|
Russia, June 22, 1941, Axis army of 568 units opposed to Soviets army of 957 units for a battle of complexity 2.09 at Division(XX) level on a 25 Km/Hex map for 48 turns of Half Week each. by Eric Larsen & Jim Rose submited on 16-02-2003 Rugged-Defense Playing Statistics
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Briefing |
|---|
|
OPERATION BARBAROSSA The initial German invasion of the Soviet Union from June 22, 1941 through early December, 1941. UNIT COLORS AXIS SOVIET SIGNIFICANT EVENTS Leningrad hex 35,8 90% Kiev hex 25,55 90% Dnepropetrovsk hex 36,67 95% Moscow hex 48,32 85% Kharkov hex 41,60 95% Minsk hex 21,35 95% city hexes. BACKGROUND On June 22, 1941 Hitler set in motion Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans had seven armies and four panzer groups, totaling 3,000,000 men poised to attack the Soviets with ten armies totaling 4,500,000 men along the frontier. Hitler and his German generals envisioned a quick 8 week campaign that would crush the Soviet military and end the war on the Eastern Front. What transpired was the greatest single military campaign in mankind's history. The Germans got off to a good start surrounding and smashing numerous Soviet armies and advancing deeply into Mother Russia. In the first few days of the campaign, the Luftwaffe destroyed over 2,000 Soviet aircraft, mainly on the ground. German Generals Hoth and Guderian captured Smolensk in mid-July, but then had to settle in as Soviet resistance stiffened, German supply routes became longer, and Hitler pondered their next objective. General Hoepner drove his panzer group to near Leningrad by the end of July and seemed poised to capture the old Czarist capitol. General Kleist drove his panzer group through the southern Ukraine, getting near Uman by the end of July and threatened to encircle the Soviets fighting the Romanians on the very southern end of the front near Odessa. The Germans seemed by the end of July to be ready to adminster the killing blow to the Soviet Army on all sectors of the front. German soldiers on the central portion of the front were making distance signs to Moscow as they anticipated that Moscow would be the next great objective to capture to end the campaign. Then Hitler decided not to listen to his greatest generals and decided that the southern Ukraine, a large area of great economic importance, and the Crimea, the Soviet "aircraft carrier" that threatened the Romanian oilfields of Ploesti, were to be the next targets for the Axis armies. He also wanted to smash the Soviet armies of the Ukraine before they had a chance to fall back behind the Dnepr River in good order. He ordered General Guderian to wheel his Panzer Group Guderian south and west, away from Moscow, to link up with General Kleist's panzer group moving northeast from several points along the Dnepr River below Kiev. The resulting pocket bagged over 665,000 Soviet prisoners and enormous amounts of equipment, yet new Soviet armies just kept on coming to the front replacing the losses. About this time the Germans closed in around Leningrad, cutting it off from the rest of the Soviet forces. As the fall rains started to turn Russia into a quagmire Hitler ordered that Moscow be taken. General Hoepner was ordered from Leningrad south to assist. General Guderian now had to practically retrace his steps to attack towards Moscow as his panzer group was now several hundred kilometers further away than at the end of July. Although hampered by the mud the Germans made fair progress towards Moscow. The winter snows came early in October and the Germans were finally able to move about the Russian countryside unhampered by the mud. However the lack of adequate winter clothing, lubricants, and other essential winter equipment started to take their toll on the German onslaught as they neared the fabled capitol. The Soviets were also bringing in major forces from the Far East as they no longer had to fear Japanese attacks. The German attack reached its climax, within sight of Moscow, in very early December as their troops were exhausted, poorly supplied, and frozen. The Soviets launched their winter counteroffensive just as the German attack petered out and that was the end of their chances for winning the campaign during the first year. Scenario design by: Eric Larsen & Jim Rose |