Workshop for the new guys - Directive 21 (D21)

[larryfulkerson]

9% is only 1 in 11, and only 11 of the 52 aircraft in the loss column were actually shot down, the rest just have a bunch of holes that need patched up before they're combat ready again.

You're better at math than I am. Thanks for the correction. I still think it was heavy losses.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the east side of Kiev right now. I'm destroying Soviet units and moving south and east. The supply level is low
so most of this will be happening in slow motion but progress is being made.

[larryfulkerson]

One of my recon units went looking for Germans and ended up cutting off the supply to quite a few Soviet divisions and
several little groups. The Soviets are going to react to that surely. Like I kicked over a rock and there's crawly
things underneath. This action might help the takedown that's going on.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T20 before I have moved anybody. Most of the progress is being made in the south.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the face of war near Pskov right now. Battles are scheduled and units are moving and there's a lot of churn
going on.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the area NE of Kiev and the 16th Motorized Division is in good shape and hasn't moved yet and I'm thinking of
where to send them. I'm thinking just east of Kiev to shut off the LOC's to the city. But on the other hand they are
fast movers so I'd have to replace them with regular leg infantry pretty soon or I'll be wasting their services.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's defending Kiev right now. The north hex has ample infantry and support units but the south hex has only a
couple of infantry units and are making up the deficit by parking lots of arty in the hex. There's more arty in the hex
to the east. This calls for Panzer tanks to take down and not soft targets like infantry. Even a probe would be
expensive in losses.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie, we've had our first German casualty in that, well, I've been driving the 60th
Motorized Division too hard and somehow the engineers got left on the front lines by
themselves and almost didn't survive a Soviet attack. It split into three pieces and
they are now reorganizing and can't move or shoot and I'm thinking one or more of the
pieces are going to surrender rather than die outright and the units will evaporate. Maybe
not. Maybe they will somehow survive and I'll get them behind the lines in a much better
supply area, get them put back together and everything will be just fine. We'll see.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie, I unleashed the combat phase and some of the battles were sucessfull and some of them backfired. Like the
last battle listed on the post battles report where I lost a lot of planes and the Soviet lost nothing. I had bombed
a stack, I think the southernmost one, and I had neglected to check out the stack as carefully as I should and I missed
seeing the AA units in that stack and attacked it anyway and my planes paid the price of admission.

[larryfulkerson]

The troops have reached the end of the valley between the rivers so there's a convoy line of units
leaving to get over on the east side of Kiev. The progress there is going great guns and the only
thing missing is a lot more troops. These guys are marching north to get on the railroad and
carried via rail to their staging areas. I'm even thinking of sending some troops north because
they need people up there too.

[larryfulkerson]

So I'm moving units and I see some pontoon guys and they are in range and the hex looks like it
might work so I moved the pontoon guys over to the hex and voila I'm in possesssion of yet
another river crossing. Hallaluya. Another way to get some troops across the river. This will
speed up the advance a lot. Maybe I can get back on schedule mow.

I've got some Rumanians that are having a hard time getting across the river a little to the north
and I'm thinking I'll move them down to this new crossing place. And then follow up with whoever
still needs a crossing place. I estimate another dozen troops need to get across yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines before I have moved anybody. Seen from this height, most of the map must be in movement and
there's at least 30 different battles going on at different places. You have to be able to imaging it to have a
better battlefield awareness.

[larryfulkerson]

And you can see that at the SE end of the valley between the rivers that the supply level is still too poor to do much
in the way of pushing and shoving. I'm mainly just holding them back at this point. More Soviets sortie from the east
side of the river every once in a while.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the NW sector of the front lines and as you can see I'm just about to kill the last Soviet remnants in the west of
the bottleneck area. So then we can go concentrate on stopping up the bottleneck good and go after the Soviet units
near Leningrad. I'll gladly take the city if I can but I'm aiming for the Soviet units themselves.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the view of Leningrad looking south. The front lines have moved away from Pskov and I'm battling Soviet units
in little groups still. I've got some troops coming up here from the south and they should arrive in a turn or two.
I've been building rails to this location and the supply levels are a little bit better so the war can go on here.

[larryfulkerson]

As you can see the supply level around the Smolensk area has improved a bit. I've got the three supply units busy and
I'm thinking I can wage war in this area now.

[larryfulkerson]

So there a section of the front lines where I'm wondering if I've gotten into the Soviet backyard or not. I'm wondering
where they all are. I'm afraid of getting way out in front without support......what I need is another dozen divisions
to spread out and open another front in the war. It would be really cool to be able to isolate Leningrad from the rest
of Russia. I don't really need Leningrad but if the Soviets will give it to me I'll take it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in the south SE corner in the tri-cities area up against the rivers. I've got units mopping up
and some are the tip of the spear still and are in meeting engagements and lots of units are moving east to get to this
area.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the face of war near Leningrad right now and the Finns are slowly pushing the Soviet units south and it's looking
like the Finns may have gotten into the Soviet backfield or will shortly.

[larryfulkerson]

This group has just finished up mopping up a Soviet stack and now are ready to head east and further
adventures. I'm approaching the soft underbelly to the Leningrad area. There's roads and rails
leaving from here that I can use to approach Leningrad from the south. I'd llike to get some
troops into the area where all the recon units are so as to shore up the territories gained. But
that would call for more troops than I have just now.