Part 111: Turn 118: September 16, 1943

9th Guards Army is the third to last guards army we're going to be getting since I'm not bothering with tank HQs. This one is attached to the Western front down near Prague and is the second guards army in that front.




The pocket is sealed and I've got a single hex on the western bank, time to try to break out.




The Koenigsberg pocket is finally pacified, the Southwestern front will now spend a turn or two re-organizing and resting before catching a train back to the front.



The Bryansk front is following suit, they're waiting in Warsaw to redeploy next week with their new equipment and artillery.






50,000 more Germans surrender as I finish reducing the Stettin pocket, now it is time to try to break the German line on the river.




My mechanized army in Stettin is just the catalyst I needed, taking a second hex on the western bank starts a chain reaction that allows me to take possession of the western bank down to Frankfurt.



And follow that up by taking possession of the western bank with my armor. Moving across a major river into hexes that were controlled by the enemy at the start of the turn is incredibly expensive so I'm unable to continue pushing north or west.



Further south I make effectively no progress, I don't have enough armor down here and my troops are getting tired. Once the Bryansk front rejoins the line down here I should be able to continue grinding my way west.




I'm closer to Berlin than Prague.



No real progress, without proper armored support and not enough artillery to go around it's very difficult to dig the Germans out of their fortifications down here, what a shame.



The main thrust of the action down here this week, I'm trying to break through to Linz and Salzburg which will cut off the rest of the German forces still in Austria. Not sure if I'll be able to pull it off but it's worth trying.




The Germans seal me in by are unable to drive me back across the river. The one thing they've got going for them is I've got basically no fuel on the western bank so I'll be unable to exploit any breaks I make to their fullest.



The German oob continues to collapse except for AFV numbers. I'm pretty sure the AFV number is being artificially inflated by TD numbers, I think they've got less than 2,000 actual tanks at this point and I wouldn't be surprised if it was closer to 1,500. I know there's around 1,100-1,300 floating around Berlin because they're the only thing that's been holding the German line intact for the last few weeks and I think there's another ~500 down by Prague.