Slitherine

PeteMitchell_2 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 10:09 am ESPADATXI, keep up the fight! I really like your resilience and stamina. As you may know already, having a lot of patience (and high frustration tolerance) is much more important than panzers in BE!

Thanks for the encouragement and congratulations for your AAr, from the next week, when i finnish the chess tournament, i will retake the AAR

ESPADATXI wrote: ↑Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:55 am

PeteMitchell_2 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 10:09 am ESPADATXI, keep up the fight! I really like your resilience and stamina. As you may know already, having a lot of patience (and high frustration tolerance) is much more important than panzers in BE!

Thanks for the encouragement and congratulations for your AAr, from the next week, when i finnish the chess tournament, i will retake the AAR

Thanks a lot (and as said, it wasn't my first attempt...) Good luck and continued success with both of your endeavors! I look forward to reading more about your next steps/turns in the AAR!

After these days of permission you have to go back to the front ... with your situation so complicated


Upon rejoining the front after so much time a little review of the situation map




In fact, the fight in the Moscow area is so terrible that even defensive fighting gives rise to decorations

Attention! Allied forces are disembarking in the French ports of North Afrika (Morocco and Algeria), the operation is unknown, which has taken the German High Command completely by surprise



At the moment the French forces in the area are responding to the landing with their limited means but it is unpredictable how the situation will evolve and of course it is impossible to send any kind of help.

Just at this moment when the skies have clouded and the snow has begun to appear, it seems that at last the German forces have managed to open an important breach in the Soviet defenses in the Moscow area ...




This has been possible thanks to the new leaders who have excelled in combat

Attention to the entry into combat of the new Soviet supertanker prototype




For its extraordinary performance in facing and defeating this new Soviet supertanker the German unit fighter receives the iron cross (fortunately the Russians used their tank in very unfavorable terrain)

In the North of Afrika the situation worries the High Command, with the bulk of the Afrika Korps located in the Alamein area to face the British counterattack right now there are no forces available to allocate to the French Afrika, in fact not even to defend Tripoli.

If the landing really succeeds will it give the Afrika Korps time to move to the other extreme and reject US forces? Or maybe Italy manages to mobilize more forces and can successfully defend itself without having to displace the Afrika Korps?

The snow arrives and it seems that in the end the German forces will get into Moscow...

On the other hand the Allied landing in North Afrika is a major threat ...




All available forces are occupied in their respective fronts, starting with the Afrika Korps that is fighting in El Alamein .... There are no units available to defend properly Tunisia and Algeria !!


... Given this extreme situation, the Italian government succeeds in deploying these additional units



But apart from the problem of getting them to Tunisia ... they are completely inadequate, at least they are moving to aviation due to the inactivity of the RAF in Egypt and the bad winter weather that prevents the aerial action, on the other hand the Italian fleet continues to suffer travel limitations due to lack of fuel.

Another problem that can be very serious on the Russian front ... it is evident that Soviet aviation has received great reinforcements since its overwhelming numerical superiority has become evident in the last shifts fortunately coinciding with the arrival of winter and the impossibility of carrying out air operations ... but now it turns out that in the month of December 1942 in the middle of Russian winter ... the weather forecast says that the sun will come out !!!




If this is finally the case, the natural result in the current circumstances is that the German forces would be massacred from the air ...

Finally the tenacious Soviet resistance in Moscow begins to break and the German troops enter the city







(Fortunately, the weather remained snowy as it corresponds to December / January )

Simultaneously with this great success, a powerful Soviet counteroffensive begins, especially in the center and south of the eastern front, whose scope and dimensions can not yet be well calculated ... but initially its strength is such that, in defensive tasks, the whole of Axis forces "rain" the medals ...

The German High Command has to start to upgrade its now obsolete 1941 model panzers immediately! Those Panzer IIIG-H and Panzer IVE and F types with their short guns have no chance against the mighty T-34s and KV-1s. The longer gun equipped Panzer III and Panzer IV types are available for several months now, most if not all Pz.III and Pz.IV should have been upgraded to them by now.

In the North of Afrika the situation gets worse and worse, the Allied landing in West Africa that can not be stopped now adds the massive counter attack of many British tanks, more than those predicted by the Italian spies, which has forced Rommel to undertake the withdrawal of El Alamein so as not to suffer further losses ... only the control of the Italian Central Mediterranean fleet and the air superiority prevent an even greater catastrophe

In January 1943, a cloudy day has come out that has allowed aviation to return to action ... in the Mediterranean it has facilitated the sinking of one or two British ships and for that reason the Italian air unit has received an unexpected decoration. .




However, this has a serious drawback ... it is expected that Soviet aviation will then be able to massively bomb the German units on the Russian front ... although the capture of the Moscow aerodromes is expected to limit their mobility and, with luck, reduce the force of the blow

Finally Moscow and its surroundings have been completely occupied by German troops!

Report of the German High Command on the Soviet counter-offensive:
In the central and southern sectors of the eastern front, a very strong Soviet counter-offensive has been unleashed with a large presence of armored units supported by artillery and infantry before which German defensive positions and minor allies are vulnerable, however it should be noted that the Comparison of these units with the identification made during the summer aerial exploration shows that it is the same units (then immobile) that have started to advance simultaneously, also the unexpected meteorological improvement that has allowed a partial aerial exploration of this offensive shows that it is a total offensive on the part of the Soviet forces but at the same time there are no units behind this breakthrough at least in the crucial central sector of the front so if the first attack could be contained, then it could stabilize and eventually reject, for this they must be The necessary readjustments and repositioning, as well as the reserve units and new models available, are being sent to the most committed sectors.





Regarding Mayor Mcguba's proposal regarding the immediate rise in tank models, the following considerations must be made:

For quite some time, the prestige available after the essential repairs to safeguard the life of the units left no room to undertake any expense of this caliber (sometimes prestige was 0 ), however with the fall of Moscow and the new model of PzIVG to which can be promoted the PzIVD / E tanks cheaply and assumably (although to cost to renounce other promotions as for example in aviation).
Apart from this, the needs of transport often occupy the cities, so it is not possible to occupy the city with a unit to promote it, but in the face of urgent need the necessary preparations will be made, however it is also necessary to reaffirm that the current operational doctrine of the German army dictates that anti-tank units must fight enemy armored units, however, given the magnitude of this counter-offensive, it is very possible that they will be overwhelmed.

At the beginning of 1943 the global situation of war is shown on this map




The German High Command has reasonable hopes of keeping the situation under control on the Eastern Front however in North Afrika the situation of the Afrika Korps that is beating in retreat seems desperate ..

Under the pressure of the huge Soviet counter-offensive the Axis troops maintain a fierce defense, so we have the Romanian infantry that differs the key city of Voroshilovsk (south of Rostov)



is decorated for his particular defense.


And on the other hand the 3º Divine Motorized Infantry in charge of the Commander Arnold Fiedler has been surrounded in the defense of Voronezh, it is hoped that it can resist until the next German counterattack allows to break the siege...




-- On the other hand, we have to talk about meteorological time again.
A few days ago it was a cloudy day that allowed a limited air operation, but now the forecast for the first days of February is that the sun comes out completely ... this would allow the Soviet aviation to intervene and make use of its large number of bombers to attack the German forces with all their potential, so this "premature spring" could result in a major setback for the German forces on the Russian front.

Report of the German High Command March / April 1943

After very hard fighting in the central and southern sectors of the eastern front, the result is clear ... the great Soviet offensive based on launching the masses of armored units located in the great steppes between the Don and Dniepper rivers reinforced with units from Stalingrad (apparently called by the Soviet High Command Operations Uranus and Neptune) in the winter months with the icy steppes and the franked rivers has failed.

The strong German defensive well placed with infantry and anti-tank units has resisted in the key points facing the Soviet tanks in the suitable grounds like forest or city, in special it is possible to emphasize the heroic defense of Voroneth realized by 3º Divine Motorized Infantry in charge of the Commander Arnold Fiedler, once contained the initial blow the German units have been reorganized and the antitank units mounted Murder and the recently arrived Stug IIIG models supported by the newly promoted tanks Panzer IVG have topped the remaining units, however there are still active fighting bulbs especially in the north of Rostov.

The improvement of the weather and the open skies have finally arrived and the immediate aerial exploration reveals the tremendous importance of this counter-offensive, since the Soviet forces have practically no reserve units and therefore the way is open for the advance of the German units in the sense that is decided.







The improvement of the weather and the open skies have finally arrived and the immediate aerial exploration reveals the tremendous importance of this counter-offensive, since the Soviet forces have practically no reserve units and therefore the way is open for the advance of the German units in the sense that is decided.