In contrast to Kilponos on the southern front of the Soviet army, who took the initiative to attack against attack, Voroshilov, after consulting with Zhukov, also chose to lead his troops to launch an offensive in the north.

However, Voroshilov's sortie positions are now much less than at the beginning of the war. Even, not even a sortie position, he has only a second-line position left.

The German Army Group North, in the first days of the war, broke through 80 kilometers into the Soviet Union with a coherent counterattack and occupied the Dubisa River crossing near Elogara. And here, originally, was an area that could have become a solid defensive front of the Voroshilov Army Group.

If Voroshilov had ordered the large highway viaduct near Elogara to be blown up, the German counterattack would have stagnated in this section, and the Soviets would have gained time to defend themselves on steep heights across the river.

However, the Germans only used the 56th Panzer Corps, under the command of the 8th Panzer Division, the 290th Infantry Division, and the 3rd Motorized Infantry Division.

"Damn, no one can stop the Germans?"

Inside the headquarters, Voroshilov roared as he looked at the operational diagram anxiously.

"Marshal, the combined speed of the German armored forces is too fast, we can't stop it at all!" A general with the rank of major general, amid the roar of Voroshilov, reported by Nono.

Voroshilov, the field marshal of the Soviet Union and the winner of the title Hero of the Soviet Union, has always been considered one of the central figures who led the entire army.

His elite cavalry unit, which once recaptured Ukraine from the Polish army, was one of the few elite units of the Soviet cavalry that was not afraid of the Polish cavalry.

However, such a general, who once shined in the civil war, is now helpless against the German army's style of play.

Because his understanding of war was still in the cavalry era in some respects, and his understanding of the new situation in contemporary warfare was insufficient, it seems that his achievements are very mediocre now, and he is not at all as highly praised as he was in the civil wars of the past.

Coincidentally, Voroshilov's opponent, the commander of the German Army Group North, Colonel-General Loeb, was also a general with little exposure to armored tactics.

Although Reinhardt was appointed to command Army Group North because of his stability and reliability, Leeb once again held the highest position he held before, as the commander-in-chief of Army Group C on the Western Front in charge of the feint in the French campaign.

When Lebu commanded Army Group C on the Western Front, he had only a few basic infantry divisions and reserve divisions under his command, the latter of which had to be mobilized, and the equipment and training were not very strong, and there was no armored unit that was usually the favorite of the German generals to command.

Army Group North had two army groups and one tank group, with a total of 25 infantry divisions, three motorized divisions, and three tank divisions, which was the smallest of the three Wehrmacht army groups outside the initial SS on the German Eastern Front.

And its task was also relatively small, to eliminate the Soviet troops on the Baltic coast from the post-East Prussian advance, to seize the Baltic ports, and then to capture Leningrad and Kronstadt, so that the Baltic Fleet would lose its bases.

At the same time, in accordance with the "Barbarossa Counterattack Plan", Army Group North also responded to the rapid corps of Army Group Center that would attack Smolensk later, and promptly divided its forces to provide support.

Therefore, the Barbarossa counterattack plan stipulated that Army Group North should advance first with a strong fast corps on the right flank, so as to advance to the Opochka area as soon as possible, prevent the Soviet retreat from the Baltic coast, and create conditions for a rapid attack on Leningrad later.

The theater of operations that Marshal Koleb was facing, the theater with the most unfavorable terrain on the entire battlefield, the contours of the established Soviet-German border, and the forces of the entire army group that forced Lebu to concentrate their forces in the vicinity of the East Prussian border and on both banks of the lower Neman River, made it completely impossible to carry out a planned encirclement of the Soviet army directly from the area of expansion.

In front of him, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Marshal Voroshilov, commanded the elite units of the Soviet Army. Although the losses in the offensive during these days were heavy, the total strength was still greater than that of the German Army Group North.

In this case, General Loeb, who was also the first large-scale command of armored forces, was obviously much better than Voroshilov of the Soviet army.

Yes, it is true that Lebu is not a good commander of armored forces, but he can be called an excellent strategist, a qualified army group commander.

Even if the combat effectiveness of the armored forces was not fully understood, Le Bu judged that only by creating very favorable conditions could his Northern Army Group achieve a breakthrough from a relatively southerly direction, encircle the Soviet army, and eliminate it before the Soviet army retreated.

Therefore, Lebu concentrated on using the armored forces in his hands to liberate the three Baltic countries in one fell swoop, and then penetrated 80 kilometers deep into the hinterland of the Soviet Union in just a few days, completely completing the transformation from strategic defense to strategic offensive.

"The commander of the Soviet Union is called Voroshilov, right?" After receiving the news that the Dubisa River crossing near Elogara had completely fallen into his hands, Lebu smiled and commented to the combat staff officers in the command headquarters with great interest: "At this time, he will probably be very aggrieved, right?" ”

After careful planning, Lebu had ordered General Busch's Sixteenth Army to attack on both sides of the Ebenrod-Kaunas road towards Daugavpils and its north, and had General Küchler's Eighteenth Army carry out the main assault on Riga along the Tilsit-Riga road, and ordered Admiral Hepner's 4th Tank Group to advance north of the lower Neman River towards the Finsk and Western Dvina rivers, seize all the river crossings, and attack Apoca .

As a result, Army Group North quickly broke through almost every Soviet defensive position and captured the strategically important position of Riga. It then reached the Western Dvina River and routed the last Soviet resistance here.

At the same time, the fourth group of German tanks swept through the Baltic countries, and with the cooperation of the resistance groups of the Baltic countries, the Soviet troops in the southern part of the Baltic coast were wiped out with lightning speed, and the Baltic countries were liberated by the way.

In this round of operations alone, Lebu annihilated and captured nearly 300,000 Soviet troops, and became the German general who liberated the most countries so far in World War II.

Sure enough, this achievement, coupled with the international reputation of liberating the three Baltic states, made Lebu then hear a special announcement on the liberation of the three Baltic countries by the German army from the radio, and received a telegram from Reinhardt himself about the promotion of Lebu to the rank of German field marshal!

Sincerely, Lebu officially became the fourth field marshal in the Wehrmacht after Blaschch, Bock, and Rundstead.