The commander of the SS Reich Division, Major General Paul Hausser, suddenly received Guderian's order for the Reich Division to immediately end the repair ahead of schedule and rush to the Yelnya salient near Smolensk as quickly as possible to take over the defense of the 17th Morif Division.

Although the main force of the SS was in Army Group South with Modell, the SS troops who remained in the sequence of Army Group Center and Army Group North were also under the command of the headquarters of each Army Group and faithfully carried out their orders.

Yes, they owe allegiance to the Führer, and the greatest duty to the Führer at this time is to defeat the Soviet Union for the Führer and capture the villain Stalin alive.

It was worthy of being the ace of the SS in Army Group Center, which was known for its excellent quality, and within 12 hours of receiving the order, the Reich Division was ready for all operations and rushed to the front overnight under the orders of Major General Paul.

Even the Wehrmacht Army Command (whose function was downgraded to the General Staff, but the name eventually retained the name of the Army Command) had high hopes for the SS Reich Division, and sent an aircraft to drop leaflets on the front of the position, encouraging the officers and men of the Reich Division to carry forward the glorious tradition and defeat the Soviet Army with the heroic spirit peculiar to the SS.

The leaflet, printed from the Army Command, ended with one of the most popular phrases among the SS: "The Führer awaits news of your victory!"

It is undeniable that whether it is the General Headquarters of the Army, the headquarters of Army Group Center at Bock, or the command of Guderian's Second Army, they all firmly trust the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Division.

As a motorized infantry division in the SS, the Reich Division received a lot of care in the distribution of equipment because of its title of "Führer's Descendant Unit" in terms of combat effectiveness and mobility, and it was greatly guaranteed.

When it first entered the war in Poland, it had not yet been built to the scale of a division, and all the regiments under the name of the current Imperial Division participated in the war in the name of regimental troops at that time.

Among them, the German regiment joined Bock, who commanded Army Group North in the Polish campaign, and operated within the formation of the 3rd Army to attack Mlawa and Modlin. It can be said that this time they are back to fighting under the command of Bock.

At that time, the Germanic regiments under the Imperial Division joined Rundstead's Army Group South, advanced to Warsaw at the moment of the decisive battle, and conquered Warsaw in front of Timoshenko. It can be said that this time they fought against the new commander of the Western Front, Timoshenko, and they met their old opponents again.

Thus, after the Polish campaign, the Germans, the Germans, and another Führer regiment, three regiments, were formed into the current SS motorized rifle division, that is, the Reich division.

After Paul Haussert became the first division commander, he has been working until now, and the Imperial Division participated in the French campaign, at that time, they were still fighting in Army Group B under the command of Bock, fighting from the Netherlands, Belgium to France.

It was precisely because after experiencing the Polish Campaign and the French Campaign, Bock, who served as the commander of the army group twice, felt the combat effectiveness of the SS Reich division, and he was familiar with this SS combat unit, so when he served as the commander of the army group for the third time in the Soviet campaign, Bock did not hesitate to ask the commander-in-chief of the SS, General Steve, for this SS motorized rifle division.

Because Reinhardt deliberately avoided war with Yugoslavia, the Imperial Division did not gain the historical merits of storming Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia.

However, when the Imperial Division saw the war against the Soviet Union, it was incorporated into the 46th Panzer Corps and was under the command of Guderian. The Imperial Division, which had sworn allegiance to the Führer, under the command of Guderian, the Führer's confidant, was also in a happy mood, interspersed all the way to the Yelnya region, cut off the Soviet army from the main forces of the Eastern and Western Front in the east, and put the troops of the four divisions of the Soviet army into the encirclement.

All this is inseparable from their trust in Guderian, the Führer's favorite general.

Guderian liked to command mobile troops to venture into enemy positions, and if he were to be another general, he would be more or less worried about the risk of doing so. However, the Imperial Division, from the division commander Paul, down to every soldier, believed in the Führer, and therefore in the command of Guderian, whom the Führer himself trusted.

It turned out that the Imperial Division, under the command of Guderian, was indeed proud of its achievements.

After a month of repeated victories, the officers and men of the Imperial Division were at the peak of their morale.

Due to the status of the SS, the soldiers of the Reich Division, which had been repaired for a short time, were also given priority in replenishment at the first time through the SS "special replenishment channel", and the damaged equipment was basically replenished with the supply of the SS exclusive transport team. This gave Major General Paul even more confidence in crushing all Soviet onslaughts.

But when Paul led his army to the designated defensive position in the salient, he could not help but be surprised.

It's only been more than ten days since he last came to this area, but this place has already undergone tremendous changes!

There were no trees still standing in the vicinity of the position, and the few small hills that had been seen now looked as if they had been cut down by an average of about 1 meter by artillery fire. In the fortifications they had erected a month earlier, most of the bunkers had been torn down, many of the trenches had been flattened, and the positions were littered with destroyed equipment and scattered ammunition boxes.

Paul grabbed a handful of dirt from the earthen field, and there were 4 or 5 pieces of shrapnel in it!

You can see what a fierce battle has taken place here.

The Wehrmacht's 17th Motorized Infantry Division has now all withdrawn from its positions, leaving only a lieutenant colonel staff officer to take on Hausser.

I saw the staff officer look at the SS division commander in front of him with a disdainful face and said: "The Soviets are crazy, I heard that they have changed a general named Timoshenko, and this general is like throwing all the shells he can collect here." We suffered heavy casualties, and most of our heavy weapons were destroyed, and several of our main commanders were wounded. ”

After swallowing his saliva, the lieutenant colonel staff officer continued: "By the way, the Soviet army also sent a lot of tanks, you should be especially careful." Good luck, General!"

Retention glanced at the staff officer, shook his head, and told him to withdraw from his position.

He didn't want this panicked Wehrmacht staff officer to disturb the morale of their SS.

Timoshenko knew that the two sides had fought each other in the Polish campaign. It's just that Paul was a regimental commander at that time, and Timoshenko was already the commander of the front army at that time.

In Jean's view, Timoshenko, the so-called famous Soviet general, has no level at all except for his large-scale mobilization of troops to attack and maintain the offensive regardless of casualties.

Glancing at the direction of the Soviet army in the distance, he retained a faint smile: "Let's teach this new commander of the Western Front how to fight the war......"

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