June 1942

Eastern Front

The 6th Army and the 1st Panzer Army begin another limited operation to destroy the 38th and 9th Armies around Kupyansk.

One year on, The Germans find themselves massively committed ot the fighting in Russia. The Ostheer deploys 5 divisions, a force of 150,000 men, in Finland alongside the 16 divisions of the 300,000-strong Finnish army. On the main combat front, Army Group North has 36 divisions, Center has 63 and South 68. Army Group Center shortly gives up a number of its divisions to Army Group South for Case Blue. To the rear the Germans have 5 division with a total of 80,000 men in the Balkans and 3 divisions totalling 54,000 men in Germany. The number of allied units committed to the fighting in the east has also risen, the Finns, as already noted, have 16 division in action, while the Rumanians have 13, the Hungarians 9 divisions en route or deployed with the German armies, the Italians 3 divisions and 1 brigade committed and the Slovakians 1 division. In addition, the Spanish provide the Azul Division around Leningrad with the 18th Army.

Army Group South completes its deployment for Case Blue, Paulus' 6th Army is by far the strongest formation of the entire group, having 330,000 men and 300 panzers or assault guns int 2 panzer and 1 motorized and 15 infantry divisions, while 2nd Army has 1 motorized and 4 infantry divisions, a total of 95,000 men; the 17th Army has 150,000 men and 180 panzers or assault guns in 1 panzer, 1 motorized and 6 infantry divisions; the 1st Panzer Army 3 panzer, 2 motorized and 7 infantry divisions with 220,000 men and 480 panzers or assault guns, and the 4th Panzer Army has 3 panzer, 2 motorized and 6 infantry divisions with some 200,000 men and 480 panzers. The 2nd Hungarian and 8th Italian Armies are both en route. Manstein's 11th Army remains committed to the fighting in the Crimea with the 3rd Rumanian Army in support. This give the Germans a formidable array of 1,000,000 men with nearly 1,500 panzers and assault guns. With German commitment on the eastern front standing at 2,847,00-, a sizeable proportion of the field army is earmarked for the offensive in the south.

The Ostheer manages to concentrate such a large force in the Ukraine through the ruthless stripping of resources of Army Groups North and Center. Many of the two group's infantry divisions are reduced to 6 battalions from their regulation 9. Despite this reinforcement of the southern armies, their divisions remain short of mechanized support. Many motorized divisions have been reinforced at the expense of their neighbors to the north, but there are still not enough vehicles to go around. Increasing numbers of civilian vehicles are pressed into service, the loss of more than half a million transport vehicles during the first year of fighting proving too much for the German war industry to make good.