The Prut River marks the opening passage of the 79th Division’s eastward advance in the novel’s wartime narrative. Crossed by the division’s advance troops shortly after the attack on the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941, it serves as the first landmark in a campaign that continues across Bessarabia and Ukraine toward Odessa and beyond.

Setting and Historical Context

The river appears in the account of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The 79th Division was attached to the 11th German Army, whose resources and mobility were limited compared with the forces of Army Group South. The narrative contrasts the division’s advance with the faster movement of other German formations, which had benefited from the element of surprise. The river crossing therefore introduces a campaign that would proceed by sustained marching and combat rather than by an uncomplicated rapid advance.

The Crossing and Advance

A few days after the invasion began, the division’s advance troops crossed the Prut and moved into combat alongside Romanian forces. The account notes that the Romanian troops showed more fighting spirit than the Germans had expected. After crossing, the division fought across the steppes and hills of Bessarabia, crossed the Dniester, and reached the outskirts of Odessa. It then continued across the Bug while the Romanian forces halted, pursuing retreating Soviet troops.

Narrative and Geographic Significance

The Prut is the first in a sequence of rivers that gives the division’s movement a concrete geography: Prut, Dniester, and Bug. That route carries Reiter’s wartime story eastward while the narrative records the destruction accompanying the advance, including burned villages, granaries, and woods. The river is thus not developed as an isolated setting; its significance lies in marking the threshold of a campaign whose progress is measured by crossings, forced marches, and the changing landscape of war.