1941
October 12th - October 21st
"Unternehmen 'Taifun'... Continuation"
Hauptquartier der HeeresGruppe E, Belgrad- 1941, October the 11th - 0900
Feldmarschall List, CO HGr. E, on the phone with General Böhme, CO XVIII. AK.
- General Böhme... I assume you have been informed already ?
_ In det Tat, Herr Feldmarschall. I've got a phone call from
MBfH 'Serbien' early this morning : it seems that a major uprising is currently taking place in
Sombor, in the north of the country.
- True. That's right in the middle of your operating area. It's up to you to take care of this issue, General !
- With all due respect, Herr Feldmarschall, may I ask
HOW and more important with
WHAT am I suppose to deal with those damned partisans ??!!! Since the departure of the
6. Gebirgs-Division, I don't have any troops at my disposal !!! Should I send the clerks and cooks of my headquarter to fight ?
- I'm aware of this problem, General, and I warned the
OKW on numerous occasions.
I'll send you the
22. Luftlande-Division from the
HGR. E's reserves and the
Inf.-Rgt 125 (mot.), coming from
12. Armee's reserves has been assigned too.
Another uprising in Yugoslavia
- Herr Feldmarschall, it will take days to gather the troops and to have them ready to engage the enemy. We run the risk to see the partisans spreading all across the country.
What about the
Russiches Schutzkorps ?
- The unit has just been formed and it's not ready for an engagement before one or two months.
I'm afraid we don't have any other option left for the moment. The
II. Fliegerkorps is suppose to arrive in
Belgrad by tomorrow. Instead of a well deserved R&R, I'll ask the Luftwaffe to send it against the spotted partisan's positions. It should keep them busy until our ground troops arrive, General Böhme.
- Well... I'll do my best, Herr Feldmarschall. But, please, tell the
OKW we really need more troops here. All our Intel confirmed that what see today is only a beginning : the worse is still to come..."
GefechtsStab des XXXXI. Armeekorps (mot.), Kalinin - 1941, October the 16th - 1800
General Model, newly appointed CO XXXXI. AK (mot.) on radio network with General Hoepner, CO 4. Panzergruppe.
- "Model... Is it true ? has it been confirmed ?
- Jawohl, Herr General ! Despite the risks due to the VVS, I sent my adjudant with a Fieseler '
Storch' to be sure. The report of General
von Thoma is true :
His
6. PzD made contact with the vanguards of the
SS-Division 'Das Reich' while they were crossing the Moskva river.
Moscow is now encircled, Herr General !!!
Furthermore, after what
von Thoma have been told of, the
10. PzD would be close behind
'Das Reich'. No doubt that General
Guderian will start attacking the Russian Capital right away.
- Schneller Heinz... Dieser Hitzkopf...!!! Sure he wants to be the first on the Red Square but I don't think the battle for
Moscow will be that simple.
- What are the orders, Herr General ?
- Where are your other divisions ?
- Both
1. PzD and
36. ID (mot.) are in
Pushkino, 40km behind. I already ordered to move the
1. PzD further east to secure my left flank.
- Good ! Let's move the
36. ID (mot.) to
Shchelkovo too. Once there, the
6. PzD will move eastards too in order to widden the ring around
Moscow. We must avoid any Soviet relief attempt at all costs !!!
From
Shchelkovo, the
36. ID (mot.) will be able to join the attack against the Russian Capital.
- This division has been badly mauled already, Herr General. Even with the
10. PzD and
'Das Reich', I'm not sure it will be enough to win. Ivan is supposed to have more than 100.000 men in
Moscow.
-
Guderian will commit his full
XXXXVI. AK (mot.) and half his
XXIV. AK (mot.) in this battle. These units shouldn't be far away by now. Furthermore, I've just been notified that the
LVI. AK (mot.) finally broke through the Soviet defenses at
Himki. I'll commit the
3. ID (mot.) to the attack on
Moscow and I'll ask
von Kluge to engage his
XII. AK either ; two of its divisions participated in the battle of
Himki.
- That would give us 9 divisions to take
Moscow, Herr General. I think we'll make it.
- See you on the Red Square, Walter !"
Hauptquartier der HeeresGruppe Nord, Pskov- 1941, October the 17th - 0930
Feldmarschall von Leeb, CO HGR. Nord, meets General von Küchler, CO 18. Armee, and General von Manstein, CO 11. Armee.
- "General von Küchler, at first, I want to congratulate you and your men for the hard battle you won at
Oraniyenbaum on October the 15th.
- A costly victory, Herr Feldmarschall... Nearly 10.000 men lost. Combined to the 12.000 men that Erich and I already lost at
Gatcina, I would advise to take some days for R&R.
- Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you but we have a situation here :
Both
20. Gebirgsarmee and
16. Armee are moving east to follow the advance of
Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' on
Moscow. Unfortunatly, they're not strong enough to establish all by themselves a solid front between the Volga reservoir and the White Sea. That means... I'll have to engage one of
YOUR armies to support them.
- But leaving only one of us dealing with the 200.000 Russkies trapped in
Leningrad won't be enough to avoid a counter-attack ; we'll have to take the city by force then... Now.
- General von Manstein, you're fully right : a siege is no longer an option. Feldmarschall
von Brauchitsch has been very clear on that point. regardless of casualties, we must take
Leningrad ASAP !!!
Meine Herren, how are we going to proceed ?
The Battle of Leningrad has begun
- My
11. Armee is already in position, Herr Feldmarschall. I'll attack the city from the north with the
XXX. AK and from the east with the
LIV. AK. My heavy artillery units are already positionned there.
I'll keep the
XI. AK in reserve so as to relieve Georg's
XXVI. AK if needed.
- Good. General von Küchler ?
- I'll be attacking
Leningrad with the
XXVI. AK from the south and
XXXVIII. AK from the south-west. I'm forced to leave the
I. AK behind because of the casualties it sustained in both
Gatcina and
Orianiyenbaum.
What about the air support, Herr Feldmarschall ? I know that the guys from the Luftwaffe suffered a lot too. But we couldn't have won without them in
Orianiyenbaum and I'm afraid we're going to sollicitate them badly for this operation as well...
- Both
I. and
V. Fliegerkorps have been assigned to the Battle for
Leningrad. General
Keller will check with everyone of you for the details.
General von Manstein, you're in charge of this operation ! How long do you expect it will take ?
- Mhmmmm... 200.000 men.. well entrenched, supplied... I'd say at least two weeks of tough fighting, may be three. For sure, you'll be able to "offer"
Leningrad to the Führer right on time for his yearly speech at the Bürgerbräukeller...
- As if I care about that..."
OKW Hauptquartier, Zossen-Wünsdorf - 1941, October the 19th - 1300
General Jodl, CoS OKW, meets Foreign Minister von Ribbentropp and Admiral Canaris, Abwehr Chef (Head of Intelligence).
- "Herr Reichsminister, Admiral, I have good news coming from Africa :
After the decisive battle of
Bi'r Abu Al Hudum, our troops managed to break through the British lines and their great base of
Alexandria is currently encircled and hard pressed from all sides. It is now certain that it will fall in matter of a few days now.
In the same time, General
Rommel sent some of his Italian divisions further east. You certainly saw the grandiose entrance of
Mussolini in
Cairo on the Wochenschau but you must also know that the Suez Canal has also been reached between
Port Saïd and the town of
Suez. Though a British counter-attack is currently taking place from
Suez in the direction of
Zagazig, General
Gause,
Rommel's CoS, is fully confident that the days of the British military presence in Egypt are soon going to be history.
1941-10-21 - SitRep Afrika
Next week, Feldmarschall
Keitel and I are going to have a meeting with the Führer to talk about the next operations on the African Theater but before that, meine Herren, I'd like to have your personal evaluation of the situation in the Middle-East. Herr Reichsminister ?
- Thanks to our successes in Africa but also in the current campaign against the Soviet Union, the German Reich is on a roll with most of the countries in this region. Since his coup d'état on April the 3rd, former Iraqi Prime Minister
Rashid Ali al-Gaylani is in power and started a general uprising against the British military presence in Iraq. According to some talks I had with the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
Amin al-Husseini, not only Iraq but also Persia and Sausi Arabia are just waiting for a sign from us to join our side in the war against England and, probably in the case of Persia, Russia .
I'm no military expert but even if their armed forces are nothing compared to ours, I'm pretty sure they could provide enough disturbance to let
Rommel's units to drive deep inside Palestine and Iraq.
Why are Turks acting like this...
Once there, and coupled with our advance into the Caucasus, our troops could help to have the Turks isolated and put under diplomatic pressure in order to keep them in line. Since the beginning of 1941, their attitude is quite dubious : though Turkey obviously wants to avoid a direct confrontation with the Great German Reich, the Turkish gouvernment desires to keep its commercial agreements with us to the lowest minimum. It also seems that
Ankara would rather favour a rapprochement with
Moscow...
- Mhmmmm... To be honest, Herr Reichsminister, I seriously doubt such a drive deep into the Middle-East would be possible. At least, not before a least 6 months... at best.
Yes, we achieved remarquable successes in Russia.
Moscow and
Leningrad are about to fall but even so, all indicates that
Stalin won't make peace. The manpower of the
Ostheer is of some great concern now and with the winter coming in, I'm pretty sure we're soon to be forced to stop our operations in the East.
Casualties Westfront - October 21st, 1941
It's not any better in Africa. I grant you that winter isn't a big deal over there but the
Panzergruppe 'Afrika' suffered quite some casualties and badly needs some R&R. Even worse, it's currently unknown
IF and
WHEN we're going to be able to send some replacements over there...!
Furthermore, and that's almost the most important point, our logistics in Africa is provided by our Italian allies, who have proven themselves quite... deficient, to say the least, on this aspect. It's one thing to move units on a map, Herr Reichsminister, it's another one to keep them combat-ready on the field.
Of course, we have a plan ready to support our Iraqi "friends" but the units assigned to
Sonderstad F, later to be commited to Iraq, aren't ready yet. It will take some weeks before we can send them over there.
- Besides, the situation has changed on the ground.
- I beg your pardon, Admiral ?
- I've been informed that the British campaign to retake control over Iraq is making progress :
Bagdad has fallen into British hands and my department estimates that it's only a matter of week before this so-called rebellion is struck. In any case, we can no longer use the airbase facilities of
Bagdad. Furthermore...
- I'm all ears, Admiral.
- Furthermore, I don't think it would be a good idea to let the arab countries to join our side. At least not now.
- Explain yourself...
- It's quite simple, General : it's just a matter of interests. The arab countries, and Italy to a lesser extend, want to use us as much as we want to use them. But who's going to receive some benefits of our drive in the Middle-East ? Certainly we won't.
Since we're dependant of the Italian logitics, and unless some political agreements are made, all our gains on the ground will be under Italian control. Furthermore, if we make an alliance with Iraq, Persia and Saudi Arabia, I have no doubt that they'll leave us to do all the dirty job while their forces are going to seize the most important and most valuable parts of the countries we're goign to invade. In Russia, I'm pretty sure Ivan will send his best troops against us in the Caucasus, leaving his "back door",
Baku, totally undefended. Persia will be able to take control of the oil fields without a hintch.
- A valid point, Admiral. I'm impressed !
But what do you think we should do ?
- To stay where we are now, on the Suez Canal and hold the line... at least.
- Why do you say "at least" ?
- Because we might consider to look West again, General.
Herr Reichsminister, do you remember the conversation we had in October last year ?
- About Spain and Vichy France ? Yes, I remember.
- Well, I'm telling you that Spain tends more and more to hear the siren song of
London. Within two years, probably less, there will be a british friend in
Madrid...
- After all we've done for him ? I can't believe it Admiral !
- General Jodl...
Franco is a pragmatic man : He perfectly knows that the neutrality of the USA is merely a matter a appearance today. We're going to be at war with America very soon and the Caudillo don't want to have his country to be their first target.
- So... We should get rid of him : that's what you think, Admiral ?
- In the long run, we won't have any other choice if we're at war with the USA.
- But you exactly know as well as I do that it's not possible to send troops across the Pyrenees through the narrow corridor we have along the french coast. It's too easy to defend, even for the spanish army, and it would be a logistical nightmare after that. That means...
- Yeap, in order to succeed with
Unternehmen 'Gisela',
'Anton' must be conducted first..."
Hauptquartier der HeeresGruppe Mitte, Smolensk- 1941, October the 21st - 1730
Feldmarschall von Bock, CO HGr. Mitte, meets General von Greiffenberg, his Chief of Staff.
- "Things are going well, Herr Feldmarschall ; it's almost too good to be true !
- If you skip over the casualties we sustain... For both
Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' and
Armeegruppe 'Weichs', we almost reached the mark of 150.000 men missing and it will keep going up with this battle !
Ostheer Manpower - October 21st, 1941
This being said, I grant you that the situation is far beyong my expectations. I thought we would have met more difficulties during the breakthrough.
- You had an excellent hintch when you asked the
XXXXVIII. AK (mot.) to be transfered from the
1. Panzergruppe, Herr Feldmarschall. This addition made the difference.
- Mhmmm... Considering that Ivan massed his armored units in the
Kalinin region, it was quite logical that the decision had to be made from the south. I think we could have succeded without it but the
XXXXVIII. AK(mot.) will now help to securize the ring around
Moscow ; we're now able to concentrate more means against the Russian Capital.
Anyway... The hard part has been done but there's still a lot of work to do. What's the situation ?
- From now on, our left flank is fully secured, Herr Feldmarschall : the
3. Panzergruppe reached the Volga Reservoir along with elements of the
II. AK,
16. Armee.
I spoke with General
Hoth : he'll let the
19. PzD to help until the
II. AK is fully able to hold the line. He sent his full
XXXIX. AK (mot.) across the Volga towards
Jaroslav which remains undefended after the
1. PzD defeated the Soviet armored division holding it.
- Why didn't the
1. PzD take the city ?!!
- There was a huge gap between our
XXXXI. and
XXXX. AKs (mot.) ; therefore, General
Model choosed to recall his division to fill it. I already checked and it seems that General
Hoth and
Hoepner already coordinated their efforts and authorized this manoeuver.
- ja, ja... Auftragtaktik, I know... Go on !
Unternehmen 'Taifun' - October 21st
- After his victory at
Himki,
Hoepner is now attacking
Moscow from the north and from the east while
Guderian does the same from the south-east and from the south.
Hoepner's main effort concentrates now on
Zvenigorod, the last communication line between
Moscow and the rest of the Soviet forces inside the pocket. As soon as its units are resupplied, the
XXIV. AK (mot.) will help from the south.
- Have you checked with the Luftwaffe ? Now that we control
Kaluga, we should be able to get some air support very close to the front line.
- Well... General
Löhr hasn't been very enthousiastic about it : his
IV. Fliegerkorps is bound in
Kharkov and his
VIII. Fliegerkorps badly need replacements and it's still immobilized for R&R.
However, since General
Keller agreed to send his
Lehrgeschwader 2 to
Kaluga, I'm quite sure that General
Löhr will commit at least some elements of the
VIII. Fliegerkorps, which fighters have just been relieved by units of the
Fliegerführer 3.
- Ivan has over 250.000 men trapped in this pocket and with nothing to lose. Without the Luftwaffe, we're going to have a hard time dealing with them. Make sure general
Löhr is aware of this !
- Jawohl, Herr Feldmarschall !
- What about
4. and
9. Armeen ?
- They're making progress though the casualties are quite heavy. The last bridgehead across the Moskva river is being reduced and General
von Kluge will soon start to disengage some of his elements to send them towards
Jaroslav, as planned.
- All right : we still have a tough nut to crack but I'd rather be here than in the shoes of the Soviet Commander..."
Ostheer Hauptquartier, Minsk - Same day - 1800
Feldmarschall von Brauchitsch, CinC OKH, meets General Halder, his Chief of Staff.
- "Herr Feldmarschall... wasn't I right when I told you that
Unternehmen 'Taifun' would be successful ?
- Ja, ja, ja... I grant you that :
Leningrad and
Moscow, both encircled and assaulted. I never thought it could have happened that fast.
Nevertheless, I would strongly advise you to stay calm : those cities are encircled but Ivan isn't beaten yet. Who knows what he's doing at the moment.
Besides, you should have a look on our casualties since June 22nd : nearly 200.000 men KIA. Our main body is reduced to 1.5 million men and most of our divisions, mainly our motorized infantry units, suffered a lot and badly need replacements. Replacements we're still waiting for, btw...
Casualties Ostfront - October 21st, 1941
- I don't think that Ivan is in a position to be dangerous. the Abwehr informed me that
Stalin, his Staff and the complete Politburo, left
Moscow just the day before our pincers link up. They're going to have a hard time to reorganize.
Until then, though I agree that both battles of
Leningrad and
Moscow won't be easy ones, I don't think we have anything to be afraid of :
In the North, the
20. Gebirgsarmee keep pushing south between the lake Onega and the White Sea. Its vanguards are approaching the Onega river almost unhampered.
Further south, the
16. Armee is hard-pressing the Soviets and keep pushing towards
Vologda. No real decision can be made there without the reinforcement through one of our armies around Leningrad but in the meantime, Ivan can't disengage his units either.
The Soviet defense line in front of
Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' has been smashed into pieces and after the Fall of
Moscow, we could send our Panzergruppen straight to
Gorki without a problem !
- Don't underestimate the Soviet capability to recover, mein lieber Halder. With considerations to casualties, attrition and logistical issues, it would be quite a risky move.
Furthermore, we got lucky with the weather so far but it won't last forever. It already started to freeze and the
Ostheer isn't prepared for a winter campaign.
Considering the lack of supply in the area of
Heeresgruppe 'Süd', Feldmarschall
von Rundstedt isn't sure he'll be able to keep his positions should a Soviet winter counter-offensive ever happen !!!
SitRep - October 21st, 1941
- Once we'll have reduced both
Leningrad and
Moscow, the Soviet casualties will rise over 3 million men !!!
I hardly see how a country could possibly recover from such losses, Herr Feldmarschall. I grant you that the supply situation of
Heeresgruppe 'Süd' is of some concern but our convoys slowly arrive to
Rostov and
Sevastopol.
General
von Stülpnagel and his
17. Armee keep pushing back the Soviets southwards and he asked permission to take
Krasnodar and the Taman Peninsula in order to link up with Krim.
- What does Feldmarschall
von Rundstedt think of this idea ?
- He told me, and I quote, "
17. Armee does not belong to me ; I have enough problems on my side"...
- Thats' the ol' cranky Gerd we all know...!
But he's right on this point : we really need to change the Chain of Command in the far South.
Antonescu is not up to the task and we should replace him by one of our men.
- I agree, Herr Feldmarschall, but what should we answer to
von Stülpnagel ? He finished to help the Romanians cleaning the Donets elbow and his vanguards are only 80km away from
Krasnodar and the Taman Peninsula.
- Tell him "
yes, but..." ; if the Soviet resistance is too hard, he'll stop right away ! And no further advance after
Krasnodar !!!
To link up with Krim isn't a bad idea after all : If
von Rundstedt can't stop a Soviet counter-offensive this winter, our troops in the South will still be able to be supplied. And if nothing happens, we're going to have a good springboard for our offensive into the Caucasus next Spring."
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