An order from Moscow in the first week of July led to a strategic retreat of the Red Army in the immediate vicinity of the entire border area - in the second two weeks of June, the "Northern Retreat" plan, coordinated by Voroshinov, had the desired effect, and the 500,000 Finnish troops were turned off after the Red Army had retreated to the vicinity of the border 39 years earlier. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Finns then made only tentative attacks on the Arctic Ocean outlets, and in order to ensure a "standoff" in the north, the Red Army simply withdrew, occupying only the isthmus on the south side of Lake Ladoga. The Finns, as if understanding what Moscow meant, stopped cooperatively, and only made a small routine move in the isthmus to deal with the German urgings.

The situation in the north was temporarily stabilized, and Stalin and the comrades of the Supreme High Command, no longer satisfied with the present general defense, issued an order on July 1 to the replenished Baltic Front and the Western Front to break through the German lines, hoping to delay the rapid advance of the German army on the southern front by attacking.

Lin Jun did not agree with the battle plan proposed by Voroshinov, but Stalin appreciated it very much, and Lin Jun could not come up with a better plan, so this risky plan was carried out.

But Stalin still overestimated his strength, and after a week of fierce fighting, although the armies of both fronts had made progress, they were already at the end of their strength, and the situation was completely deadlocked.

Lin Jun said in mid-June that he did not have enough strength to carry out a large-scale counterattack, and that the territory was too large, but he was facing a situation where the logistics supply was insufficient and the troops were consumed hugely. Coupled with the fact that the support for Ukraine by the reserve front, which had been formed in advance, was blocked on the Vinnytsia line, the offensive seemed to be ineffective, and instead led to the possibility of large-scale encirclement of the attacking forces (historically, the Red Army made a similar mistake by conducting a large-scale counteroffensive before it had absolute strength, and the result was more than worth the losses and heavy losses). ）。

The troops in front could no longer be delayed, and the Red Army entering Poland was like entering a big quagmire, basically attrition without a bottom line, and the Baltic Front attacking East Prussia was blocked by Germany's strong permanent defensive line, and Tukhachevsky became helpless.

"Andrey, if it goes on like this, it will become the second Battle of Warsaw, and something must be done!" In mid-July, Tukhachevsky voiced his concerns in a phone call to Lin, which was what he feared.

The Germans showed the Red Army what a steel line was, and the rapid cluster of armored armor, which was not weaker than the Soviet Union, made both fronts suffer enough in Poland - it was no longer possible to wait, and Stalin had to order the Red Army to retreat strategically according to the worst plan.

The Brest Fortress was abandoned on July 18, something that Lin Jun had never thought of before the war! Prior to this, the fortress area had withstood thousands of tons of shells and bombs from the German army, but the main force of the fortress garrison actually remained, but there was no need to hold on to it: Stalin had already asked the reserve front and the Southern Front formed by Moscow to arrange a strong defensive line on the "Stalin Line", and if the fortress was not abandoned, although the garrison could hold back a large number of German troops, Stalin did not want to lose 20,000 of the best troops.

The only effect of the offensive in the early stage will also be reflected: to buy time for the Red Army, civilians, and equipment in Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, and Lithuania to withdraw eastward! The Germans did not dare to bite their tails and pursue desperately, and by August 7, the Soviet-German front had temporarily stabilized near the border between Riga and Belarus and Ukraine 39 years ago.

The Soviets were forced to use the "procrastination trick", and the strategic retreat of hundreds of kilometers left the Germans at a loss for a moment - the vast Soviet landscape seemed to be open to the Germans, but every German commander understood that this road would not be easy: the Soviets were trading depth for time. Soviet transportation gave the Germans a taste of logistical difficulties, and it took time to use the Soviet broad-gauge railroad to support the logistics of the army.

Hitler's top staff officers were now thinking about how to capture Riga, Minsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Odessa next, but everyone knew that it would not be easy to break through the "Stalinist Line", which had been prepared for two months, not to mention that the Germans would also suffer heavy losses.

The two months of war had resulted in the combined loss of nearly two million troops on both sides, which would have made Stalin no longer want to retreat - hold the "Stalinist Line" until the autumn comes, dragging the German army into the mud and the harsh Russian winter!

Lin Jun doesn't understand tactics, and strategy has changed over time and can no longer apply his memory, although the Red Army's losses are huge, and hundreds of thousands of elite troops have been consumed in an inappropriate offensive, but compared with "history", the losses are already small! And most importantly, the Germans lost time!

Time, which was so important on the Soviet-German battlefield! "Historically", the Germans occupied Minsk on June 28, but this was in August, and the German armored front was still "neatly" blocked on the west side of the "Stalin Line", and in Belarus, the tank troops of Marshal von Bock, who rushed to the front, were still 50 kilometers away from Minsk, and the defense line in front of them was so strong that the German tanks did not dare to rush at all.

The Germans could see that the Red Army was planning a total retreat, and if they were still thinking about a rapid advance in the style of the French campaign, there would probably be a "Guderian tragedy" (Guderian would have not yet been discharged from the army hospital in Berlin). ）。

There is another thing very important for the Soviet Union - the vast majority of the agricultural production areas on the land of Ukraine and Belarus are still in their hands, and according to the estimates of the agricultural department, if the front remains largely unchanged until the autumn harvest is completed, the wheat on the plains of Ukraine alone will feed the people of the whole country for more than half a year this year.

Lin Junke is worried that he will be hungry, and if he loses the main agricultural areas of Ukraine and Belarus, he will have to rely on Western aid to feed the Red Army and the common people! Since mid-June, a strict grain ration system has been implemented throughout the country, and the average worker's staple food a day is only 800 grams of black bread, barely enough to fill his stomach -- if it were not for the "grain stockpiling policy" that he has implemented over the past two years, such a standard would have been difficult to guarantee.

When winter comes, the problem of grain supply and demand will become even more pronounced -- production in the grain-producing areas will be messed up by the flames of war, and the people will need far more calories than they need in the summer, and the common people and the army will most likely have to tighten their belts!

As for logistics, there is a lot of bad news, but there is also good news -- Britain's first aid convoy is about to leave the British Isles for the Soviet Union, with supplies that the Soviet Union urgently needs now, and Roosevelt has already silenced the opposition forces in the United States, and American cargo ships flying the Stars and Stripes have arrived in the Soviet Far East one after another, and it will probably not be long before Lin Jun will be able to see the "famous, legendary, and hateful Spam luncheon meat" of the American GIs.

However, Lin Jun did not have time to wait in Moscow to receive American military rations and trucks, and on August 7, under the protection of a squadron of fighter jets, he personally piloted a Lager 5 fighter to Minsk.

According to the reports of the retreating troops, it is possible that Minsk will face a frontal assault by two German panzer groups and two army groups! Stalin was very concerned about the defense of Minsk and gave Zhukov the requirement to hold Minsk, at least to drag the Germans to the muddy autumn in Minsk. Reassuring Zhukov Lin Jun, the High Command added two more newly formed army groups to the Western Front, drawn from Budyonny's reserve front. But Stalin wanted a member of the Supreme High Command to come to Minsk - it would be most appropriate for Voroshinov to go for the reason, but Comrade Marshal would have sat on the cold bench because he had planned an unsuccessful offensive campaign: Stalin was already very polite to retain his status as a member of the Supreme High Command!

Election after election, the candidate for this "supervising army" fell on Lin Jun's head, and probably Stalin also felt that his deputy commander was always in charge of logistics. Besides, Zhukov was originally a team of favorite generals, so let Andrei go -- Zhukov's military command ability had already won Stalin's trust, and Lin Jun's going to Minsk was a bit of a military achievement.

But there are also conditions for releasing the deputy commander-in-chief, and the old man is also conditional: Lin Jun will never be allowed to use himself as an aviation division commander and honestly stay in the command headquarters of the Western Front! Lin Jun also knew that it was impossible for him to go to the sky to compete with the vultures this time, and now was not the time to come by temperament!

The requirements of the High Command were clear, to stick to the Stalin Line; Lin Jun knew better in his heart - if the war situation was unfavorable, Minsk must become another Stalingrad!

Originally, Lin Jun was asked to take a transport plane to Minsk, but Stalin was a little worried about the safety of his generals and suggested taking a special train -- Lin Jun was even more desperate, believing that if the deputy commander and air marshal personally flew the fighter planes to appear in Minsk, it would definitely greatly boost the morale of the commanders and fighters of the Western Front, and there would be no safer mode of transportation than flying the fighters himself!

At noon on August 7, Lin Jun saw the city where his wife was located from a distance from the air. In the distance were huge balloons, and according to the order given to Zhukov in the early stage, the Western Front should have built the entire city and the defense lines on both sides into a strong fortress! (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.) )