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Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 7 (Axis)

The Germans do a land action.

Port Attack: None
Naval Air: None
Strategic Movement: None
Ground Strike: None
Rail Movement: None
Land Movement: The Germans order a general advance - a bit risky but....
Air re-base: A mix of fighters and bombers north and south re-base in order to try and maximise protection.


North

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 7 (Axis)

HQ Reorganisation: None
Turn ends on less than 2: 5 thrown.

South

General Retreat still commands most of the front. However, in the far North and the far South the withdrawal is halted.

The turn continues on a die roll of 5. And the weather is depressing.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 9 (Axis)

The Axis choose a Land Action and go for their Offensive Chit with von Rundstedt. Pretty dumb at this stage of the turn but.....

Port Attack: None
Naval Air: None
Strategic Bombardment: None
Ground Strike: Two a Ju-88 against Stalino and an He-111 against Kharkov escorted by an Me-109

The Soviets bring in a Yak to fight the unescorted Ju-88. It would really help if I think these things through....[8|]

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 9 (Axis)

Brutal. Both aircraft are blown out of the sky, taking their pilots with them. There will be no ground strike against that hex. Good work says von Rundstedt.....


Yakety-Yak don't look back

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 9 (Axis)

The Soviets use their AA unit against the Heinkels. The AA reduces the bomb load and the results will be nothing but a source of embarrassment for the fat one.


Boy those Heinkels really bombed....

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 9 (Axis)

The two attacks announced line up as follows.

Against Kharkov von Rundstedt brings in he might of the 1st Panzergruppe, while the attack on Stalino is left largely to the infantry of 11th Army supported by the Romanian 3rd Army.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 9 (Axis)

The attack on Kharkov remains 4:1 +1 after fractional odds and a 7 is thrown. I then confuse myself and convert the shattered result to retreat (like you do [8|]). The Soviet player happily leaves the 7-3 in play and retreats thankfully into the wood with Timoshenko. Quality play from a quality player.

The attack on Stalino started badly with a cock-up over the ground strike, it then got worse as the Soviet player was able to bring in 3 points of ground support courtesy of an Su-2. I then compounded my stupidity by allowing an attack with a -1. The German cause was temporarily helped by the fractionals upping the odds to 4:1 but then a 4 was thrown. The Soviet lose a division, the Germans a mountain division.

Free advice: Kids, if you have an offensive chit to use, don't try this at home.

Air Re-base: Two rebases left are used by fighters in the south
HQ Reorganisation: von Rundstedt reorganises some infantry and a fighter-bomber.

The turn ends on less than 5: a 9 is thrown.


Twatattack

I really, really, really wanted to attack the Rumanians in Berdiansk. However, my cautious nature made me hesitate and consider the facts. And they were not really in favour of the attack. Unless, of course, one counted on being unlucky. The attack would have been likely to be a 3:1+3 if Germany had used their air superiority to lower the odds. But it could have ended up a 2:1+3 and that wouldn't have been as fun. And even a 3:1+3 attack had a 40% chance of failure. Not good enough when the target is just to shatter some Rumanians. [:(]

But it would have been so fun to succeed. [:D]

Instead, Major Retreat takes command of the far South of the front and withdraws slightly.

Timoshenko reorganises the retreated 7-3 infantry while a ATR reorganize the infantry in Rostov.

Edit: The turn continues with a die roll of 10. [:(]

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 11 (Axis)

The Germans choose a Land Action once again.

Port Attack: None
Naval Air: None
Strategic Bombing: None
Ground Strike: None
Rail Movement: None
Land Movement: The plan is to attack Stalino and see if I can make a better fist of it second time around - well it couldn't be much worse can it? For this attack, Panzergruppe I is on hand to lend assistance to 11th Army.

The odds are 5:1 -1. I cannot get to 7:1 and the Soviets are not going to bring in assistance with a 7-factor fighter on the case.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 11 (Axis)

A 6(5) is thrown. The city falls (just) but the Germans are spent in achieving this.

Air rebase: The Germans take the opportunity to rebase fighters along the line (and one bomber)
HQ Reorganisation: None

The turn ends on less than 6 (8 thrown)

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 12 (USSR)

There has become a gap between two German Army Groups so Zhukov decides to launch a counteroffensive at Kursk. He orders all available armoured forces and reserves to the area and launches two attacks.

The Soviet bomber force is asked to provide support but they decline since there are no fighters available for escort missions and the German air superiority is overwhelming.

However, the German air force is light on bombers so Luftwaffe scrambles what is available for defensive ground support. The Soviet anti air guns managed to reduce the impact of the German air somewhat.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 12 (USSR)

In the North the Soviet armoured forces manage to get some positive die modifiers to the attack. Zhukov has doubled four units for this attack.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 12 (USSR)

The weak German flank forces are pushed aside and suffers a crushing defeat.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 12 (USSR)

The Southern prong of the offensive encounters a lightly supported German armoured corps. German fighter-bombers provide support but the odds are still overwhelming.

With 6 Armies doubled by Zhukov the German corps feels somewhat outnumbered. And the two Soviet armoured armies cancel out the negative modifier provided by the German Panzers.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 12 (USSR)

The die God is with General Zhukov during this offensive and the German defences are overrun.

Jul/Aug 1941
Impulse: 12 (USSR)

At the end of the impulse Zhukov reorganizes all the forces that are available.

However, that was meaningless since the turn ended anyway on a die roll of 4. (60% chance of the turn to end)

Edit: I forgot to mention that Yeremenko reorganized three units that had moved into a swamp hex.

Jul/Aug 1941
End of Turn

Edit: The victory points is currently slightly in the Soviet favour. However, the winter still feels far away and now the Soviet offensive capabilities are severely spent.

Germany: 19
USSR: 23

Germany needs to capture two cities for a draw. Anything more and they win. Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev, counts double.

A perfect executed counter attack by Zhukov. Well done. Especially the loss of the ARM and motorized ART will hurt the Germans. It's the kind of opportunity you have to look for, when playing on defense. These attacks had such overwhelming odds in the favour of the Soviets, that the outcome was almost certain.