The ability of the Soviet to attack with 120,000 men per hex is irksome but the fundamental question is that of the balance between playability and historicity. There are quite a few aspects which a Soviet is dismayed with against the Germans as well. I suspect it is impossible to iron them all out ...

In between these two Vitebsk episodes, the Russians managed to repulse two divisions near Kiev. The light mud made it more difficult but it was a marginal defeat for the Germans nevertheless. One of the divisions that retreated was the 334 ID, rebuilt from Afrika with a morale of 70. Sadly it would ...

Poor weather started to hinder operations and there was a slowdown for a couple of weeks. It is actually the Axis that was most active, although often on a purely tactical basis.

Near Staraya Russa, the woods that had been recaptured were left void of troops. It may not have been a judicious idea ...

Despite all my efforts to wear out the Russians, Q-Ball was able to strike the line NW of Kiev, forcing a small step-back that was also a reflection of the bridgehead shrinking to virtually nothing. An opportunistic strike required the 1SS PzD to travel a bit, but it is not necessarily bad to ...

After the indecisive action of the previous week, more indecisive fighting took place near Staraya Russa. II corps had to yield, which was not ideal although it should have been expected. The silver lining to this situation was that several Russian units had attacked twice, hence were low on CPPs ...

I mentioned the multiple air recon missions recently. They cost dearly in terms of planes, and during last winter had failed to spot the large gatherings of Russians opposite the Hungarian line. This time, a stroke of luck defused one offensive: pilots came back from a couple of missions near ...

Grechko continues to flog his men so they do not let the Axis dig in to level 3 fortifications. At this stage, my only hope is that supply runs low and fatigue starts to tell for the massive wedge that dismantles everything in its path.

https://nsm09.casimages.com/img/2026/04/29 ...

Everybody is restocking near VL. One aspect I didn't mention is constant LW activity to look for abnormal concentrations between one and four / five hexes behind the front line. It costs dearly in terms of recon planes but is the only solution to avoid really bad surprises, as a lot of Q-Balls ...

A quick look at losses shows the Germans over 2m men, with the Russians at nearly 10m.

https://nsm09.casimages.com/img/2026/04/12//26041202565424042618743166.jpg


I have had fewer opportunities to catch the Russians in the open over the past weeks compared to June. The ratio remains favourable ...

I mentioned a quieter mid-month, but that was for the German turn actually. A lot happened in many places along the line.

The VL front saw another Russian push. It is difficult to imagine better support than the one provided by Kreysing, in charge of VI corps, yet it was to no avail. Fortunately ...

Things were different a few days later with a successful Russian attack near VL, in the centre and close to Kiev (under XXXIV corps). Most remarkable was to see 7 Pz pushed out despite being in the woods alongside a German and a Hungarian divisions and very well supported by Henrici.

https://nsm09 ...

OKH was relieved that Stavka did not stage any further assault on that week, which means that the action was limited to a customary sweep at troops in clear terrain with no fortifications to dampen the blow.

So we had left things mid-July with four areas of intense activity as there was no real battles elsewhere. From North to South, these areas were:

- the Velikye Luki front, defended by 9 Army, and the land bridge near Vitebsk, secured by 8 Army
- The centre wedge, pushing back 4 Army with probably ...

This is pretty normal at this point of the war, with the German forced to relinquish ground, which provides opportunities to strike on any Soviets advancing in the open. That's the easy part.

The more difficult one is where the Russians are managing to create cracks in key defensive areas, and then ...

We are nearly in December 1943 and the weather just switched to blizzard on most of the map. Yet the ground conditions are light snow where it matters.

Apart from the absence of LW support, are there any penalties to be expected from attacks in blizzard + light snow? At first glance I should have 5 ...

Mid July brought no relief to 9 Army, again pushed out of its positions in two places. The interventions of the LW were not massive, as I had an abundance of fighters in the area but my Stukas were not positioned properly, hence mostly out of range. It may not have made a huge difference but 100 ...

I don't remember who replaced Keitel temporarily, but the next decision from the top was to put Manstein in charge.

You would then wonder why he would have been available... Well he had been leading Army Group South until 2 weeks before and was then dismissed! Fortunately, his replacement was ...

Early July brought a nice variation to this pattern. Not for the VL - Vitebsk sector, which suffered another two defeats, of which one marginal. But the central wedge was quiet for once, I presume after emptying a number of dumps that needed to be replenished.

https://nsm09.casimages.com/img/2026 ...

The end of June saw a number of painful defensive battles, with four attacks that could all have gone badly for the assaillant. The first one took place between VL and Vitebsk. Admittedly light woods are better than clear steppes, but not ideal to hold on to a determined assault. The same is not ...

Let's conclude this review with the right wing of 17 Army and the more active sectors of 1 PzA and 6 Army. Fairly strong Russian forces have managed to push the Axis line by 20-30km on both sides of Melitopol. The defence could have been conducted more skilfully but counterattacks have kept the ...