In the order from south to north, a total of 4 fronts were invested on the battlefield of the southern wing of the Red Army:

The southernmost point is the Stalingrad Front commanded by Yelemenko. Relying on the Volga River, it is responsible for defending the front line from Astrakhan to Stalingrad. He absorbed the main force of the Caucasus Front, with a total force of up to 750,000;

The second is the Don Front Army commanded by Rokosovsky. Relying on the solid urban defense system, it guards the Volga, Don and Stalingrad triangle areas, with a front line of about 200 kilometers and a total force of 550,000;

Further north is the southwestern front commanded by Vatujing. Relying on the right bank of the Don River, it guards the flank of Stalingrad. The front line is about 300 kilometers and the total force is 600,000;

Finally, there is the newly formed Central Front, responsible for connecting Tambov with the Southwest Front. The core key is Borisso Grebsk, which guards the intersection of three railways. The front is about 250 kilometers and a total force of 500,000.

In addition to the 00,000 troops on the front line, Zhukov also held the theater reserve team with Malinovsky as the commander of the Independent Army. He said it was a group army, but in fact the force exceeded 250,000, and another 150,000 troops were scattered on the northern coast of the Caspian Sea.

The South Wing battlefield has a total of 2.8 million troops, but the total number of tanks and aircraft is only over 2,000 (Note: The relevant troop statistics include the air force and logistics forces assigned to the Front Army Defense Zone, and the actual front-line land officers and soldiers are fewer). Although it is not clear that the highest commander above the four Front Army, Zhukov is in command and coordination most of the time, responsible for the South Wing Front.

The central battlefield is centered on defending Moscow, and also has four fronts with a total force of about 2.65 million.

At the southern end is the Bryansk Front Army commanded by General Leider, responsible for connecting the Central Front Army. The core key is to guard Tambov, with a front line of about 250 kilometers and a total force of 550,000;

Then there was the Western Front guarding Moscow, commanded by General Meletskov, who was responsible for defending the semi-arc defensive belt from Tula, Ryazan, and to Lezhev, and Klin. The front line was about 550 kilometers, with a total force of 1.15 million;

Finally, the Kalinin Front, commanded by General Pulkayev, was responsible for the defense from Novgorod to Ryev, covering the flanks of the Western Front, with a front line of about 400 kilometers and a total force of 750,000.

The base camp reserve team was reorganized after being removed from the South Wing battlefield, but now it is only a nominal organization of about 200,000, which is actually useless.

Although the total number of Red Army troops on the central battlefield is slightly less than that of the southern wing, the number of tanks and aircraft exceeds 2,500, and the training degree is better, it can be regarded as a more combat-effective war zone.

The northern front battlefield is centered on defending Leningrad. Although it also has the organization of four fronts: Volkhov, Leningrad, Northwest and Karelia, its total strength is only about 1.85 million. Among them, the Northwest Front Army also assumes the function of a strategic reserve team in the Moscow War Theater. Due to the relatively small organization of the front army, the base camp has abolished the Volkhov Front Army. However, due to the poor transportation conditions and the meteorological conditions on the northern front, large-scale front troops such as the South Flank are not conducive to command, and finally it was broken down into four front troops, and the independent 7th Army undertakes the reserve team in this theater; the strength of all front troops is generally around 400,000-450,000, and has a theater reserve team of about 100,000 people. The theater has the least technical weapons, and tanks and aircraft are only above 1,000.

Among these troops confronting the front line and the axis, except for the supplementary troops found through all means, the other troops also paid a significant price. Take the Navy as an example. Before the war, the Black Sea Fleet was an important part of the second only to the Baltic Fleet. After the fall of Sevastopol and the entire Black Sea Coast Area was lost, all the officers and soldiers of the Black Sea Fleet were converted to the army, with a very few exceptions, with all the exceptions. Generally, those who act as infantry, who can operate naval guns to become artillery soldiers, and those who can drive torpedo boats to change their careers to become armored soldiers, and those who can keep the navy are useless. The air force also cannot avoid the transfer of pilots, and the pilots will definitely not be reduced, but due to the reduction of control area, the airports and anti-aircraft artillery are lost on a large scale. This batch of defensive forces are also transferred to the army as well as anti-aircraft artillery forces.

For Germany, a very favorable situation was that it finally tied the opponent in terms of the number of technical weapons. At the beginning of Barbarossa, the number of tanks invested in the axis was about 4,000, while the Soviet tanks exceeded 23,000, and 14,000 were concentrated in the western military regions. After nearly two years of combat, the axis was destroyed and more than 40,000 Soviet tanks were seized. While the number of its own tanks exceeded 5,000 (East Line), the Red Army tanks were reduced to only a little over 6,000 (there were more than 1,500 vehicles in the Far East and Siberia, and more than 1,000 vehicles were still in Central Asia and reserve training).

However, the Red Army still had more than 13,000 tanks, but more than 4,000 of them were sealed, which was an inevitable choice. After losing the Baku oil field, the source of oil was sharply reduced, and the overall supply of the whole Soviet Union was even less than that of Germany before the Middle East oil fields. However, Germany's crude oil production exceeded the crude oil production of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union and Germany in the same period last year and completed the change of position.

The Soviet Union had insufficient coal resources, far from being ignored than Germany, and there was no coal-to-oil project. Therefore, despite the urgent measures such as increasing the mining of new oil fields, asking for more supplies, and compressing fuel consumption in other fields, the oil production gap could not be filled in the short term.

In addition, due to the continuous losses of the armored forces, the reserve force of the Deli armored troops was seriously insufficient. Under the strong suggestion of Zhukov and Vasilevsky, Stalin was forced to issue an order requiring all fronts to seal off most of the light tanks in the troops, such as the bt-7t-26t-60t-70, and other light tanks, not only were they completely stopped production, but those that had been produced were also forced to reduce use in order to leave the most precious fuel and vehicle units to trucks, T-34 series tanks and Su series tank destroyers.

After this reorganization, the t-34t-43 of the more than 6,000 tanks confronted the axis accounted for more than 80%, which is similar to Germany's total replacement of No. 2 and No. 3. Since the popularity of Soviet light armored vehicles is very low, a small number of light tanks are still left to undertake functions such as reconnaissance, alertness, and liaison, but no longer invest in armored warfare to avoid unnecessary losses.

Similar situations also occurred on the aircraft. At the beginning of Barbarossa, the number of aircraft deployed to attack the axis was about 3,500. During the same period, more than 20,000 Soviet aircraft were more than 20,000, and more than 10,000 were directly engaged in the axis. After nearly two years of continuous combat, under the high exchange ratio of 1:7 or more, there were more than 6,000 aircraft on the front line of the Soviet Union (there were nearly 2,000 aircraft in the Far East, and more than 1,000 aircraft in Central Asia and the hinterland).

Since the Soviet Union relies more on British and American supplies in high-grade aviation fuel, foreign aids have now cut off their attacks on aviation more than on armored soldiers. No matter how reluctant they are, facing less and less fuel supply, the Red Army aviation troops can only deal with it by reducing the organizational structure and reducing flight hours, and the latter one will further cause the quality of pilots to decline.

What is different is that Germany has an absolute advantage in armored troops, but in the air force field, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland and even Slovakia, there are a large number of pilots participating in the operation, and their performance is better than ground troops. After Germany eliminated the b-109 and Stuka exported a large number of the axial brothers, the axial armies performed more actively, and the pressure on Red Army pilots continued to increase.

Although the monthly oil production is less than that of Germany in the same period last year, fortunately, the Soviet Union neither had to maintain a huge submarine team nor had to assist allies, and the number of cars was relatively small. Therefore, after the rectification of armor and aviation forces, its monthly fuel consumption dropped to a level that was basically the same as the output. But what made Zhukov worried was that the weather is gradually getting warmer and the demand for heating oil basically did not exist. If the supply conditions cannot be significantly improved in winter, I am afraid that a large number of people will be frozen to death, but Comrade Stalin seems to be unable to care about so many.

"After the Caucasus region was lost in April, after efforts, we initially stabilized the situation along the Volga River in Astrakhan and Stalingrad, but the situation was very dangerous. The Caspian Sea has become a common place for the enemy and us to defend, and the defense hole has been opened." There was a saying that Huasilevsky did not say, but everyone knew very well. Fortunately, the Caspian Sea is a closed sea area. If the Black Sea is directly connected to and can pass through warships, I am afraid that the German and Italian fleet will have to embark on a large-scale landing, rather than fighting small warships of about 100 tons like now.

"In the past month, we have found three places where radio signals surge." Huasilevsky pointed to the map with a coaching stick and said, "One is in the direction of Smolensk, which is the location of the enemy Central Army Group; the other is near Orel, and the intelligence shows that the enemy Eastern Army Group gathers. This is the new Army Group formed this year, positioned as the strategic reserve team of the Eastern Front, with a large number of rebels inside; the third is near Voronezh, and the intelligence shows that Hot's armored army is there, and the rest is unknown. But the southern wing, especially the line south of Stalingrad, is relatively calm, and is somewhat unnatural."

"The General Staff has four judgments on the possible direction of the enemy's attack. First, attack from the Lezhev-Viazima line and re-establish the protruding unit. I think the possibility is relatively small; second, attack from the Orel line, deviate from the Tula direction, and encircle Moscow from the southern line. This possibility exists and is quite likely; third, attack from Voronezh and attack in depth, trying to encircle our Bryansk Front. This possibility is greater, but not the main attack direction; fourth, rely on superior forces, use the method of encirclement on all sides to seize Stalingrad."

"Encircling from all sides?" Everyone looked at each other. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!