10th July 1944
After a few alarms and local difficulties in the last 72 hours or so, the situation facing 10 Panzer and accompanying elements on the front either side of the Lithuanian border appears to be somewhat closer to something we would consider "manageable" if not exactly "comfortable"; the marauding super-heavy tank group (we understand that this is a Guards formation and the new vehicles are classed as "IS-2" by the Soviets) is still at large but down to around half its original combat effectiveness and the division-plus numbers of Stalin Organs have been drastically reduced by combinations of air and ground attacks. As we've learned over these last few days though, the enemy has an incredibly deep pool of reserves to draw on and we remain on guard.
Mindful of the incessant stream of fresh combat Corps we continue to see, Herr General has instructed Panzer-Regiment 17 to remain in the Barnovichi sector and not stray further north in an attempt to bring the enemy Guards IS-2 unit to battle in a "contest of the heavyweights". Our own heavyweights are, in combination with 17 Panzer's Elefants especially, defeating every force sent against them and keeping the tactically-vital east-west corridor firmly closed to enemy movement. Another new enemy formation, led by T34-85s, has engaged them today.
Panzer-Regiment 3 and its Panzer IVs won an absolutely vital victory this morning west of Pinsk, defeating Soviet attempts to cut them and Grenadier-Regiment 93 off from the rest of 3 Panzer. Orders have been given to both these units to abandon Pinsk and fall back towards Brest-Litovsk and consolidate the defensive shell around the city and it's key river crossing.
The heroic defence of the Lublin line by XLII Corps' 357th Infanterie Division, now bolstered by the assault guns from our own reserve and the Elefants of Panzerjaeger-Abt 300, continues to give Armee HQ hope that we can keep the enemy hordes at bay for a few more days. Our losses are mounting and our opponent continues to find fresh rifle divisions to throw against us here, but today we were finally able to eliminate an elite unit of heavy rocket artillery that had been wreaking havoc on our defenders.
11th July 1944
The relentless enemy pressure across the whole area has not presented us with much in the way of counterattacking opportunities beyond local initiatives - mainly in 17 Panzer's sector. In an attempt to change the dynamic on the Lublin front and give the Soviet Front command something to consider, orders were given to Panzerjaeger-Abt 300 and Aufklarung-Abt 3 to strike out and take the battle to the enemy in their vicinity and not wait for the next wave to come to them. SU76s on artillery support duty were certainly unprepared for this bold stroke!
Supporting our mobile attacks, the 357th Infanterie sent an attacking force against the battalion-sized remnant of another of the reds' heavy rocket artillery units and routed them.
An enemy close-assault infantry regiment much like those seen in Stalingrad likewise had no answer to this gambit.
East of the Bug, infanterie from regiment 232 had taken up good woodland positions on their arrival from our reserve and were able to inflict a beating on an unsupported contingent of very light vehicles mounting rocket launchers. I have long since lost count of the volume of Soviet rocket artillery units mentioned in the reports from around our divisions during this operations.
Despite the outbreak of better news across our southern fronts on the ground, the air is once again full of enemy bombers - they must have been flown into the bases east of our main battle lines as no sign of them had been previously noted. All combat-ready JG 26 aircraft, plus ZG 99's 410s, have been fully engaged all day as we struggle to prevent this new and potent threat from breaking already weakened units holding our defence together.
Soviet self-propelled FlaK units have started appearing, clearly brought forward to support the Soviets' new air offensive. Panzer-Regiment 9 was able to largely neutralise one of these formations, although not before it had inflicted more than moderate damage to our Komet gruppe on the previous day.
After battering the most recent enemy tank wave in its sector, 17 Panzer has been able to once again consolidate around Barnovichi and HQ has handed down orders for it to edge further west away from the town and towards Brest-Litovsk before the enemy exploits the gap we've had to leave for it at Pinsk; we still think that there are 2 or 3 days "grace" for this step back to take place in owing to the difficulty of the terrain facing the enemy there and the pressure we can continue to exert of the flank of any such advance.
Our decision not to "chase" the rampaging Guards IS-2 force along the Lithuanian border appears well-justified, as they have spent the night driving hard north along our front in an attempt to force some sort of opening against the northermost end of the line, largely held by less resilient regiments and support groups anchored around the Panthers of Panzer-Regiment 13. StG 3 has been able to get an effective attack run against the enemy Guards this morning, meaning that this previously unstoppable juggernaut is now a force we can consider "manageable".
12th July 1944
So, the bigger they come - they harder they fall. Today every man on our Lithuanian border front is breathing with slightly more comfort following the report of the final destruction of the super-heavy IS-2s which have caused so much tension and loss in recent days.
As there appears to be a day of "breathing space" in our easternmost areas today allowing our forces to re-organise and edge a little more westwards, the rest of today's report will focus on the continuing struggles ranging from Pinsk to Lublin.
The powerful interventions of Big Gustav have been a constant we've had to rely on to prevent local situations escalating beyond our means to control on a daily basis - it's fair to say that, without it, our situation here would have already been lost. Today, Big Gustav's hammer fell upon a group of SU-85s that had the numbers and gun calibre to do some meaningful damage to 3 Panzer's Elefants holding down the far western corner of our defensive line at Lublin. HQ has noted with concern our adversary's focus of attention on this point and the flow of his armoured power to this spot and the risk of our flank being turned here is real, hence the decision to expend our "deus ex machina" for the day here.
As I already written, I have given up trying to keep pace with the volume of rocket artillery being thrown against us. The sudden focusing of the enemy's attention on the uttermost edge of our defensive organisation on our southern front has once again been augmented by Stalin's (musical) Organs. In isloation, we had become inured to treating them as nothing more than irritants but, their massive deployment in this operation and the skill with which some of them have been operated has catapulted them to targets of the utmost importance - witness the report from ZG 99 of a much-needed successful strike on a Katushya regiment directly facing the stoic defenders at Lublin.
A desperate, bloody but ultimately successful local attack by the hastily-deployed reserve Infanterie-Regiment 149 (with fire support from 3 Panzer's restored Brummbar unit) has kept the lid on the enemy advance east of Brest-Litovsk - there remains hope for us to maintain that situation as long as we can funnel the enemy advances through the marshes.
Without action by StG 3's Hs 129's though, the T34-85s that had made it out of the killing zones in the Pripet Marshes would have been free to exert pressure on our brave but under-equipped reservists.
13th July 1944
Allow me to continue the theme of the key role of our supporting air power in today's initial reports. Our Russian comrades continue to lean on equipment from the British and Americans, but British tank designers clearly still have several lessons to learn about modern warfare given the vulnerability of their latest Valentine models to air attack. Perhaps that's an indication of how little they have to worry about German air attacks in their usual sphere of operations?
Even though they are definitely "vintage" compared with contemporary aircraft, II Gruppe ZG 99's Bf 110Gs continue to help us manage the battlefield through the attrition they are able to reliably inflict on the enemy's bulk in support of local operations, as illustrated by action today against a T34 regiment well-positioned to inflict casualties on the StuH 42's brought up from our reserve to bolster the line at Lublin.
On the ground and further up the Bug River, Panzer-Regiment 3 had been ordered across the river to provide a last-minute intervention against Soviet cavalry threatening to overwhelm what little is left of XLII Corps in the riverside woods NE of Lublin. The Panzer IVGs sealed off this penetration, which threatened a decisive breakthrough opportunity for our opponent, and wasted no time moving onto nearby enemy engineers.
Further decisive action from 3 Panzer was reported from Panzer-Regiment 9, which remained east of the Bug and was pushing back the enemy's light mobile units around the original "start line" of the Soviets' offensive in the SE sector.
Further east at Barnovichi, 17 Panzer has continued to put the "fighting" into their fighting withdrawal in the face of continuing enemy armoured attack - another regiment of T34-85s have been added to their tally today.
In support following their pull-back from Minsk, 25 Infanterie's Pioniere continue to fill in around suitable terrain as security for 17 Panzer.
Along the Lithunian border front, enemy offensive action continues in the form of a combat Corps of medium tanks with semi-motorised cavalry support. The line 10 Panzer and its supporting elements (Panzer IIINs from 17 Panzer, StuHs and Jagdpanthers from 25 Infanterie) continues to hold a line that's effectively the same one it's been holding since day 3 of the operation, despite the preponderance of force the reds have thrown at it.
Perhaps the most important report of the day came into HQ late in the afternoon, from a rare spotter flight we'd been able to organise amongst the usual daily defensive operations. Has the enemy finally spent the last of its offensive energy against our weakest point, the Lublin front protecting the route to Warsaw? HQ has wasted no time in sharing this particular intelligence with the hard-pressed subordinate commands around Lublin in the hope that they will continue to find the resolve to hold, knowing that there is - after all - an end in sight to the Soviet tide.
