March 1942

Eastern Front

The 18th Army launches a furious counterattack on the Volkhov, closing the net around the 2nd Shock Army and encircling 130,000 men.

The Germans prepare to launch a relief attack toward the II and X Corps at Demyansk from Staraya Russa. A shock group under Gen Seydlitz-Kurzback, with the 5th and 8th Light and the 122nd, 127th and 329th Infantry Divisions, aims to fight their way through the waist-deep snow along the southern shores of Lake Ilmen to effect a junction with the pocket.