Part 12
The northern recon reports show that most of the Russian forces in the area are now on the line. This is going to make things hard for us to continue moving.
16th Army in the south has to combine several Divisions into one attack to make any headway.
They do manage to advance somewhat, and cut off three divisions, but I cannot cement the pocket closed.
The 18th Army try and push, but the heavy fortifications make it hard going.
We are able to nip off the top of the cities defences however, with a large concentrated attack.
This leaves the 4th Panzer group to continue their efforts to push on the ports, so we can finally isolate the city.
They fight hard, but are only able to move forward ten kilometres.
The recon reports for this sector show the enemy concentrated around Moscow and week in the south.
The southern half of 4th army continue their advance, only a couple of enemy units stand in their way, and those are soon routed.
The northern section helps clean up the pocketed cavalry divisions. They also push forwards to help the panzer units.
2nd Army clears the last of the pocket in their area and moves towards Moscow.
9th Army also moves forwards. They push to the north more, and find there are few enemy units there.
The 2nd Panzer group breaks through near Tula, with the aid of air dropped supplies. Its mainly an infantry lead assault, but I am able to cross the smaller river just south of the Oka.
3rd Panzer group tries to drive on Moscow, but can only move ten kilometres closer. I would love to pull them out and use them to exploit the northern section, but they have no supplies, and are pretty much trapped in place. As soon as the infantry can push the enemy back and the rail head catches up, I'm sure they will become more mobile.
The enemy seem to be trying to defend Kharkov, but that's the only place we can see any major lines – apart from the mass of routing troops near Stalino.
6th Army moves northwards, taking the northern flank.
17th Army fans out to the south, I have no intention of attacking Kharkov before I have encircled it, and I need some troops to move south to cover the terrain taken by 4th Panzer group.
11th Army reaches the gates of the Crimea, two divisions smash through and force their way a little bit further south. The rest of the army comes up behind them.
The Romanians fail to clear the enemy from the marshes of their homeland.
And with the support of the Italians, also fail to clear Odessa.
Beyond this, they just move forward, cut off another Division and support the 11th. I do eliminate the top division after this image was taken.
4th Panzer group sweeps out, moving towards Stalino and the coast.
There are no Red Army attacks this week, and in the north, there are very few moments by the enemy.
In the centre, the Ruskis move to stop out breakthrough from turning north, but cannot fully plug the breach.
In the south, the gates of the Crimea have been reinforced, and we have four more divisions trapped behind out lines.
And to add insult to injury.
This is the first Russian Guards unit. For holding out for weeks behind enemy lines, they have been promoted.
Our casualties continue to mount, this week has seen our heaviest casualties yet. At least we took out 19 units and over a hundred and thirty thousand Russians. We are now approaching 2.5 million Russian casualties.
In army strengths, we have increased by 10,000 men, while the Russians have decreased by 54,000 and nearly 800 tanks. Their air strength continues to increase slowly however.
We have returned forty thousand men to the units, and repaired a good number of armoured vehicles.
Build quicker! Did anyone order any winter equipment? No? I'm sure we'll be fine. How bad can the winter be?
We see the amount of fuel in the unit increase, which gives me hope for an advance on Moscow with tanks.
I can dream.
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We're continuing to move forwards in the south. That bulge between AGC and AGS should be eliminated next week with no real trouble.
Moscow is so close.