Nordlicht 1942 AAR Snefens vs. Telumar

[Telumar]

Just jumped in to say that it has been a very interesting AAR to read through!
Great presentation.
Good luck!

Thank you, you're welcome. Always nice to know to have some readers. Don't hesitate with comments or questions if there are any (this goes to all readers).

[LLv34_Snefens]

Turn 21
September 16th

Like Telumar said, the Oranienbaum sector is mainly just a slow mopping up from now on. I can show a map in a couple of days.

At the Leningrad corridor 12.Pz.Div is now also seen being committed, split evenly with about half on either side of Sinyavino. We are forced back, pretty much along the entire sector, but only about 2km. This now have the Germans at the base of hill Sinyavino and 5km from the rail line behind that.
Our counter-attack against the panzers on the western sector is unsuccessful, but we gain back a bit of terrain on the eastern sector. The three rifle divisions of 8th Army arrive today, and are ordered form a secondary line and dig in on the rail line itself. They have a bit of cooperation difficulties with the Neva Op.Grp. so we will try to keep them separated.
125th Rifle Division arrive from 42nd Army and begin crossing the Neva today.

Turn21Len.jpg (715.55 KiB) Viewed 369 times

South of Ramushevo, 130th Rifle Div hold on against the first enemy attempt to reduce their pocket. We also repulse an enemy attack against the Lovat River crossing by Cherenchitsy, but the enemy attack is also done without support of the panzer.
3.Geb.Div's attack by Redya River does advance slowly, but we counterattack and overall they enemy gain this day is minor.

[note: part of the reason I also didn't react so aggressively against this so far, is that the event that was supposed to have activated by the Telumar's advance, revealing that he had indeed opted for "Winkelried", was set to trigger by incorrect event. I therefor assumed this was just a offensive to open up the rail, and the objective hexes would just count as regular 5 VP hexes]

Turn21Ramu.jpg (286.63 KiB) Viewed 369 times

At Lychkovo the enemy have begun a withdrawal as we anticipated. Lychkovo itself and the entire rail line to Pola is captured and we immediately begin repairing it.
Our special forces dropped behind enemy lines didn't survive and the Germans re-establish communication to the salient.
We are also getting pushed back south of Beglovskoye swamp, but attacks along the edge of the swamp from the North establishes at least something resembling a supply line. (The units will now be only overextended, instead of unsupplied).
The German withdrawal is executed in good order, only in the NW part of the salient a few battalions are still maybe able to be cut off.
With the main objective of this operation complete, we already today begin moving units of our two Guards Rifle Corps back towards Lyubnitsa to resupply and afterwards transport to next target.

Turn21Dem.jpg (408.01 KiB) Viewed 369 times

Our small offensive north of Kholm begins today. As expected the initial line is weakly occupied, and we open the line up on a 7km wide front, although the Germans unfortunately hold on to the southern "hinge" of the line. As previously described the objective is simply to reach the swamps to the west and cut the northern exit from Kholm.

[Note: The map shows stack strength and not individual units]

Turn21Kholm.jpg (563.03 KiB) Viewed 369 times

[Mkha2023]

Just jumped in to say that it has been a very interesting AAR to read through!
Great presentation.
Good luck!

Thank you, you're welcome. Always nice to know to have some readers. Don't hesitate with comments or questions if there are any (this goes to all readers).

A good, well presented, AAR is a treat for a wargaming fan!

Wilco!

[LLv34_Snefens]

An overview of turns 1 through 21.
August 27th to September 16th.

turn1-21.gif (6.46 MiB) Viewed 335 times

Two images per turn, one before and one after my move.
Note that only observed German units are shown. As there is no rear area reconnaissance other than airfields, the reason for the constant flickering of units behind German lines is his artillery being spotted when it performs supporting fire in my attacks. It gives an indication of where I've been active, attacking or counter-attacking.

Also shown are the partisan activity I haven't covered at all. They've only achieved temporary interruption of two secondary rail lines and are now mainly hiding deep in the swamps.

[Telumar]

Turn 21 - Sept. 16th

Except for the somewhat unexpected enemy attack north of Kholm, there was no dramatic change of dynamics at the hotspots of the frontline that day. One could say that the current trend continued and that trend saw our offensive operations beginning to slow down in the face of increasing Soviet resistance. I will share some screenshots though.

At the Leningrad corridor the increasing influx and presence of Soviet reinforcements now began to be felt. We were only able to advance southeast of the Sinyavino heights while attacks on the wider eastern and western flanks were repelled by the enemy. Situation at the end of turn:

LE corr eot 21.jpg (612.83 KiB) Viewed 306 times

Operation Winkelried continued despite 3. Gebirgs-Div. reorganizing due to heavy combat the previous day. We now had three battalions of 132. Inf.Div. committed in that sector too, but their attack towards the Lovat river was not able to gain ground on that day. In 72. Inf.Div.'s sector we were able to make further, though small progress. The Lovat crossing at Cherenchitsy fell into our hands, but we will probably be thrown back by a Soviet counterattack as only one battalion was able to advance and was also unable to dig in. Northeast and southwest of the crossing we forced the Soviet defenders to retreat, too and were able to advance along the Lovat's western shore 2,5 kilometers towards the southwest where the enemy has deployed a tank battalion. A combined attack by 5.Jäger Division and LW Gruppe Meindl was successful in splitting 130th Rifle Division in two, which will enable flanking attacks against the other positions of the Division in the following days. The Soviet defense in the area has quite some depth and they have a lot of units deployed there too. We expect this to become a slow grind and it will be necessary to reinforce the offensive rather sooner than later with units that already had been and will be freed up from the fighting at the former Oranienbaum bridgehead. This is the situation at the end of turn 21:

winkelried eot 21.jpg (969.32 KiB) Viewed 306 times

In the Lychkovo sector we are again able to break contact with the enemy for the most part (except for II./Gren.Rgt. 368 which will probably get encircled and will be lost in the next turn). Given the disastrous situation two days ago we are very content that we could extricate the majority of our forces in a somewhat orderly manner. Our forces that were used against the Soviet special forces are now committed to further stabilize the situation south of the Beglovskoye swamp. In the eastern part of the Luzhno sector the high ground that was fought over during the last two days remains in Soviet hands as our (usual) counterattack fails that day. Situation at the end of German turn 21:

Lychkovo eot 21.jpg (1016.36 KiB) Viewed 306 times

The enemy break in at Kholm was sealed off by units from 8. Panzer Division. The most advanced Soviet unit, 401st Tank Btl. at first retreated in the face of Pz.Regt. 10's first 'Abteilung' rushing in from the south but decided to make its stand on the eastern shore of the small Lovat tributary. No other counterattacks were conducted. At that time the enemy attack was regarded as a diversionary attack conducted by enemy local forces with the overall intent of forcing us to commit reserves from Winkelried's area of operations. Clearly the enemy was aiming at cutting the road connection from Kholm towards the northern area of 18. Armee's sector which, if successful, would put the Kholm operational zone in an even more uneasy situation than it already was. High command was of the opinion that our local forces were sufficient to deal with the situation as there was no indication of a Soviet build up or presence of enemy theater level reserves. Situation at the end of the day:

Kholm eot 21.jpg (954.82 KiB) Viewed 306 times

[Telumar]

The "Kholm Operational Zone"

Let's use the opportunity to take a look at the military geography and the logistical situation of the "Kholm Operational Zone". The vicinity of Kholm is both geographically and logistically the most isolated part of the German front line. The town, heavily fortified, contains a 50% supply point and has no connection to the German rail net (red=inoperational rail, black=operational rail). Kholm and its immediate vicinity are held by 8. Panzer Division and 218. Infantry Division under the command of Korps Gruppe Brandenberger while the long stretch of partially intraversable terrain along the Lovat river north of Kholm is rather weakly manned by Luftwaffe field units under the command of Luftwaffe Gruppe Meindl. The green dashed line is the Kholm - Staraya Russa road which runs along or directly behind the long front line and represents the only reasonable line of communication to the rest of the theater. Behind the Lovat - Kholm front lay vast stretches of impassable swamps and marshland that offer shelter to partisans threatening rear are security all along the Lovat front and in the Kholm area. Theoretically it would be possible to repair the rail line leading west from Kholm towards the main German rail net, but holding and guarding that long line against enemy sabotage groups and partisans is only possible with a disproportionate effort in units and manpower that would significantly weaken theater-wide rear security. Note the net of security units screening and guarding operational rail lines against enemy partisans.

Kholm Operational Zone.jpg (2.67 MiB) Viewed 299 times

EDIT: If anyone wonders why Snefens didn't combine his attack against the Kholm - Staraya Russa road with a simultaneous attack by partisans out of the flooded marshes towards the east, remember he infiltrated at least one of them back to friendly lines and he also lost iirc two or three of them during an earlier incursion against the rail line south of Chikhachevo west of the marshes (we both did not report at the time). Additionally I had one of them pinned down near Grinevo northeast of the marshes. I had reason to believe that the area at least directly west of Kholm was partisan free, but kept the screen as I could not be sure entirely and also they would reconstitute at some point later in the game.

[LLv34_Snefens]

September 17th
Turn 22

At Oranienbaum the enemy tighten the noose around the eastern pockets, but we still hold on to Martyshkino.
Also a fairly quiet day at the Leningrad corridor. The Germans only make small gains east of Sinyavino. We opt not to do any counterattacks, but just dig in. 125th RD arrives and go into the line between Gorodok and Sinyavino.
We have also brought in railroad engineers to begin constructing a second rail line along the shore of Lake Ladoga, just a bit further from the front, although the enemy isn't closer than 5km from the primary line at any point.

Turn22Len.jpg (835.96 KiB) Viewed 289 times

By Chudovo we renew our attacks that was called off a little over a week ago. We have brought in heavy support from 8th Army artillery to support the attack N/NW out of the Volkhov bridgehead, as well as a few of its divisions. Not as many as originally planned as some of those forces has been held up at the Leningrad corridor. This means that we lack any follow up forces, but we are moving majority of a couple of divisions (44th and 310th RD) down from 4th Army, as well as 16th Tank Bde just arriving from Kirishi sector.
59th Army will again try a crossing of the Volkhov South of Gruzino, while this time we will also attack Gruzino itself with 4th Army.
With the reduced strength compared to the original plan, the capture of Chudovo is unlikely, but we will try to capture the other two objectives, the bridges at Gruzino and Radishchevo.
Gruzino is captured after three costly assaults (our combined losses is about a full regiment's worth), but once again the attempt to cross the Volkhov sees no success.
Out of the bridgehead the heavy artillery shows its worth though. Two spearheads gain 5km N and NW, although we are unable to capture Spasskaya Polist' that is important to allow better supply routes in the bridgehead.
We encounter no secondary lines of defense, so if we can keep momentum up there is still ground to be gained.

Turn22Chud.jpg (534.88 KiB) Viewed 289 times

North of Demyansk we destroy a single weak battalion not able to pull out, but otherwise we just follow behind the withdrawing Germans, although we do make some minor harassing attacks. By Luzhno more of our guards divisions are pulled out. Only about a single one is still in enemy contact.

Turn22Dem.jpg (332.11 KiB) Viewed 289 times

At Ramushevo the Germans capture the crossing by Cherenchitsy and also push down along the western edge of the Lovat. We spot the enemy is off balance and counterattack and take back the town, as well as making a break-out by part of the surrounded 130th RD. The result is that we cut off an entire enemy pz-btl as well as two inf btl. Unfortunately our 103rd Tank Bn just southwest of this had already been ordered to dig in, so we could only attack with infantry units and was only able to take out a single of the over 50 panzers encircled, although some infantry companies DID surrender.

East of this 2nd Shock Army starts its offensive. Its forces has been assembled in some deep forests and swampy terrain, instead of the drier and more open terrain a bit west. Two factors are in favor of this location though. The enemy seems weaker here and it's only 5km away from the Pola River and the road leading into Demyansk.
The going starts a bit rough. No of our initial attacks succeed, but after our 2nd and 3rd assaults we DO gain some ground, furthest just south of Zasovo were we advance 5km. We also manage to take the road under fire, but are unable to dislodge the enemy forces from it, this day.

Turn22Ramu.jpg (539.87 KiB) Viewed 289 times

[LLv34_Snefens]

North of Kholm at least one of the panzer btl of 8.Pz.Div arrives and counter-attacks. With this strong unit still in the area, it's unlikely that we can gain much, but 37th RB continues its attack and this day reaches the edge of the swamps by Lake Rdeyskoye. We do however already on this day begin to move out half of our armoured units in the area.

Turn22Kholm.jpg (513.68 KiB) Viewed 289 times

[LLv34_Snefens]

Turn 23
September 18th

At the Oranienbaum pockets, the Germans capture the fortress at Krasnaya Gorka and the town of Martyshkino (not shown)

The two German spearheads at Leningrad Corridor both make small gains and the eastern penetration managed to take the rail line under fire, but the 8th Army divisions hold fast.
We counter-attack both penetrations and although the enemy commits armoured reserves into the battle, we regain all ground that was lost in the last day.

Turn23Len.jpg (751.95 KiB) Viewed 247 times

At Chudovo minor German counterattacks push us slightly back, but without enemy panzer present we regain momentum and widens our two thrusts, with the bridge at Radishchevo in sight at the end of the day.
However, we are still unable to make any crossings over Volkhov River SW of Gruzino.

Turn23Chud.jpg (833.1 KiB) Viewed 247 times

By Ramushevo the pz-btl we had encircled is relieved and the crossing by Cherenchitsy once again falls in enemy hands. A single regiment of the 130th RD made it out of the encirclement, but now our forces are disorganized and another counterattack is out of the question.
SW of there, the 132.ID reaches the Volkhov river west of Khodyni, but are unable to capture the village this day.

2nd Shock Army's offensive continues. Enemy brings in a StuG-Btl to defend the road, but we still manage small gains, although our strength is fading fast as supply in the area is poor.

Germans continue to pull out of the Lychkovo salient and with the released forces he is able to cut off our penetration east of Svinoroy. The majority of a rifle regiment of 370th RD is eliminated in this.
We continue our withdrawal of all Front forces, letting 34th Army take over the entire sector once again and following the withdrawing enemy.
133rd,137th,145th and 161st Rifle Brigades as well as 177th Tank Brigade and all of 4th and 6th Guards Rifle Corps are sent refitting along the rail line by Lychkovo.

Turn23Ramu.jpg (878.75 KiB) Viewed 247 times

North of Kholm the enemy drives a wedge into our penetration. He doesn't sever it completely this day, but destroys some of our battalions and will likely restore the original frontline tomorrow.

Turn23Kholm.jpg (549.23 KiB) Viewed 247 times

[Telumar]

Turn 22 - Sept. 17th

I know I am one turn behind Snefens now, but still...

Note that all screenshots from that turn display stack strengths

With the Lychkovo - Staraya Russa rail line now being under complete Soviet control it was clear that further enemy operations against the Demyansk pocket somewhere along the pocket's northern front would soon follow and that these operation(s) would be supported by a simultaneous southern push. We hoped that until then we would have opened up a rail connection into the pocket to improve our logistics and thus increase our chances to defend successfully against such an enemy offensive, but we did not expect a southern attack to happen that soon. Consequently the defenses south of the Pola river were not exactly prepared for this, parts of the line were held by companies instead of entire battalions. That the Soviets, despite armored support, were only able to break in in two places highlights the proficiency differential of the two forces. We began an immediate shuffling of units from various other areas and formations of the front towards the threatened sector (blue dashed lines, I won't go into minute details..) and executed immediate counterattacks of which the one against the most eastern enemy break-in was successful where we employed a Sturmgeschütz battalion against two enemy tank battalions. In SS Totenkopf's sector however enemy armored advance units repelled our counterattacks. I could have encircled these units as they were only followed by a weak Engineer battalion with a flanking attack from two sides against the engineers, but this would have put the "flanking" companies out of their fortified deployment and they sure would have been overrun by enemy follow up forces which probably would have created an even wieder gap in the front line.

All the while Operation Winkelried continued. The break-out by parts of 130. Rifle Div. did catch us off guard, but we were able to restore the situation by employing the bulk of 132. Inf. Div. along 72. Inf Div. now. The Cherenchitsy crossing was retaken while further southwest units of 132. Inf.Div. that were supporting 3. Gebirg's efforts reached the Lovat river.

Situation at the end of German turn 22:

ramushevo eot 22.jpg (2.01 MiB) Viewed 244 times

Further east our retreat to the new defence line continues in an orderly fashion, though one of Gren.Regt. 368's battalions was destroyed by enemy forces in pursuit of our retreat (as was expected to happen). With the western part of the reatreating forces we seize a presenting opportunity to cut-off the advance Soviet position south of the Beglovskoye swamps where an enemy Rifle regiment surrenders after a first attack against the now isolated small enemy pocket. As can be seen, some of our retreating infantry battalions in the sector are still fresh (in green health). As the new defence line will be significantly shorter and less units would need to be employed here, these will directly march through towards the Pola river line to defend against 2nd Shock Army. Further east, south of Luzhno the front line has now come to a standstill and the Soviets did not conduct any attacks. We remain on the defensive there and let our units dig-in and rest. Situation at the end of the turn:

Demyansk north front eot 22.jpg (1.07 MiB) Viewed 244 times

The enemy has also renewed his attacks in I. Korps sector at Chudovo. Snefens was right when he stated earlier that the lack of success during the first Soviet attempt did not reveal his intentions to us. His operations in that sector were interpreted as diversionary attacks to tie down our reserves in support of the Kirishi offensive further north. Thus we did not reinforce the Chudovo sector and his renewed offensive saw some first successes. We were only able to restore a somewhat coherent defence line in most places and to bring up 20. Motorized DIvision's Kradschützen battalion again as well as anti-tank assets from the Novgorod sector and an additional heavy artillery battalion that was previously employed at the Leningrad front. An additional battalion of 61. Inf.Div. is also on the way from the southern Leningrad front but will not arrive before tomorrow by rail. It looks like further reinforcements will have to come from XXVIII. Korps sector further north, where the enemy after the capture of two of its three objectives still remained passive. Whether that would remain the case will have to be seen and can be doubted as soon as he will have realized we had sent forces from there towards Chudovo, but for the time being we will not have a better option. This is the situation at the end of the turn:

Chudovo eot22.jpg (1.74 MiB) Viewed 244 times

At Kholm, 8. Panzer's counterattack continued, but we were not able to cut off the most advanced Soviet units as intended:

Kholm eot 22.jpg (645.6 KiB) Viewed 244 times

[Telumar]

Turn 22 Leningrad Corridor:

For unknown reasons I was not able to upload and attach the screenshot to the previous post, so I have to do an extra post for this.

At the Leningrad corridor we stay on the offensive for the time being despite ever increasing Soviet resistance. It has become clear that the enemy now had redeployed forces that he already had withdrawn or was in progress to withdraw from that sector for offensive purposes elsewhere and we came to the conclusion that it would be favorable to continue tying down these enemy forces here with the chance to retake Sinyavino or even to cut the rail line (which was however no more regarded as very realistic at that point) instead of defending against them at Chudovo or elsewhere where they would have the chance to take some victory point objectives from us. We advanced in two places east and west of Sinyavino on this day and came within 2,5 km reach of the rail line. Screenshot is showing stack strenghts:

LE corr eot 22.jpg (784.88 KiB) Viewed 243 times

[Telumar]

Let's catch up...

Turn 23 - Sept., 18th

At the Leningrad corridor strong enemy counterattacks force us back from the positions we gained last turn. We will have to face the fact that reaching and holding the rail line is no more a feasible objective, especially as our reconnaissance now confirmed that the enemy has begun constructing a fall back rail further north. Instead of further attacking on the flanks of the Sinyavino hills we opt now for an attack against the heights itself (a VP objective for the Soviets with 5 VP + 20 VP bonus from the Operation Vega option). It took three assaults to take this fortified position from the enemy and with the last daylight we were finally able to occupy the heights thereby also completely destroying the defending enemy rifle regiment. Screenshot shows stack strengths:

LE corr eot 23.jpg (1.24 MiB) Viewed 203 times

At Chudovo we were forced to further retreat towards the city under continued enemy pressure out of his Volkhov bridgehead. A local counterattack against an armored enemy spearhead unit is successful and the Soviets lose one of their tank battalions. At the same time reinforcements from XXVIII Korps begin moving towards the south, artillery from 20, Mot.Div. is railed in as additional support and we begin repairing the rail line from Finev Lug towards Spasskaya Polist to improve logistics on the southwestern shoulder of the Soviet breakthrough. This is all going rather slowly and although we did not yet suffer major losses and could until now repel all enemy attacks across the Volkhov southwest of Chudovo the situation is regarded as very critical as we just do not have enough reserves. Situation at the end of the turn (screenshot shows stack strengths):

Chudovo eot 23.jpg (2.28 MiB) Viewed 203 times

At Ramushevo we finally are able to occupy the western shore of the Lovat river completely and take the village of Khodyni while a combined attack by 72. and 132. Inf.Div. establishes a foothold across the river at Cherenchitsy. At Velikoye Selo the remainder of 130. Rifle Div. is now pressed into an ever smaller pocket. Further east along the Pola river we execute only one counterattack that does however not succeed. This is the situation at the end of the turn (screenshot shows stack strengths):

ramushevo eot 23.jpg (1.37 MiB) Viewed 203 times

North of Demyansk we continue retreating. Exhausted units are being sent to Demyansk airfield to resupply and rest, while fresh units and artillery are marching west towards the Pola river front. We finally destroyed the left over enemy pocket from yesterday. The Luzhno sector remains calm (only partially shown) and we do not expect enemy activity here in the near future. Due to the vicinity of the front line to Demyansk airfield we will need to keep up a strong pressence here though. Situation at the end of the turn - units display stack strength:

demyansk eot 23.jpg (1.05 MiB) Viewed 203 times

[Telumar]

I seem to be able to only place 4 graphics per post inline (?) therefore I again will have to do a second post.

At Kholm we finally were able to regain the former front line from before the Soviet attack. A Soviet MG battalion and one rifle battalion are cut off in the process and will be dealt with in the coming day. Enemy armor that was previously active in the area seems to have been withdrawn, though due to a lack of recon we cannot be sure...

Kholm eot 23.jpg (651.09 KiB) Viewed 200 times

At the former Oranienbaum bridgehead the situation is as follows. While we were able to continually withdraw units from various formations for rest and resupply, the enemy leftovers are still binding forces roughly equal to one and a half division (!) in infantry plus a large amount of artillery as most of the remaining enemy positions are located in fortified hexes. After the clearing of the area will have finished, we are planning a slight rearrangement of forces south of Leningrad with L Korps' 58. and 225. Infantry Divisions taking over part of LIV Korps sector but more on that at a later time.

oranienbaum eot 23.jpg (1.58 MiB) Viewed 200 times

[LLv34_Snefens]

Turn 24
September 19th

In Oranienbaum sector, the last remnants of 48th RD in the eastern most pocket by Martyshkino surrenders.

In the Leningrad corridor the battle rages on. Enemy attack south of Gorodok is repulsed, while east of Sinyavino the Germans once again reaches the edge of our rail line. Several assaults on Sinyavino itself also leads to it falling into enemy hands.
We only counter-attack at the eastern penetration and forces him back away from the rail again, while for now we just hold our positions just north of Sinyavino.

Turn24Len.jpg (436.96 KiB) Viewed 186 times

South of Chudovo we press on. German infantry south of Radishchevo, in risk of getting cut off, attacks out north and forces us away from the village. Our follow-up attacks push Germans back and we now also approach the village from the SW. East if this our attempt to cut off the exposed German positions on the edge of Volkhov river is not successful.
We are in severe lack of units to keep the attack going, having a couple of tank battalions being shattered from exhaustion. The two divisions of 4th Army is about to cross into the Volkhov bridgehead today, and will be ready to go into action by afternoon tomorrow.
In the meantime we shuffle the regiments that had attempted to capture Spasskaya Polist' north and let weaker secondary forces take over the line here. German supply situation here is expected to be poor and limited reserves have likely been shifted further north, so we consider the risk of him attacking with his fortified units out of the town to be low.

Turn24Chud.jpg (746.09 KiB) Viewed 186 times

At Ramushevo the Germans clear the western bank of the Lovat north of Khodyni and also gains a small bridgehead on the eastern side by Cherenchitsy. With difficulty we are able to push him back over the river here. The intention to cut off the 'tongue' we have stretching north towards Ramushevo is obvious, but we won't evacuate this area yet as it could be vital in our coming attack from the North of corridor.
2nd Shock Army keeps slowly grinding north. Despite having 256th RD needing a rest, we still manage to keep going, reaching the outskirts of Zasovo. On the eastern flank our attacks towards Tsemeno unfortunately don't gain any ground.
Reinforcements are slowly trickling in. 314th RD will be ready for action tomorrow and 140th RB arriving by rail the day after.

Turn24Ramu.jpg (602.44 KiB) Viewed 186 times

At Kholm the enemy cut off a couple of our battalions as expected and regain the old front line.

[Telumar]

Turn 24, Sept. 19th

At the former Oranienbaum bridgehead the last defenders of Lebyashye surrendered this day and our forces further west entered the town of Sepelevo. Only two small pockets of Soviet troops now remain, one southwest of Sepelevo and another one between Oranienbaum and Bol. Izhora.

In the Leningrad corridor we are again thrown back from the rail line east of Sinyavino. Surprisingly there was no enemy counterattack against the Sinyavino heights itself which allows us to solidify our defense of the hill. An own attack west of there fails. The sector is seeing one of the calmest days since the beginning of our offensive. As there are no changes on the ground I will not show a screenshot. We are thinking about going over to the defensive and to cease all attacks as the enemy defence has now significantly stabilized and except for the capture of the Sinyavino heights we could not achieve any further progress onto the rail line during the heavy fighting over the last three days. Any further attacks will probably only wear down our forces without achieving any results.

In the very south, at Kholm the two cut off enemy battalions surrendered and the situation finally was restored.

At Chudovo, the enemy continued his attacks south of the city and reached the small town of Radishchevo 10 km south of Chudovo city center on a 7.5 km wide front where III./Inf.Rgt. 506 repulsed an attack on the town itself. An enemy attempt to isolate I./Inf.Rgt. 22 which is holding a strong, elevated position in the Volkhov bridgehead was repelled. We should retreat the battalion to safe it for good, but we fear that it could suffer devastating losses in trying to break contact. Also, it is binding a good amount of enemy forces and we think of that as advantageous at this point of the battle. Screenshot is showing the Soviet attacks and maximum advance on that day.

chudovo start turn 24.jpg (1.11 MiB) Viewed 166 times

Towards the end of the day, the situation in the sector seemed to look to stabilize for the first time since the beginning of the enemy offensive. At Radishevo we cleared the enemy from southwest of the town and were able to establish a deeper defence with the reinforcements that had been sent to the sector during the last two days. XXVIII Korps artillery has now finished assembling northwest of Chudovo with a battle group of two battalions from 217. Inf.Div. and one battalion from 11. Inf.Div. ready to be deployed as a reserve force. Further additions to our defence in the form of railroad artillery and an armored train have arrived, too.

chudovo eot 24.jpg (1.14 MiB) Viewed 166 times

In the wider Ramushevo sector 2nd Shock Army continued its offensive south of the Pola river and was able to advance on a wide front south of Zasovo in SS Totenkopf's and in 126. Inf.Div.'s sector. Only a battalion from 5. Jäger Division was able to hold its position during the enemy attack. Further east the enemy did not gain ground but the spread out II. battalion of 126. Inf.Div.'s Infantry Regt. 4 suffered severe losses during the enemy attack. At Cherenchitsy we had to retreat from our small foothold across the Lovat river under strong enemy pressure. Screenshot is showing stack strengths and is depicting identified enemy units:

ramushevo start t 24.jpg (1.67 MiB) Viewed 166 times

At Cherenchitsy our offensive continued with the enemy retreating on a 7.5 km wide front, but we were not able to take advantage of this and to advance into his vacated positions. A combined counterattack by SS Totenkopf and units of 126. Inf.Div. partially restored the situation at Zasovo. With the influx of reinforcements that were previously engaged in the fighting in the Lychkovo salient we were able to stabilize the line around Tsemeno and the eastern part of the Pola river defence line. Screenshot is showing stack strengths:

ramushevo eot 24.jpg (1.61 MiB) Viewed 166 times

[LLv34_Snefens]

Turn 25
September 20th

At Oranienbaum the enemy captures Lebyashye and Sepelevo. Only two small pockets remain of our defenders here.
In our rear we are in the process of reforming the Coastal Op.Grp after its near complete destruction. This formation won't really be suited for other than garrison duty, but we are thinking about letting it relieve one of our other Armies to free that up for use elsewhere. This will take 3-4 weeks.

At the Leningrad corridor things are easing off. Small enemy attacks are repulsed, while we just continue to dig in. We maintain our original plan to eventually restart an offensive to push to Mga (and now also retake Sinyavino), but resupplying our artillery in the sector is required first.

At Chudovo, despite some counterattacks we continue our advance and take our objective of Radishchevo. 377th RD in the east is reorganizing, so we hold the attack against the enemy bulge by the Volkhov. 44th and 310th RD arrive and assemble just behind the lines, ready to go into action. Their % of full strength is shown.

T25Chud.jpg (711.78 KiB) Viewed 118 times

At the Ramushevo corridor the enemy pushes us back from the Lovat River, but don't advance across the river. We reform a defensive line on the river bank.
2nd Shock Army's advance is slowing down. We are pushed back from Zasovo and only manage small gains further east by Tsemeno, still unable to cut the road.

T25Ramu.jpg (481.46 KiB) Viewed 118 times

It's obvious 2nd Shock Army can't force a result by itself. North of the corridor the rail line supplying the 27th and 11th Army still are a few days away from being operational and more units able to be brought in, but if we wait for that, 2nd Shock Army will be completely exhausted.
We order units from the two armies to get into jumping off position for an opening attack tomorrow. The main attack will be on either side of the Pola River, while 27th and western part of 11th Army will do supporting attacks north of Ramushevo by the Lovat River.
Shown are the manpower strength of all larger formations in the area as well as total number of tanks present in each army. Supply status is not factored into these numbers, only pure manpower.

T25Str.jpg (633.52 KiB) Viewed 118 times

[Telumar]

Shown are the manpower strength of all larger formations in the area as well as total number of tanks present in each army. Supply status is not factored into these numbers, only pure manpower.

I love what you did there, very nice! But how did you come to the manpower% numbers? Did you meticulously go through every single unit or is there a more elegant way?

[LLv34_Snefens]

I love what you did there, very nice! But how did you come to the manpower% numbers? Did you meticulously go through every single unit or is there a more elegant way?

Not all units, but I looked at the three regiments in each division and added up the regular rifle squads. So it's not a precise measure, as I don't take into account other squad types or equipment, but it gives a good approximation.

It will be interesting to see what it looks later in the game when I do something similar. I think 50% was a "strong" division at that point, lol.

[Telumar]

Turn 25, Sept. 20th

At Oranienbaum the last Soviet defenders near Sepelevo surrendered, only the pocket near Oranienbaum now remains.

At the Leningrad corridor we now finally called off the offensive and continue digging in. 12. Panzer is still in the frontline there and will have to be relieved at some point. I will come back to this at a later point. Though we were not able to cut the rail line and restore the situation as it has been before the Soviet offensive, we had some limited successes. We were able to retake the Sinyavino heights thus denying Snefens the 20 VP bonus and have tied down enemy forces that he could not use at Chudovo as he initially planned (at the time we played I could only suspect that, but Snefens basically confirmed this in the AAR). However it is to be expected that the Soviets will come back for Sinyavino and Mga in some weeks, so we will have to keep a strong defense there.

At Chudovo our counterattack threw the Soviets out of Radishchevo again. An additional Pionier Btl. from XXVIII Korps has been ordered into the sector along with one additional 15cm Artillery Battalion (both off screenshot still). Situation at the end of the turn:

Chudovo eot 25.jpg (675.07 KiB) Viewed 102 times

At the Lovat river we again cross the river in force but are unable follow the retreating enemy north of the crossing. The last remaining parts of 130. Rifle Div. at the Redya river finally surrendered this day. 24. Infantry Div. is beginning to arrive from the Oranienbaum sector and will - after some more rest and resupply - depending on situation either support Winkelried or to serve as a reserve in the case of unfavorable developments elsewhere. A mixed Kampfgruppe of 3 Infantry Btls. and one Pionier Btl. from 72. and 132. Inf.Divs. relieved two battalions of the SS Tk Div. on the eastern side of the enemy salient southeast of Ramushevo. These freed up battalions participate in a successful counterattack at Zasovo and were able to restore the situation there. From the Demyansk direction more reinforcements arrived at the Pola river front. Five more infantry battalions and 2./s.Pz.Abt. 502 are still held in reserve around Tsemeno. These units however are still exhausted and we hope that we do not need them to commit in their current state, but can give them much needed rest. Situation at the end of the turn:

ramushevo eot 25.jpg (2.26 MiB) Viewed 102 times

[Telumar]

I love what you did there, very nice! But how did you come to the manpower% numbers? Did you meticulously go through every single unit or is there a more elegant way?

Not all units, but I looked at the three regiments in each division and added up the regular rifle squads. So it's not a precise measure, as I don't take into account other squad types or equipment, but it gives a good approximation.

Thanks. I see. Makes sense, maybe if I have the time I might do something similar, but readers should not count on it

It will be interesting to see what it looks later in the game when I do something similar. I think 50% was a "strong" division at that point, lol.

I just say company sized "battalions"

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EDIT: I am thinking when I load a save in the Beta I can use 'manpower estimate' for this and compare it to the fresh unit and/or formation in sce turn 1 or editor if not deployed on turn 1. This will give a precise result. Mail or PM me if you are interested I could do this for you too (or do you have access to dev forum yourself?)
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