Hitler never expected that the Atlantic barrier he had high hopes would be broken by the coalition forces so soon. Rommel's 200,000 German troops were besieged by Rouen and Amiens, and fell into an isolated situation, which made Hitler even more crazy.

I thought the Atlantic defense line could last at least half a year, so Hitler said that most of the German troops in France were transferred to the Eastern Front battlefield. Because the Soviet Red Army won a huge victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, more than three million Soviet troops and more than half a million Imperial Chinese troops that had gathered in the Caucasus were serious threats to the German army.

At the same time as the Atlantic Battle broke out, the main forces of the Soviet and German armies were in a fierce decisive battle on the Eastern Front battlefield.

Although the Chinese Empire promised to reinforce the Soviet Union, as media speculated from various countries, the Chinese Empire deliberately allowed the Soviet army to fight with the German arms, and used the German guns and cannons to slaughter the Soviet Red Army as much as possible.

This intention to deliberately weaken the Soviet Union is well known to everyone, but as long as the Chinese Empire does not admit it, the Soviet Union will not dare to easily break the window paper. Compared with the Soviet Union, it has to rely on the Chinese Empire's military and economic assistance.

Stalin secretly scolded the Chinese Empire for being shameless every day, but he had to admit that the Soviet Union at this time had to rely on the supplies of the Chinese Empire, both military equipment and daily necessities. He had fought with Germany for five years, and the family that the Soviet Union had saved in the 1920s was either bombed by the German army or fought all over with the German army. If he left the Chinese Empire's aid, the Soviet army would not even be able to move forward.

Stalin had to bear it, and even as the leader, he had to bow down to a military officer in Moscow. Before, Stalin would not do that even if he died. But at this time, people had to bow their heads under the roof. However, Stalin swore in his heart that after the war was over, he must make the Chinese Empire look good.

Similarly, Hitler also saw through the minds of the Chinese Empire. The United Nations Army did not actually include the Soviet Union, and no major conferences attended the Soviet Union, which shows that the Chinese Empire was not on par with the Soviet Union.

Therefore, Hitler decided to defeat the Soviet Union in one breath before the Chinese Empire devoted itself to helping the Soviet Union.

To this end, Hitler appointed Manstein as the commander of the German Eastern Front battlefield. He commanded the German, Italian, American, and 450,000 German troops transferred from France, a total of 265 troops, preparing to fight another major decisive battle with the Soviet army.

Previously, Manstein also agreed with Hitler's view that he also believed that the Chinese Empire and its vassal army could not really help the Soviet Red Army fight. Therefore, Manstein was very tacitly aware of not taking the initiative to provoke the Armenian army of the Chinese Empire, such as the Armenian army in the Caucasus direction, and instead focused on attacking the Soviet Red Army.

As the Soviet Red Army won a huge victory in the Battle of Stalin, the Soviet army suddenly became arrogant. Zhukov, the commander of the Soviet Red Army, came down to launch a large-scale counterattack operation, and tried to drive the German army out of Soviet territory.

However, Zhukov was very careful at the beginning to avoid letting the Soviet army pursue the German army too quickly and avoiding being ambushed by the German army.

But when the United Nations army won a huge victory in the Atlantic Battle on the Western Front and the news of the coalition reviving Paris came, the whole world believed that the Germans' good days had passed and Hitler would definitely fail. Zhukov was determined to speed up the counterattack of the Germans and could not let the Chinese Empire see the Soviet Union joke. He quickly got Stalin's nod and agreed, and the Soviet army accelerated the counterattack of the Germans. However, the Soviet army's counterattack was still not very fast, and the German army had no chance to counterattack the Soviet army.

At this time, Manstein saw through Zhukov's thoughts. In order to allow the Soviet army to speed up the counterattack and pursuit, Manstein deliberately defeated several times in the Don River, Kursk and other places. The German army on the front accelerated the retreat and released news that in order to prevent the United Nations army from reviving France, the German army drew most of its troops to the Western Front battlefield to confuse Stalin and Zhukov.

After launching several tentative offensives, Zhukov found that the Allies were about to collapse and even threw away the most powerful Tiger tanks in order to escape. This made Stalin and Zhukov believe that the Germans had indeed given up on the Soviet battlefield and retreated across the board. So Zhukov ordered the Soviet Red Army to speed up the counterattack.

On July 23, 1943, the main force of the Soviet and German armies encountered in Minsk, and the first time since the Soviet-German War broke out, both sides were the main force battles that were launched as attacking parties.

In the previous week, the German army retreated and lured the Soviet army to pursue it. Since the Soviet battlefield had long been turned into ruins, the arrival of summer brought heavy rains to muddy roads, which was not conducive to motor vehicles moving forward.

Since the war between the Soviet Union and Germany started, the Soviet army has been engaged in combat and supplies were obtained on the spot, so they have never been worried about supplies. The German army suffered a great loss in front of the Soviet army because of the weather. At this time, the German army became smart and deliberately led the Soviet army to the Minsk area, which was the German main station of supplies in Belarus. If they were not worried about supplies, they could fight the Soviet army. On the contrary, after the victory of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet army turned from defense to offense and pursued the German army all the way. The busy line was too long and the supply was already in trouble.

However, the Soviet army was very morale, and Zhukov's generals unanimously agreed that they could capture Minsk in a few days and seize the German supplies. Although Zhukov had some concerns, he did not want to damage the morale of his subordinates, so he did not firmly oppose it.

In this way, the Soviet army launched a fierce attack on Minsk when it was too long and the supply was supported for less than three days.

From the very beginning, Manstein was calculating the Soviet supply route. When the German army retreated in the front, the German army in the Minsk area began to strengthen fortifications and wait for the Soviet army to attack.

It can be said that Manstein prepared a huge pocket for the Soviet army in Minsk and was waiting for Zhukov to drill in.

The Battle of Minsk officially started at 2:00 p.m. on the 23rd. The 75th Soviet Army, who was in charge of the attack, launched a fierce attack on the 3rd German SS Division, which was guarding Minsk. As a result, it was subjected to fierce counterattacks from the German superior firepower. The Soviet army could not capture the attack for a long time and suffered heavy casualties.

Zhukov was worried when he learned that the front troops did not capture Minsk on time, but he could not convince his subordinate Lieutenant General Monkdorf. Because the Soviet commander responsible for attacking Minsk was Major General Pierk, Monkdorf's brother-in-law. Monkdorf pleaded for Pierk, Zhukv had to give face, so he extended the deadline for one day and did not terminate the offensive operations of other Soviet troops.

In fact, Zhukov also firmly believed in his heart that he could win Minsk. Because he relied on not only the strong fighting will of the Soviet army, but also received support from the Chinese Empire.

It turned out that the Chinese Empire stated that the Armenian army would conquer Kiev in three days. The Armenian army's strong combat effectiveness was due to the strong logistics supply capacity of the Chinese Empire behind it. Zhukov believed that even if the Soviet army could not conquer Minsk tomorrow, the Soviet army's supplies would not be cut off, and he could borrow some from the Armenian army. Therefore, Zhukov thought that he had no worries, so he dared to give Pieke a one-day grace.

However, Zhukov never expected that after the Chinese Empire saw that the Soviet army won the Second Stalingrad Battle, the Soviet army had expanded to more than 5 million troops and launched a large counterattack operation against the German army. The strength of the Soviet army has always been a ill of the Chinese Empire, so the General Staff of the Chinese Empire was worried that the Soviet army would not be able to control its growth in the future, so he secretly ordered the Armenian military to delay the operation. The Cyprus Air Force Base of the Chinese Empire, which was responsible for providing air firepower support to the Soviet battlefield, also reduced air support operations to the Soviet army for various reasons and interfaces.

In this way, the supply from the Chinese Empire that Zhukov relied on was gone, and the powerful air firepower support was reduced.

At this time, the main force of the Soviet army still wanted Minsk to move closer according to the original plan, waiting for the Soviet army to obtain supplies from the German army after conquering Minsk.

Manstein also quietly surrounded the main force of the German army and prepared to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Soviet army in the Minsk area.

In this way, in the Minsk region, the Soviet army quickly assembled 1.914 million troops, 5,212 tanks, 25,426 artillery pieces, and 2,430 aircraft.

Manstein's Eastern Front Army Group gathered a total of 3.757 million troops, 5,918 tanks, 32,480 artillery, and 2,619 aircraft, including the troops of the United States, Italy, Austria, and Finland.

Zhukov realized that the German army had more troops than the Soviet army, but he firmly believed that he could conquer Minsk in a short time. Once Minsk was conquered, a large amount of supplies from the German army would be occupied by the Soviet army, and more than three million German troops would collapse without fighting.

Just like gambling card nine, the loser will always hate the enemy card.

Both Manstein and Zhukov put the cards on Minsk, which was destined to be an unprecedented decisive battle.

Realizing that the Soviet and German armies were about to launch an unprecedented decisive battle, the General Staff of the Chinese Empire decisively ordered the Armenian army to postpone the attack on Kiev, waiting for the Soviet and German armies to fight to the death, and then take action to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

Sure enough, although the fierce offensive of the Soviet army severely damaged the German army in Minsk, it failed to conquer Minsk on time. On the contrary, other Soviet troops thought they would occupy Minsk on the 26th, so they sent logistics troops to Minsk to ask for supplies.

Zhukov was scared and hurriedly asked the Armenian army for help, asking them to provide supplies to help them. However, the Armenian army was instructed by the Chinese Empire and did not advance towards Kiev. It was more than 300 kilometers away from the Minsk Soviet Army.

However, the Chinese Empire could not directly refuse to rescue the Soviet army, and immediately stated that it would send a force to transport supplies to Minsk. However, it was uncertain when the batch of supplies would be delivered to the Soviet army. It happened that the German army was also wary of the Soviet army obtaining supplies from the Armenian army, so it sent a German army to intercept it halfway. This happened to give the Chinese Empire an excuse to continue to delay.

Zhukov realized the danger at this time and regretted that he shouldn't have been so eager to attack. The Soviet army had no supplies, and its combat effectiveness was naturally greatly reduced. There was no way, Zhukov had to urge the Soviet logistics department to deliver the supplies as soon as possible. At the same time, he obtained Stalin's tacit approval and plundered the local Soviet people's food on the spot. This incident put a stain on the Soviet army that could never be washed away.

The plunder of local people temporarily alleviated the situation of the Soviet army. Zhukov threw all his anger on the German army, believing that only by conquering Minsk and returning the German army's food to the people could the Soviet army's robbery of grain could be calmed.

This made Zhukov lose his calmness and forget the fact that more than three million German troops surrounded him in front of him.

The Battle of Minsk reached its most tragic climax the day after the Soviet army grabbed food. The German Second Armored SS, the most critical stitch used by Manstein to stitch the main force in the Soviet army, encountered the 19th Armored Army of the Soviet Army in Mogilev on the 28th.

Both sides knew the importance of Mogilev. The German occupation of the land completely cut off the Soviet retreat, and one.9 million Soviet troops would be surrounded by Minsk. If the Soviet army defended Mogilev, it would mean that the German army sacrificed a large area of ​​Soviet territory in half a month for the Soviet army to occupy it.

Therefore, as soon as the two Soviet and German armored armies encountered each other, they immediately fell into a fierce battle.

The number of tanks in a Soviet tank army was more than twice that of the German armored army, but the main battle tanks were basically a copycat version of the m28a3 tank, namely the T34 tank. They were simply inferior to the No. 6 Tiger King main battle tank and No. 5 Leopard main battle tank equipped by the German army. The Soviet tanks were destroyed by the German 88mm tank guns outside the range.

The two tank armies of both sides, totaling 3,800 tanks, broke out the largest tank war in history. In order to compete for favorable terrain, a small highland will often be repeatedly fought for as many as twenty times.

At the beginning, the Soviet army had many tanks and fast speeds, and seized the high ground. But soon a large number of German aircraft rushed to reinforce and bombarded the Soviet tanks violently, causing serious losses to the Soviet tanks. The Soviet aircraft also came quickly to assist in the war, but there were very few advanced jet fighters from the Imperial Chinese Air Force, with only more than twenty, and they retreated after only ten minutes of fighting. The remaining old propeller fighters of the Soviet Air Force, although there were more aircraft than German aircraft, but they did not expect that there were many me262 jet fighters in the German aircraft. The Soviet fighters suffered a lot and gradually fell into a disadvantage.

The two planes fought fiercely for air supremacy for more than three hours, and the German planes finally seized air supremacy with a slight advantage. As a result, the Soviet ground tank troops were quickly attacked by German planes, and the small highlands in their hands were taken away by the German army one by one.

When the German army completely captured several favorable high grounds, they immediately controlled the situation on the battlefield. The German tank cluster launched a fierce attack, interspersed and detoured on the flanks of the Soviet tanks. The Soviet T34 tanks, which were originally thinly armored, were destroyed one after another.

The Soviet army originally planned to delay until night so that it could be defended. But in the end, the German army defeated the Soviet army before evening and captured Mogilev.

In this battle, the German army lost 528 tanks, 1,344 aircraft, the Soviet army lost 1,471 tanks, and 1,422 aircraft. The German Second SS Panzer Army successfully occupied Mogilev and announced that it would encircle more than 1.9 million Soviet troops in the Minsk area.
Chapter completed!