Chapter 923 Smolensk

As the war progressed, the Spanish finally couldn't help it.

In May 1937, after Germany occupied a large area of ​​Russian territory, more than 300,000 Spanish troops gathered in Tetouan, aiming directly at the French colonies in Northwest Africa.

In order to attract the attention of the French, Germany and Italy also decided to re-launch the offensive in North Africa and reopen the North African battlefield.

Italy mobilized nearly 300,000 troops from the Two Sicilies, plus a German reserve army, and nearly 500,000 troops landed in Tunisia, attacking all the way west.

The offensive direction of the Spanish was corresponding to that of the German and Italian armies. If they won in North Africa, they would have the hope of quickly occupying France's colonies in North Africa, and relying on Algiers and Tunisia to delay the offensive of the British and French armies.

In the French colonies, the number of French troops stationed was not large, only about 300,000 at most.

The main reason is that in the previous Libyan war, France drew more than 500,000 troops from the North African colonies to fight against the Italian army, and this part of the soldiers has not been filled.

In order to make their landing plan safer, the Germans continued the idea of ​​attacking Russia, that is, to use a large number of aircraft to open the way and give priority to destroying the French ground defense facilities and positions.

In order to protect the security of the homeland, France did not deploy too many aircraft in the northwest African colonies. The only large military base is located in the mountainous area in southern Tunisia, where a fighter formation and a small bomber formation are stationed, with a total number of nearly 70 aircraft.

Obviously, these more than 70 aircraft have no way to deal with the attacks of the Italian and German air forces.

Just one round of air strikes instantly destroyed the only military base in Tunisia.

More than half of the more than 70 aircraft were buried in the sea of ​​fire, and the rest suffered more or less losses because the warehouses where the aircraft were parked were bombed.

The French army, without aircraft, obviously could not stop the German and Italian air forces from galloping freely in the sky.

The Italians were proud of themselves. When they faced the British and French armies alone, they lost miserably in Libya.

With the help of the German army, the Italians were able to take advantage of the situation and performed well in the Tunisian landing battle.

Germany and Italy combined more than 500,000 troops and successfully landed in Tunisia in just over a day and captured the city.

The dozens of French planes damaged in the military airport naturally became the spoils of war for Germany and Italy.

Then, in just two days, the army conquered Bizerte to the west and was close to Constantine.

The offensive of the German and Italian armies successfully delayed the comprehensive counterattack planned by France. For the French, African colonies, especially those in Northwest Africa, are very important.

With the development of time, the Americas, which were once colonies, have become independent. The only areas that are still in a colonial state are Africa and South Asia, as well as most of Southeast Asia.

Among these regions, Britain and France occupy most of them, and they are now the two most worthy colonial empires in the world.

However, compared with the scope of British colonies, the French colonies are more limited.

France's colonies in Africa are generally distributed in West Africa and North Africa, as well as the island of Madagascar outside the African continent.

If the coast of Northwest Africa is conquered by Germany and Italy, it will have a great impact on France's colonial order.

After all, the French can maintain such a large colony, a large part of the reason is that the French mainland is not far from the African colonies.

Especially the Northwest African colonies, which are only separated from the French mainland by the Mediterranean. But if the coastal areas are fully occupied by Germany and Italy, France must bypass the Mediterranean and go to the Atlantic Ocean if it wants to get in touch with the colonies.

For France, ensuring the security of the Northwest African colonies has become the top priority at present. The French government urgently mobilized 300,000 French troops in Libya, plus 200,000 colonial troops in West Africa, and urgently went north to Tunisia.

After learning about the movement of the French army, the German government finally breathed a sigh of relief. In addition to the troops needed to defend Spain, the current French army that can be mobilized is definitely less than 2 million.

Even if the British can gather 2 million troops, the German government is confident that it can defend the current defense line with only 1 million troops.

After all, the combat effectiveness of the British and French armies is uneven. Even the troops recruited from the Americas are far less combat effective than the regular British and French armies.

The combat effectiveness of the regular British and French armies is not comparable to that of the German Wehrmacht. In this comparison, the 4 million troops that Britain and France can mobilize are just cannon fodder on the battlefield.

After temporarily solving the French problem, the Germans completely set their sights on Russia.

After defeating the Western Front of Russia, the German army quickly arrived in Minsk and completely surrounded the city.

In order to prevent the Russian army behind Minsk from coming to support, the German army still adopted a tactic similar to Brest, tearing a hole to the Smolensk and Vitebsk regions, and actively cutting off the Russians' line of support for Minsk.

Smolensk and Vitebsk are the two major railways that must pass through to Minsk. In addition, there is Bobruisk in the south, which has a railway to Kiev nearby.

But the problem is that Kiev was originally the key offensive target of the German Southern Army Group, and it is basically impossible to come to support Minsk.

Once Vitebsk and Smolensk, which are likely to support Minsk, are blocked by the German army, the Russian army and supplies will never be able to get close to Minsk again.

Timoshenko, the new commander-in-chief of the Russian Western Front, naturally saw the intentions of the German army. But the problem is that it was only a few days before he took office as the commander-in-chief of the Russian Western Front, and the army and weapons and equipment of the Western Front had not been replenished.

The current Western Front has only a few divisions of troops, of which the number of weapons and equipment is only about 30%. This also means that nearly 70% of the soldiers in the Western Front have not yet received their weapons, and they can only fight the enemy with bayonets on the battlefield.

Will the German army fight the Russian army with bayonets? Definitely not.

The German army has the advantages of tanks and aircraft. With its comprehensive leading weapons and equipment, it is naturally impossible to abandon its powerful weapons and equipment to fight with Russian soldiers.

This also means that either wait until the two armies of the reserve army group are officially rebuilt, or wait until the supplementary troops are integrated into the army, otherwise the current Western Front will not have much combat effectiveness.

Timoshenko, who saw the situation clearly, did not insist on defending Minsk, but stationed several divisions in his hands in Smolensk and kept an eye on the movements of the German army.

With Pavlov's "Pearl" in front, Timoshenko naturally had to guard against the German army's large-scale encirclement of his main army after cutting the defense line.

If all the only troops in his hands were buried, even if Timoshenko was a marshal, he would probably not be able to escape Sudalin's sanctions.

After Timoshenko strategically gave up Minsk, the defenders in the Minsk area were also gradually retreating.

There is no other way. In the case that reinforcements cannot arrive, blind resistance will only increase casualties and cannot prevent the Germans from entering Minsk.

In the end, the Germans successfully occupied the city in less than three days and officially pushed the front line to the Russian mainland.

The previous war only broke out on the original Polish land, but now, tens or even millions of German troops have entered the East European Plain in a mighty manner. For the Russians, the real test has just begun.

The army responsible for advancing eastward to Smolensk is naturally the very familiar German Second Panzer Group, the German ace armored force led by Guderian.

From the open space south of Minsk all the way east, after advancing about a few hundred kilometers, they arrived at the Dnieper River, a famous river in Eastern Europe.

In order to achieve the best circumvention effect, Guderian decisively chose to cross the Dnieper River and advance towards Smolensk in the northeast.

In Mogilev, the Second Panzer Group encountered a small number of Russian troops.

Because Mogilev was very far away from Minsk, the troops here did not evacuate for the time being, but continued to be stationed in Mogilev, the intersection of the Guardian Railway.

Such Russian troops did not even have a slight resistance when facing the attack of the German armored group, and were quickly destroyed by the German army.

Guderian seemed to have done nothing and continued to order the army to cross the Dnieper River.

In order to ensure that everything was foolproof, Guderian asked the Air Force to scout all the way south along the Dnieper River to determine the safety of the river bank from Mogilev to Gomel.

Although this area belongs to the Russian Western Front, Gomel is very close to the Russian Southwestern Front, and is even only a few hundred kilometers away from Kiev.

If the Russian Southwestern Front intends to support, the motorized troops can reach Gomel in just two days.

It is precisely because of this that Guderian had to guard against the Russian Southwestern Front in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River.

If the crossing was attacked by the Russian army halfway through, especially by air strikes, even the German elite Second Armored Group would suffer considerable damage.

The good news is that the current situation of the Russian Southwest Front is not much better. In addition to dealing with the attack of the German Southern Army Group, the Southwest Front also needs to face the attack of the Romanian army.

Although a considerable part of the Romanian army has to deal with Yugoslavia, it can still gather at least 200,000 troops to cross the river to fight against Russian territory.

After all, if Romania wants to expand its territory, it only has two directions: Yugoslavia and Russia.

To the north are Slovakia and Poland, to the south is Bulgaria, and to the west is Hungary. These regions and countries are all allies of Romania.

The German Southern Army Group has now captured Vinnitsa and is currently heading to Kiev.

The airport in Kiev has also been attacked by the German Air Force many times, and most of the aircraft have been destroyed. It is currently facing a situation like the Western Front, lacking tanks and aircraft.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the Russian Southwest Front to have the strength to support the Western Front. After all, for these Russian generals, the first thing they have to ensure is to defend their own war zones and positions.

After ensuring safety, Guderian led his troops across the Dnieper River and headed northeast towards Smolensk.

After Guderian led his troops across the Dnieper River, the German High Command also issued a final order to the Central Army Group to which Guderian belonged, which was to encircle the Russian troops in the Western Dvina River and Dnieper River areas, occupy Vitebsk and Smolensk, and open the road to Moscow.

According to German intelligence, the Western Burmese Army of Russia deployed less than 100,000 troops in this area, most of which were located in Smolensk.

Although the Russian support was also coming in a steady stream, as long as the German army moved fast enough, it would be possible to capture these cities before the Russian reserve troops arrived.

By then, whether to continue the attack or rely on these cities to effectively kill Russian troops, it would be a good decision.

At this time, it had been four days since Timoshenko deployed the defense line in Smolensk.

The good news is that an army group and some weapons and equipment located in Moscow have arrived first.

Timoshenko deployed this army group in the Vitebsk area without any hesitation, deploying a defense line between the two rivers.

Nearly 100 aircraft transported from the Moscow area were deployed by Timoshenko in a secret area east of Smolensk.

These less than 100 aircraft are not very useful for the front battlefield, and Timoshenko will not use them for the time being.

As long as these aircraft are not used, the Germans will not know that the Western Front has replenished its air force.

When the two armies fight the final decisive battle, these nearly 100 aircraft will make an unexpected sneak attack, which should achieve good results.

Finally, there is the patrol of Smolensk and surrounding areas. Because of the lessons from Pavlov, Timoshenko did not deploy all the troops on the defense line, but left a large number of motorized troops in the rear.

These troops have only one task, which is to disperse the large area of ​​land behind Smolensk, including Roslavl south of the Dnieper River.

Doing so can ensure the safety of Smolensk. Even if the German army outflanks like in Bialystok, a large number of dispersed motorized troops can find the Germans in advance and report to Timoshenko at the base camp.

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