The Germans, who were approaching the Vistula, learned that the town of Simon had been taken, and immediately increased the pace of the march, trying to cross the Vistula from here before the main Soviet forces arrived.

There was originally a bridge across the Vistula near Simontown, but when the townspeople evacuated, German sappers had blown up the bridge in order to prevent the Soviets from crossing the Vistula from here, and it was confirmed that the breakout force from the fortress of Thon could not cross the river. Fortunately, there were also quite a few sappers in the garrison of the fortress, and after receiving the order, they immediately rushed to Simon Town and began to urgently repair the bridge.

While the sappers were rushing to repair the bridge, Lüdecker came to Simontown, where he found Rolf outside the town and asked straight to the point: "General Rolf, can we cross the river directly from the ice?" ”

"No, Your Excellency, Commander." When Rolf heard Lüdeck's question, he immediately gave him a negative answer: "This section of the river is much wider than the one in the fortress, and the ice near the center of the river is too weak, and it is not a problem for a few people to walk, and if there are more people, the iron will surely break." ”

"In that case, we'll have to wait for the sappers to repair the bridge over the river." After hearing what Rolf had said, Lüdecker sighed and said, "I hope to cross the river before the arrival of the main Russian force." ”

The two were talking, when suddenly a series of explosions were heard on the river. Hearing this voice, Rüdek couldn't help but shudder, and said in his heart, Could it be that the Russian army has already rushed to the river? He hurriedly asked, "General Rolf, where did the explosion come from?" ”

When Rolf heard the explosion, he was also taken aback, and quickly called one of his subordinates and asked him to investigate what was going on. After his subordinates left, Rolf comforted Rüdecker and said, "Your Excellency, don't worry, even if the Russians carry out an explosion, they will be one or two guerrilla groups at most, and they will not pose any threat to us. ”

Rolf's words gave Lydeck some comfort, he thought that almost a division of troops was deployed near Simon's town, even if the combat effectiveness was poor, if the main force of the Russians arrived, there would not be no movement at all, maybe it was really like Rolf said, it was just one or two sabotage teams sent by the Russians, so the guards deployed by the river could easily eliminate them.

The officers sent by Rolf to inquire about the news soon returned. He entered the house and leaned close to Rolf, ready to whisper to his superiors. When Ludek saw this, he raised his head and said, "Lieutenant, what's going on with the explosions outside?" ”

When the German lieutenant heard Lüdecker say this, he immediately gave up his intention to report to Rolf. However, he did not immediately answer Lüdek's question, but stood there a little helplessly, and cast a pleading look at Rolf.

"Lieutenant," Seeing his subordinates standing in a daze, Rolf promptly relieved him of the siege and said, "Since it is His Excellency the Commander who is asking you, then you should report to him truthfully." ”

The lieutenant agreed, turned to Lydek and said, "Report to Your Excellency Commander, I just went out to inquire, and it was the sappers who blasted the ice on the river. ”

"Sappers blasting the ice on the river?" After listening to the lieutenant's report, Lüdecker glanced at Rolf, who was also surprised, and then asked, "What the hell is going on?" ”

"Your Excellency, the situation is like this." The German lieutenant reported: "The sappers were the first to strengthen the ice with logs, but after testing, it was found that such a load-bearing capacity was very limited." So the captain of the sappers ordered the ice to be blown up so that a pontoon bridge could be erected with greater load-bearing capacity. ”

"I see." After Rolf and the other lieutenants finished speaking, they immediately said to Lüdeck: "Your Excellency, if you build a pontoon bridge in the water, when the temperature drops at night, the bridge deck will freeze even stronger, not to mention people and carriages, even trucks, armored vehicles, and tanks can smoothly cross the river from the pontoon bridge." ”

"General Rolf, we have no more than twenty tanks and armored vehicles combined, and we are running out of fuel. Even if they succeed in crossing the Vistula, they will have to be discarded for the rest of the march because they have run out of fuel. "Therefore, I intend to leave these tanks and armored vehicles outside Simon's town and use them as a stationary point of fire," Rudke said to Rolf. Do you understand? ”

"Understood." Hearing Lüdecker say this, Rolf quickly nodded and replied: "Our army lacks heavy weapons, and with the reinforcement of these tanks and armored vehicles, our soldiers will be able to hold out longer in the face of the Russian attack." ”

The section of the river that was about to be crossed was four or five hundred meters wide, but in order to quickly break through the encirclement of the Soviet army, the sappers who used local materials showed great efficiency, and it took only two hours to erect a wooden bridge over the wide Vistula.

Seeing the completion of the bridge, Rüdek immediately gave an order to Rolf: "General Rolf, immediately send an infantry battalion to establish a defensive position on the opposite bank and cover the crossing of the main forces across the river. ”

When Rolf went to arrange for his troops to establish a defensive position on the opposite bank, Rüdek said to his chief of staff: "Chief of staff, as soon as General Rolf's troops have established a defense on the opposite bank, arrange for the civilians to cross the Vistula River first." ”

Lüdeck's order surprised the chief of staff, knowing that more than 10,000 civilians had left the fortress with them when the troops broke through this time. As the chief of staff of the garrison of the fortress, he felt compelled to remind Lüdek: "Your Excellency, the speed of the civilians is too slow, in my opinion, let our troops cross the river first!" ”

As soon as the Chief of Staff's words came out, he found that the expression on Rudek's face suddenly became cold, and the other party said in an unquestionable tone: "Chief of Staff, how can we leave our own people to the Russians?" No, I've already decided, in any case, the civilians must be allowed to cross the river first. You immediately arrange for vehicles to bring all the civilians here, and when they have all crossed the river, our army will cross the river. ”

"Understood, Your Excellency, Commander." When the chief of staff heard Rudek say this, he knew that it was useless for him to say anything more, so he nodded and said, "I'll arrange it." ”

In addition to the more than 30,000 defenders in the Thorn Fortress, there were also a similar number of civilians. When the troops began to break through, half of the civilians did not want to fall into the hands of the Soviets and left the fortress with the defenders.

When they left the fortress of Thorn, none of these civilians could have imagined that this march of less than 100 kilometers would become their journey to death. Due to the lack of various means of transportation, they had to choose to walk and follow the army slowly.

Although they were not attacked by Soviet air raids along the way, they advanced in the cold wind and on the unobstructed wilderness, and their physical strength was so exhausted that they had to stop and rest. However, many people sit down and never get back up. On the first day, the civilian procession traveled only more than 20 kilometers, but more than 300 people froze to death.

Seeing people who are familiar or strange falling down beside them, or sitting on the side of the road and dying of blackness from the cold, many people regret it in their hearts. At one point, they wanted to return to the fortress, but the rumbling of artillery from the direction of the fortress made them realize that they had no way back, and that if they wanted to survive, they had to continue to follow the team and rush to the Gloudenz fortress to join the defenders there.