boldairade
Posts: 722
Joined: 1/15/2005 Status: offline
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December 3, 1943 Greece-Foul weather, no movement. The recovery of Canadian II Corps, vital for Operation ZEUS, continues. EAST FRONT North With the return of the wolf packs to the BOA and foul weather, the Red Banner Fleet, almost completely recovered, returns to Baltic convoy raiding. We sail out to the south west, hoping to avoid any ice this year. Planning for an attack south of Leningrad continues. For any chance at success, it would likely require unit specialization, air assets, either an amphibious or air landing(or both). Even with ALL these things deployed, success still seems unlikely. Center-WINTER STORM finally kicks off in snowy weather. 14th, 1st, and 18th Air Armies pound the German LII Corps, and meet heavy resistance from multiple German Jagdkorps. Overall, in the pre bombardment, the Red Air Force and Luftwaffe both lose 10 air steps in the preamble to attack. The opening assault sees 25th Tank(winter) 2nd UKr Red Army(winter) supported by 12th and 10th Air Armies and commanded by Georgy Zhukov hurl themselves at the entrenched German LII Corps, commanded by Germany's best, Erich von Manstein. Sickening losses are absorbed on both sides, with the opening attack costing the Russians 12 land step and 5 air. The Germans lost 5 land, 7 Air. The next attack goes better, as we lose 7 land steps and zero air to the German loss of 5 land, 2 air. Hoping to smash the damaged German formation, we switch our our attack forces, sending in 2nd Tank(winter) and 25th Tank(winter) with support from 1st and 16th Air Armies. Not only do we fail to destroy LII Corps, but it stands its ground. Losses are high for the Germans though, as they lose 7 steps. Soviet forces lost 3 land, 1 air. We hope the next attack will shatter LII Corps, but if fails to do so. The German formation does lose 10 steps, however. Russian forces lose only one step. WINTER STORM now focuses on an even harder target, VII Panzer directly to the south. 26th Air Army tries to soften in up. The Luftwaffe appears to be spent. This is an even tougher unit, but we can attack from 4 hexes, with powerful units. 15th Tank(winter), 1st Guards Tank(elite), 1st Guards Tank(winter) and 6th Guards Tank(winter) roll forward, supported by 12th and 24th Air Armies. Despite good odds(2-1) we take heavy losses(12 steps). We are doing damage however. The panzers take 8 hits, and VII Fliegerkorps loses 2 steps. The second attack is not much better. 15th Tank is out of OPs, so we are down to only the other 3 formations. We lose 6 steps, the Germans 4. The third attack finally pushes VII Panzer back, although we score only 2 hits, absorbing 4. Overall, we are happy to reclaim these two hotly contested hexes, but we had hoped things would go more our way, with heavy air support, winter specialization, and having strong numerical superiority. Russian production is set to allocate nearly all of its resources to reinforcement and supply trucks in the effort to maintain momentum into the next turns. 15th Tank and 7th Tank are moved in to hold the hexes, hoping to make the Germans pay for retaking them hopefully in the snow. After consideration, this is likely a mistake. We should have moved in infantry, and kept the tanks in reserve. I'm not even sure we had any in range, however. 3rd Guards Tank, which had been earmarked for the Smolensk operation, is instead moved north for expected ops next turn. South-Poor weather, no activity.
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< Message edited by boldairade -- 2/21/2022 2:00:48 PM >
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