Voroshilov's Last Stand
The pincers met at Snihurivka on July 22nd. From here the 1st and 2nd Panzerarmees began the second phase of the Operation: the crushing of the Zhashkiv pocket. An exhaustive effort is now being undertaken by Heeres Gruppe Sud to end all resistance in the pocket using the 1st and 2nd Panzerarmees, 3rd Armee, and the Yugoslavian and Romanian 1st Armees. While the noose is being tightened around the shattered remains of the Dnieper Front the 4th Armee, 10th Armee, and 16th Armee are to be deployed to the banks of the Dnieper River to defend the rear of the suppression forces. At the head of the doomed front is the famous, and famously incompetent, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. One of Stalin's closest cronies, so unlike other leaders of failed fronts, he won't be forced to commit suicide. If he is captured however, it will be quite the bargaining chip when we force the USSR to accept our terms.
T-34s abandoned by crews because they ran out of fuel. Unknown location, Zhashkiv pocket July 1942
On the other hand, there is still stiff but futile resistance from the rapidly disintegrating 1st Mechanized Army. The Northern and Western flanks of the pocket are hotbeds of Russian defiance, and our screening troops have suffered atrocious casualties. The undermanned XXII Korps lost nearly 1000 soldiers at Uman, and they have been forced back across the Bug. To their right flank, the Yugoslavian IV Korps lost 7000 men in a disastrous attack on the fortified village of Lypnyazhka. On the Northern flank the 17th Mechanized Corps stubbornly refuses to let us keep Zhashkiv. With it's last scraps of ammunition and fuel the 28th Tankovy Division managed to push the 10th Sturm Division out of the town. Along the eastern corridor nearly 7000 of our men and 4000 of theirs were lost in the brutal battle of Cherkasy. The resources expended in these vain Western thrusts could be better used in a combine breakout through our thin corridor rather than fruitless attempts at making us bleed, but I won't drone on about the incompetence of the Soviet commanders. These little attacks are but death throes of a caged animal, with no fate other than death in it's future.
Su-76s of the 28th Tank Division advance through burned out Zhashkiv apartments past both German and Russian dead
In the Leningrad sector the 11th Armee and 9th Armee have launched a minor operation to force the Red Army out of Southern Karelia. Currently the Soviet forces in this area use a thin artery on Lake Ladoga's Southern shore to transport men and materials from Novgorod to Finland, so a succesful ousting would force them to use the undeveloped path through Northern Karelia. After a bloody 5 day fight for Ostinovets the 58th Korps led by the Grossdeutschland Division cut the road and sent their enemies packing. Now in the face of light resistance they've decided to push all the way up to the Mannerheim Line to make use of it to create a fortified perimeter and jumpoff point for future offensives back into Finland. Even with counterattacks to the right flank on the 28th's frontage the attack went smoothly, and our divisions were even able to cause disproportionate Russian casualties as they struggled to keep the road open.
It seems like every time OKH receives reports from OKN that the narrative changes. One day we win a battle and push the Brits back, another we are pushed back ourselves with heavy loss of life. The advantage has obviously been shifted in our favor however. With a strong perimeter around our bastion in Oslo and a noticeably weakening British Army, we can achieve victory, even if it may take many more weeks of hard fighting. The battles of Rena and Lillehammer show this, almost 5000 casualties for us and nearly 2000 for the tommies.
