Part 1

The opening ours of the battle went well, all across the front our planes make dawn strikes on enemy airfields.



The losses are high and mount rapidly.



After four days of sustained combat, we have wrecked the red airforce, taking out nearly five and a half thousand planes for the loss of 114 of our own.



Although, its not only the planes that we destroy, we take out a number of vehicles and a large number of pilots and ground crews.



The Luftwaffe has done its job, and our ground forces can advance without worry about enemy interdiction, and the close support bombers will be unopposed.

It should be noted that intelligence numbers place the entire soviet air force at less around 20,000 planes, with 7,500 or so currently in our area of operation. This means in that last four days we have annihilated 25% of all their planes and nearly 75% of all planes in the theater. While these losses will be made up as the Russians ship more planes west, it is a very good start.







Army Group North (AGN from now on) makes its jump off. First the 291st Infantry division at Memal clears the line in front of the 18th Army.



I shall explain what you are looking at here, but I will not be showing to many of these screens, as they don't fit onto the screen easily, and resize poorly.
Our forces will always be displayed on the left, it shows a breakdown of the individual units involved – here the 291st Infantry and its attached units - the number in brackets is the units combat value (CV). Below that is the combined CV after adjustment. The right of the screen shows the Soviet forces in the same manner.

The centre of the bar shows how many men, artillery units and armoured fighting vehicles are involved in the battle. Under these totals are the number of each category lost. Below this is the air support present – in this case some 109's and some JU87's that are off the screen. You can also see the odds, 10.5 to one, and we won quite convincingly as you would assume.

The tanks show battles that have occurred this turn, while the plane shows where I have conducted bombing raids on the red air force.

I am also using a mod for the map that shows the ports, factories and town names. I makes my life easier as an LP'er.

After this, the rest of the 18th Army surges forward.



I have opened the way for the 4th Panzer Group and cut the enemy off from the port of Liepaja. The northern most units show how far an infantry unit can advance over this time period.



After their fights, the 291st is fatigued, but all its supplies bar fuel are still in good supply, and overal they have only been reduced by about 10% of their numbers. As you would guess, the rifle squads have taken the brunt of the losses. As they have inflicted 5,000 enemy losses and taken out two units – a surrendered fortified region and shattered a NKVD border regiment.



The 16th Army also moved forward. I clear a Motorized Division from Kaunas, they hold the first of Divisions to reach them, but once I move a second unit in, and we send them running.



They to clear their area and advance, securing us a major bridgehead across the major river.

While this is going on, the 4th Panzer army storms forward.



They are involved in little combat, they try to force the enemy out of Riga, but they cannot penetrate the Marshes to attack. The 1st Panzer Division managed to cross the Daugava gaining us a valuable bridgehead.
Also of note is the pocket we have now created. This is suspected to contain something in the region of thirteen Divisions plus several headquarters. At least two of these Divisions are armoured, and one mechanized. This is a nice haul. It is not as secure as I would like, but it should hold the Russians in their disorganized state.

The 1st Panzer Division has advanced 170 miles in the last four days.





The 9th Army clears the path for the 3rd Panzer Group along their line of advance.



The 3rd Move towards Minsk. They cannot take the city, but they do advance 190 miles into Soviet territory. They are leaving their infantry behind, but are making good ground.



On the southern part of AGC, the 4th Army clears the way for 2nd Panzer Group. The enemy in Brest Litovsk are strong, and they will be bypassed rather than engaged. This is the safer option, and the enemy here will quickly surrender.



Next the 2nd Panzer Group goes into action. They to drive towards Minsk.



They fail to close the larger pocket by just ten miles, but they do manage to bottle up a huge number of Russian soldiers and several armoured and mechanized units.



As you can see, this pocket will contain 16 + division and a number of Security regiments and some anti tank units. This is a secure pocket, and we will not see these men escaping.





The pattern is the same in the south as it has been in the other two sectors. The 6th Army clears the way for the 1st Panzer Group.



The difference here is that the bulk of the Russian forces are here. This is where Stalin was sure the bulk of our forces would go. To make things more difficult, Two of our Motorized Divisions and one of the Panzer Divisions are being held back until today. This has caused us several problems, but we still have made some nice advances.



Taking Tarnopol cuts the main rail line. This may not allow us to cut them off, but it prevents them using the railway to ferry out the bulk of the troops to the west. The 11th Panzer Division is a little far out to the south, but they should be okay.
With the Romanians not yet active, this concludes the actions for the AGS. There are some minor movements from the 17th Army, but I'm not throwing them forward until the Russians are properly cut off.





Click here for the full 1753x2774 image

We have made some fantastic advances in the last few days, although it is easier to see on the battle line map.



Over the course of four days, we have destroyed a large number of soviet units.



As you can see, there are all regiments or fortified regions, but they are at least units that will no longer bother us. Our main achievement over is the surrounding of large numbers of Russian troops, who, over the next few days, will be policed up and sent off to the POW camps.



While we have lost nearly ten thousand men, but the Soviet losses are one hundred and thirty five thousand – not counting the now trapped armies.

Now a look at flow of replacements over the last few days.



As you may well guess, while we have lost few men permanently, we have a large number of wounded men who have been rotated back into the front line after being patched up. We also have seen some new units arrive who have been brought up to fill strength.



In Germany, the factories have been working at full pace, and we are seeing them replace the large amounts of supplies burned by our forces.



While most of our stores have increase from captured Russian stocks, the amount actually in our far flung units is decreasing. This is because they are advancing beyond our supply lines, something that was expected to happen.





Now for the Soviet reaction to our assault. it seems that the Russians moved quickly to rescue their men in the north. We have also maintained a large pocket of Russian troops in the AGC area. These units are highlighted in red to show their lack of supplies.





AGS has the beginning of a pocket, but will need to secure the edges.



We do have a slight problem, as the 18th Panzer Division has been cut off.



This will not last for long, as the fluid state of the front will soon open up once more. For now, we are continuing our advance, please expect the next report in four days time.

Now I'm going to add a list of Lucky/Unlucky units to the first post.