Too bad for the Red Army that I don't intend to attack Stalingrad along historical lines.
Turn 54, June 25th 1942Operational German troop strength at the start of this week is ~3.336.000 men, 2.400 tanks, 3.300 aircraft.
Operational Soviet troop strength at the start of this week is ~3.860.000 men, 1.600 tanks, 10.000 aircraft
The vast number of Red Army aircraft is mainly due to WitE's air war system still being kinda... broken. Russian losses due to aerial combat should be FAR higher than they are ATM, but then the Russian air force has played only a small role in the fighting so far. I basically ignore the air war except for the (automatic) close air support and the dropping of supplies.
In the North I clean up the last pockets of resistance within the cauldron and capture another
50.000 Red Army soldiers.
With the rear area secured I launch
Operation Roland. Once again the infantry divisions of
XXIII and
L corps, supported by 3 divisions from OKW reserve and my Finnish allies tear a 70-mile gap into the Soviet front line. The fighting is heavy since much of the ground is swamp and forests, but in the end the Red Army units break apart under the onslaught and the way is open for my armoured spearheads: The divisions of
XXXIX,
XXXXI and
LVI Panzerkorps with about 600 tanks start their advance, their movement slowed down more by the difficult terrain than Russian resistance. There's a swampy 60-70 mile stretch of land between the rivers
Sheksna and
Mologa, definitely no tank country, but I have to cross this bog until I reach more open terrain. Still, the advance in difficult terrain is considerably,
Cherepovets is taken and the leading division,
SS Totenkopf covering 100 miles.
The idea is to meet the southern pincer at
Kostroma , another 160 miles from the spearheads.
With the jumping-off positions for the offensive on the northern bank of the
Oka river secured already last week the divisions of
XIII Korps have no problems in delivering a series of devastating attacks against the defending Russians. 60 miles of Soviet front lines simply disappear as the Panzer and MotInf divisions of
XXIV,
XXXXVI and
XL Panzerkorps with 550+ tanks roll North. The terrain in this area is much more suited to mobile operations and thus the leading formation,
2nd Panzerdivision, manages to advance 140 miles. 90 more miles to Gorky.
The pincers are still about 250 miles from each other but with the lack of powerful tank formations I see no way how the Red Army will interfere with this operation. Now I hope that I can keep my units supplied. And that I get a few turns without mud...
The
Rostov-Stalingrad area sees continuous fighting as
Operation Himmelblau draws to an end, the encircled Red Army formations surrendering
en masse to my divisions. Another 150.00 Soviet soldiers are captured.
With the armies defending the approaches to Stalingrad wiped out I now focus my attention towards the city itself. My plan is to avoid a frontal assault and use my armoured formations to cross the Volga river North and East of the city to cut off the Red Army divisions preparing for a desperate last stand in the city. For this operation I have 7 Panzer and 4 MotInf divisions with about 800 tanks, supported by ~20 infantry divisions who are slowly catching up after clearing out the
Kessel.
In the Caucasus
Operation Windhund rolls on, the advance of my divisions only limited by the fuel reserves. 90 more miles to
Grozny. Slowly my railheads move South, but so far the Luftwaffe has done a splendid job of keeping my spearheads supplied.
Again a good week. The Red Army has lost another
300.000 troops, total Soviet casualties since the beginning of the war 12 months ago have reached more than
8 million by now.
In normal conditions the Russians are still unable to withstand determined attacks unless in heavily fortified areas and there is simply nothing in the Red Army's arsenal that can stop a Panzerkorps. The massive losses to their tank forces mean the Red Army has no ability to cope with breakthroughs, the rifle divisions and corps being basically immobile and suffering from weak combat power.
