Eastory

01.02.1943.

Added 2018-11-03 09:19:32 +0000 UTC

I have been working long on one of my main job projects and have began to render it. So lately I have had some time for the 1943 episode. It's time to make some posts.

Unit symbol explanations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WN22bJq3tw6yW-kj0X5PM-fEK-ukgpxh/view?usp=sharing

One month has passed since the beginning of 1943. In the South the German forces have pulled back from the Caucasus and managed to extract two mobile Corps (3rd and 40th). Other forces were isolated on the Black Sea coast. German strongest concentration of troops in the South was on the Stalingrad direction, but their efforts to sustain the siege were not effective and Stalingrad would surrender the next day.

The northern flank of these forces had been covered by Italian and Hungarian armies, which were of lower quality. During January the Red Army had concentrated against them and destroyed most of them during the retreat and these units are not shown on map. Now a this section of the front is covered only by the newly arrived 1st SS Panzer Corps. Further north the German 2nd Army (13th and 2nd Corps) was making a fighting withdrawal.

With the attention of both sides in the South, the Red Army achieved two small but significant victories in the North - a land connection to Leningrad had been established and the important rail junction of Velikie Luki was captured, opening further possibilities for an offensive.