Part 8: Turn 5: July 17, 1941
I've been informed I should stick to my one a day schedule or else.
Less new troops this turn. Free reinforcements are going to slow down for a while, then pick back up in August and September.
There's a huge infantry army moving up through the Baltic states and the Panzers are pushing back towards Leningrad. We don't really do a whole lot on this front, the Germans haven't made any real progress for a turn or two now. Our front lines reorganize a bit and the Northern front continues to pull away from the Finns. We also ship an extra division to the southern bank of Lake Ilmen in case the Germans try to take it.
The Germans have beaten up our line but failed to punch through anywhere. We're still going to have to fall back several miles to get off these Panzer divisions though.
This is less than ideal but it's all I've got. The 21st army moves up to cover the southern flank of the front. I fully expect the Germans to punch a huge hole in this thing, the troops are exausted and close to shattering. If they can make it through this week I may rotate the reserve front in to give them a break, we shall see.
Two new armies form, the 31st and the 33rd. They're going to sit on the rail to refit and train until I need them on the front. I imagine they're both going to ship out to plug gaps that are going to form in the Western front's line next turn.
Well it appears the Germans have showed their hand, a direct assault on Kiev. With all their panzers outside the city they've got no real striking power anywhere.
We move the lines around a little and fly some recon flights. We unfortunately can't cut off this Panzer Army, the Germans have wisened up to the fact I'm willing to throw away entire divisions to slow these tanks down for a few days. I imagine they're going to be able to take out the forces flanking the city but there's no way they're going to take Kiev itself this turn or maybe even next.
The Southern front gets organized into armies. They don't have to move much because the only thing coming for them is slow ass infantry.
The 16th army forms up at Kharkov. I'm not really sure about what I'm going to do with this army yet, in all likelyhood they're going to get sucked into the meatgrinder forming outside Moscow.
We move nearly all of the remaining factories out of Leningrad this turn leaving behind an armored car factory which we won't be evacuating ever and a single heavy industry factory.
Only 2 attacks this turn with the weakened Germans chipping the edges off my formation. An infantry force moves up on the southern bank of lake Ilmen but does not launch any attacks.
The pounding of the Western front continues. More and more divisions are routing rather than retreating every turn. With the German infantry arriving at the front this turn the pressure will continue to mount.
German infantry shows up in the south as well and a series of battles clears most of the Soviet forces off the western bank of the river. If the Germans get even a single division across the river I'm going to have to pull out of Kiev.
That felt like a short turn, probably because the Germans weren't able to accomplish much during their last turn so I didn't have any scrambling to do. Air losses are begining to climb again.
