Aiden was an outstanding politician and diplomat with a very high degree of political sensitivity, and from his observations in the past few days, he was able to accurately foresee that the decisive force in this war would be the Soviet Union. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

On this trip to Africa, Aiden inspected the British positions near the border between Libya and Egypt, which met the British Eighth Army (the original Nile Army). Commander Cunningham was arranging an offensive campaign codenamed "Crusader".

At the end of March this year, the Italo-German forces (2 tank divisions, 1 infantry division) began to attack the British Army Group "Nile" (2 weakened divisions and 1 brigade) in order to advance out of the border of Libya and Egypt and capture Selum. The German-Italian attack surprised the British high command, and within two weeks the British retreated to the Egyptian border, leaving behind a strong defender (nearly one and a half divisions) in Tubrug, which was besieged by the allied forces. Rommel Rommel, the commander of the "German African Army", had hoped to launch an attack on Cairo after receiving reinforcements, but he was not replenished because Germany was preparing to invade the Soviet Union. This saved the British Army Group "Nile" from complete defeat and prevented Britain from losing Egypt and the Suez Canal.

By mid-April, the North African front had stabilized near the borders of Libya and Egypt. In the summer and autumn of 1941, Army Group "Nile" (renamed the 8th Army in September 1941) received significant reinforcements, while the German-Italian army at that time was only slightly replenished due to the huge attrition of the fascist group on the Soviet-German battlefield.

The North African battlefield began with the offensive in Libya by two Italian field armies under the command of Marshal Balbo of Italy in September last year, and the fighting has not stopped intermittently, which is also the only large-scale exchange of fire between Britain and Germany and Italy on land after the British Expeditionary Force encountered "Waterloo" in France.

"Large-scale" is relative, compared with the Soviet-German battlefield on the Eastern Front, the North African war is like three children playing at home - if Rommel had not been unable to get enough reinforcements because of the Soviet-German war, the British would have been driven out of Alexandria long ago!

According to the intelligence obtained in Germany, Germany has lost more than 300,000 elite troops near Minsk alone in the past two months! If these forces had not been consumed in the war against the Soviet Union, but had appeared in Africa, the British Empire would have no place in North Africa in a month's time!

Germany now has a huge war machine that no other country in history has ever had, but it has an adversary – the polar bear standing in its way. Since diverting to Iran into the Caucasus, Aiden has seen a vast Soviet Russia of national mobilization: even many of the workers on the railroads are women, and apparently men of the right age have been drafted.

Aiden did not see any discouragement or demoralization on the faces of the Soviets, but in their faces the country's conviction and self-confidence in winning the war, and the deep repressed desolation peculiar to the Soviets - a faint desolation, perhaps the greatest capital of the nation, and the most terrible thing for its enemies: it and its people could bear any hardships and difficulties, nothing could crush their belief in victory over the enemy, that is, they would give everything!

Aiden's briefcase contained a small map of the world, and he even had a hint of fear at the sight of the vast area of Eurasia covered under the "scythe hammer". The journey from the Caucasus to Moscow already exhausted him, "what would it be like to travel by train from Brest to the Soviet Far East, or by land to the Bering Strait?" ”

Aiden's idea was tempting, but it also made him feel the difficulties ahead—how many resources did such a vast land have? The potential of this country is endless!

In the midst of a tossed mind, Aiden finally fell asleep.

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Waking up in a daze, it was already dawn, Aiden Liso got up, freshened up, and left the box, where he met the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense, General Ismay, in the aisle.

Ismay also apparently didn't sleep well last night, as you can tell from her face.

"We have arrived in Voskleshensk, less than forty miles away, and it seems that the Russians do not want us to get to Moscow quickly."

The first meeting was to take place this afternoon, and Imes had to complain, as it seemed to him that the Soviet Union did not want the British delegation to participate in the talks in high spirits.

Aiden didn't think about it with a military mentality, because he had been to the Soviet Union and knew that the conditions of the train were still very good for long-distance travel in the Soviet Union in the winter, and the Soviets should have arranged it this way out of good intentions.

The food truck has been opened, and the two of them are going together.

For breakfast, Aiden had nothing to complain about, the condition was ok, at least there were fresh beef *** eggs and white bread on the menu. He had gone to see the food for the train crew, and the standard wartime rations were about the same as in the most difficult times for the British: the Soviets were still very polite to their delegation.

Breakfast time is usually a time for small talk in the British, and when coffee is served, the topic of Aiden and Ismay naturally goes to the afternoon meeting.

"It is very likely that the Soviet Union will officially make a proposal to open a second theater of war, which gives me some headaches." Ismay was blunt: the second battlefield, a North Africa, had already made Britain exert all its strength, and there was no strength to open a second battlefield in France as the Soviet Union had hoped.

"Opening up a second battlefield is a must, it's only a matter of time. If the Soviet Union had reversed the situation, the future situation in Europe would have been very bad. ”

This would have caused the Soviet Union to take Britain seriously, and the United States on the other side of the Atlantic, which was barely one of the Big Three, and if the Soviet Union had swept across Europe alone, the British Empire would have been reduced to a second France.

This would be an extremely embarrassing position for France, and the Vichy regime would not say anything, puppet; The French exiles in England were not yet in the climate. Britain had tried the question of the position of France in the Soviet Union after the war, and the attitude of the Soviet Union was vague, but it could detect Stalin's attitude towards France: until it became an independent and powerful country again, the Gauls were nothing!

If the timing is not right, France will not be a capitalist power capable of speaking on the continent in the future, and there will not necessarily be a major change in color.

Ten years ago, Stalin's attitude was relatively moderate, at least with a certain degree of friendship with the Western world, but in recent years he has become more and more aggressive. Another reason is the rapid rise of the Soviet Union's national strength and military strength -- the Soviet Union's attitude is getting tougher and tougher, although this will become a little more polite because of the needs of the war.

Eden thought again of the enigmatic man, who, from various intelligence and information analyses, had a great deal to do with the change in attitude of Stalin and the Soviet leadership—a young man who seemed to be hostile to anything non-communist, and in which the Soviet Union had never lost in all the major military operations in which he had participated in decision-making. Victory, so that the self-confidence of the USSR began to swell, the threat to the Western world will grow more and more!

In the Soviet Union, that man was second only to Stalin in power, and in the military field, the marshal generals, with whom he became an interest group, occupied half of the country. Power is easy to get lost, but from any point of view, that person did not have the slightest idea or move to replace Stalin, and this is what worries Aiden the most - he knows what to do and what not to touch! This is a person in power who does not lose his way because of power - "If his eyes are not inside, his eyes will only be on the whole Western world!" ”

Pure communist fighters, this is the word that Soviet Russia likes to use, and such people will be the most dangerous for Britain in the future.

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On the morning of November 11, Lieutenant General Mikhail Grigorievich Yevremov arrived in the town of Ostrohitsky, where his new army headquarters was located, and most of the 33rd Army had already arrived in the area where the attack was planned.

Someone in the town was welcoming Comrade Lieutenant General, and the headquarters of the 11th Army, which had been directing operations here for two months, was about to move out. The 11th Army consumed more than two-thirds, but the commander, in accordance with the orders of the Front Army, transferred more than 70 tanks of various types and supporting troops, a total of 1,800 people, to the 33rd Army, because the tank assault capability of the "Militia Army" was insufficient.

The 11th Army was in dire need of a rest, and as soon as the campaign was over, it would be moved to the rear, and part of the rear positions had now been handed over to the 33rd Army.

In the cold wind, Yefremov saw Lieutenant General Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, who had come to greet him.

Salute each other, introduce their subordinates, and enter the headquarters - the office of the town party committee. According to the situation at the front, Malinovsky will not be able to compare with Yevremov's deep pockets, and his hands are very tight: "One tank regiment, 20 Stalin-type, 32 T34s, the rest are fast tanks." There is also a batch of attached anti-tank guns, and 1800 people will be yours. ”

"Comrade Malinovsky, our 33rd Army is here to pick up ready-made, I hope there will be no opinions."

Malinovsky and his subordinates did not find Yefremov's joke funny, but they did not blush - even if they gave the 11th Army the burden of the counteroffensive, they would not be able to complete it.

Some regiments had only two or three hundred men left, some had simply been exhausted, and during this time the 11th Army had relied on stubborn perseverance to hold out, and only an empty shell remained. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )