28 October 1943
Winter offensives are planned for the north and south, with the objectives of Koenigsburg and Ploesti, respectively. Maps are below, with obscured provinces labeled for your ease of understanding.
We'll have probably fifteen divisions of 1943-pattern infantry with rocket artillery brigades rolling off the production lines every month and a half or so. Some of it will be diverted to the Khabarovsk front: I'd like to maintain about a 2:3 ratio of our forces to Americans over there. The rest will be assigned to the north and south as necessary.
In the north:
And the south:
0700 28 October
The attack on Jekapilis commences at dawn. Attacks in the south will have to wait: our forces are still tuckered out and disorganized from the recent action down there.
0900 29 October
The attack on Jekapilis proceeds well.
0000 1 November
No news.
2300 3 November
The initial attack on Jekapilis succeeds. Our forces are rolling to take possession of the province. In other news, research into an air doctrine for fighters and interceptors completes. Next on the list is naval bombers.
2200 4 November
Leading elements of the Red Army reach Jekapilis, where they immediately come under counterattack. Reinforcements from Swieciany are incoming over the next week.
0600 6 November
Reinforcements begin to reach Jekapilis. A relieving attack is launched from Wilno into Kaunas, which (being frozen marshland) is probably some of the most unpleasant terrain in the game to fight in.
0900 9 November
The Germans break off their attack on Jekapilis now that there are 27 Soviet divisions holding it. I don't plan to attack Jelgava; rather, I'd like to encircle it and get some German divisions off the map. This will be difficult, because the Germans plus their allies still have an army numerically superior to ours, and repeated attacks are tough.
The attack on Kaunas also succeeds.
0700 10 November
Five divisions from the center of the front are being retasked to the north, including Batiuna's mechanized corps.
2200 11 November
Falaleev's air force moves to Lida to provide air superiority over the Baltic states. The force moving into Kaunas from Wilno is due to arrive in six to seven days, barring German reinforcements. Forces from Jekapilis attack Siauliau.
1700 12 November
German reinforcements arrive in Kaunas, slowing down our march. Siauliau, on the other hand, looks likely to fall.
0700 14 November
The Germans put together a serious attack on Zhitomir, involving about 35 divisions on their part against the 30-division garrison of Zhitomir.
1000 14 November
Lots of fighting in progress up and down the front. We're also getting our licks in in the air.
0900 17 November
There are now 16 German divisions in Kaunas against our 22 attacking. Victory isn't looking highly probable. Zhitomir is defended, the attack coming at high cost to the Germans, and Khabarovsk comes under attack again.
0700 19 November
The US has brought some strategic bombers over to Vladivostok. Our interceptors sortie to shoot them down over Khabarovsk, and the tactical bomber air force in Komsomolsk-na-Amure sorties to bomb them at their airfield in Vladivostok.
1500 20 November
The attack on Kaunas comes to a halt, costing us a bit more than it cost the Germans.
1800 21 November
One of our greatest wins yet in Khabarovsk.
2000 25 November
The attack on Siauliau grinds to a halt, as forces from Kaunas move in to reinforce.
0000 28 November
A week of airfield bombing in Vladivostok is sufficient to drop the strategic bomber wing to about 15% strength, which is where we'll keep it.
Reinforcements are deployed: 8 divisions to to the Jekapilis front, and four divisions to Khabarovsk.
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I forgot to grab the losses chart for this month.
The Romanian offensive will likely kick off in the next update. Getting to Bucharest would be great, since that would let us eliminate Romania from the war.
Winter offensives are really very difficult. Everything moves more slowly, and the attackers take a pretty big penalty. On the other hand, with the retaking of Jekapilis, we've almost completely pushed the Germans off of our originally-planned fallback line. Regarding the plan in the OP, I'm not confident that we'll be able to reach Berlin by May as is called for, but then again, I didn't think we'd hold the line, either. Who knows? The Germans could be mere moments away from an utter collapse.
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Topic: Arsenal of Democracy LP (1 October, 1944: Vperyod!) (Read 95075 times)