Strength of NorthWest Front Spring 1942

[Konig_pilsner]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone had information on the strength of the NW Front in the spring of 1942. This bulge effectively cut off cooperation between AGN and AGC for the rest of the war, and I am curious why it was neglected by the Germans. I understand that forces for Blau were being assembled, but wouldn't straightening the line from Rzhev to Demyansk free up more German troops for summer operations?

Cheers,
KP

[Max Payload]

On 1 April the Front's defences were based on a cavalry corps, 18 rifle divisions, 59 infantry brigades, 2 tank brigades, 4 tank battalions and 30 artillery, mortar and rocket artillery regiments. (It also had 8 of the aero-sleigh battalions and the eastern face of the bulge was defended by part of Kalinin Front.)
Five days later the Directive for Fall Blue was issued and German divisions in the area found themselves being stripped of ‘excess manpower’ to bolster the fighting strength of AG South.
In the spring of '42 the Ostheer didn't have, and would not be allocated, the resources along that part of the front to pinch out the Toropets bulge.

[Art]

There were plans made beginning from the spring of 1942 and onwards, but they didn't lead anywhere for a lack of time/forces. See, for example, "operation Taubenschlag" in Ziemke:
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/US ... on-21.html

[Konig_pilsner]

Thanks Max, would you know what that amounted to in men, tanks and guns?

Cancelling operation in the North and Center was a recurrent theme in 1942. The bulge never became much more then a thorn for the Germans, and I assume it had to do with the lack of railways in the areas occupied by the Russians. Still I can't help but think eliminating it, even if it delayed a portion of the forces available to the South, would have facilitated a better outcome for all AG's in that year.

[Max Payload]

... would you know what that amounted to in men, tanks and guns?

Correction - not 59 brigades, but 23 rifle and airborne brigades and 36 independent ski battalions.
I haven’t seen any force composition summaries from NW Front so I can’t provide accurate information. At that point in the conflict a typical rifle division in NW Front would have had only 5-6 thousand personnel; a brigade around two thousand, and a battalion less than 500. The establishment strength of a cavalry corps was less than 14,000 personnel and, like the infantry formations, cavalry corps usually operated well below establishment strength.
The establishment strength of a tank brigade was 46 tanks and a battalion, half that, but the number of operational tanks available to Kurochkin on any given day is likely to have been less than fifty.
Kurochkin had 19 independent and heavy artillery regiments (corps and above) in addition to the field artillery regiments and battalions embedded in the rifle divisions and infantry brigades. So he probably had more than a thousand, maybe up to fifteen-hundred, artillery pieces, plus heavy mortars and rocket artillery.
These figures give you a rough idea of what Busch was facing and, as you probably already know, he didn’t even have the resources to break the siege of II A.K. at Demyansk until 26 April.

Cancelling operation in the North and Center was a recurrent theme in 1942. The bulge never became much more then a thorn for the Germans, and I assume it had to do with the lack of railways in the areas occupied by the Russians. Still I can't help but think eliminating it, even if it delayed a portion of the forces available to the South, would have facilitated a better outcome for all AG's in that year.

Another of those ‘what ifs’ of history.

[Konig_pilsner]

Thanks again Max, my assumption was that around 200k men would be a fair estimate.

Another of those ‘what ifs’ of history.

More of a curiosity than a "what if".

I find it interesting how Bologoye was considered such a priority by Hitler and Halder, one of the few things they agreed upon, yet the North West Front was all but ignored. Same goes for Stalingrad, which was mentioned in July 1941 as an objective of AGS, yet completely ignored in the original plans for Fall Blau.