The Luftwaffe strikes, and strikes hard. Bombers hit our airfields across the front, catching our planes in parked formations – we lose over two thousand planes in the opening days.
Then the German army makes it's first moves.
They push up and take a port.
Then our forces begin to become encircled.
They strike deep – Riga falls and they cross the Daugava.
They also push further south.
The amount of land they are able to take in just a few days is staggering.
They begin to threaten Minsk.
North of the Prypat marshes, they also begin their attacks.
The front cracks like an egg.
Tens of thousands are surrounded as the southern front pushes to link up at Minsk..
Then motorized divisions take the city from the shocked defenders.
Other troops are surrounded across the front.
South of the marshes, our troops hold better- this is where our glorious leader Stalin had suspected the German attack, and the troop concentration is denser – this doesn't stop them from taking Lvov.
Then driving deep into our lands.
281,000 losses in a few days! Men are surrendering in droves and abandoning mother Russia and glorious communism!
Our own air force is non-existent. Not a single sortie is flown.
While lots of our troops are trapped and unable to escape, they can cause issues to the German supply lines.
I do my best to set up a defensive line with the troops I have, but there are to few left!
I am able to cut off a lead Division as I begin to form defences along a river in front of Smolensk. While this will not cause them any losses, it will stop them from being properly supplied for a little while, slowing the speed of their advance.
While the men in the main pocket are unable to escape, but I concentrate them to see if there is a chance of a future breakout.
In the south, I pull the troops from Lvov back, but I am able to cut off a sizable part of the German's mechanized formations. Again, this will not hold, but it may slow the German flow of fuel to these units and buy the forces ahead of them a few more hours to dig in.
And a line is forming – a small one, but a line
The Axis have hit us hard, and worse is coming.....
