In mid-June 1941, the division received new orders to relocate. The 16th Panzer Division crossed the German–Polish border at Groß Wartenberg heading for Ożarów at the Vistula, which was reached on 19 June 1941. The German soldiers initially believed that they were just going to transit through Russia, on their way to the Middle East where they would link up with Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps. But "Generalfeldmarschall" (Field Marshal) Walther von Reichenau, who visited his son, a "Leutnant" in the 4th company of "Panzer-Regiment" 2, revealed to them the true objective of the next campaign. It would be Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.