Of course, if the strength of the German servant armies such as Romania and Slovakia is also included, it is still the German side that has the advantage, but the armies of those countries are not vulnerable to the Soviet army at all. The Finnish army, which was bent on regaining the lost territory, became stronger than during the Soviet-Finnish war, and even the German army may not be comparable, but Finland has too small a population and is naturally blocked by the isthmus, so it is difficult to affect the overall situation, so the Soviet high command has always had only one enemy in its eyes, that is, Germany

On September 23, 1942, the Germans captured Grodno in Belarus, and the 10th and 3rd armies of the Soviet Red Army immediately launched a counter-assault on the city, but they were easily repulsed by the German army. On 24 September, the Germans occupied Vilnius, and the commander of the Soviet Western Front (Note 1), General Pavlov, who had been in a precarious position due to a series of previous defeats, urgently ordered the Front reserves to move out of the Bialystok salient. However, only a day later, the two flanks of the German army, which were advancing at a very fast pace, successfully penetrated deep into the rear of the Western Front, forming an encirclement trend.

As a result, the 3rd and 10th armies of the Soviet Red Army were soon ordered to retreat, but the narrow corridor with a width of only 60 kilometers seriously affected the pace of withdrawal. Within two or three days, two German armored clusters advanced to the outskirts of Minsk, the capital of the Republic of Belarus, and occupied the city on the 28th; However, the 11 divisions of the 3rd and 10th armies, the main forces of the Soviet Western Front, were encircled in a narrow area between Bialystok and Minsk due to the slow march. On the 29th, the German 9th and 4th armies converged in the area east of Bialystok and divided the besieged Soviet Red Army into two parts. October 7, 1942. Most of the encircled Soviet Red Army was annihilated, and the German army, which was obviously inferior in total strength, relied on its flexible and fast tactics to win a complete victory, annihilating more than 500,000 Soviet Red Army, including more than 300,000 prisoners, and capturing more than 2,000 tanks and more than 600 aircraft, which later generations called the "First Minsk Campaign"

Unlike in history, this time and space did not immediately divide the troops to control the entire territory of Belarus because of the insufficient strength and supply of the German army that invaded Belarus, but turned south to join the German army on the southern front attacking Ukraine, so that the main force of the Soviet army with a total strength of no less than one million in that area could be annihilated more quickly. At the same time to seize this largest granary of the USSR. But encouraged by the Battle of Minsk. Stalin's anger broke out in the three Baltic states, which had not long been annexed by the Soviet Union, and the Soviet garrison there was forced to withdraw due to insufficient troops.

Almost at the same time as the Battle of Minsk, the troops of the German Southern Front fought and broke through the temporary defensive line set up by the Soviet army in the central Ukrainian city of Uman. More than 200,000 Soviet troops were killed, wounded and captured. The number of prisoners was close to 100,000. It is known in history as the "Battle of Uman". Compared with the number of enemy troops killed and wounded, the more important significance of this battle is that the two major groups of the German army of more than one million troops formed a joint encirclement of nearly one million Soviet troops in the main forces of the two major fronts around Kiev, the capital of Ukraine

Although there are quite a few troops. However, due to the fact that most of the armor and air force were almost completely lost in the Battle of Uman, the Soviet forces in Kiev now seriously lacked armor and air liliang, and it was difficult for them to break through the seemingly loose but tight encirclement of the German army, nor could they pose a threat to the actions of the German army on other fronts.

At this time in history, the German army was faced with the choice of whether to rush to Moscow or draw troops from the Central Army to eat the large Soviet army in Kiev, and finally they chose the latter, although they achieved an extremely brilliant victory, but many people in later generations believed that it was precisely because the German army divided its troops to the south and gave the Soviet high command time to prepare for the Moscow campaign, and the situation of the Soviet-German war was reversed. However, in this time and space, the German army that invaded the Soviet Union was unable to storm Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, with strong troops and strong defenses due to insufficient troops and unstable logistics, until Poland's transportation facilities were completely repaired and the supply lines in the rear were reopened. And the availability of supplies by rail through Slovakia in Ukraine is much better than fighting on the middle front

At the end of October 1941, the main force of the German Central Army went south to join the main force of the German Southern Army after winning the Battle of Minsk, and completed the encirclement of the Soviet army in Kiev, which caught the Soviet commander Budyonny off guard, and Stalin, who was extremely disappointed with him, removed Budyonny from the post of commander of the Southwestern Front, but did not immediately determine the successor, resulting in the command of nearly one million Soviet troops in Kiev falling into unprecedented chaos. The Germans took the opportunity to launch a swift attack, dividing and encircling a large number of Soviet troops, and it seemed that they would reap another victory in the Great Annihilation War, but the stubborn resistance of the Soviet army and civilians exceeded the expectations of the German army

Citizens of Kyiv and nearby residents took an active part in the defense of the city. By the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic and the Council of People's Commissars, the City Defense Command was formed. In a short period of time, 200,000 Kievans volunteered for the Soviet Red Army. On the battlefield, the frequent counter-assaults of the Soviet army caused a lot of obstacles to the German army, but with the rapid depletion of ammunition reserves, the Soviet troops in the encirclement were completely hopeless. Although Stalin finally assigned a new commander to the Soviet army in Kiev, Timoshenko, at this time, Timoshenko could not rush to the besieged Kiev to take up his post, so nearly a million Soviet troops in Kiev were still in a leaderless situation

In the end, the Soviet army in Kiev was forced to surrender to the Germans, most of the 5th, 21st, 37th, and 26th armies of the Soviet army, and a part of the 40th and 38th armies were annihilated, the number of dead and missing was close to 200,000, and the total number of surrendered and captured regular troops exceeded 600,000, and less than 100,000 people successfully broke through or went underground to start guerrilla warfare, and the battle of Kiev ended with the complete victory of the German army.

However, the occupation of Kyiv does not mean that the German army has captured Ukraine, the most important granary of the Soviet Union, because in addition to the area around Kiev, there is another place in Ukraine where a large number of Soviet troops are stationed, that is, Sevastopol, the main naval base of the Red Navy and the Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet Union

Note 1: It is not the Western Front Army, the previous Western Front Army is actually a front army group, the establishment is much larger than the general front army, after being almost completely annihilated by the German army, Stalin quickly revoked this number, but although the Western Front is far inferior to the original Western Front Army, there are still nearly one million people (to be continued......