Red Moscow

Sokov clearly remembered that the German prisoners paraded through the streets of Moscow, which happened on July 17, 1944. This parade, known as a special military parade, was named the "Great Waltz" by the Soviet side, and it taunted these Germans from the name.

But somehow, of the 160,000 German officers and soldiers captured in Belarus, only 57,000 remained after arriving in Moscow. There is no accurate record of where the remaining prisoners of war went.

The prisoners of war who arrived in Moscow were divided into 90 square teams by the Soviet army, and the team stretched for more than 3 kilometers. Walking at the front of the team were 19 German generals. The medals on their chests used to symbolize glory, but now they represent shame.

The tattered and haggard German officers and soldiers followed behind them, their eyes full of horror, in stark contrast to the triumphant Moscow people around them.

On the day of the parade, rare high-temperature weather appeared in Moscow, causing thousands of prisoners of war to collapse from the heat during the parade. And I don't know whether it was unintentional or deliberate. The food of the prisoners had problems the day before, which caused many prisoners of war to have diarrhea during the parade. They didn't have a chance to go to the toilet, so they directly pulled their feces on the asphalt road. Dignity is completely swept away. The entire "military parade" lasted nearly 6 hours, and was accompanied by filth all the way. In the end, the captured troops were disbanded not far from the Kremlin, and were loaded on trains and transported to various prisoner camps.

As soon as the "military parade" was over, Moscow's sprinkler convoys were dispatched to clean the streets and save the city from stinking. The filth symbolizes the aggression of the Germans and devastated the Soviet Union. The cleaning of the sprinkler is not only to clean up the road, but also to wash away all the shame brought by the invaders.

On the second day, the Soviets also publicized the matter in the press, with a very eye-catching headline: This is how the Germans entered Moscow.

"Comrade Deputy Commander," Sokov no longer discussed with Ponejielin how the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom and the United States was after the war. What he was most concerned about at the moment was how many prisoners he could capture and provide to the Front Army Command: "There are still How many enemies of the establishment?"

Ponegerin couldn't help being taken aback when he heard Sokov say that, and then asked, "Comrade Commander, why are you asking this?"

"I just said that the front army command asked us to provide prisoners of war, I am afraid it is to show the allies what we have achieved." Sokov said to Ponejerin: "I want to know if there is an organized German army nearby. , After the chief of staff brings the remaining troops to join us, I plan to launch an offensive to try to capture more prisoners and provide them to the front army headquarters."

After figuring out Sokov's intentions, Ponegerin pointed to the map and said to him: "According to the information provided by the guerrillas, there are German troops stationed here, with about two regiments in strength."

"There are only two regiments," Sokov said with a sneer. "I originally wanted to wait until the chief of staff brought the rest of the troops before attacking the nearby enemies. But I didn't expect that now there is a piece of fat lying around In front of us, there is no reason not to eat him."

"Comrade Commander, I think it's better to wait a little longer." Ponejielin waited for Sokov to finish, and persuaded: "Whether the information provided by the guerrillas is accurate or not, we still need to send someone to verify it. Confirm that the Germans only have two With the strength of a regiment, it will not be too late for us to attack again."

"Yes, Comrade Commander, I think the Deputy Commander is right." Kirillov echoed from the side: "Although the intelligence was provided by the guerrillas, it is highly authentic. But we must also take into account that the German army Recently, we have been hit hard by us. Many troops were routed, but they regrouped in a new place. Although there were only two regiments in this place a while ago, no one can guarantee that there are no defeated troops. They meet."

Seeing that Kirillov expressed his concerns, Ponejielin added: "If we don't know the specific situation of the enemy, we will rashly launch an attack, and the number of troops going will be small, and we will not be able to defeat the enemy; It will definitely affect our use of troops in other regions."

"Alright then." Sukov felt that what the two said made sense, and nodded in agreement: "Immediately send a reconnaissance team to conduct reconnaissance on the deployment of the German troops in the area, find out how many troops they have, and then decide how many to deploy. force to destroy them."

Kirillov saw that Sokov agreed to send a reconnaissance team to reconnaissance first, and after finding out the real strength of the enemy, he decided to send how many troops to attack. He faithfully performed his duties as the acting chief of staff, picked up the phone and gave orders to the troops below, asking them to immediately send scouts to the location of the German army to carry out reconnaissance.

Besides, the 122 brigade led by Milesyev is now close to the German prisoner-of-war camp.

Milesyev ordered the troops to stop, then called the interpreter, and said to him: "Comrade interpreter, take two soldiers over there to see how many enemies there are in the prisoner-of-war camp."

The interpreter wearing the uniform of the German Second Lieutenant, heard the order given to him by Milesyev, and said with some hesitation: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if the Germans ask which part we belong to, how should I answer?"

"You just say that the members of our 35th Army came here after being defeated by the Russians through untold hardships." Seeing that the interpreter was so timid, Milesyev felt a little more dissatisfied with him : "Let's say we go in and change defense, let them open the door for us."

"But Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what if they hear that we are here to change defense and ask me for relevant documents?"

"It's on me." Milesyev said impatiently: "Don't dawdle, go over quickly."

Looking at the translator and the backs of the two soldiers, Milesyev's dissatisfaction with him reached a peak. He regretted that when he met Sokov, he didn't ask the other party for two people who could understand German. It will be as passive as it is now.

Fortunately, what happened next was not as bad as Milesyev feared. Not long after, the interpreter who went to the prisoner-of-war camp came back with someone to report to Milesyev: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, good news, I have already talked with the German commander, and he will lead the troops at the camp gate. welcome you outside."

"Oh, the German commander came out to meet me in person?"

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I said that the commander of the German army came out to meet you." The interpreter, who was still nervous when he went to the prisoner-of-war camp, was in high spirits at the moment: "They got the news that our army has captured After winning the victory, the morale of the army was unavoidably shaken. Seeing that someone was willing to switch defenses with them and take over the job of guarding the prisoners of war, they simply couldn't wish for it. They didn't even care about asking me for any documents. Greeting you at the door."

Now that the Germans had relaxed their vigilance against themselves, Milesyev naturally wished for it, and immediately led his troops to rush over.

When we arrived at the place, we saw two or three hundred German soldiers lined up outside the prisoners of war, and a major stood at the front of the line. Seeing Milesyev's arrival, he hurriedly greeted him, raised his hands in salute, and started chattering. Where Milesyev could understand what he was talking about, he could only turn to the translator for help.

Now the German commander is only two or three meters away from Milesyev. Even if he speaks close to Milesyev's ear, the German officer on the opposite side may hear it. For a while, the scene looked rather awkward.

Seeing that Milesyev ignored him, the German commander wished to think that the other party hadn't heard clearly, so he charged again loudly. But Milesyev didn't understand, let alone understood, even if he understood, he didn't know how to respond to the other party.

Milesyev looked over the shoulder of the German commander and looked into the prisoner-of-war camp. He saw a sandbag fortification with machine guns near the door. After entering the door, there was a bungalow on the right, and clothes were drying outside the house. Judging from it, this should be the residence of the German guards. In the distance are the wooden houses where the prisoners of war camps lived, dotted in the middle of the prisoner of war camps.

After looking at the terrain, Milesyev found that except for the four watchtowers who were on duty, the rest of the German army should have been brought out by the German commander to meet him. "Let's do it." Seeing that the enemy had no defenses, and their strength was only a quarter of his own, Milesyev ordered the people around him: "Catch them all!"

Hearing Milesyev's words, the soldiers immediately rushed forward and aimed their weapons at the German guards lined up outside the prisoner-of-war camp. When the German commander heard Milesyev give an order in Russian, he realized that something was wrong, and when he saw the opponent's troops pointing their guns at him, he understood even more that there was something wrong with these soldiers in German uniforms.

Although most of the German troops were disarmed, the sentries on the sentry box noticed that something was wrong. While pressing the alarm switch, they raised their weapons and fired at the position of the 25th Guards Regiment.

Milesiev had known for a long time that despite the vast majority of guards in the German army, they followed the commander out of the camp to greet him, and the greatest threat to the troops was the sentinels on the four sentry towers. Therefore, after controlling the enemy at the gate of the camp, Milesyev divided his troops into four groups and rushed to different sentry towers.

The soldiers on the sentry tower saw that the incoming troops first disarmed the guards, and then rushed towards the sentry tower where they were standing guard, and shot desperately. Although their bullets knocked down some of the commanders, the rest boldly rushed to the guard tower.

The battle ended quickly, and all the soldiers in the sentry tower were killed, but the Soviet army also paid the price of 2 deaths and 18 injuries.

The prisoners of war who were originally staying in the wooden house saw that the door was opened and a group of people in German uniforms rushed in from the outside.

But what happened next shocked them. An officer in the uniform of a German lieutenant shouted at them in Russian: "Comrades, you are trapped, we are here to rescue you!"

After the lieutenant finished speaking, the expected cheers did not appear. All the prisoners in the room looked at the lieutenant numbly, as if they didn't understand what he said at all.

Seeing this, the lieutenant could only order his subordinates to take all the prisoners out of the cabin.

When they came to the open space outside the wooden house, the prisoners of war were about to line up according to the previous queue, but they were surprised to see the guards, who were invincible in the past, standing dejectedly at the other end of the open space, surrounded by German uniforms The soldiers of those people pointed their guns at the guards of the prisoner-of-war camp.

A German lieutenant colonel walked into the queue and said to everyone through the loudspeaker: "Comrades, we are from the 25th Regiment of the 6th Guards Division. Commander of the Army Group, General Sokov, came here to rescue you. Comrades, you have suffered!"

Although these prisoners of war were captured at different times, they all had heard of Sokov's name to some extent. At this moment, Milesyev said that he was rescued by Sokov's order, and the brave soldier asked tentatively, "Is it the Sokov general who defeated the Imperial Division and the Skeleton Division?"

"That's right, it's him!"

Hearing Milesyev's affirmative answer, the soldier who asked the question suddenly cheered, and he shouted at the still-shocked captive: "Comrades, this is our own man, served by Sokov. General's order, come here to meet us."

The originally silent crowd, after hearing what the prisoner of war said, understood what was going on, and immediately cheered.

Milesyev did not interrupt the cheers of the prisoners, but waited quietly for them to calm down.

But after the prisoners quieted down, Milesyev continued: "Comrades, this prisoner-of-war camp is still behind the enemy's rear, and we must move it immediately, otherwise we will not be able to leave when the large German troops surround us." .”

When the prisoners of war heard this, they thought, don’t see your friendly troops occupying the prisoner-of-war camp, but if a large German army surrounds them, it is still unknown how large-scale the German army’s attack can be withstood by these two thousand people, so Transfer as soon as possible.

The transfer started quickly, and since there were no seriously wounded prisoners of war, the transfer was quick. In less than half an hour, the entire prisoner-of-war camp was heading towards Baranovich.

During the march, a battalion commander asked Milesiev for instructions: "Comrade commander, it is basically impossible for such a large force of ours to walk on the road without being discovered by the enemy. So I would like to ask Ask, what should we do if we encounter the enemy?"

"Comrade Major," Milesyev replied simply to the battalion commander's question: "It goes without saying. Naturally, we should directly fire at the enemy and wipe them out before they react."

"Understood, Comrade Commander." After the battalion commander figured out what was going on, he quickly said, "I will tell the soldiers that as soon as they see the Germans, they should open fire immediately, and they must be wiped out before they react. .”

Just as the battalion commander was sent away, another prisoner of war came over and asked Milesyev curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I would like to ask, how far are we going to go?"

"Not far, not far," Milesyev said casually, "It's only a few tens of kilometers, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Tens of kilometers is not close, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." The prisoner of war reminded Milesyev: "If we meet the Germans on the way, if we have no weapons, we will not be the opponents of the Germans."

"Don't worry, comrade." Milesyev patted the opponent's shoulder twice, comforting him and said, "Although you don't have weapons, don't you still have us? We will protect you and return to our army safely. side."