There is a reason why Big Beard doesn't believe Rock and Winston's reminders.

All successful people have one characteristic, which is confidence in themselves. The severity is directly proportional to the achievements. The higher the achievements, the greater the self-confidence.

At the level of Big Beard, other people's reminders are dispensable to him. Even if Rock and Winston put the "Barbarossa Plan" in front of Big Beard, Big Beard will only believe in his own judgment.

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The same goes for the mustache.

Ordinarily, with the failure of another little dwarf, the mustache should fully learn from the experience.

Actually no, if everything in this world can be explained by logic, then this world will not be logical.

Even so, in order to allow Russia to persist for a while longer under the fierce German offensive and to pave the way for future cooperation, Southern Africa still maintains close trade relations with Russia. This is how Russian rubber comes from.

However, Roark did not expect that the bearded man would trust the Germans to such an extent and had no precautions at all. This made Roark also begin to doubt the possibility of the "Thunderstorm Plan".

According to what the Russians later said, the "Thunderstorm Plan" was launched a few days later than the "Barbarossa Plan", so the Germans succeeded.

This statement is somewhat reasonable. After all, while Germany was preparing the "Barbarossa Plan", Russia was also accumulating a large number of troops on the border. It seemed that it did have a plan against Germany.

Now Rock believes that the purpose of Bearded's hoarding troops at the border is more to deter the Germans. Otherwise, the Russians would not have been transporting important strategic materials to Germany the day before the Germans launched their attack.

The German attack was indeed very powerful.

After conquering Europe, the Germans had perfected their lightning tactics. Before German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop submitted the letter of challenge to the Russian Ambassador to Germany at 4 a.m. on the 22nd, the German Air Force had already mobilized to attack airports in Russia.

The first blow.

This time is very precise.

Luftwaffe aircraft take off from airports in Germany, and it only takes about 15 minutes to fly to Russia.

The German Air Force plane took off from the airport at 3:45 a.m. and entered Russia 15 minutes after flying.

In other words, at the same time that Ribbentrop submitted the letter of challenge to the Russian ambassador in Germany, the Luftwaffe fighter planes had already entered Russian airspace.

Russia was unprepared for this.

In fact, as early as midnight on the 22nd, the Russians had already noticed the German troops' preparations for attack. The Russian military command issued a warning to the frontline troops, asking the frontline troops to pay attention to the abnormal actions of the German troops.

What is surprising is that the Russian frontline troops ignored the reminders from the headquarters and no troops entered the alert state. This resulted in almost no hindrance when the German army launched its attack.

On the 22nd alone, nearly 1,500 Russian military aircraft were destroyed, of which more than 800 were destroyed on the ground.

The Germans themselves lost only 35 aircraft.

This ratio is very cruel.

Excluding the 800 that were destroyed on the ground, 700 aircraft successfully took off to fight.

The battle loss ratio of 20 to 1 fully proves the gap between the Russian Air Force, which has experienced the Great Purge, and the German Air Force, which has experienced two years of European war.

In the first three days of the battle, a total of 3,922 Russian aircraft were destroyed.

For Rock, this result is not surprising.

What surprised Rock was the German command system.

More than 4 million Axis troops participated in the execution of "Plan Barbarossa".

The Axis forces were divided into three parts and started operating simultaneously on a front with a length of more than 1,500 kilometers. The sheer number and close coordination were astonishing. Even the southern African army could not do better.

What surprised Rock at the same time was the speed with which the Russian army was defeated.

When the German army launched the "Barbarossa Plan", Russia accumulated 4.3 million troops on the Russian-German border. This was probably the largest force in the history of human war.

Compared with the huge military strength, the number of heavy weapons of the Russian army is equally impressive.

14,000 tanks!

Over 9,000 aircraft!

About 33,000 artillery pieces!

Without considering the performance of weapons, Southern Africa would have to spend all its money to get such a large number.

Almost at the same time that the German Air Force launched air strikes against Russia, German ground troops also broke through the Russian border and launched an attack on the Russian army.

Russian ground forces were equally defenseless, and the German forces were advancing smoothly in almost all directions except in Brest.

Brest Fortress is located on the east bank of the Bug River at the junction of Belarus and Poland. It is an important transportation artery connecting Warsaw-Moscow and Lithuania-West Belarus-West Ukraine. It is also an ancient city with a long history.

After Russia and Germany partitioned Poland, Brest Fortress became a military camp and returned to Russian hands.

The Russian army reinforced and repaired the Brest Fortress, but because the workers who repaired the fortress were prisoners, the progress was impressive.

By the time Barbarossa was launched, the reinforcement and repair work of the Brest Fortress had not yet been completed. Many key positions where heavy firepower should be deployed were still empty. The troops guarding the fortress did not have heavy weapons, and the air defense troops did not have anti-aircraft guns or artillery.

The troops had no artillery, and the soldiers could only fight with light weapons.

It was precisely because of the Russians' laxity that before the war broke out, the Germans expected that it would only take a few hours to capture the Brest Fortress.

What broke the German illusions was the Russians' determination to fight.

The Russian army guarding the Brest Fortress relied on small arms to withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of German heavy artillery and aircraft, and fought bloody battles with the German armored forces for a month, becoming a legend in the first stage of the Russian Patriotic War.

The Russians later made a movie to commemorate the battle that took place in Brest Fortress.

On the 22nd, Southern Africa did not yet know the extent of Russian losses.

But all the news is not good for the Russians.

At noon on the 22nd, Rock received new news. Lithuania, which had just been annexed by Russia last year, declared independence and sent troops to join the Axis powers and participate in the attack on Russia.

Rock was not surprised at all by this news.

Now it's just Lithuania. Next, the three Baltic countries will join the Axis Powers. The troubles for the Russians have just begun.

"Fortunately we didn't land in Europe." Stoudemire was frightened into a cold sweat by the attack power displayed by the Germans. If this pace continues, Russia will be destroyed before winter.

"We are not Russians!" Henry looked down on Russia. Russia's performance in the two world wars was not good.

Russia's withdrawal midway through the last world war almost led to the complete collapse of the Allied Powers.

This time, the Allies reminded them many times before the war, but Big Beard did not respond at all. Therefore, Russia is in the situation it is today entirely due to itself.

Henry's confidence in the southern African army is about the same as Bearded's confidence in the Russian army.

The difference is that the southern African army deserves Henry's trust, as does the Russian army

"If Russia is defeated quickly, what will we do?" Owen also expressed great concern. Once the Germans conquer Russia and send their troops south, the consequences will be disastrous.

So the Russians must not lose.

At least you can't lose too quickly.

"We have to give the Russians some time." Roque still trusts Russia. This country is amazing. Only when it is most dangerous can its true strength be unleashed.

Magical indeed.

When Napoleon invaded Russia, he also won first and then lost. Rather than saying that Napoleon was defeated by Russia's weather, it was better to say that Napoleon was defeated by Russia's determination.

During World War I, Russia was not at all exhausted. Although the Russian military performed poorly, its withdrawal from the war was mainly due to the change of domestic regime.

The Russo-Finnish War is also evidence. Compared with Finland, Russia was completely dominant but fought like that. If the Russian army had not performed so poorly in the Russo-Finnish War, Mustache would not have made up his mind to fall out with Russia.

Stoudemire, Henry, and Irving didn't know the direction of the Russo-German war.

Rock knew it.

So when Rock saw the battle report, he was not surprised at all.

It's June 27th now.

Just now, the German Army Group Center, led by Marshal von Bock, carried out a pincer assault with powerful armored forces. It took only five days to advance 250 miles and complete the encirclement of the Russian Western Front.

In the German encirclement, there were 320,000 Russian troops.

Although the Russian troops in the encirclement have not surrendered yet, they have become unable to fly.

This was just the beginning of the defeat of the Russian army.

"Lithuania has joined the Axis Powers. Russia's Western Front Army is surrounded. The Southwest Front Army is about to be surrounded. More than half of the tanks and a third of the aircraft have been destroyed. After a while, the Germans will occupy St. Petersburg." Stoudemire

Lamented, he saw no possibility of Russian victory.

"No, the Germans cannot capture St. Petersburg." Rock inadvertently revealed the secret.

St. Petersburg is now called Leningrad.

During World War II in another time and space, Leningrad was besieged by the Germans for 872 days. The Russians preserved their spiritual symbol at the cost of 3.5 million soldiers and 1 million civilian lives. The number of German casualties and missing persons exceeded 500,000.

The losses were indeed heavy.

But despite such heavy losses, the Russians are still fighting, which fully proves the determination of the Russians.

"Unless our great father Tsar can conjure up ten armored divisions, and we have armored divisions like ours in southern Africa, it is possible for the Russians to hold St. Petersburg." Irving was not optimistic either.

Although the Russians have a large number of aircraft and tanks, their performance is not as advanced as the Germans.

Modern warfare has long been an era of victory based on numbers.

So as long as the Russians survive the most difficult stage, they can achieve final victory.
To be continued...