Chapter 2539

After chatting for a while, Patton signaled Sokov to board the car and prepare to leave for the prisoner of war camp. Then he turned to Tasini and said: "Le Jean, it's time for us to set off."

When Sokov heard Barton's name, he couldn't help but be stunned. Why did Barton call Tesini like that? Could it be that he just heard the wrong name?

"Misha," Agelina saw Sokov's confusion and took the initiative to explain to him: "Le Jean is General Tasini's nickname, just like I call you Misha."

"Oh oh oh, that's it." Sokov laughed a few times and said with some embarrassment, "I thought I just heard the wrong name."

After the convoy composed of people from all directions set off, Sokov curiously asked Vaserigov, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat: "Comrade Major, I would like to ask how many troops our army has left in Germany now?"

"The Germany-based clusters formed by our army's 1st and 2nd Belarusian Fronts and the 1st Ukrainian Front are stationed throughout Germany." Vasergov explained to Sokov: "Marshal Zhukov is the commander-in-chief. General Sokolovsky is the deputy commander. Since General Sokolovsky was in poor health and returned to China for recuperation some time ago, his duties were temporarily replaced by General Malinin."

After hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. He didn't expect that Zhukov's deputy was actually Sokolovsky: "Comrade Major, you mean that General Malinin is now the deputy commander of the German cluster?"

"Not only is he the deputy commander of the cluster in Germany, but he is also the chief of staff."

"Is General Malinin in Berlin now?" Sokov asked tentatively.

Vaserigov looked at Sokov with strange eyes, and said with some surprise: "Comrade General, as the deputy commander and chief of staff of the German cluster, General Malinin will stay in which city if he doesn't stay in Berlin? "

"I'm worried that he is in other cities." Sokov said: "General Malinin is my old superior. Since he is in Berlin, I must find an opportunity to visit him after returning from the Rhine Camp."

"Because Berlin was severely damaged during the battle and turned from a bustling city into a city of ruins, the headquarters of the German cluster was initially located in Potsdam and was moved to Weinsdorf, a suburb of Berlin, earlier this month."

Sokov thought that after he arrived in Berlin, Zhukov arranged a job for himself to inspect the prisoner of war camp, but did not arrange a specific task for himself in the group stationed in Germany. He tentatively asked Vaserigov: " Comrade Major, if I want to stay in the German cluster, what position do you think Marshal Zhukov will assign me? "

Hearing Sokov's question, Vaserigov showed a troubled expression on his face: "Comrade General, I'm afraid only people in the cadre department can give you the answer to this kind of thing."

"Comrade Major, don't be nervous." Sokov saw that Vaseligov was a little nervous, so he quickly comforted him and said, "We are just chatting casually. You can say whatever comes to your mind without any scruples. Even if you say something wrong, I will I won’t blame you.”

After receiving Sokov's promise, Vaserigov remained silent for a while before speaking: "Chief of Staff Malinin has three deputy chiefs of staff, namely, deputy chief of staff for military affairs, deputy chief of staff for economic affairs and deputy chief of staff for political affairs. Chief of Staff. Now only the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Affairs is still vacant. According to my guess, if Marshal Zhukov wants to keep you in the headquarters, the big idea is to let you serve as Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Affairs.”

"Misha," after Vaserigov finished speaking, before Sokov could speak, Adelina said first: "You were personally invited to Berlin by Marshal Zhukov. If you speak to him, then the military will The position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Affairs should most likely be fine.”

But Sokov shook his head after hearing this and said: "Don't you know that our army has had the tradition of asking staff for instructions since the Tsarist era? You know, Marshal Rokossovsky a few years ago, in order to improve He took the initiative to apply to his superiors to transfer General Malinin to the position of commander of a certain group army, thus getting rid of his staff status. However, General Malinin rejected Marshal Rokossovsky's kindness and continued to stay. As his chief of staff. I have been serving as a military officer since I entered the army. Even if the war is over, it is impossible for me to change my career to become a staff officer."

Agelina could understand Sokov's statement, but Vaseligov was a little dumbfounded. He was thinking: Unless you choose to leave, there is a very high chance that you will be assigned to work in the staff department. of.

However, Vaselgov could think about this kind of thing in his mind, but he could not say it out loud. To avoid embarrassment, he sat up straight and turned his gaze out the window, lest Sokov keep talking to him and leave him wondering how to respond.

Half an hour later, the convoy came to a stop at the entrance of a prisoner of war camp.

Vaserigov got out of the car first, went to the back seat, opened the door, and respectfully asked Sokov and Agelina to get out of the car.

After Sokov got out of the car, he saw that Patton, Tersini, and Charlie Kolb from the International Red Cross had already gotten out of the car and were standing there, waiting for a group of officers and soldiers at the gate of the prisoner of war camp to come and greet them. Sokov quickly quickened his pace and came to Barton's side, waiting for the arrival of the group of officers and soldiers.

Soon, the group of officers and soldiers came closer. One of the officers with a colonel's mark on his helmet stepped forward, raised his hand to salute Patton, and reported to him the situation in the prisoner of war camp.

After the colonel finished his report, Patton turned to Sokov and said, "General Sokov, this prisoner of war camp is managed by Colonel Jones."

Hearing the name Jones, Sokov couldn't help but want to laugh, because he felt that the elderly colonel in front of him could not be connected with the Indiana Jones in his memory, although the latter was just a made-up person in the movie. , but when Sokov heard the other person's name, he couldn't help but pick him up.

"Hello, Mr. Colonel!" Sokov asked politely in English: "Nice to meet you!"

After Charlie Kolb waited for Sokov and Colonel Jones to shake hands, he asked bluntly: "Mr. Colonel, our International Committee of the Red Cross has received a report that there is mistreatment of prisoners of war in your prisoner of war camp, which has led to unfavorable conditions." Less than two hundred people died. Please answer me truthfully, is this the case?"

Jones did not know the identity of Charlie Kolb, so he did not answer his question immediately. Instead, he turned his attention to General Patton next to him, as if he wanted to get instructions from him.

Barton saw the look of help Colonel Jones cast on him, coughed twice, cleared his throat, and said: "The person in front of you is Mr. Charlie Kolb of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Since he asked Just answer your questions truthfully.”

Although Patton's face was expressionless when he said these words, Colonel Jones still heard something from the tone of his words, and quickly replied: "Mr. Charlie Kolb, I don't know who told him You have conveyed false confidence, but I can guarantee with my integrity that there will be absolutely no abuse of prisoners in the prisoner-of-war camp I manage.”

Charlie Kolb didn't expect Jones to give such an answer, which made him not know what to do for a while. He hesitated for a long time, then turned to Patton and asked him for help: "General Patton, can you allow us to visit the prisoner of war camp?"

"Visit?" After Patton repeated Charlie Kolb's words, he continued: "Mr. Kolb, isn't the purpose of our coming here today to find out what happened in this prisoner of war camp? "

Colonel Jones's reaction was entirely within Sokov's guess. Even if there were serious incidents of prisoner abuse in the prisoner of war camp, the other party could easily resolve it. Today's inspection was just a formality. You know, Patton always felt that German prisoners of war were just enemies who laid down their weapons, not prisoners in the true sense. Keeping them must be a disaster, so he tried his best to cover up the abuse of prisoners in the prison camp.

After Barton said this, seeing that Kolb obviously didn't believe what he said, he turned and asked Tassini: "Le Jean, do you think there will be torture of prisoners in the prisoner of war camp?"

"I think this possibility is unlikely," Tassini said with a serious expression: "Since Colonel Jones has his own personality, it means that there were no bloody incidents of prisoner abuse in the prisoner of war camp. And what you got The reports are nothing more than rumors fabricated by those who hate the U.S. military.”

Seeing Tasini seriously defending the US military, Sokov almost laughed out loud. Fortunately, he recalled all his sad things in a very short period of time, and even pinched his legs until they turned purple. He controlled himself not to laugh out loud. According to Patton, the prisoner-of-war camps were inhabited by enemies who had laid down their weapons. Naturally, one should not be polite to the enemy and must use the harshest means to deal with them. Since there are no prisoners of war in prisoner-of-war camps, only enemies who have laid down their weapons, no matter how many people die at the hands of the guards, it is not considered torture of prisoners.

"General Sokov, what do you think of this matter?" Seeing that Patton and Tassini agreed, Kolb felt helpless. He could only place his last hope on Sokov. I hope he can come out and say a fair word.

Sokov didn't have much sympathy for these German prisoners of war detained in the Rhine Camp, and he even felt a little gloating about their misfortune. Originally, it would be enough to surrender to the Soviet army honestly, but he decided to make extra trouble and fled to the area controlled by the Allies to surrender. Since they chose the Allies, the fate they suffered next was their own choice, and no one can blame them at all.

At this moment, seeing that Kolb wanted to express his position on this matter, Sokov thought for a while and said: "Mr. Kolb, whether there is any abuse of prisoners in the prisoner of war camp, we can't tell if we stay here. We need to visit the prisoners of war in person." Let's go take a look at the camp. After all, this is the purpose of our coming here today." Sokov knew very well that since the US military had already received the news of the inspection, it must have made preparations in advance, even if the joint inspection team entered the camp at this moment. , everything you see is arranged by the US military. After he said this, he also asked Patton intentionally: "What do you think, General Patton?"

"I think what General Sokov said makes sense." Patton knew that arrangements had been made in the prisoner of war camp before he came here. So when Sokov asked himself this question, he quickly agreed: "Just discussing it here is... We can’t get the correct answer. I think we should go into the prisoner of war camp and see what the situation is inside.”

When Kolb saw that Patton agreed to allow the checkpoint to enter the prisoner of war camp for inspection, he couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He thought wishfully that as long as he entered the prisoner of war camp, he would be able to figure out the prisoner of war camp through contact with German prisoners of war. Are there any cases of prisoner abuse? But what he never dreamed of was that three parties in the four-party joint inspection team already knew roughly the true situation in the prisoner of war camp, and he was the only one who was still in the dark.

Colonel Jones, who had already made various preparations, also showed great cooperation. He even took the initiative to say to Kolb: "Mr. Kolb, after you enter the prisoner of war camp, you can select a few German prisoners of war and present them to the prisoner of war camp." They understand the situation and see if there are any incidents of prisoner abuse like you mentioned in our prisoner-of-war camps.”

When everyone followed Colonel Jones and walked towards the prisoner of war camp, Agelina asked Sokov in a low voice: "Misha, do you think General Patton has been so calm? Did he do it a long time ago?" Prepare?"

"Well, that's for sure." Although Sokov felt that there should be no Americans or French around him who could understand Russian, he still lowered his voice and said to Agelina: "I bet there must be many people in this prisoner of war camp. Temporarily added bathrooms and even a health station with doctors who treat prisoners of war..."

"Misha, what you said is incomplete." Agelina smiled when she heard what Sokov said: "I think there may be a basketball or football match going on in the open space covered by the wooden house. Come and show Kolb of the International Committee of the Red Cross how pleasant life is in this prisoner of war camp and how casually the prisoners of war live.”

"That's right." Sokov agreed very much with Agelina's guess. After all, she was the one he met when he liberated the prisoner-of-war camp. She was more familiar with the situation in the prisoner-of-war camp than he was. : "I think what you said makes sense."

When everyone entered the prisoner-of-war camp through the open gate with wires, Agelina suddenly remembered an important question: "Misha, there is one more thing I want to ask clearly. How can you speak English and also say So good?"

"Actually, I knew how to speak English when I was studying." Now when Sokov told lies, his face didn't turn red and his heart didn't beat, and he acted unusually calm: "But because I didn't have the opportunity to interact with foreigners, I learned English There has been no use for it. Last night, I could say that I stayed up all night, thinking about the English I had learned over and over again. To be honest, when I first communicated with General Patton, I was worried that the other party would laugh at my grammar. Not standard. Fortunately, the English I spoke was understood by General Patton."

Agelina didn't believe even a single punctuation mark of Sokov's far-fetched explanation, but now that she was in someone else's territory, she knew that it was not the right moment to get to the bottom of this issue, so she shut her mouth in time and planned to After returning to the Adlon Hotel, it will not be too late to interrogate him carefully.