Somewhere along this stretch of road leading to Smolensk are the graves of eight soldiers from the Falke-Division. To date their remains have not been disinterred by the Volksbund. In order to prevent the graves from being robbed by “black diggers”, no further information can be shared.
One of the pleasures of battlefield tours is doing some then & now comparisons. Unfortunately, circumstances sometimes mean that there is not enough time, or the correct location is not found, or – as happened in this case – a hi-res version of the WW2 photo was not on hand (only a lo-res pic on an iPad was available). In 2013, I was walking around Orel, looking for a huge church that was in the background of a panzer photo. Locals had no idea where it was (it was knocked down after the war). Anyway, on instinct, I took a photo of a street that seemed vaguely familiar and when I got home, discovered that it was almost the precise spot for the “now” comparison that I was seeking. Notice the colonnaded building on the left and the Oka River bridge in the distance. This photo was used in Panzerkrieg Volume 1 (page 187), but not it’s modern comparison.
