Eastern Front
Situation Report March 11th 1943 Turn 17
AG Centre
Due to the bulk of 16th Armee's troops being redeployed South 9th Armee's Left flank is now somewhat weakened and as such the offensive has slowed somewhat, also in part by a renewed assault by enemy troops against 3rd Pz Armee and 4th Armee.
Heavy attacks by two Soviet Fronts threaten a breakthrough towards Vyazma, six Soviet Armies including 6th Guards Army launching assaults towards Gzhatzk, Temkino and Yukhnov, 3rd Pz Armee puts up determined resistance.
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Army Group Centres position is made even more tenuous as The Soviets launch a second offensive South of the Moscow battle, here 2nd Pz Armee comes under renewed pressure being forced back almost to the city of Orel.
However a even bigger crisis looms as the enemy smashes through 2nd Armee lines, forcing the Armee to fall back in disarray towards Kursk and belgorod, with only 4 battered Divisions standing in the Soviets way of taking the city, 10 Divisions from 16th Armee are rushed South and are suborned to 2nd Armee as it fights to hold kursk.
This Soviet offensive not only threatens the Central front but also The Hungarian Army on the Right flank is now also in danger of being encircled and destroyed.
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XXXXVIII Panzer Korps Commander Ferdinand Hiem is dismissed after comments spoken by him regarding the military operations of the war in Russia are being undermined by political interference.
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FM Von Kluge sends a urgent message to Hitler at his Headquarters at Vinnitsa for a conference with The Fuhrer at Army Group Centre HQ at Smolensk.
Notes:
For Historical context.
Rommel did fly to see Hitler on March 9th 1943 about evacuating Axis Forces from Africa
also
During Germany's Eastern campaign, Adolf Hitler lived mainly at FHQ Wolfsschanze (near Rastenburg, East Prussia) but he stayed at FHQ Werwolf three times:
16 July to 30 October 1942: The weather was hot, up to 45 °C (113 °F), and the bunkers were humid. Hitler caught severe influenza, with a temperature running up to 40 °C (104 °F). In this condition, he gave his fateful Führer Directive 45, splitting Army Group South into two parts in a bid to reach both Stalingrad and the Caucasus oil fields simultaneously. The Directive was the main cause of the eventual defeat and destruction of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad and the German Army's subsequent withdrawal from Southern Russia to a new front near the Soviet city of Kursk.
19 February to 13 March 1943: to observe Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Kharkhov offensive in the wake of Germany's defeat at Stalingrad.
27 August to 15 September 1943: to observe the unsuccessful defense of Kharkhov.
