At the end of 1941, the war rekindled to the banks of the Volga River.

With the support of the German and Austrian army, the Caucasus and the Don River coalition finally drove the Soviet Red Army out of the Caucasus region. In the Kuban grassland, the rolling iron stream formed by the German and Austrian armored clusters, like a river breaking through the Soviet defense line, and along the Don River, rushed to the most important inland hub on the Volga River, Chalizin.

In Ukraine, the German and Ukrainian coalition won a major victory in the Battle of Kiev in the summer and autumn. By early October, by the end of the entire battle, about one and a half million Soviet Red Army had become prisoners of war, and by Christmas, more than one million were captured.

Many Soviet officers and soldiers regarded this war as an opportunity for Russia to change their system. They wanted the German army to win, so they surrendered in large numbers... Many senior Soviet officials also ran to the enemy and expressed their desire to fight against the Soviets. The German army was regarded as liberators and was welcomed by the Ukrainians and even the Russians. The Ukrainians regarded William II as the "savior of Europe", and the Belarusians were also eager to fight side by side with the German army.

In this time and space, the military power of the Axis powers is much stronger than that of another time and space at the same time. The German army dispatched nearly 5,000 tanks of 12 armored divisions on the front lines of Ukraine and the Don River, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also dispatched nearly 3,000 tanks of 8 armored divisions. In addition to the Ukrainian, Don River, Caucasus and Italian troops, the number of Axis power tanks on the Eastern Front exceeded 10,000, and the number of military aircraft dispatched was as high as 7,000.

By the end of 1941, the German army had equipped about 460 "Tiger" heavy tanks and about 800 latest "Leopard" medium tanks, and about 2,800 improved Mark Four tanks equipped with 75mm long tube tank guns, which far exceeded the German equipment in another time and space.

The Austro-Hungarian Army also equipped 2,000 BT35 tanks weighing 32 tons and 1,000 BT39 tanks weighing 42 tons and equipped with 83 mm tank guns. Moreover, the tanks equipped by the Ukrainian, Don and Caucasian troops are themselves products of Germany and Austria. Only the Italian armored forces are slightly weak.

In the 1930s, in order to prevent the army from threatening its authority, Zhuyashvili carried out a cruel cleansing of well-trained and most intelligent senior officers. The entire "Great Purge Movement" had a greater impact on armored and aviation units that required a large number of excellent professional commanding officers and technical officers. The Soviet army's lack of professional commanders caused a sharp decline in combat effectiveness.

In terms of aviation forces, although the Soviet army equipped nearly 20,000 combat aircraft, most of them lagged behind in performance. There were only about 2,000 new combat aircraft, which was at a disadvantage overall.

The war only lasted for a year and a half, and these old combat aircraft of the Soviet army had been lost. If it weren't for the nearly 4,000 aircraft and a large number of engines and aluminum materials provided by the United States and Britain, the huge Soviet Air Force, which ranked first in the world in the pre-war equipment, would have ceased to exist.

Even so, the Axis Air Force still had an absolute advantage in the Eastern Front battlefield.

Within six months after the start of the Axis powers' large-scale counterattack campaign, the Russians lost armored vehicles as huge as aircraft losses, with a total loss of about 17,000 vehicles, accounting for 70% of the total pre-war Soviet equipment. Although the Soviet army also equipped a large number of good performance KV1 and T34 tanks, the course of the war showed that the Soviet Red Army tank personnel were extremely poorly trained, had rusty tactics, and were chaotic in command systems, and they would be defeated soon in battle.

For the allies, 1941 was undoubtedly a dark year. The British completely lost control of the sea and fell into a state of complete blockade. Although the Americans had participated in the war, they were still not ready for war by the end of the year. Their strategy was to stick to their homeland. On the battlefield of Eastern Europe, the Russians were retreating step by step, and now they have almost retreated to the state before the outbreak of the war. In the battlefield of Southeast Asia, the Axis powers had an absolute advantage. The Japanese Navy lost half of the aircraft carriers. With the fall of the Philippines, the British and Japanese coalition forces, who had been shouting to defend Malaya to the death, began to abandon the Malay Peninsula and retreat to Australia along the Dutch East Indies.

Just like during the last World War, the severe cold became the best weapon for the Russians, and the winter of 1941 seemed particularly cold. The heavy snow finally stopped the Axis powers from advancing, giving the Russians another chance to breathe.

As time entered mid-January 1942, traffic near Dnepropetrovsk, the major Ukrainian border town and the largest railway hub with the Don River Republic was completely paralyzed by heavy snow. The winter in Russia was frighteningly cold, often below minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the snow in some places was more than one meter deep. This made it difficult for the coalition forces to replenish the frontline.

The Axis Alliance fought fiercely with the Soviet army on the periphery of Kharkov throughout the winter. In fact, the most difficult thing was the transportation troops on the logistics supply line between the two sides.

This winter, the supply of nearly one million Axis coalition forces on the front line was mainly completed through air transportation.

In this time and space, due to the existence of Asian and African colonies, the air transport industries of Germany and Austro-Hungary continued to develop after World War I, which also led to the prosperity of aircraft manufacturing industries in both countries. The aircraft manufacturing industries of the two countries are much more developed than the other time and space. In Germany, Aladdo, Dornier, Folk Woolf, Junckers and Henkel, five major aircraft manufacturing companies had rich experience in designing and manufacturing twin-engine, three-engine medium-engine transport aircraft and four-engine heavy-engine transport aircraft before the war. The four major aircraft manufacturing companies of the Austro-Hungary Empire have developed more stably due to the industrial protection policies of the empire.

Before the start of the Eastern Front Counterattack Campaign, the German and Austrian military had equipped about 1,200 medium-sized transport aircraft and nearly 400 four-engine heavy transport aircraft. In order to ensure the supply of materials on the front line, the military requisitioned nearly 2,000 transport aircraft of various types from civil aviation companies, with a total of more than 3,000 transport aircraft, providing nearly half of the air support for the Axis powers' winter operations and strongly supporting the Axis coalition's operations on the Eastern Front.

With the support of a large number of transport aircraft, the Axis forces were even able to launch a medium-sized counterattack campaign, but Austro-Hungary opposed a full-scale war with the Soviet Union and had always wanted to control the war to a limited extent. As long as the original border between Finland, the Three Baltic Kingdoms, Belarus, Ukraine, the Don and other countries before the war were restored, and "limited punishment" were implemented on the Soviet Union.

The top leaders of Germany and Austria do not want a unified Russian state in the East. The existence of the "red regime" will allow the two countries to easily achieve their strategic intention of splitting and dismembering Russia in the name of "anti-Brazzard".

Of course, Lee Haydn also hopes that the Eastern country can seize this opportunity to weaken Russia and take the opportunity to strengthen itself. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!