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Hmm, Wehrmacht outnumbering Red Army... something is wrong with the game.
Where are the endless hordes of Soviet workers? :p
well, I think that Burds in his Soviet AAR found something similar in that on hard/VH the German economy is probably too strong (in that HOI3 has no real resource constraints), so it can churn out lots and lots of formations. I'd guess (actually I know from poking around in the save files) that they are using quite benign occupation policies so that is probably giving them decent manpower and they have no other distractions.

As long as you can prevent breakthroughs (so falling back in a more or less orderly fashion), it seems that things won't get too bad. Of course, there is that screenshot of the battle of Yaroslavl'... Good job bleeding the Germans, even if you can't yet stop them. In the end, your superior manpower reserves (those glorious workers of Enewald's) should carry the day for you. Unless Moscow etc. fall before those masses can come into play. :)

thats essentially my logic, if I can keep nearly all my starting formations intact, the reinforcements, plus mounting German supply problems, should bring them to a standstill, then I can chip away at them - with luck its all set up for a long slow struggle (& thats before my own game play hinders the glorious RKKA too much)

It will be interesting if German manpower and industry hold up better without a western front.

yes it is, they have no bombing to cope with, I think the AI has done a lot of inter-theatre transfers so France and the UK are held by relatively limited forces and they haven't pushed into the Balkans (in fact the Balkans is full of either axis or pro-axis regimes), so there's not much to divert their attention.

Just caught up with the AAR. I haven't been playing HOI3 for a while, I'm interested to see how you do.

Looks like this is going to be more on the edge of the abyss compared to the base HOI3 version you wrote last time.

aye, I don't see my winter counterattack breaking the back of the Wehrmacht and me celebrating May 1942 in Berlin. I'm hoping that winter gives me a huge respite and that their front line units degrade due to supply problems, so I can stabalise etc. Should leave them a potent force in 1942 though.

Good start, Loki100, keep it up!

glad you're enjoying it.
 
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I'm ashamed to admit I had forgotten about this (I simply do not go near the HoI3 board), very glad to have had it pop up on my subscribed list once again! The last few updates are proving very gripping, hopefully you can hang on and witness the German's grind themselves into a standstill, before launching a counter-attack.
 
If Not Here, Where? Minsk July 1941

Following the defeats on the frontiers the focus for 3rd and 10th Armies shifted to a series of battles in the Minsk region. The original plan had been to see this sector as a final line where any invasion would be turned back. However, the collapse of the Soviet defence in the Baltic region meant there was a danger of falling into encirclement. Equally the defence of Minsk was undermined by steady German pressure to the south as they pushed through the weak forces falling back in the North Pripyet sector. This sector was to lead to the major crisis at Bryansk in early August with the threat to the rear of the forces holding Kiev and of a direct hook aimed at Moscow itself.



The key to the Minsk operations was the defeat of an offensive spearheaded by 27 Pzr and 4 infantry divisions from 3 to 5 July. The Soviet victory relied on three elements. The infantry defence was bolstered by the presence of the 3rd NKVD Rifle division that emphasised the extent to which this was a battle STAVKA meant to win or at least to inflict substantial losses on the Germans.



The Soviet defenders also made effective use of a brigade of SU-76s attached to the 17th Rifle Division. Operating from well prepared ambush positions, they were able to blunt the armour and left the supporting infantry unable to break the Soviet strong points.



Finally STAVKA released to the 3rd Army Pe-2 and Sturmovik squadrons.




In combination these set a trap for the overconfident Germans and after three days bitter street fighting the Germans had been pushed out of the city leaving over 1000 dead (for less than 500 Soviet losses).



This victory, even if short lived, had a major impact on the morale of both sides[1], but in reality it proved irrelevant.



The German offensive was soon renewed and the city was then taken on the 9 July as Soviet forces fell back.

Their escape from potential encirclement was assisted by the desperate defence of Marina Hoka (with over 1200 Soviet losses in 3 days). The retreat was marked by more brutal fighting particularly at the river crossings at Barisaw which was evacuated on 7 July with 1600 Soviet and 1200 German dead and a further rough handling of the hapless 27 Pzr at Elnaja. In total the actions in and around Minsk had seen 8,300 Soviet and 7,500 German dead

The Minsk battles were completed by 17 July with the bulk of 3rd Army falling back into what became the August battles around Smolensk.

To the south, the battered divisions of 10th Army were trying to hold the upper Dniepr so as to protect the roads to Bryansk. In this sector the Soviet front was fast unravelling and Homyel fell on the 17th, the upper Dniepr was pierced on the 24th. By the end of July, the defeats on the approaches to Bryansk had seen 6,200 dead evenly spread across the 2 armies. The real slaughter on this sector was to come with the bitter August battles.

Outcome

The battle at Minsk was the first major setback (even if short lived) for the Wehrmacht. However, the German offensive continued unchecked. More worryingly a gap started to open between 10A and 3A. 3rd Army fell back into the Smolensk sector but 10th was now spread thinly and the scope for a German breakthrough towards Bryansk was real.

Sort of Game Play note

1 - I made the wrong choice in the option I took. The alternative was a -10% on consumer goods and since my demand is low (about 22IC) I thought the gain would be minimal. What it actually does is to take 10 percentage points off your CG demand (in effect sets it to neutral), so much more valuable than a small if welcome boost to my manpower.
 
How is the rest of your front holding up?

Any chance to bring up reserves to counter the German thrust in the centre? What's the status of your frontline divisions (str. and org. I mean) in 10A and 3A?
 
The fighting seems very tough, this clearly going to be a long, hard slog. Just post some Communist party members to frontlines in order to 'bolster morale' for the soldiers. There will be no more retreating then!
 
The fighting seems very tough, this clearly going to be a long, hard slog. Just post some Communist party members to frontlines in order to 'bolster morale' for the soldiers. There will be no more retreating then!
Think NKVD machinegun squads. Behind the frontlines. That'll sort those defeatist frontline troops out in no time!

It's sobering that even your success in Minsk wasn't more than a temporary setback for the Germans. Still, you're falling back in mostly reasonable order. Things could be worse. :)
 
Hmh, reminds me of my own AAR in AoD, HoI3 might have that fun scale to make the writing better flowing though. :D

In any case, if you want to switch from those plain maps to military grade maps, every bit of Poland is covered by this page.
 
I purchased SF after my first post in this AAR, played several vanilla games, then I installed ICE over a copy. My ICE campaigns are going in distinctly different directions than the vanilla versions.

Good luck defeating the Facist horde Tovaritsch.
 
Hurry up, summon some militias!

Soon, the first batch are deployed and they play a critical role at Bryansk, but generally get stomped on by the Wehrmacht

The fighting seems very tough, this clearly going to be a long, hard slog. Just post some Communist party members to frontlines in order to 'bolster morale' for the soldiers. There will be no more retreating then!
Think NKVD machinegun squads. Behind the frontlines. That'll sort those defeatist frontline troops out in no time!

It's sobering that even your success in Minsk wasn't more than a temporary setback for the Germans. Still, you're falling back in mostly reasonable order. Things could be worse. :)

Yes, as ever its keeping your formations intact that I think is the key to long term success, but this is relentless pressure to which I don't have many easy solutions.

Its a bit of a myth that all the NKVD formations did was to line up their machine guns behind Soviet lines (though they did do that in some places), the NKVD rifle divisions in a way can be seen as the equivalent of the SS - they knew what would happen if they surrendered and in several actions (Rostov at the start of the German 1942 offensive is a good example), they pretty much allowed the Red Army to slip out of encirclement by hanging onto their positions.

How is the rest of your front holding up?

Any chance to bring up reserves to counter the German thrust in the centre? What's the status of your frontline divisions (str. and org. I mean) in 10A and 3A?

The next post should help a bit to see the overall picture but by end July effectively in the West I have 3 strong points - behind the river Narva, at Pskov and at Smolensk, the problem is there is a gap between Smolensk and Pskov and between Smolensk and the Kiev forces. To hold the Germans anywhere I need to concentrate and if I concentrate I leave very weak spots elsewhere. In the South, the situation is not too bad, in effect a line straight from the Pripyet to the Black Sea in front of Kiev and behind Odessa - I'll cover the W Ukraine campaign in the next few posts. Here's the 10A on 1 Aug (this ignores a corps that is forming up at Bryansk - including Militia), but it'll give you an idea just how battered some of my rifle divisions are (remember that for the most part I'm not reinforcing the rifle divs):




Hmh, reminds me of my own AAR in AoD, HoI3 might have that fun scale to make the writing better flowing though. :D

In any case, if you want to switch from those plain maps to military grade maps, every bit of Poland is covered by this page.

I think for this sort of narrative the greater scale gives better immersion. In all honesty one of the reasons I've stuck with HOI3 is when it came out I opened up 2, looked at the map and thought I can't go back to that.

I'll have a look at the mapsite you mention - I've actually got a lot of Soviet 1930s maps of the region but they are too 'busy' to be easy to overlay with further information, so they are very atmospheric but not much use to describe things with.

Loki, this AAR inspires me...
had of the best gameplays ever, with very different results, but this is another story.

I purchased SF after my first post in this AAR, played several vanilla games, then I installed ICE over a copy. My ICE campaigns are going in distinctly different directions than the vanilla versions.

Good luck defeating the Facist horde Tovaritsch.

I intend at some stage to give ICE a try out in a full campaign, the AAR's that use it seem to have greater degrees of reversals etc as the various coded events fire.

Do you think that Johann'll put me on commision then?

Overall SF is a huge step up on the original release. Its a lot easier to handle & its good that there is ongoing work on events and the luas.

edit/add: ... and from your comment in Prawnstar's masterly AAR, hope you get better soon
 
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Good Morning Midnight: Disaster in the North West, July 1941

The early July battles along the Dauga, at Wilno and the Minsk sector all led to setbacks. The net effect was that the north and centre of the Western Military District started to fragment into two separate battles.


(the map shows the front lines on 7 July, 22 July and 1 August)

The Baltic Campaign

First, the 27A had been badly mauled in the Riga-Daugavpils battles and had to pull back onto the positions of the 23A. Elements of 23A (originally holding the ports) in Estonia were committed to a series of small scale counterattacks which enabled a successful retreat by 24 and 29 Corps to positions guarding the crossings of the Narva river or at Narva itself.

In turn 22 Corps fell back onto the Pskov sector. This led to a series of reorganisations of the Soviet command in this region. First the Baltic Front was renamed the Leningrad Front and took responsibility for the defence of Leningrad itself from the Northern District. Less radically, 27A took control of the forces in the Narva sector and 23A took on Pskov-Novgorod, and, critically, of holding open a link to the forces of 8A and 13A now fighting at Velikiye Luki.

The result was that on the direct approach to Leningrad this sector stabilised. A series of German attacks on Pskov between 20 and 27 July were beaten off, first by the formations of 22 Corps and then by fresh forces moving up from the Leningrad reserve.


(Soviet riflemen, Pskov, July 1941)

In Estonia the defence of Narva itself was less successful. Here, pressed by 10 Panzer a fierce battle raged from 22 to 28 July before the Soviet defenders had to retreat leaving almost 1800 dead (and having killed almost 1400 Germans). The shock of the loss of the final gains of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact were profound, especially when combined the defeat at Velikiye Luki. The impression was that the entire Soviet regime was on the verge of collapse.




Velikiye Luki

At Velikiye Luki, Koniev’s 8 Army launched a major counterblow against the Germans pushing on from Daugavipils. This saw 5 German Panzer divisions in action and counterattacks by 2 Tank Corps (including the first combat use of the Zis-30).


(part of 2 Tank Corps, here a second Panzer division has moved to reinforce the original target)


(Destroyed Zis-30, Dagdaz)

As at Minsk, sometimes success was more dangerous than failure as it led to the fear of encirclement. Equally the impression was being formed that the Red Army would never hold the German offensive, with devastating effect on Soviet morale.




(Soviet armour wrecked at Velikiye Luki)

By the end of July, the 8 Army had been driven south and the vicious Smolensk battle was about to begin.

The Gap

If this litany of defeat was not serious enough, the worst problem was that with 23A pinned on a line from Pskov-Novgorod and 8A falling back SE to Smolensk, a dangerous gap opened up. The entire linking sector was held by battered rifle divisions and a huge German salient was starting to emerge. This threatened first to sever direct links between Leningrad and Moscow and then to allow the Germans to hook around the current Soviet strongpoints. Both the major cities of the USSR were now at risk.

Overall

By the end of July, the Western District had split into two distinct forces. Two armies covered the approaches to Leningrad and 3 (8A, 3A, 13A) those to Moscow. Finally the 10A was falling back on a weakly held front to the south of Smolensk. Thus the two ‘shields’ in the Soviet defence line were both at risk of encirclement. In addition to fending off the blows at Leningrad and Smolensk, STAVKA had to find reinforcements to shore up the Bryansk sector.

The direct combat losses told a tale of escalating intensity of combat. In this sector in June 16,069 Soviet soldiers had died in ground fighting (and around another 4000 due to air attacks), in July the toll was 36,465. German losses were equal, tribute to the intensity and inventiveness of the Soviet defence, they lost 13,701 and 37,635 respectively. In addition 2 Soviet rifle divisions had been lost in a pocket. Thus overall Soviet dead and captured came to some 75,000 for 53,000 Germans.


(although the VVS continued to contest air superiority, scenes such as this were all too common)

This butcher’s bill was to be more than matched in August as Soviet troops tried to halt, or at least slow, the German drives on Moscow and Leningrad.
 
Very high casualties and clearly intense fighting from both sides. It seems as if the USSR is barely hanging on at present (although admittedly Germany is suffering similarly). Is there any glimmer of light with regards to newly formed units or research being carried out? If not, are you going to sacrifice one of the cities so as to focus your defence?
 
Its a bit of a myth that all the NKVD formations did was to line up their machine guns behind Soviet lines (though they did do that in some places), the NKVD rifle divisions in a way can be seen as the equivalent of the SS - they knew what would happen if they surrendered and in several actions (Rostov at the start of the German 1942 offensive is a good example), they pretty much allowed the Red Army to slip out of encirclement by hanging onto their positions.
Consider me educated! :) Or should that be: re-educated? <drumroll>

You're still being forced back (and that gap looks ominous), but you're inflicting some real pain on the Germans. They pay a high price in casualties for their advances. Which, in the long run, should be to your advantage. Assuming that you'll last long enough for there to be a 'long run'.

Gripping stuff!
 
Is anything interesting happening away from the main frontline (e.g. the Soviet Far East or the Med)?
 
Well that must suck.
Now I understand why Stalin chose to spend the summer 41 with alcohol...
Very high casualties and clearly intense fighting from both sides. It seems as if the USSR is barely hanging on at present (although admittedly Germany is suffering similarly). Is there any glimmer of light with regards to newly formed units or research being carried out? If not, are you going to sacrifice one of the cities so as to focus your defence?

at this stage (start aug) it was pretty grim - I have quite a few rifle & militia divs in the production queue that'll help fill out the lines (I need mass just to hold a line), but really my strategy, such as it is, at this stage is to try and outwait the Germans.

This was probably the last point at which I could have abandoned Leningrad without too much loss (except of such a valuable and iconic city), the outcome was having about 20 rifle divs cut off and stuck with intermittent supply once the Germans complete their encirclement. They probably would have helped me to maintain a coherent line in the aug-sept battles. But then I really do not like to lose Leningrad.

Consider me educated! :) Or should that be: re-educated? <drumroll>

You're still being forced back (and that gap looks ominous), but you're inflicting some real pain on the Germans. They pay a high price in casualties for their advances. Which, in the long run, should be to your advantage. Assuming that you'll last long enough for there to be a 'long run'.

Gripping stuff!

my intent is to make them run out of manpower, esp as I'm not replacing most of my combat losses (some rifle divs are already down to around 6000), but I guess the AI is.

with luck if I survive to the 41-2 winter, they'll emerge more or less out of manpower and with a load of divs weakened by poor supply at the least. That should mean they either are reduced to attacks more or less at random across the front (which I should be able to parry), or in one concentrated sector, which could be dangerous but again hopefully I can fend off.

Is anything interesting happening away from the main frontline (e.g. the Soviet Far East or the Med)?

at this stage not much. Japan stays quiet and I've not seen a build up in Manchuria, in the med the germans have taken Gib and the Italians are slowly taking Egypt (the brits can no longer produce much supply and the italians are having their usual transport problems), esp as the RKKH is picking off some very tasty morsels out of their merchant shipping (I've come to be really fond of my subs)

Ok, updates ... I'm afraid another delay (family issues this time), but hopefully some time to end of next week (i've got 3-4 pretty much written covering the campaign in W Ukraine, industry and partisans), but no reliable internet connection.