Imperial Overlord

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Kharkiv is an important city in Ukraine and an important city in the Soviet Union. Even for the present Soviet Union, it may be more important than Kyiv.

After all, if Kyiv is captured, the troops in the front of the Soviet army will still have the opportunity to retreat and continue the fight.

But if Kharkov is captured, then the German army will kill all the way to Donetsk, and everything will be over.

In fact, Zhukov, who was retreating to Kharkov, did not even want to lose the place of Sumy.

Because Su Mei was lost, the back of Kyiv was handed over to the German army. Maybe a huge encirclement could ruin the only remaining field troops in the Soviet Union.

"The troops in Kyiv must be pulled back... If they don't move now, they won't be able to move when they regret it..." The chief of staff advised Zhukov.

In fact, Zhukov also wanted to let Kyiv and other front-line troops take the initiative to retreat and maintain a more comfortable defensive formation.

But in practice, it's not the same thing. First of all, Stalin was unwilling to give up these important cities in front of him.

Not to mention, once the vicinity of Kyiv is occupied by the German army, a large number of grain-producing areas in Ukraine will become the control area of ​​the German army, which in itself will make the Soviet Union passive.

Others, not including the political influence, and the price that the retreating troops will pay, etc.

From a purely military point of view, long-term pain is not as good as short-term pain. Zhukov believes that retreating is the most suitable option for the current situation of the Soviet army.

However, from the perspective of overall advantages and disadvantages, giving up the Soviet army in Ukraine is almost giving up victory.

Starting from Ukraine, the German army can easily rush into the Caucasus region, destroy the Soviet Union's oil-producing areas, and put the Soviet army into a passive situation of lack of oil.

"Can I fight the Germans in the Sumy area? Buy some time for the troops behind?" Zhukov asked a little reluctantly.

"From a tactical point of view, this arrangement is no problem, but our current problem is that there are too many aspects to consider." The chief of staff glanced at the political commissar and sighed helplessly.

He didn't dare to mention Stalin directly, and he didn't dare to say anything like central intervention, so he could only complain vaguely to avoid unnecessary trouble.

It's just that Zhukov understood the people present, as did the comrades of the political commissar. The Soviet army had to fight not only against the Germans, but also against the orders of its own people.

Everyone knows that Zhukov's main force will have no problem fighting in the Sumy area.

But what is the purpose of their battle, it is worth thinking about: they are fighting here to buy time for the front-line combat troops in Kyiv and other areas to retreat.

But can they buy time to retreat? cannot! Because of the retreat of the millions of troops, Stalin basically would not allow it.

The final result was that Zhukov had a **** battle in Sumy, but the frontal troops were still dragging their feet without any action, which was equivalent to saying that the battle in Sumy was in vain.

Zhukov was unwilling to waste his troops in such a useless manner. So he could only bring his own troops to Kharkiv to join Vatutin.

At this moment, only Vatutin's troops, and the troops in his hands, are the forces that stop Guderian's Army Group B.

"The enemy can solve all problems with tactics, but I can't..." Zhukov felt that things in this world were really unfair.

What makes him helpless is that this world is so unfair, while giving him almost infinite strength, it also gives him infinite constraints.

"Let the troops advance faster! Abandon Su Mei! We can't waste our troops here, let's go to Kharkov!" Zhukov reluctantly gave the order to continue the retreat.

On this day, the Soviet army abandoned Sumy and continued to retreat to Kharkov. The Soviet army, who had persisted in Kursk for half a month, was defeated like a mountain and gave up the Kursk region and retreated all the way into the territory of Ukraine.

The vanguard of the Guderian Army Group B, which followed the Soviet army, appeared on the periphery of Sumy a few hours later.

After entering Samui, they found that they seemed to have come to a different world. The German soldiers with weapons couldn't believe their eyes.

The local Ukrainians in Sumy, holding flowers and waving flags of various colors, warmly welcomed the arriving Germans on both sides of the road.

The German vanguard, who had already prepared for a fierce street battle in Sumy and had to delay for several days to capture the city, found that their judgment was outrageously wrong.

Local Ukrainians even asked about joining the army. Many women held garlands and cheered wildly at the German armored vehicles.

Here the German soldiers are not the invaders, but the messengers of peace to rescue them. So after successfully winning Su Mei, Guderian probably knew what he was going to do next.

After taking Sumy, Guderian was in no hurry to go south along the road and railway to attack Kharkov.

Instead, he turned his guns around, detoured west, and killed Kyiv! The spearheads of Army Group B were advancing rapidly, and one day later, on August 20, they captured Romne!

After informing Army Group d of his intention to attack, Field Marshal Bork immediately launched a frontal onslaught, launching a surprise attack on Vinnesor.

After capturing Vinnesor, the Germans, regardless of their loneliness, attacked Uman along the kilometer.

While Army Group d under Bock killed Uman's colleagues, Army Group B, under the command of Guderian, captured Lubne.

At this time, on the entire huge map of Ukraine, the strategic intentions of the German army finally emerged.

Army Group B encircled the Soviet forces in the Kyiv area in the northwest. The troops of Army Group d flanked in the southeast.

The two sides tacitly formed a huge encirclement and packed 700,000 Soviet troops into a huge pocket.

Although this small encirclement is a bit worse than the plan to encircle the more than 2 million Soviet regular troops in the entire Ukraine, it is better to be able to fight quickly.

As long as the 700,000 Soviet troops in this encirclement are defeated, it will be impossible for the Soviet troops to organize a new line of defense on the west side of the Donetsk River.

At this time, Zhukov, who hurriedly retreated to Kharkov, realized that the German army had abandoned the strategic plan to wipe out all the Soviet troops in Ukraine, and began to attack the Soviet troops in Kyiv in a targeted manner!