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April 1942 turns 28-45
The winter is now finished and the spring mud has set in. Operations have come to a standstill. A good time for a third report.

Volkhov and Leningrad Front
The three armies from Volkhov Front have started advancing over the Svir river. Finnish forces have retreated. We'll see if this move is a good idea when /if finnish forces resume offensive operations later in 1942.
On the Volkhov river, several assaults against well dug-in finnish forces protecting Leningrad result in nothing except horrendous losses.

NorthWest and Kalinin Fronts
Several limited attacks on the Northwest frontline.
A major assault around Rzhev - the city was retaken - supported by 1st and 2nd Shock Armies (now pulled behind the lines as a general reserve force).

Western and Bryansk Fronts
Not much progress here, in spite of a number of army-size offensives south-west of Tula. A fair number of Guards divisions were created.

South Western and Southern Fronts
An offensive towards Kursk was launched, supported by 3rd and 4th Shock Armies, but it eventually lost steam after reconquering some land.
Powerful panzer forces have been detected in the Kursk-Kharkov area. So offensive operations have halted and defenses have been strengthened accordingly.

Southern and Transcaucasian Fronts
Not much change here. Limited operations during the winter along the lower Dnepr. Donbass defenses have been improved.

Crimea Front
Sevastopol 51st Army is still holding. Fortifications are improved on both sides of the strait of Kerch.

Conclusion
The German Army is still a formidable opponent - the very limited results of our winter offensive have shown that (small retreats achieved at a huge cost for our troops). The fight to root the invader out will be long and difficult.

You are very well set up for summer '42. Well done.

I currently struggling with 3 panzer groups (!) attacking Leningrad as he can't get any traction there (T15). I will try to post some updates now that work has calmed down a bit.

t53 May 1942
An offensive from Kharkov

With the fine weather coming back, so has resumed offensive operations. Specifically, the German has massed several panzerkorps to breakthrough our defences South and West of Kharkov, in the general direction of Voroshilovgrad, supported by operations in the infantry armies from the Azov sea up to Belgorod.

Our answer is 1/ to retreat a bit and create a buffer zone controlled by rifle brigades. 2/ to redraw the main line of resistance and get its armies on full refit, 3/ to move 3rd and 4th Shock armies to backup the line and 2/ to insert the newly created Voronezh Front armies between Bryansk Front and South Western Front in order to strengthen the defense in the area. We'll see if it can absorb the shock.

Rifle corps and tank corps are created at a steady pace now (two of each or so each turn) to beef up some selected armies.

On a minus side, we experiment some shortages in heavy bombers (IL-4) : the production of the evacuated factories won't peak before t60 and has some trouble coping with the losses induced by our aggressive air campaigning. It is not a huge problem though - we have plenty IL-2 and Pe-2 to do the job.

It would be nice to see the fort levels. And how big is the army now? 7m or more I should think.

Is the aggressive air strategy paying off?

Meanwhile, in Finland
The other part of the front that know some movement is a bit of a sideshow.
We finally came into contact with finnish troops north of Lake Ladoga but are not able to budge them by an inch.

The lesson is clear : our army is still a long way towards being an effective offensive tool.

In front of Moscow

Some attacks to retake Rzhev were observed. The frontline was locally pushed eastwards, but the threat is not comparable in magnitude to the operations conducted in Ukraine.
The pre-positioned 1st Shock Army and the fortified defensive array around Moscow should do the job if the line armies are not enough.

Next AAR : in June or July 1942, when the German side have received its full complement of summer reinforcements.