Just as the incomparably powerful Luftwaffe was ravaging the capital area of Russia, in the southern border area a thousand kilometers away, more than 60 Russian divisions were hiding behind their Sokolov Line and waiting for the Germans to attack in a big way, but in the whole afternoon after Germany declared war on Russia, the German artillery did not roar, the German war eagles did not attack, and the atmosphere was so strange that people broke out in a cold sweat.

As the chief designer of this famous line of defense, the Russian Field Marshal Vahily. This time, Sokolov personally sat in Kiev and commanded all the troops on the southern front, and these forces were organized into three army groups, namely the 4th Army stationed in Latvia, the 5th Army stationed in Belarus, and the 6th Army stationed in Ukraine, all of which were under the command of Army Group South. This group of armies is home to more than half of Russia's standing army, and its units are not only the most well-equipped in the Russian army, but also the first new army division-level units to be formed after the Empress reformed the army. These new army divisions are divided into infantry divisions, cavalry divisions and armored divisions, of which the size of the army division has been reduced from 210,000 in the era of Nicholas II to 180,000 close to the German army, but the number of artillery, especially heavy artillery, has increased, and the number of machine guns in each infantry battalion has increased from 12 to 812. In addition, a large number of young officers who graduated from regular military academies were promoted, and those who were appointed officers by hereditary titles and sycophants were all cleared out of the army, and such drastic reforms inevitably violated the interests of many old nobles, and Empress Diana I did not hesitate to be called "iron-blooded" and "cold-blooded" to persist in the reform of the army, and the Russian army has been completely new to a large extent for more than ten years.

At present, the cavalry divisions of the Russian army are still dominated by Cossack cavalry, with a total of 4,000 men per cavalry division, but after the fiasco in the European War in 1914, the purpose of these cavalry divisions is no longer a large-scale frontal impact, but to attack and harass the enemy's logistics and transportation, encircle and annihilate the enemy's small forces, and cooperate with their own infantry operations, each division is equipped with 20 light artillery, 36 wheeled heavy machine guns and portable light machine guns.

Back in early 1915. Before the Empress ascended the throne, Russia obtained a total of more than 50 tanks and more than 120 armored vehicles from Germany, organized into three independent armored battalions, these German equipment played a role in the battle to encircle and suppress the Russian revolutionary armed forces, but it was too backward after entering the 20s. Therefore, with the personal intervention of Diana I, the Russian Army allocated a special fund for the imitation and development of tank armored vehicles. It has successively produced 10 tons of D-1 light tanks, 13 tons of D-2 assault tanks, with the deterioration of German-American relations, Russia also obtained nearly 150 American-made light tanks from the Americans, to the German-Russian War, the Russian Army armored forces already have more than 400 tanks, nearly 1,000 armored vehicles, organized into 4 ordinary armored divisions and 1 guards armored division, at this time the two ordinary armored divisions of Army Group South are deployed near Kiev.

The reform has rejuvenated the Russian ** team in the twilight of its years, which can be roughly seen from the Russian army's previous suppression of revolutionary uprisings, but some bad habits of the old Tsarist Russian army have not been eradicated, such as officers can arbitrarily punish soldiers. There is a huge disparity in the remuneration of officers and men. The relationship between officers and men is very tense, the intensity of training, especially live-fire training, is still very limited by funding, and the phenomenon of kickbacks in logistics departments still exists. The level of equipment is far behind that of the German Army, which invests huge sums of money every year, and some tactical ideas are still stuck in the late 10s and early 20s.

The calm of the German-Russian border area not only puzzled the officers and soldiers of the Russian front, but also Marshal Sokolov, who was in charge of the overall situation in Kiev, was also confused, but fortunately, in an afternoon, the last of his troops who had not had time to arrive at the defensive line were able to enter the so-called "large Hadrian's Wall" before the battle began. Most of the Russian spies in Bohemia and elsewhere have been heard from, and the few reports that have come back are of little value—a large number of German troops are moving, but their numbers, equipment, and destinations are ominous.

That's it. The eerie atmosphere lasted until nightfall, in the Sokolov Line, which was stocked with a lot of food and ammunition, the Russian soldiers had dinner early, and the Russian officers and soldiers were still relatively nervous in the face of the Germans who were equally terrible in numbers and combat effectiveness, but after dark, chatting, bragging, and playing cards replaced the complete gun-wielding alertness during the day, and it was believed that this strong defensive line could at least slow down their advance and make them pay a certain price, if not to stop the Germans. The Russian Army was then able to use the tactics of General Kutuzov in 1812. Lure the enemy deep step by step, and eventually drag the enemy down.

In the headquarters of Army Group South in Kiev, Marshal Sokolov and his generals were worried about the situation in the capital district, according to a telegram from St. Petersburg, the Luftwaffe carried out a second large-scale air raid before dusk, although the Russian air defense forces once again achieved some success, but their own losses in personnel, materials, and especially morale were difficult to make up for in a short time. However, there was no way, Finland was so close to Russia that if the inhabitants of the capital area were evacuated before the war, it would not only cause panic and chaos, but also the losses caused by the evacuation and the impact on the prestige of the Empress government, which would even allow Germany to win before the war.

"The southern front is safe and sound, and I implore Her Majesty the Empress to consider moving the capital to avoid the German front!"

In the telegram sent to St. Petersburg, Sokolov wrote only one short sentence, and he felt fortunate that although the Winter Palace was bombed into ruins, the Empress, who had entered the anti-aircraft shelter in advance to take refuge, was unharmed by the bombing, so that the war could continue.

On the other side of the border, the Germans did not want the Empress of Russia to die so quickly, otherwise Germany would lose a large part of its reasons to continue the war. After nightfall, the seven armies of the German mainland plus the four African armies organized by the African colonial army, one Polish army, one Bohemian army, one Hungarian army, and one Romanian army group basically completed the scheduled deployment, more than 500 train guns of more than 280 mm have arrived at the firing position less than 5 kilometers away from the border, and its more than 4.04 million guns of various types have also made all preparations before firing, and all the ammunition that can supply these cannons to fire continuously for one night has arrived.

At 10 o'clock that night, the 8 "Big Berta" kicked off the German ground offensive with an earth-shattering roar.

On this night of cannon fire, even the German officers and soldiers who did not have a vigilance duty did not feel the slightest sleep, and they came out of the barracks or bunkers to watch the flower display like a grand festival celebration. The night sky of the German-Russian border was lit up by the fire of the cannon and the explosion of the shells. Since the end of the German-American War in 1924, no area has been covered by such a density of firepower, and the calibre, number and duration of artillery here are unmatched by any other battle in the German-American War!

The brilliant meteor shower made the German officers and soldiers fascinated, while everyone in the Russian defense line was enduring the most painful torment in the world, the sudden fierce artillery fire broke the eardrums of many people, and the continuous violent oscillation made people soon have symptoms of vertigo, and everyone in the bunker covered their ears and grew their mouths. Despite minimizing sonic and vibrational damage, even a minute of additional time spent in this environment. People are one step closer to collapse.

The artillery on the German artillery positions took turns firing, destroying the will of the opposing officers and soldiers all night, and more than 200,000 shells fell on Russian soil every hour, and tens of thousands of tons of high explosives made every inch of land there a veritable scorched earth!

At dawn, the German ground offensive began, and under the cover of a large number of fighters, dive bombers, and horizontal bombers, thousands of tanks and armored vehicles ran over the long border between the two countries, on the wide Bug River. The German engineering troops, which had been preparing for a long time, erected more than 100 pontoon bridges within an hour. By 9 a.m., hundreds of thousands of coalition troops had set foot on Russian soil, and the coalition vanguard soon advanced less than 5 kilometers from the Sokolov Line.

Although the German artillery bombardment the night before was mainly aimed at the Russian border defense offensive, the Sokolov Line was so strong that it was difficult for artillery with a caliber of less than 152 mm to gnaw on. But after a night of horror. The confidence of the Russian officers and men guarding this defensive line has been greatly diminished. Many officers have begun to hope for an early withdrawal to the Russian hinterland, so that the German firepower will not be as dense at least as it is now!

At this time, don't talk about these little soldiers at the front. Even their commander-in-chief, Sokolov, was pessimistic about holding the line that bears his name - although the border defense offensive at 1,530 kilometers in front of the Sokolov line was not so strong, as the first line of defense against the enemy's attack, it should not have completely fallen in half a morning!

Just when the Russians were already preparing for a retreat, both mentally and materially, the development of the war situation had greatly changed their perceptions. From the afternoon of June 5, German artillery began to bombard each other frontally, relying on reinforced concrete fortifications and field defense lines. The Russian line consisted of a raised steel turret (the Belgians had equipped their Sun Fortress before World War I), machine-gun forts, bunkers, minefields, anti-tank trenches, and covered by rivers, forests, and hills. This time, the shelling lasted longer, with the artillery groups taking turns firing more than 2 million shells at the Sokolov line by dawn the next day. Due to the huge cost of money, this line of defense is not a comprehensive defensive approach. Rather, it is a "hedgehog" structure - similar to point-and-line defense, that is, points called "hedgehogs" are set up on the defense line, and each "hedgehog" has a strong defense capability. And behind each "hedgehog" there is a flexible and mobile reserve to deal with enemy infiltration, and these reserves are usually played by armored units, anti-tank artillery units and cavalry.

On 6 June, Russia's capital region was still under tremendous air raid pressure, and most of the urban area of St. Petersburg was leveled by the Germans' high-explosive aerial bombs. Although the empress did not announce that she would move the government to the safer east, her temporary residence was moved to remote suburbs, and most government officials began to move to Moscow.

As soon as the sun rose, 12 Polish divisions, 5 African colonial divisions, 3 native German divisions, 3 Hungarian divisions, and 2 Romanian divisions launched the first ground attack on the Sokolov Line since the outbreak of the war. Most of the troops advanced 34 kilometers into the depth of the Russian army as scheduled, especially the Polish 2nd Panzer Division, which was part of the German-Polish cluster, and within 4 hours, it broke through five field fortifications of the Russian army in a row and approached the Ukrainian town of Koveli.

Sokolov, who was sitting in Kyiv, was not an ordinary person, he quickly stared at this adventurous light armored force, so he successively dispatched troops, first with 3 tank battalions, 3 anti-tank gun battalions and more than 20,000 infantry to plug the gap in the defensive line, and then mobilized more than 300 artillery pieces to besiege the Poles who were blocked to retreat, 1 independent tank brigade and 2 cavalry divisions immediately attacked the opponent in an interspersed combat way, by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Polish 2nd light armored division had lost more than 1/3 of its troops and equipment, A beautiful siege and annihilation battle is about to be completed. It was at this time that the Luftwaffe intervened, and with the fire support of a whole mixed wing, the Poles were able to retreat from a gap in the Russian line in disarray, but still more than 2,000 soldiers and a large amount of equipment became the first trophies of the Russian army.

In the rest of the Sokolov Line, the same situation also appeared in the same afternoon, the German army's originally fierce offensive was actually contained by the fierce counterattack of the Russian army, after an afternoon of fighting and a night attack in the first half of the night, the Russian army actually recaptured all the positions lost during the day, and the morale of the Russian Army Group South from top to bottom was greatly shaken. On the other hand, on the side of the coalition forces, the loss of nearly 30,000 troops, not to mention, the first offensive since the beginning of the war failed in this way, and the non-German remnants were disabled, and they quickly retreated to the rear, and after a long period of rest and replenishment, they regained their combat effectiveness.

The news soon reached St. Petersburg, and the Empress was overjoyed, ordering that Sokolov and other meritorious generals be commended, and that Army Group South should be encouraged to make persistent efforts to keep the enemy out of the country.

Over the next week, the German-led coalition launched three more unsuccessful attacks, and the invincible Germany seemed to be blocked by a shallow Russian version of Hadrian's Wall. On the other hand, the Russian high command finally made a decision to increase troops on the southern front, and more than 30 infantry divisions rushed to the Sokolov line by rail, and the Russian officers and soldiers with high morale actively repaired and strengthened this "impregnable" defense line despite the German air raids, until the German army suddenly began large-scale air raids on railway junctions, stations, highways and other transportation facilities in Belarus and Ukraine.