Part 6
The enemy have attempted to close in our men near Leningrad, but it seems that they are much more worried about my advancing panzers than the entire 18th Army.
The 18th Advance to see how much of threat the enemy in the land bridge are – the 217th march eighty miles to discover the answer – not much.
The rest of the army blasts through the remaining units, but the tough terrain slows their advance. They are getting close to Lenningrad however, and we're looking good for pushing on the city.
16th Army pushes forwards, and while they send a number of enemy forces running – including the enemy force that has been plaguing us around Pskov for the last few weeks – they cannot advance all that far.
The Finns advance as well, but they are slowed by the thickly wooded terrain up there.
The 3rd Motorized division forces the enemy out of Novograd, but cannot move into the city – in fact, I cannot move the 4th Panzer group much due to fear about their supply lines.
According to the recon reports, we are only facing a thin line of Russian troops in the centre, and its now time to see what holes my freshly refueled panzer's can cause with the aid of some infantry support.
9th Army pushes forwards, and smashes open several good sized holes in the Soviet lines.
The 4th Army however has much more success, obliterating all in front of it, and leaving the enemy front lines open for the 2nd Panzer group to flow into.
And flow they do. The 4th Panzer Division makes a bee line for the scouted enemy air units.
They get there, and in doing so they wreck large numbers of enemy planes and capture tonnes of supplies.
I repeat this with the Grossdeutschland to the south.
The rest of the units of 2nd Panzer group spread out, scattering enemy headquarter and air units to the four winds.
3rd Panzer moves through the breaches in the north, with the 12th Panzer Division reaching Solomensk, but getting beaten back by well entrenched defenders.
We're not going to shift them by force of arms – but lets see if we can cut them off.
Its not to be, but we do pocket five divisions and a number of brigades. There do seem to be a massive lack of enemy troops in the area to prevent our advance – have the Russians thrown them all north to prevent my men advancing on Lenningrad?
Looking at AGS's recon reports, I come up with a bold plan. - not as bold as I had considered last week, but fairly bold none the less.
The enemy have committed a large number of motorized and armoured divisions around the city of
Zhitomir, and I want them, there is also a weak spot in their line west of Cherkassy where that routed unit is. (the R in a black slash on its card.)
I decide to commit my Panzers to encircling these units. First I must clear the way somewhat, and order the 17th Army, who are lagging in the rear, to move forwards. I also use the Hungarian troops (in green) to clear as much of the pocket as they can.
The Romanians push south and east, towards Odessa. They only meet sporadic Russian resistance, and clear that out or surround it.
The 11th Army pushes forwards, their job will to be to drive off towards Sevastopol once we have dealt with the bulk of the Russian Resistance. For now, they are keeping the area clear of Russians and keeping our supply lines clear.
6th Armies push takes them to the north of the Russian line and the southern edge of the Marshes – I need them to clear as much opposition from here as possible, so that the more mobile 1st Panzer Group units can sweep around the edges.
The northern flank is weaker than I expected it to be, and there is soon only a single airborne brigade holding the area. The go word is given, and 1st Panzer group punches hard to try and isolate the enemy - 13th Panzer Division does its job well and brushes aside a Tank Division and an infantry Division, creating a decent sized gap in the enemy lines.
The spot I picked was as weak as expected, and soon tanks were pouring through this hole. The 16th and 25th Motorized Divisions sweep in from the south, while the 16th Panzer and Wiking SS Motorized Division move in from the north. Other units move to secure the pocket.
I am happy at this – My estimates for the Zhitomir pocket come to about twenty divisions, of which we have five motorized and six armoured at least – the motorized divisions are a real prize, as the Ruski's will have trouble replacing them quickly.
All in all, I assume about 250,000 men have just been wrapped up, a large section of the southern sectors Russians, and the bulk of the Kiev defence forces – the city cannot hold for much longer.
The southern pocked doesn’t hold, and to make matters worse, the 25th Motorized division is now behind enemy lines.
The Smolensk pocket does hold – but only just.
Things get worse in the north, where both the 3rd Mot. and 6th Panzer are cut off – we can get to them easily enough, but they will not have been resupplied.
This are some aggressive moves from the Russians, but there have still been no attacks by them.
Our casualties have been a bit higher this week, especially in tanks. The Russian losses are on a par with last week, except they to lost more tanks. Its only when we turn to the air screen that we see the real damage for the week.
785 planes is a massive loss to the already crippled Soviet Air Force.
Overall, the actual number of Russian planes after replacements has increased, but the maximum number has dropped by nearly a thousand. The overall size of our army has not changed by much, and the Russian army has increased by 20,000 men – a smaller jump than previously.
We see another ten thousand men replaced this week, but this is most likely due to the higher casualties we've been taking.
It may look like a screen shot of very boring list of supplies for you, but to me, its the life blood of the army.
Time for some maps
Click here for the full 1753x2774 image
Well, we're moving forwards. The battle line shows it better, with a huge hole in the enemy lines in the centre and that annoying hernia like bulge in the south.
Click here for the full 1831x1375 image
I have some tough decisions to make, should I continue to push on with my original plan of trying to link up with the Finnish troops east of Leningrad, or should I divert my Panzers north to try and link up with the advancing army and pinch off some more troops, in the south, I need to try and secure that bulge and Kiev with it. Only the centre is an easy choice, the Panzers will now swing north towards Moscow.
Click here for the full 1831x1375 image
The historical viewpoint shows where we are doing better, and where we are doing worse – we have broken through south of historically, but we should be able to turn north easily enough.
Worryingly, we are on track for Leningrad.