Part 16

The Recon reports show us the enemy have once more found the troops to throw up a wall before us, lets see ho tough this is.



In the south of the sector, 16th Army clear our 28,000 men and send the enemy fleeing back.



To the north, the 16th clear out more enemy and open up the way north.



The 18th try and crack Lenningrad, where the defenders are pushing out as I try and move troops off to the encirclement. Annoyingly, the six units surrounded last week do not surrender this week.



finally the 269th Infantry Division breaks one of the enemy strong points, and we see and nice 20,000 man surrender.



I get the 1st Panzer Division across the Volkhov, and the 8th Panzer Division gets within forty kilometres of the last remaining port.



I make sure she is fuelled up for the next weeks operations.



This is before their normal resupply, so hopefully the port will be mine soon enough, and we can focus on eliminating Leningrad before the winter.



I really want the city. Taking out this tank factory is a make or break thing.







Things are not looking good for our push on Moscow. I'm going to try and take out the enemy near Tula, but the northern half of the line is going to have to straighten its line somewhat.



First of course, we have to take out the Kalinin pocket, we also force a pocket of Russians to rout, with heavy losses.



3rd Panzer Group moves to the north, If I can sweep south, I will try, but for now, they are just getting off the line/meat-grinder in front of Moscow.



The 9th Army rearranges its lines, we give up one hex, but it should be temporary – anyone who advances into there will have no fortifications.



2nd Army gets a unit across the river to the south and forces some units into retreat. Its not much but at least its a bridgehead.



2nd Panzer group sweeps around to the east, and finds the enemy here wanting. This could be the breakthrough that changes the front. I manage to get the 29th Motorized division across the Oka.



Air supplies are dropped in, to allow us to move forwards next week.
In the south, 4th Army takes Kursk and generally pushes forwards.







The recon reports here show that the Red Army has actually put together something that looks like a defensive line.



6th Army advances, and traps four units. We'll clean them up next week.



17th Army does the same, but cannot trap any units.



The bulk of the Romanians move towards our planned winter lines.



In the Crimea, we finally make something of a breakthrough.



The Italian recon planes say there is only one unit in Sevastopol. This could be true, the Russian's do seem to have abandoned this area.



There are a hell of a lot of defenders in Rostov, and 1st Panzer are low on fuel once more. I think the advances in the south may finally be petering out.





AGN - the Russan's once more reopen the pocket in the south of the sector, but we can still make the port and take Leningrad!



The Red army attacks around Tula, and drives the Grossdeutschland Division back twice.



This failure by the GDL basically costs me my chances of taking Moscow.



As you can see, the Tula pocket has all but been evacuated, and they are strong over the river, I shall attempt to maintain my bridgehead, but the river itself will most likely be the basis of my winter lines here.



Around Stalino, it looks like we may be seeing the end of the advance.



And in the Crimea, the Russians once more Magic up a bunch of units, but will they be strong enough to stop us?






Our losses are low this week, but that's because I'm no longer pushing as hard as I could. It is time to think about winter. That said, we still took our total over three million Russians killed, wounded or captured. This is still a million below what is generally accepted to be needed, but I still have Leningrad I can capture.



At least the Russian army has not increase in size, and their Tank numbers continue to drop. That's not going to get much better, thanks to our taking of that T-34 factory.




Replacements and industry as normal.



The rail head is catching up with our units, our supply depot sizes are increasing. As someone asked, here are the current usable rail lines.





Here red – Russian, green, German, the shaded hexes are beyond the limits of our rail network and will not be getting their proper supplies. I should get this to Stalino in the south before winter proper hits.



Here are the Rifle squads, as mentioned before, 16k is the accepted break point, so we have a little way to go. This could be better however.
The last thing I do this turn is to create a number of Fortified Zones. These cost me 4AP each, but I've been hording the AP for a while now. They will build up fortifications, for now, I've just put them in along some zones, but I plan to expand them to create a line of forts that my men can retreat into. I will then disband the fortified zones to allow me to reclaim the manpower – they are no good in combat.





As you can see, things are getting more tactical, the easy time for me is pretty much over, from now on, its going to be pain.


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