Red Moscow

As soon as the defense of the 252nd Division started, Sokov received an unexpected call.

Immediately after the call was connected, a familiar voice came from inside: "Comrade Commander, who do you think I am?"

If Sokov answered the phone decades later and heard the other party asking himself this question, he would have judged without hesitation that the other party was highly fraudulent. But at this moment when someone asked himself this way, he couldn't help but start to think, who is this person?

Seeing that Sokov didn't speak for a long time, the other party was obviously disappointed: "Comrade Commander, I really didn't expect that you would forget me not long after we separated."

Although the voice of the caller had become completely inaudible to Sokov because of the line problem, he still guessed someone from the tone of the caller: "Is it Lunev?"

"That's right, Misha, it's me." Seeing that Sokov had guessed his identity, Lunev said with a smile, "I thought you couldn't guess it was me."

"How could it be, Lunev." Sokov replied, "After all, we have been partners for such a long time. Even if your voice has completely changed on the phone, I can still guess from your tone of voice. your identity."

"Long time no see, how are you?"

"I am fine, and you?"

"I am fine too."

After Sokov said a few meaningless words to the other party, he turned to the topic: "Lunev, what do you want from me?"

"Yes, Misha, I have a very important matter with you." Lunev's tone suddenly became severe.

Sokov glanced at Shtemenko who was chatting with Ponedelin not far away, and asked in a low voice: "Lunev, are you calling because of General Shtemenko's affairs?"

"General Shtemenko? Misha, you mean our deputy chief of staff and chief of operations?"

"Yes, yes," Sokov nodded and said, "It was the Deputy Chief of Staff who came to the hospital with you last time to visit me."

"I haven't seen him for a while. What happened to him?"

"Nothing happened. He is staying in my forward headquarters now, saying that he wants to observe our offensive operations."

"Oh, so that's the case." After hearing this, Lunev said lightly: "I thought he had been staying at the General Staff, and I really planned to ask him to come out for a drink someday, but I didn't expect him to go to your place. "

"Lunev, General Shtemenko is here anyway." Sokov said with a smile, "How about I give him the microphone and let him chat with you."

Unexpectedly, after Lunev heard this, he resolutely refused: "Forget it, I will talk to him slowly when he returns to Moscow. I called you today because I have something very important to tell you. You understand."

"Commander Stemmermann of the 11th Army of the German Army, do you still remember?"

"I remember, of course I remember." When Lunev asked about Stammerman, Sokov quickly replied in an affirmative tone: "I personally sent someone to return his body to the Germans."

"Then how did he die, do you know?"

Although he thought Lunev's question was very strange, Sokov still answered truthfully: "At that time, he and thousands of wounded German soldiers were surrounded by us. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, he negotiated with me and hoped that I would not harm these people. The wounded. After obtaining my consent, he ordered all the surrounded German officers and soldiers to lay down their weapons, and then shot himself in front of me."

"Is it really suicide?"

"Of course, of course it was a suicide." In order to increase his credibility, Sokov also specially emphasized: "At that time, thousands of commanders and fighters were present, and they witnessed the scene of Stammerman's suicide. By the way, my adjutant, That is, your old subordinate, Lieutenant Koshkin, who was by my side at the time, and he also saw it."

"Oh, so, Stemmerman committed suicide, neither was killed by their men, nor was he killed by our soldiers during the battle?"

"Yes, Lunev, it was indeed suicide." After Sukov finished speaking, he asked curiously, "Why did you suddenly think of asking about this? Didn't I write a detailed report to my superiors before? Didn't you see it?"

"Of course I saw it." Lunev said, "I made this call to you just because you were there when I found out that Stammerman died."

"Since you have seen my report, why are you still asking about this matter?"

"Misha, you and I are friends, so I won't go around in circles with you." Lunev was silent for a moment, then resolutely said: "We seized a document not long ago, which mentioned the cause of Stammerman's death. Contrary to what was written in your report, some people suspect that you have impersonated military exploits, so they are going to investigate you."

"What, start an investigation on me?" Sokov couldn't help raising his voice when he heard the news: "Lunev, are you kidding me?"

Shtemenko, Ponedelin and others who were talking on the side couldn't help but stop talking when they heard Sokov's voice, and turned to look at Sokov, trying to figure out what happened.

"Misha, don't get excited, listen to my explanation." Lunev on the other end of the phone, hearing Sokov's anger, quickly explained to him: "I might as well tell you the truth, in the documents we seized, it said Stemmermann was killed by the SS when he was about to surrender to our army."

"Lunev, I can tell you very responsibly," Sokov said with a serious expression, "General Stemmelman committed suicide, and it was definitely not what was written in the document. He wanted to surrender to our army. And was killed by the SS soldiers around him."

"Misha, I used to be your partner. I know what kind of person you are." Lunev said sincerely: "I also believe that what you said is true, but do you know that Since you were promoted to admiral at a young age, there must be some people who are jealous. When they encountered this document again, they took the opportunity to launch an investigation on you. I just argued with Comrade Beria not long ago After a while, he reluctantly agreed to hand over the investigation work to me."

The war was imminent, and such a thing happened, which made the developed forehead very depressed. However, the person on the other side of the phone was his former partner Lunev. He was not easy to get angry, so he could only try to control his emotions and asked in a calm tone: "Then how do you plan to investigate?"

"I'll take a plane to the front line later and meet you." Lunev guessed that Sokov must be in a bad mood at the moment, so he comforted him and said, "If there's anything, I'll talk about it when I get there."

As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Shtemenko came over and asked with concern, "Comrade Sokov, what happened? I felt that you seemed very angry when you answered the phone."

But Sokov did not immediately answer the other party's question, but asked Ponedelin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how is the battle going on at Kirillov's place?"

Hearing Sokov ask about the battle in the Velishanka area, he quickly reported: "Comrade Commander, the Germans dispatched 15 tanks and two battalions to attack the 252nd Division's defense area. Before the battle started, the enemy launched heavy shelling on their positions, and there were very few unexploded mines in the minefields in front of the positions, so the next battle should be difficult to fight."

"I believe in Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov, and believe that his troops will be able to block the German attack." Sokov said with a normal expression; "You keep in touch with him, and remember to report to me in time if there is any latest battle situation. "

After dismissing Ponedelin, Sokov lowered his voice and said to Stemenko: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, Lunev called me just now."

Hearing that it was Lunev's call, Shtemenko showed a shocked expression on his face: "The two of you used to be good partners, answering his call, how could it make you so emotional? ?”

"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, do you know Stemmermann?"

"Why don't you know, he is the commander of the 11th Army of the German Army." Shtemenko asked with some surprise: "Why, the call from Lunev has something to do with Stemmerman?"

"Yes, Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff." Sukov said aggrievedly: "At the beginning, Stammerman and the remnants of the Walloon Assault Brigade, as well as more than 2,000 wounded German soldiers, fell into our encirclement. There was no hope of breaking through, and Stemmermann offered me a request, as long as I treat the wounded well, he is willing to order the remaining German troops to lay down their arms and surrender to us."

"Yes, I have read the report you wrote, and it is indeed written like this." Shtemenko added: "After General Stemmermann ordered the Germans to lay down their weapons, he resolutely shot himself. I am right."

"Yes, Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, this is indeed the case." Sokov explained to Shtemenko; "Just now Lunev called me and said that a document from the German army was seized not long ago. The cause of Stammerman's death mentioned is quite different from what I have reported."

"What's the difference?" Shtemenko asked curiously.

"The document stated that Stemmermann saw that the troops had no hope of breaking through the siege, and he did not want to let the soldiers continue to die, so he planned to surrender to our army. But his intention was discovered by the SS, and then an SS officer said Sneaked up to him and shot him dead."

"It's ridiculous, it's simply ridiculous." After hearing this, Stemenko shook his head and said, "Stimmerman is an old German soldier. He doesn't bother to order troops to surrender. Otherwise, he wouldn't After you meet his conditions, you will choose to shoot yourself. I think this document from the Germans is entirely possible to be forged."

Seeing that Shitemenko did not agree with the document at all, Sokov was somewhat moved: "Someone reported to the superior that I was falsely claiming military exploits and that they wanted to investigate me. Fortunately, the person in charge of the investigation was Lunev, he will be flying here soon to investigate this matter."

After hearing this, Shtemenko picked up the cigarette case on the table, took out a cigarette from it, lit it in his mouth, took a sip, and said, "Comrade Sukov, why don't you have German cigarettes here?" ? Haven't you ever seized German tobacco after the war?"

"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff," Sokov quickly explained: "We seized a lot of German cigarettes on the battlefield, but the soldiers didn't like to smoke, saying that it smelled like horse dung. So they seized these All the cigarettes I bought were exchanged with local comrades for domestic cigarettes.”

"Oh, so that's the case." After Shtemenko said something casually, he suddenly turned the topic back to Stemmerman: "As for how Stemmerman died, so far, There are other words."

"What, is there another theory?" Sokov asked in surprise: "What other theory?"

"It is said that Stemmerman was killed by our army's anti-tank artillery." Shtemenko said: "According to intelligence, Stemmerman and his adjutant broke out with the troops. There was a mechanical failure and broke down. When they were advancing on foot, they unexpectedly saw Lieutenant Colonel Schoenfeld, the chief of staff of the Viking Division, in front of him. Car, walked towards a hillside not far away.

Stemmermann and his lieutenants went to the car and found a flat tire. Because he was eager to get out of our army's encirclement, Stemmelman didn't even bother to change the tires, so he asked his adjutant to drive away from there. Unexpectedly, a vehicle with a punctured tire was not easy to control, and the car driven by the adjutant got stuck in a mud pit and could not be driven out. At this moment, a tank shell fired by our army hit the car and tore it from the rear, killing both Stemmermann and his adjutant. "

After listening to this, Sokov smiled wryly and shook his head, thinking that when Stemmerman committed suicide, he was in front of him, so he naturally knew the real cause of his death. But the other two causes of death are too outrageous. Especially the saying that he was shot and killed by an SS officer because he wanted to surrender to the Soviet army sounds like a fantasy.

Don't look at Stemmelman's way of writing, it was written into the document, but it couldn't stand scrutiny at all. After Lunev came, he only needed to find out the situation from a few insiders, and he could completely overthrow it.

The most troublesome thing now is the method mentioned by Shtemenko. In any case, when the German army broke through, there was chaos everywhere. I don’t know how many officers and soldiers died in the Soviet artillery and machine gun fire. If you want to make a fuss, you have to choose the statement that Stammerman was killed by an anti-tank gun, which is really a troublesome thing.

"Comrade Sokov." Seeing that Sokov was thinking about something, Shtemenko interrupted him and asked, "Is there anyone in the forward headquarters who has seen Stammerman commit suicide?"

"My adjutant, Lieutenant Koshkin."

"Is he alone?" asked Stemenko, frowning.

Sokov glanced quickly across the room, and found that in Stammermann, Ponedelin was in General Fomin's artillery headquarters, and Kirillov was fighting the enemy in the 252nd Division. Zichenko was also the acting commander of the cavalry division at the time. And the other commanders in the forward command did not go to the scene with him at that time.

"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff," Sokov replied with some embarrassment: "In my forward command, besides me, only Lieutenant Koshkin witnessed what happened."

"What about the other witnesses?" I heard that only Sokov and Koshkin were witnesses to Stemmerman's suicide in the forward headquarters. Comrade Kove, I suggest that you find more people to come and help you as witnesses. Prove that Stammelman is indeed what you said, and kill himself with a bullet, so that you can clear yourself of the suspicion."