The Wehrmacht asked the SS for help, which was definitely a shocking and rare event in the early days of the Soviet-German War in the summer of 1941.
Since the moment when Kaiser Wilhelm I was crowned king in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles after winning the Franco-Prussian War, the German Wehrmacht, which is mainly composed of the Junkers Noble Officer Corps and has been passed down to this day, has always been the only legal armed force guarding the German flag.
strength.
As for the SS, a Nazi political and military organization that in its own eyes was composed of "gangsters, thugs, and ruffians", the Wehrmacht, which had been "glory despite defeat" since World War I, initially looked down upon the other party.
Even with a very contemptuous attitude.
This was true even after Hausser, who later became known as the "SS Sword Master", introduced formalized military training to the Wehrmacht and transformed the SS into a loose group that could only engage in espionage operations and political police activities.
Even after becoming a powerful militarized group, not much has changed.
The SS, which had no glory at all in the hearts of most Junkers aristocratic officers of the Wehrmacht, could at best be regarded as a group of militarized regime thugs. This narrow-minded prejudice with arrogance remained until the end of World War II when Germany was defeated in 1945.
It has not been completely changed, and this is one of the important reasons why the relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS has been so bad and irreconcilable.
Therefore, even the soul of the armed SS like Hausser, after hearing that the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht was asking for help from its own SS Reich Division, he still couldn't help showing a look of genuine surprise.
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He silently took the telegram from his chief of staff and flipped through it. The tense smell of gunpowder between the lines was like burnt bread, which made Hauser frown.
Between personal emotions and the overall situation on the battlefield, Hausser, who was born in a Prussian military family, finally made the right decision.
"How many reserves do we have now? Ostendorf."
After hearing Hauser's sudden question, the chief of staff, who was thoughtful for a moment, quickly gave an accurate answer.
"The combat engineer battalions have all been filled into the fire line. Now the only available reserve team at our division headquarters is the combat engineer team directly under the division headquarters. I plan to use it to put out fires at the most critical moment. How are you?
Serge, are you planning to send our reserve team to those cold nobles?"
Facing the almost unbelievable rhetorical question from his chief of staff, Hausser, who had already comprehensively coordinated the overall battle situation in his heart, immediately continued to speak.
"The city of Yelnya is now a steel furnace churning with hot molten steel. The Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment is now half-dangling with its feet in the air, and is about to be pushed into the steel-making furnace behind it by those Russians. If they are defeated, there will be no recovery from them.
The Russians who rush into our rear lines will also pull us into this abyss and sea of fire!"
"Even to save ourselves, the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment must not be defeated."
From these words he had already realized the decisiveness in Hauser's heart, and Chief of Staff Ostendorf, who had worked with him for a long time, could naturally understand the meaning.
"Okay, now that you have decided, there is no problem on my side. I will go down and arrange support troops."
"etc"
Just as Chief of Staff Ostendorf turned around and led his two guards to the entrance of the field division connected to the traffic trench, he had always been facing the battlefield and his back to Ostendorf.
However, Hauser, the husband, suddenly stopped the other party at this moment and spoke again.
"Deploy some troops from other regiments to make up the reinforcements to a battalion size and then send them there. The situation of the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment is more difficult than ours, and sporadic support troops cannot make much difference at all.
"
After hearing this additional order from Hauser, he immediately moved his lips and wanted to say something. However, Chief of Staff Ostendorf, who hesitated to speak after much thought, finally kept silent and glanced at Hauser.
The figure that was still standing there immediately strode away.
On the first-line defense position of the Waffen-SS Imperial Division, the SS soldiers who had become red-eyed in position defense operations were using everything they could launch to fire at the enemy.
The red-beaten G34 barrels were piled randomly beside the machine gun team like scrap steel, and no one paid attention to them. The 792x57mm Mauser shells clicked under the soldiers' feet like a hot carpet.
The SS rifleman, who repeated the action of pulling the bolt and loading the gun over and over again, was almost numb to the point of forgetfulness.
Wave after wave of Soviet soldiers surged toward the Imperial Division's position like a tidal wave, like marmots emerging from the ground, and it was impossible to kill them all.
The corpses of Soviet soldiers and various burning tank wreckage piled up in front of the Imperial Division position. Ernst Backmann, who was so exhausted that he began to tremble all over, swore he had never seen such a horrific scene.
The Poles, who boasted that they were one of the strongest armies in Europe, looked like a group of docile sheep compared to these Soviet troops in Bachman's mind!
"Everyone is crazy! This is not a war. This is a scene only found in hell. This is not why I became a soldier!"
With constant trembling inner complaints, Buckman replaced the P38 submachine gun in his hand with an unknown number of full magazines. After forcing his will to barely overcome the fear in his heart, Buckman was about to stick his head out of the trench and lift it again.
The gun fired. Squad leader Haynes, who was carrying a steaming G34 general-purpose machine gun on his shoulder, suddenly pulled his shoulder in a hunched posture.
"Stop it, Buckman! Take whatever you can and follow me! We have a new mission, so move quickly!"
After being given the order by his squad leader, Ernst Backmann just started to retreat backwards with his infantry platoon in a daze.
Buckman, who had no idea what was going on at the moment, initially thought that his own front line had collapsed and he had to retreat back to organize defense.
But when Buckman, who was confused, his ears were ringing, and even walking was a bit "swaying", holding his own P38 submachine gun and following the squad leader, he stopped.
A group of Imperial Division troops who looked no better or even worse than him had already assembled behind the battle lines.
"Everyone get on board! We are going to support the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, let's go!"