DQ2004
Posts: 770
Joined: 9/29/2013 From: Hobart, Tasmania Status: offline
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The Central Front, USSR, Jul/Aug 1941 Well this is the one you've all been waiting for. As previously mentioned, the weather in Russia was clear for the entire Jul/Aug turn. At the beginning of the turn the bulk of the Wehrmacht was still mostly in the former Baltic States and Eastern Poland. With the iniative at the beginning they attacked Minsk and two armies that had been cut off near Riga. One of the latter had been disorganized by Luftwaffe ground strikes, as had a motorized army with Yeremenko. The Soviets had sent a fighter to protect Yeremenko, but whilst it wasn't shot down (nor did it stop the Stukas), the fighter could not retreat to anywhere safe. Being already significantly outnumbered the Russian armies retreated, but they were hampered by the Yeremenko HQ's slow movement. First they retreated to Vitebsk (the factory there having been railed out of course), and the disorganized motorized army was overrun during the German movement phase in the next Axis impulse. Then Yeremenko retreated his small army group to Smolensk (4th impulse), and again the Panzers moved but did not attack, with a few German corps moving to outflank the Russians. And it was here that Yeremenko was caught between two German corps' ZOC, and thus he would not be able to get away. I'm sure that in hindsight my opponent would have abandoned Yeremenko at Smolensk but he chose to retreat to the hex NE of the city, leaving the 33rd INF army as a sacrifice, and keeping his best army guarding the HQ (the 4th GD Mech). The Moscow militia moved forward to block Axis forces moving further west to give the HQ a chance. At the same time Soviet TB-3 bombers launched ground strikes to try to slow the Germans down. But the strikes were a failure (6th impulse). The Germans now had just one tactical aircraft left to use. The not-really-that-good Dornier 17Z. But their poor reputation was completely undeserved, as the squadrons of bombers swooped down on the retreating Bolsheviks, they made great targets. The Soviet columns were thrown into disarray by the accurate bombardment of the Luftwaffe Dorniers. They returned to their airfields as heroes. The pride of the Red Army had been stopped dead (7th impulse). Rundstedt did not immediately take advantage of this airstrike, but destroyed the 5th INF army first, at the same time making sure that the Soviets would have no choice but to abandon Yeremenko and the MECH army, else lose even more units. Sure enough the rest of the Red Army retreated towards Moscow, while labourers desperately loaded factory equipment onto trains at Tula. They were too late at Kalinin, where the next impulse the vanguard of the German armies arrived on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile the bulk of the German panzer force made sure of the destruction of Yeremenko's armies. In the next impulse the Soviets retreated to a box around Moscow, with a single unit guarding Kalinin. That city was the next target and the 29th INF army which had retreated all the way from near Vilna at the start of the war, was finally destroyed. It was now at the end of the Axis' 6th impulse that the turn ended. If it had gone on for another four impulses then Moscow was doomed for certain. Having said that, the picture was still far from rosy. It all depended on what the weather gods had in store for us in the Sep/Oct turn...
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"Look at you - you have HORSES! What were you thinking?!?" - Paratrooper David Webster
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