Completion
The final days of September saw the U-Boat campaign come to an end. It had achieved its tactical goal of the year: sinking 100 cargo vessels of the British Empire. In total, since the start of the world war, 1,736,000 tonnes of Allied shipping had been sunk. All boats were ordered to return to port, and the 'Afrika Legion' was ordered to depart for mainland Europe. With the condors and U-Boats in port, a huge saving in fuel would be achieved. Initial predictions had suggested that the war economy would have ground to a halt by now due to excessive fuel consumption. While the stats proved extremely worrying, reality was different. Very little fuel was actually being consumed. It was not all good news. On the 29th, the United Kingdom announced to the world its conquest of Thailand and its invasion of Indochina.
The final day of the month also saw the launch of the next phase of Operation Teutonic. While the final battles were taking place in the Pripet marshes, Army Group North Ukraine was downsized and took up defensive positions along the Dnieper. Army Group South Ukraine was vastly reinforced. Twelfth Army was positioned around the western flank of the frontline, and Ninth Army was deployed along the line facing south. Aerial reconnaissance over the preceding days indicated that the Red Army was building up its forces in this area, expecting the climactic battle of 1943.
On the morning of the 30th, as the entire medium bomber force and 12 wings of light bombers struck Red Army frontline positions, three divisions of the Ninth Army lunged forward opening the battle. 900 fighters took to the skies above the southern battle zone. During the day, they accounted for at least 120 Soviet fighters for the loss of 100 of our own. The Red Army fighters retreated from the battle, and over the coming days the Luftwaffe savaged the Red Air Force bomber wings taking control of the skies.
The Battle of Oleksandrivka was a grueling one. As soon as the Ninth Army divisions secured the initial Soviet defensive lines, divisions from the Eleventh Army – the main striking force for the operation – pushed forward to take the next series of defensive points. For 18 days, the men of the Eleventh Army (supported by a handful of units from the Ninth) pushed forward slowly driving the Red Army back until the crust of the frontline was cracked. With the frontline breached, three panzer armies were unleashed south.
On 19 October, as the infantry and armored divisions moved south, international news broadcasts announced that Indochina had fallen to British forces. Our own advance cut off a large Soviet force on the banks of the Dnieper, unable to retreat across the river. As more troops pushed forward, a sizeable force had to be held back to deal with this pocket as per their doctrine the Red Army went into overdrive to save their comrades. A week long battle, taking till the end of the month, was fought to destroy this pocket resulting in over 50,000 Red Army soldiers being taken captive.
The Soviet line of retreat marked in orange.
By the time the pocket had collapsed, some divisions had already reached the southern banks of the Dnieper and were attempting to cross. The Red Army (to the west of our penetration) was in retreat, fleeing through the only available corridor to safety. This influx of troops onto the south side of the river blocked all attempts to seize crossings via coup de main. The forces holding out to the east of our penetration, and on the west side of the river, had blunted our attacks and launched their own counterattacks aimed at saving troops trapped in the middle of our area of operations.
The Red Army was now seriously holding up the attack, thus the Fifteenth Army and the remaining panzer armies were committed to the battle. The nest of Soviet resistance, in the middle of all the fighting, collapsed netting a further 30,000 prisoners and the newly arrived troops started rolling up the Soviet positions west of the penetration bagging over 50,000 more. Regardless of the success, the Soviets were still putting up a fight thus the Fourteenth Army was also ordered into the fight.
On 23 November, Odessa Nova and its nuclear facility fell to our troops. The Soviet line in this sector buckled, and by the 29th all Red Army troopers had been thrown across the Dnieper. The fighting in this sector had been so severe and the Waffen-SS divisions fighting so recklessly, that one of the divisional commanders was killed in the fighting: a first for the war.
The frontline at the end of November.
Near Kherson, an attempt was made to cross the river. Around Dnipropetrovsk, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive taking back some territory. Back and forth fighting developed that dragged on into December. The weather, so far, had held. The temperatures, while cold, were not below freezing and there had been little rain or snow. As December wore on, rain broke out across the battlefield. The terrain turned to mud, and no further progress could be made. The fighting was called off on the 15th. Dnipropetrovsk, and a small stretch of territory the north, was all that remained of the Red Army positions west of the Dnieper. On the whole, Operation Teutonic had achieved its primary goal.
). However, I am now confident that things are beginning to look up for you 
