Chapter 1468 Life and Death Decision (Part 2)

At that moment, Wendell, who was covering his face with his hands as he was deep in thinking and reminiscing, thought of too many things.

When I was very young, I was like this young electromechanical worker. I had the great cause and direction guided by the head of state in mind, and I just wanted to do something big without thinking about anything all day long. It would be best to get a commendation from the head of state. If that's the case, then I am truly lucky that I never dared to dream of in my life!

But after I got a little older, some things slowly began to change.

This kind of change is something that you usually can't notice or feel, but when you come back to your senses, calm down and think about it slowly, you will finally realize "Oh, this is already happening."

Wendell really wanted to say that he would die generously for the head of state at any time, but the letter from home stuffed in his breast pocket contained something that was really hard to let go of.

At the end of last year, when it was still very cold, Wendel took a half-month vacation and returned to his hometown in Munich.

In addition to visiting my father, an old tailor who has retired for many years, I also spent most of the holiday with my fiancée who had been away for a long time. In the half-month holiday, except for the time spent on the road back and forth, I did these two things and nothing else. of.

A few days ago, before the Russians launched a large-scale attack on Cherkasy, Wendell received a letter from a distant place. In the letter, his fiancée surprisingly told Wendel that he was going to be a father. I hope Wendell can take the time to come back this year and hold a wedding before the child is born, a wedding that Wendell has already promised and promised to her.

Not long ago, Wendell tried to force himself to erase the traces in his heart and forget this letter from home and everything written on it, but Wendell finally found that he could not do it.

As long as there is a little bit of time and opportunity in the brain to think, the familiar faces of his father and fiancée will instantly appear in front of his eyes and in his heart. And that unborn child, who doesn’t know what he looks like, but has already occupied a place in his heart and has a child he misses, his own flesh-and-blood offspring.

A person like me who is not really married is still like this and has difficulty letting go. What should the gunner who is already in his thirties or almost forty be like?

This guy in the National Defense Force got into group fights and accidentally offended someone because he spoke out for justice and vented ill feelings on behalf of his brothers. It happened that he was noticed by an SS officer who had a keen eye for talents. In exchange for settling the matter for him and making that person stop causing trouble for him, he asked him to leave the Wehrmacht and come to the SS to work under him.

Anyway, according to the regulations, he will be expelled from the National Defense Force, and he might even be thrown into prison for a few years by wearing small shoes and making trouble. So the veteran accepted the matter without much thought and jumped directly from the armored soldier of the Wehrmacht to the armored soldier of the SS.

At that time, the SS armored forces had just been built, and they were scratchy. They used all the tattered crotches replaced by the Wehrmacht, which was far from being comparable to the armored forces of the Wehrmacht.

That's right, the SS officer who brought the veteran in and settled the trouble for him was Wendel, who had not yet been promoted to SS First Class Assault Group Leader at that time.

Therefore, like many other armored personnel carriers, among the five crew members of Wendel's command-type King Tiger, the person with the best relationship with the commander is the gunner who has the closest communication and is also the closest.

Before he could answer, Wendell turned his head and glanced, already seeing the gunner, who was completely a friend and old buddy to him, covering his face in tears.

Is he lamenting his fate, weeping in fear of his impending death?

I'm afraid not, at least Wendell, who is familiar with him, doesn't think so.

Mostly, it was probably because his three children, aged 12, 9, and 8 respectively, two boys and one girl, were very cute. Wendell had personally visited many times with gifts for the children.

The veteran wife, who is just an ordinary female worker, is extremely grateful to this man who has solved her husband's career problems and helped him get a job in the SS, known as the "Fuhrer Guard". A table full of sumptuous food was served to entertain this noble man.

The children are laughing and laughing around the table. On the table are inexpensive but mellow wines and a table of delicious food. You and the gunner can put your arms around each other's shoulders and raise the wine glass and roar twice, and then clink glasses. Drink it all in one gulp. After drinking and eating, I could go to the door of the hut and squat on the ground to smoke two cigarettes. It was really fun to have as much fun as I could during those days.

Even Wendell, who once shared the joy of this happy family of five, felt sorry for him. As a husband and father, he didn't feel anything in his heart. Wendell could only say, "Are you kidding me?" "

Wendell no longer knew what to say at this time, so Wendell took the initiative, put his arm on the gunner's shoulder and patted the shoulder gently. At this point in the matter, he could only say that everything was settled.

I don't know how many seconds passed in silence, but the veteran gunner, who was so excited that he was almost on the verge of a quarrel at the beginning and was now crying, finally spoke indifferently.

"I really, I really can't just die! Even if there is a little hope, even if I have to work like a cow or a horse for the Russians, or lick shit in the shit pit, I will live strong and must go home alive! My life does not belong to me alone, nor to the Führer alone. You can say whatever you want about me, but I must live!"

""

"Hmph, the flea of ​​the Wehrmacht"

"The flea of ​​the Wehrmacht" is the nickname given to him by the young mechanic who usually doesn't get along with the gunner. As the name suggests, it means a guy who jumped from the Wehrmacht to the SS halfway through, whose will is not firm enough and whose loyalty to the Führer is not 100%. It is disgusting that the Wehrmacht people gave up the fight casually.

The old gunner is also a big-headed person who doesn't care about a nickname. Why do you care about a kid who is just 20 years old and hasn't even retired yet? On weekdays, he can say whatever he wants and let him do whatever he wants.

But this time, the young mechanic who was about to quarrel with the gunner and even fight in the car just now, just whispered the nickname in his mouth so softly that he could hardly hear it, and then there was no more.

Regardless of the reason for all this, Wendell at least knew that the crew under his command could still understand and respect each other at the critical moment. For this reason alone, he was very grateful to these four comrades.

"What about the rest of you? What choice do you make? The Russians won't wait forever."