The 'Windhund-Stellung' was a German defensive position between Bryansk and Orel on the Eastern Front, and designed to check any Soviet advance by the forces of General Polkovnik Markian M. Popov’s Bryansk Front across the Orel salient in a south-westerly direction toward Dmitrovsk Orlovsky on the right-hand shoulder of the salient, which was held by Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model’s 9^th Army of Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge’s Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' (spring 1943).

Ordered into construction on 26 April 1944, the position was also known as the 'Karatschew-Stellung' (Karachev position) as it was extended to the north as the intended means of checking a Soviet advance toward Karachev in the centre of the Orel salient.