Chapter 62, Japan on a Cruise (Part 2)
Crossing the entire Eurasian continent from west to east, and crossing the Sea of Japan, which is wider than the Baltic Sea, finally arrived at the mysterious eastern island country and Germany's allies in this war... Unfortunately, they have also become A slave state of the Soviet Union.
Standing on the dock of Osaka Port, looking at the Japanese ocean liner "Rukawa Maru" in front of him, which he was about to captain, Lieutenant Colonel Erich Top had an indescribable feeling in his heart. As a sea wolf on the Atlantic Ocean, he had spent countless free time between battles, thinking about what he would do if he could survive until the war. And the captain of a civilian ship is obviously also a very reasonable person. Career prospects.
But Erich Top never thought that he would actually go sailing on a cruise ship before the war was over! Moreover, it was a job arranged by the Soviets, and the place of work was the motherland's Eastern allies during the war - the contrast was really subtle... However, the Soviet soldiers who "escorted" Lieutenant Colonel Top to work clearly had no thoughts. Instead of considering his emotions, he pushed him in the back impatiently. Under the rude urging of the other party, Lieutenant Colonel Top could only sigh and listlessly boarded the gangway of the cruise ship "Rukawa Maru".
——Lieutenant Colonel Erich Top, this German naval officer who was born in Hanover, has just turned thirty years old, but he is already one of the ace U-boat commanders of the former Nazi Germany, commanding the "Red Devil Boat" U-boat -552 The world's third U-boat king who sank 200,000 tons of ships...and the two U-boat kings ahead of him have all died in battle, so Lieutenant Colonel Erich Top is now The well-deserved number one submarine ace in the world.
However, despite having such a glorious record and such an outstanding and successful military career, with the defeat and surrender of Nazi Germany, Lieutenant Colonel Top could only obediently walk into the Soviet prisoner of war camp. First, he was interrogated in detail, and then Sent to Siberia to reclaim the wilderness for repairs Earth - Throughout the Soviet era, and even earlier in the late Tsarist Russia, developing Siberia was an extremely important strategic task. Only by developing this barren land, instead of just putting it on the map like Antarctica, can we Only then can Russia truly become a superpower.
However, developing Siberia requires a lot of manpower, and Russia itself is vast and sparsely populated. On the one hand, Stalin, the iron and loving father, mobilized the Communist Youth League members with patriotism and dedication, but on the other hand, he resorted to forced relocation, which was a destructive move that degraded character. The manpower provided is far from enough. Today, the Soviet Red Army has captured more than two million prisoners of the European Axis Powers during the war. After that, there are also many British, Spanish and Portuguese prisoners. Naturally, they are not willing to let them go easily - these prisoners of war are all top-notch. They have a strong labor force, and their military career has allowed them to develop the disciplined habit of obeying orders and learn some basic skills. Finally, their status as prisoners of war allows them to be driven at will, and their labor efficiency is much higher than that of ordinary people. Therefore, all German prisoners of war who had not committed any serious crimes were basically sent to collective farms and labor camps in the Far East to open up wasteland, cultivate land, and build the Siberian Railway and other infrastructure. Anyway, the Soviet Union does not raise waste. Those who do not work cannot eat. If they do not work, they will starve and freeze to death!
So Lieutenant Colonel Top said goodbye to his submarine and the waves of the North Atlantic, and came to the vast snowfields of Siberia to wield a logging ax and a hoe. There is no need to mention the various shortages of food, lack of clothing, various acclimatization, and various high-intensity labor during this period - the Soviet Union provided prisoners of war with shabby cabins, and the food rations were one for four people to share. Brown bread with bran, other than that there is only vegetable porridge made of potatoes, cabbage and buckwheat, and occasionally a little salted fish to improve the food, but they have to work at least twelve hours a day, which is basically the treatment of serfs.
In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Top, who was not captured until Germany was defeated and destroyed in 1945, was among the group of people who came the latest and suffered the least. The lives of the previous groups of prisoners of war were even more difficult. In the summer of 45 when Lieutenant Colonel Top and his crew arrived in Siberia, the food in the prisoner-of-war labor camp had been greatly improved. At least the vegetable porridge that the prisoners of war ate every day was so thick that you could insert a spoon into it. It couldn't be poured down, and then there was a small amount of sugar and meat rations. But despite this, after spending a winter in Siberia, Captain Top still lost a full five kilograms of weight.
However, Lieutenant Colonel Top did not stay in the small cabin in Siberia for long, because in the spring of 1946, with the establishment of the Japanese red regime and the opening of the [era vending machines], the socialist camp in the Far East Suddenly, there were tens of millions of tons of military and civilian ships on the sea (all of which were redeemed from [era vending machines] by frantically printing money), to the extent that ocean cruise ships could be used as refugee camps. But it was impossible to gather so many sailors. The forced socialist camp even began to recruit sailors from China and Eastern European countries. Although the original number of sailors in these countries was actually very small, they were not very needed at the moment, so they were temporarily loaned to the big brother of the Soviet Union. In exchange for assistance.
In addition, the Kremlin also has the idea of sailors from various defeated countries. Following Stalin's order, hundreds of thousands of sailors from the Nazi German Navy were pulled out of the prisoner-of-war camps. After screening out some of the hardcore Nazis, the remaining ones were given two orders by the Soviet political commissar with a straight face. Choice: either live in exile in Siberia for ten years, continue to repair the earth while chewing black bread, and enjoy the life of labor camp prisoners. treatment; or you can work as a sailor on a civilian ship for three years in the still war-torn Japanese waters. According to the original rank before being captured, the salary and benefits are the same as those of officers and soldiers of the Red Navy at all levels. There are additional allowances for going to sea. Relatives in Germany can also refer to the Red Army soldiers. Family benefits, special food rations, and generous pensions in case of death.
Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Top and his men did not hesitate to choose to go to Japan to sail a ship. Then they were rewarded with a box of cigarettes and a full meal, and were then put on the road to Vladivostok. Gram's train. Because of Lieutenant Colonel Top's qualifications, he was directly appointed as the captain of a cruise ship before departure - of course, due to insufficient trust, he, the captain, must be supervised by a political commissar at any time, and Lieutenant Colonel Top also said understand.
Next, regarding this journey to East Asia, Lieutenant Colonel Top had a strange feeling. As the train got closer and closer to the Japanese front line, the food provided to them became better and better. At some point, the staple food ration suddenly changed from black bread to white bread and sweet biscuits, and the side dishes also changed from scratch, from less to more. At first it was just pickled cucumbers, then dried fish, and then a thick soup made of potatoes and bacon.
Especially during the days when they were stranded at the port of Vladivostok, waiting for the ship to go to Japan, Lieutenant Colonel Top and his men were able to eat a full meal every day, which was called the "Socialist Holy Communion". "Potato goulash, plus beer, dessert and fruit - although even the Soviets themselves can't explain why they define potato goulash as the "Socialist Holy Communion", it's almost like he was an ace captain before I ate just as well as I did when I was there.
According to the scenes he witnessed on the streets of Vladivostok, everything was bustling and noisy. It was impossible to tell that the country was in the middle of a cruel war - the streets in the city were clean and tidy, and there was a lot of traffic on the streets. It’s busy, and the pedestrians on the road are well-dressed, and no one seems to have been hungry, and they are full of vigor and vitality. In the store windows as far as the eye can see, there are all kinds of exquisite products, many of which even Lieutenant Colonel Top has never heard of... God, is this really the Russia known for its poverty?
In the eyes of an observer, former ace captain Lieutenant Colonel Top, the only thing in the city that can show some traces of war is probably the male-to-female ratio of pedestrians on the streets: On the streets of Vladivostok, young and middle-aged people There are obviously fewer men. Almost all store clerks are women. Even bus drivers are female drivers. Even if there are a few young men who appear occasionally, most of them are wearing military uniforms.
However, compared to my hometown in Germany, which has been reduced to ruins, this place can definitely be called a socialist paradise.
Thinking about the relatives in his hometown who may not even be able to eat potatoes every day, the former ace captain Lieutenant Colonel Top couldn't help but feel a little sad. But since he has been defeated, he can only accept his fate... Fortunately, since he volunteered to go to the East If we come to sail, our relatives at home should be able to get some food. In the future, we may be able to send some money and food packages to help them survive this difficult time...
——All the glory, ideas and dreams have disappeared with the defeat. The only thing that needs to be focused on now is how to survive!
Of course, these benefits did not come in vain. No, they were dragged to start work as soon as they arrived at the field...
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In the empty engine room of the ocean liner "Rukawa Maru", it was pitch black at this time. The sound of knocking echoed in the darkness. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Top, several former U-boat sailors of the German Navy sat with their legs spread apart on the oil-stained steel floor, competing with a generator set. Work hard. Everyone had a flashlight in their mouths, and the floor was covered with wrenches, screwdrivers, needle-nose pliers and other tools, as well as several complicated circuit diagrams.
After two full hours of fussing, until the flashlight battery was about to run out of power, the originally silent generator set finally started rumbling, and the dark cabin suddenly became brightly lit. The sailors threw the tools in their hands to the ground and exhaled tiredly.
"...Oh, thank you so much! Now our ship can finally generate its own electricity without having to connect cables from the shore."
The political commissar of the Japanese Communist Party and the original acting captain on the "Rukawa Maru", a short and lean Japanese university lecturer, spoke in very broken German, with an exaggerated tone of humility and a sense of relief.
——Previously, he had bravely led a group of rookie crew members, holding documentation and drawings, and tinkered in the engine room countless times, trying to get the cruise ship's engine, or at least the generator, to run. Unfortunately, practice and theory are completely different things. The generator on the ship looks completely different from what he saw in the school laboratory. There are many more knife handles and switches, and various dials with pointers - ammeters, volts Watches, and other watches, dazzled them. What's even more terrible is that above and below each partition, suspension board and movable cabin board, there are an unimaginable number of large and small pipes of various calibers intertwined. It doesn't look like a cabin, but like the belly of a whale! Although the tubes of various systems were painted in different colors, novices like them couldn't tell the difference even if they held the instructions. Instead, they caused countless accidents: the mild ones were sprayed with oil on their faces, and the more serious ones were... Someone was electrocuted. Fortunately, at least there was no fire, otherwise everyone on the boat would have been roasted...
For putting a cruise ship filled with thousands of refugees in such a dangerous situation, the relevant departments have issued severe reprimands and even circulated criticism on many occasions. But faced with such a mess, this former university lecturer, who was totally unprofessional, was at a loss what to do and was overwhelmed. He had been having nightmares for a week in a row recently... Fortunately, a professional from Germany finally came over, and he A layman can also step aside and make way for a more talented person.
Therefore, the political commissar of the Japanese Communist Party really had a "saved" expression at this moment, and respectfully handed a clean towel to Captain Top, "...the welcome lunch has been prepared. Please wash your hands." After you put on your face and change your clothes, come and have dinner with me!”
Then, in a well-decorated small restaurant on the ship, Captain Top and his men enjoyed a luxurious feast almost dumbfounded - a long table covered with a crisp white linen tablecloth, decorated with vases and silk The artificial flowers, copper cups and cutlery shine like gold. There are all kinds of exquisite meals, as if this is not a refugee ship, but a real hotel on the sea: golden and crispy roast chicken, juicy and delicious steak, fragrant cream cakes, more than a dozen varieties of canned fruits... …There was even a gramophone playing music during the meal.
Although there is no alcohol on the table due to the prohibition, soda, coffee and black tea are all open for supply, and coffee and black tea seem to be of the highest quality, so that since the war began, the tongue has been suffering from artificial coffee (like margarine, both are Lieutenant Colonel Erich Topp, a specialty of Nazi Germany, roasted with barley, soybeans, and chicory, couldn't help but feel so filled with emotion that he simply didn't know what to say.
If you hadn't seen the ruins of a city on the shore full of ruins before, and just looked at the scene of well-fed, well-fed and pampered people on the ship, it would be hard to imagine that you were in a turbulent country that was still being ravaged by war, right?
At the same time, looking at the cargo ships flying the sickle and hammer flag out the window, he couldn't help but feel deeply sad. He was lamenting the Soviet Union's strong national power, and also lamenting the Soviets' aid to their Japanese brothers. The exaggeration of the situation - just from today's dining table, you can see that even on the battlefield, they can eat so luxuriously. The various supplies that the Soviets provided to the Japanese battlefield must be an unimaginable astronomical figure!
However, it is very regrettable that the reality is not what Lieutenant Colonel Erich Topp imagined, but even more incredible - the current situation is not at all that the Soviet Union is gritting its teeth and selling kidneys to Japan for blood transfusions, but on the contrary, every day Thousands of tons of military and civilian supplies were transported ship after ship from Japan to Vladivostok and then through Siberia The Asia-Pacific Railway is transported to Europe to supply the daily needs of the socialist military and civilians throughout Europe... Due to the capacity limitations of the Trans-Siberian Railway, a lot of materials are stored in Vladivostok and can only be consumed locally, which has increasingly resulted in The abnormal prosperity of that Far East port city - although before that, it was already very prosperous thanks to the frequent trade between Japan and the Soviet Union.
But Lieutenant Colonel Erich Top did not know the truth behind all this, and naturally the vast majority of Japanese citizens did not know these secrets. According to the tacit approval of the wartime base camp and the propaganda of the Japanese Communist Party, everything the refugees had food, shelter and food came from the generous assistance of the Comintern. As a result, many Japanese refugees who were originally displaced, hungry and cold were moved to tears. , and the public opinion base of red ideas also expanded rapidly. Then, after a period of time, as the operators of each ocean cruise ship and cargo ship were basically in place and started to get started, Erich Topp, who had quickly gained weight because he had been eating and drinking all day long since boarding the ship, Lieutenant Colonel, very suddenly received the order to weigh anchor and set sail...