The Rise of the Third Reich

In April and May of 1941, the German and Italian sides, as well as the British and American sides, were all going all out to prepare for the upcoming decisive battle of the new war - this was not a matter of words, the German and Italian sides needed to A large number of troops and aircraft will be deployed to Spain and Norway, and super artillery weighing hundreds of tons or thousands of tons will be transported to the Spanish front line through France.

On the British side, it needs to mobilize troops to strengthen the defense of Gibraltar and the Shetland Islands, and at the same time speed up the commissioning of several aircraft carriers, and dispatch the navy to occupy Portugal's Madeira Islands and Spain's Canary Islands.

In short, the preparation work for both sides is very heavy and cannot be completed within two or three months.

While both sides were busy preparing for the decisive battle, a rare period of calm occurred throughout Europe. If it weren't for the frequent sounds of air raid sirens and bomb explosions at night, people would almost think that the world war was over.

But at this moment, in the distant and remote Afghanistan, the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army were singing a song of victory and rushing bravely and proudly towards Kandahar, the important southern town where the Afghan reactionaries are entrenched.

The Soviet Red Army was of course powerful, and Stalin followed the principle of killing chickens with T34 this time, and the troops dispatched were also very large. The main force of the Central Asian Front Army (Central Asian Military District) was dispatched. At the end of 1940, the 53rd Army Group had just been formed to defeat the Red Army. The commander was General Ksenefontov, who had made great achievements in the Soviet-Russian Civil War.

Taking into account the terrain and transportation facilities of Afghanistan, the 53rd Group Army did not have any mechanized troops when it entered Afghanistan. Instead, it deployed a large number of mountain and cavalry troops. Including 7 mountain divisions, including the 9th Mountain Division, 20th Mountain Division, 28th Mountain Division, 63rd Mountain Division, 68th Mountain Division, 83rd Mountain Division and 194th Mountain Division, as well as the Kalmyk Mongolian 1st Cavalry Division , 4th Cavalry Division, 17th Mountain Cavalry Division, 18th Mountain Cavalry Division and other 4 cavalry divisions. In addition, the 53rd Group Army also has a 64th Infantry Corps with 4 infantry divisions.

A powerful invasion composed of 7 mountain divisions, 4 cavalry divisions and 4 infantry divisions, a total of 15 divisions (divided into 4 corps), no, it should be a powerful liberation force. Under the order of Comrade Stalin "must liberate Afghanistan", the 53rd Army of the Red Army first divided its troops into two groups and moved south from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, occupying Kunduz and Tajikistan north of the Hinduku Mountains in Afghanistan. Har, Balkh, Jowzjan and other places; the other route went south from Turkmenistan along the Central Asia Railway branch built during the Tsarist Russia era, and almost occupied Herat, an important town to the west of the Hinduku Mountains without any bloodshed - this is Afghanistan is the only area with railways (although it is not open to traffic), which is of great significance to the Soviet Red Army's subsequent liberation war.

After completing the first stage of the offensive, the Soviet Red Army only rested for a short period of time before launching a new round of devastating offensive.

However, the second stage of the Soviet offensive was not divided into two lines, but only one line, with 4 cavalry divisions as the main force, heading south from Herat, along the lines of Herat-Sindand-Kaburg-Zarandi -Dahshu-Grishk-Kandahar This "flat road" goes straight through the main mountainous areas of Afghanistan. It advanced 500 kilometers in less than 10 days. By April 20, four Soviet cavalry divisions had advanced to the Helmand River in southern Afghanistan, less than 300 kilometers away from Kandahar.

At this time, the main force of the Royal Army of Afghanistan was deployed on the front line of the Hinduku Mountains, guarding Bamiyan, Salang Pass and other important places, and was making plans to defend the capital, Kabul. The result was a solid right hook from the Soviet Red Army!

The target of the Soviet Red Army's right hook was actually not Kandahar, but to go north through Kandahar, along the Lola Valley, and capture Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, from the south.

Even though the Soviet Red Army made a large circle of more than a thousand kilometers, which seemed like a waste of time, the more than a thousand kilometers passed through relatively flat terrain. It is also the main logistics transportation line for the Red Army in Afghanistan planned by Marshal Kulik and General Ksenefontov.

Their plan is to restore the rail line to Herat first and then lay a temporary line from Herat-Kandahar-Kabul. Although the total length of this temporary railway will exceed 1,300 kilometers, it is relatively easy to construct along the way. If the poor and lower-middle peasants of Afghanistan can be mobilized, the construction can be completed in 12 to 18 months. After the temporary railway is built, the Soviet Union will be able to support hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants' Red Army to liberate India.

In order to complete these difficult and glorious road construction tasks, a large number of Uzbek and Tajik Bolshevik party members were urgently recruited. After a short period of training, these people were sent as advisors to the Third International to the Uzbek and Tajik tribes in the Soviet liberated areas north of the Hinduku Mountains and began to develop the Afghan People's Party (the Afghan Marxist Party supported by the Third International). organization, established a revolutionary regime, and recruited progressive Afghan youth to form the Afghan People's Army.

With the help of the Afghan People's Army, which can communicate with the Pashtuns, the Soviet Union can "mobilize" local working people in Afghanistan to participate in "voluntary labor" in building railways...

The news that the Afghan People's Party had established a revolutionary regime and a people's army north of the Hindu Kusan Mountains, and that the Soviet Red Army was rapidly advancing emergency military information to Kandahar south of Kabul, immediately aroused extreme panic among the Afghan reactionary forces as soon as it reached the Afghan capital. .

Afghan King Zahir Shah and Prime Minister Hashim hurriedly sent troops to Kandahar, and at the same time issued a call to Pashtun tribal leaders across Afghanistan, requesting them to send tribal fighters to fight the Soviet Red Army.

At the same time, they also sought urgent help from the German military advisory group and the US military advisory group in Afghanistan, hoping to obtain more weapons.

And just when the generous "German consultants" and the gentlemanly "American consultants" had not yet responded, a secret British military advisory group finally took the Golund C that the French had sold to Britain earlier. 449 transport aircraft flew from "India" to Kabul, and also brought many British-produced weapons and equipment.

"Lieutenant Fleming, do you know if MI6 has a senior agent named James Bond?"

A middle-aged gentleman named Willie Smith from the British Embassy in Kabul hurried to the residence of the "US Military Advisory Group" on the afternoon of April 21, disturbing "Gingrich" who was leisurely drinking afternoon tea. "Colonel.

"Mr. Smith, I'm not Lieutenant Fleming! I'm Colonel Gingrich!" Ian Fleming, who was holding a cup of milk tea, looked around and didn't see anyone who shouldn't be there. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "And I don't know what aliases other agents who have nothing to do with this operation use. This is confidential!"

"But now a British military advisory team has arrived in Kabul. The leader of the team claims to be Colonel James Bond, an agent of MI6..."

"Wha...what?" Ian Fleming was stunned again and again. What is going on? Why did MI6 send another military advisory group to Kabul? Moreover... it also directly used Britain's own signature. What does it mean? Want an open break with the Soviet Union?

"It's not quite right! This is probably a scam!" Ian Fleming was still very vigilant. He placed the milk tea cup on the small square table next to him and stood up suddenly. "I'm going to meet this Colonel Bond from MI6!"

At the same time, in the German military advisory group station where the swastika flag was hoisted, Colonel Reinhard von Rothenberg, who was a little lame and leaning on a cane, was talking in American English with a major attaché of the American legation. Urgent and fast conversation.

"Colonel, I can confirm that that 'Colonel Gingrich' is probably a British impersonator. The American weapons and ammunition they provide to the Afghans must be Lend-Lease supplies... They must be unwilling to support the Afghans in their own name. But now Why send another public military advisory team?"

"That's not necessarily British!" The pseudonym is Colonel Reinhard von Rothenberg, retired colonel of the US Marine Corps, Colonel William Eddy. He is a friend of Colonel Donovan, the White House Intelligence Coordinator. Although he has not received formal espionage training, he has some talent.

"Maybe this Colonel Bond is a German pretending to be a German!" William Eddie had already guessed the identity of "Bond".

"Germans? What do they want?"

"What are you doing?" William Eddy smiled coldly, "Like us, of course he wants to cause trouble for Stalin but is unwilling to use his own banner."

"But now we are pretending to be Germans, the British are pretending to be us, and Germany is pretending to be British... Isn't it all in vain?"

"In vain?" William Eddie snorted, "What would Stalin do even if he knew about it? Would he still go to war with the United States, Germany, and Britain at the same time?"

"That's true."

"Okay, that's it for today." William Eddie said, "I'm going to meet this Colonel Bond."

"Meet...meet Bond? But he is British now."

"So what?" William Eddy shrugged, "This is Afghanistan, and the interests of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany in Afghanistan are the same. If you have the same interests, you are a friend. Maybe you can exchange your needs. If there is anything we can't see, ?”

"Is there any communication?"

"Yes, now I, a German colonel, don't have enough German arms. I need to ask the British for some replacement."