October 1941

Eastern Front

Heavy fighting erupts around Leningrad as the Leningrad Front launches its Sinyavino operation. Despite repeated attacks, Soviet units are repelled by the well dug-in German divisions. Gen Fedyuninsky is placed in command of the 54th Army as the incompetent Marshal Kulik is sacked.

Heavy fighting rages on the approaches to Torzok as the Kalinin Front battles to prevent the 3rd Panzer Group from reaching the city. Bitter battles rage for the next week.

As the 2nd Panzer Army penetrates Soviet positions south of Moscow, the XXIV Panzer Corps taking Chern and the LIII Corps Belev, the Stavka order Eremenko to pull back to a line between Tula and Yelets to cover the southern approaches. However, the Bryansk Front has suffered crippling casualties in the fighting around Bryansk and Orel and is close to disintegration. The XXIV Panzer has also suffered heavy losses and is so short of fuel that its remaining supplies are given up to Brigade Eberbach, which henceforth forms the spearhead of the 2nd Panzer Army;s assault upon Moscow. Heavy fighting continues in Naro-Fominsk.

Having completed the destruction of the Vyazma pocket, the 9th Army has redeployed and moves to join the 3rd Panzer Group fighting around Kalinin.

Reichenau's 6th and Hoth's 17th Armies enter Kharkov while Belgorod, a little to the north, is taken by the 6th Army, forcing the Soviets to either abandon Kharkov or lose the 21st and 38th Armies entirely.

Kleist fans out into the Donbas as the Soviet defenses at Stalino collapse. Hitler has had his eyes on the industry of this region since the beginning of the campaign, but the Soviets have evacuated or destroyed many of the mining and manufacturing facilities and pressed more than 100,000 mine workers into the ranks of the South Front, reinforcing its shattered armies.