LITMIR.BIZ

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from us. And why should he hide them if he is not an enemy?”

* * *

      “In other circumstances, I might have congratulated you, Colonel. You made a brilliant analysis of the situation and accurately predicted the Russians' plans.”

      “Thank you, Herr General,” Richtengden replied in a steady voice, “Unfortunately, the correct prediction of the actions of the Russian marksman was not enough to win. This is somewhat at variance with the tone of the official reports, but I cannot call what happened near Kiev anything other than a catastrophe.”

      “I would not be so categorical,” the General grimaced irritably. “Let's just say it could have been much worse, and the fact that just about half of the encircled enemy troops broke through, is to a large extent you merit. The night fighter attack failed to completely thwart the Russian plans, but it prevented the destruction of dozens of our headquarters and communications centers and allowed the surviving generals to restore control of the troops relatively quickly.”

      “Surviving generals…” Richtengden repeated slowly, as if tasting the words. “We lost top officers who had gone through Poland and France, defeated the British, surrounded and captured hundreds of thousands of Russians. The catastrophe is just that, Herr General, not the fact that a crowd of demoralized Russians, who had abandoned all their equipment and artillery, broke out of the pocket.”

      “Five Russian bombers were shot down,” the General, not wanting to continue the unpleasant discussion, changed the subject, “Our troops captured eight crew members of these planes. We weren't able to get all of them to talk, but we did get some things cleared up. You were right again. The Russian marksman was on board one of the bombers, the only Pe-2 the enemy had engaged in this operation. Initially it was not supposed to take part in bombing attacks and in combat operations in general, but after the appearance of our Dorniers, it took on the role of a night fighter, which was a very unpleasant surprise to our pilots.”

      “I am aware of our losses, Herr General,” Richtengden nodded.

      “The losses were not in vain, Colonel. Enemy pilots who were shot down gave detailed accounts of how the Russian spotter directed the actions of the bombers. Frankly speaking, it reeks of mysticism and makes me want to ask Reichsführer SS Himmler for permission to ask for help from his "Ahnenerbe",” – the General grinned faintly. “Neither the Pe-2 nor the heavy bombers had anything resembling radar, but all the captured pilots had the impression that they were guided to their targets by some incredibly accurate device that "saw" not only enemy planes but also recognized targets on the ground.”

      “I don't think such a device exists,” Richtengden shook his head.

      “Neither do I,” the General agreed, “or rather, it exists, but in a single copy. I am convinced that the Russian marksman is this device himself.”

      “If this is true, and I am inclined to agree with your conclusion, it is not quite clear what we should do next. In this state of affairs, we can expect crushing nighttime strikes anywhere on the front and even in our rear. Herr General, do you have a good idea of the consequences of a direct hit by a two-ton bomb from a Russian TB-7 into one of our strategic facilities? And this plane is capable of carrying two of them…”

      “There is one clue, Colonel. I told you that the human intelligence was given the task of establishing the identity and whereabouts of the Russian marksman. I did not believe in a quick result, but sometimes there are pleasant surprises.”

      Richtengden said nothing, but leaned forward a little, listening intently to the General.

      “It was an accident, of course, but it was good because it played in our favor. In the maintenance crew at the airfield, where the Pe-2 with the Russian marksman flew out, there was our agent. He was a small fry, in general, but with brains and imagination, though these details are not important. The main thing is that he managed to overhear a conversation between the marksman and a certain senior major of the NKVD, apparently his direct superior, and the conversation was extremely important. The marksman reported the mission and the loss of five bombers, after which the Senior Major arrested him. It's an odd decision, given the apparent success of the marksman's actions, but it's only to our advantage. In addition, we now know the name and rank of our figure – Senior Lieutenant of State Security Nagulin. According to circumstantial evidence gathered by the same agent, the arrested marksman was sent by plane to Moscow.

      We have an agent at Lubyanka, but this is a very valuable person – a deep introduction of the early thirties. His position is not the highest one. Nevertheless, he has access to serious documents and will be able to get information about Nagulin. Naturally, we try to engage such a specialist only in exceptional cases, but this is precisely the case.

      The Führer is furious. He declared the Russian gunner his personal enemy, summoned Herr Admiral to see him, and the Admiral, apparently, heard from the Führer not the most pleasant words about our service. Anyway, we now have a sanction for the "Guest" agent to get involved, and he's already been tasked, and very firmly. Nagulin must be eliminated. "Guest" has been given the contacts of several "sleeping" agents in Moscow. He must assemble a group of them and frame the marksman for their attack. If that doesn't work, he'll have to eliminate Nagulin personally.”

      “And what is my role here, Herr General? You are not telling me all this for nothing.”

      “The marksman won't be in custody for long. Russians, of course, are very fond of accusing their own comrades of espionage and treason for any reason, but not to this extent! Nagulin is valuable to them, and has done too much for the USSR to just kill him like that. Anyway, "Guest" may not make it, and then the marksman will reappear at the front, and I want us to be ready for that. Think, Colonel. Think and prepare. You have correctly predicted the enemy's actions more than once, and now I expect an equally accurate prediction from you.”

* * *

      All of a sudden I had a lot of free time. On the first day, the investigators were still somewhat active, they called me in for interrogations, where I answered their questions in detail about the course of the operation, the purpose of the bombing attacks, and the circumstances of my loss of five planes.

      I came across a variety of investigators, and although I behaved in an emphatically correct manner and answered all questions as fully as possible, some of them clearly wanted to beat me in order to stimulate the process of a confession. Nevertheless, no one laid a finger on me. Not only that, when asking me all sorts of bad questions, the NKVD officers did not even try to raise their voice, This, apparently, cost them a lot of effort, so on the second day I was left alone – the interrogations stopped.

      Sudoplatov never showed up again. I never understood whether he made the decision to arrest me himself, or whether he received an order from above. However, it was not too important now – even if the initiative came from the Senior Major, it was clearly approved at the top.

      I spent some time observing the consequences of my nocturnal actions. The bombing strikes we carried out disorganized the control system of German troops near Kiev for a time. It was enough to allow the tank brigades attached to the 40th and 21st Armies to break through to the encircled troops, and the infantry, which had come up, could fortify the walls of the narrow corridor, along which the remnants of the 5th, 37th and 26th Armies, completely exhausted, immediately began to move out of the pocket.

      Unfortunately, not everyone was able to leave. Units of the Red Army, which were in a small pocket near Lokhvitsa, were able to break through to the main forces of the encircled troops, but the Germans quickly closed the gap and no one could help the cut-off troops – they simply had no strength. The main pocket could not be evacuated completely either. Someone had to stay behind to cover the retreat, and the enemy, after the bombardments ceased, was getting faster and faster at fixing the lines of communication and restoring the chain of command.

      The corridor lasted only 24 hours, but it was enough to get about 100,000 people out of the pocket. These troops, unfortunately, were completely unfit for duty. They had to be taken urgently to the rear to be re-formed, so they could do almost nothing to help the 40th and 21st Armies, which had suffered losses. The Germans, enraged by the slap they received, launched a counterstrike and severely displaced our

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