Zhukov, chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, took the lead in single-handedly planning the "Mars Operation" operational plan with the theme of preemptive strike, which has lasted for nearly half a month since its beginning.

This battle plan reflects Zhukov's typical style, in which the Soviets tried to launch a multi-front attack on the German eastern ramparts in the northern, central, and southern directions with 19 armies in the north, center, and south, with the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai, and the main direction of attack was located in the front of the southern German provinces in the area where Hungary was formerly located.

According to Zhukov's plan, the main force of the four Soviet armies was supposed to cut through the German defense line from here, encircle and annihilate the 300,000 SS troops stationed in this area according to Soviet intelligence, and then move north, together with the other 15 armies, to launch a pincer offensive into the hinterland of Warsaw, and then encircle and annihilate the heavy troops stationed by the German army in western Poland.

It's a pity that Zhukov's campaign deployment obviously underestimated the tenacity of the German defense and the ability to counterattack.

The German army on the Eastern Front in 1941 was among the top in the world in terms of fighting will and combat quality.

Moreover, after Germany annexed Hungary, it operated in this southern province for nearly 20 years, and knew this battlefield well.

The strategically retreating SS troops, relying on the in-depth defense that had been built up long ago in the Carpathian terrain, built the towns and villages into fortress strongholds to support the defensive line, and accurately deployed cross-fire nets to kill and break through the Soviet assault troops.

In addition, the German army also had a strong strategic reserve on the Eastern Front, and after the outbreak of the battle, it continued to reinforce the major battlefields, especially Moder, which focused on the southern provinces.

Just sent to Moder, in half a month, three armored divisions and one motorized infantry division of supplementary forces arrived. These SS units were basically drawn from the SS sequence on the Western Front to the Eastern Front.

Due to the smooth operation of the British campaign, the Wehrmacht and SS Strategic Reserve of the Western Front, a total of 27 divisions, were basically all arranged to fight on the Eastern Front in turn.

Moreover, even the Allied forces that were still fighting on British soil were arranged to leave all the French and Norwegian troops behind a month later, and assist part of the German army, that is, 1 task force armored division and 3 infantry divisions, to continue to exterminate the remnants of the British resistance.

The 7 German infantry divisions and 3 paratrooper divisions that were vacated will be gradually transferred back to the German mainland for repair and replenishment according to the situation after basically all the strategic reserves on the Western Front are transferred to the Eastern Front, and they will be used as the Reich's local strategic reserves, ready to be put into any battlefield at any time.

Now, on the entire Soviet-German battlefield, the Soviet army seems to have made some progress ranging from 10 to 25 kilometers in the north, center, and south, but it has also shown fatigue due to the stubborn defense of the German army in depth, and has to switch from offensive to defensive.

In the north, the combat units of the 24 divisions of the Soviet army suffered heavy losses in the assault on the German defense line and completely lost their offensive capability. The people of the three Baltic countries, because they had long been strongly dissatisfied with the Soviet occupation and rule, immediately launched an insurrection against the Soviet government in the rear after receiving the joint news secretly transmitted by Germany, disturbing the rear of the Soviet army in the north.

Subsequently, the Soviets turned to suppress the rebellion in the three Baltic states, although the suppression effect was remarkable, but it had to further weaken the offensive against the German northern defense line, so that in the end it gradually stopped the offensive and was unable to launch a new offensive.

In the middle, Zhukov's deployment was a key foreshadowing, which was originally intended to echo the offensive in the south, and finally turned into a pincer offensive. However, because the Germans had built a zigzag defensive position in advance, they effectively killed and wounded a large number of Soviet soldiers, and the German veteran Rundstead stationed in the middle also seized the opportunity to cooperate with the armored cluster commanded by General Bock to counterattack many times.

The two famous German generals used the zigzag-shaped occlusal offensive and defensive positions to repeatedly encircle and suppress the Soviet troops that broke into the inside of the two or two saws, and immediately retreated to the rear of the positions after completely destroying the enemy troops, and repeatedly succeeded.

In the past half a month, 30 divisions of the Soviet army in the center have been annihilated in the zigzag positions of the German army, and another 70 divisions have lost more than 50% of their personnel.

As for the southern theater of operations, which Zhukov valued most and was regarded by the Soviet army as the key to the campaign, there was nothing to praise except for the large area that the German SS voluntarily retreated at the beginning.

In the south, the Soviets simultaneously used the Kiev Special Military District (i.e., the South-Western Front) and the Odessa Military District (Southern Front), a full number of troops.

Among them, the Southwestern Front was also known as the strongest military region in the Soviet Union, and all units of this military district had a clear numerical superiority over German units of the same unit in terms of strength and equipment in each of the same units because of its super-saturated large number of units. However, due to the fact that the quality of the German army was far above that of the Soviet Red Army at this time, this advantage brought by relying on a large establishment was not so obvious.

Of course, General Pavlov, commander-in-chief of the Western Front within the Soviet Army, actually disagreed with the fact that the Southwestern Front was the strongest military district unit in the entire Soviet Union.

Perhaps it was because of the bitterness that arose between Zhukov and Pavlov during that exercise, or perhaps because Stalin wanted to retain the strategic reserves, which had always been strong.

Therefore, the entire Soviet Western Front, basically all the troops that could be used were put into this wave of offensives, except for Pavlov's Western Front, which was retained as a strategic reserve, and Stalin directly decided when and where to use it.

In this way, it is actually good for Zhukov and Pavlov, two sworn enemies. At least, Zhukov did not need to deploy Pavlov's troops, who did not agree with him, and Pavlov did not need to accept Zhukov's fingers.

Although Zhukov was temporarily promoted by Stalin to deputy commander-in-chief of the Soviet army because of this large-scale campaign (the commander-in-chief was left to Stalin himself), Pavlov has always been blushing at Zhukov's position.

Pavlov wanted to drag Zhukov from the post of deputy commander-in-chief!

In the Soviet military, this is no longer a secret.

"While we are stagnant at the front, Pavlov is carrying out a military parade in the rear!"

In Zhukov's general headquarters, the deputy commander-in-chief was already completely outraged by the petty actions of Pavlov's colleague.

"What does he want to do? Show off your might when I'm embarrassed! Zhukov scolded in annoyance.

Zhukov was not an easy person to throw in the towel. In the face of bad news from all fronts, he was still prepared with great willpower to merge all the reserves in his hands into the attacking force.

However, at the moment of the great enemy, Pavlov's small actions in the rear really disgusted Zhukov, who wanted to devote himself to the war.