of the troops directly under the army, was breaking out from the east of Kharkov. There is no way of knowing the plight of the field hospital at the moment.

Seeing that the headquarters of the group army could not be contacted, even the dean panicked. At this time, a nurse rushed in from the outside and said to him anxiously: "Comrade dean, a seriously wounded man has come. He is a battalion commander of the tank army. He is seriously injured and needs to be operated on by you personally." .”

Hearing that some wounded needed to be operated on themselves, the dean decided to hand over the transfer to the political commissar: "Comrade political commissar, there are still officers and soldiers from the 17th and 19th Infantry Brigades working near the hospital, please contact them. Help us to transfer the wounded in the hospital, and they must not fall into the hands of the Germans."

"Don't worry, Comrade Dean." Since the dean is going to operate on the wounded, and the political commissar knows that he needs to contact the friendly army, he can only do it by himself. He patted his chest and promised: "I will definitely treat these wounded Transfer out one by one."

The commander of the tank battalion who was sent was wounded by a shell while organizing soldiers to block the enemy's attack. The dean frowned when he saw the wounded lying on the operating table covered in blood. He asked the head nurse who assisted him in the operation: "How is the wounded?"

"Not very good, Comrade Dean." The head nurse replied, "According to my observation, there are at least twenty wounds on his body. If the operation is not performed as soon as possible, there is no possibility of him surviving."

"Operate immediately." The dean said with a solemn expression while washing his hands and disinfecting: "I will try my best to rescue him. As for whether he can survive, it depends on his luck."

After the operation began, a nurse supporting the station saw that the wounded was bleeding continuously from the whole body, and was so frightened that he trembled all over. Seeing this situation, the dean couldn't help frowning. The head nurse standing next to him noticed the abnormality of the dean, and quickly explained to him: "Comrade dean, this nurse was just recruited today, seeing this kind of scene for the first time, it is inevitable to feel scared, Please don't mind."

After listening to the head nurse's explanation, the dean snorted softly, and then told her: "Since she has never seen blood, let her go out, so as not to frighten her. The wounded person is too seriously injured. , this body is tattered and needs to be repaired everywhere, not to mention her, I look a little creepy."

When the dean was operating on the wounded in the operating room, the political commissar of the hospital contacted several small troops that had been dispersed. He quickly called these small troops together and said to them: "Comrades, I know that you are preparing to participate in the battle at this moment." Break out of the encirclement, but in our hospital, there are still more than a thousand wounded, please help us to transfer them, and we must not let them fall into the hands of the Germans."

Hundreds of soldiers hastily assembled, followed the political commissar into the hospital, and began to transfer the wounded who were recuperating inside. But as soon as the transfer began, the political commissar found it a daunting task. Without transport vehicles, the lightly wounded can still walk with the assistance of others or rely on their own ability, while most of the seriously wounded lie on stretchers unable to move and must be carried by other soldiers. Two people carry a stretcher, and hundreds of people can carry no more than 200 stretchers, plus the lightly wounded who can walk by themselves, the number of people transferred at a time does not exceed 500, and the speed is very slow, seriously Affected the normal marching speed of the troops.

Not long after the transfer of the wounded began, the 1st Armored Regiment of the Banner Guard Division rushed to the vicinity of the hospital. The guard company responsible for defending the hospital immediately engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the rushing German troops. In order to protect the wounded in the hospital, the soldiers were particularly tenacious. However, due to the difference in weapons and equipment, they persisted for a short time before the German army broke through the line of defense.

Under the cover of tanks, German soldiers rushed into the hospital compound. After eliminating the resistance in the courtyard, they rushed into the hospital building one after another. When the red-eyed soldiers rushed into the ward, although they could clearly see the wounded lying inside, they still pulled the trigger without hesitation, killing these wounded Soviet soldiers who had no resistance at all.

The massacre of the wounded quickly spread from the first floor to the second floor. At this moment, Cook, the commander of the second company of the first battalion, entered the hospital. Seeing that his soldiers were massacring the unarmed wounded, the commander of the second-level commando immediately yelled to stop and ordered everyone to stop these inhuman massacres .

On Cook's orders, the massacre of the wounded was temporarily halted. The soldiers continued to search the hospital building. Although Cook ordered that the wounded not be massacred, as long as weapons were found in any ward, the soldiers would kill everyone in the room without hesitation.

Several soldiers broke into the operating room and pointed their guns at the dean who was undergoing surgery. One of the soldiers, who knew a few words of Russian, shouted brazenly: "Hands up, you are captured by us."

The nurses supporting the stage screamed in fright when they saw the German soldiers rushing in. But the dean, who was undergoing an operation, said to the soldiers without raising his head, "Don't you see that I am undergoing an operation? Get out quickly."

The soldier who had been scolded became furious, raised the submachine gun in his hand, and fired at the dean. Amidst the rattling gunshots, blood spattered on the dean's chest and shoulders. Under the huge impact of the bullets, the dean didn't even groan, and fell on his back to the ground.

Since a companion fired, it immediately stimulated several other soldiers, and they also raised their weapons and opened fire at the medical staff in the operating room. After the intensive gunshots rang out, the nurses who were already trembling all fell into a pool of blood.

The soldier who fired first walked to the operating table, glanced at the wounded who was still in a coma, took out a grenade, pulled the string and placed it beside the wounded. Seeing that his companion had pulled the string of the grenade, the soldiers standing aside hurriedly fled. Several soldiers had just escaped from the operating room when they heard an earth-shattering explosion, and the blast blast shattered the glass door.

The German battalion commander who then entered the hospital, learned that there were still many wounded in the hospital, and immediately issued an order: "Drive all the Russian wounded to the open space outside the building."

Cook, who was standing aside, heard the order from the battalion commander, and asked tentatively: "Mr. Captain of the third-level commando, what do you do to gather the wounded?"

However, the battalion commander just glanced at him, but did not speak.

After about an hour, an officer came to report to the battalion commander: "Mr. Captain of the third-level commando, all the wounded and medical personnel of the Russians have gathered. There are 719 people in total. What should we do next?"

"Wait." After saying this, the battalion commander turned around and came to the front of the armored vehicle. He stood in front of the vehicle and said to the radio operator sitting inside: "Report to the division commander immediately that our battalion has captured 719 Russian wounded soldiers. Please tell me how to deal with them."

The division commander Joseph Dietrich's reply came quickly: "We don't have any extra medicine, go to treat our enemies. Kill them all, and kill them all, leaving no one behind."

After receiving Dietrich's order, the battalion commander returned to the front of the queue and said to the officers waiting for the order: "The division commander ordered that all Russian wounded be killed and none be left behind. We cannot waste precious medicine. On the wounded of our enemies."

When Cook heard this horrific order, he hurried out to stop him: "Mr. Captain of the third-level commando, you know, these more than 700 people are all wounded who have lost their resistance. Is it appropriate to kill them all? "

"Cook." Hearing what Cook said, the battalion commander immediately sternly said, "This is an order from the division commander. Do you want to disobey the order?"

Although Cook said that his humanity was still intact, he did not dare to disobey the orders given by Dietrich. Looking at the female nurse who was taking care of the wounded in the crowd, he couldn't bear it. After the muscles on his face twitched a few times, he bravely said to the battalion commander: "Mr. Kill those wounded to prevent them from wasting our precious medicine. But those medical staff may still be useful to us, do you think we should keep them all?"

Regarding Cook's proposal, the battalion commander thought for a long time, and felt that what he said was somewhat reasonable. The division commander only asked to kill the wounded, but he didn't say that even the medical staff should be killed. So he ordered his subordinates: "Set up machine guns around, and when the medical staff select them, they will immediately fire and kill all the wounded Russians."

There are more than 100 medical staff in the hospital, some of them left with the political commissar of the hospital, and some were killed when the Germans rushed into the building to carry out massacres, and now there are less than 40 people left. When they were picked out from the crowd by German soldiers, someone was still saying loudly: "I'm not going anywhere, I want to stay and take care of the wounded."

For such medical staff, the German soldiers' approach was to aim their guns at their heads and shoot them directly. After killing three nurses, the remaining thirty-five medical staff were taken out of the crowd by German soldiers and taken to other places to guard them.

After waiting for the medical staff to be taken away, the battalion commander swung his hand down abruptly, indicating that the machine guns deployed around were ready to fire. The machine gunners who saw his gesture immediately fired at the Soviet wounded in the open field. For a while, gunshots, screams and curses rang out.

After five minutes of shooting, only countless bloody corpses remained in the open space. However, the German battalion commander was still worried that some of the wounded would not die, so he sent a platoon to stab each corpse with a bayonet.

After doing all this, an officer came to report to the battalion commander: "All the Russian wounded have been killed by us. How should their bodies be disposed of?"

"Let's put it here." The German battalion commander said triumphantly: "Anyway, we will soon catch a lot of Russian prisoners, and let the prisoners dig a pit to bury these corpses."

When Cook saw what was happening in front of him, he felt extremely heavy. He said to the battalion commander: "Mr. Captain of the third-level commando, please hand over these captured medical personnel to our company to take care of them."

"Okay, Cook." The battalion commander also felt that it would be troublesome to bring this group of medical staff, so he readily agreed to Cook's request: "Let them be handed over to your company for custody."