During both world wars, there have been stories of fighters remaining faithful to military duty for months and even years, forgotten by their superiors in the resulting confusion.
So, for example, until 1942, in the remote Belarusian forests, partisans stumbled upon abandoned military warehouses, guarded by sentries, who, knowing nothing about the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, did not allow the partisans to come close, seeing in them only suspicious civilians. And in the Crimean catacombs, allegedly until 1946, several military sailors were hiding, who had not heard about the end of this war.
Irremovable watch fortress Osovets
At one time, many newspapers and magazines wrote about this. The last publication was in the Ogonyok magazine in the 1960s. But by our time this story has already been forgotten.
"Destroyed casemates of Osovets". German photo, August-September 1915
In 1915, during its retreat, the Russian army with the help of explosions bombarded the warehouses of military equipment and food, located in the basements of the Osovets fortress. This was done on the grounds that the local population knew nothing about the quartermaster's warehouses, and therefore it was enough to fill up the entrance to hide their location from the Germans.
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But later, when Russian troops presumably return to these places again, the rubble can be easily excavated. However, the October Revolution and the subsequent Civil War in Russia led to the fact that everyone was not up to the hidden warehouses. In addition, the entire territory around the Osovets fortress was ceded to independent Poland. That is why by that time no one remembered about warehouses with ammunition.
Nine years later, the Polish government decided to restore the fortress. The blockages were cleared and several people descended into the underground storage. Suddenly they heard someone from the darkness shouted out loudly in Russian: “Stop! Who is coming ?! , as well as a distinct clang of the cocked bolt. It didn’t sound like a ghost (where did you see a ghost with a rifle?), And therefore the Poles entered into negotiations with the stranger.
In a buried shelter, where no one entered for almost 10 years, without a single ray of light there was a Russian sentry, who laid down his arms only after it was explained to him that the war had ended a long time ago.
As it turned out, the retreating troops were in a hurry and simply forgot about him, and the soldier could not get out because of the large layer of soil above his head. All these long years, the sentry, left in timelessness, ate canned food and drank the water accumulating below from precipitation.
There was enough air here, but the lack of light depressed him greatly. At first, however, he economically used stearic candles, but soon there was a fire, which the soldier barely coped with and which destroyed the remnants of the candle stock.
When he left the cellar, he was a dirty man with a beard below the waist and matted greasy hair on his head, but in a completely new military uniform and boots that were not worn out. It turned out that for nine years the soldier had never shaved or washed, since there was barely enough water to drink, but he changed his uniform very often due to his huge supply on the shelves.
There was also an innumerable quantity of canned food, crackers, sugar, matches and makhorka, which would have been enough for a whole company if it had been together with the sentry all these years.
The soldier carefully looked after his rifle, regularly greasing it with canned fat. And he also fought all the time with rats, which not only deprived him of food supplies, but also attacked him …
When the fighter was taken outside, they forgot to blindfold him, and he went blind from the bright sun. However, further traces of the soldier, as well as his name, were lost.
Hiroo Onoda - loyal warrior mikado
Hiroo Onoda, a junior lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army, fought the Americans in the Philippines during World War II. In 1944, he was 22 years old, and Onoda was ordered to go to war with guerrilla methods in the jungle, making sabotage and ambushes.
He did not know that a year later the war ended with the surrender of Japan, and, being faithful to the order, he continued to attack everyone who was not part of the Japanese army. Only in March 1974, Onoda surrendered to the representatives of the Philippine authorities, having fought against them for about 30 years.
But he capitulated only after they found the very aged commander Hiroo and brought him to the island.
Onoda came out to meet the policeman in the dilapidated, half-decayed uniform of the Japanese imperial army, clutching an outdated rifle with cartridges in his hands, carrying grenades and a samurai sword, with which he could make himself a hara-kiri, but did not do it, because he had been ordered to do so earlier commander.
Bowing with dignity to the startled police officer, the Japanese put down his rifle and sword, saluted and said that he was surrendering on orders from his superiors.
It is curious that the then President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos was so deeply impressed by what had happened that he returned his sword to the elderly soldier and forgave him, canceling the trial - after all, after the end of the war, Onoda could formally be considered a criminal, since he killed 30 civilians in the Philippines and wounded almost a hundred in the name of fulfilling his military duty, considering the Filipinos to be Japan's sworn enemies.
Onoda was extremely shocked by the changes that had taken place in the world: the fact that the war ended 30 years ago and that Japan lost in it, and most of all by the fact that all these years of agonizing vegetation in the jungle and all his youth were wasted.
Later, Hiroo showed the Philippine authorities his bungalow in the jungle. It was clean and tidy. On the wall hung a half-rotted patriotic poster with the words "War to Victory" in Japanese, and a silhouette of the emperor carved out of wood.
Onoda said that while his three soldiers were still alive, he regularly conducted drill with them, organized various competitions, including writing poetry. At the same time, back in the late summer of 1945, Hiroo picked up an American leaflet, which read: "Japan has surrendered, surrender!" However, he did not believe it, considering it all a trick of the enemy.
In the following years, all of Onoda's soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. Thus, left alone, Onoda continued to follow the order - he fired at the police, and they combed the jungle in return, but they could not take the rebel lieutenant alive or kill. Fresh newspapers dropped over the jungle and even letters from Onoda's relatives did not give anything - the incredulous Hiroo believed that all this was set up and that in fact the war was still going on.
The Japanese ate fruits and roots that grow in abundance in the jungle, drank spring water, constantly darned his sprawling clothes with a homemade needle, and all the time waited for an order to return to the regiment. It is noteworthy that during all this time he only once suffered a cold …
And then one day a Japanese student literally stumbled upon Onoda, collecting butterflies here. Fortunately, the Japanese did not shoot his compatriot, but did not believe a single word of his. And then this young entomologist set himself the task: to find Major Taniguchi, who was once the commander of Lieutenant Onoda, which he succeeded. An elderly Taniguchi flew to the Philippines, contacted Onoda and ordered him to surrender.
However, Hiroo's return to his homeland was not happy. Japan has become different, completely unusual and even distant for him. Onoda looked in amazement at the skyscrapers and cars that blocked the streets, and jet planes, televisions and computers simply frightened him, causing panic. It is for this reason that Hiroo decided to return to the natural, uncivilized life in which he had been for the past 30 years.
The Robinson people
Today they live in the very center of Indochina, on the territory of modern South China, North Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, in mountainous regions that are difficult to access and unsuitable for life.
Back in the 1960s, with the help of the CIA, auxiliary forces from the Hmong people, or Miao, were formed for the war in Vietnam and Laos, which obstructed the transport of goods along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and opposed the socialist movement Pathet Lao.
After the end of hostilities, the Americans effectively abandoned their former allies to the mercy of fate, making these peoples, including women, old people and young children, the target of merciless hunting on the part of the victors. Many thousands of them were subsequently simply killed, and about a third of the Hmong were forced to emigrate to other countries.
Currently, individual groups of Hmong live in the impenetrable jungle, constantly fearing attack and persecution, as well as suffering from hunger and disease. Today the number of members of this ethnic group is no more than 30 thousand people, and it continues to decline steadily.
The most optimistic of the Hmong, however, still cherish the dream that wealthy America, which they have served faithfully as allies for decades, will one day come and help them. Others believe that the communists will find their refuge and kill them all.
Arkady VYATKIN, magazine "Secrets of the XX century", 2017
