The severe cold winter of 1942 gave the Soviet army, which had almost collapsed in the early winter, a chance to breathe again. In this winter, Britain and the United States increased their aid to the Soviet Union. Thousands of aircraft, tens of thousands of tank engines, and a large number of machine tools and copper and aluminum, which were scarce for the Russians, which made the Soviet army regain its vitality again.

After the winter entered, the Axis coalition forces took the initiative to give up the siege against Taritzin and retreated to the Zimryonsk line. However, on the northern front, the German army had been besieging Petrograd, and on other fronts, they were basically in a calm confrontation. In Turkestan, the German, Austrian, Italian and Caucasian coalition forces commanded by General Sanders crossed the Caspian Sea and swept the entire Central Asian wasteland unstoppable. In this winter, it had advanced to the Emba River north of the Aral Sea, and the troops headed directly to the Ural line in the heart of the Soviet Union.

After spring, both sides began a long-planned attack. In the lower reaches of the Volga River, the Axis Alliance continued to advance towards Taritzin, but in eastern Ukraine, the Soviet army suddenly launched an attack from the junction of the defense line between the German and Austrian armies, recapturing Belgorod, occupied by the Austrian army, and caught the German and Austrian coalition unprepared.

After emergency consultation, the General Staff of the German and Austrian armies decided to form a joint command to uniformly command the Axis powers in the southeastern Ukraine region, and appointed Marshal Booker, commander-in-chief of the German Southern Cluster, as the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. The coalition forces under his jurisdiction include the German 1st and 5th Armored Army, the 2nd, 6th, 12th and 17th Army, the 2nd Hungarian Army of Austro-Hungary, the 6th Bohemia Army and the 9th Galician Army, and also includes the 3rd Army of Ukraine, the 8th Army of Italy and the 2nd Army of Don River, and the total strength is about 1.1 million.

After Marshal Booker received his appointment, he began to mobilize troops and actively prepare for counterattacks against Belgorod and even the entire upper Don River.

The rain at the turn of spring and summer season was accompanied by strong winds on the vast Eastern Ukrainian plains. From time to time, a bright lightning flash passed through the sky, and thick dark clouds enveloped the world, indicating the arrival of another heavy rain. In the wind and rain, a troop of soldiers dragging dozens of cars spewed white smoke and sped on the plain, making waves of whistle sounds from time to time. On both sides of the railway line, military trains loaded with heavy equipment such as tanks, armored vehicles and artillery can be seen on standby on temporary tracks. On some small stations, mountains of military supplies were piled up everywhere.

The front of the train, the coal car and the rear of the train are two armed air defense cars. Inside are fully armed Austro-Hungarian soldiers, and each car is equipped with a double-barrel 20mm Isleyan air defense artillery and two anti-aircraft machine guns. Now it is getting closer and closer to the front line. Although the German and Austrian air forces have an absolute advantage on the battlefield, they are still occasionally Irish attack aircraft of the Soviet Russian Air Force break through the air defense line of the German and Austrian coalition forces and bomb the transport convoy in the rear.

A few hours later, the train drove into a small station in the forest outside Kharkov. The train began to slow down. The brake walls sharply rubbed against the wheels, and the body trembled violently. The train started to move slowly. After turning on another route for about 5 minutes, the train stopped completely and slowly stopped on the edge of a spacious and long platform.

The soldiers got off the train, and the entire platform was filled with busy crowds, full of fully armed soldiers. The soldiers who arrived here were shouted out by the military police according to the troops and lined up to the cafeteria to collect food and drinks. Then they walked away from the station. At this time, the weather outside the station had become very hot, and there were many idle Russians and Ukrainians around the station. They were curiously looking at the new Austro-Hungarian soldiers, just like watching monkeys in a zoo.

These recruits who had just come out of the Limburg recruit training camp carried heavy backpacks and under the command of the military police, left the town and boarded the military vehicles waiting outside the town. They were sent to the garrison of the Austro-Hungarian 27th Mechanized Infantry Division along the Korocha River in southern Kharkov. The honorary title of the 27th Austro-Hungarian Army was "Galician Division", which was a meritorious force during World War I. They were also one of the first troops in the Austro-Hungarian Army to be adapted into a mechanized infantry division, and belonged to the elite of the Austro-Hungarian Army. However, this unit also suffered heavy losses in last year's operations, with more than one-third of its personnel loss. After the Battle of Belgorod, they were forced to withdraw to the second line for rest and replenishment.

The recruits will be here for more than a month of harsh pre-war training and will be sent to the frontline.

The organization of the Austro-Hungarian Army's armored troops and mechanized troops is slightly different from that of the German army. The theory of Austro-Hungarian armored troops was deeply influenced by General Emanchberg, while the organization of the German armored troops was deeply influenced by Guderian, Brenberg and Fritz. All armored troops formed armored troops for large-scale use, but weakened the offensive and defensive capabilities of the infantry division.

However, Echmanberg attaches great importance to the support role of tanks to infantry, and advocates that an equal number of tank troops should be equipped with an assault force in the infantry unit, and serves as an assault force during attack, and is used to focus on eliminating the enemy's assault forces during defense, and to quickly reinforce and block the broken defense gap.

Due to the limitations of financial resources and industrial production capacity, Austro-Hungary only formed three heavy armored divisions with 9th battalion equipment of 416 tanks. The armored divisions formed later were composed of a tank regiment of 3rd battalion and a light armored division composed of a mechanized infantry regiment. In this way, the armored division is equipped with 212 tanks each year.

Unlike the German army, the largest organization of the Austro-Hungarian Army's armored troops is the armored division, and the armored divisions are generally used by various armies. In addition, all the mechanized infantry divisions in Austro-Hungary have a tank battalion equipped with 78 tanks, which has strong combat capabilities.

In this world, the Soviet Union was greatly weakened, and because the Austro-Hungarian Empire still existed, the German-Austrian alliance itself had the strength to compete with the United States in terms of industrial capabilities. By 1943, Germany's annual steel production had reached 39 million tons, and Austro-Hungarian steel production exceeded 25 million tons, three times that of the Soviet Union. However, because Germany and Austro-Austrian countries had to take into account the development of their naval forces, the Soviet army focused on army equipment, and the two sides were almost the same in terms of tank equipment, and even the number of artillery equipped by the Soviet army was nearly one-third more than that of Germany and Austria.

However, in terms of air strength, the Soviet army was completely suppressed, which is one of the main reasons why the Soviet army has always been passive on the battlefield. In addition, in terms of tank performance, quality and tactics, the Soviet army was also completely at a disadvantage.

Now, more than 3,200 tanks and 1.1 million troops have gathered in Marshal Booker's hands, and is preparing to do a big battle on the upper reaches of the Don River. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!