Smolensk—although this gateway city west of Moscow had already become a ruin—the headquarters of German Army Group B remained there. After the German military captured the Smolensk line, the Russian Western Front Army had been almost completely wiped out. The remaining Russian forces had also successively pulled back their defensive lines and retreated eastward. This allowed the German military and its allies to push their front dozens of kilometers eastward without shedding a drop of blood.
The defensive line east of Smolensk was called the first-line positions by Army Group B. Apart from the German 3rd Army Corps, it was garrisoned entirely by Polish and Belarusian troops. The other forces of German Army Group B remained in the second-line positions.
This defensive line had originally been deployed by the German military to guard against a Russian counterattack. With such an arrangement, even if the Russians launched a counteroffensive, they would first have to face the German auxiliary forces, allowing the German military to preserve its own strength effectively. After all, Germany's population was not particularly large to begin with. Oscar still intended to rely on these troops to maintain Germany's world hegemony. If too many died, it would be enough to make him heartsick.
Although the German military's large-scale offensive had already ceased, Germany's blows against Buru had not ended because of that. The Strategic Air Force was gathering more long-range bombers and long-range fighters in preparation for carrying out strategic bombing against Buru. The small-scale clashes along the front were also escalating by the day. German scouts and special forces operated actively at the front, inflicting considerable losses on the Russian military.
Meanwhile, Reconnaissance Aircraft of the German Air Force continued to survey the situation. So long as there was no heavy snowfall, the Reconnaissance Aircraft would take off,