Chapter 127 The Cost of War

“71 Frederick-Sandswo Street, near Ulteslovo Wetland.”

When he got into the old French-made Woxing car, Dinah anxiously and nervously reported the detailed address of the middle-aged man who was driving to pick him up.

The "nephew Manli's nephew" - the former German SS security intelligence officer lurking in Copenhagen, nodded calmly. He should not be unfamiliar with this address, because not long ago, Lynn had entrusted Andri to appoint subordinate intelligence officers to investigate the situation. Unfortunately, during the German occupation, more than half of the houses on the street were cleared out for military purposes, and after 1945, it was used to contain the German people who had withdrawn from the Eastern Front. The situation was quite complicated. After the war, only a small number of the indigenous residents moved back to the old site, and they were not very clear about where their former neighbors lived.

Lynn had told Dinah the truth before, but she still hoped that Lynn could take her back to Copenhagen because she believed that as long as her family was still alive, they would return to Copenhagen sooner or later. Even if they changed their address, they would have the chance to reunite.

Half a year after the end of the European War, Copenhagen was in order. Since there was no ground battle, most streets and buildings remained in their original form, but a small number of houses that were damaged by bombs, fires or other conditions stood quietly in a corner, reminding people that the city was not a paradise during the brutal war.

The car arrived at the street that Dinah mentioned in more than 20 minutes. Compared with the city center area, the buildings here are quite simple and old. The flagpoles with the Danish flags have probably been used to fly German flags in the past few years.

When the car finally parked at No. 71, in front of a two-story steeplechase house, the people in the car collectively chose to remain silent. Like the two surrounding buildings, it seemed to be abandoned. The door panels were missing on the door frame and there was no glass on the windows. Looking inside from the outside, the walls in the room were empty.

Returning to his hometown, Dinah's outfit looked low-key and deep. The fashion brown fisherman's hat I bought in Paris was pulled down to the height of the eyebrows, and a little lowered his head covered half of his face; the double-breasted light brown windbreaker was very long, and the hem only exposed the part of the calf to the ankle no more than 10 cm; the reddish-brown velvet shoe style is simple and retro, and a pair of plain black hair stockings, the whole person does not look obvious bright.

She pushed the door and got out of the car alone, looked up at her former residence on the street. It was not a rich area, but it was not a slum. She had been slightly repaired and repainted and decorated, and was well-off in the middle class in the Denmark capital. However, the happiness and warmth of the past disappeared completely in this gorgeous sunshine.

Lin Neng got out of the car and looked at the surrounding environment with a calm and natural look. The streets walked on their own, occasionally taking a glance, and their faces were filled with indifference that they had survived the disaster. Near the door, two elderly women sat against the wall and basking in the sun. They looked at Lin Neng and Dinah curiously, murmured to each other.

After all, Dinah did not step into this empty house. She saw the two old women and turned around and walked over. At this time, they also recognized the girl next door from the past, and looked very surprised to see her eyes wide.

Walking to the old woman, Dinah bent down and talked to them in Danish that Lynn could not understand. One of them reached out to hold Dinah's fair and tender hand, looking at the vicissitudes, shook his head and sighed. Looking at this scene, Lynn felt infinite emotion: War can be an opportunity for soldiers to show their talents and surround the battlefield, but it means suffering, parting, torture and fear to the civilians. If the empire's re-rise still needs to fight again, he already felt unbearable. Perhaps it was precisely because of this kind of people's desire that the two camps in the East and West, which were ideologically opposed, were spared from a new war after the end of World War II.

Seeing that Dinah was still talking to the old woman, Lynn took out the cigarette he bought in the Netherlands from her pocket. She had just turned on the lighter and suddenly heard a loud bang like a thunderbolt in the clear sky. Although the ground had no tremor and the eardrums were not strongly stimulated, Lynn's experience clearly told him that this was an explosion of conventional explosives!

Lin Neng raised his head in surprise. At this time, the sky was clear and there was no trace of the war. When he turned around, he saw the pedestrians without any panic. "Aunt Manli's nephew" - the driver of the car, got out of the car and walked in Lin Neng's ear and whispered: "It's a mine clearance operation around the northern beaches."

Lynn suddenly realized that although the Allies did not directly attack Denmark in the late stage of the war, as a conventional defense method, the German team stationed in Denmark still buried 1.5 million landmines in various parts of Denmark. Compared with the landmines buried by the German army in France, Poland or the local area during World War II, this number is still small, but in Denmark, an area of ​​only 43,000 square kilometers is effective. Such a number of landmines is terrifying enough to think about.

Finally, he said something to the two old women. Dinah got up and walked towards Lynn, like a child who couldn't find his way home, with an anxious and lost expression.

After getting on the bus, Lynn asked her: "Where are you going now?"

Dinah shook her head, it seemed that the two old women could not provide her with useful information.

Lynn expected this situation and he said to the driver: "Go to the place you arranged for a rest first!"

"Aunt Manli's nephew" started the car without saying a word. At the heyday of the Third Reich, the SS had more than 100,000 intelligence personnel and secret police officers in Europe, but less than three percent of them are still sticking to it. The branch left behind in Denmark has more than 200 people in name, but Andri can actually contact and mobilize only a dozen. Because they do not get the sympathy and support of local residents, their situation is worse than the previous underground resistance organizations. The limited funds and equipment make them hibernate most of the time or close to hibernation. This time Andri helped Lynn and others arrange their itineraries, and it took a lot of time and energy to contact and confirm. It was really hard to expand the scope and help Dinah search for her family.

The car drove northeast for a distance and came to a single-family house on the edge of the city. Two young men came out of the house. They were attentive but silent, helping Lynn and others to bring their pitiful luggage into the house. The guests' rooms were placed on the second floor. The windows of Lynn and Dinah's rooms were facing the sea. Standing in front of the window, Lynn saw the busy soldiers on the beach. There were about forty or fifty people, most of them wearing German uniforms and large-eared steel helmets, and there was something like the No. 3 tank next to it. Before this, it was hard for Lynn to imagine that he could see such a scene in Europe in 1946, especially outside Germany. Identifying carefully, the soldiers were not carrying weapons, and several were wearing British uniforms.

Just as "Aunt Manli's nephew" sent a pot of hot tea. From him, Lynn learned that as soon as the war ended, the Allies formed a minesweeping force composed of surrendered German soldiers and engineers, and named it the Danish minesweeping contingent. This was the last unit of the Third Reich in Europe, including the engineering troops of the army, the navy and even the air force and the former combatants. All the signs about the Nazis on their uniforms were removed without exception and added.

The white armband representing surrender. This unit is commanded by Danish officials, who usually wear British uniforms and distinguish them with red armbands. According to rumors, the "Danish Minesweeping Task Force" has absorbed thousands of German officers and soldiers, and in most cases they have to rely on manual mine clearance. The only heavy minesweeping equipment is several modified minesweeping tanks and semi-tracked armored vehicles. These few vehicles come from the surrendering forces and are painted with the "Minesweeping Force" logo in a prominent position.

In order to clear the mines, Denmark, with the assistance of the British and American troops, searched all German officials who survived the war who participated in the mine burial design to mark the locations where mines were buried during the war. Fortunately, even at the end of the war, the rigorous Germans still recorded the detailed buried locations of almost every mine in the war archives. In most of the mines in the German army, the buried mines were very regular, which provided convenience for post-war mine sweeping operations. However, in a few wild areas, the buried mines were very complicated, especially in coastal areas. Since the mines drifted with the sea water and sand, clearing operations were very difficult.

When the German army's mineburning locations were roughly identified on the map during the war, the mine-sweeping work began in full swing. The Germans first marked the mine burial locations with eye-catching signs, and then determined the type and burial methods one by one. According to the German army's experience, mines buried under open ground are relatively easy to eliminate, but it is very difficult to eliminate mines buried under sand or vegetation drifting on the coast. Since mines are mostly made of non-metal materials such as wood, plastic or glass, the mine detectors basically cannot play a role. Therefore, the German mine-decompression personnel had to use the most primitive methods to find and eliminate these mines, that is, crawling on the ground slowly, and using bayonets to find mines one by one.

In Denmark, the German minesweeping procedure is usually to remove the sand and soil next to the mine and then try to eliminate it. If a mine that cannot be eliminated is encountered, it will immediately detonate it on the spot. When a minefield is reported to be cleared, the Danes will ask the Germans to drive a limited number of combat vehicles and pull steel over the minefield to check whether there are any mines that have leaked. Due to the limitations of mine demining technology, a large number of German minesweepers were injured and killed by the mines leaked.

****

I have eaten something bad these two days, my stomach is cold, nausea, and dizzy. I can't stand it anymore. I'm just updating it. I'll try to make up for what I owe tomorrow or the next day. I'll forgive me!
Chapter completed!