Rise of Australia

Chapter 923 Smolensk

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

In May 1937, after Germany occupied large tracts of Russian territory, more than 5 Spanish troops assembled in Tetouan, targeting 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 30 troops from the Two Sicilies, plus a German reserve army, and nearly 50 troops landed in Tunisia, attacking westward.

The Spanish attack direction corresponded 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.

The number of French troops stationed in French colonies was not large, only about 30 at most.

The main reason is that in the previous Libyan war, France withdrew more than 50 troops from its North African colonies to fight against the Italian army, and this part of the soldiers has not been filled yet.

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

In order to protect the security of the homeland, France did not deploy too many aircraft in its colonies in Northwest Africa. The only large military base was located in the mountains of southern Tunisia, where a fighter formation and a small bomber formation were stationed, with a total of nearly 70 aircraft.

Obviously, these more than 70 planes were completely helpless when facing the attacks of the Italian and German air forces.

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

More than half of the 70 planes were destroyed in the sea of ​​fire, and the rest suffered more or less losses due to the bombing of the warehouse where the planes were parked.

Without planes, the French army was obviously unable to stop the German and Italian air forces from roaming freely in the sky.

The Italians can finally hold their heads high. Before, when they faced the British and French armies alone, they suffered a horrible defeat in Libya.

Now with the help of the German army, the Italians can be said to be taking advantage of the power of the other side and performed quite well in the Tunisian landing battle.

The combined German and Italian troops of more than 50 successfully landed in Tunisia in just over a day and completely captured the city.

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

Then, in just two days, the army moved westward and captured Bizerte and was approaching Constantine.

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

As time went by, the Americas, which were once colonies, have become independent. The only regions that are still colonies are Africa, South Asia, and most of Southeast Asia.

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

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

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

If the coast of Northwest Africa were conquered by Germany and Italy, it would have a huge impact on France's colonial order.

After all, a big part of the reason why the French were able to maintain such a large colony was that mainland France was not far from its African colonies.

Especially the colonies in Northwest Africa, which were separated from the French mainland by only the Mediterranean Sea. But if the coastal areas were completely occupied by Germany and Italy, France would have to bypass the Mediterranean and head to the Atlantic Ocean to get in touch with the colonies.

For France, ensuring the security of its colonies in Northwest Africa has become the top priority. The French government urgently mobilized 30 French troops in Libya, plus 20 colonial troops in West Africa, and rushed north to Tunisia.

After learning about the French army's movements, the German government finally breathed a sigh of relief. In addition to the troops needed to defend Spain, the number of troops that France can mobilize is definitely less than 200 million.

Even if the British can gather 200 million troops, the German government is confident that it can hold the current defense line with only 100 million troops.

After all, the combat effectiveness of the British and French armies was uneven. Even the troops recruited from the Americas were far inferior to those of the British and French regular armies.

The combat effectiveness of the British and French regular armies was no match for the German Wehrmacht. In comparison, the 400 million troops that Britain and France could mobilize were just cannon fodder on the battlefield.

After temporarily solving the problem in France, the Germans set their sights squarely on Russia.

After defeating Russia's Western Front, German troops quickly arrived in Minsk and completely surrounded the city.

In order to prevent the Russian troops behind Minsk from coming to support, the German army still adopted tactics similar to Brest-Litovsk, tearing open a gap to the Smolensk and Vitebsk regions, and actively cutting off the Russian support line for Minsk.

Smolensk and Vitebsk are the two major railway stations leading 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 main offensive target of the German Southern Army Group, and it was basically impossible for it to come to support Minsk.

Once Vitebsk and Smolensk, which were likely to support Minsk, were blockaded by the German army, the Russian troops and supplies would no longer be able to approach Minsk.

The new commander-in-chief of the Russian Western Front, Timoshenko, naturally saw the German army's intentions. But the problem was that he had only been in office for a few days, and the Western Front's troops and weapons and equipment had not yet been replenished.

The Western Front currently has only a few divisions of troops, of which only about 30% have weapons. This also means that nearly % of the soldiers in the Western Front have not received their own weapons, and they can only fight the enemy with bayonets when they go to the battlefield.

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

The German army had the advantages of tanks and aircraft. With its weapons and equipment being fully ahead, it was naturally impossible for it to abandon its powerful weapons and equipment to fight with Russian soldiers with bayonets.

This also means that the Western Front will not have much combat effectiveness unless it waits until the two armies of the reserve army group are officially reorganized, or until the additional troops are integrated into the army.

Timoshenko, who saw the situation clearly, did not insist on defending Minsk, but stationed several divisions 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 he were to sacrifice all the troops he had, even though Timoshenko was a marshal, he would probably not be able to escape Sudalin's sanctions.

After Timoshenko strategically abandoned Minsk, the defenders in the Minsk area gradually retreated.

There was no other way. When reinforcements were unlikely to arrive, blind resistance would only increase casualties and would not prevent the Germans from entering Minsk.

In the end, it took the Germans less than three days to successfully capture the city and officially advance 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 are marching into the vast plains of East Europe. For the Russians, the real test has just begun.

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

From the open space south of Minsk, heading eastward for about a few hundred kilometers, you will arrive at the Dnieper River, a famous river in Eastern Europe.

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

At Mogilev, the 2nd Panzer Group encountered a small number of Russian troops.

Because Mogilev is very far away from Minsk, the troops here did not withdraw for the time being, but continued to be stationed in Mogilev, guarding the intersection of the railway.

When faced with the attack of the German armored group, such Russian troops did not even put up the slightest resistance and were quickly wiped out by the German army.

Guderian continued to order the army to cross the Dnieper River as if he had done nothing.

To ensure that everything was foolproof, Guderian asked the Air Force to conduct reconnaissance all the way south along the Dnieper River to ensure the safety of the river bank from Mogilev to Gomel.

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

If the Russian Southwestern Front was willing to provide support, the mechanized forces would only need two days to reach Gomel.

It was also 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 halfway through and the Russian army launched a surprise attack, especially an air raid, even Germany's elite Second Armored Group would suffer considerable damage.

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

Although a considerable part of the Romanian army was to fight against Yugoslavia, it was still able to gather at least 20 troops to cross the river and 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 the Slovak and Polish regions, to the south is Bulgaria, and to the west is Hungary, all of which are Romania's allies.

The German Southern Army Group has now captured Vinnitsa and is currently marching towards Kiev.

The airport in Kiev was also attacked many times by the German Air Force, and most of the aircraft were destroyed. It is currently facing a situation like the Western Front, with a lack of tanks and aircraft.

Under such circumstances, it was difficult for the Russian Southwestern Front to have the strength to support the Western Front. After all, for these Russian generals, the first thing they had to ensure was to defend their own battle 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 the 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 up the road to Moscow.

According to German intelligence, the Russian Western Burmese Army deployed less than 10 troops in the area, with most of the main forces located in Smolensk.

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

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

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

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

Without any hesitation, Timoshenko deployed this army group in the Vitebsk area and set up a line of defense between the two rivers.

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

These less than 100 aircraft will not be of much use on the front battlefield, and Timoshenko will not use these aircraft for the time being.

As long as these planes were not used, the Germans would not know that the Western Front had replenished its air force.

When the two armies engage in the final decisive battle, these nearly 100 aircraft will carry out a surprise attack, which should achieve good results.

Finally, there was the patrol of Smolensk and surrounding areas. Because of the lesson 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 had only one task, which was to disperse the large area of ​​land behind Smolensk, including Roslavl south of the Dnieper River.

Doing so would ensure the safety of Smolensk. Even if the German army made an outflanking move like it did in Bialystok, the large number of dispersed motorized troops would be able to detect the Germans in advance and report to Timoshenko at the base camp.

(End of this chapter)