@ Ajay: yeah, that's the plan.
@Komemiute: sure, sounds interesting.
Turn 57, July 16th 1942It is done!
With the northern and southern pincers of
Operation Roland meeting north of
Yaroslawl all Soviet formations south-west of the
Volga are cut off, a
300+ mile stretch of Red Army front line trapped and faced with annihilation. Logistics have become a serious problem for my leading mobile formations but the risk was well worth it. My divisions hold the northern bank of the Volga, sealing off any attempts by the Russians to escape their doom.
I'm really tempted to unleash
XL Panzerkorps East across the Volga, but I have to wait for
VII and
XIII corps to secure the area first. And I also need to shift another Panzerkorps east. Next week...
In the
Tamboy area the Russian front line crumbles away, my infantry divisions pushing relentlessly East, battering Red Army units that come in their way, bypassing others. 5 rifle divisions and a tank corps are in danger of getting cut off.
XXXV Korps takes Tamboy, destroys 3 rifle divisions and captures 25.000+ POWs. Organized resistance has ceased to exist.
The
Slovakian mobile division leads a bold advance by
LV corps towards
Saratov.
The
Stalingrad sector saw heavy fighting this week. 25 major battles saw the Red Army torn to pieces. The Russians lost more than 100.000 men in the fighting, with minimal losses on the German side. Special tribute goes to the
Waffen-SS division Wiking, who in a serious of vicious battles, gallantly supported by the Luftwaffe, routed no less than 9 (!) soviet rifle divisions off the battlefield, inflicting more than
40.000 casualties, while suffering less than 600 casualties. But the other divisions have not been idle either. 44th infantry, the (austrian) "
Hoch und Deutschmeister" division destroyed the Soviet 3rd rifle corps in the ruins of Stalingrad and completed the capture of the city. The battles of
III,
XIV and
XXXXVIII Panzerkorps are too numerous to recount in detail, but all inflicted terrible casualties on the Red Army.
The fighting ends with 5 rifle divisions, 1 guards cavalry divisions, 2 guards cavalry corps and 2 rifle corps surrounded.
In the South the relentless advance continues.
Grosny falls and
Makhachkala on the Caspian Sea is taken by
LVII Panzerkorps.
The leading divisions by now have advanced ~ 600 miles since the beginning of the offensive, a feat that couldn't have been done without the efforts of the Luftwaffe and allied air forces. Countless missions have been flown in the last weeks to keep the spearheads supplied with fuel.
120 miles to Baku.
The Red Army is finished.
Operation Roland will basically destroy the Soviet north-west front, the central front is crumbling away, the forces in the Stalingrad area have suffered a terrible beating this week and in the South there is basically nothing to stop my divisions. And I still have months of good weather to use. This will be over soon.
