The long expected heavy rains have arrived and they cover almost the entire front. Only in the Stalino-Rostov area as well as the Crimea are we seeing moderate rainfall. We also now experience the heavy mud in places that further restrain movement and our truck columns.
It is this week that the Fuhrer declares Operation Barbarossa to be a failure in that the desired outcome of knocking out the Red Army has not come to pass. He expresses frustration at the lack of aggressiveness on the part of Von Rundstedt again, who the Fuhrer maintains should already have seized Rostov. The Fuhrer also says that up in the north, Von Leeb has fallen into the trap of putting his forces into a position of static warfare and subsequently has made a great mess of things. A decision as to whether a command shakeup is in order will be decided at a later date. He goes on to say that the progress of Von Bock and Army Group Center has been adequate but with the diversion from the Moscow axis, only with the capture of Tula and Voronezh will we be able to claim success here. Finally, the Fuhrer maintains that Operation Barbarossa as designed failed primarily because no one but Stalin would have so ruthlessly given up so much land and so many of his people in order to prolong the fight, a fight the Fuhrer maintains is entirely winnable. He says that winning the war in the east is now a matter of will and that the side that falters first in that regard will be vanquished.
One must appreciate that the Fuhrer’s conclusions have been met with more than a few raised eyebrows. It was he who ordered the drawing up of plans to invade the Soviet Union, who heard all the logistical arguments against it, who was briefed on the enormous manpower and industrial potential of the eastern colossus, who was well aware of Stalin’s accomplishments over the years by ruling over a tyrannical police state. Yet it fell to the Fuhrer to give the order to proceed. He subsequently lays none of the deficiencies of Barbarossa at his own feet, only others. We will see if his notion of a contest of wills between our two sides is indeed the deciding element in this conflict, but we still have an army of millions to feed, equip and maneuver. These latter matters in contrast to having an iron will may seem mundane to the Fuhrer, but they are equally vital if we are to have any chance of emerging victorious in this titanic struggle.
The poor ground conditions have halted all operations in the north. In the center despite similar conditions Von Bock scores a considerable achievement as Voronezh is surrounded. That removes 78 IL-2s from Soviet production for each week it remains offline. The Moscow site Is not currently active. 1451 airframes will have been built to date. They have also lost 416 aircraft of this type.
Operations east of Voroshilovgrad continue under limited conditions. Here Rundstedt aims to clear the Russian forces along the west bank of the Don.
In the Crimea, an important achievement as Model’s forces storm Yalta, thereby forcing the garrison of over fifty thousand to surrender and eliminating the last Soviet resistance in the Crimea. The efforts of the Luftwaffe in maintaining a total naval blockade of Yalta was key here. Equally important is the release now of 11th Army and the bulk of Luftflotte 4 for operations along the main front.
