The Soviet Navy destroyer "Leningrad", which has just recovered from the numerous scars left by the Chinese "Spifire" tactical attack aircraft, returned to the port of Kronstadt. The newly appointed Captain Vladimirov is familiar with his warships while recruiting people everywhere: the "Leningrad" and seven other destroyers have received orders to participate in the German Navy's operations against the United States.
This joint Sino-German naval operation has been brewing for a long time between the Soviet Navy and the German Navy. The two navies have specially formed several task forces. The 1st Task Force includes 8 squadrons, and the 7th Squadron is composed of "Leninger" A surface patrol squadron composed of eight destroyers including the USS Le" is responsible for supporting tasks. To this end, destroyers have some privileges and can get all the personnel, supplies, equipment, etc. imaginable.
However, at this time, there were not many qualified sailors in Kronstadt Port for the captains to choose from. Captain Vladimilov had been busy for a while and could not recruit enough people. As a last resort, the "Leningrad" requested to return to the Soviet coast to replenish personnel there.
"Leningrad"'s request was approved, and Captain Vladimilov returned to the harbor. A month later, all positions on the ship finally had enough manpower. However, these improvised sailor officers have more soldiers than soldiers, and they talk more and do less. According to the standard wartime organization, each engine room of the destroyer only needs one petty officer to command, but the "Leningrad" got 8 at once, all of which were stuffed in the front and rear engine rooms. Now, everyone is giving orders. Although the few soldiers are busy, the engine is still out of breath, and the normal navigation of the warship is problematic.
¡°What a troublesome thing!¡± Captain Vladimilov scratched his head.
He summoned the eight non-commissioned officers and lectured: "Which one of you is the most senior?" The eight generals looked around, looked at others and looked at themselves, and finally selected two "leaders". Vladimilov pointed at the two people elected by everyone: "You two, one is in charge of the bow engine room and the other is in charge of the stern engine room! Others, forget your ranks! Take off your hats. Unbutton them. Go to work!"
Everyone was speechless and followed the new leader into their respective cabins. The engine finally ran normally.
But before taking action, there is still much to do. The eight destroyers are like eight hardworking mules. Doing all kinds of chores mindlessly.
When they got up early in the morning, the signal soldiers on the "Leningrad" were busy debugging the ship's broadcast system. This system is connected to a wireless communication system, which has been tuned to the bomber's communication frequency and can listen to conversations between the pilot and ground controllers.
"Look! Captain! What's over there?!"
Vladimirov turned his head. Just when I saw a huge mushroom cloud rising from the horizon, almost at the same time, a weak, slightly dull "pop" sound penetrated my ears from a distance.
"Oh God! What is that?" Vladimilov cried in horror.
At the scene of the explosion, the powerful impact instantly crushed a battleship "Soviet Union" parked below the explosion point. The fireball formed by the explosion reached a temperature of 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and flew into the sky with dust and water vapor. In just 60 seconds. The top of the mushroom cloud formed by the explosion has soared to an altitude of 40,000 feet, and the diameter of the cloud cover is 2 miles wide.
On June 10, 1945, the first atomic bomb dropped by China, the "Qinglong", exploded at 9:20:12 Leningrad time. It was dropped from the Chinese Air Force's "Hongyan" strategic bomber "Cedar" 43 seconds later, it exploded about 150 meters southeast of the iron bridge at the Kronstadt Military Port Terminal in the Soviet Union at a height of 520 meters. Its explosion yield was equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT.
The first three decades of the 20th century saw the Soviet Union devoted itself to increasingly international adventures, and Kronshtadt received further military and industrial investment. A Chinese research report from the fall of 1945 noted that "Kronshtadt has become a city of considerable military importance. The Soviet Second Army Headquarters was built in Kronshtadt. It commanded all the forces in the western Soviet Union." Defense. The city served as a communications center, material storage point, and military staging area." A Soviet report said: "Since the beginning of the war, the citizens of Kronstadt may have been in the 'Ula more than a thousand times "Send the troops out of the port with the cry of '." In 1945, when Moscow was in danger, the Soviet Army General Staff prepared to command the defense of Leningrad from Kronstadt to resist the increasingly approaching Chinese army.
Early in the war, the city's population approached 300,000. The daily population on June 10 was approximately 288,000 to 290,000 civilians plus approximately 54,000 soldiers.
¡°It¡¯s earlier, and the morning is still warm and beautiful,¡± said a Kronshtadt doctor named Zakaivov, director of the Kronshtadt Communications Hospital. He began this way in his diary, describing the day on June 6th by ""Blue Dragon" caused the event. "Dawn passed and the sunlight reflected in the cloudless sky provided a comfortable contrast to the shadows in my garden. "
¡°Just when I looked up at the sky,¡± recalled Valeria, a little girl who was only 5 years old at the time and living in a safe home on the outskirts of the city, ¡°there was a flash of white light, and the green of the plants was reflected in the light. When illuminated it looks like the color of dead leaves.¡±
The closer you get, the stronger the light becomes. Katya, a female college student who was helping to clear the fire escape at the time, recalled: "Our teacher said: 'Ah, there is a bomber!' This made us look up to the sky, and as soon as we finished speaking, we felt a huge burst of lightning. We were immediately blinded, and then everything just felt like a delirious madness."
At the same moment, the bird was set on fire in mid-air. Mosquitoes, flies, squirrels and domestic pets all burst to death. The huge image of the city was reflected in the flickering fireball, and at that moment, the minerals, plants and animals on the surface of the city itself were destroyed.
This is the convergence of the world of death and the world of life.
The world of death is a different place from the world of life, and it is almost impossible to visit there. In Kronstadt that day, the two worlds almost came together. "There was an eerie silence there, which made people feel that all the people, trees and vegetation were dead." Zakaivov, who survived, recalled.
The heat beam did not burn those people inside who were protected by the building, however, the shock wave did not let them go.
When the explosion started, a boy was looking up the river in a room by the river. At the moment the house collapsed, he was blown from this end room to the opposite side of the road on the river embankment and landed under the embankment. on the street. In this process. He was blown through two windows in the house and his body was punctured with all the glass that could hit him. That's why he was covered in blood like that.
The shock wave spread outward from the center of the explosion at a speed of 3.2 kilometers per second and quickly rose hundreds of meters per second before slowing down to the speed of sound, which is 335 meters per second. The rising smoke formed huge clouds. "My whole body seemed to have turned black," said a physicist in Kronstadt. "Everything seemed to have turned black, it was dark everywhereI thought, 'This is the end of the world. '" Writer Olkin also felt the same fear: "I am wondering why our environment has changed so much in an instant I think this may be something that has nothing to do with war. For example, the earth collapsed. , some say this is what will happen when the end of the world comes.¡±
A grocer fled into the street: "The look of the people was Well, they were all black from the burns They all had no hair, because their hair was burned off, at a glance. You couldn't tell Are you looking at their front or are you looking at their backtheir arms (across their chests)their skin - not just on their hands but also on their faces and bodies ¡ª¡ªall hung up If there were only one or two such people maybe I wouldn't have such a strong impression. However, wherever I go I meet such people many of them die Out on the street - I can still picture them in my mind - like walking ghosts They didn't look like they were from this world The way they walked was very special - very slow ¡I¡¯m one of them myself.¡±
The skin hanging from the faces and torso of these severely injured survivors was caused by blisters first caused by the heat flash and then peeled off by the shock wave.
A boy who was in fifth grade at the time recounted: ¡°The flames burning everywhere in the collapsed house seemed to illuminate the darkness. One child let out a painful groan, and his burned face swelled like a balloon. He convulsed as he lingered in the fire. The skin on one commissar's face and torso peeled off like potato skins, and he murmured a silent prayer as he staggered away. Another man pressed down with his hands and continued to convulse. Bleeding wounds. Running around so fast, shouting the names of his wife and children like a maniac - ah, my hair stands on end just thinking about it. This is what war is really like. "
The heat light flashed and the shock wave ignited the fire. These fires quickly turned into large explosions from which those who were able to move escaped, but those who had broken bones or were trapped under the house were unable to escape.
A 5-year-old girl said: "The whole port was burning. The smoke was billowing and we could hear the sound of huge objects exploding Those scary streets. The fires were burning. There was a strange smell everywhere. . Blue-green fireballs were floating around. I had a terrible feeling of loneliness. It was as if everyone else in the world was dead and I was the only one alive.??. "
Another girl of the same age said: "Whenever I think of the atomic bomb that engulfed the entire city of Kronstadt in one or two minutes on June 10, 1945, I can't help but tremble We were all escaping. On the way, I I saw a soldier floating on the river with a swollen belly. He must have tried in desperation to jump into the river from the sea of ??fire to escape. Farther away, the dead were lined up in a long line. Farther away, there was a woman with a gun The big log fell on her legs and she fell to the ground, so she couldn't get out."
"When my father saw this, he shouted: 'Come here and help her!'"
"However, no one came to help. They all just wanted to save their own lives. The fearless spirit of the revolution was completely gone."
"My father finally got angry and shouted: 'Are you still Bolsheviks?' He picked up a rusty saw, cut off her legs, and rescued her. Farther away, we saw a woman who had been burned The darkened ones keep their walking posture.¡±
A girl who was in first grade at the time, her mother was crushed under their collapsed house: "I decided to run away with my mother. However, the flames kept spreading, my clothes were already on fire, and I could no longer hold on. Go down. I screamed: 'Mom, Mom!' I ran wildly towards the center of the fire. No matter how far I walked. There was a sea of ??fire all around me and there was no way to escape. So, I jumped into our side of me. (Civil Defense System) In the sink. Sparks were falling everywhere, and I put a piece of iron on my head to block the fire. The water in the sink was heated, just like in a bath. There were four or five people around me. They were all calling so-and-so's name. While I was submerged in the sink, everything became dreamlike and at some point, I lost consciousness Five days later, (I learned.) Right after I left , mom eventually died.¡±
"A city tram was completely burned, leaving only its frame, and all the passengers inside were burned to cinders. When I saw this scene, I got chills all over my body. And I started to shiver. "
"I felt that all human beings on the earth had been wiped out, leaving only the five of us (that is, members of his family) in this bizarre world of death I saw some people diving into the half-broken Drinking water from the sink When I looked very close into the sink, I exclaimed loudly: "Ah! "Instinctively, I stepped back. I saw monster-like faces reflected on the blood-stained water in the sink. They lay on the edge of the sink, lowered their heads to drink water, and stayed in this position to die. From the time they burned From the tattered and tattered clothes, I could tell they were high school girls. There was not a single hair on their heads, and their burnt facial skin was stained bright red with blood. I couldn't believe these were human faces."
Kronstadt was all in ruins. Holguin's account confirms the extent of the destruction: "The bright day now revealed the terrible scene hidden by the night. Where the city once stood, there was now ashes and ruins as far as the eye could see. Only The frames of several buildings that were completely burned inside still remain. Both sides of the river are covered with dead bodies and injured people, and dead bodies are floating everywhere on the rising water. On the wide streets of the city, there are countless naked and burned dead bodies. "Among them were the injured who were still alive. Several people were crawling under burned-out cars and trams. People with terrible injuries waved to us and then fell."
"In addition to dead bodies, there are ruins on the streets. Some corpses still maintain intact walking postures, looking as if they have been frozen by death. Others lie with their limbs stretched out, as if some giant has lifted them from a high place. He fell down and died"
"Except for a few reinforced concrete buildings, nothing remainsEvery piece of land in this city is like a desert, just piles of broken bricks and tiles. I had to modify the meaning of the word "destroyed" Or had to choose other words to describe what I saw. 'Havoc' might be a better word, however, I really don't have the words to describe this scene."
"Survivors began to notice a strange illness in themselves and others. The main symptoms were nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite; diarrhea. Large amounts of blood in the stool; fever, weakness; blood seeping under the skin and causing discoloration of various body parts Purple spots appear Inflammation and sores in the mouth, throat, and gums Bleeding in the mouth, gums, throat, rectum, and urethra Loss of hair from the scalp or other parts of the body A blood sample is taken that contains very few white blood cells In many cases. It's a chronic process until death."
"Only a handful of survivors and overworked Soviet doctors gradually realized that what they were seeing at this time was radiation sickness; in the history of medicine," an authoritative Soviet research report explained, "atomic bomb sickness was the earliest serious and fatal case of whole-body irradiation." "and the only cases". A small number of people were accidentally overexposed to x-rays,Laboratory animals were exposed to X-rays as victims of research work, but never before had a large population experienced such widespread and lethal exposure to ionizing radiation.
"Radioactivity caused further suffering, and it was then thought that by treating those who had been burned or otherwise injured they would recover. However, it now appears that this was clearly not practical. Those who were apparently recovering People were developing other symptoms that led to their death. So many patients were dying for reasons we couldn't understand, and it left us all despairing"
"Hundreds of patients died in the first few days; subsequently, the mortality rate decreased. Now, it is increasing again Over time, anorexia (that is, lack of appetite) and diarrhea have been shown to be The most persistent symptoms among patients who recover."
"Direct radiation from the gamma rays emitted by the atomic bomb destroys exposed body tissues. This destruction requires cells to divide into cells identical to themselves, however the radiation temporarily inhibits cell division, thus delaying the onset of the disease. Hematopoietic tissue is affected Severe damage, especially to tissues that produce infection-fighting white blood cells. Large doses of radiation also stimulate the production of an anticoagulant factor. The result of these attacks is massive tissue death, massive hemorrhage, and massive infection. Bleeding is all we have Cause of death in cases," Olkin wrote. However, he also noted that pathologists at his hospital "found changes in every organ in the cases he performed autopsies on."
ps: "I was your elementary school classmate, do you remember me?" "Which one, I don't really remember." "The one who won the first prize in the municipal composition contest in the third grade." "No impression." "I am in the fifth grade. When I was in the Mathematical Olympiad, I won first prize in the province." "I still have no impression." "When I was in sixth grade, I lifted up my teacher's skirt." "Oh! It turned out to be you!"