USSR 1941

  Chapter 57 Pens

  Major Gavrilov was still not reconciled, and took Shulka to find the division commander again after his suggestion was rejected.

Before entering the division commander's headquarters, Major Gavrilov confessed to Shulka: "Although I have not been in contact with him for a long time, Colonel Ovich is a stubborn person. He only believes what he wants to believe. Should give up. But..."

   "I know, Comrade Major!" Shulka said: "From the interests of the entire defense line, we must convince the colonel again!"

   "Yes!" Major Gavrilov nodded and said, "I hope you can convince him!"

   But soon, Major Gavrilov's hope was shattered.

   It wasn’t that Shulka wasn’t eloquent enough, or that Shulka wasn’t smart enough, but that Shulka wasn’t allowed to walk into the headquarters at all…that is, he didn’t have a chance to play.

"I don't have time to waste time!" When Major Gavrilov hoped that Colonel Ovic would give Shulka some time, he said to Major Gavrilov impatiently: "Major, you are in Bryce The heroism of the fortress is commendable, but this does not mean that you understand the battle of the fortified area, which is completely different from the defense of the fortress!"

   "Colonel, we don't consider it a fortress..."

"And I know them!" Colonel Ovich interrupted Major Gavrilov: "Every blockhouse here, every firepower point, I know their situation clearly! I have been here for a year , Major, I even grew up in Kyiv, and you've been here less than a day!"

   Colonel Ovic said so, and Major Gavrilov was speechless.

   But it turns out that whether there will be a war has nothing to do with how long you stay here... Colonel Ovich has the wrong strategy and imagined the wrong enemy in his head, no matter how familiar he is with the defense line and the terrain.

   "We can defeat them!" Colonel Orvich finally emphasized: "There is no need for those ridiculous camouflages, it is superfluous! No matter how powerful the enemy is, they will be unable to move an inch in front of our defense line!"

   "Yes, Colonel!" Major Gavrilov stood up and saluted, and then left knowingly.

  After walking out of the headquarters, he shook his head at Shulka who had been waiting at the door, so Shulka knew the result.

   "Do you know?" On the way back, Shulka handed Major Gavrilov a cigarette, a German cigarette given by Major Gavrilov.

   "I think the reason why the colonel rejected our proposal so arbitrarily..." Shulka said: "At least part of it is because we just joined the 27th Army!"

   "What?" Major Gavrilov did not understand Shulka.

   "We are new here!" Shulka explained: "If we discover the problem of the defense line and come up with an effective improvement plan when we first arrive, it will appear that they..."

Major Gavrilov couldn't help saying "Oh" when he heard the words. Although he has rich experience in combat, he is not very good at this aspect, otherwise he would not be in the Brest Fortress because of speech problems. It's going to be censored.

   "You are right, Shulka!" Major Gavrilov said: "So, what should we do now?"

   "We don't need to do anything!" Shulka said: "At this time, I think it is useless for us to do anything but fight!"

   Major Gavrilov nodded helplessly in agreement.

  So, although Colonel Ovich disagreed with this, the 333rd Regiment was stationed in a non-stop preparation, busy disguising all the bunkers as wooden houses.

   It doesn't take much effort, because this area belongs to the countryside, and the houses are very simple. On the other hand, only the front and the top need to be built... the front is used to deceive the enemy infantry, and the top is used to confuse the enemy air force.

  Colonel Ovich knew about these actions of the 333rd Regiment. After all, this was within his scope of management, and there were many people in the Soviet Army making small reports at this time.

   But Colonel Ovich did not stop.

   "Let them go!" Colonel Orvich said: "These idiots, think some rotten wood can fool the Germans! If this can also work, why did they lose the Brest Fortress?!"

   There was laughter in the headquarters, and the officers believed that Colonel Ovich was right. It should be the 1.5-meter-thick reinforced concrete, machine guns, and cannons that resisted the Germans, not wooden camouflage.

   After a few hours, the sky gradually brightened.

The soldiers of the 333rd regiment nailed the last few boards and returned to the bunker amidst the whistle... It is very dangerous to work outside after dawn, which will attract German guns and make the Germans suspect " cabin".

   There was silence outside, only the cheerful chirping of a few early birds. They didn't realize that the war was coming, and they still flapped their wings to look for food as usual.

Shulka leaned against the concrete wall, resting his stinging eyes for a while, chewing on the distributed black bread... This is their breakfast, hard and dry, and has a strange smell, similar to German bread It's far worse than that.

   "I miss the taste of chocolate!" The thief said with some regret: "I didn't know what was wrong at that time, but I would give the chocolate to you instead of saving two pieces for myself..."

   "You should be lucky, Fovalikov!" the veteran said while chewing bread: "Otherwise, you should have a bruised nose and a swollen face by now!"

   "I'd rather give you back your pen!" said the thief.

   "You mean...my pen is still with you?"

   "No, of course not!" The thief panicked: "I mean... I can steal another one!"

   The old soldier was a little disappointed. He looked at the thief and asked, "Honestly, what do you do with my pen?"

   "I traded it for a piece of bread!" replied the thief.

   After a pause, the thief asked curiously: "I don't understand, Matvey, you can't read at all, what's the use of that pen?"

  The old soldier was silent, and after a while, he replied: "That is what my father left me. He died in the battle with the Japanese!"

   The bunker fell silent again, and the soldiers all cast their blame on the thief.

   "Oh, sorry, Matvey!" The thief regretted: "I didn't know this!"

   "It doesn't matter, Comrade Fovalikov!" The veteran replied: "I said, I forgive you!"

  At this moment, there was a faint sound of a motor outside, which was also mixed with the "squeak" of some tracks.

   "They are coming!" Shulka sat up: "Germans!"

  (end of this chapter)