The conclusion is that it is time to stop the retreat. Not a single step back!
~Joseph Stalin
Hearts of Iron II German AAR - Written by the Victors
June 2nd - August 9th, 1942
On the 5th of June, the second great offensive against Russia began. Given the success of the previous year and the crippling of the Russian army, it was expected to be a straightforward attack. It was anything but.
From the start it was clear that the offensives in the north had failed to distract the Red Army from the south, as the front lines now consisted of a dozen divisions in each province, rather than the half-dozen of the previous offensives. And by now the Russians were determined to survive. Casualties were horrendous, putting a terrible strain on Germanys dwindling manpower reserves. But they advanced, mile by mile, towards the chief city in the region - Stalingrad.
The River Don is reached, 22nd June 1942
The problem in the offensive was not German superiority, but of sheer exhaustion and over-extension. When the forces arrived to garrison a region, they relaxed and the Russians began their counter-attack, driving them back west. For this reason, the great leaps of 1941 were not matched.
In the meantime, Finland was struggling to fend off the Red Army, despite the enemy being cut off from Russia proper. At the end of June Germany was forced to withdraw several forces from northern Russia in order to counter the growing Russian threat there. However several attacks were allowed in the Moscow region which were won easily. Thus it was proved that the south was only being held by sheer strength of numbers.
In Africa, the war continued to go well. There was a slight setback at El Alamein in early June, but a second attack broke the Allied resistance and allowed Axis troops into the province. It was a sharp setback for the British, and the road was open for eastern Egypt to fall to Italy. Three weeks after El Alameins fall, Alexandria too was captured by Italian forces (though it was the Germans who cleared the area of enemies).
The southern front in Russia finally reached its primary objective as the outskirts of Stalingrad were reached in early July. It was decided that rather than a direct assault on the city, it had to be surrounded first. As such, it took until the 8th August when General von Paulus forces reached northern Stalingrad, and Field Marshall Rommel arrived in the south. By now, despite the heavy losses, Germany was once again in total control of the eastern front. Even Finland had managed a counter-attack that prevented Russians from entering Helsinki, and as such Germany sent several divisions to assist them.
But Stalingrad was still not taken, and it was heavily fortified - more so than Leningrad and Moscow were the previous year. The autumn mud would be arriving soon, and the city had to be taken soon - on the 9th August Emperor Kan gave Rommel overall charge of the operation, and the assault on Stalingrad began
