Chapter 30: Total Breakthrough.
It is the 21st of July, 1941. German troops have occupied Kiev. While 16. Panzer-Division and 60. Infanterie-Division (mot) hold the city and surrounding provinces, I rebase Jagdgruppe 4 and Sturzgruppe 4 to the city, where they will be closer to the front. This is not without risk. If a squadron of planes is on the ground when the enemy takes the province, they will be destroyed. However, the only forces in the general area are a couple of HQs and infantry divisions, all of whom are retreating.
More importantly, this means that Heeresgruppe Süd has taken it’s first strategic goal (remember the battle plan, take Kiev, then start marching south towards the Don basin and the rich resources found there).
In the north, units of the 4. Panzergruppe are close to cutting Leningrad off from the rest of the Soviet forces on the frontlines. Most of the Soviet divisions in the area are busy fighting the Fins, and should be unable to offer any substantial help to the great Russian city. Just as in real life, “divide and conquer” remains a winning tactic. Pimsk will also give me an airbase close to Leningrad and it is right next to the VP province of Novgorod. In other words, taking it is a no-brainer. At the same time, hidden underneath the division info in the left corner, another armour division is barreling full speed towards Narva, cutting the last Baltic hold-out off from the rest of the Soviet Union.
And this is why I keep so many divisions in the west. Not only to resist any potential British landing, but also to ward off partisans. In this case, they are doubly unfortunate, rising up in the very provinces where my infantry is stationed. Needless to say, they don’t stand a chance and will be crushed within a day.
Back on the Eastfront, divisions of Heeresgruppe Mitte are closing in on Smolensk, their second strategic goal in the campaign. It is here that I am beginning to have the most trouble with supplies, but the problems are starting in the south as well, where Dietrich’s 4. Panzer-Division is forced to call off the attack on Pietrykau due to a lack of fuel.
In other parts of the front I have less trouble. Part of the reason is that I have mostly infantry in this area, and the Romanians are putting up a good fight of their own. That is no reason to become reckless, though, and I continue to use “Support Attack” and air support whenever the situation allows it.
I lose a battle, but there are another 2 Soviet divisions trapped, waiting to be wiped off the map.
Most of my attention is centered on this part of the front, where I have a chance to surround quite a substantial part of the enemy forces. I am pressing on all sides, and there are several possibilities for an encirclement, but, as you can see, there are quite a lot of Soviets and they are all trying to get out of the bulge in my lines.
Narva falls at the same time, leaving the road to Leningrad clear. There are only a Light Armour Division and an infantry division left in the area that has now been cut off, so occupying Estonia should be a walk in the park.
If you want to know what is hiding in a given province that is still under the Fog Of War, send in a bomber formation. They only have to do a single run, showing you exactly what the ground defense looks like, provided you slow down time and pause the game at the right moment. Leningrad is held by a single garrison. Piece of cake!
Further south, the corridor is now only a single province wide, desperately held open by an admittedly heroic infantry division against enormous odds. It is in situations like these, where Territorial Pride can be a valuable factor. Note that I am also bombing the province to speed up the process. Despite their best efforts, it is no longer a question IF I can trap the divisions west of Kapatkevitchy, but HOW MANY will be able to escape before I do. Even if they do escape, I am sending a double pincer from the north and the south towards Homel, a handfull of provinces further east. A couple of hours later, I will use a single infantry division to pin the Soviets in Dobryn (the province with the Heavy Armour, right next to Mazyr, it has 1 Arm, 1 Harm, 1 Inf and 1 Larm). The longer I can hold them in place, the better the odds of trapping the whole lot of them.
One day later. The 69th Rifle Division has managed to hold out long enough and is now scrambling to escape, while a large group of half-broken divisions take their place.
On the 29th, the attack on Leningrad begins. It should be easy, but the fortress and the urban terrain work against me. For now. Note the German fleet sitting in the Inner Gulf Of Finland. When I take Leningrad, the Soviet Baltic Fleet will be forced out. I could make a killing. Adding to that are the Coastal Bombardments it provokes against the defenders of Leningrad.
Back to the Homyel bulge. It is usually not a good idea to attack into the swamps, and another option could have been to simply hold the line with infantry and send a larger tank formation to close the pocket faster. It might even have been better. The honest truth, however, is that I forgot all about the marshes until I was committed. At least it allows to me show you why this is usually not a good idea.
Still, I have 5 options to close the pocket. Anyone who escapes, will have to run the gauntlet of all those attacks, and will surely no longer be in any shape to continue the fight afterwards.
The garrisons I have been building are ready. Originally, some of these were destined for France, but I am going to use them all on the Eastfront. This is the supply mapmode. The yellow and red provinces are the ones that are having trouble sending supplies, either because of revolt risk or because of bad infrastructure. These are the ones where I place some of them. The others will guard occupied VP provinces, or will be spread out along the rear of my frontlines. Revolt Risk, in case you didn’t know, also hampers supply movement. This way, I can eliminate one of the primary causes. The other one will take longer to rectify, but I now have plenty of IC available, and begin improving infrastructure in more than 100 provinces at once. When finished in November, these will form level-10 corridors between Poland and the frontlines.
On the 2nd of August, the first pocket slams shut, trapping 4 infantry divisions and 3 HQs in Pietrykau, with more on the way from Zhytomyr, and, potentially, more being trapped west of Homyel later on.
In the far south, I am preparing to attack Odessa with the support of Romanian forces.
Smolensk falls on the same day as Leningrad, and we are now only 304 km from Moscow.
A massive battle ensues in the Baltic between the Soviet Red Navy and the German Kriegsmarine. The only enemy battleship is sunk and only a handful of submarine divisions escape the slaughter. The Baltic has just become an Axis lake.
Even though I didn’t manage to strengthen the eastern wall of my pocket in time, those Soviets that did escape might still be overrun, since they are heading for Choyniki, another province that is under attack from German troops.
But that will have to wait for next chapter. I am going to leave you with a couple of pics to show Stalin’s desperate situation.
In the Far East, Vladivostok has been lost to Japan, who seem to have the situation well in hand. Soviet Surrender Progress is now 60.7%.
For this last picture, I tag-switched to the Soviet side. On the 13th of June, they had exactly 950 brigades. I gave them 24 brigades extra the following day (the Harm divisions, remember?).
On the 3rd of August, they only have 524 brigades left.
(950+24)-524=450 brigades that have been removed from their OOB. Some of those were the original divisions, containing only 3 brigades. Some were new ones, probably containing 4 brigades.
450/3=150
450/4=112.5.
The average between those 2 numbers is 131.25.
The Axis has wiped out an average of 131 divisions since the start of the invasion, about 1 month and a half ago. That is over 5 full armies. Gone. Kaputt.
And no, I did not show you this to satisfy my own ego. Think about it. I wiped out 131 divisions. They still have over that number in the field right now.
You might be thinking that it does not matter. That only the number of VPs taken matter.
You’d be wrong.
I have never seen the German AI, as a non-player nation, win against the Soviet Union in TFH. Never.
Why? Because the AI does not encircle and overrun on purpose. It pushes the enemy back time and time again.
Against the near-inexhaustible supply of Manpower of the Soviet Union, that does not work. They can just keep building and building while the survivors slow you down. Eventually, their doctrines will catch up with yours and their numerical advantages will make it impossible to win. Your MP will be gone long before theirs. And then, they start pushing back. And they won't stop until they have reached Berlin.
On the Eastfront, success is measured by the number of divisions you destroy in, give or take, the first month of the campaign, and by the amount of MP lost against France.
Even now, the Soviet production queu contains about a dozen infantry divisions, a couple of Armour divisions and the 3 Heavy Armour divisions I added to the queu.
Morale of the story: destroy them now or end up facing over 300 divisions, and that is too much, even for Germany.
See you next time!