Just as Army Group Center under the command of Marshal Bock was encircling the main forces of the Soviet Army again and again in Belarus, attacking cities and plundering land, Army Group South under the command of Marshal Rundstedt was also sweeping the vast and rich Ukrainian region.

Like Bock, Rundstead was a famous German general who had been entrusted with the important task of commander of an army group since the Polish campaign.

Among the commanders of the three major army groups in the north, south, and center of this battle, except for Lebu, Bock and Rundstead are all proven veterans.

The main goal of Rundsteadt's battle is to take Kiev, the capital of Ukraine and the historic city known as the "Mother of Russian Cities".

This can't help but remind people of Napoleon, the famous person of the last crusade.

He once said: "To occupy Kyiv is to seize Russia's feet." It can be seen from this that Kiev is of great strategic importance in the Soviet Union. It can be said that Kiev is the third largest city in the Soviet Union after Moscow and Leningrad, and is an important political, scientific, industrial, and cultural center.

Located at the confluence of the Dnieper and Desna rivers, Kiev is well connected by land, water and air, and is not only a transportation hub in the southwestern part of the Soviet Union, but also a necessary route for Germany to seize the Donets industrial region and the Caucasus oil fields.

And Manstein, who advocated the massive destruction of the Soviet Union's vital forces, proposed to use the Battle of Kiev to eliminate the Soviet Southwestern Front entrenched in Ukraine, and then launch an attack on Moscow.

Speaking of which, there is an interesting thing that is very interesting to Reinhardt.

Reinhardt, as a traverser, once studied Manstein's memoirs, and found that Manstein's memoirs were initially biased towards the strategy of the Army General Headquarters, that is, to go straight to Moscow.

For this reason, Manstein specially blamed this mistake on the previous mustachioed Führer in his memoirs, listing a whole bunch of faults of the mustache. It was only later in the war that Manstein turned to a strategy of elastic defense that would massively annihilate the living forces of the Soviet army.

However, in this life, Manstein advocated the elimination of the living forces of the Soviet army.

The difference between this is probably that Manstein served in the 56th Panzer Army of Army Group North at the beginning of his previous life, while in this life, the 56th Panzer Army was commanded by Lieutenant General von Wozandtet, and Manstein was given the command of the super-large 11th Army from the beginning.

The 1st Army Group belonged to Army Group South, so Manstein's proposal in this life was naturally biased towards the strategy proposed by Army Group South Command.

Perhaps this is one of Manstein's special personalities, or rather distinctive, personalities.

For his unit, Manstein will be extremely attentive and fight for all the benefits.

Originally, in time and space, Manstein was accused by the headquarters of Army Group Central of ignoring the overall situation and only valuing the interests of Army Group South because he always fought for supplies and equipment for his army group.

So in this life, Manstein's views were considered with Army Group South Command, and Reinhardt was not surprised.

In Army Group South, with the 1st Panzer Army under the command of Lieutenant General Kleist as the vanguard, and the 20 divisions of the 6th Army under the command of General Paulus as the main attack, with the air cooperation of the 4th Air Force, General Leer, attacked the city all the way, and in mid-July it had actually reached the right bank of the Dnieper River and Kiev.

At the same time, Army Group Center was attacking Ksmolensk precisely because of it, and Bok's army had advanced to the north of Kiev.

On the map, this presents a brilliant situation, with the armored units of Army Group South Kleist and Army Group Center advancing like two arrows on the north and south flanks of Kiev.

If Army Group Center separates a powerful armored unit and motorized motorized infantry and cooperates with Army Group South to attack Kiev along the right bank of the Dnieper River, an incomparably huge encirclement will be formed, which will not only encircle Kyiv, but also subjugate the entire southwestern front of the Soviet Union.

Although at the southernmost end of Army Group South's front, Manstein, who had been keeping a close eye on the battle situation, certainly saw this golden opportunity.

Because Reinhardt intended to train Manstein as the future "Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front", he also deliberately provided him with an overall situation report.

Historically, Manstein was also a man who paid attention to and influenced the big picture. In the French campaign, as a military commander, he influenced the entire Western Front combat plan and put forward the famous Manstein Plan.

In this life, as the commander of the army group, and the commander of the "small army group" of the 11th Army, Manstein was more enthusiastic and made suggestions on the overall situation.

He directly sent a telegram to the headquarters of Army Group Group of the old superior Rundsteide and the headquarters of the Führer: "If the mobile forces of Army Group Center and Army Group South can be formed in Kiev, it will be the largest battle of annihilation in history on an unprecedented scale." If it can eat the Southwestern Front, which is now the most powerful force of the Soviet Union, it may become a fatal blow to the Soviet Union. ”

Manstein's point is well understood - if the entire Southwestern Front of the USSR could be annihilated, why let him slip out of the mouth?

Unfortunately, this plan had to borrow the German mobile units of Army Group Center, and I am afraid that there would be great resistance.

First of all, the chief of the army staff, Boulshich, may not be able to pass this pass, not to mention that Bock and Guderian are also strongly advocating the attack on Moscow.

Manstein, on the other hand, learned that the Führer had found a compromise for him after receiving a coordinated arrangement from Reinhardt from the High Command.

Army Group Center separated the Spanish and Italian mobile forces to complete Army Group South's strategy of encirclement and annihilation of Kiev. The German units of Army Group Center, on the other hand, could operate on their own according to the strategy of their own Army Group.

To be supported by 1 Spanish German armored division, 2 Italian semi-motorized divisions, 1 Italian fast division, and 3 main Italian Blackshirts with extremely strong mobility and equipped with a large number of L3 light tanks and transport vehicles is equivalent to getting about 10 division-sized mobile troops.

In addition, Army Group Center also promised to use all the 154 planes of various types sent by Italian Prime Minister Rossi to support the Italian troops moving south, and to allocate the air force of Army Group Center for the siege and annihilation of Kiev.

With troops of this size, a large encirclement of Kyiv is enough to succeed!