On December 6, after three days of furious advance, Jin Dayin's 31st Armored Group finally arrived on the east bank of the Dnieper River.

This time the Third Reich retreated very decisively and simply, leaving almost no soldiers on the east bank of the Dnieper River on the southern front.

They even implemented a scorched-earth policy in Eastern Ukraine, leaving no good bridge, one warehouse, or a single grain of food for the Central and Western Expeditionary Forces.

While the 31st Armored Group Army was advancing wildly, officers and soldiers of the Army such as Jin Dayin could often see thick black smoke rising from both sides of the road.

The earth is snow-white, but the black smoke is like strange black tentacles rising into the sky from the snow-white world.

It adds a lot of haze and gloom to this world.

Due to the high speed of the Armored Group Army, Jin Dayin and others even chased a group of SS officers and soldiers who were implementing the scorched earth policy.

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When the Third Reich retreated, they blew up railway and highway bridges, mines, reservoirs, and food supplies that could not be taken away. In addition to doing these things, they also forced local people to move westward with the army.

The common people were naturally unwilling, but the troops of the Third Reich used strong methods to coerce them, and they had to obey.

Some people turned into cold corpses on the way westward, lying in a mess beside the road without anyone caring or paying attention.

Warehouses were destroyed, railways and roads were destroyed, and even most of the population was relocated. The Dongwu area was completely lifeless.

After the war broke out, Ukraine became the focus of competition between the two sides, because it is not only the breadbasket of Europe, but also has rich mineral resources and industrial base.

People in this area died one after another during the tense tug of war between the two sides.

Take Kharkov, an important town in Eastern Ukraine, as an example. Before the outbreak of the war, it was the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, with a population of more than 1.5 million.

However, this city has also experienced four falls and liberations. By the time the Western Expedition of the Mid-Xia Dynasty entered Kharkov, the city's population had dropped from its peak of 1.5 million to about 200,000 today.

From this we can see the damage this war caused to the entire Dongwu region.

But the disaster is far from over. In the relatively long period of time in the future, the scale of the war will become larger and larger.

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Those who were moved west to the west bank of the Dnieper River would be forced to participate in the construction of the Third Reich's Dnieper River Defense Line.

When the Third Reich came to Moscow and occupied Stalingrad, someone within the Imperial High Command proposed building a steel wall west of the Dnieper River.

The purpose is to take precautions before they happen, after all, the outcome on the battlefield is unpredictable.

However, Mustache, Manstein and others believed that offense was the best defense and rejected the proposal to build a steel defense line above the Dnieper River.

Although the proposal was rejected, related work is still proceeding slowly.

It's just that the construction personnel are very Buddhist and have no care at all.

When the situation on the Eastern Front deteriorated, Mustache hurriedly ordered the construction of a strong defense line on the west bank of the Dnieper River.

It took more than a month to force millions of Ukrainians to finally make the Dnieper River defense line look like a war fortress on the original basis.

The 31st Armored Group Army has seen too many tragic scenes along the way, and it can be said that everything is devastated.

Dongwu has completely lost his original appearance.

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After arriving at the Dnieper River, Jin Dayin looked at the vast frozen river surface, his brows furrowed and his expression solemn.

There are also some people who were forced to move westward and a small number of troops of the Third Reich on the river.

Zhongxia's tanks were parked on the shore, and there were no plans to force the crossing for the time being. However, the Third Reich defenders on the opposite side seemed to be too sensitive and nervous, and they actually opened fire first.

The howitzer shells landed on the wide ice, drowning the civilians and soldiers who had no time to run to the west bank.

The artillery fire continued to extend, and finally fell on the location of the leading troops of the 31st Armored Group Army on the east coast.

It can be seen that the German army on the other side has been preparing for a long time. Although the defense line is not particularly perfect, it is impossible for the 31st Armored Group Army to break through on its own.

Even if the river is frozen, a strong attack is not the best option.

In the past three days of violent advances, the 31st Armored Group Army had almost exhausted the fuel and supplies it carried.

Without the support of neighboring troops, forced crossing is impossible.

Jin Dayin obeyed the order of the Western Expeditionary Army Headquarters and temporarily deployed his troops on the east bank of the Dnieper River.

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After discovering that the Zhongxia people on the other side had no intention of attacking by force, the German artillery fire gradually stopped.

The smoke gradually dissipated, revealing the bright red spreading on the ice of the Dnieper River.

..

The 31st Armored Group stopped attacking westward out of its own considerations. After all, they did not have the strength to do so.

However, in the eyes of the senior Bolshevik commanders, this action would be regarded as cowardice on the part of the Central Xia people.

Zhukov even personally called Wu Zhan to ask why the First Armored Army stopped.

Khrushchev and other political members of the Military Commission breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the 31st Armored Army stop.

They hoped that the first army to cross the Dnieper River would come from the Red Army, and for this reason they were even willing to watch future battles become more brutal and fierce.

On December 4, when the flanks of the Third Reich army in Kursk were exposed and obstructed Chiang Kai-shek's 30th Armored Group, the commander of the German 4th Army, Marshal Kluge, no longer hesitated and ordered the German troops around Kursk to divide up.

batch retreat.

The 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Ukrainian Front advanced together from north to south and liberated Kursk on the afternoon of December 5.

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The Central Front Army and the Northwest Front Army also made breakthroughs.

In the general direction, the Third Reich was retreating across the board, while the Red Army was pressing in across the board.

Advancing and retreating, the two sides crisscrossed each other on a front of hundreds of kilometers, fighting non-stop.

The four tank armies of the Red Army took full advantage of their maneuverability and continuously collided with the flanks of the Third Reich army.

The battle took place in the ice and snow, day and night, and seemed to never stop.

What surprised Marshal Zhukov, Marshal Vasilevsky and others was that the German army had not collapsed on all fronts by this time, and was still retreating in an orderly manner.

The veteran Marshal Busch knew that he would be dismissed after this battle, but he still tried his best to safely retreat all troops to the west bank of the Dnieper River.

In order to achieve this, Marshal Busch ordered the most elite troops, including the Skeleton Division, the Imperial Division and other famous ace troops.

These ace troops did not disappoint the old commander's trust. They fought and retreated at the same time. They built a large number of defensive positions on the way back and had to go through a life-and-death battle in almost two or three days.

Despite this, the ace troops still blocked the Soviet army's fierce pursuit and bought enough time for other troops to retreat.

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Stalin in the Kremlin was extremely dissatisfied with this situation. He repeatedly emphasized that what he wanted was not to liberate many cities, but to annihilate as many of the enemy's effective forces as possible so that they could not retreat smoothly to the west bank of the Dnieper River.

"I don't want casualty figures, I just want the Dnieper River, the Dnieper River!"

In the end, the loving father even shouted such words angrily.

Marshal Vasilevsky and Marshal Zhukov rearranged their positions. In order to achieve the strategic goal of the supreme commander, the frontline troops must get rid of the entanglement with the enemy's rear troops as soon as possible.

Reach the Dnieper River before the enemy!

The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Ukrainian Front began to boldly let the tank armies rush forward, ignoring the entanglement of the surrounding troops. They had only one goal, the Dnieper River.

On the snowfield heading from Kursk to Kiev, some Soviet troops began to scatter like arrows and penetrated through the defense lines of the rear troops.

From the perspective of the battle sandbox, the red arrows and blue arrows are mixed together.

The situation seems to be very chaotic.

But whether it is a red or a blue arrow, their direction is only one, the Dnieper River.

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Seeing this scene, Jiang Dong folded his hands and sighed:

"This is really like a marathon, and I don't know who will win the gold medal in the end."

For Marshal Zhukov, who has an army of 2.5 million, the current strength of the Third Reich on the Dnieper River is almost nonexistent.

As long as even one group army can reach the Dnieper River before the main force of the German army and seize a stable landing site on the west bank, then the subsequent battle will become much easier and simpler, and the Dnieper River defense line will naturally cease to exist.

Naturally, the German high command also saw the Soviet army's intentions, and both sides were trying their best to charge westward.

This is indeed a marathon, and it is a marathon held in ice and snow.

The "Eastern Uzbekistan Marathon" officially started on December 8. Both sides worked hard and gave their all from the beginning, leaving no time to consider tactics.
Chapter completed!