Part 20: Turn 17: October 9, 1941

Lots more brigades and a new army shell this turn.






Our partisans go nuts this turn, blowing up every rail they can lay hands on. The Germans are going to be in for a nasty surprise on their next turn.



The new guards units this turn. The new Guards rifle division is part of the 34th army, the same army as the 1st Guards rifles. The artillery is the second Guards arty because I somehow missed catching a shot of the first one.



Guards support units are exactly like normal Guards units, except they don't appear on-map because they're support units. These guys will benefit from the extra morale same as any other Guards unit would. Both the Guards artillery regiments are attached to the 29th Army, the army covering the southern flank of the 34th near Moscow.




The 34th is just racking up the accolades, with no help from its commander apparently. I thank Stalin for promoting this guy and bringing him to my attention so I can replace him.



Much better. With 9 political score I doubt Stalin is going to sack this guy any time soon.




The city is finally cut off by land and will have to fend for itself. The Northwest front on the other hand has to protect the southern bank of Lake Ladoga from future German offensives.



In the city itself we shuffle our lines around to get the highest CV possible on the front line. The rest of the units wait behind the line in reserve mode and will hopefully join in if the Germans try to assault the city again.



Please stop going north, thanks.




They're across the river and are slowly crushing us from both sides.



North of Moscow we add some depth around the German bridgehead.



Outside the city we launch a series of attacks buying us some space. Other than that there's not much to do here. There's no emergencies, just us getting slowly pushed back hex by hex.




Out line has held so now we've just got to keep digging in. As long as we prevent a breakthrough we can hang on here.



Tula is abandoned, I can no longer safely hold the city and I'm not willing to risk men to hold it. I'd much rather continue to draw the Germans farther and farther east.



Along the rest of the line I give up 10 miles, just buying time.



For now we leave the 18th army where it is. Once I move the Southwestern front I'll decide if I can pull these guys off the line and rail them up to Tula to act as a reserve.




The Southwestern front needs to expand up and take the pressure of the southern flank of the Bryansk front and the southern front needs to do nothing but sit on that river like it has for the last month.



The southwestern front pushes north, allowing the 18th to get pulled off the line again. They rail up to Tula in preparation for that front collapsing.



The slow, slow retreat. The forces on the western bank of the river have been split so it's only a matter of time until we're pushed across the river.



The forts in the Crimea are starting to shape up, it's nice having a fallback if our positions on the river go horribly wrong.




Down to Stalino this turn to begin evacuating the many factories in this area. Besides Moscow this is probably the largest collection of factories under threat of being taken this year. So we're going to spend the next week or two getting all the stuff out of here.





Mud.




The assault of Leningrad continues with a pair of attacks on Leningrad proper and on Pavlovo 10 miles east. With the onset of the mud offensive combat values fall through the floor and the attackers take heavy losses, they do however manage to reduce the fort level in Leningrad from 4 to 3.

That's it, that's all that happens on the entire front. Welcome to mud turns.



Mud
Now we have time to fix our overloaded armies and reorganize the front without being under constant threat of German attacks. The mud lasts 4 turns until mid November when the snow starts and the ground freezes, giving the Germans a few more turns to finish off their offensive before our turn starts.

The Soviet OOB swells to over 6 million men under arms.