Die rote Götterdämmerung
0300 July 1st 1946
Bobraisk, Soviet Union
While the Bialystok pocket was yet to be fully formed, another encirclement was already envisioned by von Rundstedt, who proposed a frontal attack towards the thirty Soviet divisions holding Lida, with the sole purpose of flanking their sides and taking them from behind. The only uncertainty was the entity of Soviet presence in Bobraisk, the only other fortified province behind Lida. On July 1st, twenty-two German divisions would thoroughly test this entity.
The result would be excellent. Only four Soviet divisions were allocated to defending the back of thirty divisions. In a few hours, and after almost ten thousand casualties, victory was attained and one step closer was made to another pocket.
As Luftwaffe recon missions had already predicted, Minsk was indeed left undefended: Busse seized the opportunity, confident of the fact that Orsha was about to fall soon.
Busse's was no gamble: he knew that his northern flank was about to be secured. After days of heavy struggle, and a division near to total destruction, six Soviet divisions pulled back from Orsha and left the province for German grabbing. With Busse closing on Minsk, the Lida salient was now becoming another pocket.
And Busse arrived on July 2nd; thirty-seven Soviet divisions would not be given a single chance to escape: twenty divisions were about to fill the province of Bobraisk, so that there would be no chance for the Soviets to break the imminent pocket.
1500 July 2nd 1946
Kaluga, Soviet Union
Further northwards, the other forces were not idle as Hausser devised another operation of medium entity, which also envisioned the capture of Smolensk, which was under the original propositions for the Summer campaign, but most importantly, envisioned the encirclement of other ten Soviet divisions.
The first step of this operation was the capture of Kaluga. The Soviet divisions were easily dislodged, and all was ready to move westwards.
1600 July 2nd 1946
Lida, Soviet Union
Von Rundstedt found his job much more simple now that all the enemy's supply lines had been broken. The battle was about to end with a crushing German victory, and thirty less divisions on the field.
Not a single Soviet division was left unscathed by the firepower of twenty-eight German divisions, technically inferior in numbers, but much superior in doctrine, as they had inflicted a terrific amount of casualties well before the encirclement was made.
The numbers spoke clear. Since the battle of Lida started, that is June 22nd, after ten days, von Rundstedt's divisions inflicted around 140,000 casualties, at a rate of 14,000 every day, opposed to the mere 30,000 German casualties, or 3,000 per day. For every German killed, the Soviets lost five.
In the meanwhile, Busse was being attacked by the other seven Soviet divisions trapped in the pocket. The attack was futile, as Minsk was a city large enough to be protected against frontal assaults, and even two divisions, even if only sufficiently rested, could hold this with ease against seven divisions without supplies.
Victory was finally attained after eleven days since the battle of Lida began, and von Rundstedt's plan about the encirclement of Lida was proven successful. Thirty divisions dislodged in Lida and seven divisions in Molodeczno meant that the pocket held thirty-seven Soviet divisions.
Upon his arrival, General Förtsch wasted no time and unleashed hell upon the seven last Soviet divisions. In less than seven hours they begged for mercy to their new overlords.
0300 July 4th 1946
Bialystok, Soviet Union
The start of July was no good news for the Allies and the Comintern. It would surely ruin the July 4th celebrations in the US, and this news added to the displeasure of many in the non-German world.
The pocket of Bialystok was finally destroyed, and the ten Soviet divisions within surrendered in short time.
Another pocket that would surrender very soon would be that of Lida. The thirty retreating divisions would soon be welcomed by General Heissmeyer. Such gloomy news of the Red Army, in such short order, would be lethal to the faint-hearted. It seemed as time went on, such encirclements became more and more frequent. But the correlation was not with time: it was with the disintegration of the Soviet lines, as it now became increasingly easy to outmaneuver and pocket the thin Soviet defenses.
0500 July 5th 1946
Mogilev, Soviet Union
And the trail of gloomy news would not end here, as Kesselring and Hausser were already creating another pocket. Kesselring was isolating the southwestern flank of Smolensk, defended by a reasonable amount of Soviet forces, while Hausser was taking care of its southeastern flank.
The battle of Mogilev was an incredibly easy one, as four Soviet divisions lost around 10,000 in two hours. It is quite reasonable that, in such circumstances, a commander would order immediate retreat after two hours.
Seeing how easy was securing the southwestern flank, an attempt was made to expand the salient by attacking Klintsy, but Hausser would soon change his mind and interrupt the attack.
Field Marshal Hausser, a man of military talent, had adapted to many different scenarios during his extremely intense campaigns lived immediately after the invasion of Normandy. It was uncommon that he didn't possess the skills in a certain military doctrine: he possessed many, and was able to exploit them all at once. The battle of Roslavl saw no exception, as four divisions had not been given mercy. Five hours were sufficient for Hausser to bring annihilation among his enemies' troops.
Another pocket was therefore formed with impressive speed, and the important city of Smolensk was included within. Finnish forces in the north would immediately proceed to shrink the pocket to reasonable levels.
The forests of Toropets saw a small battle between three Soviet divisions and Field Marshal von Mannerheim on July 7th. It took him one day to persuade the Soviets to leave.
0700 July 14th 1946
Smolensk, Soviet Union
It took one week to concentrate the Soviet pocket into the city of Smolensk. Unsupplied for more than one week, the ten Soviet divisions stood little chance to survive.
A week was needed to occupy Toropets and Vyazma. One would understand the criticality of the Soviet Army when the primary concern of the German High Command was the time needed to move divisions across the various Soviet provinces.
Von Kleist was given the honour of finishing the pocket once and for all. On July 15th, thirty-one German divisions assaulted the entrenched positions of ten Soviet divisions, severely unsupplied. Nevertheless, they fought tenaciously for three long days, but their endurance had a limit, and on July 18th, the ten divisions surrendered and the city fell.