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The 90th Rifle Division

To give credit where it's due, EvK in effect was the author of the story, I'm just telling it.

On the 22nd of June, 90th Rifle Division was part of 10th Rifle Corps commanded by GM I. Nikolaev, 8th Army, Northwest Front. Although details are sketchy, it fought a pair of border battles in Lithuania during the first days of war, ultimately routed to the area around the port of Ventspils.




Later in the same week, the division recovered its morale and was evacuated from the port of Ventspils. From there, the 90th was transported over water to Parnu in Estonia.



It spend the following week marching east, trying to rejoin the fight with the army.



In the fourth week of war, it fought 86th Infantry Division of Lindemann's 50th Corps. The division was compelled to retreat, crossing over Lake Pskov into the swamps to continue fighting.



By the fifth week, the division relocated to yet another position in a swamp, this time along the Luga. It would remain there for another week unmolested.



The seventh week of war for the 90th Rifle Division would likewise have been quiet, if not for the fact that elements from six German corps, supported by I Fliegerkorps were about to try and bring about its destruction.

North done, EvK is up.

The 90th Rifle Division - continued

July 17, two divisions from German 50th Corps lead this week's drive on Leningrad and a move to cut off Leonid Bobkin's 33rd Army. The 90th Rifle Division retreats across the Luga River.

July 18, three divisions from Albert Wodrig's 26th Corps attempt to push back the 90th again, now working with the 106th Motorized Division in the defense. Wodrig is checked not once, but twice.

July 19, and Walter Model's 1st Corps is called up to dislodge the two Soviet divisions. This time the attack is successful. The 90th and 106th Divisions are split apart. A follow up attack late in the day by 18th Motorized Division is stopped in its tracks by the 90th.

July 20, 1st Panzer Division from 41st Panzer Corps has arrived and together with the 18th Motorized, pushes the 90th back another ten miles.

July 21, 19th Panzer Division, part of Kuntzen's 57th Panzer Corps force the 90th back yet again. Still, the division refuses to break.

July 22, and the 60th Motorized Division pushes the 90th back, this time to the port of Oranienbaum. Most of 33rd Army is cut off, and the Germans can celebrate success. But in large part due to the tenacity of the 90th Rifle Division, the SS Totenkopf Division fails to take Leningrad, defended only by a solitary fortified zone.

In the next week, the 90th will be evacuated a second time by naval transport, and this time participate in the defense of Leningrad itself.

All things considered, a German tactical victory, but with Leningrad still in Soviet hands, perhaps a missed opportunity as well?

Week 7 sees three panzer corps, 39th, 46th and 47th begin an encircling move to trap most of Kurochkin's 43rd Army, two divisions of 20th Army and a few other units, at Velikye Luki.



In the south, The Germans are over the Dnepr and Kharkov, the most vital city in the Donbas is defended by a single STAVKA cavalry division.

STAVKA's orders for the week - continue as before. No urgency, it seems.



Meanwhile, the VVS is suffering severe losses while the High Command refuses to allow the air units to pull back for reorganization.

Week 8 and Leningrad is cut off.



In the center, the Germans tighten their grip on the units around Velikye Luki and are advancing on a cavalry screen belonging to Marshal Kulik's 54th Army.



In the areas south of Moscow, the Bryansk Front remains largely a shell, while the sprawling Western Front finds itself extended as far south as Kursk.



The defense of the Donbas region is rapidly failing. In the Southwestern Front under General Kirponos, 26th Army is largely destroyed while 5th, 6th and 12th Armies find themselves separately defending Kharkov, Voronezh and Kursk respectively.



Southern Front, with the Coastal Army in the Crimea has only two armies, the 9th and 37th available to defend the southern Donbas. It is given new orders to extend itself near Kharkov in order to try and delay the Germans long enough for rail repair units to fix the damaged tracks and allow industrial evacuation to begin. It is a futile order that will come to nothing.

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
But in large part due to the tenacity of the 90th Rifle Division, the SS Totenkopf Division fails to take Leningrad, defended only by a solitary fortified zone.

In the next week, the 90th will be evacuated a second time by naval transport, and this time participate in the defense of Leningrad itself.

All things considered, a German tactical victory, but with Leningrad still in Soviet hands, perhaps a missed opportunity as well?

I have not started a proper read through of the AAR so excuse if some of what I say is from not having read earlier posts.

There was actually enough movement points for Totenkopf to make an attack on Leningrad proper at the end of the turn. It was only defended by a fort - but in an urban area with presumably lots of SUs and so on. So there is still a risk of a lost battle. I think from memory there was no industry. Presumably the thought process was to leave it as it would be taken eventually anyway. Would there have been any advantage in taking a chance, although a good one, to take Leningrad proper then?

There were probably not enough MPs to occupy Leningrad, so the effect would mainly have been to reduce fortification levels for the Leningrad defence the following turn. Perhaps also allow a few partisan units to be raised too.

If there was such an opportunity to take a piece of Soviet manpower out sooner rather than later, I think it would have been worth a chance.

Week 9

The defensive line between Vyazma and Bryansk is being surrounded.



Farther to the south, the 9th Army at Stalino is now in peril.



August 16th. Stalin calls General Mikhail Sharokhin, a department chief within the Operations Directorate. What orders are being issued to deal with this situation at Vyazma-Bryansk? Sharokhin reponds that the Chief of Staff has issued no new orders for this area, only orders to the southern grouping to stabilize the situation in the area near Stalino. The following day, Aleksandr Novikov of Northern Air Command, advises Stalin that a number of air regiments are no longer flying in the defense of the motherland. If the air crews do not get some rest soon, they may begin to mutiny. Would the army then follow suit?

August 18th. An emergency meeting for the Committee for State Defense takes place to discuss the latest situation. Catastrophe is not far off unless drastic action is taken. Lev Mekhlis urges Stalin to sack the current Chief of Staff without delay. The STAVKA cannot continue to issue little to no guidance with the general conditions deteriorating by the hour. Still, Stalin is reluctant to take such a step and the proposal is put aside for the time being.

August 20th. GM Kuzma Galitsky’s 9th Army briefly stabilizes the situation in the area near Stalino.

The 10th week of war is bringing a set of new disasters on the Red Army.

In the north, Eremenko's 11th Army is unable to hold, and the 41st and 56th Panzer Korps of PG 4 cross the Neva and capture Osinovets.



In the center, the situation worsens in the area of Vyazma-Bryansk as fresh encirclements are in the making.



In the south, PG1 launches a fresh sweeping move around the 9th Army of the Southern Front. Aside from the Coastal Army in the Crimea, the Southern Front is almost entirely surrounded. The direction eastwards is almost clear all the way to Stalingrad.



The VVS loses over one thousand aircraft for the third consecutive week. Total losses to date exceed twelve thousand aircraft.


On August 21, it is announced in Moscow that the Chief of Staff has stepped aside due to ill health. In fact, this is only a cover story. The marshal had been arrested the day prior by internal security elements of the NKVD, and charged with crimes against the state. Marshal Voroshilov is named as the new Chief of Staff of the Red Army.


Turns 10-12 were previously written up, so there will be no additional coverage of them. A review of the action will resume with Turn 13.

At this rate, Stalin himself is going have a sudden illness very soon. Or, he will sacrifice himself heroically for the fatherland. [:D]
The % chance of mud next turn is?

No way the Soviets survive past summer of '42.

ORIGINAL: Zorch

At this rate, Stalin himself is going have a sudden illness very soon. Or, he will sacrifice himself heroically for the fatherland. [:D]
The % chance of mud next turn is?

No way the Soviets survive past summer of '42.

Stalin is very interested in a prognosis of the war in 1941, would you mind to visit him in Moscow to repeat what you said?

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

ORIGINAL: Zorch

At this rate, Stalin himself is going have a sudden illness very soon. Or, he will sacrifice himself heroically for the fatherland. [:D]
The % chance of mud next turn is?

No way the Soviets survive past summer of '42.

Stalin is very interested in a prognosis of the war in 1941, would you mind to visit him in Moscow to repeat what you said?

I think I'll phone it in. [:D]

One item of note from week 12 was the creation of the Saratov Tank School. In the tank park by the end of the week were the following:

13 T-26 M1938 light tanks
4 KV1 M1940 heavy tanks
6 KV2 M1940 heavy tanks
12 BA-20 light armored cars

Headcount stood at 15,177.

Week 13

Soviet ground losses this week are over 215,000 as approximately 20 divisions are erased from the Order of Battle. The main losses are from pockets of Western Front units near Bryansk.

Leningrad falls at the cost of 33 German soldiers. The Soviet 90th Rifle Division retreats yet again, now into NW Leningrad to fight another day.

The Leningrad Front itself is fighting as three separate elements, the 7th Independent Army in Eastern Karelia, the 23rd Army along the Volkhov and the 20th Army holding the line between the Northwest and Reserve Fronts near Torzhok. Northwestern Front and its six assigned armies try to hold everything else together in the north while another German pocket is threatening units in the region of the Valdai Hills.




In the Moscow area, Reserve Front is reported to be about half strength, with 54th Army containing no combat units and 43rd Army with only two divisions and a brigade.

Vietinghoff's 46th Panzer Corps, as part of the Moscow Offensive, drives 40 miles east to the outskirts of West Moscow.

East of Orel, the Bryansk Front remains largely a shell while Western Front must protect the remaining factories at Tula.




In the south, the Axis is cleaning out some pocketed units near Stalino. A makeshift line has been formed from new units of the Southern Front and N. Caucasus MD along the Don and Donets Rivers.




The VVS remains under heavy pressure and even concentrating our units on a few bases is not stabilizing the situation.

Week 14

The Northwest Front manages to extract multiple divisions from an attempt to pocket them. Still, the Germans now have complete control over the Valdai Hills.



Near Moscow, three panzer corps assist German 4th and 9th Armies driving east.



In the south, the Axis forces have not yet arrived in force around Voronezh.



In the air, the VVS loses 481 to the Axis 117. Air recon by the Luftwaffe remains exceedingly high, with 715 missions flown. There are 117 recon missions flown at Lodeynoe Pole alone, (which is enough to crash the game if you try and look at the details).

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Week 14

The Northwest Front manages to extract multiple divisions from an attempt to pocket them. Still, the Germans now have complete control over the Valdai Hills.

In any other game that would have been a large pocket next turn. However there was quite some skill in the way the Soviets withdrew from their prior positions, and used features like the lakes and cities to the north and south, to make it impossible. So kudos to the Soviet team for that extraction this turn!

Week 15

Northwest Leningrad falls as its defenders, including the 90th Rifle Division finally surrenders.



In the center, the Germans continue to push eastwards to drive the Red Army back from Moscow.



In the south, the battle of Sevastopol begins with a failed Axis attack on the outlying fortifications.



The Axis air forces launch 820 recon missions this week at the cost of 43 aircraft.

Three weeks after the opening of the Saratov Tank School, the original 35 vehicles have some company.

332 T-26 M1938
222 T-34 M1941
54 T-28 M1940
25 T-35 M1935
5 KV-1 M1940
60 KV-1 M1941
14 KV-2 M1940
64 T-38 M1937
57 BT-2 M1932
97 BA-10 armored cars
105 BA-20 light armored cars

The recent headcount is 60,133

Week 16

Mud conditions permeate much of the front. A few Fascist attacks in the north, some air missions from the Axis air forces but little else. Moscow remains in our hands for the moment.

Week 17

Many Axis attacks in this last week of good weather as West and North Moscow fall. A few small pockets created and one is broken near Voronezh. The enemy pushes south of Rostov but will not amount to anything serious due to the late date.

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
The enemy pushes south of Rostov but will not amount to anything serious due to the late date.

Still nice to get the extra army group HQ - and the cost free rearrangement of armies and Rumanian SUs.