Ansatz 'Barbarossa'
August 1st-August 11th
"Sicilian Opening"
Hauptquartier der HGr. 'Mitte', Minsk - 1941, August, the 3rd - 2300
Feldmarschall von Bock, CO HGr. 'Mitte', meets General von Greiffenberg, his Chief of Staff.
"- Sorry to wake you up, Herr Feldmarschall, but it is important.
- It better has... What's going on ?
- I just get General Weisengerger on the phone : the Soviet forces encircled in the Bialystok Pocket surrendered.
Surrender of the Bialystok Pocket
- Endlich !!! It was about time : I'm surprized they held that long. Almost 3 weeks now...
- But now it's over, Herr Feldmarschall. 17 divisions, the remains of 5 armies, dropped their weapons. We've made over 170.000 prisonners.
Your biggest success if I may add. Congrats, Herr Feldmarschall !
- Wait until we reach Moscow before uncorking the champagne, mein lieber von Greiffenberg. It's just A victory, not THE victory...
- At least, we can now redeploy our security units properly along our communication and supply lines, Herr Feldmarschall. One thing less to worry about.
- I still have plenty left, mein Lieber..."
Hauptquartier BfH der U-Boote, Lorient - 1941, August, the 4th - 0930
Vizeadmiral Dönitz, Führer der U-Boote, meets Kommodore von Friedeburg, his Deputy Commander.
"- Moin-moin Kommore. Na, something special to report ?
- Same old, Admiral. Both
1. and
2. U-Flotille reported some kills within the western approaches last night. The month is looking good with already 11 freighters and 3 escorts sunk.
- Hopefully it's going to be even better : look !
- We're now authorized to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare ? It was about time, Admiral...
- It's merely a response to the last "defensive" measures of the USA. Their so-called neutrality is a joke and and we all know that's now just a matter of time before they enter the war alongside with the Allies. Nonetheless, we should try to refrain attack on US warships.
How long until the new flotillas arrive ?
- The
3. and
9. U-Flottille are scheduled for deployment in October, respectively in
La Rochelle and
Brest. The crews started a training cyclus to get familiar with their new type VII U-boats.
- Very good ! With two new flotillas, we'll be able to fill the gap between Portugal and the Azores as well as to relieve the
6. U-Flottille. We might need these Type IX off the US coasts if the Amis decide to fight..."
Hauptquartier OB Süd, Rome - 1941, August the 8th - 1930
Generalleutnant von Rintelen, CinC OB Süd, meets General Fröhlich, CO Italuft.
"- Na, Fröhlich ? Have you heard anything from
Geissler ?
- I did, Herr General, but I still think it was a bit too early.
- I know, mein Lieber, I know. But our Italian allies didn't leave us many options...
First, and despite their numerous optimistic statements, even the Tyrrhenian Sea isn't secure. Look what happened on the 4th of August !!!
- I've heard about it. A total disaster... 4 cruisers sunk and numerous ships damaged. Not very encouraging about the fighting abilities of the Regia Marina.
- The worse is that they dare to call it a victory !!! I'm telling you, Fröhlich : another such victory and they're undone.
And as if it wasn't enough, the day after, the Brits launched TWO air raids against the ships in the port of Naples, damaging some and ruining the morale of our friends.
- No response from the Regia Aeronautica, Herr General ?
- Absolutly none. Squat, niente !!! Their air defense fighters are located God knows where...!!!
Since the british bombers took off from Malta, that's why I ordered General
Geissler to start offensive operations against the island. I know our troops for
Unternehmen 'Herkules' aren't fully ready but we had to annihilate the threat posed by this hornet nest... and it had to be done quickly !
- At least, Herr General, this part has been done properly.
Malta won't be a major concern for a while now. At least, it bought us some time.
Following your order, General
Geissler launched his bombers on
Malta's airfield on the 5th, just after the first british air raid. He launched another air raid later the very same day and two others on the 6th.
As a result,
Malta's airfield has been put out of operation for a few days.
The day after, he then started air strikes against the port facilities of
Malta and against the ships docked over there. As we spoke, his aircrafts must be returning from their fourth port strike and we have confirmation of a dozen enemy destroyers sunk as well as some Free French submarines. The port facilities have been heavily damaged too and all AAA positions as well.
- Very good ! Congrats General
Geissler from me.
Another week, may be two, and we'll be ready to launch
Unternehmen 'Herkules'.
Malta will be ours !"
Hauptquartier der 12. Armee, Belgrad - 1941, August, the 9th - 0900
General List, CO 12. Armee, on the phone with Oberst Petersen, CO 125. IR (mot.)
"- Oberst Petersen ? Is the situation under control now ?
- Barely, Herr General. You've got a good hintch by sending me and my regiment over there. Despite what the Bulgarians told you, they aren't able to clear the area all by themselves.
- Is it that bad ?
Curtain raise in Yugoslavia
- Well... At least, the quick reaction prevented the partisans to spread widely. They've been contained in the moutains south of
Skopje but it's going to be quite hard to dislodge them from their nests ! Some air support would be nice, Herr General.
- Unfortunatly, none is available. You'll have to take care of this problem without it.
- I think it will be possible for now but with regards to the growing hostilities towards us in this country, the worse is still to come, Herr General !
- Listen... I already told the OKW in numerous occasions that we need more units and equipment to properly secure the country. Reinforcements have been promised to me but for the moment, there's nothing we can do.
- Got it, Herr General. I hope they'll move their asses quickly : we're sitting on a volcano here !"
OKH Hauptquartier, Railroad to Minsk - 1941, August, the 11th - 1800
Feldmarschall von Brauchitsch, CinC OKH, meets General Halder, his Chief of Staff.
"- Mein lieber Halder, I'm telling you : I'm really happy to leave Rastenburg and all these
OKW top brass. Our Headquarter in
Minsk will sure be much more efficient without these fine gentlemen and their suggestions.
- That's right, Herr Feldmarschall. Still, we'll always have to follow their prime directives.
- As long as the original plan remains, there won't be that much interference, Herr Feldmarschall... even from the Führer.
- It's up to us to make sure it remains that way. Any major changes in the last days ?
- Not so much but it was expected so.
In the North, according to the
OKW reports, things are going well. Both the
Gebirgskorps and
XXXVI. HöK are pushing back the Soviet forces and it's now just a matter of time before the whole Kola Peninsula will be in our hands. Further south, the
III. Armeijekunta and reserves of
Befehlsstelle 'Finland' established a solid defensive front to prevent the Soviets to reopen the corridor to
Murmansk. According to the last intelligence reports, most of the Soviet forces in the are seem to have been withdrawn in order to reinforce their central front. But the latest is just an assumption...
- Good news for the Finns but less good for us. Go on.
- No major changes in the sector of
Heeresgruppe 'Nord'. The
16. Armee is still redeploying as the
18. Armee carries on with the reduction of the Courland Pocket. 26 Soviet divisions are still acounted for and they fight with tooth and nail. General
von Küchler remains confident about the situation but he reported that his units are bleeding to death. If you want my opinion, Herr Feldmarschall, his
18. Armee will need a lot of time to fully recover after this...
- Unfortunatly, time is a luxury we cannot afford, mein lieber Halder. We can still expect another 8 to 9 weeks of good weather and we must make the most of it. After that...
- Anyhow, after the surrender of the
Bialystock,
von Bock and his
Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' has his rears secure now. Security units will take positions along his supply lines and the railroad engineers are working as fast as they can.
Half the
4. Armee has reached the front but the rest, as well as the bulk of the
9. Armee, are still around
Minsk. It will take another 10 to 15 days before they can be in position to launch offensive operations.
- And God only knows how many divisions Ivan will be able to gather until then...
- That's exactly what
von Bock told me, Herr Feldmarschall. Since his left flank seems strong enough with the arrival of some
4. Armee's elements, he proposed to launch the
3. Panzergruppe N-E in order to reach the Volga and to link up with the
4. Panzergruppe. Doing so, we'll...
- Be able to trap a dozen of Soviet divisions and to crush them with both
II. and
XII. AK.
- Besides, after the reduction of this Velikye Luki Salient, we should be able to resume our drive to
Leningrad AND to have a free way towards
Moscow, Herr Feldmarschall.
- Not bad... We should think about it. carry on.
- Further south, the
2. Panzergruppe crossed the Desna south of
Brjansk. Since there were only service units in the area,
Guderian insisted to launch his tanks towards
Orel. However, after a meeting we had with both Feldmarschall
von Bock and
von Rundtedt, we all agree that the elimination of the Soviet forces east of
Kiev had priority. It wasn't easy but
Guderian acknowleged it too...
- Dieser Hitzkopf !!! And yet, he knew that until the
9. Armee arrives, he couldn't move any further !
- Anyway... Right now, we have very good hope to trap the enemy forces ; 12 divisions roughly. The
XXXXVI. AK (mot.) is about to close the pocket from the north as the
2. and
6. Armee will attack from the west and south respectively.
- And once done, the
2. Armee will be able to move towards
Kursk as the
2. Panzergruppe will be in position to launch his flanking maneuver towards
Orel and
Tula.
- We shouln't rush things through but yes, Herr Feldmarschall, that's the idea. Furthermore,
von Reichenau and his
6. Armee will be free to progress towards
Kharkov.
- How's doing
von Rundstedt ?
- So far, so good, Herr Feldmarschall. Well... sort of...
Half of the
6. Armee keeps moving east.
Von Kleist and his
1. Panzergruppe managed to destroy half a dozen Soviet divisions on the east bank of the Dniepr and his units are in position to threaten
Kharkov. Unfortunatly, half of them also experiment some supply issues so, for the moment, they took defensive positions west of the city.
- What about resupplying them from the air ?
- We tried, Herr Feldmarschall, but with most of our Geschwader refitting in the rear, the skies on the frontline belong to the VVS. The last attempts turned into a disaster...
- Mhmmmm... We expected supply issues but not that fast.
- We didn't expect the Soviets will sabotage the hydro power plant of Dniprostoj either. Our main supply line in the south was expected to go through
Dniepropetrovsk but it will now take months to repair everything and to resume normal traffic.
- Do you have some good news ?
- At least, I don't have bad ones, Herr Feldmarschall. The
17. Armee is still far behind but the enemy opposition isn't a major threat. The Soviets have lost ca. 70 divisions in the southern area and they'll have a real hard time to recover. Most of their reinforcements are redirected to their central front and unless they redeploy units from the Caucasus or the Far East,
von Rundstedt and our Romanian allies should have some rest.
Stalino has been evacuated by the enemy and Romanian troops are about to enter the city.
Further south, the
11. Armee forced the gates of the Crimean Peninsula. The
XXXXII. AK is about to lay siege to
Sevastopol ; it's now waiting for heavy artillery assets to attack the city. Meanwhile, the
LIV. AK is pushing eastwards to seize
Kerch. It's now a matter of time before we take control of the whole Crimea.
Casualties after 51 days
- Tell
von Schobert to be cautious and to spare his troops. Though the casualties ratio is still much in our favour, we've lost already too much ! Nearly 23.000 men lost already for the very first days of august !!!
- I personnaly called General
Fromm to get every possible reinforcement but he didn't gave me much hope. We're already stretched to our manpower limits, Herr Feldmarschall.
- I'm mainly concern with the caualties of the
Heeresgruppe 'Mitte'. Look !
Despite replacements, the figures keep going down. How are we supposed to launch the final assault on Moscow if our main striking force always becomes weaker and weaker...?
- Have faith, Herr Feldmarschall, I'm pretty sure the Soviets aren't in a better shape !
- I hope so, mein lieber Halder... I really hope so."
