Tackling the Russian bear (No Tarhunnas pls)

[glvaca]

Cheers!

[glvaca]

TURN4

No screenshots of turn 4.

NORTH
The Madona pocket is almost completely reduced, except for 2 hard to die units in the SE of the pocket.
One Pz Corps gets a HQ buildup and is located around Vore, hopefully, giving the impression I'm gearing up for a drive towards Leningrad.
I capture a bridgehead over the Velikaya at Ostrov and put a Mot, Pz and Inf. div. acrros. He's not going to throw me out!

CENTER
Vitebsk is lightly defended and is taken.
All Panzer divs from 2nd & 3rg PzG's are taken out of the line and are on refit directly behind the front and infantry is moved up to hold the front.
2nd Army is being moved into the gap that is starting to appear between 9th Army and 4th Army which is heading towards the Berezina SW of Mogilev.

SOUTH
After a long debate, I decide to throw the dice and go for a breakthrough roughly in the area between Zhitomir and Vinnitsa. I score the breakthrough I'm after but a few helds and stubborn resistance forces me to spend more units and movement point than I would like. In addition, many Southern panzer divisions are now below 70% TOE and totally exhausted. I carefully weigh the advantage to be had by a shallow deep penatration to cut-off his complete Southern left flank but have to conclude it would be too risky with the current strength of the panzers and remaining movement. The infantry is still too far, the panzers are too weak and 11th Army is not where it should be. So I decide to retreat a couple of hexes back and put them all on refit.
Some more confused fighting in the Pripjet Marshes with Tarhunnas infiltrating where ever he can.
One remaining division of the Kovel pocket refuses to die. Annoying.
The Korets pocket is cleaned out.

[glvaca]

TURN 5

NORTH
Before German moves but with recon.
In the North I'm ready for the next offensive. 18th and 16th Army infantry is arriving in strength and I have one strong Pz Corps (1st, 6th, 8th Pz and SS Totenkopf) fueled up and ready to go. Von Mansteins Corps is not rested but both divisions in the bridgehead have 40+ movement points. Hmmm, that gives possibilities.

After I succeed in clearing out the blue box on the map I have several possibilities:
1. (red arrows) exploit towards VL and link up with PzG2&3 coming from the Center.
2. (green arrows) Pocket the Pskov defenders and exploit towards Leningrad and the back door.

Both have appealing advantages but option 2 would basically condemn the Center to further frontal attacks as I am not in a position to create an envelopment in the Center by itself. In addition, option 2, would crerate problems with the re-gauging of the RR lines I have planned as the RR running from Rezerke to VL (purple line) is one of the main supply lines I have planned for the assault on Moscow. Option 1 also offers the prospect of a large Front like pocket so 1 it is.

[glvaca]

CENTER

Before moves but with recon. Tarhannus carpetted up North & South of Smolensk. Surprisingly he gives up key defensive terrain (light woods) without a fight. Strange.

The other blue area indicated on the map is the killing zone. First, the infantry will attack where it can to pave the way for the panzers.
Secondly, the available Mech divs from 3rd PzG will create the breakthrough with 2-3 div. stack hasty attacks. Only if absolutely necessary will the Pz's do deliberate attacks.
Thirdly, 2rd PzG will complete the breakthrough and exploit into the operational depths and establish the pocket in cooperation with 4th PzG units.
That's the plan at least...

[glvaca]

NORTH CONTINUED

Apart from an occasional held things run like clock work. 18th Army's I Corps and 16th Army's II and XX Corps are used as much as possible in the first stages. Then the breach is established and expanded by the Mech divs. who set up an inner and outer ring of units and flipped hexes.
XIII Corps (previously 4th Army) is attached to 4th PzG (not 2nd Army as first planned). The PzG has Command capacity to spare as does AG North and I need the infantry badly. XII Corps and 16th Army infantry is moved into position to assault the pocket from the West and free enough hexes for undisturbed RR conversion in the coming turns.

The last remnant of the Madona pocket, an Airborn brig. refuses to die.

[glvaca]

CENTER CONTINUED

After taking the SS, I change my mind and shift 2 units of position. This prevents any infiltration from inside the pocket and makes the pocket (I hope) unbreakable.

Resistance in the Center is harder than in the North but the Panzers nonetheless break through with relative ease. 2nd PzG exploits the fartest capturing as much highly defensible terrain as possible and expanding the width and depth of the penetration to the max. There seems to be even more units in the pocket than I had first anticipated.

9th Army infantry is relieved of flank duties further West and moved up in strength to just below Vitebsk in anticipation of relieving the panzers next turn and collapsing/safeguarding the pocket.
Several fighter bases are very close to the outer ring of the pocket. He may try to bomb, but it ain't going to be cheap!

[glvaca]

SOUTH
In the South I decide to rest & refit the Panzers further. Afterall, they saw major action last turn in the aborted attempt at a breakthrough so they are still in a rather shabby state. Furthermore, I can use the turn to clean up my supply lines and move up the infantry.
The Lvov pocket is cleaned up except for one pesky Sec. Reg. that refuses to die.
The sole remaining inf. div. from the Kovel pocket still refuses to die after more than 6 attacks when out of supply. [8|]

A further disadvantage of the aborted breakthrough last turn is that Tarhannus decides to pull back his line a bit and gives up the Vinitsa bulge completely. To bad. However, recon reveals a rather weak center... I'm tempted but stick to the initial plan to rest. I'm betting he'll stick around...

[glvaca]

SOUTH CONTINUED
Further down the Rumanians and 11th Army expand their Dnestr bridgehead and provide a springboard for the planned offensive next turn. To this end, XXXXVI Pz Corps is moved down and hidden in the light woods right next to a functioning RR. No air supply is dropped on this Corps, with some luck he won't notice it.

60th Motorized Div fails miserably in pushing away a pesky Cav. Div & a sec. reg in a fort 2. Even a deliberate assault fails to budge the defenders!
His Southern left flank looks very weak indeed. If he sticks around I might have an opportunity to blow the South open.

[glvaca]

For the Panzer lovers out there, condition of the Panzers start of turn 5.

[glvaca]

Losses

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Air losses.

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Prod.

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Units lost.
He's losing a ton of Armoured and Motorized divs. I wonder if that may not hurt his vehicle pool...

[glvaca]

TURN 6

NORTH & CENTER
The pocket HOLDS!
Tarhunnas tries only one counter attack against the 900 Lehr brig. but is repulsed with heavy loss. 200 fighters and 50 bombers arrive in support which perhaps dissuades him from trying again.
In response to the breakthrough, Tarhannus shifts his Leningrad shield to his left, protecting the backdoor. In the Center he is forced to extend his right flank in an effort to protect the road to Rzhev. This leaves him short handed on his right before Pskov however. 18th Army is ordered to push NE and take advantage of this.
16th Army from the West and North starts reducing the pocket, 9th Army does the same from the South.
Several Panzer divs will be employed for this task as well from the East. I generally try to avoid this, but a further advance East would be unwise at this time. I need to consolidate my hold, free the RR to VL and fuel up.

[glvaca]

SOUTH
True to form, he stands! Although he retreats a couple of hexes he stays within reach.
Even better, he seems to drain his left flank achored on Odessa to shore up his Center giving me a lightly held 3 by 3 hexes area defended only by Airborn brigs. 11th Army Infantry is ordered to clear the way as much as possible for XXXXVI Pz Corps to exploit. Recon only reveals 1 unit in Odessa, this might be wrong or it might be the FZ which starts there, or it might be something else entirely. Still, worth to check out.

Behind his lines he has a ton of airbases within reach. All of them have a considerable amount of damaged airplanes which will be lost when he is forced to displace. Yummie! [:)]

Although the Center has been shored up, from his dispositions it seems he is most concerned with a drive straight ahead towards the Dnepr just South of Kiev, in simulation of what MichealT did in his other game. I have no intention of doing that as it would not yield dicisive results quickly and put me in a very bad supply situation. With the intended operation, if successfull, I will completely demolish his left and part of his center in the South. That will hurt! More-over, I will be in good supply after the operation whcih could allow for a rapid exploitation towards D & Z-town. Nonetheless, several infantry Corps are ordered to launch secondary attacks on his right and part of his center to keep up the pressure.

[glvaca]

Starting strength Panzers turn 6.
The turn of R&R has done wonders for the Southern Panzers and they are ready for the operation.
In the North & Center, the Panzers are still ok, but some will need some rehabilitation before the next operation.

[timmyab]

You've set up a good opportunity here in the South.difficult to judge exactly without knowing your fuel situation or whether the screenshot includes any air recon, but there may even be an opportunity to grab a bridgehead over the Dniepr just South of Cherkassy.

[glvaca]

Yup, but I'm cautious against Tuhannus. He doesn't hesitate to sacrifice units to break pockets and he's got a ton of Cav divs in the neighbourhood.
The plan goes mainly as on the picture, just waiting for Tarhunnas his reply to post results. He's currently doing turn 6.
The pictures include recon.

[glvaca]

SOUTH CONTINUED

The operation goes exactly as planned and his lines are effortly broken giving me plenty of movement and units to exploit. I focus on depth and width and cutting RR lines as deep behind his lines as I can go.
Infantry is rushing forward to take over from the Panzers next turn.
Lvov pocket is cleaned out.
The last stuborn remant of the Kovel pocket finally surrenders.

SS is ending position.

[glvaca]

NORTH & CENTER CONTINUED

The VL pocket is seriously reduced in size and units. All in all I think this will net me around 300K in Russian prisoners and dead. Much more than I expected.
The final Airborn brig. dies in the Madona pocket.
Overall, a very good cleanup turn around the Pripjet Marshes and elsewhere. A lot of lose ends tied up this turn.

Around Smolensk, I put pressure on the East side of the Dnepr from my bridgehead and generally put pressure with infantry and Panzers, direction East and probing his defences.
4th Army is approaching the Dnepr further South.
XII Corps from 2nd PzG is moved out of the swamps and replaced by a weaker Corps from 4th Army.