By May, the fighting continued to spread eastward. ~Top Novel, x.

The Germans and the combined forces of the Don River went up the Don River and recaptured Zimryansk in mid-May. And the combined Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces advanced towards Grozny.

The panzer group opened the way in front, and the rolling torrent of steel roared forward. Although the muddy roads of the rainy early summer slowed down the Austro-Italian army, the Axis forces swept across the North Caucasus and toward the Caspian coast like a gale.

The rapid attack of the Axis tank clusters broke the layers of defense of the Soviet Southwestern Front and the Caucasian Front, like a river bursting its banks, running rampant among the mountains of the North Caucasus and in the desolate wilderness of Kalmykia.

For the first time since the start of the war, the Soviets encountered a real large-scale counterattack by the German-Austrian army, and although the French campaign had already proved the power of the German-Austrian army's "blitzkrieg", this time the Russians once again tasted what France had already tasted.

The essence of the use of armored forces to carry out "blitzkrieg" is the use of aviation to seize air superiority and cooperate with military operations on the ground. The Soviet army was actually equipped with more fighters than the German-Austrian coalition army, but its performance was backward and it was simply unable to engage in air confrontation with Germany and Austria. Moreover, their air force command system was chaotic, especially the air defense system at the airfield was weak, and the number of anti-aircraft guns was insufficient, which caused the vast majority of Soviet-made fighters to be destroyed on the ground during a surprise attack and suffered heavy losses.

Less than two months after the Axis counterattack began, the Soviets had lost more than 11,000 combat aircraft and had completely lost air supremacy. To make matters worse, the Soviet army's chaotic logistical management and lack of air defense cover resulted in heavy losses in air raids, destroying a large number of much-needed munitions, food, and oil supply bases on the front line.

Due to the lack of fuel supplies, a large number of Soviet-made tanks had to be abandoned during the retreat. It also caused the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army to be weakened by Yanzhòng.

In the North Caucasus, the Caucasian coalition forces, with the support of the Austro-Hungarian army, launched a full-scale counterattack. The Soviet army, which had lost air supremacy, had to retreat due to logistical supply difficulties. The Russian Transcaucasian Front was besieged in the vicinity of several ports along the Caspian coast, with Baku as the center, making a final struggle.

1941 was undoubtedly a dark year for the Allies. In Europe. The British Empire was locked in a cage, the sea had been cut off from the outside world, and the Royal Navy was unable to compete with Germany and Austria at sea, so it could only be trapped in the British Isles. In Southeast Asia, Burma had fallen, and Axis warplanes had used Burma as a base to bomb important military targets in India and the Maya Peninsula.

The British air force in this area was almost depleted, and the Japanese 3rd and 5th Air Wings also suffered severe losses that were difficult to replenish. Fortunately, the U.S. Air Force still sent two air wings here. More than 1,000 combat aircraft came to support the defense of Malaya.

Although the United States has declared war and its huge warplanes have been activated, it will take time for the United States to rearmament. Although the United States provided much material assistance to the Allied powers of Great Britain, Soviet Russia, and Japan, it was slow to send naval and ground support forces.

According to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Marshall's estimates, the United States would not be able to send Army forces overseas until at least mid-1942. And before that, the Navy could not withstand the offensive of the German-Austrian fleet.

In the overall strategy of the United States, Southeast Asia has been treated as an "outcast". Its role was only to slow down the Axis offensive.

The land and sea links between Europe and China have been opened up again, and German-Austrian aid to China has been able to be transported to China via the railway from Guò to Lashio and the Yunnan-Burma highway. But now. The Chinese no longer particularly need ordinary munitions such as guns and ammunition, but hope to obtain a large number of tanks, airplanes and other equipment, and of course, more need for all kinds of metal processing machine tools and various cutting-edge industrial technologies in electronics, communications, and electrical appliances.

In just a few years, China's heavy industry production has reached the level of moderately developed industrial countries such as France and Italy, and the annual output of 8.8 million tons of steel and the number of machine tools of 167,000 units far exceed that of Italy, and even more than that of Britain and Japan. The scale of industry is only second to that of the United States, Germany, Russia and Austria. Ranked fifth in the world.

What's more, China's aluminum production has reached a scale of 32 tons per year, which has surpassed Austria-Hungary and ranked second in the world after the United States.

In addition, China and Myanmar themselves are two of the world's most important exporters of tungsten ore. Then there are the titanium deposits, which are crucial for the rocket and jet turbine engines being tested in Germany and Austria.

Although there is enough aluminum and aluminum alloys, China is currently limited by the production of aero engines, and the annual production of aircraft is about 7,000 aircraft, which can basically meet the needs of the confrontation with the Japanese army, because the Japanese produce about the same number of aircraft every year.

However, after the start of the Nanyang Campaign, due to the huge losses in the Malay battlefield and the battlefields in Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam, Japan's aircraft production was far from being able to compensate for the losses on the battlefield. Even with the support of the United States, the Japanese army's air force showed a downward trend in both quantity and quality. This forced the Japanese to reinforce the air power of the Malay battlefield by transferring the 6th Air Wing from the Chinese battlefield, which further weakened the strength of the Chinese Dispatch Army.

After the Yunnan-Burma communication line was opened, a large number of German-Austrian aircraft were transported into China, which further enhanced the industrial capacity of the Chinese side. In just a few months, China's production of tanks, automobiles and aircraft has increased significantly, which continues to widen the gap between Chinese and Japanese army equipment.

The import of strategic metals such as aluminum, tungsten, titanium, and antimony from China further enhanced the military production capacity of the Axis powers, which in turn ensured that the Axis bloc had always maintained its superiority in equipment on the battlefields of Soviet Russia and Malay.

Japan is a very strange country, and after being attacked, not only did it not shrink its forces, but instead drew a large amount of troops from the Chinese battlefield and at home to devote it to the defense of the islands in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

William, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Army of the Axis Powers? Commander of the Expeditionary Fleet, Admiral Liszt and Vilmots? Admiral Yankel was also puzzled by this, didn't they know that if the Japanese naval fleet suffered heavy losses, these land forces trapped on isolated islands would become the target of slaughter?!

After the occupation of Ceylon, Burma, the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, the Expeditionary Force aviation had enough space to gain a foothold, and now it was engaged in a fierce war of attrition with the Japanese army. With the arrival of European air reinforcements, the Axis Expeditionary Force gradually gained the air initiative in the Malay theater and on the Indochina Peninsula.

As the Army Air Corps gradually took over the air and sea defense in the area, the Axis Expeditionary Fleet was able to devote more energy to an active offensive from the defensive tasks undertaken by the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. (To be continued......)

R640