In Progress War in the East - Road to Leningrad

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Introduction

When the day's excitement is done, the children have finished playing Hearts of Iron IV and you've put them to sleep, it's time to engage in... World War 2 games for a more mature audience.

Therefore I present to you "Gary Grigsby's War in the East - The German-Soviet War 1941-45". That's actually the name of this game. Is it turn based? Yes. Does it practically lack graphics? Yes. Are units presented by NATO counters only? Yes. Are the sound effects of moving units around recorded from actual WW2 footage? I am pretty sure this is the case, after watching some episodes of Discovery's "Battlefields".

But most importantly, does this game simulate WW2 combat and Orders of Battle in painstaking detail? The author's reputation as a wargame designer, and the game's 350+ pages manual assert that it does. In fact every review I've read calls this the most detailed World War 2 PC wargame available to date.

I'll post carefully doctored, that is to say visually enhanced for your pleasure and ease of understanding, screenshots of my progress in the scenario "The Road to Leningrad", where the Wehrmacht's Army Group North has 17 weeks - from June 22 to October 16 - to siege or take Leningrad and a number of other objectives.

And so, let's proceed with the order of battle for Germany (large image):

German OOB

Turn 1 to follow in the next post.

 

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Political and military situation on the eve of the operation

Relations between the German Reich and the Soviet Union have been souring since last year. The Russians' annexes in the Baltics and in Romania are in their essence a belligerent act, threathening our interests and our supply sources, creeping towards our borders. They made sure to execute their bullying while our forces were busy in the West. However, when we added, completely peacefully, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria to our alliance, communist propaganda raised wails to the high heavens. Then the Soviets protested hysterically at our signing of the Tripartite pact with Japan and Italy, when it was clear that this alliance was directed solely against Britain and the United States.

Regardless of our pact with the Soviet Union, we have never doubted that the the judeo-bolshevik clique in Moscow, controlling immeasurable resources and masses of people, poses the greatest threat not only to Germany but to all of civilization. And we have never let ourselves forget that, if left unchecked, this threat would only grow, until eventually it explodes, and then it would be too late to act.

Now, in the end of June 1941, our reconnaisance shows that a Russian attack is highly likely in a matter of weeks. We have no alternative but to preempt it. If we leave the initiative to the Russians, our task will become unbearably difficult. Whoever strikes first will have numerous advantages on his side in this fight.

The war in Finland last year demonstrated that the Soviet army is incompentently led, lacks fighting spirit, and is utterly ineffective. We have no doubt in our success and ultimate victory. In the words of the Fuerher, we have only to kick the door, and the whole rotting structure will come crashing down.

Our Army Group North is tasked with advancing towards and besieging Leningrad, possibly taking the city. Leningrad holds an important strategic position, it is the location of armament factories, and one of Russia's biggest population centres. Its capture would allow us to link our frontline with the Finns and free up forces for the assault on Moscow.

Speed will be of the utmost importance in this operation. We are expected to crush the Soviet forces in European Russia within ten weeks, with a complete victory expected on the seventeenth week - before the cold comes and before supplies begin to run low. Ideally we should be able to conduct much of our actions while utilising captured enemy fuel and supplies.

In the first week of our offensive, we shall be aiming to advance towards Riga at full speed, making maximum effect of the element of surprise. Aerial reconnaisance has revealed the positions of a number of Russian infantry divisions, airfields and army headquarters. We will be aiming to encircle and capture them, while also cutting supply for enemy units south and west of the Daugava river. Mobile units of the 4th Panzer group are to advance further north and capture Riga before the enemy can organize its defence.

Planned attack shown below. Note that Army Group Center's 9th army is not active during the first turn.

Planned offence for turn 1

* * *

Code word "Dortmund"

Preliminary aerial bombardment in the early hours of June 22 destroyed all of the enemy's fighters and bombers on their runways. This made the task for our infantry and motorized divisions much easier.

The 16th and 18th army's units which were farthest from the border were used to break holes in the enemy's line. Given the initial advantage of surprise, they met no difficulty.

Through those holes in the frontline, infantry divisions of the 16th, and 18th Armies, as well as those assigned to 4th Panzer group, advanced as far into enemy territory as they could, taking care to pin down enemy units by entering into their zone of control, thus increasing the movement cost of their units and impeding their retreat.

Twenty-sixth Corps of 18th Army was given the special task of preventing the retreat of two Russian divisions north along the coast of Lithuania, where they could cause trouble by slowing our advance, breaking our lines of supply, etc.

End of turn 1. 16. and 18. Armies' advance

* * *

The encirclement of the Russian forces was successfully closed by Panzer Group 4 which pinned a Red Army tank division from the Northern side, made one bridgehead on the eastern bank of Daugava, and captured Riga with hardly any resistance.

End of turn 1. Panzer Group 4 advance

Overall, the Russians were caught completely off guard by our sudden attack, their commanders are unprepared to react, and their forces seem paralyzed in place, incapable of mounting any resistance. With this pace, we should be able to advance to Pskov within the next week.

Morale among the troops is high.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Wow, nice production values! Look forward to more

 

[Muty]

 

[GarfunkeL]

Polizei was not an official SS division in 1941. It's Kenraalimajuri, the OOB is missing an i. Finnish air bases were named, not numbered. Finland did not have 2 separate Armies - it was only the Karelian Army that controlled all of the corps that were involved in the fighting in the Karelian Isthmus and north of Lake Ladoga. General Oesch commanded the IV Army Corps, not this imaginary "Kannas Army". General Öhquist was the liaison officer in OKH and did not hold any command in 1941. Karelian Army is missing Battle Group Oinonen that included the Cavalry Brigade, 2. Jägerbrigade and Ranger Battalion 1. At least the German side of the OOB looks to be correct.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Polizei was not an official SS division in 1941. - I had no idea. Maybe in the game they decided to represent it as a division.
It's Kenraalimajuri, the OOB is missing an i. - Mhm, that's my typo. My Finnish is a little rusty, and I've been writing this in the small hours. I can easily update the image though.
Finnish air bases were named, not numbered. - Sadly, that's how the units were named in the game. Probably they did it so for the convenience of non-Finnish speakers.
Finland did not have 2 separate Armies - it was only the Karelian Army that controlled all of the corps that were involved in the fighting in the Karelian Isthmus and north of Lake Ladoga. General Oesch commanded the IV Army Corps, not this imaginary "Kannas Army". - Again, the unit naming and OOB is as in the game.
General Öhquist was the liaison officer in OKH and did not hold any command in 1941. - Then who commanded this 4th corps?
Karelian Army is missing Battle Group Oinonen that included the Cavalry Brigade, 2. Jägerbrigade and Ranger Battalion 1. - These appear at a later turn in the scenario.

I'll try my best to post Turn 2 tomorrow/today.

 

[mbv123]

keep removing commies from premises

 

[GarfunkeL]

The confusion is probably caused by the fact that in the Winter War, the Finns had the "Isthmus Army" which could also be called Kannas Army (I guess) which controlled the two, later three, corps that defended the Karelian Isthmus. That army was deactived after the Winter War. When war seemed likely again in 1941, the Finnish High Command created the Karelian Army to control the four army corps that would bear the brunt of the fighting. It's just kinda weird that Grigsby would make such a mistake. Is there a limit on how many corps an army can command? That could explain it. Finland did not have the need nor the officers to have multiple Army level headquarters. Oesch commanded IV Corps but the game has him commanding the Army that didn't actually exist. Polizei was always a division, it just wasn't formally part of the SS in 1941. I believe it was integrated into SS in 1942. It's an extremely common issue in WW2 games, most of which assume that Polizei was always part of the SS.

Anyway, don't want to be too much of an ass. You made that OOB screen yourself? It is fantastic work. I assume you drew the coloured arrows on the maps as well?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Next remove kebab.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The confusion is probably caused by the fact that in the Winter War, the Finns had the "Isthmus Army" which could also be called Kannas Army (I guess) which controlled the two, later three, corps that defended the Karelian Isthmus. That army was deactived after the Winter War. When war seemed likely again in 1941, the Finnish High Command created the Karelian Army to control the four army corps that would bear the brunt of the fighting. It's just kinda weird that Grigsby would make such a mistake. Is there a limit on how many corps an army can command? That could explain it. Finland did not have the need nor the officers to have multiple Army level headquarters. Oesch commanded IV Corps but the game has him commanding the Army that didn't actually exist. Polizei was always a division, it just wasn't formally part of the SS in 1941. I believe it was integrated into SS in 1942. It's an extremely common issue in WW2 games, most of which assume that Polizei was always part of the SS.

Anyway, don't want to be too much of an ass. You made that OOB screen yourself? It is fantastic work. I assume you drew the coloured arrows on the maps as well?

No offense taken. Whenever you, or anyone, can add or correct something, you are welcome to do so. A side objective of the LP is that I learn a bit more about the war. The images are all done by me, and I also hunted down portraits of the military leaders. One thing I think the game is lacking is a bit more graphics, so that the player can associate a unit with its commander or at least with that unit's name. Hence you will usually hear people in youtube LPs talk like "I'll move these guys here, and then with these guys attack here...", which is pretty sad. The game has a high bar of expectations from its player, because in order to have fun the player is expected to know enough history in order to visualize what happens when he moves or attacks or bombs something. No animated little airplanes, and no soldier models doing pushups here. That's how I got the idea to bridge this gap by illustrating the LP a little bit.

Turn 2 coming in a bit. No significant combat, just the pocket being liquidated and Russians captured.

 

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Enemy grouping around Raseiniai encircled and captured, as the 18th and 16th armies are making their way towars Riga, their infantry divisions arriving after the Panzer and motorized divisions have captured the city. Three Russian Tank divisions surrender, among other Russian elements. 11th Infantry Division takes a hilly area to prevent broken enemy units from occupying it and improvising a defensive position there. 3rd Motorized divison does the same in the area north east of Riga.

Start of turn 2, planned movement

Enemy divisions in the vicinity of Liepaja also surrender, to 18th Army's XXVI corps.

Red Army mass surrenders

By July 3rd, Army Group North has captured 99 607 men as prisoners of war. Also captured are 1519 vehicles of various kinds and applications. Total Russian losses amount to 148 667 men, 1536 artillery pieces, and 988 armored fighting vehicles.

Statistics at the end of turn 2

96th Infantry Division arrives at Koeningsberg to reinforce Army Group North.

Busch and Kuchler advance north at full speed, striving to catch up with Hoepner and Panzer Group 4. 12th Infantry Division passes by Kaunas, leaving it to be occupied by Strauss' 9th army. Strauss' troops meet no resistance at Kaunas, as the city is already under the control of Lithuanian anti-Russian rebels - a self-proclaimed Provisional Governemnent of Lithuania.

In Kaunas, as well as in Riga, the locals meet German soldiers as liberators.

Spoiler

207th Security Division is transferred from von Roques to 101st RHG Command to 9th Army and one regiment of the 207th is situated in Kaunas.

When playing as the Axis, depending on a town or a city's population, it requires a certain amount of troops in order to be policed. Policing a town or city is done by placing a combat unit in its hex. If the combat unit is from a Security division/regiment, then the requirement is halved, i.e. troops from a security regiment can do as good a job at policing as twice the amount of other combat units' troops. What forms their "policing" assumes, is left to the players' imagination, but glancing at the Wikipedia article on the "Reichskommissariat Ostland" shows that in reality it was nothing to joke about.

While citizens of the Baltic countries are cheering at the German columns, from the first days of German occupation, persecution and mass killings of jews commence, and usually with help from locals where hatred towards jews is widespread. According to one source, 22 000 jews were executed in the region of Kaunas alone by December 1941, and with assistance from Lithuanian partisans.

The small black dots on the map represent towns. A town's population is measured in population points with 0 meaning below 50 000, and up to 4 for 200 000-250 000. Anything larger than this will be a city or an "urbanised area" hex. Towns, if they are situated on the railway line, often contain small depots of fuel and other military supplies. The underdeveloped road network in Russia makes the capture of and control over towns and railways much more important than it has been in previous Wehrmacht operations.

Captured town hexes where the town contains a dump of supplies and/or fuel, can be very important. If a Supply Buildup is ordered for an HQ unit, this unit will, for the cost of a certain amount of "administrative points", raise its supply stockpiles, which it uses to supply its subordinate combat units for the next turn. While doing so, however, the HQ unit will draw supplies and fuel from nearby towns' depots. Therefore, capturing enemy town hexes with supply and fuel dumps can provide your combat units with supplies which you can consume "on the enemy's tab".

FBD 4 railway troops, assited by Reichsbahn staff begin work on converting Russian gauge 1520 mm railway tracks to standard 1430 mm gauge. The Russians have destroyed most of their rolling stock during their retreat.

WitE features a pretty complex system of tracing supply deliveries along a "supply stream" which runs down from "Permanent supply source" hexes, through a network of railway hexes called "Supply grid", down to HQ units, who then distribute supply in three categories ("general supplies", "ammunition", and "fuel") to their subordinated combat units as long as these combat units are within a certain range of their HQ unit. There is also a multitude of factors which determine how much of each of those categories a combat unit will receive. There is a whole chapter in the manual devoted to the supply system, but that's the sum of the basics. For this stream of supply to reach your combat units, you pretty much need an uninterrupted line of railway hexes converted to your (Axis or Soviet) rail gauge.

This conversion of railway tracks is being done by special non-combat units, which can each turn expend a certain amount of points in order to convert a certain amount of hexes, with the conversion considered to be "finished" at the beginning of the next turn. When playing as the Axis, you also need to prevent partisans' units from spawning, because they will damage your railway hexes and thus cut your supply line, which can understandably be pretty bad if not remedied quickly.

No serious enemy resistance can be spotted west of the line "Sinyaya river - Velikaya river - Pskov lake". After the encirclement of Raseiniai the Red Army is rushing infantry divisions west, probably trying to form a defensive line at the rivers and lakes.

End of turn 2, dispositions

Motorized and Panzer divisions from the XXXXI and LVI Panzer corps are advancing to the maximum extent of their fuel supplies, aiming to score one more shock attack while the Red army is still under the effect of initial disorganization. If possible, they will prevent the Russians from forming a solid defence in behind the rivers, which could potentially slow our advance.

End of turn 2, Panzergruppe 4 dispositions

 

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First week of July
In the beginning of July, Riga and Kaunas are occupied, and the majority of Army Group North has crossed east of the Daugava river.

Having been unable to stop the German advance at Riga, and with reinforcements too late to arrive, the Russians are trying to mount a defence line in the area of the 25th Pskov Fortified Region (Rus. "укреплённый район" - "ukreplenny rayon"), on the eastern bank of Velikaya river. They appear ready to concede the open space between the Daugava and the Velikaya. In the north, the port city of Tallin with around 300 000 civillian population, is left virtually undefended, apart from a couple of NKVD border regiments and a rifle brigade, whose aim appears to be more to slow down than to stop the German advance.

Field Marshal von Leeb's immediate objectives are to take Tallin and Pskov. Securing Pskov will open the way to Novgorod, and make it possible to advance from there on to Leningrad. If Pskov is taken quickly, the enemy will be denied the time to develop tough defences around Novgorod.

To this end, the armies and corps of Army Group North receive orders as follows:
16th Army is to advance east towards Pskov.
1. XXVIII and X corps will take up positions on the west bank of the Velikaya river, pinning down the Red Army's 6-7 divisions there, in case they try to break off and retreat.
2. Meanwhile II corps, together with Panzergruppe 4's XXXXI corps (1 Motorized Infantry, 2 Panzer, 1 Infantry division) are to cross Sinyaya river in the area between Abrene and Zilupe.
3. The motorized and Panzer divisions are to encircle the enemy's grouping around Pskov from the east, while the infantry are rounding them up from the south.
Enemy forces around Zilupe will be swept away by the advance without serious resistance that could slow down the sickle movement.

18th Army is ordered to quickly advance north towards Tallin which has already been captured by Panzergruppe 4's LVI corps. 18th Army's taska will be to:
1. Garrison Tallin with Security regiment;
2. Prevent the enemy from recapturing Tallin or forming a defence line anywhere west of Narva.
3. Narva is then to be taken, as a first step to besieging Leningrad from the west.
After some deliberation, Panzergruppe 4's LVI corps is ordered to swing south towards XXXXI corps, where the terrain is much more suitable to motorized forces.
4. XXVI corps which has yet to cross the Daugava at Riga may proceed either north with the 18th army, or east, in support of 16th Army.

16. Armee, Panzergruppe 4, 9. Armee

18. Armee

The seven* divisions of Army Group Centre's 9th army are ordered to advance east, and cross the Daugava and Disna from the south before assessing whether to go on and take Velikie Luki, or support 16th Army, depending on the levels of opposition.

* At the beginning of Turn 3, 9th army has been reinforced with V. Armeekorps, composed of 3 divisions - 106., 35., and 5. Infanterie-Division. I'll post an updated OOB in Turn 4, to reflect changes from added or reassigned combat units.

 

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I was going to post another image for the changed OOB, but upon inspection, the changes to the original OOB are very minor:
1. XXVI. Armeekorps is reinforced by 93. and 96. Infanterie-Division, which came as reinforcements to the map. They were not taken from another corps.
2. XXXXI. Panzerkorps has transferred its 6. Panzerdivision to LVI. Panzerkorps in exchange from LVI. Panzerkorps' 8. Panzerdivision. This has been done so that each panzerdivision is closer to an HQ unit that can supply it.
3. 9. Armee has received V. Armeekorps with 5., 35. and 106. Infanterie-Division.
4. Security divisions have been broken down to regiments and separate regiments have been attached to army corps which are near cities which need to be garrisoned.

Turn 4 coming up later today.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Pskov taken

In the middle of July our dispositions and plans remain as they were, but the Red Army units have moved, creating a thin defensive line east of Velikaya river.

New Russian line and planned attack

It is also notable that the Russians have decided to cross west of Narva and the swamps surrounding the area. It remains unlikely that they will attempt to venture further west, losing the cover of the lake Peipus for their left flank, as such an advance would make them too vulnerable to encirclement.


The Panzergruppe 4 LVI. Panzerkorps receives new orders, to break the defences around Narva and assist 18. Armee in encircling enemy pockets west of Leningrad, before returning south to reunite with XXXXI Panzerkorps.

18. Armee advances in the direction of Narva, but will need at least one more week to reach the town. Drawn out communication lines from the nearest railhead are reducing the amount of fuel and supplies that reaches the army's units.

According to the plan, 16. Armee proceeds towards Pskov, but manages to reach positions around 15 km west of those envisioned in order to pin down the Russian defences on the river.

Panzerguppe 4's XXXXI. Panzerkorps on the other hand breaks through 125th Motorized division, and manages to emerge behind the Russian defense line significantly ahead of schedule for time and fuel reserves. General Reinhardt, lacking communications with Panzergruppe 4's command, decides to proceed and attack Pskov on his own initiative.

What follows is a disaster for the Red Army. While 1. Panzerdivision advances and attacks Pskov, the motorized 36. Infanterie-Division attacks the Russian infantry and Tank divisions from the rear. Insufficiant German numbers, lack of time and miscoordination between Panzer and infantry divisions prevent the Wehrmacht from encircling and capturing two Russian tank divisions, one infantry division and other smaller units, whose routed remnants instead form two clumps north and south of the German line of advance.

Defenses on the Velikaya cleared

Further south, 9. Armee advances east without meeting any resistance.

The first action on the Finland-Soviet border takes place, with Russian border regiments retreating before 4th corps' attacks in the area of Hiitola and in the woods north of Lahdenpohja.

Finnish front

With Pskov taken, the road is open towards Novgorod, and with defences on the Velikaya gone, Velikie Luki also seems undefended. Panzergruppe 4's corps' headquarters units begin building up supply depots for unhindered advance northeast and southeast in order to arrive there before Russian reinforcements, which no doubt are being rushed towards these two cities.

 

[Nutria]

Did Finland not get into the war until after it began?

 

[AwesomeButton]

The continuation war started at the same time as Operation Barbarossa. The Finns had coordinated activities with the Germans, but they were not told the exact date when the operation would start.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Did Finland not get into the war until after it began?

They did not. Continuation War started on June 22, 1941. Germans had told the Finns that they would attack, but as OP stated, they didn't give out the exact date. Which was a good idea since Hitler flip-flopped few times. At 22nd of June, the Finnish Army was in defensive positions on the border, ready to receive a Soviet attack, so it took them some time to redeploy their troops into an attack position (and decide on which attack plan to use) before they could actually attack. This is a great example of the delays caused by logistics of war - an army that is completely entrenched in defensive positions requires significant time to reorganize, re-deploy and re-supply itself for offensive operations.