Turn 8 - August 7, 1941
We finally make up our minds on what to do with 4th Panzer Group and send it north-northwest to capture Oranienbaum. The results are exceptional and 8th Panzer Division is less than 20 miles from Leningrad. The enemy formations west of the Luga-Oranienbaum line are isolated, but this all hinges on whether we can keep the penetration sealed.
In the center the big pocket is collapsed and the panzer formations are pulled off the line where possible and replaced with infantry, to give them a brief respite before the next heave forward.
Situation
The north, including the Finns' penetration to the Leningrad stop line and in East Karelia toward the Svir River:
In the center, the big Vitebsk-Smolensk pocket is all but eliminated but the defenders at Smolensk continue to hold out despite repeated assaults:
In the south one of the two mini-pockets created last week is collapsed, freeing the 3rd Panzer Corps for another lunge southeast. Krivoi Rog is taken, Kirovograd is surrounded, and the two primary objectives of this direction are within sight (Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye):
Operations - Army Group North
Manstein's 56th Corps makes a drive to the Baltic, capturing Oranienbaum and splitting the Soviet Northwest front in two:
Reinhardt's corps however is limited after holding the thinner side of the Shimsk pocket and cannot manage a complete link-up with the 56th corps, leaving a small 10-mile gap in the line to Oranienbaum. We'll see if the Soviets manage to break out through there, but if they do all of 56th corps will be temporarily cut off. Regardless this should prompt another shift in the enemy defensive positions, and hopefully they will move some strength off of their Volkhov positions to protect the approaches to Leningrad from the west.
One corps from 18th Army along with some security detachments are making their way up through Estonia. That corp's objective is the port city of Tallinn on the Baltic. That looks to be within reach for the next turn, upon which the corps will turn east and cross the Narva River to apply pressure to the forming pocket created by 4th Panzer Group.
An interesting situation is developing in east Karelia:
Recall that three port towns on the south side of Lake Ladoga must be neutralized to completely cut off Leningrad, Sviritsa being one of them. This tiny port town is the key to everything and the Soviets have yet to put anything there to defend it. The Finns can move there and occupy it, but only if undefended (they cannot attack south of the no attack line). If they are able to do this, it will mean forty fewer miles of front extension (and slogging through heavily defended poor terrain) for Army Group North before it can concentrate fully on Leningrad itself.
Just to illustrate this a bit further, here is the projected advance of Army Group North as it closes on the city:
The arrows represent 18th Army's (with perhaps some help from 16th) projected movement over the next few turns and a rough estimate of where the front will be after each one. Notice how far we must extend the front northeast and each time we do it we lengthen our flank, so we will need to leave formations behind each turn to do that but still retain enough combat power to continue the push. Finnish occupation of Sviritsa would eliminate the need for (4) and we could isolate Leningrad without having to cross the Volkhov.
Operations - Army Group Center
In the center, 4th and 9th Armies combine to smash the 30-division pocket west of Smolensk. The city itself holds out but we have eliminated a huge chunk of the mass of Soviet armies that arrived several turns ago.
Armored units are being pulled off the front line wherever possible to allow them rest. The state of affairs is slightly better for Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group, with most of its formations resting safely behind 9th Army's infantry although the two panzer divisions east of Smolensk cannot yet withdraw. Those two have done all they can this turn with local attacks eastward to push back the enemy front a bit and create space to ease the influx of supplies. 2nd Panzer Group likewise has two panzer divisions still on the front, but is finally in a position where railheads are close enough to allow for an HQ buildup. Two corps have had this done so the group will be fully loaded and ready next turn.
Operations - Army Group South
Infantry moves up to collapse the pocket near Cherkassy while 3rd Panzer Corps (with help from 14th Corps) continues the rampage through southeast Ukraine:
Fuel and distance from the main body are the only limiting factors. 48th Panzer Corps is still held up on the line east of the Dnepr down to Cherkassy and hopefully can be relieved by infantry next turn to push south and link up with the rest of the group. 6th Army attempts to expand the Kiev bridgehead:
After we lock up the main objectives in the Dnepr basin the panzer group will swing back northward to help bring the front east of Kiev in line with the gains in the south and Army Group Center in the north.
In the extreme south the Romanians are knocking on the door at Odessa, while 11th Army flanks what's left of the defensive line there on its way toward Nikolaev:
Casualty Report
Soviets losses were extremely high this week as we destroyed 48 Soviet divisions trapped inside pockets:
For a total of 374,365 Soviet losses for the week (the vast majority of which were captured):
Strategic Considerations
Smolensk continues to hold out but it is hopelessly surrounded and the panzers are, for the most part, backed off the line and ready to resume large-scale operations for next week. But we must decide where they are going, and as I mentioned in the introduction this is where things really started to break down for the Germans in both strategic planning and execution. Trying to imitate history now is a quick path to failure.
The strategic objectives for 1941 are, in order of priority:
- Moscow
- Leningrad
- Kharkov
Moscow is still too far away to be an operational objective for Army Group Center, so what we will do is plan for a "phase 3" with objectives that will put the army group in position for its eventual strike on Moscow. The crux of this problem is that the Smolensk encirclement has already created a salient protruding from the center of the front, so we cannot just continue to advance eastward with the panzers for risk of extending it even further. We don't have the infantry to cover 100+ miles of front on both wings.
For this phase, the city of Rzhev is the primary objective and taking it will be 3rd Panzer Group's job. Vyazma is the second objective, followed by Bryansk which lies about 120 miles east of 4th Army's front line. But 3rd Panzer will not strike directly for Rzhev, but rather advance to the north to cut the two rail lines coming into Velikie Luki to isolate the enemy grouping there. We may not be able to complete a full encirclement here but will do our best. Once those rail lines are cut the panzers will swing back east and head for Rzhev.
2nd Panzer Group's direction is less clear, because there is no bite-sized option available to it to flank-clear unless it goes all the way to Bryansk, which is very far south. This could be done if 1st Panzer Group helps out from the south to create a big pocket, but that group is nowhere near in position to make such a long-range move to the north. Soviet strength on this side is also somewhat paltry compared to what we are up against in the north, so a bold time-consuming operation does not necessarily feel warranted here. The best bet may be to just send Guderian's group to Bryansk and hope that the enemy formations around Gomel pull back in fear of becoming encircled.
The last concern for phase 3 cuts across army groups and involves getting 4th Panzer Group into position to participate in the attack on Moscow. It's still committed to Leningrad at the moment but may no longer be needed once we have secured the Lake Ladoga ports.
Enemy Action
In the north the enemy evacuates the Luga area as expected but does something rather odd, seemingly moving units west via rail to Tallinn. This is still a valid supply source for them apparently so we will have to get up there and take it to cut off the rest of the holdout forces east of the Narva. 38th Corps is on its way up but lacks artillery support so they will have to get there in a hurry before the Soviets can dig in.
The Soviets also attacked the 6th Panzer Division from the east to break the line to Oranienbaum but we held.
Our backdoor attempt to take Sviritsa with the Finns is thwarted, but they have at least managed to cut off two divisions in the west:
In the center no attacks on the Velikie Luki front, and the enemy seems to be moving forces out of there so Hoth will have to get up there to cut those rail lines. Guderian's group was counterattacked in several places but nothing significant seems to have changed in front of him. The path to Bryansk still looks clear.
One local counterattack is successful against advancing 4th Army as it supports 2nd Army's push across the Dnepr:
In the south the Uman pocket remains sealed, supply to Kirovograd is restored, and defenses are starting to materialize east of 6th Army near Kiev. The enemy is placing units on the east bank of the Dnepr further southeast and Dnepropetrovsk is no longer wide open to us. We were a bit hasty with 3rd Panzer Corps as they are too far forward to refuel enough for meaningful operations this turn.
Counterattacks against the Romanians near Odessa, and the units north of the city have escaped the flanking units of 11th Army somehow despite our severing of the last rail link out of there:
