"... the leader of this reconnaissance party finally succeeded in spotting the hitherto invisible enemy and in drawing him from hiding. A village at the edge of the forest, which was occupied only by elements of a supply train unit, was attacked by enemy forces coming from the direction of the forest for three days and it was only after the employment of heavy weapons that the enemy was driven back into the woods. Fortunately, several PWs were taken and through the interrogation of these PWs, the situation was clarified. We discovered that for three weeks Russian parachutists on snowshoes had been infiltrating slowly at various points of the German front and had assembled in the vast forest. Our men had frequently seen snowshoe tracks in the morning, but had paid no attention to them, assuming that they had been left by our own troops. The red parachutists belonged to the Russian I and II Parachute Brigade; their strength was 5000 men."
- Demjansk pocket, Generalleutnant (Waffen-SS) Max Simon