The STAVKA War Diaries II - No Mehring please

[Mehring]

M60 broke all the encirclements near Kharkov except one, so light snacks only this week.

4th Army was by now severely depleted but hanging on in front of Kharkov in reasonable positions. I will never again look down my nose on Hungarian units, they were invaluable support throughout the summer in attack and defence. Their mobile units several times provided an exploitation force when the panzers' gas was spent in attacks. Stacked with Germans, their CV added greatly to my defence. behind a river or in woods they could often hold their own or at least delay a Russian advance.

[Mehring]

Another fragile pocket north of the Don by Boguchar. But while the panzers are away, the Russians facing Rumanian units north of Stalingrad come out to play.

[Mehring]

Over the summer I've managed to reduce Russian manpower by a couple of hundred K and tubes by a couple of K. At the same time their tank numbers grow exponentially. Germans are also down 100K and a couple of K tubes. tank numbers hold steadyish.

[Mehring]

ORIGINAL: Pelton

Wow very fun read.

My take on it and personal out look on 42.

Great job picking the right spot to attack from a tactical and strategic point.

Very good tactical opening before summer picking apart SHC and weaken the lines in several areas,
Then you follow it up with a good strategic blow and punch a nice hole in the lines giving you 2 options and SHC 2.

Option 1. At this point you desided to hit the oil fields, which was your plan from the beginning.
You stated the up sides, but the down side is that your lines are very weak and the hex to turn ratio to Berlin is bad. Front length has to be 150+ hexes.
SHC at this point did the right thing an is pounding away at the land bridge. I think M60 knows that at some pt in early 43 he can close this southern run off fairly quickly.
I am still interested in seeing if the lose of oil cripples SHC.

Option 2. Once you punched a hole in the lines you could have headed north and rolled up the hole SHC line by striking towards Tula. then hooking back towards land bridge
forcing M60 to with draw. At this point you would have gained allot of land/manpower centers and shorten your lines from Ilmen to Rostov to the standard 90 hexes.
Plus drove up the hexs to turns ratio to Berlin.

I love the fact that your tring something different and Historical, but from past AAR like history it ends badly.

But your having fun and the readers like different AAR's so play on [:D]

If it's half as fun for you to read as it was to play...

Interesting point about Axis options. My final decisions were in large part coloured by experiences in the Valdai hills last year. The attacks in and around Gomel- Chernigov in the spring, while successful, revealed enormous depth to the Russian defence and I didn't want to get bogged down again. The maxim to "hit him where he ain't" was in the forefront of my mind.

As the summer progressed and the line stretched further, this benefited me more than M60 in the short term. Pockets became easier, likewise advances into unfortified terrain. The effect snowballed.

By maybe August, certainly September, 2nd tank was making deep penetrations around Kharkov and I realise that had I concentrated more force there I could have achieved a major pocket and opened up the front to a general advance northwards. The weakness of the Russians around Kharkov-Voronezh was a product of my efforts and commitments elsewhere, so I'm not convinced I could have regrouped sufficient forces to make such a move without also allowing M60 to concentrate his defenders. Perhaps it would have been better to ship the rest of 4th tank army east and take a chance on the infantry armies of AGN/C holding long enough. Wish I could play it all over again from that point.

Anyways, there are a few twists and turns left to tell that you may enjoy, before this story's done.

Thanks for your comment.

[Mehring]

Mid October 42, and M60's tempo is increasing against AGC.

[Mehring]

... While 1st tank army withdraws behind the Don after bagging a six more rifle divisions.

The situation around Stalingrad was turning ugly and I was looking forward to some mud.

[Mehring]

In the far south, Rumanian mountain troops kept close to Russians entrenched by the Black sea, while a German mountain corps crossed the central Caucasus, cutting their rail link to Baku.

[Mehring]

By mid November, M60 had a substantial bridgehead over the Berezina. It seems the only limiting factors on his advance were lack of armour and the pace at which he wanted to travel westwards. Nevertheless, given the pace of his advance I finally transferred the bulk of 4th tank army mech units east, to counter the threat growing in the Stalingrad region.

[Mehring]

Winter meant the end of my advantage in line stretching and soon also the defensive value of rivers. 6th Army abandoned the Tikhya Sozna-Don salient in an effort to gain some depth to my defence.

In what would become characteristic of the Stalingrad fighting, Russian advances were met with violent counter attacks which more often than not routed them. It was a very active, aggressive defence as my line withdrew slowly, in fits and starts, south-west towards the Donets and Manych.

[Mehring]

M60 went on to fairly butcher the Rumanians around Stalingrad and to force evacuation of the city without a fight.

[Mehring]

Their compatriots got some revenge in the Caucasus, cutting off the retreat of several units on the Black Sea coast. Meanwhile, 3rd tank army assembled most of its strength for a winter assault towards Baku.

[Mehring]

In AGN sector, 18th army fell back to prepared positions behind the Volkhov and the Finns behind the Svir. The line was insupportably long and even the positions south of lake Ilmen won by 4th tank army were falling to powerful attacks. In spite of destroying so many units over the summer, it looked like the Russians were strengthening while much of my own force was depleted if not actually bled almost white.

[Mehring]

In December, M60 blew away my fortified line south of Minsk. 2nd army and an unattached corps in the eastern Pripyat were forced to abandon their positions to shorten the line. I resolved just to slow the inevitable advance as much as I could, for now.

[Mehring]

Hit and run south of Stalingrad...

[Mehring]

... while all land links to Batumi were finally cut and Makhachkala on the Caspian finally fell in a blizzard.

[Mehring]

Mid December and 2nd tank army knocked the Russians about between the Sula and Psel, but Russians continued the destruction of my forts on the west bank of the Dnepr begun the previous week, and this time gain a foothold south of Kiev.

[Mehring]

3rd tank army continued its drive through the blizzard towards Baku, curling westwards into the Caucasus foothills in an effort to prevent a Russian retreat from the mountains.

[Mehring]

...and a thin line of forts from which to anchor armoured raids and protect 3rd tank army in the Caucasus.

The infantry of 4th tank army has also been shipped from AGN, past the impending disaster zone around Minsk, to join its armoured elements south-west of Stalingrad.

[Mehring]

By January 1943, Minsk had fallen as M60's attack gathered strength and momentum. Strangely, an erect nipple formed on the curiously breast like front line. It seemed uncouth to interfere with this development. But 2nd tank army did quit chasing ants and gave major bitch slaps to the Russians advancing south of Kiev.

Russians reoccupied Guriev on the Caspian.

[Mehring]

Fighting became particularly intense east of the Donets. Occasionally my counter thrusts would reach the supporting Russian arty...