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Driven To The Bottle

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Title
Driven To The Bottle
Description
Three days after the start of the Red Army spring offensive, German situation maps showed huge gaps in the front line in southern Russia where there were no units to stem the runaway Soviet assault on Kharkov. While the Russian …
Subject
Publisher
Date
1942-05-16
Scenario#
15
Scenario Description
Three days after the start of the Red Army spring offensive, German situation maps showed huge gaps in the front line in southern Russia where there were no units to stem the runaway Soviet assault on Kharkov. While the Russian 6th and 9th Armies swing gradually north towards the main objective, an ad hoc ‘Army Group’ under General Bobkin drove west for Poltava where the Wehrmacht’s Army Group South had its main supply center and headquarters. The Soviet high command, STAVKA, was satisfied the Germans were on the ropes and ordered the attacking units to push on regardless of all threats to their flanks, despite the protests of the field commanders. The Germans had been about to make a large scale attack of their own, Fall Fredericus, and because of this several panzer divisions were gathering around the town of Barvenkovo, south of the breakthrough. These units would now wait in reserve and under cover until the Soviet units became overextended. The German 6th Army under General Paulus held firm to the north of the Soviet breakthrough, despite a few nervous days with their flanks protected only by roving panzergruppes. Eventually the concealed armor concentration to the south of the Russians was unleashed and drove into their flank and rear. On the 16th, Soviet progress was such that their reconnaissance units were only 40 km from the HQ of Army Group South when isolated and eliminated. Similarly, the main Russian columns threatening Kharkov were gradually immobilized and destroyed, once their supply trains were overrun.
Location
Karlovka, Russia
Battle Narrative
The Second Battle of Kharkov or Operation Fredericus was an Axis counter-offensive in the region around Kharkov against the Red Army Izium bridgehead offensive conducted 12–28 May 1942, on the Eastern Front during World War II. Its objective was to eliminate the Izium bridgehead over Seversky Donets or the "Barvenkovo bulge" which was one of the Soviet offensive's staging areas. After a winter counter-offensive that drove German troops away from Moscow but depleted the Red Army's reserves, the Kharkov offensive was a new Soviet attempt to expand upon their strategic initiative, although it failed to secure a significant element of surprise.
Narrative Source
Combatants
Russian
German

Geolocation