After the start of Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht achieved great success on the northern and central fronts, leaving only a huge salient in the south, where there was a large Red Army, including almost the entire Southwestern Front. Most of the Red Army remained in the vicinity of Kiev, lacking armor and mobility as most of its armoured forces had been wiped out in previous battles.

Although it was the largest Red Army force on the Eastern Front at the time, they could no longer threaten the German offensive. At the end of August, the high command of the German Wehrmacht was faced with the choice of continuing the offensive on Moscow or destroying the Soviet forces in the south, because Army Group South did not have enough strength to encircle and destroy the enemy forces, Army Group Center needed to provide support to complete the mission, after arguments, the German 2nd Panzer Army Corps and the German 2nd Army Corps were transferred from Army Group Center to Army Group South and advanced southward, meeting with the attacking forces of Army Group South east of Kiev.

The rapid offensive of the armored forces to complete the encirclement caught the commander of the Soviet Southwestern Front by surprise, so Stalin removed him from the post of commander of the Southwestern Front. There was no successor to the command, and the commanders of the armies and divisions fought separately.

And the German Panzer Corps has already completed the encirclement of Kyiv.

After that, the fate of the encircled Red Army was sealed, for the Soviet Union, the scope of the encirclement was unbelievable, because there was no motorized force or military genius to lead, they could not break through the encirclement, the German 17th and 6th Army Corps of Army Group South and the 2nd Army Corps of Army Group Center continued to shrink the encirclement with the support of armored forces, the encircled Soviet army did not give up Kiev easily, and in a brutal battle, Soviet soldiers were wiped out by German artillery, tanks and aircraft.

At last. On 26 September, 10 days after the offensive, the last Soviet army surrendered east of Kiev, and the Germans claimed to have captured 600,000 Red Army soldiers.

After the Battle of Kiev, the Red Army already had no more reserves. In order to defend Moscow, the Soviet government mobilized 83 divisions with a total of 800,000 men, but only 25 of them were adequately equipped and lacked armored troops and fighters.

On the German side, they had 70 divisions with a total of one million men, nearly a third of which were mechanized. This was the highest percentage in this war, and the Typhoon operation against Moscow was immediately launched.

As a result of the great victory in Kiev. The huge obstacle in the south has been removed. Army Group South continued its offensive in the Donbass, and its objectives in the southern theater of operations had been fully achieved, however, the offensive on Moscow was postponed for four weeks. This was proven later in the Battle of Moscow. Although tactically successful. But the Battle of Kiev could only strengthen Germany's strategic superiority on a small scale, because its main purpose, a decisive victory in the war, was not achieved.

When the Soviet Red Army paid huge losses. They bought time to defend Moscow, creating good conditions for the USSR to take a breather.

But this was only part of the story, and in the end it did not change, the situation in which Moscow was surrounded by German troops. At this time, only Stalingrad was still in turmoil, and the rest of the city was occupied by German troops and client states. German troops have already begun to attack Moscow.

The place where Stalin is now comforted enough is in the Far East.

On June 22, Hideki Tojo, like Hitler, tore up the Soviet-Japanese non-aggression pact.

When Germany launched a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, Japan also launched a Japanese version of the blitzkrieg against the Soviet Far East.

Unified offensive operation, on the European side it was early in the morning, but in the Far East it was already ten o'clock in the morning.

Unlike Germany, Japan first dispatched aircraft carriers, and at many airfields in Korea, Japan also dispatched a large number of warplanes, with only one target, that is, the Soviet Pacific Fleet docked in Vladivostok.

When the German shelling began, the Japanese air force also reached the skies over Vladivostok, and to the shocked looks of Soviet soldiers on the ground and at sea, nearly a thousand Japanese fighters carried out air strikes on the entire Vladivostok. The main targets were Soviet airfields and the Soviet fleet docked in ports.

Under the attack of the first wave of Japanese bombers and dive bombers, the airfield and naval fleet in Vladivostok suffered heavy losses, especially the Kunlunshan-class battleship purchased by the Soviet Union from China, which was taken care of by nearly half of the aircraft, and the entire bridge had disappeared, leaving only countless fires burning.

Those Soviet planes parked at the airfield were also destroyed by the bombers at the first time, and only a few planes took to the air, but they were soon shot down by the Japanese Zero.

Japanese planes came in waves, and the Soviet Pacific Fleet didn't even have time to leave the port before it was drowned in the indiscriminate bombardment of Japanese planes. However, Japan's losses were not small, as the first fortress in the Far East, the Soviet Union had a lot of anti-aircraft fire in Vladivostok, for which Japanese planes were shot down quite a bit. On the whole, however, the losses of the Japanese were worth it, achieving the first tactical objective and destroying the largest Soviet naval fleet.

And the ground forces, the Japanese also acted quickly, led by four thousand tanks, quickly broke through the Soviet defense line on the Korean border, and in one day, broke through to Vladivostok. However, the Japanese side did not stop at Vladivostok, leaving 500,000 troops to surround Vladivostok and block Vladivostok and all the passages outside.

He then continued to advance rapidly towards the Twin Cities with the armored forces as the lead. Japan's goal was simple: to advance quickly and occupy the Soviet Far East.

On the Far Eastern continent opposite Sakhalin Island, although there were many Soviet Red Army soldiers on guard to defend against the Japanese, Japan's large-scale air raids immediately stunned the Soviets. Subsequently, under the cover of naval warships, Japan's only marine armored division successfully landed and opened up an army landing site.

With a landing site, the problem on the Sakhalin side was much simpler, where there were no large defensive fortresses, and the Soviet Red Army simply could not stop the crazy Japanese army. Under the attack of the Japanese elite armored divisions, the Soviet defenders were defeated one after another, and many Soviet soldiers were dumpled by the Japanese army's rapid approach with armored units.

The Japanese Navy also dispatched destroyers and other small ships to advance along the Muir River towards Komsomolsk. Their goal was simple, to cooperate with the army to eliminate the Soviet gunboat defenses on the river, and to help the army attack Komsomolsk.

More than half a month after the Japanese attack, on the day Stalin began to make a statement to the whole country, the Japanese army of 1.5 million joined the Komsomolsk and surrounded the Komsomolsk. Subsequently, half a million troops continued to advance northward, occupying Soviet lands in the Far East.

When the German attack on Moscow began, only Komsomolsk and Vladivostok in the Far East were occupied by the Japanese army, and the rest of nearly 1.5 million square kilometers of land were taken by the Japanese army.

During these few months, Japan also began to increase its troops to the Far East in large numbers, and the number of troops had reached 3 million, but the new 1 million troops were all puppet troops captured by the Soviet Union from Southeast Asia and Indonesia. 90% of them are Indonesians, and under the force of the Japanese, they picked up rifles, put on yellow skins, and acted as doglegs of the Japanese. The remaining 10 percent are Southeast Asians and North Koreans.

In the past few months, Japan has not suffered losses, but on the contrary, it has suffered heavy losses. The Soviet Union was not easy to mess with, except for the Soviet soldiers who were still dead in Vladivostok and Komsomolsk, the Japanese side eliminated and captured at least nearly 600,000 Soviet soldiers, for which Japan also paid 300,000 dead and wounded, and less than half of the 4,000 tanks were saved.

The Soviet artillery and armored units inflicted the largest casualties on the Japanese army, and the number of casualties was so large that if it were not for the insufficient number of shells, the number of Japanese casualties would have doubled. The Soviet Air Force has always been dealt with by the Japanese Air Force, and under the siege of the Japanese Zero, Soviet fighters basically took off to fight soy sauce. And under the bombing of Japanese bombers, the Soviet airfields in the Far East were quickly swept away.

Thanks to Japan's rapid elimination of the Soviet Navy and Air Force, the war went so smoothly. The Soviet tank forces in the Far East basically fell under the Japanese air force, and Japan confirmed with the actual situation that the Soviets would be defeated very quickly without air superiority.

The victory did not let the Japanese get carried away, and they kept the warnings of China and stayed away from the border. He also tried his best to drive the Soviet troops away from the Chinese border, for fear that the incident of the Chinese "rescue" of the Allied soldiers in Southeast Asia would be repeated in the Far East.

The Far Eastern Railway was cut off by the Japanese army, there was no way to retreat, Vladivostok and Komsomolsk were left alone in the Far East, there was not the slightest supply to get in, and no one could get out. Despite the trepidation of the Soviet soldiers, they did not lose their fighting spirit. Under the brainwashing of the political commissar, the Soviet soldiers had already made up their minds to fight to the death with the Japanese army.

When the Japanese army occupied most of the Far East, it was decided to start clearing Komsomolsk and Vladivostok, after all, putting 1.5 million troops on these two cities had seriously depleted the Japanese army. Not conducive to the subsequent occupation of land.

Because the Soviet Red Army had already begun to arrive at Hailanpao from Europe through the Far Eastern Railway, and began to engage the Japanese army in order to regain the land occupied by Japan, and also planned to open the life channel of Hailanpao and Komsomolsk and send supplies to Komsomolsk. Therefore, the Japanese side needs to take these two cities as soon as possible, liberate the 1.5 million troops on their hands, and join the team of attacking and occupying them.

The erosion of the war situation in Europe, and the holding of Komsomolsk and Vladivostok in the Far East, made Stalin's depressed mood dissipate a lot, and also gave him great comfort. In addition, the Soviet political workers borrowed the spirit of the Red Army soldiers in the two cities to constantly inspire other troops. Let the defenders of Stalingrad and Moscow have the faith and example to hold on.

However, by the time the German army arrived in Moscow, Stalin had already secretly evacuated Moscow to Yekaterinburg, which he used as a new base camp to preside over the war between the Soviet Union and the Axis powers. (To be continued.) )