Drive To The Caucasus - A 41 Campaign

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AG North & Centre Turn 82

Mainly quiet in the far North however 16th Armee launches a number of probing attacks around the town of Poshekhonye, also though the Soviets seem to have abandoned Yaroslavl itself they seem to be massing quite a force close to the centre with quite a few Inf Corps including a Guards Inf Corps.

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This presents a opportunity to trap this unit.


On the central Front both 2nd & 3rd Pz Armee's move forward and encircle a number of enemy units including more Inf Corps. The enemies forces seem scattered and in disarray, morale must be very low at this point.

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Army Group A Turn 82

Here all 3 Inf Armee's make deep inroads into the Saratov region pushing back the demoralised Red Army.

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At Stalingrad the fighting has been briefly halted, East of the city though heavy fighting as 4th Pz Armee attacks and drives back a number of Soviet Tank formations.

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The perimeter around the city is widening and it seems certain the defenders cant be saved from any outside help.

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Army Group B & Don Turn 82

As fighting continues around Stalingrad part of 1st Pz and 4th Romanian Army push North towards Astrakhan trapping 2 powerful Corps.

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With the pockets now cleared and the capture of Makhatchkala secured the Panzers move down the Coast road to there main objectives, supported by the 2nd Hungarian Army.

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In the Black Sea area it seems like all resistance has ceased as Italian Forces move through area.

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Units from Army Group Don are moving into position to finally trap this annoying Inf Corps trying to sneak behind our lines.

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Leader, Losses Turn 82

Another bad week for Russian Generals, 3 more Army Commanders killed in action.

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The must well over hundred killed by now maybe even more.

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More heavy losses inflicted on the Red Army, again over the 100 thousand KIA, getting close to the 12 million mark over all.

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The Red Air Force takes another beating with over 200 destroyed.

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The Axis OB continues to climb while Red Army dwindles away.

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AG North & Centre Turn 83

16th and 9th Armee's launch a limited offensive hoping to cut off and encircle the Tank and Guards units North and North East of Yaroslavl or at least push them back to Kostroma.

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Sporadic fighting along the rest of the Northern front.

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In the Centre most of trapped enemy forces are eliminated as more reinforcements arrive from the Western Front including SS units.

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Army Group A Turn 83

2nd , 4th and 6th Armee's continue to push towards Saratov despite bad weather, a Guard and Mech Corps are trapped.

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Another Tank and Mech Corps are threatened with encirclement.


Further South 17th and 4th Pz Armee's strike at Kapustin Yar and kamenny Yar and 3 units including 2 Mech Corps are caught in the net.

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The AI is throwing its Mechanized forces at me only to have them trapped and destroyed.

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Army Group B & Don Turn 83

3rd & 4th Romanian Armies continue towards The Caspian Sea Port City of Astrakhan, the aim here is to form a defensive line running from Stalingrad to the coast.

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Blocking any attempt by Russian reinforcements from interfering with 1st Pz Armee's drive to Baku.

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Down on the coast road to Baku there seems little the Soviets can do to stop the Panzers reaching there objective.

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Like wise on the Black Sea the Italians face only Headquarter units as they push inland.

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Army Group Don traps one of its prey while the other tries to run.

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Supply, Production And leaders Turn 83

With weather and the long lines of communication for my Armies both the Ground and Air supply needs are under the required figures considerably.

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My rails lines are not that bad but with the front so wide and units stretched its taking a toll.

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On the face of it production looks good and I certainly wont run out of fuel and oil, manpower looks good.

Almost up to 900 Thousand Hiwis, cant see my War Economy collapsing in a hurry.


More Russian Generals meet the maker,

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Though these names don't ring a bell so I don't about there military quality.

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Losses & OB Turn 83

Another high week of losses for Soviets

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Over 2500 Artillery pieces and nearly 350 AFV's.

The Red Army now has just over 2.6 Million men on the battlefield.

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The only thing they have clear advantage in numerical superiority is in Aircraft.

And that still cant save the outcome.

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AG North & Centre Turn 84

More attacks by 16th Armee towards Kostroma traps a Guards Inf Corps at Yaroslavl.

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The AI seems reluctant to commit the 3 Tank and 1 Mech Corps in this sector.

Meanwhile on the Central front, attack and counterattack seem to be the order of the day, with Soviets coming off worse as more units are either thrown back or encircled.

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Did some checking of Panzer Divs and it shows me I really need to stop advancing, first its making my lines longer, second almost half my Panzers have not upgraded to the latest models, I even still have 1941 Divs.

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Need to stop and allow them to switch out so I have stronger units.

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Army Group A Turn 84

My Armee's move ever so closer to Saratov,Russian resistance is piece meal and brushed aside.

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At Stalingrad the 3 trapped units are destroyed, if it was not for the blizzards I could be closing in on Astrakhan from this sector.

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Army Group B Turn 84

Here to there is no real opposition to the Romanians however I intend to dig and wait for targets of opportunity.

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Just 2 Red Army units stand in the way of capturing Baku, I should be able to take the city in 2 weeks.

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I estimate I should have the entire region cleared of Soviet units in 4 or 5 turns.

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One last Inf Corps to deal with in the Army Group Don sector.

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Supply & Production Turn 84

The supply gap is still wide might have to look at reducing more HQ supply priority levels.

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Production figures in all departments look good, unless Stalin has some enormous reserve of manpower hidden in plain sight ready to strike.

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April is the next victory check things are on track.

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Losses & OB Turn 84

Axis lost 135 AFV's and just under 13 thousand men.

On the Soviet side over 900 hundred AFV's and nearly 150 thousand men at arms, nearly 2500 Artillery pieces.

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Making a real dent in there Artillery numbers as time goes by.

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And the manpower keeps dropping.

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AG North & Centre Turn 85

Despite a series of attacks by Soviet forces to relieve the defenders at Yaroslavl the attempt fails and the garrison is crushed.

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A bit of movement in the 3rd Pz Armee sector as the Russians mass forces on the Central Front.

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Meanwhile 2nd Pz Armee pushes towards and captures Penza without any real opposition.

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However all eyes were on the beleaguered Russian capital as 9th Armee launched a major attack and garrison there collapsed, German forces pushed in the heart of the city looking for the Soviet leader, so far Stalin seems to have evaded his captors.

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Army Group A Turn 85

The advance towards Saratov continues as there is very little The Soviets can do to stop me.

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Still relatively quiet on the Stalingrad front, there forces are weak and not many to really offer any solid resistance, the weather is slowing me down rather than the enemy.

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Army Group B Turn 85

Both Romanian Armies form a defensive line in front of the Caspian Sea Port city, at this moment there is nothing in my way to stop me but the mud and rain, however I will stick to the plan and dig in here.

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As The Panzers move along the Coast road towards Baku the few last die-hard resistors are cut off, its now only a matter of time.

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Likewise in the Georgia region, the Italian 8th Army is unstoppable.

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On the Don Front Army Det Kempf is now operational and takes over command of all 11th Armee units.

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Supply , leaders And Production Turn 85

Supply needs is not matching what is being received but its not that bad to worry.

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More Soviet Generals fall in battle while a Axis leader gets a boost.

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My Manpower figures look good and my special figure also seem fine, I am not using my Air Force in battles but I still cant see why there seems to be a lot of " in the red " for instance I seem to need 132 BF-109G- 2, like I said I no longer even use the air directives, so I thought my aircraft would actually be building up.

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Losses And OB Turn 85

This week has been a big week for the Axis, 3 key cities fell with some big losses to The Soviets, while the Axis had few casualties.

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A big drop in the Soviet order of battle as The Wehrmacht itself has more than a million men greater than the Red Army and adding the Axis Allies into the figures makes it even worse looking at the " On Map Forces ".

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Cities And Events Turn 85

Well I decided that it was time to take the 3 besieged cities as I had safely crossed the 1942 Sudden death threshold and to continue to besiege these cities was just tying up troops.

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Moscow was the big prize netting over 100 thousand men, but taking the other's gave me extra troops.

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It was not all good news as the Western Allies captured Tripoli, must get to Baku as soon as possible and thwart the Allies from conquering North Africa

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