Part 17

Here are the northern Recon reports. We're not going to go any further east, but thats not the focus of this week.



North, what is the situation to the north?



That new Cavalry Division seem to be supported by another unit and some fortifications, this means I'm going to have to cut the port off a little further east. The fact I will have to cross no less than three rivers makes this a hard move.



The 8th SS Cavalry brigade and the 30th Infantry division clear a hole.



The 1st SS Motorised and the Totenkoph Division widen it, these are important moves, and I need to get as far north as possible.
This leaves the 8th Panzer to make the dash.



Twenty Kilometers. Can I make this through the mud? The supply lines for this penitration are secure – if only I'd started a week earlier!







The drive on Moscow has failed, now it is time to make the best of our lines.



3rd Panzer group is taken off the line totally, and placed into refit mode. I may well have to redeploy them during the winter, but they will form the core of my reserves in this sector. 9th Army forms a solid line, and shall begin to dig in.



2nd Panzer create a small but secure pocket around Tula. Five divisions are now bagged, and can be eliminated at will.



4th Army pushes forwards, I'm trying to keep the Russian front lines in chaos as much as possible.





In the south, its also all about fighting for the final lines. The Recon reports show a solid Red Army line.



6th Army clears its pocket, and pushes forwards twenty kilometres along the line.



17th Army does the same in their section of the front.



The Romanians moves forward as best they can. I've given them a smaller section to cover, due to their poorer fighting abilities.



I pull 1st Panzer group back to Stalino as best I can. These units also go into refit, I want them ready to fill any gaps that appear in the line.



Our drive into the Crimea continues, I think I can take Sevastopol and get to that nice choke point before winter, but its going to be interesting.







The Russians move before the heavens open, and they are able to get their troops into position before the mud turns the entire front into a quagmire.



The northern flank shows more troops between me and the Finns.
We are attacked in the centre in three places, and are forced to fall back in all three locations.



The rest of the front remains fairly static.



I also see little movement in the south, I'm going to move the 6th army forward a little more.



The Crimea sees two more Guards Divisions appearing, but there are only brigades between us and Sevastopol.
The only problem is that my average combat value across the entire front it now 1. It will improve for a few weeks when the snow comes, but getting Leningrad is going to be hard now.







Our casualties have been light this week, and the surrender of the Russians in the pockets have taken them to 3.2 million casualties. I can break 4 million, If I can get the twenty kilometres to the north.



Our numbers increase by ten thousand, while the Russians have gained only six thousand.



Replacements have dropped from 50,000 last week to less than 20,000 this, as the mud makes it hard to ship people forwards.



The mud does not hurt the factories however.



It does massively hurt our supply situation however. This could get messy quickly.


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Ugh, mud. As you can see, our forces are in trouble, yellow means poor supplies, red no supplies. The rail head is to far behind for the majority of our units.


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If I can hold that bulge to the south of Moscow, then I can use it to threaten the city next year. I expect that the bulk of the Russian attacks are going to be focused on this area however.