For Ponomarenko, he once thought that the attack he planned had failed miserably, but he did not expect that through such a combination of Berekov, the fiasco would turn into a big victory. Judging from the information gathered so far, it is true that the Romanian division suffered heavy losses, and there was a great chaos in Chernihiv, with three German divisions reinforcing the German 634th Division stationed in Chernihiv.

However, whether the so-called "Exocet rocket bombardment of the city" is true, through this operation, the Soviet army fighting behind enemy lines defeated a Luo army division, pinned down four German divisions, and eliminated a large number of puppet troops, which was indeed a big victory!

Ponomarenko made a decision that the matter of rocket artillery was temporarily pressed, and at this time he had to personally contact Berekov, Salinchkin and others. In the document handed to Stalin himself, the "periodic report of the partisan movement" stated that a series of operations around Chernihiv from May 5 to May 21 were the best answer he delivered!

The documents arrived at the Kremlin early in the morning of May 23, a day when a large number of papers were piled up on Stalin's desk.

In the past few days, Stalin was most concerned about the situation of the Kharkov offensive campaign, because this battle was to take into account the international situation and urge the Soviet troops in the south to launch this huge campaign. Before the battle, some high-ranking generals expressed their pessimistic attitude towards this campaign, especially Timoshenko, who was then the commander of the Southwestern Front, and even believed that the hasty attack force would have the possibility of failure.

At that time, he lashed out: "Don't you want to think about the international reputation of the Soviet Union? As we all know, it is now the only one that is resisting Germany with all its might! We must declare our attitude to the world. You must attack resolutely, the victory is ours! ”

In the first half of 1942, the three great Siss of Germany, Italy and Japan could be said to be in full bloom all over the world!

Although the German offensive in the Soviet Union suffered a slight setback, their front was largely fixed on the Leningrad-Vyazma-Donbass basin. The German Afrika Korps and the Italian Army achieved great success in North Africa, and the hundreds of thousands of colonial troops of the British and Free French were demoralized and a large number of soldiers were taken prisoner.

In the Pacific, Japan reached the pinnacle of its national fortunes, and after attacking Pearl Harbor, it was logical that they occupied vast areas of Southeast Asia.

In order to attack Australia, Japan had to first occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea. As the Combined Fleet headed for the harbor, it engaged in an encounter with the U.S. Navy.

As it should have happened, the Battle of the Coral Sea broke out in early May, and it was also the first engagement between the Japanese and U.S. navies' aircraft carrier forces.

Perhaps due to the butterfly effect brought about by Yang Mingzhi's existence, the outcome of this battle was certainly the victory of the United States, but the process changed.

As a result of the battle, the two standard aircraft carriers launched after the treaty era of the Five Naval Battles were sunk, so that the Japanese plan to occupy Port Moresby was immediately frustrated, and the fleet had to return.

On the American side, Lexington was also sunk and Yorktown was destroyed. The U.S. forces were close to saving themselves, but they were still unable to prevent the sinking of Lexington, but fortunately they rescued Yorktown.

U.S. Navy Fleet Commander Fletcher vowed to annihilate all Japanese aircraft carriers that had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In that plane, his troops only sank Zuizuru in this encounter, and Shohe escaped after the big break. On this plane, perhaps thanks to luck, the auspicious cranes all sank, which is also a real huge military and spiritual victory achieved by the US Navy after the Doolittle air raid!

The allies of the anti-fascist coalition needed the triumphant news, which undoubtedly irritated Stalin and the senior officers of the Soviet Union.

Objectively, the victory of the American army in the Battle of the Coral Sea stimulated Stalin's determination to launch a Kharkov counterattack, and the Soviet Union also needed a big victory to show the countries that its great strength still exists. What's more, the momentum of the Soviet Union this year is very good, and all fronts have been counteroffensive for half a year, and he has great confidence in victory, and as for the possibility of defeat, he has not thought about it at all.

He was not a front-line commander, however, he had some lost confidence in commanding the military.

Especially after the battle began on the 19th, he received one good report after another, the dignified Soviet Red Army had the momentum to completely defeat the German Army Group South, and the entire left-bank Ukraine seemed to be liberated in a short time.

Stalin was in a very good mood, however, his good mood came to an end on May 23!

He already knew that the Soviets would have to go on the defensive on May 22, and at that time he urgently ordered Timoshenko to stabilize the current direction and take the city of Kharkov.

Since then, under the erosion of foreboding, Stalin has not slept peacefully this night. After a good night's sleep, he never expected the situation to change dramatically.

There is a way that the soldiers are fast, and the Kleist armored group is against the normal offensive of the German army, and they actually launched an attack when it was dark at night. Hundreds of tanks and tens of thousands of infantry coordinated their infantry to launch a fierce assault on Pavlovsk, a bridgehead city on the Balvenko River, and more than 100 Stuka also ventured to attack at night.

After all, it was a rather clear night, the Balvenko River glowed in the moonlight, and the few searchlights that the Soviet troops in the city had not extinguished became the reference targets of the Luftwaffe.

Bombs rained down and the city burst into flames! The Germans looked at the red sky in the north, and tens of thousands of people began to storm.

The Soviet troops guarding here were all withdrawn troops, and they suffered heavy losses on the front line, so they had to defend in the rear, and rest by the way. This was a reasonable choice taken by Timoshenko to give him his current strength and to maintain the highest overall quality of the forward troops. In fact, he was also very aware that the Soviet army's advance from the Barvenkovo salient was now creating a larger salient, which made the already risky flank of the Soviet army extremely risky.

He concluded that if the Soviets were to fail, the source of the defeat would be the onslaught of the German army on the flanks.

He never expected that the German attack would be so sudden and unreasonable.

At dawn, the Battle of Pavlovsk entered a critical moment, although the Soviet army desperately defended, and even used advanced RPGs to shoot the enemy's No. 4 tank. However, this individual anti-tank weapon is no match for the enemy's Stuka dive bombers.

Kleist knew too well the importance of this bridgehead to the German army, so the air force did not hesitate to use aerial bombs to level the bridgehead of the Soviet army.

The Germans did not intend to engage the Soviets in street fighting, their planes bombarded the city indiscriminately, breaking the Soviets' defenses, and when the German tanks successfully crossed the bridge, the remaining resistance of the Soviets was irrelevant.

Stalin was astonished and held the urgent telegram, which was marked as being received at five o'clock in the morning Moscow time.

He immediately became furious: "Why? Why didn't you wake me up?! The enemy launched a counteroffensive in the early hours of this morning, and the direction of our army has already been torn by the enemy! ”

Whoever dared to wake him up recklessly, not even Timoshenko himself, the majesty erected by Stalin made everyone afraid of him for three points!

He hurriedly looked at his watch, it was only seven o'clock in the morning, and in just a few hours, he estimated that the Germans should not make more progress.

Stalin paid close attention to the situation on the Kharkov front, and nothing was more important than the intelligence of the war situation, and he simply did not read the other debriefing documents on his desk! He hurriedly called the front line and directly contacted the headquarters of the Southwestern Front in Severodonetsk City, and asked Timoshenko, who had not slept all night, and his bloodshot eyes were breached!