Part 2

First up, here are the Luftwaffe recon reports for the front.



As you can see, apart from the counter offensive from the Russian army towards their trapped troops, the rest of the Soviet forces have pulled back about 130 miles north towards Leningrad.

The 18th Army continued to move forward, some units set about closing the pocket, while others cleared the lands west of Riga.



The Soviet troops trapped here are not willing to put up a fight, and we see a mass surrender of their forces. Here a valuable motorized division puts their hands up with only a few men bothering to fight back



The 16th Army do the same and clear out the southern part of the pocket. While our infantry forces have not advanced all that far here, they have netted a haul of 50,000 Russian prisoners.

The 4th Panzer Group is not interested in Prisoners, they are interested in rapid advances. The 1st Panzer Division spearheads this advance, moving forwards another 130 miles and brushing aside a Tank Division that the recon elements of the Luftwaffe apparently managed to miss. This is not a big deal however, as we lose only one tank and its crew to the Russians.



The Totenkopf SS Motorized Division clears Riga from its defenders – the 22nd NKVD held our forces last time, but now that they are over the river, the important port falls after some fighting that sees the Russians losing half their forces.



With Riga secured, the rest of the 4th Panzer Group moves forward to support the 1st Panzer.



As you can see, the rapid advance will not be continuing in the next week, as the lead units have only enough fuel for limited actions in the area. To try and resolve this, I order the Luftwaffe to drop supplies for them.





Here are the AGC recon reports.



The enemy have abandoned Minsk, and fallen back towards the Dnepr river, but there is no solid line to prevent our forces from advancing.
The 2nd Panzer Group moves along the southern edge of the AOE.



Another thirteen or so Divisions are collected up, and there is little chance of the Russians freeing these men.
The 3rd Panzer Group forms no pockets, but advances on a wide front. I have not ordered our men to advance at full speed as I am trying to conserve fuel and keep the units fatigue levels down.
As you can see, I failed to close one pocket by about twenty miles of terrain.



Although its still hard work on the lead units – the 18th Motorized Division is the westernmost unit on the previous image. Their losses are light however, and a little rest will see them right.

The 9th Army clears some of the main pocket, but cannot move quickly enough to clear that much of it.



To the north, the 5th Tank Division holds out to attacks by two of our Infantry Divisions.

4th Army clears Brest Litovsk. Once surrounded, this once imposing force quickly gives up their guns.



We capture a large number of troops, guns and tanks as this surrounded force gives up their hopeless situation. They then proceed to clear the rest of the pocket, tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers give up their arms and march into prisoner of war camps.





Army Group South was strengthened by the activation of the Romanian forces and the 11th Army. Here are the Recon reports for the sector.



While the bulk of the German forces have a large number of enemies in front of them, the Romanian forces have much fewer troops in front of them.



The Romanians move forwards first, they don't make any stunning headway, as many of the opposing Divisions are stronger than those found in the north. That said, we clear the line in several places and close the large pocket around Lvov.



Then the bulk of the German forces move forwards, the 6th Army moves first, trying to secure as wide a supply corridor for the advancing panzers.



17th Army still has a large number of Soviet troops in front of them, so make limited actions – I see no reason to throw away men and supplies now when these men will be surrendering en-mass in a couple of days.



1st Panzer Group begins to advance into the mass of red troops as best they can. While they could be more aggressive, they do not want their supply lines to be cut. They begin by making a smaller pocket in Dubno using the Motorised forces that did not move in the first few days of the war.



The Panzers once again fail to close a third pocket by twenty miles, but are in a good position to move forwards once more.







There is little movement from the Russians, and all my pockets hold. Neither do they attempt to threaten my forces.



As you can see, we have a huge number of Russians to police up, but not as large a force as I would have liked. Many have escaped the pocket and are still ahead of us.



The north looks more secure, with several smaller pockets that need reducing.





Russian casualties have been high in the last four days, but our own are mounting as well.



Please note the large jump in men lost from last turn is the number of casualties from the ongoing skirmishes that occur when units are next to each other, as opposed to those taken in direct assaults on the enemy positions.



We destroyed fifty one Russian divisions in the last four days, and now that the Lvov pocket is closed, we will see more being added to this total.



Despite the heavy losses, the current estimates for the size of the Red Army actually have it increasing by nearly 75,000 men! This is a trend to watch, as the Ruski's are throwing together untrained units to try and blunt our progress.



The logistic corps continue to do their hard work.



As do the factories and the workers there in.



The number of resources in our hands continues to increase as the amount actually in our units decreases, as mentioned before, this is only to be expected with the rapid rate of advance.