Old See, Roosevelt, Churchill and other bigwigs went back earlier. They couldn't afford to delay their time, in addition to leaving some group photos with Meng Xiang, after delineating the general intention with Meng Xiang, they left a large group of subordinates, continued to discuss the details, and returned early.

The Germans waited until Lao Xi returned, and immediately launched the last large-scale offensive on the Eastern Front of the year.

However, such an offensive was not aimed at occupying more land, but at suppressing the offensive of the Russians.

The frantic counterattack of the Russians was not without effect.

Although there was no decisive battle in which the Germans suffered significant losses in a single battle like Moscow in history, under the continuous attacks of Soviet Russia, the German losses on the Eastern Front were not small at all, fragmented, and the total losses of casualties and prisoners exceeded 4 million. Even those who were full of confidence in the German military hierarchy understood that the German offensive began to falter and could not reach the Ural Mountains in one go.

The bitter cold on the land of Soviet Russia is approaching. As long as October passed, the Russian offensive would receive a blizzard bonus, which would inflict greater casualties on the German army, which could only retreat.

The Germans also had to consider shifting their strategic focus to the defensive on the Eastern Front. And the best way to defend is to attack, leaving the forces that Soviet Russia has accumulated to prepare for the winter offensive to disintegrate first.

Striking at the living forces and destroying the military reserves of Soviet Russia everywhere was the primary aim of the Germans. In the severe cold, not only did the Germans have difficulty supplying them, but even Britain and the United States would have to pay more to support Soviet Russia. If you want to accumulate supplies for a large-scale battle again, you don't know how long it will take. And under the heavy damage given by Germany, how many troops can the Soviet Russians draw?

Lacking supplies and offensive forces, the Russians could not afford to cause the Germans a lot of trouble this winter, so that the Germans could devote more energy to dealing with the problems on the Western Front.

By the time of July and August, the Germans had already drawn up these battle plans. Lao Xi went to China and brought back some good news, which made the German attack more unscrupulous and sharper.

Wait until the muddy rainy season is over. The large-scale German offensive has not been launched, and the Russians, on the one hand, are glad that the British and Americans are pinning down on the Western Front, and on the other hand, they are also wary of the surprise attack of the Germans.

They are no longer the rookies of three years ago, the war has eliminated those who are weak. Although many Soviet Russian soldiers did not have full training. But the war and death were enough to mature any soldier who survived.

But even the Russians, who had been honed and adapted to the war, did not expect the Germans to attack so quickly and so resolutely.

The steel chariots of the Germans shattered the Russian forces again in a blitzkrieg and besieged a large number of Russian troops.

"We don't need to panic!" After learning from Khrushchev that China had no plans to cross the Ural Mountains in the near future, Stalin's mood relaxed a lot.

Fighting on two fronts tests not only the combat capability of the armed forces, but more importantly, the ability to transfer materials and personnel on two distant fronts.

War is changing rapidly, and it is impossible to have enough supplies to be placed on both fronts at the same time. It is also impossible to leave excess materiel and offensive forces idle. It can only be between the two fronts, constantly maneuvering and adjusting.

But if the distance between the two fronts is too large, as is the case with the Germans today, they will be constrained by transportation conditions, delay valuable time, and lose more fighters on the long dispatch line.

If China launches an offensive in the Ural Mountains, I am afraid that Soviet Russia will also fall into this nightmare of being difficult to take care of. Moreover, the crushing of the dual forces of China and Germany has exceeded the capacity of Soviet Russia. …,

If only it was an attack from the Germans. The Russians were already familiar with the textbook methods of attack.

"The Germans couldn't hold out for long." Stalin gave another reason, "Italy left the Germans with a difficult problem!" ”

The fall of Italy, Germany's close ally and the second power of the Axis powers. The ripple effects that will be triggered cannot be fully estimated by anyone. However, Mussolini's capture is likely to have the Italians withdraw from the war, which has made a large number of areas previously controlled by the Italians appear destabilized, and it is likely that Britain and the United States will use them to directly attack Germany's core sphere of influence.

Even the Italians may join the Allied side and reap the dividends of the war.

At this time, what the Germans needed most was to commit more troops to suppress the Italian crisis.

Stalin though was not well versed in military things. However, he was very sensitive to politics and diplomacy, and immediately grasped the weakness of the Germans.

Even if the Germans were to expose such a large weakness on the Western Front, they would definitely not be spent on the Eastern Front.

Marshal Vasilevsky next to him stopped talking, and Stalin's optimism prevented him from saying much about his frustration. The intelligence gathered from all over the place suggests that the strength of the German sortie was far from a small-scale clumsy feint to attract the Allies, at least for now. The Germans did not look like they were resting on their laurels.

However, he also agreed with Stalin's analysis that the abrupt change in Italy had forced the Germans to settle the matter there first. In the existing conditions of the German army, there were not enough troops to cope with the further expansion of the crisis.

"Has the situation changed in Italy?" A question suddenly occurred to him.

……

"Italians have changed!" Fan Chong was pleasantly surprised, "Mussolini has been rescued and has regained control of the army!" ”

Meng Xiang smiled silently.

This is all recorded in the history books, although Meng Xiang has changed a lot, but under the contradictions and conflicts of interests, some things will still happen, such as the arrest of Mussolini. But Mussolini, who has been running Italy for more than 20 years, is not incompetent, and domestic support cannot allow him to be dealt with directly, and can only be temporarily imprisoned.

Many of the people who benefited from the war needed him, and the Germans also needed the support of Italy, and as long as he did not die immediately, his salvation was inevitable.

Of course, it is also possible that the deviation of history caused Mussolini's rescue operation to be unexpected, causing Mussolini to burp directly. But history has once again shown Meng Xiang its terrible inertia from the mainstream space.

Fortunately, Meng Xiang needed such inertia, and even arranged some backhands in advance, providing a lot of help to the German special forces who rescued Mussolini, and urging this history to progress in the original direction.

The Holy See and the King of Italy, although they overthrew Mussolini, refused the entry of the Allies and could only rely on their own strength. Someone reminded him that he chose the summit hotel of Mount Sasso, the highest peak in the Apennines, as the place where Mussolini was imprisoned.

The elite special forces and paratrooper battalion sent by the Germans, under the leadership of Skorzne, a super strong man, with the help of paragliders, and even under the secret cover of two second-class Black Hawk helicopters, suddenly airborne broke through the layers of Italian defenses and successfully rescued Mussolini.

"From this point of view, Hitler's visit to China this time also has a deceptive aspect!" Since Lao Tang became the national ruler, he has been in high spirits these days, and his thinking has become more keen, "Maybe the news of Hitler's visit to China this time was released by them." ”

Meng Xiang nodded.

Although Lao Xi didn't say it when he came, he used Huaxia to attract the attention of the allies and played a trick, and there must have been. …,

Originally, Lao Xilai's secret agent in Huaxia should have been kept secret, but he didn't need Skynet to transmit news, and Britain and the United States and other countries knew about it first.

Whether it was Britain, the United States, or Soviet Russia, when they saw Lao Xi coming to China in person, they must have thought that the Germans had the idea of trying their best to win over China.

They were worried that as long as there were enough benefits, Huaxia, which was already pro-German, would directly form an alliance with the Germans under the strong promise of the Germans, so several bigwigs also came in person, so it also led to the lively scene of Meng Xiang's wedding.

But when the bigwigs thought that Germany was focusing on China, the Germans played a trick in Italy.

During the battle in Tunisia, Lao Xi had arranged 8 divisions of German troops in northern Italy on the issue of embankments to Italy. The tens of thousands of German troops evacuated from Sicily were ready in the south.

As soon as the new Italian government announced its withdrawal from the war, these German troops quickly took over the defense of Italy.

The Italian army had not fought much, let alone faced the elite German army, and with the former alliances, a large area was directly controlled by the Germans due to the defection of some of Mussolini's cronies.

As soon as the Germans moved, Britain and the United States immediately went into action, and almost at the same moment, the Allied forces in Sicily crossed the Strait of Messina and attacked the positions defended by the Germans, which had increased to more than 40,000 men on the opposite side.

But under the attack of 200,000 Allied troops, such a defense seemed to be a little weaker. No matter how heroic the German army was, without reinforcements and without sufficient supplies, the entire front was about to collapse completely, and the boots of American GIs were set on the land of the European continent, but they were counterattacked by the Italian army.

With Mussolini rescued, Italy, the troops loyal to him, went straight to the war. Although the Italian army was a little more noodles, it was enough to balance the balance of war at this time.

The Germans, who did not need to send heavy troops to save the situation, had enough troops to fight on the Eastern Front. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )