STAVKA WAR DIARIES III- Farewell to Barbarossa

[fbs]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Change of command

I think it's more like this...

[Michael T]

I would kill that isolated Pz XX.

[M60A3TTS]

Weeks 11 & 12 - August 28 & September 4 1941

Dave continued to work his isolation of Leningrad. The port of Osinovets remained in Soviet hands.



The enemy isolated Smolensk and pushed eastwards.



Fascist elements in the south pushed over the Torets River north of Stalino.



Changes of command took place within Southwestern Front

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

I would kill that isolated Pz XX.

Reluctantly I would disagree unless you could get modified attack CV of 7 or more. How much would losing cause a problem as that has to be a factor especially if you fancy attacking with less?

[M60A3TTS]

Week 13 - September 11, 1941

The port of Osinovets fell, cutting off supply to Leningrad. The trapped units in the area totaled seven divisions.



On the road to Moscow, the enemy advanced between Smolensk and Vyazma.



Losses to date

[M60A3TTS]

Week 14 - September 18, 1941

Dave began reducing the units around Leningrad.

In the Vyazma sector, a fresh crisis broke out as much of Ivan Konev's Reserve Front was cut off by a series of panzer thrusts. A general evacuation of the area was called for. Although some lead panzer elements were cut off, it appeared only the intervention of General Mud would prevent another encirclement of the Reserve front the following week.



The Germans were made to pay a small price for their advance, from the air no less.



Farther south around Kharkov, Dave managed to create a smaller pocket of units mainly from Southern Front.



OOB



Recruitment of new sapper units has been a priority in the first months of the war.

[M60A3TTS]

Week 15 - September 25, 1941

The city of Leningrad fell as expected.

As if answering the prayers of Mother Russia herself, General Mud intervened to stop the Germans in their tracks east of Velikie Luki. General Konev repositioned Reserve Front into positions that would stabilize the situation.



Farther to the south, the Germans reduced their pocket near Kharkov. Newly arriving Soviet units moved in to reinforce the area.

[M60A3TTS]

Week 16 - October 2, 1941

Dave resumed his advance in the center towards Rzhev, and surrounded three divisions of the Kalinin Front near Toropets.



South of Kursk-Voronezh, 1st PG managed to surround defending units along the Oskol. Counterattacks from the north opened the pocket and isolated several German units.



54th Army saw a change in commanders.



OOB



Ground losses

[M60A3TTS]

Week 17 - October 9, 1941

Dave's summer campaign came to an end. Both sides prepared for the adverse weather that was coming.

Reports from the fronts:

Leningrad Front maintained positions east and west of the Volkhov



Northwest Front held the line along the Lovat, south of Lake Ilmen.



Kalinin Front held Rzhev and positions west of the Volga.



Western Front clung to Vyazma and opposed the Germans advance towards Moscow.



Bryansk Front held Bryansk and blocked a German advance towards Tula.



Southwest Front held Kursk and was expected to draw on STAVKA rifle divisions to replace those trapped in the pocket.



Southern Front held Voronezh and Voroshilovgrad. It also opposed any attempted Axis advance towards Rostov.



Soviet industrial losses during the first 17 weeks were modest and a full recovery expected.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

Recruitment of new sapper units has been a priority in the first months of the war.

This is interesting. So far I've always just build RR Repair units until the Blizzard. I end up with approximately 60 of them by blizzard. As far as I know they have a better construction value then construction battalions. Now what's the advantage of having Sappers that early? Counterattacking?

[Flaviusx]

Sappers are better diggers, can contribute to combat as SUs reserve activations, and eventually will wind up being the most favored attachment for corps sized formations.

You need some RR brigades...for RR repair. But they are otherwise not cost effective compared to sapper regiments. My own rule of thumb is 2 such brigades per Front, and another half dozen in STAVKA. Otherwise, it's sappers and turtles all the way down.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

I've build very few sappers in my game so far but the pool seems to be empty. Does it make sense to build sappers with these numbers? I also have a question regarding ski battalions. Do you attach them to the army or directly to the corps?

[loki100]

my impression was if you create the demand (ie raise the shell formation) then the production logic will match the supply - I had something similar in late 41 but just carried on ordering sapper formations up and they filled out pretty quickly,

[Flaviusx]

Sappers will be built on demand if your manpower and armament pools allow for it. There are some elements in the on demand production system that are quirky, but none of these exist in sapper regiments. They are about as vanilla as it gets.

[M60A3TTS]

Weeks 18-24 Leading up to blizzard

Dave and I just wrapped up Turn 26.

In the weeks of the Rasputitsa and then snow, there wasn't much action. Dave finished killing off the units in the south that he had surrounded. During the rainy weeks, it was unusually cold in the north Soviet zone, with one snow week followed by two blizzard weeks. This allowed Dave to do some hit and run attacks designed to cause me casualties and give him morale boosts.

The only city he captured was Vyazma, but otherwise the front lines did not change noticeably. He made no attempt to follow up success in the south with an attack near Voronezh or Rostov. Dave has played this game rather conservative, perhaps due to the reserve activations he was suffering at Saper's hands. The Red Army goes into blizzard with over 6 million ready. Overall I was satisfied with the results. I suffered some pocketing, but the rather low losses near Leningrad allowed me to take the later losses in the south without much trouble. I was lucky that mud struck when it did in the area around Kalinin Front, and that attempted encirclement in the end only cost me three divisions.

Industry looks very good, and a number of sizeable population centers like Orel, Kursk, and Rostov remained in Soviet hands. Arms points have allowed me to add new artillery units for the armies and keep all TO&Es at full strength.

[M60A3TTS]

Soviet Winter Operations

The Red Army went over the attack with the following objectives.

The Leningrad, Volkhov and Northwest Fronts launched the Pskov Strategic Offensive. This was designated by the STAVKA as the most important objective of the winter operations. The goal was to push west and isolate the Axis units defending in the Leningrad sector. The STAVKA 1st Shock Army (cavalry) was sent to this area of operations. 55th Army remained in support of the 7th Independent Army that opposed Finnish units in the far north.

The Kalinin and Western Fronts were committed to the Smolensk Offensive. The goal was to re-take Smolensk and push forward to the land bridge north of the Dnepr River. Reinforcements to be assigned after the offensive began were the STAVKA 2nd, 3rd and 4th Shock Armies (tank).

The Bryansk Front was to participate in the Gomel-Chernigov Offensive. Here the objective was to advance to the east bank of the Dnepr. In support of this advance by Bryansk Front were three STAVKA armies, the 33rd and 34th (cavalry) and 61st.

The Southwest, Southern and North Caucasus Fronts were assigned to the Donbas Offensive. Here the objectives were Stalino and Kharkov with a general advance towards the cities of Dnepropetrovsk-Zaporozhye. The STAVKA 50th Army (cavalry), 16th and 52nd Armies along with several mountain cavalry divisions supported this advance.

[M60A3TTS]

The Pskov Strategic Offensive

The operation began with 1st Shock Army sweeping around the southern end of Lake Ilmen and reaching the outskirts of Novgorod.



German units responded by pulling back. This allowed 1st Shock Army to widen the breach. 56th Army of the Volkhov Front marched into Novgorod.



As the battle continued into the next week, 1st Shock Army continued to widen the gap and flank the Axis forces southwest of Leningrad.



With the German line cut open, the Northwest Front advanced eastwards towards Pskov.



By the fourth week of the offensive, the Axis troops at Leningrad were separated from the rest of Army Group North.



The advance continued throughout the fifth week.



January saw Pskov liberated.



The Transcaucasus Front was activated and sent to the Leningrad sector. Three artillery armies with fifteen light howitzer brigades supported with eighteen light rocket regiments were also brought to the area.



The eighth week of the offensive had the Volkhov and Northwest Fronts forcing the Germans to lengthen their lines.



With the strategic objectives of isolating Leningrad and taking Pskov accomplished, the next step would be to determine where to draw a halt line for Spring. Meanwhile direct attacks against the German and Finnish units in the Leningrad sector would continue with the goal of shrinking the defensive perimeter.

[M60A3TTS]

The Smolensk Offensive

This offensive was something of a misnomer. In actuality it was, at least initially, more of a leisurely advance to the west. The fascists showed no indication of putting up any sort of resistance and instead pulled back at a steady rate.

The advance began.







Four weeks into the offensive, and the Red Army was at the gates of Smolensk.



The following week, the city of Smolensk was given up without resistance.



The advance then continued towards the land bridge.





With the Germans continuing to fall back, the Red Army was now outside Vitebsk.



The following week Vitebsk fell. At this point there was some resistance in the area as Dave's troop strength was recovering from the blizzard.



With the land bridge secure, it would be necessary to decide how much farther to continue to advance.

[M60A3TTS]

The Gomel-Chernigov Offensive

33rd and 34th Armies comprised of eight cavalry corps advanced towards Chernigov. The rifle divisions of the Bryansk Front advanced westwards.




A small gap appeared in the German lines that the cavalry attempted to exploit.


With the Red Army cavalry moving quickly, the Germans in turn hastened their withdrawal


By week 7 of the offensive, both objectives were taken.


The advance continued, taking the Bryansk Front to the Dnepr.

[SigUp]

Talk about a strong blizzard offensive. Poor smokindave, getting trashed in two consecutive blizzards.