A German Mechanised Strategy

[Kanitatlan]

June 25th
The northern pocket is gone but the Grodno pocket has expanded itself a little. This is of no real concern as they are not threatening anyone’s supply routes and they are certainly not going to reconnect with the main Russian lines. The illustrated battle is in Kalinin where I am attempting to establish a position north of Moscow. This is will effectively separate the Leningrad front from the rest of the Soviet Union although it is far from isolating it as a pocket. In the south I have established a bridgehead at Kiev and there are three armies there preparing to exploit. Notice the bombers busy destroying the retreating Russians. I have also captured Pinsk and the infantry is advancing to Mozyr and Bobruisk on the heels of the retreating Russians. All their divisions should be at low org and hopefully won’t recover too much before I catch up with them.

 

[Kanitatlan]

June 26th
I have a single mechanised army proceeding to destroy the southern pocket. They are being delayed by the continuous stormy weather in this area. Those storms over the pocket have been continuous for over a month now. The Russians are trying to reach Ploesti but I think Meyer will get them first. I am not too worried about Ploesti as my oil resources a more than sufficient.

The remaining mobile forces on the Southern front are advancing eastwards against minimal opposition. The main delay is the shear slowness of movement in Russia. At least central Russia appears free of the weather problems seen elsewhere.

 

[Kanitatlan]

June 26th b
Meanwhile the Northern armies are keeping just as busy. Some forces are closing in around the Grodno pocket and will soon eliminate it. Rundstedt is advancing to Mogilev with an infantry army to establish a tidier position. Really he is just filling in time until there are some proper infantry targets to attack.

Troops in Pinsk are looking to advance on Leningrad and cut off troops in Tallinn. The infantry sent to reduce the Baltic pocket are heading up ready to reduce the Tallinn pocket if and when it happens.

Meanwhile on the Moscow front minor forces are heading eastwards to occupy all the territory north of Moscow whilst Rommel takes his army west of Moscow in a strike towards the bridgehead at Kiev. It is now time to start forming pockets in central Russia.

 

[elbasto]

Nice progress.

Any hopes of bitter peace before 42?

 

[Kanitatlan]

Nice progress.

Any hopes of bitter peace before 42?

Never happens, I reached Vladivostok before it triggered (bit of a give away I'm afraid but I'm not saying when). There was hope of a bitter peace long before 1942.

 

[Kanitatlan]

June 28th
Manstein’s attack at Novgorod is looking good, no frost just a bit of rain. I am still being hassled by the weather. The Tallinn pocket (it surely will be soon) looks like it has another good haul of Soviet divisions. Meanwhile the Grodno pocket has become truly the Grodno pocket and is looking pretty doomed.

Also for the first time you can see the situation in Finland. The winter war is still going on and I can only assume the Russians took the ‘Bring them to Socialism’ option. The Finns are confined to Turku and Helsinki but I suspect my invasion may have taken some pressure of them (or at least it will soon).

 

[Kanitatlan]

June 29th
Rommel fights his battle west of Moscow. The odds look a bit dodgy but I can’t really tell how many of those defending divisions are the rubbish left over from previous battles. I can see three at zero org and guess there will be more. Also they are over their command limit so 9 of their divisions are operating at –75% combat modifier. All of a sudden those poor odds start looking a lot better.

 

[Kanitatlan]

June 29th b
Here is a wider view of the position (later on the same day) after the battle of Novgorod has been won. Notice that the bulk of their forces are retreating westwards towards Tallinn. I still have 3 pockets and strong threats for more. The progress north of Moscow continues to develop and should soon progress into the low infrastructure zone to the north and east of Moscow. When this occurs I will bring up the paratroops. Taking these low infrastructure provinces can be very useful as a way of shortening the line as well as depriving the Soviets of some ICs.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 2nd
And suddenly the allies call my attention to the fact that I have ignored Liberia (whoops). I may even have to send a few troops to deal with them, however, it will be a long time before any activity here can do any real harm and once I have troops available they will be hard put to defend themselves even if the entire US army turns up (That was a lie, the whole US army might be enough but they aren’t going to turn up are they?)

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 2nd b
My troops move in on the Tallinn pocket. This needs to be reduced before my troops can focus back on Leningrad. Further south Grodno is taken and the troops involved move off to the east.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 6th
Again we have the mud and its now July 6th. I will win anyway, as the defenders are the depleted remnants of previous battles reinforced and reduced to zero org. Rommel’s presence can just be seen in the corner at Kaluga and the prospect of a new pocket is definitely on the cards.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 8th
I am closing in for final destruction of the Black sea pocket but that pesky storm is still going (actually I know it started before May 10th so it has been running for 2 months in this province, not a record for HOI by any means but definitely a record for real life).

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 8th b
Another 25 Soviet divisions about to go into the bag. Manstein shouldn’t have much trouble with them and then the troops can move on to attack Leningrad. I have 3 infantry armies in this theatre (2 with Manstein and Kluge approaching). The garrison in Leningrad looks ominous but could easily be a stack of single divisions.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 12th
Meyer continuos to reduce this pocket but they have tried to breakout but with little hope of success. Model is coming back for them. He has spent an awful long time bogged down in the strip of mud across the bottom of the Pripyat marshes and is still nearby. Notice the paratroops in the Sevastapol, they dropped there a few days earlier and cut of the Russian troops in Stalino.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 21st
My spearheads have progressed everywhere. The infantry armies are closing on Leningrad whilst minor forces have continued their occupation of areas north of Moscow and have made it to the coast so Leningrad now counts as a proper pocket all be it a rather large one.

Larger forces have moved round the north and east of Moscow in an attempt at a complete encirclement. This is intended to secure the position ready for the infantry to come up and assault the city.

Southwest of Moscow the encirclement has turned out a little odd with the Russians moving a bit quickly but my capture of provinces to the east has already left some with nowhere to complete their retreat to. I am hoping to close of and pocket all their troops west of the Don. The marshes are at least isolated and the infantry have nearly completed their long march to reduce this pocket.

In the south my motorised forces have advanced into the Don bend and are close to Stalingrad. The strike south of the Don will combine with these in an encircling movement around Stalingrad, which will be isolated, for later infantry attacks.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 23rd
Bayerlein fights to capture Stary Oskol before the Russians to break out from Kharkov. It looks like the forces at Kharkov are doomed.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 25th
The battle of Kharkov continues but Stary Oskol has fallen. It is a great pity that I can destroy these divisions but not their commander. Zhukov can be very annoying and I’m just thankful that at least it isn’t winter.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 25th b
Just to expand on the worrying situation, my troops are fighting at only 68% efficiency but note that between images the Russians have taken 13 losses to my none. The mechanised versus infantry thing is going to save me and destroy him.
So falls another pocket.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 25th c
A full situation map confirms the difficult position the Russians are in. The apparent strength from being behind a river is misleading, as their forces are all concentrated in a limited number of locations.

 

[Kanitatlan]

July 27th
Not much different from the previous one but I have now cut off Moscow. It has a huge but useless garrison. Note that with 1.06c the capital has automatically been moved due to my proximity to Moscow and I have put the Moscow garrison out of supply not the rest of Russia.