Summer 42: Fall Blau - GC41 Rosencrantus (A) vs Tyronec, jubjub (S)

[Rosencrantus]

NOTE: Please make sure you check out the end of the previous page to see the rest of the report of T38.

State of the Ostheer & Order of Battle:

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4th Panzer Army was left on assault over the winter. It will be useful for 42 but looking back now I think having 3 assault armies would also have been fine. Soviet strength is also growing rapidly; I just sent T41 to JubJub and his on-map is at 4.66m with 274k reserves. That's in addition to the 150k the Soviets get in May and the 450k later-on.

This picture is reflective of Army group South as well, though they are faring slightly better than AGC.

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Majority of infantry divisions across the front are in need of major refit after fighting through massive Soviet assaults, freezing blizzards, and starvation from a lack of supplies.

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The same can be said of the Panzer-Divisions whose vehicles broke down due to the snow and freezing temperatures that froze the lubricants needed to run its vehicles properly. The motorised divisions are generally in a far better condition than the Panzers.

[Rosencrantus]

State of the Front:

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The Soviet Counter-Offensive has repulsed the Wehrmacht from the gates of Moscow and the following offensives have resulted in the capture of Tula and Kalinin. The Soviet offensive in the Vladai region and west of Tula have also resulted in a salient forming around Vyazma and Rzhev.

It is quite clear that the Wehrmacht has taken extreme losses over the winter, but with the land route to Leningrad severed, a salient facing Moscow, and the vast and oil rich southern steppes of the Soviet Union open, the Wehrmacht are well poised to strike once again during the Summer of 1942...

Too be updated again soon.

[M60A3TTS]

Anything more on this one?

[Rosencrantus]

Yeah I'll update it soon once me and jubjub crank out some more turns, we're on like t59 right now.

[Rosencrantus]

T51 - June 7, 1942:

Welcome back everyone, its been awhile since my last post but let's continue for now with this AAR.

The German 42 campaign begins this turn after about 14 turns of pretty much no action on the front. As a note the Soviets abandoned some ground east of Kharkov and German forces occupied it back in April.

I chose not to attack as soon as the heavy mud turned to light mud around May because I believe that attacking piecemeal and all the time is not always the right way to conduct such an important part of 42. The Germans advantage in experience and quality will soon disappear and they need to get the most that they can with as big a bang as possible. So I decided to prepare as much as possible and wait for the ground and air to clear up to maximize my CVs and that according to the weather reports was the first turn of June.

Here were my plans and thoughts as I was going through the turn of June 7, 1942.

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The primary objectives for this summer will be in the South, with many high VP objectives such as Stalingrad, Astrakhan, and the Baku cluster capable of giving me a sudden victory. As a note, I've been running recon towards Moscow and the surrounding areas since T40 to try and trick JubJub into thinking that I would be focusing towards Moscow for 42.

Order of Battle:

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The German Army has taken so many losses over the winter that there are insufficient replacements to bring every unit on the front back up to full strength. As a result Army Group Centre and South have been given priority on replacements and have been brought up to strength and will be leading the initial attacks. Army Group North had to be overloaded in terms of CP.

During the spring recovery, the Wehrmacht have gotten numbers back up 3.66m on the map while the Soviets have pumped up numbers all the way to 5.54m along with an additional 365k in reserves.

Army Group Centre:
Consisting of 1,068,455 men, 10,575 guns, and 1,530 AFVs deployed in the 2nd Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army, and 3rd Panzer Army. Total of 54 divisions of which 9 are motorised and 8 are armoured.

Army Group South:
Consisting of 1,064,346 men, 9,835 guns, and 1,477 AFVs deployed in the 6th Army, 17th Army, 1st Panzer Army, and 4th Panzer Army. Total of 51 divisions of which 3 are motorised and 9 are armoured.

The armies in Army Group Antonescu that are participating in the operation consists of 2nd Hungarian Army, and 3rd and 4th Romanian armies, totaling to about 632,043 additional troops from the Axis Allies. 8th Italian Army along with the very nice alpini divisions will be added to the command once available.

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These two army groups are supported by Luftflotte 4, consisting of 546 fighters, 929 bombers, and 598 support aircraft to a total of 2,142 aircraft organised in II. Fliegerkorps attached to AGC, and I. Fliegerkorps and IV. Fliegerkorps attached to AGS.

The plan is for AGC to advance to Voronezh and capture it ASAP and then reinforce AGS that will be immediately advancing towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus after capturing Rostov.

[Rosencrantus]

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Recon during the air phase reveals that Soviet positions are quite in-depth as they probably did detect some of the build-up from their own air recon, but it does not matter. My divisions are rested and very well-supplied leading to CVs not seen since T1.

[Rosencrantus]

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As hoped, German forces absolutely destroy the prepared Soviet defenses and panzers have broken through 70 miles from initial positions. Elements of 3rd and 1st Panzer Army have linked up in a massive encirclement of about 18 divisions and 2 corps east of Voronezh. Notable units caught in the encirclement is the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps, delighting German troops as that unit has brought so much pain to them over the winter of 41-42.

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East of Kharkov 4. Panzer Army launches its own attacks and along with some infantry crossing the Donets encircle 5 more divisions and a brigade.

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The first turn of the 42 summer offensive is an outstanding success, the Soviet front has been completely routed and will most likely race behind the Don.

[Rosencrantus]

Compounding further on what I said above, let's take a look at the losses this turn.

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In all the ground battle circles you see in the image above, many of those turned into routs for the Soviet units with losses of 4000-5000+. As a result the Soviets suffered massive losses of around 200,000 men without capturing anyone from the encirclements created this turn.

[EwaldvonKleist]

Your game is remarkably close to the historical situation. Your summer opening included. Luckily for you your opponent decided to stay close in the open, inviting the two pockets. The Northern one may be a 2-3 turn battle though depending on Soviet reserves. Great to see the AAR continue!

[Rosencrantus]

Your game is remarkably close to the historical situation. Your summer opening included. Luckily for you your opponent decided to stay close in the open, inviting the two pockets. The Northern one may be a 2-3 turn battle though depending on Soviet reserves. Great to see the AAR continue!

Yeah I certainly was worried that he would've just pulled back, (in fact he did pull some units back since May) but I assumed since he had fort 3's in the area he would at least stand. Something's gotta be on the receiving end of the german attack so might as well be on fort 3s than 1s.