SS advance at Vyazma 1/22/42

[robot]

Vyazma Russia
January 22, 1942
1200 Hours

It is bitter cold as we prepare to advance against the Russians here at Vyazma. This push is our attempt to once again put pressure on Moskow. We are about 200 miles NE of Smolinsk and about 200 miles SW of Moskow. We will be trying to cross the river Vyazma. It is frozen over at the present time and we hope thick enough to hold some of our heavy equipment.

The visability may hurt us and may help us it is at somewhere near 1850 yards. Dont know what kind of artty we will be going up against today. Not too much open ground lot of low lying hills in our way. And as we come up over some of these will put us at a severe disadvantage. Putting a lot of scouts out in front of our troops in the hope they can locate the enemy in time for our heavy guns to do heavy distruction before we have to face them.

We have been given the ability to call in at least 5 sections of stukas and they will be out early looking for targets. Our big guns began there bombardments at 12:00 O'clock sharp. Hope they tear the heck out of there troops before we even get close.

We will be moving in a three company front with 1 company of light armor cars holding down the extreme south flank of our line. We have a broad front to advance on and this may cause us some trouble. The troops have begun there advance already and we can hear the loud explosions of our big guns. This dam cold will cause us some diffifulties im sure but our men have been putting up with this for the last 3 months and im sure they will manage somehow today.

HQ: X SS Panzer
Col: Karl Vogel Commanding

[robot]

Vyazma Russia
January 22,1942
1250 Hours


Our guys from the paratoops have managed to move up and take the extreme southern objectives and have secured them as well. Although having run into heavy resistence in snipers and S30 sp atgs along with well over a company of infantry they have fought there way thru. The 241/8 Rads they had on there left flank was a big help. But the company of recon cars really suffered most from all the Ptrd atr that they ran into. It was hard to spot them and they lost over 2/3 of there company what with the ATR and the S30s that showed up. They have maybe one platoon left out of the whole comapny. They managed to take out at least 10 of the PTRD atrs along with at least 7 of the S30s. The paras have managed to move at least 400 yards east of there objectives on the way to the rear southern objective.

Meanwhile A co moving along the road in the center has managed to take the center objectives with very little loss of life or equipment. The enemy has been throwing almost all there artty shells at the southern flank trying to stop them from taking there area. Hardly any artty fire has been landing any where near the center or the north or right flank. B co and C co have really taken very little from artty all day long.

B co in the north has moved to with in 400 yards of taking there objective as well. The company of light tanks and stugs has actually moved to with in 200 yards of the objectives. They ran into at least 8 of the S30 type armor about 15 minutes ago. In the ensuing battle we lost at least 3 stugs while taking out all of the S30s. Maybe a comapny of infantry is still holding up there progress. They are sitting maybe 200 yards dead north of the objectives. We are trying to move at least 200 yards east and north of the objective and then turn SE and get behind the objective and help B CO secure it that way.

Have moved the 6 PZ IVD from HQ down to the south to lend some heavier fire power to the 231/8 Rads. There is still a heck of a lot of those dam PTRD ATR hidden around down there. Already lost one of the HQ tanks to those dam atrs.

We are still pushing forward and this battle will be ours. I am just afraid we have already lost way too many men and too many pieces of armor to ther relentless assualt on our group. We will need at least a month to regroup from this fight. The Russians are fighting fanatics today they do not want to give up any more of there country.

HQ: X SS Panzer
Col: Karl Vogel Commanding

[robot]

Vyazma Russia
January 22, 1942
1335 Hours


We have taken all 5 of the objectives. The tanks I had moving on the north flank turned SE and took the rear northern objective. While doing so they managed to take out the Russian HQ along the way.

Our losses where way more then I expected but still way too high for the resorces we have left at this stage in the war. We lost 165 of our men mostly due to artty fire. Also lost 2 APCs along with 12 of our tanks mostly recon cars to ATR fire. Just could not find the dam things before they had hurt us.

The enemy losses where high once again. They lost 1619 men along with 28 of there artty. We also managed to take out 28 of there armor mostly of the Z30 type ATG.

What really hurt was losing four of our aircraft something we are very short of now.

Our orders have come in and we are to stay here at Vyazma until next month and once again try and push the Russians back towards Moscow. It is still very cold here and the weather has been the most brutal thru December and January. But we under stand some of the worst weather is in February.

HQ:X SS Panzer
Col: Karl Vogel Commanding