Operation Barbarossa: Summer 1941
At 03:15 on 22 June 1941, 99 of 190 German divisions, including fourteen panzer divisions and ten motorized, were deployed against the Soviet Union from the Baltic to the Black Sea. They were accompanied by ten Romanian divisions, and nine Romanian and four Hungarian brigades. On the same day, the Baltic, Western and Kiev Special military districts were renamed the Northwestern, Western and Southwestern Fronts respectively.

To establish air supremacy, the Luftwaffe began immediate attacks on Soviet airfields, destroying much of the forward-deployed Soviet Air Force airfield fleets consisting of largely obsolescent types before their pilots had a chance to leave the ground. For a month the offensive conducted on three axes was completely unstoppable as the panzer forces encircled hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pockets that were then reduced by slower-moving infantry armies while the panzers continued the offensive, following the Blitzkrieg doctrine.

Army Group North's objective was Leningrad via the Baltic states. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies and the 4th Panzer Group, this formation advanced through the Baltic states, and the Russian Pskov and Novgorod regions. Local insurgents seized the moment and controlled most of Lithuania, northern Latvia and southern Estonia prior to the arrival of the German forces.

Army Group Centre's two panzer groups (the 2nd and 3rd), advanced to the north and south of Brest-Litovsk and converged east of Minsk, followed by the 2nd, 4th, and 9th Armies. The combined panzer force reached the Beresina River in just six days, 650 km (400 mi) from their start lines. The next objective was to cross the Dnieper river, which was accomplished by 11 July. Their next target was Smolensk, which fell on 16 July, but the fierce Soviet resistance in the Smolensk area and slowing of the Wehrmacht advance in North and South forced Hitler to halt a central thrust at Moscow and to divert the 3rd Panzer Group north. Critically, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group was ordered to move south in a giant pincer maneuver with Army Group South which was advancing into Ukraine. Army Group Centre's infantry divisions were left relatively unsupported by armor to continue their slow advance to Moscow.

This decision caused a severe leadership crisis. The German field commanders argued for an immediate offensive towards Moscow, but Hitler overruled them, citing the importance of Ukrainian agricultural, mining and industrial resources, as well as the massing of Soviet reserves in the Gomel area between Army Group Centre's southern flank and the bogged-down Army Group South's northern flank. This decision, Hitler's "summer pause", is believed to have had a severe impact on the Battle of Moscow's outcome, by slowing down the advance on Moscow in favor of encircling large numbers of Soviet troops around Kiev.

Army Group South, with the 1st Panzer Group, the 6th, 11th and 17th Armies, was tasked with advancing through Galicia and into Ukraine. Their progress, however, was rather slow, and they took heavy casualties in a major tank battle. At the beginning of July, the Third and Fourth Romanian Armies, aided by elements of the German 11th Army, fought their way through Bessarabia towards Odessa. The 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kiev for the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend (western Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). When it joined up with the southern elements of Army Group South at Uman, the Group captured about 100,000 Soviet prisoners in a huge encirclement. Advancing armored divisions of the Army Group South met with Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group near Lokhvytsa in mid September, cutting off large numbers of Red Army troops in the pocket east of Kiev. 400,000 Soviet prisoners were captured as Kiev was surrendered on 19 September.

As the Red Army withdrew behind the Dnieper and Dvina rivers, the Soviet Stavka (high command) turned its attention to evacuating as much of the western regions' industry as it could. Factories were dismantled and transported on flatcars away from the front line for re-establishment in more remote areas of the Ural Mountains, Caucasus, Central Asia and south-eastern Siberia. Most civilians were left to make their own way east, with only industry-related workers evacuated with the equipment; much of the population was left behind to the mercy of the invading forces.

Stalin ordered the retreating Red Army to initiate a scorched-earth policy to deny the Germans and their allies basic supplies as they advanced eastward. To carry out that order, destruction battalions were formed in front-line areas, having the authority to summarily execute any suspicious person. The destruction battalions burned down villages, schools, and public buildings. As a part of this policy, the NKVD massacred thousands of anti-Soviet prisoners.

Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941
Wehrmacht soldiers pulling a car from the mud during the rasputitsa period, November 1941
Hitler then decided to resume the advance on Moscow, re-designating the panzer groups as panzer armies for the occasion. Operation Typhoon, which was set in motion on 30 September, saw the 2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from Oryol (captured 5 October) to the Oka River at Plavsk, while the 4th Panzer Army (transferred from Army Group North to Centre) and 3rd Panzer armies surrounded the Soviet forces in two huge pockets at Vyazma and Bryansk. Army Group North positioned itself in front of Leningrad and attempted to cut the rail link at Mga to the east. This began the 900-day Siege of Leningrad. North of the Arctic Circle, a German–Finnish force set out for Murmansk but could get no further than the Zapadnaya Litsa River, where they settled down.

Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper to the Sea of Azov coast, also advancing through Kharkov, Kursk, and Stalino. The combined German and Romanian forces moved into the Crimea and took control of all of the peninsula by autumn (except Sevastopol, which held out until 3 July 1942). On 21 November, the Wehrmacht took Rostov, the gateway to the Caucasus. However, the German lines were over-extended and the Soviet defenders counterattacked the 1st Panzer Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of the city and behind the Mius River; the first significant German withdrawal of the war.

The onset of the winter freeze saw one last German lunge that opened on 15 November, when the Wehrmacht attempted to encircle Moscow. On 27 November, the 4th Panzer Army got to within 30 km (19 mi) of the Kremlin when it reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at Khimki. Meanwhile, the 2nd Panzer Army failed to take Tula, the last Soviet city that stood in its way to the capital. After a meeting held in Orsha between the head of the OKH (Army General Staff), General Franz Halder and the heads of three Army groups and armies, decided to push forward to Moscow since it was better, as argued by the head of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, for them to try their luck on the battlefield rather than just sit and wait while their opponent gathered more strength.[83]

However, by 6 December it became clear that the Wehrmacht did not have the strength to capture Moscow, and the attack was suspended. Marshal Shaposhnikov thus began his counter-attack, employing freshly mobilized reserves, as well as some well-trained Far-Eastern divisions transferred from the east following intelligence that Japan would remain neutral.

Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941-1942

The Soviet counter-offensive during the Battle of Moscow had removed the immediate German threat to the city. According to Zhukov, "the success of the December counter-offensive in the central strategic direction was considerable. Having suffered a major defeat the German striking forces of Army Group Centre were retreating." Stalin's objective in January 1942 was "to deny the Germans any breathing space, to drive them westward without let-up, to make them use up their reserves before spring comes..."

The main blow was to be delivered by a double envelopment orchestrated by the Northwestern Front, the Kalinin Front and the Western Front. The overall objective according to Zhukov was the "subsequent encirclement and destruction of the enemy's main forces in the area of Rzhev, Vyazma and Smolensk. The Leningrad Front, the Volkhov Front and the right wing forces of the Northwestern Front were to rout the Army Group North." The Southwestern Front and Southern Front were to defeat the Army Group South. The Caucasian Front and Black Sea Fleet were to take back the Crimea.

The 20th Army, part of the 1st Shock Army, the 22nd Tank Brigade and five ski battalions launched their attack on 10 January 1942. By 17 January, the Soviets had captured Lotoshino and Shakhovskaya. By 20 January, the 5th and 33rd armies had captured Ruza, Dorokhovo, Mozhaisk and Vereya, while the 43rd and 49th armies were at Domanovo.

The Wehrmacht rallied, retaining a salient at Rzhev. A Soviet parachute drop by two battalions of the 201st Airborne Brigade and the 250th Airborne Regiment on 18 and 22 January was designed to "cut off enemy communications with the rear." Lt.-Gen. Mikhail Grigoryevich Yefremov's 33rd Army aided by Gen. Belov's 1st Cavalry Corps and Soviet Partisans attempted to seize Vyazma. This force was joined by additional paratroopers of the 8th Airborne Brigade at the end of January. However, in early February, the Germans managed to cut off this force, separating the Soviets from their main force in the rear of the Germans. They were supplied by air until April when they were given permission to regain the Soviet main lines. Only part of Belov's Cavalry Corps made it to safety however, while Yefremov's men fought "a losing battle."

By April 1942, the Soviet Supreme Command agreed to assume the defensive so as to "consolidate the captured ground." According to Zhukov, "During the winter offensive, the forces of the Western Front had advanced from 70 to 100 km, which somewhat improved the overall operational and strategic situation on the Western sector."

To the north, the Red Army surrounded a German garrison in Demyansk, which held out with air supply for four months, and established themselves in front of Kholm, Velizh, and Velikie Luki.

Further north still, the Soviet Second Shock Army was unleashed on the Volkhov River. Initially this made some progress; however, it was unsupported, and by June a German counterattack cut off and destroyed the army. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant General Andrey Vlasov, later defected to Germany and formed the ROA or Russian Liberation Army.

In the south the Red Army lunged over the Donets River at Izyum and drove a 100 km (62 mi) deep salient. The intent was to pin Army Group South against the Sea of Azov, but as the winter eased the Wehrmacht counter-attacked and cut off the over-extended Soviet troops in the Second Battle of Kharkov.

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Things You Should Know About WWII’s Eastern Front

Extreme weather conditions played a crucial role in the Soviet victory
In addition to the might of the Red Army, German troops were also worn down by “General Winter”—the nickname used to describe the deadly Russian frost. Adolf Hitler’s invasion plans called for the Germans to conquer the Soviet Union before the legendary cold could set in, but supply issues and an unexpectedly spirited resistance combined to stall the advance at Moscow’s doorstep in late-1941.
In such conditions Panfilov's Men stopped the German offensive near Moscow.
The Panfilov Division's Twenty-Eight Guardsmen commonly referred to simply as Panfilov's Men, were a group of soldiers from the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division who took part in the defense of Moscow during World War II. According to official Soviet history, they were all killed in action on 16 November 1941, after destroying 18 German tanks and stopping the enemy attack. The Twenty-Eight were collectively endowed with the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Russian song and film about The Panfilov Division's Twenty-Eight Guardsmen

Russian women served in front line combat roles
Soviet-era Communism tended to embrace the equality of the sexes, and perhaps nowhere was this more apparent than in the Russian attitude toward female soldiers. Nearly one million Soviet women took up arms and served on the front lines of World War II as anti-aircraft gunners, snipers, partisan guerillas and even fighter pilots. More than simply providing the Red Army with an unanticipated boost in numbers, female troops eventually earned a reputation as some of the fiercest fighters on the Eastern Front. Among others, ace pilots Lydia Litvyak and Yekaterina Budanova each downed around a dozen German planes, and sharpshooter Lyudmila Pavlichenko singlehandedly killed more than 300 enemy soldiers. Anxious to prove their worth in combat, women regularly signed up for some of the most hazardous combat positions. For example, one of the most feared Soviet units was an all-female regiment of dive-bombers known as the “Night Witches,” who flew light biplanes on nighttime bombing raids behind German lines.

This amazing song is about Night Witches

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V means Victory. V means Vite too.
When war raged in fronts of Soviet Union rear worked to bring victory.
All for Victory! All for Vite!!!

The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940.
Less than two years before the Soviet Union faced off against Nazi Germany during World War II, it waged a bloody war with another adversary: the tiny nation of Finland. Russia’s feud with its Nordic neighbor began in 1939, when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin looked to expand his influence over Eastern Europe. Citing concerns about a potential attack by the Germans, Stalin demanded that Finland’s border with Russia be moved back 16 miles along the Karelian Isthmus to create a buffer zone around the city of Leningrad. He also wanted the Finns to hand over several islands in the Gulf of Finland and lease the Soviets territory on the Hanko Peninsula for construction of a naval base. The Soviets offered a large swath of Russian territory as part of the deal, but the Finns were suspicious of their motives and turned them down. On November 30, 1939, following a series of ultimatums and failed negotiations, the Soviet Red Army launched an invasion of Finland with half a million troops. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

Though vastly outnumbered and outgunned in what became known as the “Winter War” ("Talvisota") the Finns had the advantage of fighting on home turf. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders while temperatures ranged as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). Led by Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, they hunkered down behind a network of trenches, concrete bunkers and field fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus and beat back repeated Soviet tank assaults.

Elsewhere on the frontier, Finnish ski troops used the rugged landscape to conduct hit-and-run attacks on isolated Soviet units. Their guerilla tactics were only aided by the freezing Finnish winter, which bogged the Soviets down and made their soldiers easy to spot against snowy terrain. One Finnish sniper, a farmer named Simo Häyhä, was eventually credited with over 500 kills.

While the Finns put up a spirited resistance during the winter of 1939-1940, their troops were ultimately no match for the sheer immensity of the Red Army.

Soviet T-26 tank at the Kollaa River in northern Russia, 17 Dec 1939

In February 1940, following one of the largest artillery bombardments since World War I, the Soviets renewed their onslaught and overran the Finnish defenses on the Karelian Isthmus.

With its forces low on ammunition and nearing the brink of exhaustion, Finland agreed to peace terms the following month.

The treaty ending the Winter War forced Finland to cede 11 percent of its territory to the Soviet Union (Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and the USSR received substantial territory along Lake Ladoga and in Northern Finland), yet the country maintained its independence and later squared off against Russia a second time during World War II.

For the Soviets, meanwhile, victory came at a heavy cost. During just three months of fighting, their forces suffered over 300,000 casualties compared to around 65,000 for the Finns. The Winter War may have also carried important consequences for World War II. Among other things, the Red Army’s lackluster performance is often cited as a key factor in Adolf Hitler’s mistaken belief that his June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union would be a success. After 15 months of Interim Peace Nazi Germany commenced Operation Barbarossa and the Continuation War between Finland and the USSR began.

Songs about Finnish tactics in Winter War:

Vite tends to be produсt for financial area.
Using DAG in finance area is like a sniper shot of Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä.
Instant Confirmation of Payments, On-Chain Transactions, Easy token issuance, decentralized exchange ViteX is necessary components for digital economy.
Vite will release decentralized exchange and Pre-MainNet in April 2019. Besides, during the second week of March 2019, following up on our initial proposal and after months of planning, Vite Labs CMO Luke Kim presented a plan to implement SyraCoin, a first-of-its-kind municipal token economy. Vite received official approval by the Mayor of Syracuse. This propels our strategy of building socially meaningful use cases for blockchain.
https://medium.com/vitelabs/vite-bi-weekly-report-90dcc4819441

The Greco-Italian War (Italo-Greek War, Italian Campaign in Greece; in Greece: War of '40 and Epic of '40) took place between the kingdoms of Italy and Greece from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. This local war began the Balkans Campaign of World War II between the Axis powers and the Allies. It turned into the Battle of Greece when British and German ground forces intervened early in 1941.
In the mid-1930s, the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini began an aggressive foreign policy and annexed Albania in the spring of 1939. World War II began on 1 September 1939 and on 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on the Allies. By September 1940, the Italians had invaded France, British Somaliland and Egypt; preparations had also begun to occupy Greece.

In the late 1930s, the Greeks had begun to build the Metaxas Line opposite Bulgaria and from 1939 accelerated their defensive preparations against an Italian attack from Albania. In 1940, there was a hostile press campaign in Italy and other provocations, culminating in the sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli by the Italians on 15 August (the Christian Dormition of the Mother of God festival). On 28 October, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece demanding the cession of Greek territory, which the Prime Minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas, rejected.

The Italian army invaded Greece on 28 October, before the Italian ultimatum had expired. The invasion was a disaster, the 140,000 troops of the Italian Army in Albania encountering an entrenched and determined enemy. The Italians had to contend with the mountainous terrain on the Albanian–Greek border and unexpectedly tenacious resistance by the Greek Army. By mid-November, the Greeks had stopped the Italian invasion just inside Greek territory. After completing their mobilization, the Greeks counter-attacked with the bulk of their army and pushed the Italians back into Albania – an advance which culminated in the Capture of Klisura Pass in January 1941, a few dozen kilometers inside the Albanian border. The defeat of the Italian invasion and the Greek counter-offensive of 1940 have been called the "first Axis setback of the entire war" by Mark Mazower, the Greeks "surprising everyone with the tenacity of their resistance". The front stabilized in February 1941, by which time the Italians had reinforced the Albanian front to 28 divisions against the Greeks' 14 divisions (though Greek divisions were larger). In March, the Italians conducted the unsuccessful Spring Offensive. At this point, losses were mutually costly, but the Greeks had far less ability than the Italians to replenish their losses in both men and materiel, and they were dangerously low on ammunition and other supplies. They also lacked the ability to rotate out their men and equipment, unlike the Italians. Requests by the Greeks to the British for material aid only partly alleviated the situation, and by April 1941 the Greek Army only possessed 1 more month's worth of heavy artillery ammunition and was unable to properly equip and mobilize the bulk of its 200,000–300,000 strong reserves.

While originally content to simply let the Italians wear the Greeks down and (he predicted) finish the war in the summer of 1941, Adolf Hitler decided in December 1940 that potential British intervention in the conflict represented a threat to Germany's rear. This caused him to come to the aid of his Axis ally. German build-up in the Balkans accelerated after Bulgaria joined the Axis on 1 March 1941. British ground forces began arriving in Greece the next day. On 6 April, the Germans invaded northern Greece ("Operation Marita"). The Greeks had deployed the vast majority of their men into a mutually costly stalemate with the Italians on the Albanian front, leaving the fortified Metaxas Line with only a third of its authorized strength. During the Battle of Greece, Greek and British forces in northern Greece were overwhelmed and the Germans advanced rapidly west and south. In Albania, the Greek army made a belated withdrawal to avoid being cut off by the Germans but was followed up slowly by the Italians. Greece surrendered to German troops on 20 April 1941, under the condition that they would not have to surrender to the Italians; this condition was agreed to but revoked several days later after protests from Mussolini, and the Greek army surrendered to Italy as well. Greece was subsequently occupied by Bulgarian, German and Italian troops. The Italian army suffered 102,064 combat casualties (with 13,700 dead and 3,900 missing) and fifty thousand sick; the Greeks suffered over 90,000 combat casualties (including 14,000 killed and 5,000 missing) and an unknown number of sick.

The economic and military failings of the Italian fascist regime were exposed by the Greek debacle and simultaneous defeats against the British in North Africa, which reduced the Italian fascist regime to dependence on Germany.

Great illustration of the battle of Greece

"Coat of Arms" is amazing song about this war:

Call to arms, banners fly in the wind
For the glory of Hellas
Coat of arms reading "Freedom or death"
Blood of king Leonidas

Just like their ancestors ages ago
Fought in the face of defeat
Those three hundred men left a pride to uphold
Freedom of death in effect

Then, now again
Blood of heroes saving their land

Full song

Do you remember history about 300 spartans from part 1 of Vite History Channel?
Blockchain technology allows you to remember the information in the blocks unchanged.
For the high throughput system of Vite, the rate of growth will be much higher than Bitcoin and Ethereum, so it is necessary to provide a technique for clipping the blocks in the ledgers (7.4 Block pruning, Vite Whitepaper, p.16 https://github.com/vitelabs/whitepaper/blob/master/vite_en.pdf).
Block clipping refers to the deletion of historical transactions that cannot be used in the ledgers, and does not affect the operation of the transactional state machine.

1. Gvite software version 1.3.0 and hard fork “Mint”
   A newly scheduled Vite network hard fork, named “Mint”, was performed at snapshot block height of 9453262. Upgrade to gvite software version 1.3.0 fixed “block stuck” problem by introducing a new logic of snapshot block hash calculation.
2. Full Node
   Full Node Rewards After 2nd Upgrade were increased by 30%, therefore, the daily rewards to be shared by all full nodes is 13,000 VITE. The upgrade occured on 8:13 PM on March 7, 2019 in PST. After this information quantity of full nodes was achieved to 1200 and above. This step can help to achieved more reliability, scalability and decentralization of Vite Platform.
3. Next milestone of TestNet
   Quantity of Snapshot blocks achieved 10 millions at 15:27 UTC March, 13. I published a message about this moment in Twitter: https://twitter.com/Georgij_Han/status/1105858068334735362

4. Development of Vite Wallets
   The airdrop function on Android wallet was formally released. Each user of Android 6 or above can download wallet from Play Store to collect VITE EVERYDAY!

Today Vite has Android wallet, iOS wallet, web wallet and desktop wallet. New releases of wallets appear very often.
Above 3000 users have downloaded Vite wallet now.
5) Vite Pay real use case
From the beginning Vite is positioned as a finance-oriented platform. I tested Vite Pay in real use case when I purchased goods from https://global.vite.store/ . It is small step for me but it is big step for Vite adoption. Vite Pay is feeless, onchain, quick, international, without taxes and borders. Using Vite Pay is very attractive for merchants.

6. Community and supporters action
   Vite Faucet was launched by Snap Secure.
   https://snapsecure.network/our-faucet-is-now-official-launched
7. Government Contract
   Vite Labs was selected by the city of Syracuse, New York to design a P2P low-income, micro-loan program using blockchain technology.
   Vite Labs believes in proving socially meaningful use cases for blockchain technology. Vite Labs treat public-private partnerships and government use cases as means to serve society. Goal of Vite is to step in where financial institutions are currently lacking, providing a peer-to-peer micro-lending platform to address housing instability. Blockchain payment infrastructures are more equitable, sustainable and inclusive than existing solutions including traditional banks and crowdfunding platforms.
8. ViteX and MainNet
   Mainnet and Decentralized Exchange ViteX are 2 most important features of VITE in 2019.
   
   
   In interview with Cryptodealers Allen Liu described main parts of Vite Ecosystem:
   • Decentralized Exchange ViteX
   • Vite Pay
   • Vite Games
   • dApp development platform.
   ViteX Beta Test will be released in the beginning of April 2019 together with pre-release of MainNet.
   Last information about development:
   • Vite Labs completed the development of gateway wallet account management supporting BTC, ETH, VITE and USDT.
   • Vite Labs finished token cross-chain mapping to Vite chain design, including ETH transfer and inquiry as well as ERC 20 transfer and inquiry.
   • Vite Labs completed the BTC and USDT test node setup.
   #insightvite

In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. Britain’s decisive victory saved the country from a ground invasion and possible occupation by German forces while proving that air power alone could be used to win a major battle.

On June 17, 1940, the defeated French signed an armistice and quit World War II. Britain now stood alone against the power of Germany’s military forces, which had conquered most of Western Europe in less than two months. But Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallied his stubborn people and outmaneuvered those politicians who wanted to negotiate with Adolf Hitler. But Britain’s success in continuing the war would very much depend on the RAF Fighter Command’s ability to thwart the Luftwaffe’s efforts to gain air superiority. This then would be the first all-air battle in history.

The battle received its name from a speech Winston Churchill delivered to the British House of Commons on June 18, 1940, in which he stated "The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin."

In fact, Britain’s situation was more favorable than most of the world recognized at the time. Britain possessed an effective air defense system, first-rate fighter pilots, and a great military leader in Air Marshal Hugh Dowding. On the other hand, the Germans had major problems: they had no navy left after the costly conquest of Norway, their army was unprepared for any form of amphibious operations, and the Luftwaffe had suffered heavy losses in the west (the first two factors made a seaborne attack on the British Isles impossible from the first).

Even more serious, the Germans had poor intelligence and little idea of British vulnerabilities. They wasted most of July in waiting for a British surrender and attacked only in August. Although air strikes did substantial damage to radar sites, on August 13–15 the Luftwaffe soon abandoned that avenue and turned to attacks on RAF air bases. A battle of attrition ensued in which both sides suffered heavy losses (an average loss of 21 percent of the RAF’s fighter pilots and 16 percent of the Luftwaffe’s fighter pilots each month during July, August, and September).

For a time the advantage seemed to swing slightly in favor of the Germans, but a combination of bad intelligence and British attacks on Berlin led the Luftwaffe to change its operational approach to massive attacks on London. The first attack on London on September 7 was quite successful; the second, on September 15, failed not only with heavy losses, but also with a collapse of morale among German bomber crews when British fighters appeared in large numbers and shot down many of the Germans. As a result, Hitler permanently postponed a landing on the British Isles and suspended the Battle of Britain.

Phases of the battle

RAF and Luftwaffe bases, group and Luftflotte boundaries, and range of Luftwaffe Bf 109 fighters. Southern part of British radar coverage: radar in North of Scotland not shown

The battle covered a shifting geographical area, and there have been differing opinions on significant dates: when the Air Ministry proposed 8 August as the start, Dowding responded that operations "merged into one another almost insensibly", and proposed 10 July as the onset of increased attacks. With the caution that phases drifted into each other and dates are not firm, the Royal Air Force Museum states that five main phases can be identified:

26 June – 16 July: Störangriffe ("nuisance raids"), scattered small scale probing attacks both day and night, armed reconnaissance and mine-laying sorties. From 4 July, daylight Kanalkampf ("the Channel battles") against shipping.

17 July – 12 August: daylight Kanalkampf attacks on shipping intensify through this period, increased attacks on ports and coastal airfields, night raids on RAF and aircraft manufacturing.

13 August – 6 September: Adlerangriff ("Eagle Attack"), the main assault; attempt to destroy the RAF in southern England, including massive daylight attacks on RAF airfields, followed from 19 August by heavy night bombing of ports and industrial cities, including suburbs of London.

7 September – 2 October: the Blitz commences, main focus day and night attacks on London.

3–31 October: large scale night bombing raids, mostly on London; daylight attacks now confined to small scale fighter-bomber Störangriffe raids luring RAF fighters into dogfights.

Winston Churchill summed up the effect of the battle and the contribution of RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Coastal Command and the Fleet Air Arm with the words, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". Pilots who fought in the battle have been known as The Few ever since; at times being specially commemorated on 15 September, "Battle of Britain Day". On this day in 1940, the Luftwaffe embarked on their largest bombing attack yet, forcing the engagement of the entirety of the RAF in defence of London and the South East, which resulted in a decisive British victory that proved to mark a turning point in Britain's favour.

Victoria Embankment, London

Campaign continuation

Despite the inability of the Luftwaffe to gain air superiority over the British air force, the leadership of the Third Reich hoped to continue bombing London with cruise and ballistic missiles. The first combat use of German V1 cruise missiles began on June 13, 1944. At the end of December 1944, General Clayton Bissel (Clayton Bissell) presented a report indicating the significant advantages of the V1 over traditional aerial bombardments.

German V1 cruise missile

Aces in exile
About 20% of pilots who took part in the battle were from non British countries. The Royal Air Force roll of honour for the Battle of Britain recognises 595 non-British pilots (out of 2,936) as flying at least one authorised operational sortie with an eligible unit of the RAF or Fleet Air Arm between 10 July and 31 October 1940. These included 145 Poles, 127 New Zealanders, 112 Canadians, 88 Czechoslovaks, 10 Irish, 32 Australians, 28 Belgians, 25 South Africans, 13 French, 9 Americans, 3 Southern Rhodesians and individuals from Jamaica, Barbados and Newfoundland.
These pilots, some of whom had to flee their home countries because of German invasions, fought with great distinction. The No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron for example was not just the highest scoring of the Hurricane squadrons during the Battle of Britain, but also had the highest ratio of enemy aircraft destroyed to their own losses.

Polish 303 squadron pilots, 1940

Monument of Polish Pilots in Northolt

Song about aces in exile in the battle of Britain:

Cruise missile V1 was the first of its kind. Vite is the first DAG with smart contracts. Let's create something cool!

Prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler and his Generals planned the conquest of France and the Low Countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). The Germans laid down a careful plan in which diversionary forces would enter Belgium and draw up British and French units from their prepared positions. A second force would navigate the Ardennes Forest and bypass the Maginot Line, its drive intended to severe the northern Allied forces from the south. Beyond the concrete fortifications and heavy guns of the Maginot Line, the French were relying on the natural obstacle that was the Ardennes Forest, deemed impassable by French authorities. The German goal was simple – taking Holland and Luxembourg before conquering Belgium and France – making for the English Channel, crushing any Allied resistance along the way and capturing Paris. From this, a short crossing of the English Channel was all that was required of the German military to take Britain.

The western European invasion began at 2:30 am on May 10th involving infantry crossing into Holland and Belgium and joined by German paratroopers taking the Belgian fort at Eben-Emael and its 2.000-strong garrison with the loss of just six German paratroopers. During the the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael, a handful of well-trained German glider troopers subdued a seemingly impregnable fortress in mere hours.
The Germans were able to commit 141 total divisions to the fighting, made up of 2.445 tanks, 7.378 artillery and 5.638 aircraft complementing its 3.35 million-strong infantry force. Comparatively, the Allies mustered 144 divisions with 14.000 artillery, 3.383 tanks and 3.000 aircraft to go along with their contingent of 3.3 million troops. The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) was made up of 10 divisions under French command.
Despite valiant attempts by the Allies to hold positions, the Germans prevailed at the cost of 157.600 dead and as many as 1.345 aircraft and 800 tanks lost. The Allies fared much worse with 360.000 dead/wounded, 2.233 aircraft lost and some 1.9 million soldiers taken prisoner. Much to Hitler’s delight, his offensive to take Paris lasted all of 1 month and 12 days leading up to the French surrender.
Upon reaching the coast, German units in the north were halted to allow supplies to catch up and ready the army for the conquest of France. The remaining BEF and French forces holed up along an ever-shrinking defensive perimeter at Dunkirk, left to Hermann Goering‘s vaunted Luftwaffe to ultimately destroy.
With that, the German Army in the north turned its attention south and entered the French frontier. A defensive front was established at the Somme and Aisne rivers but their proved futile. Lest the historical structures of Paris be lost to German bombs and tanks, the capital city was handed over without a fight to the Germans who arrived on June 14th.
On 22 June, the Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed by France and Germany. It was officially ending the German campaign against the Low Countries and France. To add insult to France’s injury, Adolf Hitler ordered the French surrender to be signed in the same railway car that the humiliating German surrender to France was signed at the end World War I decades earlier.
The neutral Vichy French government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain superseded the Third Republic and Germany occupied the north and west coasts of France and their hinterlands. Italy took control of a small occupation zone in the south-east and the Vichy regime retained the unoccupied territory in the south, known as the zone libre. In November 1942, the Germans occupied the zone under Case Anton (Fall Anton), until the Allied liberation in 1944.

Chasseurs Ardennais
In World War II the Chasseurs Ardennais took part in heavy fighting after Belgium was invaded on 10 May 1940; the Germans noted the fierce resistance of the Belgians and the Chasseurs Ardennais were no exception. There were only 40 soldiers. In one engagement a 47mm antitank gun destroyed or disabled five German tanks. They fought so bravely that German general Erwin Rommel said: "They are not men, they are green wolves".

The Chasseurs Ardennais have, since their inception, worn a large green beret in addition to the uniform which the rest of the army wears. The insignia worn on the cap is the head of a Wild Boar which are found in the Ardennes region.

Song «Resist and Bite» is described act of bravery of 40 Chasseurs Ardennais in heavy battles for Belgium.

«Ardenner ground is burning,
And Rommel is at hand
As the Blitzkrieg's pushing harder
The war is all around!»

«Gloria fortis miles
The Wehrmacht closing in
Adversor et admorsus
The Boar against the Eagle!»

/Transcription from Latin language:
Gloria fortis miles - Glory to brave soldiers
Adversor et admorsus – RESIST and bite

Full song with subtitles:

Vite Platform has Snapshot Chain. This component of the platform helps to RESIST hacker attacks. Snapshot chain consists of snapshot blocks. Changes of each account are recorded in the snapshot block. The snapshot block is created every second in the TestNet. Besides each account in Vite Platform has its own chain of transactions. These features can help to restore system if something goes wrong.
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In 1939, Britain and France offered military support to Poland in the likely case of a German invasion. In the dawn of 1 September 1939, the German Invasion of Poland began. France and the United Kingdom declared war on 3 September, after an ultimatum for German forces to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland was not answered. Following this, Australia (3 September), New Zealand (3 September), South Africa (6 September) and Canada (10 September) declared war on Germany. While British and French commitments to Poland were met politically, the Allies were not in a position to render meaningful military assistance to the Poles in a timely manner. Even if Allied military intervention in Poland had been feasible, it would have come at the risk of drawing the Soviet Union into the war on Germany's side due to the recently-signed German-Soviet non-aggression pact and subsequent Soviet invasion of eastern Poland. As a result, the Allies settled on a long-war strategy and mobilised for defensive land operations against Germany, while a trade blockade was imposed and the pre-war re-armament was accelerated, ready for an eventual invasion of Germany.

Phoney War
The Phoney War was an early phase of World War II marked by a few military operations in Continental Europe in the months following the German invasion of Poland and preceding the Battle of France. Although the great powers of Europe had declared war on one another, neither side had yet committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground. This was also the period in which the United Kingdom and France did not supply significant aid to Poland, despite their pledged alliance.
While most of the German Army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, their fortified defensive line along the French border. At the Maginot Line on the other side of the border, French troops stood facing them, whilst the British Expeditionary Force and other elements of the French Army created a defensive line along the Belgian border. There were only some local, minor skirmishes. The British Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, while Western Europe was in a strange calm for seven months.
In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun to buy large numbers of weapons from manufacturers in the United States at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own production. The non-belligerent United States contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales of military equipment and supplies. German efforts to interdict the Allies' trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited the Battle of the Atlantic.

Scandinavia
While the Western Front remained quiet in April 1940, the fighting between the Allies and the Germans began in earnest with the Norwegian Campaign when the Germans launched Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. In doing so, the Germans beat the Allies to the punch; the Allies had been planning an amphibious landing in which they could begin to surround Germany, cutting off her supply of raw materials from Sweden. However, when the Allies made a counter-landing in Norway following the German invasion, the Germans repulsed them and defeated the Norwegian armed forces, driving the latter into exile. The Kriegsmarine, nonetheless, suffered very heavy losses during the two-months of fighting required to seize all of mainland Norway.

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg (German, "lightning war") is a method of warfare whereby an attacking force, spearheaded by a dense concentration of armoured and motorised or mechanised infantry formations with close air support, breaks through the opponent's line of defence by short, fast, powerful attacks and then dislocates the defenders, using speed and surprise to encircle them with the help of air superiority. Through the employment of combined arms in manoeuvre warfare, blitzkrieg attempts to unbalance the enemy by making it difficult for it to respond to the continuously changing front, then defeat it in a decisive Vernichtungsschlacht (battle of annihilation).

The western European invasion began at 2:30 am on May 10th 1940 involving infantry crossing into Holland and Belgium. The majority of the battles centered within Belgium up to the Channel coast and across northern France.
German offensive to take Paris lasted all of 1 month and 12 days leading up to the French surrender.
German success with the “Blitzkrieg”, under the Generals Heinz Guderian‘s 2nd Panzer Division and Erwin Rommel‘s Ghost Division 7th Panzer Division (being a key proponent of the doctrine) against Poland streamlined the invasion process and offered priceless experience to units.
Detailed description of the German Blitzkrieg in Western Europe will be in the next part.

This is song about Erwin Rommel‘s Ghost Division 7th Panzer Division

“Charging the lines with the force of a furious storm
Fast as the lighting phantoms swarm
200 miles at nightfall, taken within a day
Thus earning the name, earning the fame»

Vite is fast as Blitzkrieg! DAG ledger and Asynchronous Architecture provide high performance of Vite Ecosystem. Snapshot Chain removes vulnerabilities of block-lattice structure of Vite ledger. So Vite has simple and perfect concept of scalability!
Vite - Let’s create something cool!

On September 1, 1939, the Polish Defensive War and World War II started. The German 3rd Army was to advance from East Prussia towards Warsaw, directly through the positions of Polish Narew Corps. On September 2 Captain Władysław Raginis was named the commander of the Wizna area. As his command post he chose the "GG-126" bunker near the village of Góra Strękowa. The bunker was located on a hill in the exact centre of the Polish lines. His forces numbered approximately 700 soldiers and NCOs and 20 officers armed with 6 pieces of artillery (75mm), 24 HMGs, 18 machine guns and two Kb ppanc wz.35 anti-tank rifles, with just 20 bullets.

Polish captain Władysław Raginis

The Battle of Wizna was fought between September 7 and September 10, 1939, between the forces of Poland and Germany during the initial stages of invasion of Poland. According to Polish historian Leszek Moczulski, between 350 and 720 Poles defended a fortified line for three days against more than 40,000 Germans. Although defeat was inevitable, the Polish defence stalled the attacking forces for three days and postponed the encirclement of Independent Operational Group Narew fighting nearby. Eventually the tanks broke through the Polish line and German engineers eliminated all the bunkers one by one.

The last bunker surrendered around midday on September 10.

Because the battle consisted of a small force holding a piece of fortified territory against a vastly larger invasion for three days at great cost before being annihilated, Wizna is sometimes referred to as the Polish Thermopylae in Polish culture. One of the symbols of the battle is Captain Władysław Raginis, the commanding officer of the Polish force, who swore to hold his position as long as he was alive. When the last two bunkers under his command ran out of ammunition, he ordered his men to surrender their arms and committed suicide by throwing himself on a live grenade.

Ruins of one of the bunkers, now a memorial site

"Always remember a fallen soldier,
Always remember fathers and sons at war..." - words from song "40:1" about the Battle of Wizna.

//All information is collected specifically for VITE History Channel. See you soon!

World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

World War II is generally viewed as having its roots in the aftermath of World War I, in which the German Empire under Wilhelm II, with its Central Powers, was defeated, chiefly by the United Kingdom, France, and the United States.

The victors blamed Germany entirely for the war and all resulting damages; it was Germany that effectively started the war with an attack on France through Belgium. France had, in 1871, suffered a defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and demanded compensation for financial devastation during the First World War, which ensured that the various peace treaties, specifically the Treaty of Versailles would impose tough financial war reparations and restrictions on Germany in the aftermath of World War I.

«A nation in despair, weakened by war, defeated
Lost their pride in Versailles
A former prisoner, with a vision or a grand delusion
Rise to power in the Reich»

Main countries of Axis alliance were Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan.
Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when the country was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist totalitarian state which controlled nearly all aspects of life. The period is known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's person, and his word became above all laws. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen (motorways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.
From the beginning the NSDAP party platform included destruction of the Weimar Republic, rejection of the terms of the humiliating treaty of Versailles, radical antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. They promised a strong central government, increased Lebensraum ("living space") for Germanic peoples, formation of a national community based on race, and racial cleansing via the active suppression of Jews.
Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples (the Nordic race) were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, and were therefore viewed as the master race. Millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others.
Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. It seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939.

«In the last days of peace
Europe holding it's breath
An invasion is coming but when will it start?
Who will be first to fall? who will be last to stand?
Who will stop all this madness that has consequences no man understand?
No man, no land!»

So World War II is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
Heroic defense of Polish soldiers in first days of war will be in The Part III of Vite History Channel.

The format of Vite History Channel was chosen during long reflection. It was decided to present interesting moments of history via songs.
The choice fell on the Swedish group Sabaton. It so happened that in Sabaton' albums there are more than 30 songs about the events of World War II. About heroes, historical battles, important events of war.
There will be a song and a summary of its meaning in each release of the channel.
So boring reading transforms into a fascinating pastime.
If you like this idea and you know cool songs about historical events please leave comments.

/Lets create something cool!

Meme from Sabaton Fan Club "What is your source of knowledges of history?"