‘I can tell you much later. A lot of it will be incomprehensible. Hours waiting make the nerves taut, but it will eventually contribute to the victorious finale! And that one certainly wants to see pass us by as soon as possible.’(6)
Many, perhaps the majority, simply viewed the decision with equanimity. They were soldiers after all. Officers and NCOs were confident and combat experienced. Some chose not to reflect and took it in their stride. Previous campaigns had been short, sharp and successful. ‘We were all strongly convinced that this war would also not last long,’ declared Gefreiter Erich Schütkowsky, a Gebirgsjäger (mountain infantryman).
‘Personally, I already had a funny feeling as we cast our eye over large unfolded Russian maps, and Napoleon’s fate came to mind. But these thoughts were soon banished with time. We had already experienced momentous successes, so nobody at this stage was contemplating defeat.’(7)
‘Why are you losing hope that all this will not be over quickly?’ enquired one Gefreiter in response to home mail. ‘Once the thing with the Russians is in the bag, my hopes will be rising ever more.’(8) Hauptsturmführer Klinter, a company commander in the 3rd SS Division ‘Totenkopf’, reacted with mild surprise to the announcement, and with a casual acceptance typical of many soldiers’ reactions to world political events. ‘The war with Russia will begin early morning at 04.00 hours,’ he declared, adding laconically ‘with Russia?… against Russia.’ He would simply get on with it. ‘It took a while before it had sunk in, and then we thought it through.’ There had been numerous previous examples when the Führer’s political and military perceptions had been proved correct. His fatalistic acceptance was typical of an SS soldier: ‘there was no room then for doubts or thoughts.’(9) Optimism and quiet resignation generally followed the initial surprise. Benno Zeiser, under training as a driver in a transport unit far from the front, voiced the type of idealistic fervour easily conjured up in the rear.
‘The whole thing should be over in three or four weeks, they said, others were more cautious and gave it two or three months. There was even one who said it would take a whole year, but we laughed him right out. “Why, how long did the Poles take us, and how long to settle France, eh?”’(10)
The final evening waiting on the Russo-German demarcation line in Poland is permanently etched in the memories of many who reflected these may be their final hours. Artillery Oberleutnant Siegfried Knappe saw that, ‘a few kilometres away, the village that would be our first objective lay sleeping, bathed in the comfort of soft moonlight’. He likened it to a beautiful painting. ‘The strong scent of pine needles permeated my consciousness as I wandered among the 180 men of my battery, checking things out.’ The prospect of combat clears the senses like a drug, throwing truths into sharp relief.
‘I became more aware of the men as individuals than I had ever been before. Some were timid, others were brash; some were gloomy, others easily amused; some were ambitious, others idlers; some were spendthrifts, others misers. The diverse thoughts that lay behind their helmets as they waited for battle only they could know… One soldier was humming softly to himself in meditation. Some were no doubt full of foreboding, and others were thinking of home and loved ones.’
Knappe was totally confident. ‘The men were strong and sure of themselves.’(11) Veterans had their doubts but emotions were kept tightly under control. Hauptmann Hans von Luck, having survived the French campaign, followed the truism common to all soldiers when faced with the next. ‘Everyone tries to mobilise his mental forces,’ he explained, ‘and is ready to suppress negative experiences and assimilate even the slightest positive ones.’ After all, the French campaign ‘could not have turned out better,’ but ‘the euphoria of the past months had given way to a rather sober view’. His belief was that ‘even the young ones, those schooled in National Socialism, doubted that Russia could be defeated with idealism alone’. The following morning, therefore, they would do what soldiers had done from time immemorial prior to going to battle: ‘we set our minds on the present and were ready to do our “duty”.’(12)
Such duties now focused the mind. Heinrich Eikmeier’s 88mm Flak gun was positioned next to the River Bug in the central sector.
‘During the evening before the war broke out, large numbers of telephone lines were laid to the gun; and in the morning there were many high ranking officers about, many of them unknown, including several generals. We were told our gun would provide the signal to open fire. It was controlled by stopwatch, exactly when the time was determined. When we fired, numerous other guns, both left and right would open up. Then war would break out.’
Eikmeier considered much later: ‘whether we fired the first shot in Army Group Centre – or for the entire Russian campaign – I do not know!’(13)
Leutnant Hans-Jochen Schmidt’s unit occupied its assembly area within a depression at dusk. ‘Every man received 60 rounds of live ammunition,’ he remarked, ‘and the rifles from then on were loaded.’ The soldiers were tense; ‘nobody thought of sleep.’ Troops at this final stage of preparation for battle invariably consider loved ones, lying motionless, awaiting the signal to move up to assault positions. Schmidt’s men received a particularly poignant reminder of home. A radio receiver was broadcasting music.
‘In the Reich one did not know what was going on, and the radio played a lively dance tune which touched us to the core of our souls.’
The reality of their situation refocused their attention once again. ‘The march route had come alive with vehicle after vehicle.’(14)
In Germany the weather had been hot. Berlin slept peacefully although hectic activity continued in the main army headquarters. The civilian population had no idea what was going on. ‘In addition to the already numerous rumours in circulation, new ones crop up daily with more and more detailed information,’ revealed a classified SS Secret Report on the Home Political Situation. It even quoted the rumour of a possible launch date of an offensive against the Soviet Union on 20 May; another tied Hitler’s visit to Danzig with a secret meeting with Molotov ‘on the high seas to settle the conflict between Germany and Russia by diplomatic means as in 1939’. Baltic volunteer battalions were alleged to be forming in Berlin. The rumours, the report claimed, ‘are caused predominantly by letters from soldiers at the Russian front.’(15) There was awareness at home that letters were not reaching husbands and loved ones, but the sinister implication of a pending new campaign was missed. One wife wrote to her husband on 17 June, with a touching optimism still prevalent:
‘Darling, I hope you have got my letter. It is obvious from the way you are writing that you have received no post. Dearest love, that I cannot understand. Immediately I arrived back in Rheydt I wrote to you. That was on 8 June. Hopefully you will get it soon. But Josef you need not be sad, our wonderful time has yet to come. I will stay patient and wait for you.’(16)
Another wife tragically missed her husband’s departure to the east before an anticipated weekend together. She continues in an inconsolable tone, apologising for the mistakes, because she is so devastated:
‘When I telephoned, a female voice said that you had departed that morning at 0830. I thought that my heart would stop, my darling, it is worse than I thought it would be. Tell me whether it was as bad for you and excuse the blots, they are tears!’(17)