Starving Wehrmacht flees west

14th July 1944: As the German retreat becomes a complete rout, thousands of desperate men are 'transformed into ravening wolves'

Propaganda images suggest that the retreat had a semblance of order - the reality was very different.

On the Eastern Front Operation Bagration continued to roll on, pushing back the German forces along a front hundreds of miles long. The German Army Group Centre, where nearly half a million men had been in the frontline, had been smashed apart with casualties even greater than the disaster at Stalingrad.

Men died for very little - for the possibility of a day’s food.

The huge salient pushing into the centre of the German front was now forcing those on the edges to pull back. The retreat fell into a rout in places. Disorganised groups of men without transport and without supplies, were forced to march away across the endless open Russian steppe. They were desperate to avoid being taken by the Soviets - but were soon equally desperate out of hunger.

‘A Panzer V Panther of the Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland rolls into action during Operation Bagration, June 1944.’

Guy Sajer¹, who fought with the Grossdeutschland Division, was now amongst this horde:

We seemed to tramping along a huge carpet on rollers, which unwound beneath our feet, leaving us always in the same place. How many hours, and days, and nights went by? I can no longer remember. Our groups spread out, and separated. Some stayed where they were, and slept. No order or threat was strong enough to move them. Others - small groups of men - who were particularly strong, or who still had enough food to keep going - went on ahead.