Turn 26, December 12th 1941

The cold... the terrible cold...

All along the front the Red Army starts a series of vicious attacks. More than 30 major battles are fought this turn, some with up to 60.000 Soviets attacking a weakened German division.

My divisions have repulsed about 50% of these attacks in desperate fighting, mainly in the areas of Army Groups North and South, where either the Finns were holding the line or Red Army forces are still weak. Where the attacks are repulsed the Russians are taking heavy casualties.

But where ever the Soviet attacks succeed my casualties are horrible. 14 of my divisions had to retreat, suffering between 1.000 and 3.000 casualties each in the process. And battle casualties are actually only a small part of my losses. Thousands of my soldiers simply succumb to the cold.

In the North the situation is still good. The Finns hold the line and the 8th SS cavalry brigade destroyed a partisan unit that threatened the rail lines to Leningrad. I am confident of holding the line here.



In the Kalinin sector the Red Army manages to push back the 126th infantry division, inflicting 2.744 casualties. But that division's right neighbour, SS-Totenkopf division puts up a gallant defence against three attacking Soviet divisions, inflicting more than 4.000 casualties while suffering less than 100 on their own!

Soviet attacks in this sector by and large have been repulsed, but 10th Panzerdivision in Kalinin is in grave danger, facing 6 divisions, 4 brigades and a cavalry corps to the North, East and South-east. And the division is down to 66 tanks... The question is whether to pull out or reinforce the city, risking serious losses in case of an overwhelming Russian attack. I have a dozen infantry divisions moving up from the west, so if I can buy a bit of time I will be able to significantly reinforce my line.

In the end I decide to reinforce Kalinin with the 17th Panzerdivision and 6th infantry division. Giving up a major city without a fight just doesn't sit well with me. Or the Führer.




In the Moscow sector the situation is serious. Massive attacks push back 258th, 23rd, 26th infantry divisions, 78th Sturmdivision and the 900th Mot. Lehr brigade.
Two infantry divisions from the Rzhev area have already reached the front lines and six more divisions should reach the area within a week or two. With those divisions I think I can hold Moscow, but the next two weeks until they're in position will be brutal. All formations that had to retreat have suffered appalling losses.



The vast stretch from Kaluga to Rostov stays comparatively quiet. A number of Russian attacks are beaten back, four of my infantry divisions were forced to retreat, again with serious losses. Since the Red Army lacks really powerful formations in the whole area I'm positive that no disaster will strike here.



On the Crimea my forces have seen serious fighting: two Soviet rifle divisions and a naval brigade assaulted the Panther line, pushing back the defending forces in the northern part. 21st Romanian infantry division routed off the battlefield while the German 72nd infantry division and the Romanian 2nd Mountain brigade retreated in orderly fashion. Casualties were almost 7.500 men.

A counter-attack by Romanian 13th and 14th and German 50th infantry divisions contained the breakthrough, routing a Russian tank brigade and enabled my divisions to regain their old positions.

Next turn I'll probably pull my troops back a bit from Sevastopol, I fear the strong garrison breaking out and badly mauling my weak troops.




All in all I survived the first week of blizzard in decent shape. Despite serious losses my line holds and no breakthroughs occurred.

Just to stress the point how serious my losses still were: in the last turn I suffered more than 125.000 casualties. In a single week. Up to that point my total losses since the start of Barbarossa on June 22nd amounted to about 450.000.


This is gonna be fun.






PS: right-click->show image if the text in some of the screenshots is too small.