The old city designations for the Soviet Army Groups are now of little relevance as they have advanced far beyond their start point so they are re-designated:
Artic Front remains and is tasked with capturing Narvik. Leningrad becomes Belorussian and extends from the Baltic coast to Brest Litovsk. It is tasked by STAVKA to capture Konigsberg and Warsaw and press on to Greater Germany. Moscow becomes Ukrainian extending from Brest Litovsk to the Rumanian/Hungarian border and is tasked with capturing Lvow and eliminating Hungarian resistance.
Stalingrad becomes Steppe extending from the Rumanian/Hungarian border to the Black Sea coast. Steppe is tasked with capturing Bucharest, Ploesti and eliminating Rumanian resistance by Surrender or elimination.
Partisans: No activity
Arctic Front:
(2 attacks) One NE and a DR net the attackers a 3-8 mtn reg and a gain of 500 square miles of tundra.
Belorussian:
(8 attacks) Name changes do not of themselves get results and in the north the Russian steamroller seems to have hit a bump in the road. Stiffening German resistance and fear of reprisals limits the Soviets to a few mopping up operations eliminating isolated pockets and two sacrificial outlying stacks around Konigsberg. Their attempts at penetrating the MLR fail as they inflict three retreats and advance in only two of them. A fourth attack is repulsed (AR).
Ukrainian Front:
(3 Attacks) The poor showing of the Soviet forces, disorganised and exhausted from their dash across the steppe, is repeated where a stack of two security regiments repulses an attack by Guards division and supporting units trying to capture the cross roads at Kowel.
A surrounded Inf XX now 150 miles behind the lines is finally eliminated and a PZg who failed to move west fast enough is caught and eliminated by a massive force of Tanks and Mechanized assets.
In exploitation these forces fan out and surround the three Panzer Divisions shielding the MLR at Lvov.
Ukraine Front before Exploitation, August I 44 Soviet Turn
Steppe Front:
(10 attacks) It is a different story in the far south where Stalin, exasperated by Rumanian prevarication authorizes Soviet forces to cross the border. The weak, widely dispersed resistance in the north of the country is assaulted across a wide frontage and numerous penetrations are made. With almost no Axis armour in the region Soviet tanks press west at full speed and by the end of the month are just short of crossing the Siret River at point 1820. Meanwhile along the coast Nikolayev is captured and the outer fortified ring at Odessa is reduced. Only the city itself now remains in Axis hands.
Air combat: The Luftwaffe loose two units caught on the ground by the spectacular Soviet advance in northern Bessarabia; doubling Axis losses for the turn to 4.
Ukraine Front after Exploitation, August I 44 Soviet Turn
Combat Report:
1 Overrun, Attacks = 23 of which 4 automatic kills.
Losses: Soviets = 7, Foreign Contingents = 1. Total = 8. Air = 4
Axis: Forts = 6
German: Isolated = 24, 3xAA, Non-Isolated = 10, 2xAA, FA x1, Air = 3.
Rumanian: Isolated = 11, Non-Isolated = 4, Air = 1
Hungarian: Isolated = 12. Non-Isolated = 6
Eastern: Non-Isolated = 2
Total Axis = 69
Loss Ratio: Axis/Soviet Aug II ’43 = 69/55 = 1.25
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