Erik Rutins
Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000 From: Vermont, USA Status: offline
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Dagfin, Bingo, you got it! That describes the crux of this scenario, which is being worked on by the very talented Pavel Voylov. His research regarding the Eastern Front is outstanding and I'm very much looking forward to seeing his final designs. Here's an excerpt from the "work in progress" scenario description for this scenario, which goes from June 28th, 1941 through July 9th, 1941. quote:
June 28th, by 17:00 German superiority in quality and quantity proved itself and after three days of bloody battles around Minsk, 20.PzD broke into the center of the city. 2.PzGr and 3.PzGr joined, while the battered Minsk defenders had retreated to the Berezina river. 26 divisions of 3A, 10A and 13A were encircled and doomed. Many battlegroups managed their way through the German encirclement (including groups of 3A and 10A commanders Kuznetsov and Golubev) during the rest of July, but it was just a miserable fraction of the original force. June 30th, Guderian met with Hoth and they discussed their cooperation for further actions. Considering the first stage of Operation Barbarossa (destruction of Soviet forces before river Dnieper) completed in the center, 2.PzGr and 3.PzGr now had to advance further and secure the bridgeheads over Dnieper in Rogachev, Mogilev, Orsha (2.PzGr) as well as bridgeheads over Zapadnaja Dvina in Vitebsk and Polotsk (3.PzGr). In particular, the task of 47.MK was to advance through Borisov and Tolochin on Orsha, and establish a bridgehead there. It wasn't expected to encounter serious opposition, so 47.MK was left with only the single 18.PzD and supporting units (while 17.PzD was temporarily detached to hold the encirclement line). The problem, though, was that German enthusiasm was quite a bit too early. The Soviet second strategic echelon, consisting of 20A, 21A, 22A already began concentrating behind the Dnieper. These armies were formed in the internal districts, and, despite being more poorly equipped than their compatriots at the front, they were good regular units, posessing significant combat capability. Regards, - Erik
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