A patrol cautiously enters an abandoned Soviet position. Caution was necessary owing to the common presence of mines and booby traps and the threat of
snipers, machine gunners, or mortars positioned to catch the unwary. Booby traps sometimes failed to function in severe winter condition owing to the firing
or trip mechanisms freezing up.

Caution

Interesting photo of a command group of a Heer rifle company on a reverse slope of a low ridge. The radio operators with their Torn.Fu.d2 backpack radio can be seen at the upper right. They have scraped the snow down to bare ground for their resting place.
The radio cannot be operated on the move. Some of the other men are no doubt company messengers, tasked to maintain contact with the platoons. Platoons did not have radios. One man in left center is armed with a Soviet 7.62mm SVT semi-automatic rifle, which Germans called a "Sl.Gew.259(r)". "Sl.Gew." means "Selbstladegewehr" (self-loading rifle). While not too rugged or reliable, many were pressed into German service, often one or two per squad.

Reverse Slope

Interesting photo of General Walter "Papa" Hörnlein commander of Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland. The general is inspecting members of the division. Although the caption does not mention the locality, I believe it is Akhtyrka, the divisional base at that time.
The unit became known in the West through the book The Forgotten Soldier, by the Alsatian veteran, Guy Sajer (a pseudonym), who served as a volunteer. The book was first published in 1967 in France as Le Soldat Oublié. While the historical accuracy of Sajer's autobiographical work has been questioned, it nevertheless offers a vivid and moving account of the horrors of war on the Eastern Front.

A more recent account was written by Alfred Nowotny, entitled The Good Soldier, which focuses on both his experiences in Panzerfüsilier Regiment Grossdeutschland from 1944, but also his captivity in the Soviet Union after the German surrender. Jurgen Herbst, emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, recounts his experience as a young volunteer who joined the Division in 1945 in his book Requiem for a German Past.