Winter of the World - A German ww2 AAR

The strategy of forming a defensive line during the winter did not work very well as the Soviets not did the same and continued their attacks on all fronts, wearing the German divisions down. So while continuing to bombard the Soviets with V-1’s small encirclements were made wherever possible. A little north of Stalingrad a weakness in the front proved fatal for the Red Army as Field Marshal von Reichenau attacked and captured the province of Uryupinsk and General Höppner after that destroyed 11 Soviet divisions including 2 panzer divisions in the Borisoglebsk pocket.



Further north around the Baltic sea the Soviets had pushed themselves too thin when they recaptured Tallinn and Field Marshal von Brauchitsch could assault Narva and hold the strategic city long enough for the German forces to the west in Parnu could advance forward and destroy the Soviets in Tallinn where the Red Army lost 1 panzer division and 3 motorized infantry divisions.



In just two weeks and in the middle of winter the Wehrmacht had hurt the Soviets hard by destroying several of their panzer divisions, something the OKW thought they would not recover from in a month or two.
In northern Norway the front had not moved since the German withdrawal from Finland and the Soviets decided to form a Norwegian exile government in exile at Tromso. Something had to be done about that and the OKW decided to reinforce the Norwegian front soon and begin to push into Finland sooner rather than later.



A offensive launched to recapture Pskov from the Soviets also aimed to encircle a few Soviet divisions that had begun advancing south.



At the same time another large offensive began at Serpukhov. The goal was to capture Serpukhov and shorten the front. The capture of Serpukhov would also mean Moscow was closer than ever, the great basilica could be seen in the far distance.



The OKW now relied upon Rommel’s panzer army to hold the province until reinforcements arrived. As Rommel fought on in the cold Russian winter, the year turned to a new year, 1942 came around.

OKW meeting, January 1st 1942.

Let’s start with the war in the east.

Yes, my Führer.

As the campaign started we projected that we would destroy 100-200 Soviet divisions early in the campaign. We were correct and we have been through the battle report and we now estimate we have destroyed 210 soviet divisions to this date. We have also destroyed numerous air squadrons that we have managed to overrun with our panzers.

This is great news; the Soviets can’t be far from their breaking point by now!

That is…probably correct, my Führer. Let me show you our intelligence report.



As you can see we estimate the Soviet army to have GROWN considerably since Barbarossa started. When we started this war they had around 367 divisions including 2 panzer divisions. Now, according to this report they have 604 divisions including 53 panzer divisions. Many of these divisions are poor militia but we have seen an increase in regular infantry divisions being deployed, with modern equipment.
If we look at these drawing here we see that our army’s division counts have barely moved. We lost 3 paratroop divisions early in the war when Red Army unit retreated and came up behind them, not a very concerning loss but it leaves us with less strategies in the future as it is expensive units to equip and train. All in all we have trained 15 new infantry divisions and a few SS unit since the beginning of the campaign. We are about to deploy 2 new panzer divisions in a few days too, possibly to reinforce the southern front as the Soviet presence there have increased in the last couple of weeks.



Our focus on rockets has left us behind in some research areas but our new grand investment in these nuclear experiments might prove useful in the future as we know the Americans are doing the same.
As for the USA, thy have yet to enter the war, but it might happen soon.
As this report says their army has grown a little but their main focus seems to have been on the air force. Not much to report really.



The British presence in the war is almost forgettable on our fronts, they are still fighting the Italians in Africa and don’t seem to be able to break their fronts, not that the Italians are doing great either.



Our losses have of course grown a bit since the last OKW meeting. One million men have been lost in the east while almost none in the west. This is a great number and we are worried of our reserves in case the war lasts much longer, we have 4 million in reserves left.

Taken losses and inflicted losses



The Soviet losses are still greater than ours, we estimate they have lost almost 10 million men in the war so far, but their reserves are greater, perhaps 25 million as reserves.

Very well General. Continue to drain the Soviets on their manpower, by spring we will destroy them anyway. Dismissed.

The New Year began badly with a tactical retreat from Uryupinsk to shorten the front in face of overwhelming Soviet troops.



Rommel’s troops in Serpukhov had been under attack since thy captured the province and for a while the success of the operation was uncertain as the Red Army poured everything they had at them.



West of Serpukhov, Lt.General Hausser launched an offensive at Solnechnogorsk to relieve Rommel’s army of some pressure,



It succeeded and the Soviets in that province called of their offensive operations and went defensive. Serpukhov was now safe as the Soviet front collapsed and soon their forward operations ended.



Moscow was now closer than ever and not very well defended according to army intelligence. Despite taking heavy losses and with the troops worn out they began advancing towards Moscow. Even if Moscow could only be held for a day or two before the Soviets could retake it the short occupation would suffice to destroy all infrastructure and industrial buildings. It would also be a huge propaganda victory for the Reich and a equally large loss fort Stalin.