Month: August 2018

Finland: Reinforcements are hindered south of Leningrad by Axis rail breaks. The 10^th Mech wheels south and cadres another Finish Division but at the cost of cadreing a 7-4-8 Armoured division in the Exchange.

Leningrad Front; Trying to pressure the German line south of the city a scratch attack fails against a German infantry division in an unlucky 4:1 NE result.

Close to Kalinin reinforcements try to bolster the defence but are not strong enough to counter attack the German line.

SE AAR 1 1941 DEC II Soviet Turn

Moscow Front: Winterized troops are exchanged by regulars in the front line to assemble a counter attack force.  A single attack is lunched against SS Viking succeeding is reducing this and an accompanying Mot divn to cadres but at the cost of two winterised divisions falling in the exchange.

Fearful that they can do no more than watch as city hexes fall the Capital and Factory are prepped for departure.

Voronezh Front: All quiet as the rear defence line continues to be strengthened and spare troops move forward to attack positions.

Kharkov front:  is redesigned Rostov Front following the fall of the city but all is inactive.

Crimea; Troops fall back to Sevastopol for a last stand.

Battle Report:

Attacks: Diced combats = 5

Losses: Soviet Non-Isolated = 21 (from exchanges)

German Non-isolated = 11.  Fins = 3 (Cadred 5-6)

Franz looked out across the square from his first floor vantage point in the former office building mid-way along the East side. The snow flurries parted momentarily and he could clearly see the few remaining icicles adorning the statue in the central fountain. He also could also see movement along the enemy position at the far side of the square.  Enemy troops had been moving in from side streets, from doors and cellars and were forming up for an attack.

“Get ready lads!” he called out “But hold your fire till they are at the fountain”. 

A great cry rose up from the enemy ranks as the line charged forward; “hold it, hold it” Franz muttered to himself, “Fire!” he shouted as the enemy reached the trip line. The medium MGs opened up and were accompanied by a hail of bullets from the rest of his platoon. The right end of the line dissolved as the heavy machine guns raked the line. Then the line faltered, some of the enemy took shelter behind, and in, the fountain; some hesitated and stopped and then the line started falling back.

“Cease fire!” Franz cried, no use spending ammo at a fleeing foe, but the noise of machine gun fire continued and the line of fleeing troops who dropped like wheat under a scythe.

“Cease fire!!” he yelled again. It was then he realised the noise was not the steady purr of their own machine guns but the harsh rat-a-tat of the enemy DP28.

A gust of wind opened a view to the far corner of the square where he saw the muzzle flash from a basement window and a group of security officers of the NKVD wearing their distinctive red epaulets.

Fifteen minutes later the second wave started their attack, this time they did not falter, the possibility of death at the hands of the hated fascist invaders preferable to the certain death from the guns at their rear.

He feared his platoon would be overrun as the wave closed when a loud “whoosh!” overhead and accompanying explosion at the centre of the square flattened the fountain and a large circle of the enemy around it.

The promised tank support had arrived and just in the nick of time.

He knew now that they would take the district but he also knew that the cost would be high.

Finland & Army Norway: In the centre the German division continues to press forward eliminating a ski battalion.

The Finns meanwhile eliminate another soviet stack close to the northern shores of Lake Lagoda and push the armoured battalion forward in the exploitation phase.

SE AAR 1 1941 DEC II Axis Turn

AGN: No attacks all defensive.

AGC. Very few attacks are launched but one is made against the North West corner of Moscow. The DR is converted to an EX due to fanatical resistance of the NKVD inspired defenders. The only consolation is that engineer support was not quite enough to gain a modifier and so no engineers are lost in the exchange. However 3 infantry divisions are cadred.

AGS: Kharkov falls to an engineer assisted assault and here a DE silences the defenders despite the NKVD presence.

A second attack takes out part of the soviet attack force pressing the centre of the Axis line.

Further south to the coast the Axis fall back a hex and adopts a “hedgehog” defence on alternate hexes taking advantage of the Soviets lack of exploitation ability and strengthening the points of resistance.

11^th Army: Troops seal off the Kerch peninsular preventing reinforcements reaching the defenders and take Simferopol exploiting adjacent to the outer defences of Sevastopol.

Air War: DAS is placed along the out of supply defenders in the Valdai.

Moscow has been a no fly zone for the Luftwaffe due to the masses of soviet MIgs in the city but the capture of a second hex of the city and construction of airfields to the north allows the Germans to transfer hundreds of fighters to prove support and interdict soviet attempts to place DAS on the city defenders in the coming months.

In the south a small raid against the black Sea fleet again fails to inflict any hits on the ships.

Battle Report:

Attacks: Auto Eliminations = 1, Diced combats = 6

Losses: Soviet Isolated = 21 (including from supply checks),  Non-Isolated = 49

German Non-isolated = 28.

I noticed an error in the Oct II, Nov I and Nov II Soviet Turn reports because I inadvertently headed the Soviet front as Voroshilovgrad rather than Voronezh.

Note: To avoid congestion the Moscow Soviet units have been removed to the off map display and locations marked with a red star. Supply Terminals show the furthest Rail/Road limit of the Axis supply line.

December I ’41 Soviet Turn. 

The Soviets prepare to turn their localised attacks into a coherent Winter Counter Offensive. Guards and winterized troops in Moscow are replaced with regular troops where possible and reserves start to form behind the front line south of the city.

In the meantime the series of local attacks increase in size and ambition and the Axis arrogance and overconfidence is repaid by the Soviets giving the invaders a bloody nose as their forces launch a series of devastating counter attacks on the main line penetrations. Over 70 points of losses are inflicted including four Panzers reduced to cadres and four infantry divisions completely eliminated.

Finland: In the North reinforcements arrive to stabilise the line.  Further south the main Finnish/German attack force is counterattacked by the 10^th mech joined by infantry forces and a HX eliminates the Axis stack.

DEC I Soviet Turn: The 10th mech eliminates the Axis thrust.

Leningrad Front: On the Leningrad front The Valdai penetration is nipped off and two infantry divisions eliminated in an exchange.

Moscow Front: The furthest German penetration is again attacked and this time with more success than a fortnight earlier with a HX reducing a two panzer stack to cadres and eliminating the supporting AA units.

Between Moscow and Tula the retreating panzers still just out of supply are reduced to cadres by pursuing Guards, Winterized and regular troops.

DEC I Soviet Turn: Devastating Soviet attack eliminates southern hook around Moscow.

Voronezh Front: The Attack Army continues to move west; one attack falls back in disarray but a second reduces two German infantry divisions to cadres. The exchange however removes a large part of the attack line at the southern tip of the army.

Kharkov Front: Very little action is evident as a trickle of in-theatre reinforcements enhance the defence line. The Soviets consider the feasibility of launching a surge to try to relieve Kharkov but the Axis line is now in full supply and there are no spare forces in the south for such an operation.  Two unsupplied divisions in the isolated city dice and one succumbs but is replaced from accumulated IRPs.

DEC II Soviet Turn: General view of the quiet southern front.

Crimea: In the Crimea forces fall back to Sevastopol and the Black Sea fleet splits to cover Odessa and the Fortress.

Air War. Short range assault bombers provide defensive support while long range bombers launch a series of deep raids onto Axis air bases. Limited results but two point city fields are neutralized and one fighter from each side eliminated in the execution of the operation.

In the south the airlift is continued to provide some supply to the defenders of Kharkov but capacity is limited and two divisions remain unsupplied.

Battle Report:

Attacks: Diced combats = 5

Losses: Soviet Isolated = 11 (from supply checks) Non-Isolated = 45 (from exchanges)

German Non-isolated = 66.5.   Finnish = 5.

Commissar Popov shouts out to his men arrayed in a crescent at the edge of the dense forest; a slight mound in front blocked a full view of the horizon which was anyway obscured by driving snow. “Here they come comrades!”

Minutes earlier scouts running full speed and reaching his dug out breathless reported an imminent attack  and their report was joined by the growl and clank of enemy armoured units negotiating the slope just out of view.

Popov’s unit had only arrived yesterday and had barely time to construct anything other some rudimentary dug outs. Despite increasing enemy activity in front of the corps position they had been instructed to march east and take up the position they now held.

The commissar’s war had so far had been uneventful; inserted into a relatively quiet heavily wooded sector on the Leningrad Moscow road most enemy activity had been directed north and south of the corps’ frontage.   He knew his NKVD division was well equipped and ready to die for the motherland – he just had not expected it would be so soon.

The mean looking angular machines of the Fascist invaders crested the hill, the troops huddled behind looked cold and malnourished but just as mean as their machines and just as determined.

The 75mm shell from the lead tank hit his dug out full on catapulting earth, branches, logs and men skyward.

For Popov the war was over.

Finland & Army Norway: In the centre the German division continues to press forward and aided by air support out of Norway eliminates another winterised regiment.

The Finns meanwhile eliminate a motorized division in their march east.

1941 DEC I Axis Turn: The Finns struggle East

AGN: The Germans manage to assemble a scratch relief force and with the help of the isolated troops of the 18^th pz and 18^th Mot divn break through the soviets via the heavily forested section of the line allowing the mech elemnts to re-join the main force.

In front of Kalinin an out of supply fort is eliminated and a counter-counter attack secures another hex north of the city.

AGC: The German forces contemplate an attack on a second Moscow district but with winter setting in they need engineers and siege guns to do so.  Rail conversion now reaches Moscow and the siege train is positioned for an assault next turn. In lieu of an assault they retract one hex back east of the metropolis to concentrate defences for an expected Soviet counter attack.

Just south of Moscow the Axis are content to eliminate the two isolated forts.

AGS: All quiet on this front. The Kharkov besiegers now in full supply for the first time are enraged that the promised siege gun support has been diverted to AGC but muster engineers and artillery for their own assault.

The line south from Kharkov to the sea assumes a defensive posture

11^th Army: The desultory unsupplied campaign continues in the Crimes eliminating a single division and trapping two more. Infantry arriving from other sectors should be in position to assist next turn but no assets are in place for a protracted siege of Sevastopol should the Soviets decide to defend the citadel.

1941 DEC I Axis Turn. Buildup of forces in the Crimea

Air War; The Luftwaffe provides defensive support to the small portion of the line still unsupplied east of Kursk/Orel but direct their main effort to  fragmenting the soviet rail net scoring 8 hits from 15 sorties. A token dive bomber attack on the black sea fleet is aborted by intense and accurate AA fire.

Battle Report:

Attacks: Auto elim = 3.  Diced =  5

Losses;

Soviet Isolated = 16.  Un-isolated = 32;

Axis un-isolated = 3