On July 7, the leading German units crossed the Don, capturing 80,000 Russian prisoners of war. Stalin decided to defend Voronezh to the last soldier. The Grossdeutschland division was not involved in a long siege - fearing a loss in urban combat - Hitler forbade the use of panzer units and high speed infantry divisions in such actions.

At the end of the summer ID "GD" was directed to rest in the area of Rzhev, where since last winter there was little happening. But unfortunately - it was about to change ......
