When the Chief of Staff issued this order, he never thought about who called him and what the purpose of the call was. He only knew that if the headquarters did not transfer as soon as possible, the enemy's tanks might rush to the door, and he did not want the entire headquarters to become the result of the German army.
What the Chief of Staff never dreamed of was that the person who called him was the director of the Army Field Hospital. Seeing that he had not finished speaking, the phone was cut off and he quickly ordered the communications officer: "Check the line immediately and must resume communication with the headquarters in the shortest time."
After the hospital's political commissar and other correspondents left, he asked the president: "Comrade Dean, do you say that our army is leaving Kharkov. Is this news reliable?"
"Absolutely reliable." The dean replied: "Half an hour ago, I heard from the head nurse that the 19th Infantry Brigade sent a squad of soldiers to pick up the political commissar who was recovering from their wounds here."
"Even if the comrades from the Infantry Brigade take away their political commissar, it won't explain any problem." The hospital political commissar asked in confusion: "How can it be related to breaking through?"
"Comrade Political Commissar," said the hospital president with a serious expression: "Although I have been staying in the hospital, judging from the sudden increase in the number of wounded people in the past two days, the war outside was very cruel, and our army suffered heavy casualties. The political commissar of the 19th Infantry Brigade had just undergone surgery the day before yesterday and could not walk down the ground. If the situation was not critical, how could the soldiers of the brigade take him back?"
Hearing the dean say this, the political commissar also realized the seriousness of the problem. He asked in a panic: "What should we do?"
"This is why I called the headquarters." The dean sighed softly and said, "There are more than 1,500 wounded people in the hospital now. If they are not transferred as soon as possible, I worry that they will fall into the hands of the Germans."
Although the dean did not say what the wounded would have in the hands of the Germans, the political commissar knew very well that the Germans would definitely not waste precious medicines to treat their enemies. Then the captured wounded were either killed or died in pain when there was no medical treatment or medicine.
"Comrade Dean!" The political commissar asked anxiously: "What should we do? How to transfer all the wounded people in the hospital?"
"There are only more than 100 medical staff in the hospital, plus a guard company, and the total number is only more than 200." The dean said with a serious expression: "Just because of us, we cannot transfer all the wounded. The only way is to ask the Group Army Command for help and ask them to send troops to assist us in transferring the wounded."
After the communications troops resumed the route, the director called the Group Army Command again, but the phone could not be connected. At this moment, the Group Army Command was already under the cover of the direct troops of the Group Army and was breaking out from the east of Kharkov. There was no way to know the current dilemma of the field hospital.
Seeing that he could not contact the Army Command, even the director was panicked. At this time, a nurse rushed in from outside and said to him anxiously: "Comrade Dean, a serious wounded person is here, a battalion commander of the Tank Army. He is seriously injured and needs you to go for surgery in person."
When I heard that some injured people needed to undergo surgery by themselves, the director decided to hand over the transfer to the political commissar: "Comrade Political Commissar, there are still officers and soldiers of the 17th and 19th Infantry Brigades, now they are active near the hospital. Please contact them and assist us in transferring the wounded people in the hospital. We must not let them fall into the hands of the Germans."
"Don't worry, Comrade Dean." Since the dean was going to perform surgery on the wounded, the political commissar knew that he wanted to contact friendly troops, so he could only do it himself. He patted his chest and promised, "I will definitely transfer a lot of these wounded people out."
The tank battalion commander who was sent was injured by a shell when he was organizing soldiers to block the enemy's attack. The dean saw the wounded man lying on the operating table covered in blood and frowned. He asked the head nurse who assisted him in the operation: "How is the situation of this wounded man?"
"Not very good, Comrade Dean." The head nurse replied: "According to my observation, he has at least twenty wounds on his body. If he does not have the surgery as soon as possible, there is no possibility of survival."
"Surgery immediately." The dean said with a serious expression while washing his hands and disinfecting his hands: "I will do my best to save him. As for whether he can survive, it depends on his luck."
After the operation began, a nurse at the desk saw the wounded's whole body bleeding constantly, and was frightened to death. When the dean saw this, he couldn't help frowning. The head nurse standing next to him noticed the dean's abnormality and quickly explained to him: "Comrade Dean, this nurse was just recruited today. It is inevitable that she feels scared when she saw this scene for the first time. Please don't mind."
After hearing the head nurse's explanation, the dean snorted softly, and then told her: "Since I have never seen blood, let her go out so as not to scare her. The wounded was too serious and his body was broken and needed repairs everywhere. Not to mention her, I looked a little scared."
When the director performed surgery on the wounded in the operating room, the hospital political commissar contacted several small troops that had been broken. He quickly summoned these small troops and said to them: "Comrades, I know that you are preparing to participate in the breakthrough battle at this moment, but there are more than a thousand wounded people in our hospital. Please help us to transfer them. We must not let them fall into the hands of the Germans."
Hundreds of soldiers gathered together hurriedly followed the political commissar into the hospital and began to transfer the wounded people who were recuperating the wounded. But at the beginning, the political commissar found that this was a difficult task. Without transport vehicles, the minor injured could also walk with the assistance of others or rely on their own abilities. Most of the seriously injured people were unable to move on the stretcher and had to be carried by other soldiers. Two people carried a pair of stretchers, and the hundreds of stretchers could be carried away by no more than 200 stretchers. In addition, the minor injured people who could walk, the number of people transferred at one time was no more than 500, and the speed was very slow, which seriously affected the normal marching speed of the troops.
Not long after the transfer of the wounded personnel began, the First Armored Regiment of the Flag Guard Division rushed to the vicinity of the hospital. The guard company responsible for defending the hospital immediately launched a fierce exchange of fire with the German army rushing up. In order to protect the wounded in the hospital, the soldiers were particularly tenacious. However, due to the differences in weapons and equipment, they persisted for a short time and the defense line was broken through by the German army.
Under the cover of tanks, German soldiers rushed into the hospital compound. After eliminating the resistance in the yard, they rushed into the hospital building one after another. When the soldiers who had long been red-eyed rushed into the ward, although they saw clearly the wounded lying inside, they still pulled the trigger without hesitation and killed the Soviet wounded soldiers who had no resistance at all.
The massacre of the wounded soon spread from the first floor to the second floor. At this moment, Cook, the company commander of the 2nd Company of the First Battalion, entered the hospital. The squadron leader of the second-level commando saw his soldiers slaughtering the unarmed wounded, and immediately shouted loudly and ordered everyone to stop these inhumane massacres.
Under Cook's order, the massacre of the wounded was temporarily stopped. The soldiers continued to search in the hospital building. Although Cook ordered that the massacre of the wounded be not allowed, as long as weapons were found in any ward, the soldiers would still kill everyone in the room without hesitation.
Several soldiers broke into the operating room where the operation was being operated and pointed their guns at the dean who was undergoing the operation. One of the soldiers who knew a few words of Russian shouted with great might: "Raise your hands, you are captured by us."
The nurses at the station were frightened and screamed when they saw the German soldiers rushing in. But the director who was undergoing the operation did not raise his head and said to the soldiers: "Didn't you see that I'm undergoing the operation? Get out quickly."
The rebuked soldier, in anger, picked up the submachine gun in his hand and fired at the dean. With the sound of gunfire, several blood splashed on the dean's chest and shoulders. Under the huge impact of the bullet, the dean did not even hum and fell to the ground.
Since some companions fired their guns, they immediately stimulated several other soldiers. They also picked up the weapons in their hands and fired at the medical staff in the operating room. After the dense gunfire, the nurses who were already trembling all fell into a pool of blood.
The soldier who first shot walked to the operating table and looked at the wounded man who was still in a coma. He took out a grenade, pulled the string and placed it next to the injured man. Seeing that his companion actually pulled the grenade, the soldiers standing beside him fled in a hurry. As soon as several soldiers escaped from the operating room, they heard a shocking explosion sound from inside, and the explosion waves shattered the glass door.
The German battalion commander who entered the hospital then learned that there were still many wounded people in the hospital, and immediately issued an order: "Turn all the Russian wounded people to the open space outside the building."
Cook, who was standing aside, heard the order issued by the battalion commander and asked tentatively: "Mr. Commando 3, what are you doing to assemble the wounded?"
However, the battalion commander just glanced at him but didn't say anything.
After almost an hour, an officer came to report to the battalion commander: "Mr. Commando 3, the Russian wounded and medical staff were gathered together, with a total of 719 people. What should we do next?"
"Wait." After saying this, the battalion commander turned around and came to the armored vehicle. He stood in front of the vehicle and said to the radio operator sitting inside: "Report to the division commander immediately, saying that our camp has captured 719 Russian wounded people and ask what to do with them."
The reply from the division commander Joseph Dietrich soon arrived: "We have no extra medicine to treat our enemies. Kill them all, kill them all without leaving any trace."
After receiving Ditrich's order, the battalion commander returned to the queue and said to the officer waiting for the order: "The division commander ordered to kill all the Russian wounded people without leaving any of them. We cannot waste precious medicines on our enemy's wounded people."
When Cook heard this tragic order, he hurriedly came out to stop it and said, "Mr. Captain of the Third Level Commando, you must know that these more than 700 people are wounded who have lost their resistance. Is it appropriate to kill them all?"
"Cook." The battalion commander immediately felt stern when he heard Cook say this, "This is the command of the division commander. Do you want to disobey?"
Although Cook was still human, he did not dare to disobey the orders given by Dietrich. Looking at the female nurse who was taking care of the wounded in the crowd, he felt a little reluctant. After the muscles on his face twitched a few times, he plucked up his courage to say to the battalion commander: "Mr. Commander of the Third Level Commando, the division commander just ordered us to kill the wounded to prevent them from wasting our precious medicines. But those medical staff might be of use to us. Do you think they will leave them all?"
The battalion commander thought about Cook's proposal for a long time and felt that what he said was a little reasonable. The division commander just asked the wounded to kill the wounded, but he did not say that even the medical staff were killed. So he ordered his subordinates: "Put the machine guns around, and after the medical staff were selected, they would immediately open fire and shoot, kill all the wounded Russians without leaving any ground."
There were more than 100 medical staff in the hospital. Some of them were beaten to death when the Germans rushed into the building to carry out massacre. Now there were less than 40 people left. When they were picked out by German soldiers from the crowd, someone still shouted: "I don't go anywhere, I want to stay and take care of the wounded."
For such medical staff, the German soldiers were to aim their guns at their heads and fired directly. After killing three nurses, the remaining thirty-five medical staff were taken out of the crowd by German soldiers and taken to other places to take care of them.
After waiting for the medical staff to be taken away, the battalion commander waved his hand down, indicating that the machine guns deployed around could open fire. The machine gun shooters who saw him gesture immediately shot at the wounded Soviet soldiers in the open space. For a moment, gunshots, screams and curses sounded.
After five minutes of shooting, there were only countless bloody corpses left on the open space. However, the German battalion commander was worried that the wounded were not dead, so he sent a platoon to stab each corpse with a bayonet.
After all this, an officer came over to report to the battalion commander: "We have killed all the Russian wounded people, how should they be dealt with?"
"Let's just leave it here." The German battalion commander said proudly: "Anyway, we will be able to catch a lot of Russian prisoners soon. Let the prisoners dig holes and bury these corpses."
When Cook saw everything that was happening in front of him, he felt particularly heavy. He said to the battalion commando: "Mr. Commander of the Third Level Commando, please hand over all the captured medical staff to our company for supervision."
Chapter completed!