41-45GC:1.05.28 M60A3TTS (Sov) v Pelton (Axis)

[M60A3TTS]

Week 33- 29.1.42

Pelton has issued his no-retreat order. Axis troops are trying to hold all across the front now.
22 attacks are successful across the entire front and 3 are not. The Axis launched 5 attacks all of which were successful.

39th and 40th Guards Rifle Divisions are formed.
I took g-man's advice and sent some air units to the reserve to reduce the truck losses.
Soviet losses now at 3.3 million vs. 1.1 million Axis.

Armaments continue to build up. Week 17 was the low point, with 23,896 in the pool. It is now 409,013.
In tank production, the T-34 plant evacuated from Kharkov will complete recovery in 5 weeks and expand from its current rate of 7. Total production is 81 vehicles per week. The evacuated KV-1 factory from Leningrad and now at Nizhny Tagil has been fully repaired and is producing 11 per week. Total production is 33 per week.

Yyazma


Kursk-Kharkov

[M60A3TTS]

Week 34- 5.2.42

Into February now. No screenshots this week as there really isn't anything to show.

Cavalry was the main recipient of guards status this week, with 14th Cav Corps going over to 1st Guards Cav Corps. Now 6 guards cav divisions. Also picked up 41st Guards Rifle Division.

A lot of aircraft arrived at the NR, and next week I am going to upgrade a number of I-16s to Yak-1 regiments.

Currently I am developing a plan for two localized attacks which I hope will continue through blizzard and on into snow. It may at least give Pelton one more thing to think about as he gathers his mobile forces for his own snow offensive. More on Operation Cosmos will be forthcoming.

[freeboy]

how dos removing the air ssets to resere interact with truk losss> me= clueless[&:]

[gingerbread]

Airgroups at an AB generate supply requests that will use trucks to fullfull. If the Airgroup is in NS, no request is generated. But it is minor, far more important to keep AB on or adjacent to functioning rail.

[freeboy]

ok.. makes sense.. I was thinking somehow trucks part of the orginization  of the airbase... thanks for the quick response!!

[kevini1000]

Haven't seen a new Pelton post for a while did a Russian fan boy get him or something

[M60A3TTS]

Week 35- 12.2.42

A few battles continue in the north where 4th Shock Army is attempting to support units of 23rd Army that are attacking south of Lake Ilmen. South of there, units of Northwest Front are battling east of the Dvina River

Lake Ilmen


Near the Dvina


42nd and 43rd Guards Rifle Divisions were formed this week.

Pelton has 1104 of 1659 panzers operational at this stage, so it will be interesting to see how much he pushes those divisions prior to the summer campaign season. In comparison the Red Army has a little over 1800 T-34s and KV-1s operational.

[M60A3TTS]

Week 36- 19.2.42

Local attacks continue south of Lake Ilmen and along the Dvina.
In the center-south, troop pullbacks are modest.
44th Guards Rifle and 7th Guards Cavalry Divisions form.

Week 37- 26.2.42

Axis air recon is intense as they prepare for the March offensive.
Ten more Soviet attacks take place near Lake Ilmen and the Dvina to the south.
Air units move out of the national Reserve and prepare for the coming Axis attacks. 8,700+ Soviet aircraft are in a ready state.
45th-47th Guards Rifle Divisions form.
Active Soviet manpower now exceeds 6 million.

West of Moscow


Kursk-Orel


South

[M60A3TTS]

Week 38- 5.3.42

Pelton launches his best infantry divisions and virtually all his mobile formations north and south of Orel. Southwestern Front has 150,000 men in 17 rifle divisions and 9 brigades caught up in a pocket. He has some very strong infantry divisions holding the northern shoulder of the advance.

Axis troops scored 45 retreats, 3 routs and were held 3 times.

The question here is how far can or will he push during snow? His mobile CVs are in the 6-9 range with the exception of the SS Wiking, Totenkopf, Das Reich and 2nd Panzer which are in the teens.

My thought is he is going to try and flank Moscow from the south again to force my forces west of Moscow to withdraw to the east. That would not be too hard at this moment as there isn't much in his way towards the Oka.

I burn through over half my APs to build 9 rifle divisions and 5 brigades which is half my anticipated losses in the pocket.

48th and 49th Guards Rifle Divisions were formed.

Orel Pocket

[sveint]

Scary lack of forts. I'd fall back to Tula-Voronezh? You can afford to lose some territory but you'd better have deep defense of level 2+ forts for the summer.

[krupp_88mm]

oh ouch he picked that terrain on purpose ill bet its the best panzer terrain in all russia, and by holding it hell give himself lots and lots of clear hex access come summer, i honestly dont know what you can do here, except hit him where hes weakest in panzers, try to wear them down first at any cost whatever you can throw at them brains planes trains whatever anything.

[TulliusDetritus]

M60, you just ran out of spinachs [:)] Maybe you should start pulling back many of your forces (those massive stacks at the frontline are dangerous). As you can see the Germans have the upper hand. But no matter what, you did a lot: you grabbbed land (Pelton obviously ran away, ah the chicken) and harvested guards. Well done! [8D]

[M60A3TTS]

I'm quite sure people didn't expect Pelton to wait until mid-June to get on the attack.

As depressing as the encirclement looks, and it IS depressing, the mission in '42 remains largely the same as '41. Preserve the Red Army.

I want to avoid any more big encirclements for the next three weeks until General Mud arrives to lend a hand. Then we'll get through a quiet April and should be able to restore the troop losses from the snow offensive. Once May hits, we'll see how things stand. At that stage, it will be four weeks until the arrival of 1st Guards Rifle Corps. [:)]

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

I'm quite sure people didn't expect Pelton to wait until mid-June to get on the attack.

As depressing as the encirclement looks, and it IS depressing, the mission in '42 remains largely the same as '41. Preserve the Red Army.

I want to avoid any more big encirclements for the next three weeks until General Mud arrives to lend a hand. Then we'll get through a quiet April and should be able to restore the troop losses from the snow offensive. Once May hits, we'll see how things stand. At that stage, it will be four weeks until the arrival of 1st Guards Rifle Corps. [:)]

He's been clearly nurturing some of his Infantry divisions, leaving them aside and spending winter in a place with nice weather.

I sort of expected he was up to something. He was making quite a few "interesting" questions regarding morale and general recovery rates to me in my AAR and other threads [:)]

[kevini1000]

I think you might have to write that army off. He got you at the worst possible time. Your just going to have prevent him from doing it too many more times in the future.

[M60A3TTS]

Yes, the Orel troops are a loss.  Simply put, pulling everyone back in that area quickly much earlier was not an option.  The rail lines in the general area of Tula-Orel are all out of commission, and if I pulled back, he just would have followed.  Once we get to my first halt line around Voronezh, I will be in a position to bring the fresh guards rifle divisions and cav corps into play if he wants to keep banging away. 
 
I expect to lose a couple million men by the Fall.  But I will also have some more potent ground units by then as well.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Yes, the Orel troops are a loss.  Simply put, pulling everyone back in that area quickly much earlier was not an option.  The rail lines in the general area of Tula-Orel are all out of commission, and if I pulled back, he just would have followed.  Once we get to my first halt line around Voronezh, I will be in a position to bring the fresh guards rifle divisions and cav corps into play if he wants to keep banging away. 

I expect to lose a couple million men by the Fall.  But I will also have some more potent ground units by then as well.

What I would have done here is left a screen and withdrawn the bulk of my troops behind the screen. He can't attack them efficiently until the snows arrive, and won't be able to follow up in force.

The screen dies when the snows arrive, of course. But you get away with most of your guys falling back to their sources of supply and reinforcements.

The snow transition is rough now. You just have to identify where the panzers are coming and take cautionary steps well in advance. I really don't believe in pressing the blizzard counteroffensive past January anymore -- February is all about getting ready for the transition, pulling out your guards, getting into defensive position, etc.

[Farfarer61]

My opponent had a superb snow offensive as well - it is a new facet to the game. I was a bit more ready/lucky so we had a real see saw. In the end he bagged a Guards Army including 3 Guards Corps, but it could have been much much worse. February is for digging now. I also put all those brigades on the river lines on Refit for the first 2 turns of mud - their digging improves. If you find a line is not needed come June, collapse it conveniently into divisions and you have a new Army. Even if your Tank Corps are weak, he cannot extend lone divisions as he can in 41 or you can isolate and rout them, so they are a good threat in being. My 2 rubles.

[M60A3TTS]

Week 39 & 40- 12.3.42 and 19.3.42

Second Battle of Moscow

The Germans are again moving in to assault Moscow.

Tula was surrounded in week 39, and the mass of panzers and motorized troops pushed right on through over the Oka the next week. The Luftwaffe did the usual resupply missions to the spearheads.

Meanwhile the German strength in troops and tanks is recovering nicely while Soviet manpower figures are down slightly.

I was hoping to at least keep him south of the Oka for this last week, but no such luck.

German vs. Soviet losses to date are 1.4 million vs. 3.8 million. Despite the losses, Germans are back over 3 million men active to 6 million Soviet.

So comrades, what now? Moscow is likely safe with mud in two weeks, but it will be a front line city in just one.

Week 39- Tula


Week 39- Kharkov region


Week 40- Back over the Oka

[Q-Ball]

I think you can turn this into a good thing, if you take some steps. You can hold Moscow, and ideally if he wants to fight heavily in light woods terrain this summer, so much the better for you.

I would pull back from Vyazma, and start digging a line ASAP along the Moskva, and several hexes deep behind it. Contest every hex, but don't stack-up or plan on holding it. Just make him push you out of the woods. A single rifle unit in light woods with lvl 2 fort will cause him losses.

To the north, you are not immediately threatened, but it would be wise to be digging along the Moskva-Volga canal, and the Lama river in front of it.

Moscow never falls to direct assault, always to double envelopment, so it's the flanks you have to protect, not the immediate front of the city