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Here a Russian rifle corps and division were surrounded during the drive on Baku. The lifeline for Russians in the mountains looked precarious now.

WHAT????
The german loose Minsk, but attack Baku? Fall back from Chaucasus to Odessa will be a hard task...

The lines were finally cut by late January, and things weren[t looking so bad...

... if one averted one's gaze from the unstoppable nipple monster.

Now having lost more than 31K AFV, the Russians showed no sign of shortages of anything.

And even their manpower was climbing again.

February 1943 saw the end of mobile operations in the Caucasus. Baku remained under Russian control and there were numerous units needing mopping up in the mountains. The situation did permit a redeployment of mobile elements which were of limited value in a city or mountainous fight.

Throughout eastern Ukraine my forces were falling back on the fortified line. The week 4-10 Feb saw the destruction of 411 Russian AFV, one of the highest totals to date. 4th tank army also succeeded in counter attacking and cutting off with their backs to Manych, five guards cavalry corps. Three of these looked doomed, and were indeed destroyed. The next week saw the loss of 438 Russian AVF and Russian manpower was again declining.

If things remained calm in 4th army's sector facing north from Dnepropetrovsk, they were pretty hot and tangled nearer Kiev. M60 had achieved several footholds west of the Dnepr, including Cherkassy and a spot of high ground south-east of Kiev. Powerful forces were now crossing the dnepr north of Kiev too, and the best efforts of 2nd tank army and their valiant Italian allies looked inadequate to the task of driving them back. The line was springing leaks everywhere and in a counter attack my Italian light division was destroyed.

On 18th February, the attack on Baku began. It might have made a difference had I put Model in charge, or even Heinrici with his 8 infantry rating, who was in the vicinity commanding the mountain corps. That's with hindsight, but two set pieces, the first with eight each divisions and pioniere, as well as a ton of the heaviest artillery I had, failed to impress the defenders. Attacks continued to the end of the month, but the defence was just getting stronger if anything. Even the fort level had rebuilt from 1 to 2 between turns.

Baku, being a permanent supply centre, is not subject to the normal provisions of isolation. Though everything else was mopped up, freeing more troops for redeployment to the north, I was unable to eradicate this last Russian outpost in the Caucasus and had to lay siege to contain its defenders.

Subsequently I studied the fluctuations in Russian oil and fuel reserves. It turned out that even had I taken Baku and its reserves, the impact on Russian mobility would have been negligible to none. In the end, then, though I took comfort from watching fuel from Russian wells integrated in the supply net benefit by forces, according to this game, my strategy was fundamentally wrong.

M60 went on to recapture Astrakhan though it, as well as Guriev, remained unconnected to his supply net.

The "Baku Turkey Shoot" also resulted in Luftwaffe bomber pilots requesting transfers to other theaters. The defending PVO regiments assigned to the city defense severely handled the Junkers and Heinkels that dared appear overhead.

Now with a strong presence on my side of the Dnepr north of Kiev, M60 withdrew the more threatening units that had showed up here previously. I didn't complain.

Surprisingly, 2nd and elements of 3rd tank armies fresh from the Caucasus were able to stabilise the Dnepr south of Kiev, routing defenders of the high ground by Mironovka and recapturing Cherkassy. perhaps because of high losses, the Russians then stood off and attacked a less sensitive area of 4th army's front further south.

This rippled the effect of freeing up some battered but high morale- 90 in the case of 1st tank division- formations to be railed north of the nipple monster.

Das Reich was already there, fresh and powerful, though less than 90 morale, and with its new SS HQ. Alone it was just another plug for a faltering line. With reinforcements and a bit of time, and with aerial recon suggesting a brittle crust to an intriguingly hollow protrusion, I began to hatch ideas above my station.

The next week, early March 43, was painful, as two infantry divisions are isolated west of Minsk. On the plus side, Wiking was arriving from the Caucasus with 96 morale and the LW dropped fuel on its train carriages. It's from this that modern air forces got the idea of mid air fuelling.

The 2nd tank army units also refitted rapidly and wouldsoon be combat ready.

ORIGINAL: Callistrid

WHAT????
The german loose Minsk, but attack Baku? Fall back from Chaucasus to Odessa will be a hard task...

take a chill pill, why would I want to get from Baku to Odessa? [:D]

Mid March and M60 annihilated my two isolated divisions, continuing his advance to the outskirts of Vilnius and capturing Slonim, a couple of stops down the line from Bialystock. He regained a bridgehead over the Dnepr but nothing major. I managed to isolate a tank brigade but mud halted everything now.

Das Reich gained morale standing at 92, just from being on refit. Nice. XXXXVII tank corps from 2nd tank army was now looking quite powerful and more units were on their way. Leibstandarte with 90 morale and Totenkopf (86) were railing north.

The following week, 2nd tank army brought up its XXXXVI tank corps south of the protrusion, two average armour divisions and an infantry division. Snow returned so it was time to pull back from the western edge and allow the Russians to extent their flank further. I could only hope my infantry was an adequate screen for the armour massing in the north and that recon had not given away my tanks.

Further east, the Russians were arriving at my fortified line on the Donets, but leading with infantry including two corps. With 58 Panthers, 16th tank division joined the attack to push them back.

4th tank army also maintained a no-man's land as far as possible, between the Axis MLR and the enemy concentrations.

With more snow and what I judged to be enough units in place, I made my move and it turned out to be the proverbial game changer.

The bulge did indeed have a brittle crust and next to nothing within. Within the pocket was probably close to a million men, the cream of M60's infantry. The disaster was exacerbated by the foul hex conversion rule, but in all honesty, I don't think that was decisive. It was a shame that M60, who had played so deliberately and diligently throughout should have created this opportunity for me by placing no reserves, particularly armour, to deepen his defence and/or break the encirclement.

What followed was a morale shock resignation which I was, frankly, relieved to accept. We swapped passes subsequently so I was able to play out the next few turns. In the light of that I think this pocket, even though it was beyond saving, was not a war losing disaster to the Russians; that an historical Russian forced to continue the fight might still have reached Berlin eventually or at least fought the Axis to a draw. While obviously you want to avoid such disasters, I suspect that M60s army could afford just one and still bounce back. The game had failed my strategy for 1942, now German morale and production were falling while the Russian morale was on the ascendant. Not sure about that, but suffice to say I was not confident about achieving a victory on the battlefield.

Again, thanks for the game M60, it was truly absorbing.

surprise, surprise.

OTOH, the nature of this conflict couldn't be better reflected but by this ending(?.
The German army was really really trashed; thx for sharing

Fantastic AAR, kudos to both of you.  It's ironic that the Russians in this game were undone by a Stalingrad like disaster:  one deep penetration with the cream of their army and weak flanks that crumbled quickly.  Mehring, it seemed to me that you were really playing with fire during 1942 with a flank stretching from Minsk to Stalingrad.  Earlier you described M60 as one "cool customer" but I think that title should go to you!

panzerschokolade vs. moonshine