xhoel
Posts: 3219
Joined: 6/24/2017 From: Germany Status: offline
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T52, 11th of June-18th of June 1942. AGN Army Group North launched operation “Fisherman”, whose aim was to cut off forward Soviet forces in preparation for the push on the northern flank of Moscow. The entirety of the 9th Army as well as 2 full Panzer Corps, 2 independent infantry Corps (XXIII and LI Corps) and air assets from the VIII Fliegerkorps were commited in battle for the operation. The 9th Army broke through Soviet forward defenses and secured a 30 by 30 mile gap that was used by the 2 Panzer Corps to move forward. From here on, the armored formations punched through the weak Soviet rear and made contact with the XXIII Corps which had secured a position between the two rivers. The operation has been a big success, routing several Soviet formations and encircling 9 Rifle Divisions and 8 Rifle Brigades (both normal and Naval Infantry ones). The 8th Army (Batov) and the 22nd Army (Zhukov) have either been routed or encircled. The losses have been high especially in the air, as the StG 2 has taken heavy losses due to strong enemy resistance in the air as well as heavy flak. AGC The destruction of the Voronezh pocket was the order of the day for AGC. Multiple formations were involved in the clean up operations which yielded a large number of POWs. 17 Rifle Divisions, 3 Rifle Brigades, and 1 AT Artillery Brigade were destroyed in the fighting. Voronezh itself has not been assaulted yet and its defenders (1 Fortified Region, 1 Rifle Division and 1 Naval Infantry Brigade) are holding a good defensive position with a high fort level (3.8). A bombing run on the city was met by heavy AA fire, which destroyed 13 bombers out of 80. Further air raids were put on hold. (I believe that the flak in game (as of this patch) is far too powerful. Such results as shown, make bombing of big cities a stupid move because the losses are so heavy. And all of this in a city that has been cut off from supply for 3 weeks now. This isn't the first time this has happened but I wanted to emphasize it.) The enemy pulled back from the Tula area, leaving open ground between us and them. Their new positions were unfortified and intelligence and recon reports indicated that an opportunity to encircle said forces existed. After due consideration was given, infantry formations were moved forward and opened a gap in the Soviet defense lines. The following panzer and motorised formations used the terrain to their advantage and after breaking through the enemy rear linked up just south of Ryazan. To secure the pocket, we have arranged our formations in two defensive lines. This will make it harder for the enemy to conduct counterattacks but the possibility still exist since there is a strong presence of Guard units in the area as well as other reserves that can be used for counterattacks. 15 Soviet Rifle Divisions as well as the headquarters for the 21st Army (Meretskov) have been trapped in the pocket. The strong commitment of units to clean the Voronezh pocket as well as the follow up offensive has left us short of units to man the frontline. We have haphazardly thrown units forward but these positions will need to be reinforced next week. Positions at the start of the week: Positions at the end of the week: Bombing run on Voronezh:
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< Message edited by xhoel -- 6/2/2019 10:33:11 PM >
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