USSR 1941

  Chapter 18 Supplies

  The Zhurav air-raid shelter was due to an accidental storage of a large number of military supplies.

   Shulka visited the Brest Fortress in modern times, and he remembered that the tour guide once told such a story:

"Before the outbreak of the war, a batch of supplies arrived at the Kobrin Fortress. But because it was late at night and Captain Herzsky, who was in charge of the warehouse, was on vacation in the city of Brest, the motor soldiers drove the car with the supplies into Zhurav The air-raid shelter was temporarily parked, ready to be moved into the warehouse the next day... No one knew that there was this batch of supplies until Major Gavrilov retreated here with layers of defense and wanted to use this air-raid shelter to hide. But By then it was too late, Major Gavrilov's troops had less than a hundred men left!"

  With Shulka here, of course he wouldn't let this happen.

   "I'm pretty sure there is no water there!" Matvey insisted: "Especially that air-raid shelter, they have even become the toilets of the 372nd regiment!"

   Several soldiers snickered.

"I'm pretty sure there's water there, Comrade Matvey!" Shulka insisted. "What's more, even if there's no water, what do we have to lose? The biggest loss is to finish the task later, don't you think? "

   Hearing this, Matvey stopped talking.

   "Take me there, Comrade Matvey!" Shulka ordered: "If the platoon commander punishes us for this, I will take all responsibility, and I will say that I ordered you to go!"

   "Yes, Comrade Platoon Leader!" Matvey responded helplessly, then turned to the right rear and said: "We should go in this direction, but we must be careful, because the sentry may think we are deserters!"

   Walking backwards would indeed be considered a deserter, and it is usually hard to argue. Shulka has experienced this before.

   But this didn't make Shulka change his mind. He insisted that Matvey lead the way.

   When Shulka and his party were heading towards the Jurav air-raid shelter, there was a burst of intense gunfire behind them, which was a German machine gun.

   Obviously, the other two classes had some problems getting water.

"What are you doing, Shulka?" Okunev ran to Shulka and said in a low voice, "Maybe you are right, fetching water is indeed dangerous. But you should know that instead of carrying out the task, you chose to hide." Get up, this may be more dangerous!"

   "Don't worry, Okunev!" Shulka said: "Things are not what you think, I am on a mission!"

  The Zhurav air-raid shelter is a bit far away, but Matvey is very familiar with the terrain. Although he has poor eyesight, as he said, he can walk twice in the fortress even with his eyes closed.

This may not be bragging, because the visibility of the stars and the moon is very poor at night, and Okunev, who is also familiar with the terrain, sometimes hesitates, but Matvey's footsteps do not stop at all... He has a map in his mind, He even knew where there was a Soviet outpost and how to avoid it.

  Twenty minutes later, the group arrived at the Zhurav air-raid shelter.

   "This is it!" Matvey said and raised his head forward. He was a little surprised when he found that the iron door was locked.

   "Strange!" Matvey said, "It's not usually locked!"

   "Maybe they knew the Germans were coming!" Okunev said.

   Matvi found a stone from the side and was about to throw it on the lock, but was blocked by Shurka.

   "Don't do it!" Shulka said, "It's going to make a lot of noise and they might take us for Germans!"

  Matvey couldn't help but glanced at Shulka unexpectedly, his face couldn't help being a little embarrassed... As a veteran, he didn't think of this.

   "Let me try!" A private named Fovalikov volunteered to squeeze forward.

   "How to try?" Shulka asked.

Fovalikov didn't say anything, he took out a wire from his hand like a magic trick, put it into the keyhole and fiddled with it for a while, but within a few seconds, he heard a crisp sound of "cough" from the lock. .

   "Wow, Fovalikov!" The soldiers, including Shulka, looked at him with admiration. Only Matvey had a weird expression on his face, but he didn't say anything.

  It was only later that Shulka found out that Fovalikov's hand that he showed just now had inadvertently revealed his identity...he was a thief, and before that, soldiers would often lose one or the other for no reason, including Matvey.

  Open the iron door, and sure enough, just like what Matvey said, what comes out is a bad smell.

  Although they knew that there would be no one inside, the group of people held their guns and carefully divided into two rows and walked in against the wall.

  It was very spacious inside, but it was so dark that nothing could be seen until Okunev turned on the flashlight.

Then…

   "God, what is this?" Okunev couldn't help but exclaimed: "It's a car, a car with things in it!"

   This is obvious, because the trunk of the car is piled high, and although it is all covered with army green canvas, you can still see the protruding corners of the boxes.

  Matvi looked at Shulka in surprise, then ran up a few steps and pulled out the military thorn to cut off the rope tied with the canvas, and then lifted it hard, and a cart full of supplies appeared in front of everyone.

   "Open it, Matvey!" Okunev couldn't wait, if he hadn't held a flashlight, he would have done it himself.

   In fact, there is no need for Okunev to say that Matvey has already started. He moved a box, and then pried off the lid of the box with military stabs. It was a mortar.

   "Great!" Matvey said: "This is a batch of munitions, we are short of these things!"

   "Here is the food!" Fovalikov shouted on the other side: "A whole truckload of bread!"

   "There is water here!" Another soldier shouted: "My God, there is also vodka. Comrade squad leader is right, we have come to the right place!"

   "There are more than 20 cars!" Okunev counted generously, and then exclaimed: "This is simply a treasure house!"

  …

  Okunev is right, this is indeed a treasure trove.

  In times of war, especially when surrounded by enemies and severely short of supplies and ammunition, nothing is as important as these supplies.

  So the soldiers couldn't help cheering, and several of them even picked up the bread and started biting it.

   Shulka should have stopped them, because this is the property of the army, even if it is discovered first, it cannot be the first to get the moon. As the squad leader, Shulka is obliged to stop them, and can even do some ideological work on them.

  But Shulka didn’t do it, not only didn’t he do it, but he joined it... What the hell, if it wasn’t for discovering these things by himself, everyone would still be hungry, so what if they ate a few bites? !

  (end of this chapter)