Two years passed quickly, and by the beginning of 1943, the entire shijie pattern had changed dramatically.

In the dark of the European theater, the German army launched the Second Battle of Stalingrad in order to cut off the Soviet Union's Caucasus oil supply and grain-producing areas. It was the bloodiest Armageddon. The Soviet army participated in the war with more than 1.1 million troops, including 15,501 artillery pieces, 1,863 tanks, and 1,115 aircraft. The total strength of the German army reached 1 million men, and the armament included 10,290 artillery pieces, 1,675 tanks, and 1,216 aircraft.

The final result was that the Soviet army successfully dragged the German army with Stalingrad, providing the Soviet army with valuable strategic time to counter-encircle the German army, and finally annihilated the German Sixth Army Group, causing its casualties as high as 330,000, and the Soviet army itself was not happy, paying 710,000 dead and wounded, and more than 100,000 civilians died.

However, the Soviet Union seized the initiative in the war from then on, because the German army was wiped out by the whole system, and it was difficult for new recruits to improve their combat effectiveness. The Soviet army was crippled at the beginning, and the remnants of the veterans and recruits quickly formed combat effectiveness.

In the following two years, the Germans struggled to launch a strategic offensive and were fully on the defensive, while the Soviets gradually launched counteroffensives, constantly regaining lost ground and pushing the battlefield to the German border.

On the other hand, in the Atlantic, the German High Seas Fleet was formed, and the German Navy built a maritime liliang with the third largest scale in the world at the fastest speed, thanks to the shipyards and shipbuilding equipment of the European countries occupied by Germany, especially the major British shipyards under German control, after obtaining steel and shipbuilding equipment imported from the Tang Empire. The German army quickly restored the shipbuilding capacity of the major British shipyards, and worked overtime to complete the construction of hundreds of warships, which became the key to the resurrection of the German high seas fleet.

The huge German High Seas Fleet at this time had 8 large aircraft carriers of the Zeppelin-class, 8 Bismarck-class battleships, 12 P-class pocket battleships, and 4 O-class battlecruisers. In addition, there are 5 heavy cruisers, 44 light cruisers of various types, 168 destroyers of various types, 90 torpedo boats of various types, and 249 submarines of various types, with a total tonnage of more than 2.3 million tons.

Since the United States declared war on Germany, the US military has been fighting in Africa. Because it is difficult for the US military to find a suitable forward base in Europe, and then use it as a springboard to attack the European continent. The Tang Empire has been dragging its feet, and it was agreed in principle that the US military would borrow the island of Ireland, which was actually controlled by the Tang Empire, as a base for landing in the UK. However, the German army deployed a large number of operations in Britain, and once the Tang Army agreed to the demands of the United States, the German army would inevitably attack the island of Ireland immediately, and the construction of various military bases of the Tang Empire on the island of Ireland would also take time to complete. It will not be agreed to be used by the US military until then.

So. Although the United States has gathered millions of American troops, it has no foothold in Europe, so it has not been able to launch a counteroffensive in Europe, but chooses to settle in Africa first, transfer one million American troops with the help of British and French colonies in Africa, and then fight with the German and Italian armies on the African continent.

Due to the defeat of the German army on the battlefield of the Soviet Union, Hitler had to withdraw the elite of the German army in Africa to the home to defend the Soviet army, so that he could do so. On the African continent, the Italian army became the main force. Although the Italian army was also equipped with the advanced weapons of the Tang Empire, such as the M1 submachine gun, a powerful individual firepower weapon, the Italian army was invincible in the first few years of the war.

But when the U.S. troops landed in Africa, the U.S. military also spent money to obtain the right to produce and use the M1 submachine gun from the Tang Empire, and the Italian army's individual firepower advantage was gone, in turn, the number of U.S. troops was huge, as high as one million, and the Italian army was only 500,000 people, and the strength was weak.

The most critical is the armored forces, the Italian army is only equipped with less than 700 K tanks, which is the foreign trade model of the Tang Army's King Tiger tank, which is more than enough to deal with the tanks of the previous British and French armies, but the performance of the M6 tanks of the US army is not bad, and the most critical thing is that the US army has sent more than 3,000 M6 tanks to Africa.

As a result, a major war broke out between the American and Italian armies in Ethiopia, and the Italian army could still confront the US army for a few rounds in the early stage, but in the later stage, it was weak and messy, and the US army ran around like a rabbit. If the Germans had not sent the famous general Rommel to Africa to help, the Italian army would have been completely crushed.

However, although Rommel was powerful and made the American army suffer a lot, it was a pity that the German army was getting smaller and smaller in Africa, and the Italian army was low, so the American army and its Anglo-French forces quickly seized the initiative and forced the German and Italian troops to retreat to Egypt and besiege them.

The American, British, and French armies pursued and fought fiercely, forcing 200,000 German-Italian troops into desperation, and finally withdrew to the Suez Canal, where they were disarmed by 5,000 Tang troops. In the name of neutrality, the Tang Empire prevented the American, British and French armies from strangling the German-Italian forces, and the American, British and French sides did not dare to cross the Suez Canal Protected Area demarcated by the Tang Army.

British, French, and American million-dollar troops were eyeing the vicinity, and the Tang army had only 5,000 men stationed in the Suez Luck Zone, but they were not afraid.

On the other hand, the US envoy and officials of the Tang Empire were negotiating that the United States would not release the 200,000 German-Italian troops to Europe after the Tang Empire disarmed them, and in return, the US military was willing to pay for all the costs of managing the 200,000 German-Italian prisoners of war.

The Tang Empire was already not optimistic about Germany and Italy, so it would not offend the United States at this time, so it agreed to the United States' request and rejected Hitler's request to extradite the 200,000 German and Italian troops back to Europe.

However, the Tang Empire still put Rommel and some senior German generals back, because even if it is not optimistic about Germany, it is not the time to offend Germany, and the Tang Empire is still selling various strategic materials to Germany and Italy to make war money.

As the U.S. Army cleared the German and Italian forces in Africa, facing the Mediterranean, the U.S. Army began to counterattack the European continent.

At this time, the U.S. Navy has sailed to the Mediterranean, as the world's second largest naval power, the U.S. Navy has 16 Essex-class heavy fleet carriers, 9 Independence-class light fleet carriers, 78 escort carriers, 8 Iowa super battleships, 17 battleships, 28 heavy cruisers, 29 light cruisers, 465 destroyers, 206 submarines, 18 large aircraft carriers under construction, 8 Montana super battleships, and a large number of light cruisers and destroyers. The total tonnage is more than 4 million tons, surpassing Germany and ranking second in Shijie, and more than 2 million tons less than the total tonnage of the Tang Imperial Navy, a huge gap.

However, the U.S. Navy is very cautious and has not fought a decisive battle with the German Navy, and at the same time, half of the main warships of the U.S. Navy remain in the Pacific Ocean to guard against the Tang Empire, and some remain in the Atlantic, so the strength of the U.S. fleet that really enters the waters near Europe is not strong. (To be continued......)