The decisive battle against the Third Reich

In fact, Stalin didn't need to consider these issues at all. The United States and Britain had already considered these issues... Attacking the German army from the east and the west was the only strategy that made it difficult for the German army to concentrate its forces to deal with the United States and Britain. Therefore, the United States and Britain would not let the Soviet Union fall on the Eastern Front no matter what.

So, when Roosevelt proposed to launch an attack on northern France as soon as possible, Churchill did not object.

Roosevelt did not forget to mock Churchill at this time: "We should have done this earlier. If we had chosen to implement this plan earlier, the Germans would not have eliminated most of their threats on the Eastern Front and turned around to deal with us!"

Roosevelt was right, because if the Soviet Union still had the power to counterattack, then the United States and Britain would have taken the initiative strategically.

Because even if the Soviet army's strength was left there and did not launch an attack, the German army must deploy troops that could match it on the Eastern Front, otherwise the Eastern Front could collapse at any time.

But now...

The performance of the German army in the Battle of Kursk changed everything.

The biggest achievement was the destruction of more than 4,000 Soviet tanks... About 3,000 of them were destroyed by the Germans in the battle, including more than 1,000 tanks destroyed by the 48th Armored Army.

The other 1,000 tanks were because the Soviets could not bring these equipment out of the encirclement in time, and could only destroy the tanks to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Germans.

These were mainly tanks deployed by the Central Front and the Bryansk Front on the defense line of the Kursk salient.

As mentioned before, the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army had to use the method of laying mines and breaking roads to delay the German advance.

This would create a very embarrassing situation... The speed of laying mines and breaking roads could not be controlled.

If the road was broken quickly, it would be equivalent to helping the Germans encircle the Kursk salient, because the part of the road they broke was the throat of the salient, and the destruction of traffic also made it impossible for the Soviet troops in the Kursk salient to withdraw.

If the road was broken slowly, it would be possible for the Germans to break through and occupy and defeat the 5th Guards Tank Army before they further destroyed the roads and bridges.

On the other hand, it was very difficult to march and transport tanks, and it was almost impossible to withdraw all the tanks, artillery and other equipment from the front before the Germans closed the encirclement.

So after weighing the pros and cons, Stalin gritted his teeth and made a decision: to blow up the equipment and withdraw the troops.

These blown-up equipment included more than 1,000 tanks, more than 2,000 artillery pieces, and a large number of ammunition supplies and aircraft parts stored in Kursk.

But even so, 200,000 people were surrounded in the Kursk area and had to surrender.

In this way, the Soviet army eventually lost 800,000 people, 4,000 tanks, 5,000 artillery pieces, and 1,600 fighter planes.

The German army's losses were much less... 200,000 casualties, 1,000 tanks, 3,000 artillery pieces, and 500 fighter planes.

A considerable part of the loss of artillery and fighter planes was because the Soviet army accurately grasped the location of the German artillery positions and airports before the war and launched large-scale artillery attacks and bombings.

But in any case, this was undoubtedly a decisive victory for the German army.

Another result was the straightening of the Kursk Line.

Originally, the Kursk salient stretched to the German defense zone in a winding way, with a total length of 390 kilometers.

Such a long line of defense undoubtedly requires more troops and equipment, which may not be a big deal for the Soviet army, but it is a heavy burden for the German army, which is already short of troops.

But now, the total distance from Belgorod to Orel is only more than 100 kilometers, less than one-third of the original defense line, which can save the German army a lot of defensive troops.

More importantly, the Soviet army's strength was greatly reduced in this battle. There were only more than 5,000 tanks in total, and more than 4,000 were lost in this battle, and most of the remaining ones were light tanks reinforced by the United States and Britain, or tanks that were so slow that people vomited blood and had constant breakdowns.

This made the Soviet army almost lose the ability to launch a large-scale strategic counterattack alone... In other words, if the Soviet Union wanted to launch a counterattack of the same scale, it would take a long time, and it would be done only after slowly accumulating fuel and assistance from the United States and Britain.

Therefore, when the 21st Armored Division successfully arrived in Orel, the entire battlefield was boiling. Everyone, whether they knew each other or not, was cheering for the victory of Kursk at that moment.

The quality of German soldiers is relatively high... Here it refers to the quality of German soldiers in terms of culture and overall situation.

In this era, many soldiers fought in a muddle-headed way, only knowing to win battles, kill enemies, grab land, etc. intuitively and simply. The German army was somewhat different in this regard. They often knew what they were doing in terms of strategy.

For example, the baker handed Qin Chuan a cigarette and said, "It's finally over, an incredible victory, Lieutenant Colonel!"

Qin Chuan nodded in agreement. This victory was not easy, and it made people feel like they had survived a disaster.

Dominic gathered with the two men: "The Soviets must have been badly hurt in this battle, and it will take some time to recover!"

"Does this mean we will have a holiday?" Werner, who was resting in the snow nearby, said weakly: "God, I really need a good rest!"

"Forget the holiday, Werner!" Kuhn responded while fiddling with his rifle that had mechanical problems: "Unless we can completely win this war, what kind of holiday do you want us to get?"

Kuhn is right. At this time, even the training time for new recruits in Germany has been greatly shortened. How can it possibly give holidays to veterans with combat experience, especially the 1st Infantry Regiment, which is needed everywhere.

"I feel like I can't fight anymore!" Werner said a little tiredly: "This damn place, damn life, and damn war!"

Alfredo on the other side interjected: "I miss my days in the Italian army a little bit. I don't know why I chose to join you in the first place!"

"Because you are a fool, Alfredo!" said the baker. "We are all fools!"

The German soldiers laughed exaggeratedly.

Of course, veterans will feel this way. No matter what they experience too much, they will be tired and tired, not to mention the life and death tests on the battlefield again and again, more and more blood, death and poor living environment.

Qin Chuan is no exception. He is also tired of this kind of life.

But Qin Chuan knew that they had no choice but to continue on this road until the end of their destiny.

Qin Chuan sighed, he didn't know if he could change everything.