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The commanders of both sides are worthy of being the world's top famous commanders, and there are no problems in command, but the chronic problems of the Soviet and German armies themselves have still not been resolved. First of all, the old problem of the Soviet army's poor logistics and the waste of ammunition by the front-line troops was once again seized by Manstein, who wiped out more than 200,000 Soviet troops who had not kept up with supplies in a short period of time in the early days of the battle, and saw that the balance of war began to tilt on the side of the German army.

However, under the unfavorable situation of the first battle, Zhukov, who knew that the German army was not durable to fight, made full use of the advantages of the Soviet army's strong forces, and no longer easily launched a large-scale attack, but adopted a more conservative strategy, relying on fortifications to resist stubbornly when the German army attacked, but as soon as the German army retreated, it immediately launched a local counterattack, especially the rocket artillery with fierce firepower and easy transfer caused great trouble to the German army. As a result, the exhausted German army was not given a chance to repair at all, and its combat effectiveness continued to decline

However, even so, the German army relied on the advantages of soldier quality and tactical literacy, and still played a ratio of more than 3:1 in the first two months of this general battle, and the Soviet casualties exceeded 800,000, of which the number of permanent attrition was as much as more than 400,000, while the German casualties were less than 300,000, even if you count the servant army, it was only about 600,000. Even the commander of the Soviet army, Zhukov, couldn't help but sigh, "If we continue to fight like this, I'm afraid that before the Germans drive out of the country, Russian blood will be drained."

But when the battle entered the most tragic third month, as the reserve troops were in place. Zhukov's strategy finally showed satisfactory results, and the German offensive finally reached the outskirts of Stalingrad and could not continue. However, Stalin made a desperate move to transfer all the regular troops on the Soviet-Chinese border and handed over all border defense tasks to the local militia when the war situation was unfavorable before, and freed up more than 300,000 valuable mobile troops, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back

Later, many military commentators believed that the complete collapse of Army Group South would have been inevitable had it not been for the SS units of Army Group South, which unexpectedly exhibited a hard-working attitude completely different from that of the Wehrmacht, and forced Zhukov to abort the offensive by exhausting most of Zhukov's ammunition reserves with stubborn fighting and more deceitful tactics that did not conform to the German tradition. But even so, the battle that broke out in the lower Volga still took a toll on the German Army Group South, and unless the mustache could send enough reinforcements, Manstein would have the ability to do so. There was no strength left to launch a decent counterattack against the Soviet troops

However, although the Soviet army won the general battle. But not to mention that there were more casualties than the enemy, and the consumption of ammunition was even more staggering, no matter how hard the Soviet troops were, with their habit of wasting ammunition. With few ammunition reserves left, there was no way to continue the counteroffensive. After the now-famous Moder once again annihilated one of the elite Soviet guards with his best defensive counterattack. Zhukov, realizing that the German army was far from collapsing, wisely switched from offensive to defensive. The once white-hot southern battlefield has restored calm

At this point, the general battle, which lasted for more than four months, finally came to an end, and the Soviet Union suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties. Among them, the high cost of more than 600,000 killed, missing, and captured won the victory with difficulty, but the losses were too great and the ending was not good, and after all, it failed to completely turn the situation in the southern theater. Although the German Army Group South paid a heavy price of more than 200,000 killed, missing, and captured, and more than 400,000 wounded, and the troops of the allies and client states also lost more than 400,000, it still retained the ability to fight again.

However, if we look at the overall situation of World War II, we will find that the impact of this so-called "1945 Summer Battle" is not limited to the Soviet-German battlefield, the southern front, or even the entire Soviet-German battlefield. In just five months, Tito unbelievably grew his guerrilla force to more than one million people, liberating most of the rural areas and some small and medium-sized cities in the five countries of the Balkan Peninsula, while Tito's motherland Yugoslavia was almost completely recovered, and only the capital Sarajevo was still under the control of German and Italian fascists

Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece were occupied by the Axis camp during the war, and the civil resistance has not stopped, it is not surprising that Tito was able to set off a storm, but Romania and Bulgaria, the two countries of Germany's most loyal client states, actually set off a large-scale workers' and peasants' revolution under Tito's organization and initiation, and even endangered the fascist regimes of the two countries.

In fact, the reason why Romania and Bulgaria are in turmoil is that Tito is really powerful, but the roots are still within the two countries. Before World War II, Romania and Bulgaria were both semi-industrial countries, and their level of development was inferior to that of Italy, and the life of the workers and peasants was very difficult, and the slightest resistance would be brutally suppressed by the fascist government, and there were great internal contradictions. The two countries sent troops to aid Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, although they were worried and fearful of Russia's "Great Slavism" and by the way, they also wanted to curry favor with the mustache, and there was no lack of the idea of diverting domestic contradictions through foreign wars.

If all goes well in a foreign war, a little oil and water leaked by the ruling class, or even just a sense of honor in expanding the territory, is enough to satisfy the people at the lower levels. But the mustache and the German army purely used these servant troops as cannon fodder, with a lot of sacrifice and little benefit, not to mention the people of the two countries, even the upper echelons were increasingly dissatisfied. And when the situation of the Soviet-German war gradually reversed, and the losses of the invading troops of the two countries increased rapidly, the dissatisfaction of the people of the two countries with their fascist governments and the Germans increased day by day, after all, the dead and wounded were their children!

In addition, most of the troops of the two countries were sent to the Soviet Union, and most of the troops left behind in their countries were only some old and weak people with low combat effectiveness, and the troops were relatively insufficient, so it is not surprising that when Tito was fully launched, the two countries quickly formed a spark of fire

Worried about the situation at home, the governments of Romania and Bulgaria urgently repatriated most of the troops they had sent to assist the German invasion of the Soviet Union, with a total strength of no less than 600,000 troops. The Germans have always disliked the poor combat effectiveness of these servant armies, and they can only be used as cannon fodder, but if the cannon fodder is not enough, the problem is also very serious (to be continued......