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Turn 10: 21-27 August 1941

In the Ukraine, the Germans completed their destruction of the Soviet units around Cherkassy and made some progress to the east of the Dneipr. However, at Dnepropetrovsk and the south, they did not renew their earlier offensive allowing the Soviets to construct defensive lines and evacuate this key industrial region.


(Soviet armour destroyed near Cherkassy)

The main action remained the bitter fighting at Leningrad. 30 Army was relying on holding Novgorod to secure its southern flank. Unfortunately, German units captured the city by the 23rd after 2 days of intensive fighting. Backed by massive air support, their 10 Corps drove back 127 Rifle.



With this defeat, 30 Army's positions on the Oredezh were exposed.


(street fighting in Novgorod)

41 Panzer Corps exploited the situation, driving along the west bank of the Volkhov towards Myashoy Bor while the infantry of 50 Corps struck at Jamtestowe. There was no repeat of last weeks successful defence as the juncture between 30 and 33 Armies was broken open.



By the 25th, 7 rifle divisions of 30 Army were encircled and the army had effectly ceased to exist as a combat formation.



Stavka's response was quick. All available reinforcements were committed as 30 Army quickly strengthened its defences on the Volkhov. Facing the threat of encirclement, 33 Army fell back to Posadnitovo and the lower Volkhov.

To the north, 7 Army had successfully evaded a Finnish attempt to pocket the army and was falling back down the Karelian isthmus. This would help improve the Soviet defences on the northern part of the Volkhov.

The German offensive had suceeded in partially isolating Leningrad but Stavka was able to prioritise this sector due to the lack of pressure on the main Moscow axis.



Overall, the Soviets gained 70,000 men in this week. Despite its losses, Northern Front actually increased by 30,000 men as Stavka poured reserves into the battle. However, South Western Front remained weak, actually losing another 15,000 men (net) and Southern Front lost 40,000 (mainly from 18 Army at Cherkassy).

The Soviet position in the Ukraine remained critically weak as Stavka allocated fresh units to Leningrad and to build up the freshly designated Bryansk Front at Orel.

The casualty ratio favoured the Germans. They lost 17,000 men, 46 tanks and 30 planes. Soviet losses were 160,000 men (140,000 as prisoners), 619 tanks and 257 planes.

Turn 11: 28 August – 3 September 1941

The end of August saw the German offensive at Leningrad briefly stall as they dealt with the substantial Soviet forces trapped in pockets in the previous week. Their main gains were to cross the upper Volkhov around Novgorod and cut the land connection to Leningrad as they reached the southern shores of Lake Ladoga.


(Soviet cavalry in action on the Volkhov)

Elsewhere there was relatively limited fighting as they prepared for a new set of offensives. Despite this Soviet losses escalated with another 117,000 lost (100,000 as prisoners) together with 300 tanks and 145 planes.

Despite the loss of the equivalent of another army, Stavka continued to prioritise the Leningrad fighting, sending all available reinforcements to the Northern Front.



August had seen massive losses of men but the Germans were being held at Moscow. In the Ukraine they had run into supply problems despite their victory at Kiev. In the north, Leningrad was isolated but they were in no position to attack the city till they had managed to overcome the fierce resistance of Northern Front along the Volkhov.



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Sacha's squadron (285 ShAP)was withdrawn, they had inflicted a lot of damage on the Germans but had taken steady losses among their pilots. They needed to rest, and reinforce before being committed again.



No word of him. But then Northern Front had lost almost 200,000 men in the last four weeks in a series of encirclement battles. Not all were prisoners, some escaped into the marshes and woods to join with the partisans and others escaped through the German lines.


(Red Army troops and partisans north of Novgorod)

Turn 12: 4 – 10 September 1941

The first week in September saw the Germans take control of the upper Volkhov sector and renew their offensive at Moscow.


(Soviet Marines prepare to defend Leningrad)

In the north, they managed to trap another 6 Soviet divisions (mostly from 33 Army) while their spearheads captured the rail junction at Bugodoshev breaking the direct Tikhvin-Kalinin rail link.

However, 7 Army had completed its retreat from Karelia and was able to replace 33 Army defending Volkhov. In turn that allowed 33 Army to redeploy to screen the German spearheads. 30 Army was again reinforced and handed the defence of the Msta line to North-Western Front's 27 Army.



NW Front also came under pressure as the Germans launched a limited offensive around Staraya Russa driving back 8 Army.


(Soviet artillery in action near Yelnya)

At Moscow, substantial elements of 3 and 10 Armies were encircled around Yelnya. In response Western Front fell back towards Spas-Demyansk and the Bolva river.



The renewal of the German offensive at Moscow started to strectch the Soviet defences. Most of the front to the south of Bryansk was only weakly held as Stavka poured fresh formations and reinforcements into the Leningrad and Moscow battles.

In the Ukraine, only limited combat took place as the Germans hastily tried to improve their supply lines.



Both sides suffered relatively heavy losses given the limited nature of the fighting. Axis losses were 12,000 men, 35 tanks and 45 planes and the Soviets lost 52,000 men, 270 tanks and 230 planes.



Overall, despite heavy losses am gaining strength. In effect at Leningrad I'm replacing my losses each turn while the Moscow defences are being strengthened. Apart from in the Dombas area, the Ukraine is very weak with stronger sectors around Orel, around Kharkov and on the lower Dneipr.

In the air, I'm keeping around 3,000 planes at the forward bases with the bulk at Moscow or Leningrad. In terms of managing the VVS am raising new fighter squadrons, night bombers (I rather like the U2s), and fighter squadrons as bombers. The latter will be the basis for the Il-2 force that you can start to develop in 1942 (after the Mig-3 factories convert) and it helps to have decent morale and some experience.

To improve morale, I'm using Morvael's trick of a reserve air force. In this case a cluster of bases assigned to 4 BAK where I assign the lowest morale units for a turn and then back to reserve. You can push a freshly raised unit to a morale of around 55 in about 6 weeks doing this. This also helps units that have had their morale shattered in combat to recover.

It's not a trick, they are just training extensively flying to Siberia and back to Europe on a weekly basis

Why wasting 4BAK for this? I am using for training purposes the Southern Ural Air HQ(or what is the name)

What do you accomplish by sending them to this faux air command instead of straight to the reserve?

ORIGINAL: morvael

It's not a trick, they are just training extensively flying to Siberia and back to Europe on a weekly basis

Indeed, its amazing what flying skills you can learn between Magnitovorsk and a field somewhere in the middle of Russia [8D]

ORIGINAL: 821Bobo

Why wasting 4BAK for this? I am using for training purposes the Southern Ural Air HQ(or what is the name)

at this stage it makes little difference. I have spare command slots in all my fronts (and many armies) so no need to leave armies reporting to Stavka. I'll rethink once I have the army built up but by mid-42 you probably won't be recruiting masses of new air squadrons but relying on your existing set

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

What do you accomplish by sending them to this faux air command instead of straight to the reserve?

every time you send an air unit to the reserve you get a morale bonus (I think its +5). So with the gain over time and this boost you can convert a freshly raised unit to decent morale pretty quickly - certainly far better than just leaving them in the reserve. This really works as a large exercise in 1941 when you will be raising new units but at the same time you really don't need most of your airbases for combat operations

Turn 13: 11-16 September 1941

Mid September saw the first heavy rains of the Autumn affecting all of northern Russia and stopping all operations at Leningrad and Moscow [1].



However, the ground remained solid to the south of Moscow and the Germans hit Bryansk Front on the Desna.

This shift presented a direct threat to the major industrial centre at Tula and of outflanking the Moscow defences to their south. In an attempt to disrupt the German offensive, Stavka ordered a series of bruising counterattacks.

13 Army struck the northern flank held by the German 8 Infantry Corps and 21 Army hit the southern flank of their encirclement.



21 Army was allocated substantial air cover and hit the extended German motorised formation opening up the southern sector of the pocket and allowing most Soviet units to fall back towards the Oska and to reinforce the defences at Orel.


(Mig-3 taking off near Orel)




(Soviet AT rifle teams in action near Bryansk)



Again, despite heavy losses, the Red Army grew by a net 70,000 men with almost all of these extra troops thrown into a last desperate attempt to hold onto Leningrad.


[1] – I have been pretty lucky with the weather, this was well timed to rescue my battered defensive lines on the Volkhov.

Turn 14: 18-24 September 1941

Mid-September saw a renewal of the German offensive across the front. Soviet forces at Dnepropetrovsk were encircled and Bryansk-Orel sector saw vicious fighting as the Germans pushed for Tula. In the north, they consolidated their grip on the east bank of the Volkhov breaking the front held by 7 and 30 Armies.

Leningrad

At Leningrad, the Soviet positions started to crumble. The Germans were content to screen 27 Army (NW Front) on the Msta and turned almost all their assault divisions north. The rail bridge at Volkhov fell as 7 Army fell back to try and hold the line of the lower Chagodos. The supply line to Leningrad was already becoming stretched, reliant on the small port of Sviritsa and with the nearest major rail junction at Tikhvin.



Orel

The fighting south of the Oka and at Orel was the most intense of the week. Although the Germans managed to destroy the Soviet forces trapped at Bryansk and Yelnya. They also had setbacks. Western Front's 3 Army clung onto Spas-Demensk despite repeated attacks.




(Soviet defensive positions at Spas-Demensk)

Also, the heavily reinforced VVS took the Luftwaffe by surprise. Clearly used to facing little opposition, the Germans made the mistake of sending in unescorted bombers on a sector where Stavka had recently deployed some of the best Soviet fighter squadrons. Some victories raised Soviet morale after the battering the VVS had taken since June.




(Soviet fighter pilot decorated for shooting down 2 German bombers)[1]

However, despite these victories, the Soviets faced a major disaster as the Germans reached Orel and drove back Bryansk Front. In response Western Front abandoned the salient between the Oka and the Bolva falling back to the Oka. This allowed a substantial improvement to the defences at Tula. To its south, Bryansk Front was effectively shattered by the fighting in the last 2 weeks. 10 divisions were now cut off behind the German spearheads and the Front had less than 50% of its notional strength to try and prevent the Germans swinging around to the south of Tula. Its southern flank was defended by a few rifle brigades holding key river bridges and rail junctions.



Dnepropetrovsk

Around Dnepropetrovsk, the Germans renewed their offensive. However, a powerful counterattack by the rebuilt 9 Army inflicted heavy losses on their 16 Motorised division enabling the Soviets to open the pocket and resupply the units defending the key industrial city.



To the south, the Rumanian 1 Armoured Division had become overextended near Armyansk and was driven back with heavy losses by elements of the Coastal Army. After several days of heavy fighting it had lost 30% of its tanks.





This was the only sector where Stavka felt confident it could stall any further German advances. The gap from Orel to Kharkov was held by little more than a weak screen as SW Front continued to be starved of reinforcements.

Even though Southern Front had been battered in the recent battles it was clinging to the lower Dneipr and preventing the Germans from consolidating their recent gains. The longer these battles raged, the more Stavka was building up a substantial reserve under the Caucasus MD in the Donets region.

Equally each small counterattack bought time to continue the evacuation of the massive industrial capacity of Stalino and surrounding cities.

OOB and commentary



Front line strength actually dropped over the week even though total strength went up. New infantry brigades are all at 50% TOE as I'll use them to cover the rear, maintain fort lines and as the core of the 'reserve' army I'll build up over winter. Most new tank brigades are also at 50% as I think I gain more from the attached tank battalions so those have priority. Some tank brigades are at 100% and will go to identified armies to help the winter offensive.

In terms of losses, the Soviets lost 115,000 men (70,000 as prisoners), 240 tanks and 300 planes. Axis losses were 17,000 men, 90 tanks (reflecting the Orel-Oka battles) and 110 planes.

So far I've lost 1.5m as prisoners and another 100,000+ will be lost on T15. There are around 150,000 men in Leningrad, which is now doomed and I suspect there will be more small pockets till mud stalls the German offensive. This is starting to become worrying but I am basically trading off the 1941 army for the survival of my industrial base.

As is clear from the maps – in order to concentrate on key sectors there are huge gaps in my front. It all feels as if I am the verge of a major collapse.

Given the new 1942 rules, I am not that confident I've yet found a good balance. But will persist with constantly trying to open up pockets so as to slow the German advance.

As in this turn, you can attack in 1941 without the +1 rule but you need to set things up with more care. But roughly 1-1 in apparent CV, combined with the likely levels of fatigue for German units at this stage, seems to be a good basis for winning about 80% of your attacks.

[1] – Most female Soviet pilots either flew aircraft being transferred or the U2s on partisan resupply or night attacks. Despite post-war myths, they were not welcomed by male pilots in fighter squadrons. The picture is of Lydia Litvyak one of the few decorated fighter aces from an all female squadron that took part in the Moscow battles at the end of 1941 (they mostly used Yak-1s).

What is your OOB at and what are your total losses to date as far as men go?

ORIGINAL: Pelton

What is your OOB at and what are your total losses to date as far as men go?

Losses by the end of Sept were 2.1m but Vigabrand has another 120,000 trapped (and doomed at Moscow), plus about 80,000 in pockets that will be sealed in the next turn or so.

OOB is 4.9m.

So I think I've run up too many losses but, as in the next post, the reward is to have hung onto all the key cities. With only 2 turns till the main mud season, I doubt he'll be able to take Stalino or Tula before the November snows

Turn 15: 25 September – 1 October 1941

The end of September saw continued German pressure in the same three sectors as the previous week.

At Leningrad, Stavka reluctantly accepted that Leningrad was lost. Major German attacks captured Tikhvin and forced the Syas. This eliminated the final defensive line protecting Sveritsa and threatened 7 and 33 Armies with encirclement.


(exhausted Soviet troops retreating at Tikhvin)

At Moscow, Western Front managed to redeploy and build multiple defence lines covering Tula. In turn Bryansk Front dug in to the south of Tula and launched a series of counterattacks that broke open the German encirclement of units falling back from Orel.






(Destroyed German tanks near Orel)

In the south, the Germans firmly sealed their encirclement of Dnepropetrovsk. However, as at Tula, fresh Soviet units were able to breach a secondary pocket on the Volchya. Again, combat formations were sacrificed in an attempt to slow the German drive on Stalino.





OOB



Overall



September had seen heavy fighting and the Red Army had lost 400,000 men (320,000 as prisoners) as it had tried to stall the German advance. The Axis had lost 57,000 as they tried to eliminate fierce Soviet resistance.

The Soviet tactics of localised counterattacks to try and break open German pockets had probably led to higher losses overall but also had delayed the Germans as each encirclement battle was stretched over 3-4 weeks before they finally managed to eliminate the Soviet defenders.

Wow. Very nice AAR

Hope you hear better news concerning your brother... [8D]

470k ARM and 1.1M Supply left at the end of T15. Impressive, what tricks are you using? I first guessed on no Art SU in the Armies, but then I spotted some in the battle screen shots.

In any case, 2850 Manpower in your territory is a rather valid indicator that the Axis advance has been stymied.

Eagerly awaiting the evacuation white paper.

Don't forget, that you save many Arm in 1.08. because of cheap upgrades.
You don't need to built new sapper, the engine upgrade most of them for some Arm.
Maybe that is an explanation.

Well at T15, it's roughly 400k more ARM in the pool than in Loki's game vs SigUp. See post #54 here.

The reduced TOE of the 41b Rifle Division would account for some but there is most likely something else as well.

The priority of fac evac clearly shifts from ARM to HI.

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

470k ARM and 1.1M Supply left at the end of T15. Impressive, what tricks are you using? I first guessed on no Art SU in the Armies, but then I spotted some in the battle screen shots.

In any case, 2850 Manpower in your territory is a rather valid indicator that the Axis advance has been stymied.

Eagerly awaiting the evacuation white paper.

ORIGINAL: VigaBrand

Don't forget, that you save many Arm in 1.08. because of cheap upgrades.
You don't need to built new sapper, the engine upgrade most of them for some Arm.
Maybe that is an explanation.

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

Well at T15, it's roughly 400k more ARM in the pool than in Loki's game vs SigUp. See post #54 here.

The reduced TOE of the 41b Rifle Division would account for some but there is most likely something else as well.

I'll answer this as a batch. Will do a more detailed post about industry etc as I now have evidence from my AI game to late 1943 - this is interesting about potential choke points and where shortages may be - even if, inevitably, I have more industry and a bigger army than in PBEM.

The main reason for the changes above is the new routines in 1.08 - in particular that SUs default to Stavka not the linear command level. Especially for SW Front that makes a huge difference in terms of re-allocation. My view is that up to more or less this stage in 1941 you don't need to buy many new SUs as you can re-allocate what you have so much more easily.


I have a default structure where each army has 3 artillery SUs, 2 engineers and 1 AA. You can do this quite easily with the at start stock. I also hold back the bigger guns within Stavka till about now. I now start giving those out to the Shock Armies as they arrive or any regular army that has better units/command than the average.

Before, you got a lot of SUs stuck esp in SW Front and it was tempting to raise more to fill out your desired OOBs.

I also am better at managing returning units. If a rifle division comes back with low experience etc I'm setting it at 80% TOE for now, again that saves arms pts. All the rifle brigades and most tank brigades are at 50% (I don't plan to use them in combat so that saves arms pts and manpower over a critical period). Some tank brigades I'll operate with the cav corps so they go to 100%. In turn that allows me to allocate the relatively scarce 1941 tank pool to tank bns (=more power in the cav corps).

Worked out a lot of this in an vs AI game, but its implicit in the 1.08 changes. In effect there are huge admin/arms pts savings in there - if you look for it - that more than offsets the obvious additional costs around new air units/airbases etc.

ORIGINAL: morvael

The priority of fac evac clearly shifts from ARM to HI.

thats another trade off - I don't think you need to spend that much more rail pts on evac, but you need a different pattern of evacuations. Also I do think you need to be prepared to lose more of the 1941 army while extracting the industrial base that will fuel your recovery from late 1942.

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

Well at T15, it's roughly 400k more ARM in the pool than in Loki's game vs SigUp. See post #54 here.

The reduced TOE of the 41b Rifle Division would account for some but there is most likely something else as well.

Vigabrand did not really put him under the same presure as SigUp.

ORIGINAL: Gabriel B.

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

Well at T15, it's roughly 400k more ARM in the pool than in Loki's game vs SigUp. See post #54 here.

The reduced TOE of the 41b Rifle Division would account for some but there is most likely something else as well.

Vigabrand did not really put him under the same presure as SigUp.

I think he is playing for 1942. While its clear that is now the decisive year (assuming no Soviet collapse in 1941), I personally think he has been too worried about his supply lines and perhaps put too much into Leningrad.

The last few turns, most of my army is exhausted, especially where the fighting has been sustained - I find this tends to happen just at the end of the summer-autumn 1941 battles. Now of course its true the Germans are exhausted too, but they are the side that needs to make things happen - I'm happy enough just to sit back and recover (if I can).

The problem with a '1942-first' mindset is if it means I can build up to the extent that any offensive quickly just runs into a wall of Soviet formations.