This autumn, the days of the Anglo-Saxon brothers are becoming more and more sad.

In the Far East, the Axis coalition had reached the Japanese mainland, while the Russian front, the Axis coalition, had driven the Russian Red Army out of Ukraine, the Don, Belarus and Estonia. On the Eastern Front, the Chinese Wehrmacht was approaching their oil fields in Western Siberia, besieging Omsk, and advancing unhindered into the heart of Central Asia, intending to join forces with the German, Austrian, and Caucasian forces in Central Asia.

As the mass-built "Essex" class aircraft carriers began to enter service one after another, the strength of the US Navy was gradually increasing, but what made the British feel even more desperate was the high-profile "H-class super battleship" inauguration ceremony held by the German side.

After a lapse of 30 years, the war for European hegemony has resumed, and the German Navy, as the emerging maritime hegemon, has once again demonstrated its superhuman strength to the world, showing its completely overwhelming maritime superiority over the Royal Navy. Under the influence of the catalyst of war, the hegemony of the sea is quietly changing. However, in the context of the era when battleships are about to retire from the stage of history and aircraft carriers are gradually revealing the temperament of kings, the service of cutting-edge battleships can still have a deterrent effect.

After more than three years of construction, as part of the German Navy's Z plan, the H-class battleships H39 "Scharnhorst" and H40 "Grensenau" have been commissioned this autumn, with the addition of these two powerful warships with a standard displacement of 55,000 tons and equipped with 12 410 mm guns, it will surely bring the strength of the German Navy to a higher level!

In fact, what frightened the British even more was that four super-aircraft carriers with a displacement of 55,000 tons, which had been changed according to the plan for the construction of four "H-class" battleships, would also be put into service one after another.

As the war progresses, it is turning into a stage of attrition in an all-out competition of national strength.

In terms of war potential, the United States, as the world's largest industrial country, is undoubtedly the most powerful, and with the completion of the adjustment of the entire national economy to a wartime state. Steel production in the United States has skyrocketed, with more than 70 million tons per year, twice that of Germany, and the number of machine tools, which are the basis of the military industry, is 2.3 million, which is also much higher than Germany's 1.6 million. Unfortunately, this war is not just a merit-German struggle for hegemony. Austria-Hungary and China, members of the Axis powers, made up for the strategic shortcomings of the Germans. Austria-Hungary's annual steel output of 21 million and 1.1 million machine tools just complement the weakness of Germany's insufficient industrial capacity, especially the aircraft industry, with the help of Hungary's rich bauxite resources, Austria-Hungary's annual aluminum output is as high as 280,000 tons, which just solves the weakness of Germany's insufficient aluminum resources. And with the further development of oil fields in Bukovina, Romania, Libya, the Middle East and the Caucasus, the Axis-controlled areas produced more than 60 million tons of oil per year, enough to cope with the huge consumption of the war. The entry of the Chinese provided the Axis bloc with abundant military and labor resources, so that the Axis bloc no longer had to worry about the shortage of soldiers and labor.

As a result of the rapid defeat of Britain in the early stages of the war and its control of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, the Axis bloc, which controlled half of Africa's resources, was able to obtain a large number of rare metal resources that were urgently needed by the military industry. With the development of the war, the Axis bloc has gradually taken control of the Eurasian and African continents, and the whole war has gradually evolved into a pattern of continental countries against the United States and Britain and maritime countries.

The year 1942 was a turning point in the war, with the all-out counteroffensive of the Axis powers, the Japanese were nearing the end of their lives, and the Russians were embattled and beaten back to their original shape, and the situation was precarious.

The strength of the British is recovering. With the full support of the United States, they established the so-called "second industry" in Canada. Steel production across Canada quickly increased to 12 million tonnes per year, and with the formation of major shipbuilding centres in Montreal, Buffalo, Toronto, Thunder Bay and Victoria on the West Coast, the British gradually restored some of their shipbuilding capacity.

Unable to gain air supremacy over the British Isles, the large-scale bombing of Britain by Germany and Austria did not achieve the desired results, and the two sides remained in a stalemate after the British gradually moved the military industrial complex out of southeastern England.

After the overall strategy of the Axis bloc "first to force Soviet Russia out of the war" was determined. The pressure on Britain has suddenly eased. But with the arrival of the autumn rainy season and the muddy roads in Russia, the Axis forces stopped their offensive and shifted their strategic focus to the Atlantic theater.

With the Austro-Hungarian navy sending more than half of its naval strength to the Far East, the Austro-Italian fleet stationed in Gibraltar was weakened. In addition, since the Axis coalition launched a counteroffensive on the Eastern Front, more than half of the air power has been transferred to the Soviet Russian battlefield, and the pressure on the British mainland has suddenly eased a lot. However, the Axis navies still held the Atlantic shipping lines tightly and imposed a tight naval blockade on Britain. As the strength of the US Navy grew, the situation along the naval blockade line in the North Atlantic was worrisome -- after 11 months, a large convoy of transport ships finally arrived in the British Isles again under the escort of the main forces of the US and British Atlantic Fleets, which played a decisive role in strengthening the British people's determination to resist.

On the Eastern Front, the flames of war burned to the banks of the Vol River. With the arrival of autumn, the Axis forces did not slow down their offensive and launched an all-out attack on Tsaritsyn, the most important river port city and transportation hub on the Volga River, which the Russians had just named "Zhuyashviligrad" after their leader.

The situation was urgent, and Zhuashvili, as the supreme leader, issued a strict order to the front line not to take a step back: "Resist! No one is allowed to retreat! Whoever disobeys the order, that is, disposes of it in accordance with Order No. 227! …… The panicked and cowardly should be shot on the spot, and from now on, every commander, Red Army soldier, and political worker should observe this iron discipline: without an order from the Supreme Command, one must not take a step back! ”

This order finally reversed the situation of the defeat of the Soviet army on the battlefield, and when this order was issued, it was undoubtedly a dead order for the more than 1.5 million Soviet troops who retreated to the banks of the Volga River. They have no choice, retreat is death anyway, and the only thing they can do is to fight desperately and fight for their own survival.

In Zhugashviligrad, the rapid offensive of the Axis coalition forces was halted, where the Soviets fought for every inch of territory regardless of casualties, and the coalition suffered huge casualties for every step forward.

With nearly 2 million Soviets and 1.5 million Axis troops already amassed on the Zhuashviligrad front, it looks like a decisive battle of unprecedented scale will break out this autumn and winter.

Surprisingly, the Axis coalition forces suddenly stopped their offensive at this time, and instead retreated the defensive line back dozens of kilometers, and began to build fortifications, assuming a defensive frame.

The offensive stopped! (To be continued.) )