That Soviet formation west of Krivoi Rog looks like it might be next.

Wondering, how long does it take to complete turns in this WitE campaign?

Those are soviet airfields, denoted by the rotor symbol.

Yep, what MadDog said, those units are airfields.
Unfortunately the Soviets pulled them back before I could pay them a little visit...

How much time you need for a turn really depends on the workload of the current turn and personal preference. In a turn during an ongoing operation you can probably finish everything within 20 minutes, while you can easily spend 2 hours on a 'planning turn', with checking individual units' strength and supply situation and checking out the map extensively. Some people love to micromanage everything, assigning single battalions to divisions and re-organizing their armies all the time, others let the AI do lots of that stuff. I'm somewhere in the middle.



Turn 9 & 10

Not too much action so I go over the last two turns together.

In the north it took some heavy fighting with considerable losses to break through the Red Army positions south of Lake Ilmen, but finally Panzergruppe 1 tore the frontline open and XXXXI Panzerkorps starts its race to the coast of Lake Ladoga. I have moved every motorized reserves towards that gap, let's hope I can move my divisions fast enough to keep that corridor open. To the North 1st Infantry Division has closed to within 10 miles of Leningrad! The divisions of I and XXIII corps have succesfully broken through the Narva line and now move into position for the siege. XXVI and XXXVIII corps are also making good progress against heavy restistance.



In the center I have built up my positions around Vyazma and have prepared the divisions of Panzergruppe 3 for the attack on Moscow, while to the south Panzergruppe 2 fights through the Soviet armies guarding the approaches to Kaluga. Supply situation, especially for Panzergruppe 2, is rather bad though, even though the Luftwaffe, from its forward airfields around Smolensk, drops large quantities of supplies on the leading divisions.




In Army Group South's sector 6th Army takes Kiev, while Leibstandarte SS division in heavy fighting thrusts north, linking up with the divisions of XLIII corps advancing south from Gomel, cutting off several Soviet divisions between Dnepr and Desna. XXXXVIII Panzerkorps pushes east towards Sumi and Belgorod, its 9th Panzerdivision overrunning several Red Army air fields in the process.



To the south III Panzerkorps advances rapidly on the eastern side of the Dnepr past Cherkassy, while XXIV Panzerkorps swings around Kirovograd from the west. Another pocket closes around some 14 Soviet division. As just reward III Panzerkorps commanding General, von Vietinghoff is promoted to colonel general.


Romanian 1st Armoured division swings east of Nikolaev towards the Black Sea, cutting off that city and the four divisions defending it. 11th army will take it next turn.

Wow, intriguing AAR. I enjoy reading this very much. Thanks for sharing.
How is the progress of your campaign vs what happened historically?

Thanks, Zero Niner.



I'm doing a bit better than historically so far. The main difference is that instead of diluting the Panzer strength of Army Group Centre north towards Leningrad and south towards Kiev I've kept Panzergruppen 2 and 3 intact in the Vyazma-Bryansk sector. Historically both Hoth and Guderian reported their forces ready for the attack on Moscow by mid-August, which pretty much was the exact situation in my game.


Turn 11, 28th August 1941

In the north the great advance by Panzergruppe 1 so far continues well. Minor Red Army counterattacks have been beaten back and the mobile reserves pour into the gap while the Luftwaffe flies numerous missions to supply the spearheads with fuel. 1st Panzerdivision is just 50 more miles away from its objective, the port of Sviritza! 9th and 18th armies continue their advance from the west and south, ever pushing the enemy back towards Leningrad with heavy losses to the Soviets.



In the centre the Battle for Moscow has begun! Again the infantry corps smash huge holes into the Red Army's lines, then the Panzer and motorized divisions start their rapid advance. From the Vyazma and Bryansk areas Panzergruppen 3 and 2 burst up to 150 miles into enemy territory. XXXIX Panzerkorps with 8th and 19th Panzerdivision reach the outskirts of Moscow north and south of the Soviet capital.



In Army Group South sector XXXXVIII Panzerkorps advances on Belgorod and Kharkov, III Panzerkorps pushes south-east towards Dnepropetrovsk



Down south Nikolaev falls to 11th Army's assault, and the Romanian Divisions of XI, V and the Mountain corps surround the powerful Soviet 11th Tank division west of Krivoi Rog. Forward elements of the advancing 11th Army have reached the mouth of the Dnepr, the road to the Crimea seems wide open.

Am I blind or is Moscow defended rather weakly compared to Leningrad and Pskov?


- Edit:

What do you want to do about Leningrad anyways? Surround, compress and hope they won't counterattack?

The defences around Moscow are indeed rather week, but that's mainly due to me having destroyed pretty much all its defensive forces in earlier battles. I usually take the screenshots at the end of my turn, so you don't see the many Red Army units that didn't survive my attacks. So far I've destroyed more than 180 Soviet divisions, not counting all the independent regiments and brigades. The USSR rebuilds its forces in 1941 at a frightening pace, but even the Red Army needs time to recuperate from such losses.

The defences around Leningrad are quite formidable, my only chance of taking the city quickly with limited losses is by cutting those forces off, which my Panzer attack will hopefully do. Cut-off units in WitE suffer some serious penalties to morale and combat power, so even large, well dug-in armies will succumb to attack in a short time.


Turn 12


In the north I grind my way up to the coast, one more push and the giant pocket around Leningrad is sealed.



In the centre I cut off another another 24 Soviet divisions and continue to push around Moscow with my Panzerdivisions.



In the south I take Sumi, close in on Kharkov and surround 7 divisions near Poltava. 16th Panzerdivision swings around Zaporoshye.

There are fewer examples of successful breakouts of encirclements in military history than examples where they failed. Especially mechanized and armored forces will quickly succumb out of necessity if cut off from fuel supply. Ammunition consumption, though moderate by today's standards, was unprecedented in WW2, and certainly put another serious strain on the supply chain. In some respect modern armies are more vulnerable to encirclements than they used to be at times where you relied on pointy sticks and sharp blades primarily. But as long soon as your side runs out of fuel and ammo and the other side still has it, resistance (on a large scale) is futile.

Willpower and heroism is not enough to break a tank's armor, or to protect from its MG bullets.

Yes, that's certainly correct. I've read lots of accounts of WW2 where being cut off from the supply even if only for a short time would result in a unit's ammo and fuel reserves depleting at an alarming rate.

BTW a very interesting read about the problems of such a breakout is "Korsun Pocket", by Zetterling and Frankson.


Turn 13, September 11th 1941


We've done it! With 1st Panzerdivision capturing the port city of Sviritza 80 divisions plus various brigades and regiments are cut off in the Leningrad sector. The fighting has been tough, especially breaking through the final Red Army line on the Syash and Pasha rivers. 1st Panzerdivision is down to 60 serviceable tanks, 6th PzDiv down to 85. If I can keep the Kessel closed I should be able to destroy the bulk of the trapped armies within a 2-3 weeks.



In the centre the pocket east of Vyazma has been reduced, next turn we'll clear it out. My Panzerdivisions are still fighting their way around Moscow, against heavy resistance. 12th Panzerdivision has fought off several Soviet tank divisions, but is now down to 40 serviceable tanks. My divisions are tired and casualties have been severe, but we will take Moscow!



2nd, 4th, and 17th armies push towards Orel and Kursk. XXIV Panzerkorps will support these attack from the north next turn.



In the south I've taken Zaporoshye and Dnepropetrovsk. Kharkov will fall soon.



11th army prepares to attack the Crimea.



In general, most of my infantry divisions are still in good shape, but the Panzerdivisions soon need some rest to refit. Manpower on the eastern front has actually increased, from ~3.3 mio men on June 22nd to 3.55 mio this week. My Panzer strength has dropped to ~ 2.200 serviceable tanks, down from 3.800 at the start of Barbarossa. A very welcome addition to my forces this week has been the arrival of XL Panzerkorps with 2nd and 5th Panzerdivision. They are currently on trains heading for the Pskov area where they will help in cutting off the Russian 'bulge' that stretches from Kalinin to Velikie Luki.

Bravo. Excellent game and AAR.

These strategic/operational games are my favorite. Grew up playing them. First te board games and then as they transitioned onto the computer.

Thus my username.