'Schnepfe' was a German half of a double operation, with 'Wildente' (ii) as its other component, against partisans operating from the marshes to the north of Vitebsk in the German-occupied western USSR and so posing a threat to the supply lines of Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge’s Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' and Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler’s Heeresgruppe 'Nord' (1/7 November 1943).