-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Great AAR, but now you have dared touch my beloved St. Petersburg I'll hope you'll soon perish at the hands of Zhukov! 
I know, probably won't happen, but a guy can dream, right?
I know, probably won't happen, but a guy can dream, right?
Originally posted by Suvorov
Great AAR, but now you have dared touch my beloved St. Petersburg I'll hope you'll soon perish at the hands of Zhukov!
Zhukov is currently trapped in the Liepaja pocket...
So, you're from St Petersburg? Lovely city, I visited it once in -93 or -94. Hopefully, the role of St Petersburg hasn't yet been exhausted in this AAR.I have been a bit slow with the updates lately because there have been some other things to distract me (like a real life war) but rest assured, the AAR has not been abandoned and will be continued to the bitter (or glorius) end - hopefully in Washington!
No, I'm not from "Piter", but I've been there 8 times (or was it 7? or 9? Or 783? AGHRRRR, damn Russian vodka! )
But beware of Zhukov, though. He can take out a whole German Army Group with only a paper clip and a pocket knife!
)But beware of Zhukov, though. He can take out a whole German Army Group with only a paper clip and a pocket knife!
Damn right, no one cares about REAL war!
Get on with the IMPORTANT and ENTERTAINING war.
[Costs less too!]
Get on with the IMPORTANT and ENTERTAINING war.
[Costs less too!]
Mel Brooks and his best movie...
Oh, and one more thing - update please!
Last edited:
War in the East, June 21-25th
Capture of the Baltic Fleet
As a jubilant Manstein was taking a tour of the Hermitage collection, he received stunning news from the docks district: the bulk of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet had been captured intact in port! The booty included the old dreadnaughts “Marat”, “Oktyabrskaya Revolutsia” and “Parishkaya Kommuna”, two destroyer flotillas and no less than 7 coastal submarine flotillas. Kriegsmarine personnel were soon flown in to inspect and man the captured ships. They were appalled beyond words by the state of the three Gangut-class dreadnaughts (Gangut had been the pre-revolutionary name of the “Oktyabrskaya Revolutsia”, the first ship in the class) and their report was as short as damning: “dreadful, unsanitary, unliveable death trap”.
The “Marat/Westpreußen” moored at Leningrad
Nevertheless, the Kriegsmarine was so short on capital ships that it was decided to make an effort to upgrade the Ganguts with modern radar and bring the crew living conditions into the 20th century as far as possible. The destroyers and subs were in more satisfactory condition and could probably be used as-is, at least initially. In the meantime, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet was sailed off to Danzig to await repairs and upgrades. In Kriegsmarine service, the battleships received the new names “Pommern”, “Ostpreußen” and ”Westpreußen”.
Before being relieved by Salmuth’s 20. Armee moving in from the Karelian Isthmus (Mannerheim’s ban on crossing the border had been lifted after the fall of Leningrad) 3. Panzerarmee had to fight off a Red Army counterattack by three weak divisions against Leningrad. The attackers were soon surrounded and forced to surrender. On the 23rd von Manstein resumed the advance, moving southeast.
Expeditionary forces from far away
Finland received some very far-away guest in deed during the Russo-German war. Shortly before the outbreak of the conflict, some Imperial Japanese Navy naval and torpedo bomber squadrons were based in Helsinki in order to help contain the Soviet Baltic fleet. Soon they were joined by a squadron by a Brazilian naval bombers. South America had joined the war.
The disappointing Pripjat pocket.
In the Heeresgruppe SUD sector, June 21st was the day when 17. Armee under Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt’s personal command crossed the Bug and engaged Rokosovskij’s Corps of three divisions. The Red Army units, having suffered 15-20 casualties from air raids and badly disorganized were no match for Rundstedt’s veteran troops and were soon in full retreat. von Rundstedt was still worried though: even though Guderian took Chernigov on the 21st and thus in theory completed the encirclement of the Soviets troops in the Pripjat, by now the plan to encircle large forces in the Pinsk marshes was beginning to look like a failure. There were the Red Army Troops in Ostroleka and Kaunas, and some falling back from Rovno, perhaps 10-12 divisions all in all. The only major catch so far was the Liepaja pocket with some 20-25 divisions under Marshals Zhukov and Meretskov. But the huge, war-winning encirclement had not been pulled off.
Situation in HG CENTER sector, morning of June 23rd1941
The pocket in question was slowly being eroded from all sides: On June 22nd, 11. Armee also crossed the Bug and took control of the Brzesc nad Bugiem province, and the next day 1. Armee took Grodno after symbolic resistance by Marshal Timoshenko’s single infantry division. On the same day, von Klüge’s 4. Armee assaulted the Ostroleka pocket. Rybalko’s three infantry divisions were too poorly supplied to be able to mount any kind of resistance, but they did manage to sneak out of the pocket towards Bialystok. In Lihtuania, I. Marineinfanteriekorps attacked the Kaunas pocket and quickly forced the surrender of Marshal Zakharov’s Army Corps. In the south, 12. Armee was in Vinnitsa by June 24th and Hausser crossed the Dneipr, capturing Stalino also on the 24th. This closed a ring around a huge but virtually empty pocket, inside only one Red Army infantry division and the now famous Mongolian Cavalry division had been identified.
Fall of Smolensk
Far ahead as usual, Guderian continued aloof of the development of the frontier battles. He drove north from Chernigov shortly before Hausser’s SS Panzers arrived there and was banging at the gates of Smolensk on June 23rd. He didn’t stay there though but pushed relentlessly towards Kaluga which he captured on the 24th after a sharp brush with the surprised defenders. Guderian stood at the gates of Moscow, but he was about to receive the shock of a lifetime.
In the summer of 1941, it seemed only engine breakdowns could stop the German Panzers
Battle of Courland
The Liepaja pocket had been under incessant fire from IV and V Luftflotten since the fall of Riga, but had nevertheless managed to throw back the first German probing attack. On the 24th three German armies, the 10., the 16. and the 18. launched a massive assault on the pocket, with backing from the Luftwaffe. The assaulting forces were slightly inferior in numbers to the defenders, 24 divisions strong and under the command of Marshal Meretskov (Zhukov had apparently been smuggled out of the pocket somehow) but the Red Army units had been under non-stop bombardment for days and were hungry, tired and short on ammo. They endured the onslaught of the Wehrmacht for four hours before their front collapsed and troops started to surrender.
The Far East Front
In the Far East, the enemy of the Axis were fighting with more success. Within days of the outbreak of the Russo-German war, Stalin, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek met in Ulan-Bator to discuss the conduct on the war against Japan. Naturally, Chiang was at a distinct disadvantage and Soviet aid to China would mostly be channelled to Mao’s Communist “People’s Army”. It was also the Communist forces that began to attack the Japanese and Manchukuo forces almost as soon as the war had begun.
The Far Eastern Front, June 25th 1941
In China, 10 Communist and 5 Nationalist Chinese infantry divisions under overall command of Nationalist Marshal Chu-The, attacked the Japanese in the Handan province, where a single Japanese cavalry division held off the superior enemy numbers for three days before being forced to retreat. In Manchuria, Marshal Bagramayan advanced from Vladivostok into Jixi province with an infantry Corps. The 6th Cavalry Brigade of the Imperial Army of Manchukuo could oppose but token resistance to the Soviets and was soon retreating towards Harbin.
Capture of the Baltic Fleet
As a jubilant Manstein was taking a tour of the Hermitage collection, he received stunning news from the docks district: the bulk of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet had been captured intact in port! The booty included the old dreadnaughts “Marat”, “Oktyabrskaya Revolutsia” and “Parishkaya Kommuna”, two destroyer flotillas and no less than 7 coastal submarine flotillas. Kriegsmarine personnel were soon flown in to inspect and man the captured ships. They were appalled beyond words by the state of the three Gangut-class dreadnaughts (Gangut had been the pre-revolutionary name of the “Oktyabrskaya Revolutsia”, the first ship in the class) and their report was as short as damning: “dreadful, unsanitary, unliveable death trap”.
The “Marat/Westpreußen” moored at Leningrad
Nevertheless, the Kriegsmarine was so short on capital ships that it was decided to make an effort to upgrade the Ganguts with modern radar and bring the crew living conditions into the 20th century as far as possible. The destroyers and subs were in more satisfactory condition and could probably be used as-is, at least initially. In the meantime, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet was sailed off to Danzig to await repairs and upgrades. In Kriegsmarine service, the battleships received the new names “Pommern”, “Ostpreußen” and ”Westpreußen”.
Before being relieved by Salmuth’s 20. Armee moving in from the Karelian Isthmus (Mannerheim’s ban on crossing the border had been lifted after the fall of Leningrad) 3. Panzerarmee had to fight off a Red Army counterattack by three weak divisions against Leningrad. The attackers were soon surrounded and forced to surrender. On the 23rd von Manstein resumed the advance, moving southeast.
Expeditionary forces from far away
Finland received some very far-away guest in deed during the Russo-German war. Shortly before the outbreak of the conflict, some Imperial Japanese Navy naval and torpedo bomber squadrons were based in Helsinki in order to help contain the Soviet Baltic fleet. Soon they were joined by a squadron by a Brazilian naval bombers. South America had joined the war.
The disappointing Pripjat pocket.
In the Heeresgruppe SUD sector, June 21st was the day when 17. Armee under Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt’s personal command crossed the Bug and engaged Rokosovskij’s Corps of three divisions. The Red Army units, having suffered 15-20 casualties from air raids and badly disorganized were no match for Rundstedt’s veteran troops and were soon in full retreat. von Rundstedt was still worried though: even though Guderian took Chernigov on the 21st and thus in theory completed the encirclement of the Soviets troops in the Pripjat, by now the plan to encircle large forces in the Pinsk marshes was beginning to look like a failure. There were the Red Army Troops in Ostroleka and Kaunas, and some falling back from Rovno, perhaps 10-12 divisions all in all. The only major catch so far was the Liepaja pocket with some 20-25 divisions under Marshals Zhukov and Meretskov. But the huge, war-winning encirclement had not been pulled off.
Situation in HG CENTER sector, morning of June 23rd1941
The pocket in question was slowly being eroded from all sides: On June 22nd, 11. Armee also crossed the Bug and took control of the Brzesc nad Bugiem province, and the next day 1. Armee took Grodno after symbolic resistance by Marshal Timoshenko’s single infantry division. On the same day, von Klüge’s 4. Armee assaulted the Ostroleka pocket. Rybalko’s three infantry divisions were too poorly supplied to be able to mount any kind of resistance, but they did manage to sneak out of the pocket towards Bialystok. In Lihtuania, I. Marineinfanteriekorps attacked the Kaunas pocket and quickly forced the surrender of Marshal Zakharov’s Army Corps. In the south, 12. Armee was in Vinnitsa by June 24th and Hausser crossed the Dneipr, capturing Stalino also on the 24th. This closed a ring around a huge but virtually empty pocket, inside only one Red Army infantry division and the now famous Mongolian Cavalry division had been identified.
Fall of Smolensk
Far ahead as usual, Guderian continued aloof of the development of the frontier battles. He drove north from Chernigov shortly before Hausser’s SS Panzers arrived there and was banging at the gates of Smolensk on June 23rd. He didn’t stay there though but pushed relentlessly towards Kaluga which he captured on the 24th after a sharp brush with the surprised defenders. Guderian stood at the gates of Moscow, but he was about to receive the shock of a lifetime.
In the summer of 1941, it seemed only engine breakdowns could stop the German Panzers
Battle of Courland
The Liepaja pocket had been under incessant fire from IV and V Luftflotten since the fall of Riga, but had nevertheless managed to throw back the first German probing attack. On the 24th three German armies, the 10., the 16. and the 18. launched a massive assault on the pocket, with backing from the Luftwaffe. The assaulting forces were slightly inferior in numbers to the defenders, 24 divisions strong and under the command of Marshal Meretskov (Zhukov had apparently been smuggled out of the pocket somehow) but the Red Army units had been under non-stop bombardment for days and were hungry, tired and short on ammo. They endured the onslaught of the Wehrmacht for four hours before their front collapsed and troops started to surrender.
The Far East Front
In the Far East, the enemy of the Axis were fighting with more success. Within days of the outbreak of the Russo-German war, Stalin, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek met in Ulan-Bator to discuss the conduct on the war against Japan. Naturally, Chiang was at a distinct disadvantage and Soviet aid to China would mostly be channelled to Mao’s Communist “People’s Army”. It was also the Communist forces that began to attack the Japanese and Manchukuo forces almost as soon as the war had begun.
The Far Eastern Front, June 25th 1941
In China, 10 Communist and 5 Nationalist Chinese infantry divisions under overall command of Nationalist Marshal Chu-The, attacked the Japanese in the Handan province, where a single Japanese cavalry division held off the superior enemy numbers for three days before being forced to retreat. In Manchuria, Marshal Bagramayan advanced from Vladivostok into Jixi province with an infantry Corps. The 6th Cavalry Brigade of the Imperial Army of Manchukuo could oppose but token resistance to the Soviets and was soon retreating towards Harbin.
Last edited:
Great stuff as always, Yogi! "Shock of a lifetime"...you cannot leave me hanging like that!
What about Rommel and Afrika Korps? Where are they? Sned they to protect the Iraqi people's oil!!!
No need - the Iraqi people are already under the heel of the German boot, since the fall of England Germany holds Iraq as a protectorate.
And its not their oil any more - its mine, all mine. MWHAHAHAHA!
And its not their oil any more - its mine, all mine. MWHAHAHAHA!
i know of a few mel brooks films but which one was that from?
i like mel brooks films (Blasing saddels, young frankenstien, robin hood men in tights)
SHOCK OF A LIFETIME? As long as it doesn't include any "awe", I can't wait to see what could be such a devestating blow to the German army.
War in the East, June 25th-July 1st, 1941
The Eastern Front, June 25th 1941
Guderian at the gates of Moscow – The Red Army flexes its muscles
As he was having breakfast at a field kitchen on the morning of June 26th, Luftwaffe reconnaissance reports from Moscow gave Guderian a severe shock: not only was the capital itself defended by more than 30 divisions, including 9 Tank Divisions, but even worse, there was something like 70 Red Army divisions, the largest concentration of Soviet might so far seen since the outbreak of hostilities, advancing from Kalinin towards Vitebsk on the left flank of 2. Panzerarmee. All in all, the Soviets had nearly 100 divisions facing the front of 1. Panzerarmee. Guderian shuddered in awe despite the summer heat and immediately called off the advance on Moscow. For the first time in his operational carrier, “Hasty Heinz” was digging in.
Apparently, the Soviet leadership did not feel very confident despite their numbers in front of Moscow, because like in Leningrad they mobilized the Opolchenye militia and ordered the construction of additional fortifications. A direct German assault on Moscow now seemed completely out of the question.
The Nanking Massacre
On June 25th, there began to filter news from China to the western press that the Japanese Army was engaging in a veritable massacre in the occupied Chinese capital Nanking (Nanjing) since its fall on June 18th. There were reports of mass executions, of “10,000 corpse-ditches” being filled, mass rapes, plunder and terror. The free world, what remained of it, was horrified.
The Imperial Army enters Nanking, June 18th, 1941
In the Europe of the New Order such news was naturally suppressed by censorship, instead “Völkischer Beobachter”, “Le Monde” and the “Times” had big coverage on the Rumanian re-annexation of Bessarabia and the entry of the South East Asian Kingdom of Siam into the Axis. The Pacific Pact would in turn respond by including Mexico among its members four days later. A line was being drawn across the world.
Advance and consolidation
The German advance continued all across the front, in most cases without encountering resistance. Rezekne fell to XIII. Armeekorps on June 25th. Hausser’s 1. SS-Panzerarmee drove through the Perekop isthmus into the Crimea, taking the fortress of Sevastopol without firing a shot on the 26th, the same day XIII. Armeekorps captured Pskov. When 20. Armee tried to push on to the Volkhov river, they ran into serious resistance though. The debris from the fall of Leningrad had been skilfully reorganised by the Red Army General Vlassov and thanks to their superior numbers and skillfull leadership by Vlassov the green militia troops put up a terrific fight. The Germans had to pay for every inch of ground with blood, and although they meted out terrible punishment, it took four days of brutal fighting before resistance crumbled. All of Salmuth’s divisions had suffered 15-20% casualties, but they had ultimately won the day through superior firepower and training. Among the spoils of war was General Vlassov himself. Angered by Stavka’s adamant refusal to his pleas to allow his forces to retreat before they were destroyed, he decided to stay with his troops and be captured.
In the south von Weichs’s 12. Armee captured Kirovgrad and Hausser Rostov on June 28th, in both cases without resistance. Forward of the Dniepr, only Odessa remained to the Soviets, and it fell to the Romanians on the 29th.
von Manstein to the rescue!
On June 28th, 3. Panzerarmee, after driving non-stop from Leningrad assaulted Vitebsk straight from the march. The massive reinforcements from Kalinin had only recently arrived, all of 66 divisions (10 had stayed in Kalinin and 6 were already in Vitebsk) and had not yet dug in. Furthermore, the units were apparently recently formed and hardly battle worthy, because otherwise it’s next to impossible to understand how Manstein’s seven divisions could almost effortlessly rout nearly ten times their own number. In any case, Vitebsk was in German hands by 21:00 hours and the gigantic Red Army force was in headlong retreat towards Kalinin, having suffered bloody losses. In Moscow, Luftwaffe scouting now counted no less than 9 Tank formations and more than 20 infantry divisions with some cavalry to top it off. Guderian was expecting an enemy counterattack within hours, and was immensely relieved when he got news of Manstein’s victory on the exposed left flank.
Guderian also got some unexpected support when Brazilian and Japanese naval bombers, apparently planning to act in a ground support role now that the Baltic had been closed to the Soviets, were based to the Kaluga region shortly after the fall of Vitebsk.
Battle of Pinsk – More Allies arrive
On June 29th, with battles still raging in Tichvin and Vitebsk, 11. Armee attacked the Soviet forces in Pinsk. These three divisions, the survivors of the defeat in Rovno, were quickly overwhelmed and pulled back against Bialystok which had turned into a pocket of its own. Further west, Bobrjusk and Mozyr remained unconquered but they were not defended. On this day the first foreign expeditionary force under German command arrived in Lwow, the Yugoslavian Expeditionary Army under General Nedic. The allied and satellite formations had with the exception of the Romanians, who were fighting their own little war along the Black Sea coast, seen little action so far, but were considered useful for holding inactive sectors and allow the concentration of German troops against the points of greatest resistance. Such a point had now been conclusively identified in Moscow, and Wehrmach forces now began to converge in this sector for the final attack on the capital, leading to a stabilization of the northern half of the front – the Panzers were simply waiting for the infantry to catch up, since not even the most reckless Panzer Commander would have attacked the vastly superior and heavily fortified forces in Moscow without full support. Von Bock set up the new headquarters of Heeresgruppe NORD in Minsk on July 1st. It would fall on him, rather than von Klüge’s Heresgruppe MITTE, still embroiled in the fighting around Bialystok, to organize the Moscow offensive – operation Taifun.
The Eastern Front, July 1st, 1941
More Stukas for Goering
By this time, the new batch of Stuka-Geschwadern had reached operational status and had been added to Rudel’s Luftflotte V. To allow for more tactical flexibility, Luftflotte V was split into X. and XII. Fliegerkorps, each with one Bf-109E-4/B fighter-bomber squadron and four Stuka squadrons. As commander of XII. Fliegerkorps was chosen General der Flieger Weise.
The Far Eastern front
In the Far East, the Communist advance continued. Mao’s guerrillas had cleared Shijazhuang of Japanese by July 1st and in Manchuria, a Soviet division had taken Harbin. The Nationalist Chinese had not been able to make any gains though. The only positive news for the Axis on this front was that Manchukuo forces had crossed the Amur River and captured an area on the Soviet bank called Blagovesjtjensk.
The Far Eastern Front, July 1st, 1941
The Eastern Front, June 25th 1941
Guderian at the gates of Moscow – The Red Army flexes its muscles
As he was having breakfast at a field kitchen on the morning of June 26th, Luftwaffe reconnaissance reports from Moscow gave Guderian a severe shock: not only was the capital itself defended by more than 30 divisions, including 9 Tank Divisions, but even worse, there was something like 70 Red Army divisions, the largest concentration of Soviet might so far seen since the outbreak of hostilities, advancing from Kalinin towards Vitebsk on the left flank of 2. Panzerarmee. All in all, the Soviets had nearly 100 divisions facing the front of 1. Panzerarmee. Guderian shuddered in awe
despite the summer heat and immediately called off the advance on Moscow. For the first time in his operational carrier, “Hasty Heinz” was digging in.Apparently, the Soviet leadership did not feel very confident despite their numbers in front of Moscow, because like in Leningrad they mobilized the Opolchenye militia and ordered the construction of additional fortifications. A direct German assault on Moscow now seemed completely out of the question.
The Nanking Massacre
On June 25th, there began to filter news from China to the western press that the Japanese Army was engaging in a veritable massacre in the occupied Chinese capital Nanking (Nanjing) since its fall on June 18th. There were reports of mass executions, of “10,000 corpse-ditches” being filled, mass rapes, plunder and terror. The free world, what remained of it, was horrified.
The Imperial Army enters Nanking, June 18th, 1941
In the Europe of the New Order such news was naturally suppressed by censorship, instead “Völkischer Beobachter”, “Le Monde” and the “Times” had big coverage on the Rumanian re-annexation of Bessarabia and the entry of the South East Asian Kingdom of Siam into the Axis. The Pacific Pact would in turn respond by including Mexico among its members four days later. A line was being drawn across the world.
Advance and consolidation
The German advance continued all across the front, in most cases without encountering resistance. Rezekne fell to XIII. Armeekorps on June 25th. Hausser’s 1. SS-Panzerarmee drove through the Perekop isthmus into the Crimea, taking the fortress of Sevastopol without firing a shot on the 26th, the same day XIII. Armeekorps captured Pskov. When 20. Armee tried to push on to the Volkhov river, they ran into serious resistance though. The debris from the fall of Leningrad had been skilfully reorganised by the Red Army General Vlassov and thanks to their superior numbers and skillfull leadership by Vlassov the green militia troops put up a terrific fight. The Germans had to pay for every inch of ground with blood, and although they meted out terrible punishment, it took four days of brutal fighting before resistance crumbled. All of Salmuth’s divisions had suffered 15-20% casualties, but they had ultimately won the day through superior firepower and training. Among the spoils of war was General Vlassov himself. Angered by Stavka’s adamant refusal to his pleas to allow his forces to retreat before they were destroyed, he decided to stay with his troops and be captured.
In the south von Weichs’s 12. Armee captured Kirovgrad and Hausser Rostov on June 28th, in both cases without resistance. Forward of the Dniepr, only Odessa remained to the Soviets, and it fell to the Romanians on the 29th.
von Manstein to the rescue!
On June 28th, 3. Panzerarmee, after driving non-stop from Leningrad assaulted Vitebsk straight from the march. The massive reinforcements from Kalinin had only recently arrived, all of 66 divisions (10 had stayed in Kalinin and 6 were already in Vitebsk) and had not yet dug in. Furthermore, the units were apparently recently formed and hardly battle worthy, because otherwise it’s next to impossible to understand how Manstein’s seven divisions could almost effortlessly rout nearly ten times their own number. In any case, Vitebsk was in German hands by 21:00 hours and the gigantic Red Army force was in headlong retreat towards Kalinin, having suffered bloody losses. In Moscow, Luftwaffe scouting now counted no less than 9 Tank formations and more than 20 infantry divisions with some cavalry to top it off. Guderian was expecting an enemy counterattack within hours, and was immensely relieved when he got news of Manstein’s victory on the exposed left flank.
Guderian also got some unexpected support when Brazilian and Japanese naval bombers, apparently planning to act in a ground support role now that the Baltic had been closed to the Soviets, were based to the Kaluga region shortly after the fall of Vitebsk.
Battle of Pinsk – More Allies arrive
On June 29th, with battles still raging in Tichvin and Vitebsk, 11. Armee attacked the Soviet forces in Pinsk. These three divisions, the survivors of the defeat in Rovno, were quickly overwhelmed and pulled back against Bialystok which had turned into a pocket of its own. Further west, Bobrjusk and Mozyr remained unconquered but they were not defended. On this day the first foreign expeditionary force under German command arrived in Lwow, the Yugoslavian Expeditionary Army under General Nedic. The allied and satellite formations had with the exception of the Romanians, who were fighting their own little war along the Black Sea coast, seen little action so far, but were considered useful for holding inactive sectors and allow the concentration of German troops against the points of greatest resistance. Such a point had now been conclusively identified in Moscow, and Wehrmach forces now began to converge in this sector for the final attack on the capital, leading to a stabilization of the northern half of the front – the Panzers were simply waiting for the infantry to catch up, since not even the most reckless Panzer Commander would have attacked the vastly superior and heavily fortified forces in Moscow without full support. Von Bock set up the new headquarters of Heeresgruppe NORD in Minsk on July 1st. It would fall on him, rather than von Klüge’s Heresgruppe MITTE, still embroiled in the fighting around Bialystok, to organize the Moscow offensive – operation Taifun.
The Eastern Front, July 1st, 1941
More Stukas for Goering
By this time, the new batch of Stuka-Geschwadern had reached operational status and had been added to Rudel’s Luftflotte V. To allow for more tactical flexibility, Luftflotte V was split into X. and XII. Fliegerkorps, each with one Bf-109E-4/B fighter-bomber squadron and four Stuka squadrons. As commander of XII. Fliegerkorps was chosen General der Flieger Weise.
The Far Eastern front
In the Far East, the Communist advance continued. Mao’s guerrillas had cleared Shijazhuang of Japanese by July 1st and in Manchuria, a Soviet division had taken Harbin. The Nationalist Chinese had not been able to make any gains though. The only positive news for the Axis on this front was that Manchukuo forces had crossed the Amur River and captured an area on the Soviet bank called Blagovesjtjensk.
The Far Eastern Front, July 1st, 1941
Last edited:
It would be pretty cool for Communist China to end up throwing back the Japanese invaders. how are things with US are they get ready for Japanese-US war?
Excellent AAR!!! I have just read through the entire thing. These New Order Events sound spiffy. The only problem I have with this whole thing is that CHURCHILL DIED! You couldn't have made him form a Free British army or have him taken prisoner. I'm gonna miss ole' Winny....... Are you gonna give the Schulenberg countries their independence? I wouldn't, I'd take that rich land for myself. Are you working on "the bomb"? If so, how far along are ya?
Why, thank you! Churchill's death is not in any way represented in the New Order events. The only reason I put it in the AAR is because the entire Commonwealth agreed to peace with Germany. Had for example Canada chosen to continue the fight, then I would have let Winnie slip out of the ring. But in a world where the British Empire has submitted to the "Guttersnipe", I doubt that there would have been any place for Churchill, nor do I think he would particularily want to stay around. My guess he'd put an end to it while remembering the glory days at Omdurman...
I'm going to give some of the Schulenburg countries their independence, because there's a rather largish dissent hit from denying it to the bigger ones, but I fully intend to get my Germans their Lebensraum...
Hardly any A-bomb research so far. That's the price for being far advanced in almost all the other fields.