Red Moscow

But what was unexpected was that while the anti-tank man was shooting, the T-34 tank stopped and turned the turret to the side. The rocket hit the rotating turret, turned into a ricochet, and exploded on the side of the hillside.

"Wait a minute," Sokov saw the T-34 tank painted with a white cross, turned the turret to the side and rear, and assumed a harmless posture for humans and animals. He felt a little strange, and quickly stopped the anti-tank fighters. Instead, he ordered Samoilov: "Comrade Lieutenant, send two people over to see what's going on."

In order to find out what was going on, Samoilov personally led two soldiers and approached the tank cautiously with their waist down. When they reached the tank, the roof was opened from the inside, and a white handkerchief was tied to an MP40 submachine gun, which was stretched out and shaken twice.

Seeing that the opponent was about to surrender, Samoilov straightened up and shouted into the tank: "Listen up, people inside, come out and surrender immediately!"

Following his shout, three people emerged from the tank, two men and one woman. Although they were wearing tank caps, they were wearing casual clothes. Samoilov, who was about to capture them, couldn't help but be taken aback: "Who are you?"

The three came to Samoilov, still holding their hands high, one of the elderly men replied: "I am Rikov, a technician from the tank repair station, and this is Coca gold next to me. Before being captured, she was a tanker of the Southwest Front Army. The girl next to her was named Katayeva, and she was a villager in the village next to the prisoner-of-war camp where we were being held."

"Put your hands down." Sokov saw that it wasn't the German soldiers who came out of the tank, but three people in civilian clothes, so he walked over from his hiding place, just in time to hear what Rikov said, and went He signaled the three of them to put their hands down first, and then said, "Rikov, please tell me, what is going on?"

Gu Kejin next to him glanced at Sokov's military rank, quickly raised his hand to his forehead, and said respectfully: "Hello, Comrade General, Tank Sergeant Gu Kejin from the 1st Battalion of the 19th Independent Tank Brigade is reporting to you, My unit is attached to the Popov Rapid Group."

If the other party was talking about other units, maybe Sokov really didn’t know, but after Popov’s rapid group was defeated by the Germans, he still sent people to meet them, and Colonel Rukhle, the commander of the 19th Independent Tank Brigade, I also had a relationship with him. He asked calmly, "What's the name of your brigade commander?"

"Ruhlie!" Gu Kejin replied without thinking: "Colonel Ruhlie!"

The names and ranks matched, and Sokov looked up at Samoilov, who had climbed onto the tank to check, and saw that the other party made a normal gesture to him, and then asked, "Tell me, what is the name of the coca gold center?" Sergeant, why did you drive a tank with a white cross painted on it and appear here?"

"Comrade General, the situation is as follows." Kokokin explained to Sokov: "During the battle at the end of February, I was captured by the Germans because of my wounds. The enemy detained us in a prisoner-of-war camp near Barvinkovo. I The daily work of Rikov and Likov is to help the Germans maintain their tanks and armored vehicles.

One day, a damaged tank was suddenly brought back from the front line. Here, it's the one behind me. The Germans let us clean the inside of the tank and restore it. There were a total of four tank crew corpses in the car, they were killed by the high-temperature jet that penetrated the tank. When we were collecting the corpses, we accidentally discovered that there were more than a dozen shells in the tank, so we hid them secretly while the Germans were not paying attention.

The day before yesterday, the German army said that there was an important military operation. Let us drive the repaired T-34 tank for testing. I felt that the opportunity came, so I discussed with Rikov and two other technicians, and took advantage of the opportunity of testing to drive the tank out of the enemy's prisoner-of-war camp. "

"How many of you were involved in the escape?" Samoilov interrupted.

"Not counting Katayeva, there are four of them." Gu Kejin replied, "Except for Rikov and I, the other two are captured mechanics."

"Then where are they?"

"Sacrificed." Gu Kejin replied with a heavy expression: "We took advantage of the opportunity of testing at the tank test site to bombard the German observation post, and while the enemy was in chaos, we successfully escaped from the test site. Drive here. When the Germans found out that we had fled, they immediately sent tanks and armored vehicles to pursue them. During the escape, we destroyed two German tanks and unfortunately lost two technicians.”

"How did they sacrifice?" Sokov asked.

"Shortly after we pulled out of the test site, the tank broke down. The two of them were hit by the enemy's shell shrapnel when they got off the vehicle to deal with the breakdown, and died on the spot." Gu Kejin said here, turning his head and looking aside. Katayeva continued: "In the process of fleeing, we met Katayeva. We were worried that if she was discovered by the Germans, something might happen to her, so we took her and fled together."

"Tell me, how many tanks did the Germans send out to chase you?"

Gu Kejin thought for a moment, and replied: "There are at least five tanks, all of which are Panzer III or Panzer IV tanks. In a one-on-one situation, they are no match for the T-34 at all."

Hearing what Gu Kejin said, Samoilov leaned close to Sokov's ear and said in a low voice: "Comrade commander, do you think the tank we just encountered was chasing them? Did you encounter us by mistake?"

"Well, there is such a possibility." Sokov pondered carefully in his heart. If the German tank hadn't been chasing Cocakin and the others, how could it have appeared in the depth of his defense zone? Thinking about it this way, the sudden appearance of the German tank can explain the reason clearly.

However, out of caution, Sokov still said to Gu Kejin: "Comrade Sergeant, we still need to review what you said. Would you like to go with us?"

"That's really great." Gu Kejin was originally worried that Sokov would not trust him, but seeing him ask him to leave together, he said excitedly, "I am willing to go with you."

When re-starting, Katayeva failed to re-enter the tank, but sat in a jeep behind, while Samoilov sent two soldiers to sit in the tank to monitor Gu Kejin and others, Prevent possible accidents. Regarding Samoilov's arrangement, Gu Kejin and others did not have any resistance. In any case, he had just escaped from the German defense zone, and it was understandable that the other party did not trust him.

Gu Kejin was very cooperative and waited for the two jeeps in front to pass by the tank before launching the tank, sandwiched between the four jeeps, and headed towards the defense area of ​​the 182nd Division.