The Das Reich Waffen-SS Division, notorious for its brutality and numerous war crimes, marched through a forest path littered with the bodies of Russian soldiers in November 1941.

 　　The Das Reich Waffen-SS Division, part of the German 2nd SS Panzer Division, marched through a forest path littered with the bodies of Russian soldiers in November 1941.Das Reich was notorious for its brutality and committed numerous war crimes, including the mass killings in Chûl on June 9, 1944, and in Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10, 1944. 

　　In the battles in western Russia, terrain played a significant role. As the German SS advanced, the Baltic states and surrounding Russian territories were covered in dense forests.Combat in forest areas required special skills. The invasion manuals of the Waffen SS and the German Armed Forces barely mentioned such skills. Even German soldiers who had grown up in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany found themselves almost immobilized. The vast forests, overgrown with dense underbrush, were unfamiliar territory. Some parts of the Russian forests seemed like untouched primeval forests.German troops fighting in the Russian region rarely ventured deep into the forests on reconnaissance missions. German soldiers found it difficult to penetrate the dense forests and feared Russian ambushes. For the growing Soviet guerrilla units, the forests provided natural hiding places. The German army was unable to gain control of the Russian forests in enemy territory.

　　On June 9, 1944, soldiers of the 2nd Guards Tank Division, amid growing resistance from civilians against the German occupying forces, strangled 99 civilians in Tour. Around noon on June 9, 120 soldiers of the 2nd Guards Division arrived in Oradour-sur-Glane, 30 kilometers away, where villagers had been gathered in the market square.The men were divided into five groups and shot in barns. The SS soldiers locked the women and children in the village church and set it on fire. They shot the women and children trying to escape the flames. They then entered the church and shot the survivors. In this massacre, 642 villagers were killed, including 245 women and 207 children, with only a few survivors.