FITE: '41 Winter Offensive Onwards

[loveman2]

The ground has hardened and the germans have taken Kalinin in the north, elsewhere the german new front line awaits comrade stalin.[;)]

[Jdub]

Freezing winds blow across Russia. The Wehrmacht has spent most of the mud season retreating to new defensive positions. In only a week, the Red army races across the Donbas recapturing important industrial cities and areas which have been under German occupation since Spring 42.

Farther north, the Red army launches a small attack to enlarge the bulge around Kursk.

White arrows show the German retreat.
Green arrows show the Red Army attack near Kursk.

[loveman2]

The german army is awaiting comrade Stalins huge army[;)]

[Jdub]

Two weeks into the offensive, the Red Army has begun to break the back of the Wehrmacht...

Around Moscow, the assault was launched in a similar fashion to last winter's thrust, albeit this time with a much larger number of troops, tanks and aircraft to support the attack.

Facing the Soviet armies is a large contingent of infantry with supporting artillery. The Panzer reserve on this section of the front is rather small however, this is made up for by the numerous defense rings that have been built and manned by German troops.

[Jdub]

To the south of Moscow, an operation was launched to cross the Oka River and put some pressure on the Germans directly south of the Moscow sector. The battle is hard fought and the Germans are continuing to fight mostly intact as they are forced to retreat west.

South of the Oka River, operations are under way to liberate Bryansk. With a massive superiority in troops, equipment and supplies, there is no question whether the Red Army will be able to capture the city. It is only a matter of time before the Germans are forced to withdraw or crushed trying to hold their ground.

[Jdub]

The largest of offensive operations is the Kursk-Belogorod offensive operations which have thus far resulted in large gains of territory and have ripped through an entire section of the German frontline. A race to Kiev could take the city in possibly a month and if accomplished, will be a huge disaster for German forces on the eastern front.

[Jdub]

Surprisingly, the southern front which saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the war last summer has seen almost no fighting this winter. German forces retreated during October to strong, prepared positions along the Dnieper and Mius Rivers. Furthermore, they committed vast reserves of Armor behind the lines to counter any attack by the Red Army.

As disaster looms in the north, these forces sit static waiting for an attack. As it stands now. The Soviets don't have the manpower here to counter these reserves. However, if they are shifted, a Soviet attack could recover strong defensive positions from the Germans and render the Dnieper unusable as a long term defensive position.

[Jdub]

With most of Army Group Center annihilated to the north, Soviet generals decide to capture a bridgehead across the Dnieper at Zaporozhe. The Germans and their Hungarian allies are forced to retreat from the west bank of the river under fire from heavy artillery and mortar units including Katyusha rocket launchers. The defenders are fighting intact for the moment. However, as the bridgehead expands in depth, the Russians are able to transfer more men and materials across the river.

Panzer reserves kept in this sector amounting to an estimated 2 full Korps have remained static despite the growing Soviet threat here. Eyeing these reserves, the operation objective has, for the moment been reduced to a series of limited operations designed to increase the depth of the bridgehead and establish a staging zone for a larger attack.