October 1941

Eastern Front

The Germans begin new attacks in the Valdai Hills, pushing east from Demyansk.

Around Bryansk, infantry and armor of the 2nd Panzer and 2nd Armies pound the 50th and 3rd Armies, which are ordered to break out to the east. Eremenko orders all his units to pull back by night to escape from the pockets. The 3rd and 50th Armies push 30 miles to the east. Fighting will continue for another two weeks, at the end of which the Bryansk Front will have been almost annihilated.

Zhukov goes out to the West Front to establish just what is happening to the Soviet armies. He finds Koniev easily enough and is given details of the encirclement of the Russian armies at Vyazma and the envelopment of Eremenko to the south. Of Budenny's front, nothing is known. He tries to find the Reserve Front headquarters but when he does, Budenny is nowhere to be found.

The South Front is crushed on the Azov coast as the 1st Panzer Army launches concentris attacks upon the 18th ane 9th kArmies. Mariupol falls after bitter fighting, but despite the overwhelming German fire, small units of Soviet soldiers managed to slip through the pocket and escape to the east to fight another day. The weather, which has broken in the Ukraine on October 6, becomes worse and begins to affect the rate of Rundstedt's advance.