Part 72: Turn 69: October 8, 1942

This is the last turn of clear weather before the autumn mud unfortunately, I'll have to make the most of it.



I'm actually pretty happy the mud is going to hit, my truck pool needs to recover. The mud is bad for trucks but it will give my rails a chance to catch up to the front.




With the Finns out that frees up 3 armies. The 7th is going to join the Leningrad front and march on the Germans but the other 2 armies are going to rail out of here until I find a home for them.




Progress is slow up here, the terrain is awful so moving though enemy hexes is incredibly slow even if there's no Germans to attack. In the north the Leningrad front comes in contact with the new German line and takes the northernmost hex.




So much ground to cover here, I don't think I'll even reach the German line before the mud ends.




In the north I capture the French volunteer regiment, run into a few pickets that slow me down and threaten a trio of motorized divisions with encirclement if they don't immediately



The Kalinin front scoops up 2 more infantry divisions while the Volga cavalry rides out in front, converting hexes for next turn.




Far behind the lines the pockets continue to reduce. Only 3 infantry divisions surrender this week. The funny thing is I really doubt I'll be able to force either of these pockets to do anything in the mud so these pockets might still be here in mid November, 200 miles from the next nearest German division.




Chasing Germans.



Crossing the river wherever I can, getting across major rivers is awful even without enemy troops on the other bank.





The Don front advances into the marshes and captures 3 divisions with a total of... ~7,000 men. :eyebrow:



Even with basically no Germans in my way it's difficult to take hexes down here. I am not looking forward to seeing my supply situation when the mud hits.




I'm still ~2 turns away from getting the Romanian network hooked up so the supply situation down here is going to become NOT GOOD pretty fast.





The Crimean front cleans up the pockets behind the line and pushes on into the newly formed German line down here. Even though a lot of these Germans are poorly trained, fresh recruits or both they form an effective defense. Even against a line this week I am so far away from my railheads that I simply cannot launch a real attack anywhere.



The Stalingrad front has nearly reached the Hungarian border with the mountain divisions of the Transcaucasus front taking up the flank in the horrific terrain.



The Transcaucasus front, 4th shock and 1st Romanian armies are advancing on Hungary but I may have slightly overextended myself here. Those cavalry corps are in poor supply now, before I end turn.

Before the mud hits.




Oh no, not again.



The north is fine, only the cavalry out in front of the armies is in poor supply.



Uhhhh...



Ummmm...



Hey that's actually not so bad, there's a shitload of supplies coming in from the Black Sea.



That motor pool number, it's not getting better. Making a bunch of mechanized formations may have not been my brightest idea ever.



Everyone gets the month off, please pay no attention to the ~6 million men short on supplies.