Chapter 90 Changes Bring About Changes
What? Germany did not attack the Soviet Union on June 22, but Stalin did it first.
This news not only stunned the Japanese military, but also left Dai Jiliang at a loss.
But no matter how confused he was, he could not influence the course of the battle, so Dai Jiliang could only watch passively.
Of course, the Japanese can still do some of the things that Dai Jiliang cannot do.
From June 25 to July 1, 1941, the Japanese military and government held a meeting to discuss the outbreak of the Soviet-German War and national policy issues.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka's proposal to immediately go to war with the Soviet Union was rejected. The Japanese top leaders finally decided not to take advantage of Germany's fire and would decide whether to attack the Soviet Union based on the progress of the war.
However, although the Soviet army achieved some results in the early stage, severely damaged several German front-line armies and divisions, eliminated nearly 300,000 German troops, encircled and annihilated the Romanian First Army, defeated the Hungarian First Army, the Italian Eighth Army and other vassal armies, and advanced 50 to 100 km in some areas of German Poland and Romania, but the problems within the Soviet army were soon exposed.
The most fatal problem is the border road problem.
After annexing Poland, in order to conceal the Soviet army's intention to fight against Germany, the Soviet army only gave priority to building a number of deceptive defensive fortresses. The offensive roads and supply channels had not been completed in time, which caused great trouble to the Soviet army's rapid advance.
Not only were the roads in disrepair, but the railway gauges between the Soviet Union and Germany, and the Soviet Union and Poland were very different. The Soviet army could not directly use the existing railway network. The bureaucracy and overstaffing within the Soviet army led to serious delays in the transit of military supplies and other materials, which ultimately made the Soviet offensive weak and soon became as slow as a mosquito caught in a spider web.
In addition, the Great Purge resulted in most Soviet commanders at all levels being unable to adapt to their positions. When they encountered the German army, whose technical and tactical levels were at their peak, the natural result was that they had to watch the initiative being lost.
The poor condition of the Soviet army allowed the unprepared Hitler to recover calmly. On July 3 of that year, Hitler announced to the German people in Berlin that the country was in a state of crisis, thus achieving national general mobilization with the support of the German people.
Goering then personally took charge of the German Air Force Headquarters, urging the air force with the strongest response capabilities to take the lead in organizing a counterattack. Relying on the excellent performance of the Me-109 series fighters, he regained the crucial air supremacy from the small number of LaGg-3, MiG-3, Yak-1 and old I-153 and I-16 equipped by the Soviet army.
After regaining air superiority, the German BF-110C, He-111H, and Ju-87 aircraft began to bombard the Soviet Union's first few mechanized armies and the long follow-up infantry columns without mercy, so much so that Lieutenant General Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, commander of the 16th Army at the time, was seriously injured and died in the bombing.
While their own air force was bombing indiscriminately, the German mechanized forces, which had been reorganized and mobilized, also began to counterattack.
Guderian led the Second Panzer Group to counterattack and defeated the Soviet offensive.
After that, through nearly seven weeks of hard fighting, the German army formed two huge iron pincers in the two directions of German-occupied Poland and Romania, tightly clamping the Soviet Belorussian Front, the First Ukrainian Front, the Western Front and other units on the great plains of East Europe. Only on the Iranian battlefield did the Soviet-British coalition forces win a decisive victory against the 12 weak Iranian divisions, and finally forced the innocent King Reza Khan to hand over power to the young prince and exile himself under the mediation of the United States. As a result, the Soviet Union and Britain obtained the "right to protect" Iran. However, the victory in Iran was not enough to change the strategic environment of Britain and the Soviet Union. In the Middle East, the German and Italian armies advanced triumphantly. After conquering Egypt, they crossed the Suez Canal and headed straight for Jordan. As for the Central and Eastern European battlefield, after the German army encircled and annihilated 700,000 Soviet troops in one fell swoop, it had taken advantage of the situation to counterattack into the Soviet Union. Stalin's ambitions went bankrupt with the exposure of the Soviet army's weak combat effectiveness, and as a result, he could only reap what he sowed and usher in the most frenzied counterattack of the German army.
In view of the changes on the European battlefield, on August 27, 1941, Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadaichi, Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, issued an order to his subordinates: "Regarding the matter of strengthening the Kwantung Army's preparations for war with the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, it is called the Kwantung Army Special Large-scale Exercise."
The Japanese army planned to wait until more than half of the Soviet Far East Army had been transferred westwards before launching an attack with superior forces.
However, according to the plan of the General Staff, the Japanese army's strength when launching an attack on the Soviet Union should be no less than 25 divisions.
At that time, Japan had only 14 divisions stationed in Northeast China and Korea.
Therefore, 7 divisions had to be transferred from the mainland, 4 divisions had to be transferred from the interior of China, and another 6 divisions had to be drawn from the interior of China as the general reserve.
But this was beyond the actual strength of the Japanese army and caused a strong backlash from the Chinese Expeditionary Army.
For the Japanese army, the problem was not only the lack of manpower, but also the serious lack of war material preparation.
The ammunition the Kwantung Army had at the time could only meet the combat needs of 30 divisions for 2 to 3 months, the food could only meet the needs of 16 divisions for 2 months, and the gasoline could meet the needs of 16 divisions for 5 months. It was not enough to meet the needs of the General Staff's combat plan, so a large amount of combat supplies had to be transported from Japan.
Faced with the grim reality, the Kwantung Army had to retreat from its position of advancing northward.
On September 6, 1941, the Japanese General Staff received intelligence that "the Soviet Far East Army's forces had moved very little westward, especially in the Ussuri River Basin and the Heilongjiang River Basin areas that the Japanese army was preparing to attack, and there was no sign of troop movement." This became the final blow that eventually terminated the Guante Exercise plan.
On September 19, 1941, the Japanese General Staff decided: "No matter how the Soviet-German battlefield evolves, cancel the plan to resolve the northern issue in 1941 and concentrate on resolving the southern issue."
This shows that the Japanese army completely gave up the implementation of the "Kan Special Exercise" plan.
The General Staff then formulated the "Imperial Army Operations Outline" which stipulated:
"(1) Use the 16 divisions stationed in Northeast China and Korea to implement vigilance against the Soviet Union.
(2) Continue to fight against China according to the established policy.
(3) With the end of November as the target, prepare for war against the South.
The Japanese changed their tactics, but Dai Jiliang also came to his senses.
On September 17, 1941, Shen Qianxuan, the Northwest Special Commissioner to Germany and the Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, anonymously delivered an article entitled "Thank You, Great Liberator of the Russian Nationalities" to the Nazi Party publication National Observer.
In the voice of exiled Belarusian rich peasants, they advocated overthrowing the violent rule of the Soviet Union, abolishing the agricultural collectivization policy, stopping the persecution of ethnic minorities in Russia, and establishing a Belarusian regime with Germany as a protectorate and corresponding ethnic autonomous regimes.
Although the arguments in the article "Thank You" did not quite fit in with Hitler's appetite for monopolizing the Russian plains and expanding Germany's living space, the German military and Goebbels regarded it as a treasure and immediately publicized it repeatedly in the Soviet Union, causing great chaos within the Soviet Union. A considerable number of nationalists who were dissatisfied with the policies of the UNB regime either fled the front lines with guns or simply launched armed riots to undermine the Soviet resistance, so that Stalin had to strengthen the political commissar system and implement a high-pressure policy of shooting deserters on sight in the army.
Benefiting from the unstable morale of the Soviet army, the German army captured Brest on October 21, 1941 and then marched towards Minsk.
Between October 7 and December 7 of the same year, the German army successfully carried out the Battle of Kiev, encircling the Soviet Second Ukrainian Front, Southwestern Front and other units.
At this point, large and medium-sized cities such as Minsk, Kiev, Odessa, Riga, Vinnitsa, etc. fell into the hands of the German army one after another. In addition, more than 2.2 million Soviet troops were wiped out or became prisoners of the German army. Many senior generals, including General Pavlov, Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front, Lieutenant General Malankin, Chief of Staff of the Western Front, Major General Tupikov, Chief of Staff of the Southwestern Front, Lieutenant General Pushennikov, Commander of the Third Army, Major General Potapov, Commander of the Fifth Army, Lieutenant General Smirlov, Commander of the Eighteenth Army, Lieutenant General Konev, Commander of the Nineteenth Army, and Lieutenant General Petrovsky, Commander of the Twenty-first Army, were either killed in battle, committed suicide, or were seriously injured and captured.
Since the gateway to Moscow was open, the only thing that could stop the German army was Russia's terrible winter climate.
In addition to turning defeat into victory in Eastern Europe, the German army also made gains on the Mediterranean battlefield.
On October 16, 1941, Cyprus was occupied by German airborne troops.
Three weeks later, the German-Italian African Corps successfully captured the entire Jordan and helped the Vichy French Army successfully repel the attack of the Free French Army in Syria.
Under these circumstances, Turkey's position began to shift from pro-British neutrality to pro-Germany, and the situation in the Middle East once again became unfavorable to Britain and the Soviet Union. "Mr. Propaganda Minister obviously appreciated the article of His Excellency the Minister very much."
In a cafe on Unter den Linden in Germany, Goering's men once again sat with Shen Qianxuan. From his mouth, we can learn that Goering and other bigwigs in Nazi Germany had long known who the real author of the article "Thank You" was.
"Unfortunately, the Führer seems a little unhappy about this, and thinks that you seem to be a spy."
In response to the German's opening remarks, Shen Qianxuan calmly asked back: "Since you are here, I believe that the Air Force Commander-in-Chief does not agree with the judgment of your country's head of state."
The German responded self-deprecatingly: "Your Excellency, the Imperial Marshal actually cares more about money."
"Yes, I also believe that the power of money can transcend politics."
Shen Qianxuan responded seriously.
"From 1933 to 1938, we have already paid more than 160 million U.S. dollars for this. I think that in the face of this figure, my small act of usurpation should not arouse the Fuhrer's anger."
A considerable portion of the $160 million was spent on arms, with which Northwest purchased a large amount of arms including large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, BF-109 fighters, BF-110 fighter-bombers, He-111H horizontal bombers, Ju-87 dive bombers, Opel military trucks, Mercedes engines, small torpedo supply ships, as well as various dual-use military and civilian technologies including artificial petroleum and artificial rubber. In addition, there was a special fee for accommodating Jews.
In fact, before 1938, only 129,000 Jews fled Germany. Among them, 16,000 of the 37,000 Jews who left Germany in 1933 returned to Germany the following year. Therefore, the "business" in the Northwest was not too much.
After Kristallnacht on November 9, 1939, the number of Jews fleeing Germany increased suddenly, but the absorption of Jews from the northwest was greatly reduced due to the Japanese invasion of China.
But no matter what, until China's foreign aid line was completely cut off, Northwest China was still accepting a small number of Jewish refugees. As for Shanghai, where people could enter without a visa, the number of Jews that Northwest China planned to accept was even greater.
"This is only the past. If there are no new changes now, the Commander-in-Chief will naturally not be willing to make excuses for the Minister."
At this point, the Germans revealed their true colors.
"Mr. Minister, let's be frank. If you don't have new profit growth points, you will be expelled from Germany as an unwelcome person."
Shen Qianxuan was well prepared for the insatiable German's demands. He took a sip of coffee before responding calmly.
"Of course there are new profit growth points. All we need to do is circumvent the 'Regulations on the Prohibition of Jews from Migrating from the Reich's Administrative Areas' issued by the Reich Central Security Office."
"This is an order from His Excellency Heinrich Mueller, SS-Brigades Commander and Police Major General."
"I believe that this is not a difficult problem for the Prime Minister of Prussia, the Imperial Marshal, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force."
Shen Qianxuan interrupted the other party with a smile.
"And the more difficult the problem is, the higher the price can be, right?"
"Your words make sense. Indeed, Mr. Mueller cannot be compared with the Reich Marshal, but he has the SS National Leader behind him."
The German lowered his head and thought for a while, then finally quoted a price.
" Then let's triple the price. I believe the people behind you will agree."
"Three times, that's reasonable."
Shen Qianxuan didn't bargain, he just said.
"But the current situation is changing rapidly. It is not impossible for China and Germany to become antagonistic. This deal may stop at any time, so the sooner the better. "
"That's true. After all, the Empire's influence on your country is weaker than that of Britain and the United States."
The Germans agreed with Shen Qianxuan's judgment and therefore expressed their opinion.
"Okay, I'll report to the Imperial Marshal as soon as possible, and if possible, we'll start over from next Tuesday. Just?"
The German gestured.
"Your Excellency understands?"
"Kickbacks?"
Shen Qianxuan laughed.
"As usual, I'll deposit it directly into a Swiss bank for you."
"Very good, it's settled."
