SS Div Reich war diary, storming the heights around Jelnja and combat report, Pt 17 + 71st ID Intro

Here in part 17 in the series we’ll continue with our author Kurt’s war diary collection looking at an article he saved describing how the battle of Jelnja progressed. I’ll cover another combat report from the battle written by a motorcycle messenger that was part of the SS Div. Reich. Using a situational map you’ll gain perspective and as usual I’ll add related film footage to glue it all together. At the end of the video I’ll show a new war-diary which will be the focus of an exciting new series so stick around, it’s worth it.

The attack began at the ordered time. At 915 hours the companies moved into their jump-off positions. Calm and collected, the formations combat experience gained over the last few weeks showed as they advanced cautiously spreading out evenly across the fields. The first line of enemy defense was quickly overrun. Then slowly the massed firepower of the Soviet artillery forced the companies to dig in.

Our author Kurt, part of the 3rd Btl, was situated on the right flank of the the SS motorcycle Btl. that we spoke about in part 14 of this series. Now we’ll go through a combat report written by the motorcycle messenger Helmut Günther, SS motorcycle Btl. Reich which comes from the Otto Weidinger book Division Das Reich.

From the radio receiver I hear the deep voice of Lale Andersen, . . .wie einst Lili Marlen. Man, you communications guys really have it good. At that moment enemy heavy artillery guns thunder and instinctively I dive to the ground for cover. Still wearing the radio headset, I almost yanking the radio unit down on top of me. Quickly I take them off and then dive into my prepared fox hole. Peering out over the lip towards the Battalion field HQs I can imagine that this is what the Russians are honing in on. Although it’s the middle of the night, there’s no need to sound the alarm as the tremendous volley surely has brought the deepest sleeper to his senses. There’s a deafening explosion and the radio truck with all its equipment simply disappears; where it was parked all that remains is a huge hole. The crew that had gathered underneath it seemingly protected to sleep. All but one of them are dead. The squad leader Richter who was currently on duty working the radio is gone. ‘Lilli Marlen’ was the last thing that he heard. Now he is simply gone, with pieces of him spread out all over the area. That’s how easy someone can suddenly disappear.

As the hours pass the intensity of the Soviet battery fire increases but eventually the companies manage to pull themselves out of their fox holes, navigate their way through the hail of artillery and push their way through the enemy’s well placed defensive positions towards their objectives, the heights. Bolshevik infantry gathers and then counter attacks but a combination of the German light and heavy machine gun fire beats them back. Around dusk reports from all the the combat zones begin coming in to divisional field headquarters confirming that the objectives had all be seized.

Now I’m happy to introduce this sensational original war diary that we have my Patreon supporters to thank for. Our author Heinz hand wrote this account while serving as a staff officer in the 71st Infantry Division which was nicknamed the lucky division. He served in Regiment 194. His account covers from June 20th 1941, two days before Operation Barbarossa began until July 30 of that year. The diary is made up of 74 pages and includes that nice photograph of his beautiful wife. In this new multi-part series we’ll go through each day of his entries, he didn’t miss a single day, and we’ll follow his unit’s progress using these original situational maps. In addition I’ll add more detailed information about the 71st to give the story context and include plenty of rare film footage and photographs. I’ll also use entries from the official German High Command War Diary.

The 71. ID was in Army Group South and was part of the IV. Army Corps. Early on in the conflict this division would play a surprisingly important role during the push towards Lemberg, or Litzmannstadt by the Germans, but we’ll get into that later.