After the meeting, Churchill breathed a sigh of relief, but his hanging heart was not completely relaxed: he had said such a thing as a "coup d'état" to the Americans, and Secretary of State Hull, who was now acting on behalf of the US government, obviously did not agree, and the US top brass obviously knew about it, and he began to regret it, thinking that he was too impulsive that day, and that this kind of extreme secrecy should not be told to Hopkins and Donovan, and should be communicated directly with Roosevelt himself. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, in the evening, he turned to joy again: Donovan quietly visited him and informed him of the alternative of "luring the snake out of the hole", making it clear that the Einsatzgruppen had been brought in.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, I will be stationed in the UK for some time now, but you have to assign a reliable person to contact me, and I can't always report to you, that is too flawed." Donovan said, "This guy needs to have experience in covert operations and intelligence, don't be a big C, I don't think he's necessarily reliable." ”

"In three days, I will tell you the right person, choose from my family, and guarantee that it is absolutely reliable." Churchill thought for a moment, "His opinion is my opinion." ”

"Then I'll be relieved."

At a time when the secret negotiations between Britain and Germany were deadlocked, there were some new developments in the Soviet-German negotiations that had been stranded in the early stage, and now Ribbentrop is a European trapeze, going to Portugal, Bulgaria, and Berlin all at once, wearing it all day long to negotiate, and has not shown his face in the Foreign Ministry for several months.

The pace of Rommel advances in Central Asia was astonishing, and the Tatar independence and uprising were well coordinated, and Iran was opening and closing, which was a headache for the Bolshevik leadership. In order to stop this wild horse that was rushing forward, Zhukov had no choice but to transfer 200,000 troops from the Far East to encircle and intercept it, and Vasilevsky expressed his dissent, believing that this would weaken the defense capability of the Far East. However, Stalin believed that the attention of the Japanese army was now in India, and he could rest assured that he would not attack the Soviets in the short term.

In fact, the Kwantung Army and the Far Eastern Army traded very frequently, and after the Soviet Army provided convenience to assist the Kwantung Army in "exterminating" the border resistance, Japan and the Soviet Union carried out a series of material transactions, and rice, wheat, flour, soybeans, and so on were continuously imported into the Far East, and the scale had reached hundreds of thousands of tons, while the Soviet Union sold gold, silver, jewelry, oil paintings, antiques, and precious furniture to the Kwantung Army, and also took some captured and temporarily unused German equipment. On the whole, RB made money, and the Soviet Union got life-saving materials, but these materials were only a drop in the bucket for the huge gap in the Soviet Union.

It took time for the troops mobilized from the Far East to be deployed to Central Asia, and the use of many mechanized troops was severely limited due to fuel shortages, and it took nearly three weeks from Zhukov's order to the actual implementation of the troops. And these "elites" in the Far East do not seem to be able to block the German armored forces on the land of Central Asia. Rommel had rich combat experience in the deserts of North Africa, and with 50,000 to 80,000 troops, he was able to give full play to his advantages of coming and going like the wind and attacking power, and he let the Red Army commanders see a variety of dazzling tactics such as air-ground integration, airborne infiltration, armored assault, and division of troops and encirclement.

The continuous victories in the Central Asian theater also broke the "slander" that Rommel could only fight Britain and the United States, not the Soviet Union, believing that he was worthy of the rank of marshal on his shoulders, and the only thing he still needed to prove was the ability to lead a large corps, but based on the fragile supply system in this direction, maintaining 5-80,000 troops was the limit.

On the central battlefield, the German heavy forces that gathered the "refugees" began to launch a fierce attack, their offensive was only late but not absent, and during the period of collecting refugees, the front line also hoarded a lot of supplies and supplies, and in only 4 days, breakthroughs were made in various positions, advancing 80-150 kilometers respectively.

Although Molotov angrily said that the Germans did not abide by the agreement and undermined the tacit agreement of the peace talks, Ribbentrop told him with a hippie smile that at least the German side had "arranged" nearly 2 million Soviet refugees, and in any case, the Soviet Union had to release at least 20,000 prisoners of war to fulfill the agreement.

After a fierce debate, Stalin gave the order to "release the people", and from August 13, the Red Army released prisoners of war one after another, at first all of them were physically disabled or suffering from various diseases, coupled with the long-term lack of food and torture, many were sent back dying, and some died in confusion due to excessive excitement. However, most people have at least one life saved after being tortured.

The initial release was a mix of Italian and other prisoners of war, and by 16 August the last batches were almost all released, and according to them, there may have been between 40,000 and 50,000 Axis officers and soldiers in the camp. All the German soldiers who witnessed this scene gritted their teeth, although there was little such thing as revenge on Soviet prisoners of war, but many people made up their minds that in the future, they must not be prisoners of the Red Army, but must fight to the death!

The American ambassador to the Soviet Union questioned the Soviets about this, to which Molotov replied: "Quite simply, we lack enough food to feed these prisoners, and instead of starving them to death in vain and becoming evidence of our crimes, it is better to return them to the Germans, and by the way, to increase their burden." If your country is in the mood, can you increase the material assistance of the Red Cross? I can use it on German prisoners. ”

The Americans were squeezed so much that they couldn't speak.

In addition to the tacit agreement to release the prisoners of war, the Red Army began to choose to evacuate personnel from Leningrad, and the Germans rarely did not attack, allowing the Soviets to organize a retreat. Behind this was the decision of Stalin and the top level of the political bureau after thorough discussions, since the General Staff had repeatedly demanded that the forces in the Leningrad direction be reduced to the central theater of operations, then Leningrad could no longer be defended. Considering that the people of Leningrad were staunch supporters of the Bolsheviks, and that the city had an important position, and that the direct assignment of the city to the German side would have too bad an impact, the Soviet Union and Germany first reached a partial agreement on the question of the ownership of Leningrad on the premise that an overall peace agreement could not be reached:

The Red Army retreated and took the population away, but instead of giving up on its own initiative, it was left to the Germans to take it. The Soviet side said that it would not destroy the city facilities, but demanded that the direction of the central battlefield remain stable during the retreat, and the Berlin side agreed to this request after careful consideration, so it became a tacit understanding that the two sides tacitly agreed that the ceasefire was on August 30, and on August 31 the German army would attack and occupy Leningrad.

Although the loss of Leningrad looked much more ugly, Stalin's goal was at least achieved: he first stopped the German army for one month with 200 refugees, and then delayed it for almost a month with 20,000 Axis prisoners of war and an empty city of Leningrad, not only did he have enough troops to draw troops from the northern defense line into the central theater, but also postponed the German summer offensive until September. However, in the Central Asian theater, the two sides maintained a pattern of fierce exchanges of fire, ignoring all tacit understanding and peaceful battles with the outside world, so that the entire eastern front formed a strange logic of overall calm and local large-scale fighting.

Although militarily advantageous, the political score is significant: Leningrad is the center of the Soviet revolution and the second largest city, and the Russian Liberation Army led by Vlasov will proclaim the state of Leningrad and change the name of Leningrad back to St. Petersburg. Hoffman believed that once the news of the Bolsheviks losing Leningrad spread, the Russian Liberation Army would surely gain more supporters.

On August 15, the Axis flotilla, carrying out the "Pearl of Peace" plan, arrived on the island of Madagascar, where the fleet rested for five days. On the one hand, it is to transport all kinds of materials and equipment to the island, consolidate the island's defense, build it into a strong German fortress facing the Indian Ocean, and defend the Axis and the Azores in the west. On the other hand, it is to replenish the strength and vitality of the troops, and although the whole fleet has been sailing for nearly 25 days, it is still only half the way, and there is still another half of the way to the Falklands.

The Germans are not yet aware of the British and American coveting of the Azores in the "Overlord" plan, but the Azores fortification structure is still advancing, various underground fortifications have been built, and anti-aircraft towers that shine in the defense of the German homeland have also been built, relying on the double cover of anti-aircraft towers and fighter groups, the Azores has increasingly become a nightmare for heavy bombers.

Even so, out of the defensive motive against the night air raids of Britain and the United States, Penemünde's latest black technology, the HS117 butterfly surface-to-air rocket presided over by Dr. Wagner, officially introduced German equipment, and the Azores became the first place to be fortunate enough to equip it.

HS117 is not so much a missile, but more to an aircraft, and handed over to the RB ME-163 rocket interceptor has many similarities, the maximum range of 32,000 meters, the maximum height of 10,000 meters, the use of radio command, radar tracking guidance, in addition to the main engine also installed two solid-fuel booster rockets for the take-off stage, the speed is up to 1000 km / h, because the German large-caliber proximity fuze technology has begun to mature, HS-117 is installed with a super-large level of proximity fuze, A fairly primitive identification friend or foe system was also installed, which, thanks to the rocket's frantic heavy charge (100 kg), could emit more than 8,000 fragments when exploding, and heavy bombers within 150 meters of the surrounding area could not escape.

Due to the small number, the superiority of the HS-117 was not yet visible in the air defense during the day, but it was much better to use it in the dark than to chase it with night fighters, and the Germans built 16 such defensive positions in one go, and the data link was all under the unified radar command of the air defense tower. Each position can launch four rockets at the same time, just wait for the British and American planes that are not afraid of death to collide at night to make a big news. (To be continued.) )