[European style] go home

Our train did not restart until an hour later.Fortunately, there were no further complications in our next journey.This evening, I arrived in Berlin smoothly.When I walked to the platform of Silesian Station (①), a feeling of illusion spread from my feet up to my head. I stared at the tiles laid on the ground for a long time, and then I was convinced that I had really stepped on the motherland. on the land.

I came to Berlin once when I was 11 years old. It was August 1936, during the Berlin Olympic Games (②), people from all over the country flocked to this ancient city, so my deepest impression here is that it is crowded Crowds of people, as well as the party flag with the word "卐" in black on a red background can be seen everywhere.After more than six years, there doesn't seem to be much change here. If there is any difference, it is that the Nazi flags hanging from the roof are getting longer and denser; The secret police with red armbands are also becoming more and more common.From time to time, soldiers like me wearing green uniforms and returning to the rear for vacation pass through the streets, together with the recruitment posters posted on the walls, it depicts that this country is in an unprecedented and unique era.

However, for all its grandeur, the war never spared any hopeful place.In some corners of the station, under the bombing of the US military, the tall and splendid buildings that should have stood turned into a pile of lifeless rubble. If you observe carefully, you can still see some dried dark red blood.

With a 7pm train to Magdeburg (③), I had only a cursory look at this great city.Among the comrades I have known since I joined the army, several are from Berlin.But I only know the specific address of one of them.I specially bought a map of the city, but when I found out that his home was tens of kilometers away, I had no choice but to give up my intention to visit.In fact, I already had a reason for this depressing discovery: what unknown private would have the courage to go to General Fritz von Kagneck's mansion alone?

I went back to the station.There is a disturbing news spread throughout the ancient Silesian station: the US military will come to bomb here today!So I waited in the waiting hall with the same uneasiness as other passengers until the train bound for the west arrived.

The train drove to the next station in a bottomless darkness.I was sitting by the window, but I couldn't see anything clearly outside the window.We are like ships sailing in the boundless ocean, alone and helpless waiting for death to come in despair.

I calculated the remaining time needed to get home, and it took 2 hours and 11 minutes from Berlin to Magdeburg, and 40 minutes from Magdeburg to Dessau.In other words, about three hours later, I will appear at the door of the house and say "I'm back" to my dear parents.

Thinking of this, how happy my heart is!It's almost time to sing.I figured I'd have to get some sleep first so I could reunite with my parents in a refreshed state.So I leaned against the glass window and fell into a deep sleep.

I don't know how long I slept, but I distinctly remember waking up at a quarter past eight in the evening.I was woken up by the screeching sound of the train's horn - I'm sure the route didn't have any stops, but we did stop.This made my heart pick up again. This is the mainland of Germany, and logically speaking, there is no such thing as a "guerrilla".what happened?

Suddenly, a dull loud noise broke through my eardrums, and a dazzling fire rose in the distance, piercing the dark night sky, and it seemed to be the foil in a nightmare, tearing away the darkness that shrouded us.I opened the car window and looked out. There were a few stars twinkling in the distant sky, but these stars were moving fast like no other, sowing seeds of fear one by one.

"It's an air raid!" Everyone panicked, and all the passengers got up and ran out of the car, including me.We walked in the boundless wasteland, surrounded by darkness, all illuminated by the flames of distant explosions.

"Where is that?" I asked the people around me.

"Magdeburg," he replied, "it's the Americans, they've been bombing every day these days!"

A group of us walked in the field for half an hour, and watched the whole process of American bombers throwing shells from beginning to end in the suburbs.The raid did not end until nearly ten o'clock.

As soon as the air raid siren was lifted, the crowd immediately became agitated, crying and shouting one after another.As a soldier in active duty, I was chosen without hesitation to join the rescue team in Magdeburg.

When I entered here with the team, I was really stunned by the sight in front of me: the whole of Magdeburg was full of ruins of buildings and human organs and limbs, rubble, dust and gravel were flying in the air. From time to time, there was a loud noise from the explosion of the delayed fuze bomb (④) dropped by the U.S. military; the only light in the city was the raging fires everywhere, and the people who were crushed under the stone slabs wailed in pain , and became lighter and lighter as time went on, until it merged into the surrounding silence.

Countless times, after a long period of hammering and dragging, we finally removed the heavy objects pressing on the victims, only to find that the people underneath had already died; After the survivors, we were about to rescue them, but found a delayed bomb inside. We could only watch helplessly as the other party was decapitated.

We have been busy until the early morning light before getting a chance to take a nap.I looked at my watch, it was already 6 o'clock in the morning.I was lying on the edge of a pile of freshly cleared rubble, intending to rest here for a while, but the exhaustion of working all night made my eyes close faster than expected.

It's easy to have nightmares here.I was reliving a horrible memory from two months ago in my dream.

On January 1943, 1, there were only 10 days left before Marshal Paulus (⑤) surrendered to the Soviet side.In other words, the battle for Stalingrad was in its final stages.Of course, we are never told this, and what we see from the battle reports is always "With an unstoppable offensive, our heroic troops recaptured the Mamayev hill this morning (⑥)" and the like. .

As for my friend Erich, he was amputated in the hospital.When he woke up, he couldn't accept the fact that he had lost a leg, so he chose to end his life with a bullet.Oddly enough, I seemed to have been prepared for his death.Carl and I dragged his body into the woods for a hasty burial.We stuck a stick in the pit that belonged to him, put his helmet on, and it was all done.

Since the guerrilla attack on the barracks a week ago, our transport mission has been temporarily delayed.For three whole days we scoured the Russian cold for signs of partisans.In the end, the major gathered all the villagers in the nearby villages and executed 50 "suspicious elements" in front of them, as an example to others.To be honest, I don't believe that an octogenarian who is dying can see the scope clearly and kill two German soldiers with this Soviet-made Mosin rifle (⑦); or a sallow and emaciated ten-year-old child , or an introverted and shy Jiji girl.But they were all included in the execution list.

And I was the one who took away the boards under their feet with my own hands.I stared blankly at the painful and ferocious expressions of the Slavs when they were suffocating, but I didn't realize that I was also a living body in the "human family" of primates.

After dealing with this matter, our mission at the front was brought up again.Early the next morning, we packed up in the barracks, escorted by the SS mechanized unit, and headed east with more food, clothing, ammunition and bandages.

The author has something to say: ① Silesian Station: that is, today's Berlin East Railway Station.

② That is, the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games (1936.8.1-1936.8.16). This Olympic Games also became Hitler's promotion of the great power of Nazi Germany.

③ Magdeburg: a German city located on the banks of the Elbe River.During World War II, most of the city was destroyed by bombs.It is now the capital of Saxony-Anhalt.

④ Delayed fuze bomb: due to the action of the gunpowder delay device, the fuze will explode after the warhead penetrates into the target at a certain depth or jumps off the ground.

⑤保弗里德里希·保卢斯（1890.9.23—1957.2.1）：第十集团军参谋长兼国防军副总参谋长，德军元帅。斯大林格勒战役期间担任第六集团军指挥官，于1943年1月31日率军向苏军投降。

⑥Mamayev Hill: The main battlefield in the Battle of Stalingrad, where the Soviet and German troops fought the final battle.

⑦ Mosin Rifle. Gun: The standard weapon of the Soviet Army during World War II.