Chapter 446: Upheaval in the Soviet Union

On April 12, the 31st year of the Republic of China (1942), when the Chinese Expeditionary Force was training intensively in Burma, when the Japanese army was massively increasing troops to the Southeast Asian battlefield through the continental lines of communication, and when the American and British allied forces and the German-Italian allied forces in the African theater were still in a stalemate, a drastic change broke out in the European battlefield - the Soviet Union was divided

In June last year, Germany launched a powerful offensive propaganda against the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the first split of the Soviet Union, and all 14 of the 15 republics that formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), except for the Russian Federation, broke away from the Soviet Union and joined the German-dominated Axis Alliance.

Yue Weihan, a small butterfly, fanned its wings in Asia, only to have a hurricane blow in Europe

Compared with history, the Russian Federation at this time, both in terms of military strength and war potential, has been greatly weakened compared with the Soviet Union, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is also in chaos, Stalin's dominance is facing more and more severe challenges, and even Molotov has begun to openly criticize Stalin's purge policy on different occasions.

However, the biggest change from history is Nazi Germany's policy towards the Soviet Union

In the Soviet-German war in history, Nazi Germany was an absolute military offensive, and Hitler, a crazy fascist, did not bother to take any political means at all, but this time, Hitler unexpectedly listened to Okamura Ninji's suggestion, and adjusted his policy toward the Soviet Union to focus on political propaganda and supplemented by military offensives

In October last year, after the split of the Soviet Union and the announcement of the accession of Belarus and Ukraine to the Axis, 5.5 million German troops launched a simultaneous offensive in three strategic directions: Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad.

The German army achieved unprecedented results in the early stages of the war, annihilating more than 5 million Soviet Red Army troops in just half a month.

Since then, the German army has not continued to penetrate as it has historically, but has stopped on Russia's borders with Ukraine, Belarus and Estonia, so that the German army can obtain the support of Ukraine and other allies nearby, so as to avoid the logistical supply dilemma caused by the harsh winter, but can maintain strong military pressure on Russia.

Hitler's hand can be described as quite vicious, 5.5 million elite German troops pressed on the border line, bringing unprecedented pressure to the whole of Russia, but the German army was slow to attack, which gave the Russians a chance to breathe, and also created the illusion that the country would not be in danger for the time being, which led to the whole of Russia falling into endless quarrels.

The reflection on the Great Purge, the criticism of Trotskyism, the failure of counter-propaganda against Germany, the distribution and use of American aid, the defensive deployment of the German army, the mobilization of reserve troops, and so on, all of these things became the trigger for the fierce quarrels at the top level of the Russian Communist Party, and Stalin became more and more unable to suppress the situation.

On the night of April 11, 1942, a coup d'état that shocked the world finally took place

After repeated attempts by the German Nazi clique, Stalin's most loyal follower, Soviet Prime Minister Molotov and Marshal Budyonny of the Soviet Red Army staged a military coup, but the putschists failed to catch Stalin, because there was an informant in the coup camp, and Stalin learned the news in advance and hid in Marshal Voroshilov's barracks.

The next day, Molotov announced that the Soviet Union had withdrawn from the Anti-Scispanic League and joined the Axis League.

On the same day, Stalin, who had fled to Stalingrad, made a radio speech declaring Molotov a traitor and calling on the people of the entire Soviet Union to rise up and smash the traitor's conspiracy.

Overnight, the seemingly powerful Soviet Union collapsed, and the nearly 10 million Soviet Red Army also split into two hostile military blocs, with Molotov's Soviet Red Army supporting more than 5 million and controlling most of Russia's traditional areas west of the Ural Mountains, and the Soviet Red Army supporting Stalin still had nearly 4 million, but it was divided into two clusters, the Voroshilov cluster controlled the lower Volga region, and the Zhukov cluster controlled the entire Far East.

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The upheaval in the Soviet Union immediately triggered a series of chain reactions internationally.

In mid-April, Manstein, Guderian and Rommel were called home.

Accompanied by Goering, the No. 2 figure of the Nazi Party and Air Marshal Goering, the Berlin High Command, walked into the small conference room with vigorous steps, and the three famous German generals who had been waiting in the conference room stood up one after another and raised their hands to salute the supreme head of Nazi Germany.

At this time, Germany was facing an unprecedented opportunity to "win the whole world".

The Soviet Union had been completely divided, the Molotov clique had turned from an enemy of Germany into an ally, and the Stalin clique, though still alive in the lower reaches of the Volga and the Far East, looked like it was a grasshopper after the autumn months, and the Soviet Union, its former rival, had fallen almost overnight.

Manstein proposed an ambitious strategic concept to Hitler, first recognizing the Soviet Union's ally status and withdrawing troops from the Soviet Union, and then throwing the 5 million elite German troops withdrawn into the Asian-African theater to help Italy seize Africa, then cross the Middle East to seize India, the crown jewel of the British Empire, and then flank Burma to help Japan occupy all of China.

Finally, with the Eurasian and African continents as the foundation and Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union as the axis, a new continental alliance was formed to confront the maritime alliance with the United States and Britain as the core, and then Xu Tu developed a strategic air force and navy, striving to overwhelm the maritime alliance in terms of strategic air force and naval power, and finally seize the dominance of the entire world.

Guderian also approved of Manstein's strategic vision, and Rommel did not say anything.

However, Hitler clearly preferred the complete dismemberment of the Soviet Union by military means.

In Hitler's view, the present was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dismember the Soviet Union, but the war in Africa could be slowed down, and for Germany, even with the loss of the other fourteen republics, Russia would still be too large, not only a vast territory but also a large population, and would still pose a serious threat to Germany in the long run

In the end, this high-level military conference did not reach an agreement on the policy towards the Soviet Union, and Hitler immediately decided to send troops to the lower Volga region in spite of the resolute opposition of Manstein and Guderian in order to "help" the Molotov clique to eliminate the Stalin clique, and at the same time urged Japan to send troops to the Far East to contain the Zhukov clique.

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Washington, White House.

After the news of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union spread, President Roosevelt immediately summoned Marshall, Chief of the General Staff of the US Army, Secretary of State Hull, and all presidential advisers to the White House to urgently discuss countermeasures.

In the conference room, Marshall, chief of the Army General Staff, spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "Mr. President, it seems that we must reduce our investment in the Asian theater." ”

"It seems that this is the only way to go." Roosevelt nodded approvingly.

The split of the Soviet Union and the joining of the Molotov clique in the Axis Alliance were absolutely a disastrous blow to the World Anti-Fascist League, and it was foreseeable that Germany would greatly increase its investment in the African theater in the near future, and in order to ensure that the African war situation would not collapse, the United States must also increase its investment in the African theater.

However, there is a limit to the industrial and military strength of the United States, and if it wants to increase its investment in the African war, it must reduce its investment in the Asian theater.

According to the economic volume of the 1940s, the United States was 200 billion US dollars, while Germany was 56 billion US dollars, in terms of numbers, the economic volume of the United States is almost four times that of Germany, but it must be pointed out that the gap in industrial scale between the two countries is actually not so large, and the quality of German industry is far better than that of the United States.

That is, the qualitative superiority of the German industry was more than enough to offset the scale superiority of the American industry.

When Germany was no longer contained by the Soviet Union, the African theater of operations was almost a one-on-one confrontation between the United States and Germany, and considering the huge superiority of the German Army over the United States Army, the prospects of the Allies in Africa could be said to be very unoptimistic.

Seeing Roosevelt's nod, Marshall immediately put forward his package: "Mr. President, the U.S. government must mobilize for war again, mobilize at least 50 infantry divisions in the first batch, and at least 200 infantry divisions in the future, and at the same time, the 20 Marine divisions originally planned to be put into the Pacific theater must also be transferred to the African theater." ”

Roosevelt listened and took notes, and then asked, "Anything else?" ”

Marshall nodded, and said: "The strategic air force should also speed up its construction, and continue to strengthen the strategic bombing of heavy industrial cities such as Berlin and Munich, so as to continue to weaken Germany's industrial and war potential." ”

"Isn't our U.S. Strategic Air Force strong enough?" Secretary of State Hull said with some confusion.

Due to the natural barrier between the two oceans, the US Army had only a pitiful 100,000 men at the beginning of the war, and there were only more than 300 tanks; Although the total tonnage of the US Navy surpasses that of Britain and ranks first in the world, it still ranks third in the world after Britain and Japan in terms of the quality of its officers and men and their actual combat capability.

Only in terms of air force, the United States was definitely the undisputed brother in the world at that time.

Although the Luftwaffe was also very strong in the same period, it was only strong in the tactical air force, and the strategic air force was very lacking, mainly because the Luftwaffe did not have long-range large strategic bombers and strategic transport aircraft, which was also the main reason why the German army was unable to destroy the British war potential despite its best efforts, let alone land on the British Isles.

And the United States not only has a powerful tactical air force, but also a powerful strategic air force

In terms of tactical air force, although the performance of the P-40 Falcon is ordinary, the P-51 Mustang fighter developed later is recognized as the king of propeller fighters; In terms of strategic air force, although the early B-17 Flying Fortress has a short range, it has a large bomb load and strong survivability, and the B-24 Liberator that has been put into service not only maintains the advantages of large bomb load and strong survivability, but also has a range that has soared from 3,000 kilometers to 5,000 kilometers, and the B-29 Super Fortress that is about to enter service is even more legendary.

In the face of Hull's confusion, Marshall said: "If it is just self-defense, our American strategic air force is strong enough, but if we want to defeat Germany, it is far from enough to conservative estimates, at least 2,000 B-24 Liberator or B-29 Superfortress bombers need to be produced to ensure that Germany's industrial strength is continuously weakened." ”

After saying this, Marshall said to Roosevelt: "In addition to the Navy's Pacific Fleet can continue to stay in Asia and continue to attack the Japanese Navy's combined fleet, the main forces of the 10th and 14th Air Forces in the Southeast Asian theater must also be transferred to the African theater, and as for the Chinese, they will be left with at most two Mustang fighter squadrons." ”

Roosevelt pondered for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Due to the drastic changes in the Soviet Union, the situation on the European battlefield suddenly became unpretentious.

If the United States is as powerful as the United States, it does not dare to say that it will definitely win this war, and even if the United States can win in the end, it will never be able to win within three to five years, that is to say, the United States will inevitably be involved in the quagmire of the European war, so it is obviously not in the interests of the United States to continue to increase the intensity of aid to China and help China quickly defeat Japan.

Under these circumstances, it is necessary to transfer the air force of the Asian theater to Africa.

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Yangon, headquarters of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

Stilwell walked into Yue Weihan's office with a solemn expression, and said with some regret: "Yue, I regret that the US government has decided to reduce its investment in the Asian theater, and the main forces of the 10th and 14th Air Forces are about to be transferred to Africa, however, Chennault will leave two Mustang squadrons to help you train the Air Force." ”

Yue Weihan nodded, such a result had long been expected by him.

Fortunately, Yue Weihan's greatest concern about the US government's opportunity to reduce the scale of industrial aid did not happen, first, because these industrial equipment and technical personnel are not indispensable to the United States, and second, because the industrial aid to Burma can also enable the Chinese expeditionary force to better "support itself," and the US government can throw off a heavy burden.

However, after the US Government cuts its input into the Asian theater, the good days of the Chinese Expeditionary Force can be regarded as coming to an end, not only will the military salaries be drastically reduced, but the food standards of the officers and men of the whole army will no longer be as extravagant as they are now.

It's just that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yue Weihan's previously boasted strategic counteroffensive came to naught

The United States' assistance to the Chinese Expeditionary Force has been greatly reduced, and the Japanese army is continuing to increase its troops in Southeast Asia, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force has lost the possibility of strategic offensive

This is because, after the coup d'état in the Soviet Union, the Japanese base camp is likely to return to the northward strategy